First day of First grade

On the Saturday before his first day of school, Collin and I attended a "Race into First Grade" party with other boys from his elementary school as part of a PTA fundraiser at a local race track and arcade.  Within minutes of arriving, he handed me one of his top front teeth, and after rinsing his mouth, he was off to lazer tag, go-kart race (not a winning race when I was driving - sorry buddy), compete in air hockey and play arcade games with first grade friends.  

Two days later, the whole family was up Monday morning for Collin's first day of first grade.  As he was eating his power breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage, Collin lost his second front tooth, so it was an extra exciting morning.

We posed for some pictures before driving to the school.  Maya wanted to wear her Belle princess dress, and it was a morning where we were okay with whatever she was doing as long as she was dressed since the whole family needed to leave by 7:10am!

Our little princess - who loves her baby dolls but also enjoys having access to all of Collin's fighting men when he is at school.

Our first grader said he wasn't at all nervous, just excited about starting the new year!  He knew almost all the kids in his grade, and so he went into his class without his "first BFF" but with plenty of friends in the room.

Sweet hugs - which are fun to watch each day when they reunite!

We LOVE his wonderful first grade teacher.  We brought her a note at meet the teacher, and she asked Collin to read it to her, offering lots of praise.  She has the kids working hard to win good behavior tickets, which they can redeem for a sticker, a pencil, a day without shoes, a day to sit in the teacher's chair, and Collin's goal:  30 tickets to eat lunch with his teacher and a buddy!  I love the sweetness of first graders that lunch with their teacher is considered an awesome reward!

The boys -

His teacher took photos throughout the day and then texted it to me with a sweet note Monday evening.  She had to be exhausted, but we were thankful she took the time to share the picture of our happy boy!

Meanwhile, I was  home with Maya Monday and we didn't have much on our agenda.  So we made a first day of school cake for Collin.  There was a bit more of a mess with Maya's help, but she was quite proud of her creation. 

Her first time licking the icing off the mixer beaters -

 Green icing in honor of his favorite color and lots of sprinkles.  Hooray for cake!

And an even bigger hooray for eating the cake!

Busy, exciting, sugar-filled first day of first grade.  The tooth fairy came Monday evening, and left a special gift - a Lego set - along with a golden dollar coin, in honor of losing two teeth in three days and one tooth on the first day of school.  Collin's response:  that's the lego set that was in Daddy's car.  Tooth fairy fail!