First Week of School!

Well the Niemann's started school on Monday, August 22 and all three kids had a good first week. Their school is Temperance-Kutner, or T-K for short. Peyton's teacher is Mrs. Vang, and being in the 6th grade this year he's the "Big Man on Campus" since the school is K-6. 4th-grader Trace landed in Mrs. Dupras' class, which is a combined 4th-5th grade class. He was pretty excited because Mrs. Dupras was Peyton's teacher last year, and Trace took a liking to her then (it doesn't hurt that she's pretty!). Hillary had a fantastic first grade teacher last year, Mrs. Clark, and as it turns out we were pleasantly surprised that she is also teaching a combined class of 1st-2nd graders! So Hillary will have the same teacher again which couldn't be better for her.

The best part of the week as voted unanimously by the kids was having "no homework"! I'm afraid that will change this week but it was nice while it lasted. We are set on school supplies, new routines and of course having new backpacks is always a bonus.

The boys started sports practice this week. Peyton is playing football for T-K and Trace is on the cross-country team since he can't start football until 5th grade. They will both have sports practice every day after school except for Wednesdays, and their games/meets will be at the same locations on Friday afternoons at 2:30. Peyton is quite excited about finally playing football since he's looked forward to it since he was - oh, say 2 years old.

We also started piano lessons back up last week. Last year our piano teacher, Troy, came to our house to teach the kids, but this year we are taking lessons at the Valley Music Center of Fresno where Troy is the school director. It's a fantastic facility, and all three kids all take on Wednesday afternoons when they have early release. They will get to have recitals there, and they also offer keyboard, jazz and other classes that mom will be signing up for too!

We topped off the first week of school with a fishing trip to Hunting Lake on Saturday. It was a beautiful day - we didn't catch a lot of fish but according to Hillary the fun was all about learning to cast by yourself! We saw a lot of great scenery on our hikes, and it was amazing to think that on December 31 we were skiing in the same area in fresh powder and 4 degrees! All just over an hour from home...it was a great day.