today, jackson became an official kindergartner! he’s now among the oldest students in miss heidi’s class at monocacy valley montessori public charter school, where he has attended for the last two years. he has the same teacher, and is in the same classroom, but now he is the “big man on campus,” and gets to stay all day, eat lunch with his friends, and help the younger students get acclimated. he’s in school from 9 to 3:45 every day, and now has music, gym, spanish, and art classes as well.

it’s hard to believe that only 2 short years ago, we pushed jackson in a stroller to his first day as a preschooler at mvms! today, he rode a two-wheeler the whole way to kindergarten. he’s gotten to be such a big boy!

when molly asked jackson how he got such big, strong legs to be able to bike all the way up big hills to school, he replied, “from santa!”

on his first day of preschool, jackson had the jitters. on his first day of pre-k, he was shy and nervous. today? no nerves at all! he just strode right into school, all smiles.

ms. king, the principal at mvms, hands out a carnation to each student as they arrive at school, and asks them to give the flowers to their teachers. it’s a nice little tradition! jackson hung up his backpack in his new kindergarten spot, then headed into the classroom without a second glance. he truly felt at home there, and that’s an awesome feeling for us, too!

while big brother was at school, phoebe was a little lost. she asked “where did brother go” several times, but generally she had a great day, playing and pretending. she even helped mom bake up a special surprise just for jackson!

mom’s special chocolate cupcakes with orange icing and a “k” for kindergarten! (yes, molly did use tweezers to position the sprinkles. don’t judge.)

jackson couldn’t have been happier about the cupcakes. he said it was his favorite part of his first day! but he did have a pretty great day, in general. some highlights? he ordered lunch from school for the first time (chicken nuggets and green beans with chocolate milk), he enjoyed Spanish lessons (“hola, mom!”), and he couldn’t stop telling us all about “PE” (“that means exercise, guys!”). we think this is going to be an awesome year for our little learner! and next year, when jackson graduates into 1st grade, phoebe will be a student at mvms, too!

for the second year in a row, jackson celebrated international children’s day on the friday before halloween along with his classmates and teachers at monocacy valley montessori public charter school. this year, jackson was at the head of the parade line, but he forgot to put on his sunglasses! uh oh!

here he is, representing the country of bangladesh, as a bengal tiger!and here’s miss heidi, leading her class, as jackson tries to shield his eyes from the sun. (and there’s his buddy, garrett, right behind him.)jackson’s good buddy, daniel, represented germany. love those authentic lederhosen, daniel!!once inside the school, jackson and his friends sat onstage and sang a song about all the continents in the world! he had so much fun, and was glad he didn’t have to step up to the microphone on his own to talk about bangladesh. always the shy guy!

jackson began his first week of pre-kindergarten by boarding his bike and heading off to monocacy valley montessori public charter school with mommy. as a pre-k student, he’s still in miss heidi’s room, and he still attends 9-11:30 daily. but he’s one of the “big men on campus” because six new 3-year-olds have entered his class, and three new pre-k students entered as well.

a small amount of anxiety on day one (“mommy, I don’t want to talk to any of the new children who don’t know the rules.”) gave way to lots of smiles when jackson saw some of his buddies from last year, including daniel, garrett, and cayman and collin. jackson really likes that he can show all the “new kids who don’t know the rules” how to get along in the classroom. and he’s proud of himself, because he sees how much he’s grown since last year.to celebrate, jackson, phoebe, and daddy met mommy at work after school and we all had lunch at la paz, jackson’s favorite spot to get quesadillas with sour cream!

little sister enjoyed a quesadilla of her own, and a big-kid drink! she’ll start pre-k 3 at mvmpcs in only 2 years!
unfortunately, jackson was so exhausted from his big day, he slammed his fingers in the door at the restaurant. so, he soaked them in a cup of ice. poor guy.
all in all, it was a “delicious” first day, and a really successful first week back at school. jackson has had no trouble adjusting and he’s excited about all the new things he will learn this year!

jackson finished his last day of preschool for the 2009-10 school year at monocacy valley montessori public charter school on friday! and as we snapped on his bike helmet for our ride to school, we couldn’t help but get nostalgic about our growing little boy.

on his first day of school, back in august, jackson actually rode in his stroller. we thought the distance might be too much for him. on the last day, jackson rode his bike, as he has done many times during the school year. he’s a big boy now, in so many ways.

after saying goodbye to miss denise and miss rosina, jackson bounded out the back door, ready for summer to begin! he’d been asking us for several weeks before whether summer had started yet, and now we could officially tell him “yes!”

one wonderful thing about this first year of school has been the friends jackson has made. this is his best buddy, daniel, who spent many wednesdays at our house playing this year. we were sad to say goodbye to daniel and his mom, bibi, as they and daniel’s sister, alex, are spending the entire summer in germany with their family. we’ll be so glad to see them again in august, when both boys will be pre-kindergartners!

jackson’s 4th birthday celebrations started about one month early, with a fun-packed “journey around the sun” ceremony at monocacy valley montessori public charter school this morning.
jackson stood in the center of the circle, holding the earth. each of the sun’s rays represented a month, and jackson started at july, since that is his birth month.  jackson walked slowly around the sun as his friends chanted the months: “august, september, october …” until he arrived back at july. miss heidi then read a few sentences about that year in jackson’s life, and passed around photos of him during that year for each of his friends to see.
fun fact: the boy in the blue shirt sitting at the bottom center of this photo is carson. his mom, heidi, was molly’s doula for jackson’s birth!
jackson walked around the sun four times, to represent the four years of his life.little sister phoebe was excited to visit jackson’s classroom. she wanted to be part of the fun…
she parked herself right next to all the girlfriends in the circle. when jackson was done with his final trip around the sun, he was allowed to choose four different friends who each gave him a wish. he called on andrew, who wished him a “helicopter,” then alejandra, who wished him “an airplane,” then alexander wished him “a spaceship” and finally, his good buddy daniel wished him “a rocket.” do you sense a theme? all the kids headed to the snack area to enjoy juice and homemade cupcakes. jackson and molly baked them from scratch – devil’s food cupcakes with whipped vanilla icing, courtesy of martha stewart’s cupcake recipe book. the super-cute edible icing decals came courtesy of etsy.com find hello frosting. love it!

just as jackson and his friends (twin brothers) cayman and collin and aysha started eating, the fire alarm went off! impromptu fire drill! oh no! the kids all wanted to carry their cupcakes outside, but they had to leave them behind, at least for a few minutes!

the kids were a little puzzled that they could “eat the paper” on top of the cupcakes, but I encouraged them to do it. one boy said, “I can eat paper?! yay!” then, he tried to eat the cupcake wrapper, too. oops!

on sunday night, jackson had a sneak preview taste of the cupcakes. we have to say, they were super delicious! what a wonderful way to kick off birthday celebrations for our favorite, little almost-4-year-old!