First day of JK!

Friday was Benjoe's first day of JK. When we woke up that morning, and told him he was going to school he let out a great big "YES!" still lying down in his bed! This was the first time getting Benjoe ready so early so we hit a few bumps as we tried to lay out a routine for the morning, but we managed to make it out the door and make it to the school pretty early. Once we got to the school, I was a little nervous wondering whether I'd get a little choked up and if my son was ready to start this new adventure. But as soon as I let Benjoe out of his car seat, he was already saying bye to me and his dad! I had to let him know that we were going to wait with him in the yard while we waited for the bell to ring. We waited for a couple of minutes before his teacher came out to the yard to meet him. As he introduced himself to his teacher (we had to clarify with her that he will still answer to Benjamin even though he introduced himself as Benjoe) he was glad to go with her as she showed him where to put his bag to line up. He played by himself running around the yard as we waited for the bell to ring. Once the bell did finally ring, there were a couple of tears from some of the other kids as they lined up to go inside. As I tried to see if I can get his attention to say bye while the other kids were looking back at their moms and dads, my lil guy didn't even look back and was the first one to march inside the classroom! My nervousness was obviously an overreaction as I realized that the separation anxiety was more on my part than on his! When I took him out for lunch after picking him up, he was so excited to tell me about his morning. (they read a story about 2 raccoons, he liked playing with the animal puppets in the classroom, his teacher has a kitchen with pretend food...) I'm so proud of Benjoe that he had such a great first day. All weekend long he's been asking to go back to school, so I know he will do just as well when he starts the full day tomorrow.

Congratulations Mr & Mrs. Chau!

Last night we attended the wedding of 2 old friends of ours from high school, Donald and Jill. It was not only a wedding but a mini reunion as a lot of people from high school attended the wedding as well. It was interesting to see so many old familiar faces and catching up with people we haven't seen in over ten years. This was truly a beautiful wedding and I appreciated all the little details of it all. As Jill is known for her sweet tooth, it would not have been her wedding wthout a candy buffet as well as an ice cream buffet atop an ice sculpture. With the combining of the filipino and chinese cultures, the bridesmaids wore chinese dresses and groomsmens had on their barongs. The bride and groom even changed later on during the reception in respect for the other culture. As these 2 have known each other since kindergarten and then finally getting together after high school, it was nice to be there to celebrate their uniting of friendship and love. Congratulations Jill and Donald, we wish you a lifetime of happiness and love!

Summer vacay..

The summer is officially at an end now that school started a couple of days ago. Well today is Benjoe's last day of summer as he starts JK tomorrow morning. (i'm not going to cry, i'm not going to cry...i say that now even though we were only in the yard on the first day and i started tearing up just showing Benjoe his yard!) We still did not do much but the older kids were able to do a few things without mom dad and Eva. Here's some pics to highlight including Hannah going on her first trip without mom and dad to visit Auntie and her cousins with grampy.