Back to school for our new third and first graders

After two and a half months of summer vacation it was back to school for Jude and Anna on Wednesday this week. Both were eager to start although Anna was excited and nervous about starting first grade.

At Waldorf they make a very deal about the transition from kindergarten to first grade. There is a whole ceremony that happens where the school welcomes the first grader into the school, and they get to meet their eighth grade buddy. It is a really moving ceremony and we just loved it when Jude started first grade.

Anna did really well. She met her eighth grade buddy who she will be having lunch with once a week for whole school year. Anna walked in front of the whole school and received her rose from one of the 12th graders.

Anna receiving her rose at the special Rose Ceremony for first graders on the first day of school

One other big event this week, at least for Anna, was the arrival of her new bed. Up until now Anna had been using our old guest bed, which was a queen size bed, on the floor. She has wanted Marcy’s old bed, which was also Baba’s old bed, and we brought it back with us from Iowa last week. This week we ordered new mattresses and installed the bed in Anna’s room. She absolutely loves it.

Anna going to sleep in her new bed for the first time

Marcy has been talking about doing a camping trip for several years now. Well, this weekend was it. After a couple of trial runs in the backyard the kids were eager to try out camping for real. So, we drove to Keystone on Friday night and spent just one night at the condo. Then, early the next morning we staked out a camping spot along Peru Creek, which was about 8 miles from the condo.

Enjoying our first family camping trip sitting by the fire

We went for a hike that day and then spent several hours just playing around the campsite. Jude must have thrown at least 200 rocks into the river that was right by our site. But his highlight of the day was the golf ball he found. It was an old range ball and Jude decided that he wanted to crack it open. He proved to be very determined to do this. For the next hour or so he slammed down rocks on to that golf ball. I even helped him for a little but that ball would not crack. Then Jude had the idea of heating it up in the fire. We did that until it sizzled and then in one go the ball cracked open. It was a great evening’s entertainment.

Jude proudly shows off his broken golf ball

The night went fairly well. I slept with Jude in the two-person tent and then Marcy squeezed in with Anna into the one-person tent. It got pretty cold during the night and neither Anna nor I slept well at all. While it didn’t freeze it must have been very close to it as we all had our ski gear on in the morning. We all endured a 60 degree gain in temperature as we went from mid 30’s in the morning to mid 90’s when we were back in Denver that afternoon.

Warming up by the fire on a cold morning

Finally, we need to mention Carrot, Jude’s new Leopard Gecko. He loves it. He takes it out every day and plays with it – he even kisses it now when he does this. He has such a soft heart for animals and it is brings him immense pleasure.

Jude taking out Carrot from her cage