Back To School Picnic

I have been wanting to start a fun family tradition to mark the beginning of the school year, so today we had our first annual back to school picnic. We went to a nearby nature park and ate dinner on a blanket, talked about the upcoming school year and our goals. Leland gave everyone father's blessings and then we explored the park. 

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, Esther will be doing homeschooling through a charter school for Kindergarten this year. She will do one full day a week at the charter school and the rest of the days be at home with occasional field trips on Fridays. Her first day at the charter school is not until after labor day, but we're going to ease into schooling at home before that, with our first official day tomorrow. I'm feeling a little nervous sending my baby off to school, but she is so excited and I think this situation will be a great fit for us. Adele will be doing "preschool" at home with me, while Esther is away, and then joining in on all of Esther's kindergarten fun when she is home. For Adele's preschool I plan to keep it pretty basic, with lots of reading books and baking because that's what she loves. Israel will be wreaking havoc I'm sure so most schooling will be done during nap time. I didn't anticipate having a newborn this school year, but luckily baby boy is pretty easy and still sleeps a ton during the day. I will update in a couple weeks with how things are going. 

Tonight  I took pictures with my real camera instead of my phone. It has been a while since I pulled that thing out. I feel a little dumb posting these because I'm not a professional photographer and it shows. 😆 But here they are anyways and I did get a couple of cute ones.