I am THAT mom.

Yes, I am THAT one. The mom who loses her mind the day her baby goes to preschool. Here is the story. On Monday, 8/13/12 my sweet, "baby"  boy started preschool. He could not have been more excited. I was also excited. But I was also nervous, worried, sad and baffled. I mean it just did not seem possible that this kid of mine was big enough to go to any kind of school. Somehow he was.
So I laid out the clothes, got up early, fed him a big breakfast and hoped for the best.

The first two days were orientation for the new students only and it was only half day. So he needed to be dropped off at 8 and picked up at 11. I have to be at school by 7:10 so Stuart is in charge of dropping him off everyday so he was in charge of drop off day one. My kids go to specials at 8:00 so the plan was for him to pick me up at 8 so I could be part of the drop off. I had it all planned out in my head (we all know how that goes) and I was a nervous wreck all morning. At C's school they get him out of the car and we do not get to go in so my plan was for Stuart to drop me off on the corner so I could photograph the whole "getting out of the car on the first day of school moment", cause that is normal...right? (THAT mom reason #1). Well things did not go as planned.

Stuart texted me at about 7:45 to tell me he was on the way. I texted back to tell him that I had kids until 8. MEANING that I would meet him outside at 8. He took this to mean " I have kids until 8, just go ahead and take our baby boy to preschool on his first day on your own"! So as I am rushing to get my kids to gym and get out the front door I get another text from Stuart telling me not to worry that  Mrs. Michelle was taking pictures. STOP THE WORLD...WHAT?!. My heart dropped. I immediately text back asking how he knew that. He proceeds to tell me that he already took him. Que the tears. (THAT mom reason #2). The tears are all of a sudden uncontrollable. The whole emotion of the first week of school, getting up at 5:15, baby going to preschool might not have helped my crazy and I went straight to my classroom and begin to cry like a baby. I missed it. I missed the first day of school. (NO, it is not the end of the world, but at that moment I thought it was. ) I called him and cried and cried. He apologized profusely but still did not understand the big deal. He said Clark jumped right out of the car and all was well. That should have been comforting right? Well, I just cried harder. I missed it. I missed him jumping out and heading into his first day. I still had the back to school cookie bouquet for his teachers on my desk, a camera with an empty memory card in my hand and a red, tear stained face. I was a mess. I was the picture of crazy mom. So what did I do? I did what any crazy mom would do. I drove over to his school. YEP. (THAT mom reason #3)

I got in my car and drove the 1.5 blocks to his school. Still crying and balancing the adorable cookie bouquet in my lap. At this point it is 8:15 and all the kids are inside. I spot my little on the carpet through the window reading a book and the tears stream harder. About this time his sweet classroom assistant comes to my door (poor thing). She looks a little confused since all of the kids are probably already inside. I proceed to tell her through my sobs that Stuart did not pick me up and I had missed it. I apologized for the crying mess and handed her the cookies. I know she wanted to back away from the crazy lady slowly, but she was so kind. She told me that Clark was fine and thanked me for the cookies. I apologized again, thanked her and drove away knowing that she most likely went inside and made a note in Clark's file that probably said something like CRAZY MOM- beware!  I then drove back to school, tried to gain composure and went back inside.

By the time my kids were back from gym I was back together for the most part. The day went on and I was busy, but okay. Mostly embarrassed for my outburst. But the crazy does not end there my friends!
At about 11:00 I text our babysitter to see if she had picked up Clark and if he had a great day. No response. I took this as a good sign that she did not want to text and drive. Our babysitter was supposed to pick him up on the half days and take him to our daily sitter's house where the babies go each day and where C has gone since birth. I went on with my day until at about 11:20 I got a text alert. It was in the middle of class so I casually checked my phone and it was a text from Clark's school!! It said something like school gets out at 11 and it is 11:20 and CLARK IS STILL HERE!!
Are you kidding me? No one has picked him up? It is his FIRST DAY!! Trying to remain calm give an assignment and head into the hallway. Quickly text back that someone will be there and call the sitter. She is just as confused because she thought she was not supposed to be there until noon. She just got out of the shower and lives about 10 minutes away. I grab the girl across the hall, she covers my class and I head down the street again to pick up my boy.

Yes, that is right. I pull up in front of the school AGAIN. This time I am not just the crazy mom, but I am the LATE, CRAZY mom who leaves her kid at school on the first day. GEEZ. I really could crawl into a hole. So, I apologize AGAIN to his teachers, give him the biggest hug and tear up again. (THAT mom reason #3,293) Clark really had no idea I was late. He was enjoying a cookie from the bouquet I dropped off a few hours earlier and was mad that babysitter Hannah was not there to get him. His teacher says she understood, but I know she probably went in the building and highlighted the CRAZY MOM note in his file from earlier. I live up to my crazy mom title and make him stand in front of his school for the pictures I did not get that morning before we leave. (THAT mom reason # i lost count) I get him in the car and am back at school in before the kids even knew I was gone. Hannah came to get Clark and the day went on. He made it to our sitter's house. I made it there after school to pick them all up and Clark told us all about his first day at dinner. He had no idea about any of the crazy and was excited to go back the next day.

Needless to say, I was emotionally drained and it was all I could do to stay up long enough to get them all in bed. Once all Snyder children were asleep I was too. Momma was worn out and surprised I had not been committed to some sort of home for crazy moms.

So, if I look beyond the crazy day it really was great for him. He loved it. He continues to love it and tells us all about it each night. We could not be happier with our decision to send him and hope that they will forget all about my first day antics and still love our boy. It is a great school and seems to be a perfect fit for Clark.

After school on his 1st day.

Sweet boy and CRAZY momma. 

Our boy and the poor daddy who has to deal with all my crazy. 

Love this bouquet my friend Rebecca made for his teachers. It could not have been cuter, but I am still not sure it made up for my 1st day antics. 

Silly boy loved his day and still loves his momma.

It has been a great week and a half and he has learned all sorts of things about walking feet, indoor voice, gentle hands, and being peaceful. He has told Stuart to be "kind", asked if we could light a candle at dinner like they do for lunch and sparked dinner conversations about living and non living things, and letter sounds. He makes us laugh and I can't wait to see what else this year brings. Hopefully less crazy days for me and more great days for him.

Classroom Sneak Peek

Yes, I know that I only managed TWO posts in the month of July. Pitiful. However, I was trying to enjoy important things like summer trash TV, cleaning my house, and spending everyday with my babies. I have a few posts to catch up on and I will be combining the 10 and 11 month twin updates because yes, they are nearly 11 months old (GASP!). But for the last few weeks I have spent every spare minute I have had in my classroom. Working most days in the un-air conditioned nearly 90 year old building. But let me tell you that working in the un-air conditioned, nearly 90 year old building is MUCH EASIER this summer not being pregnant with two babies- in case you were curious. I have reminded myself that many times as I have worked in the heat. (side note: yes, our school has air conditioning- just not in the summer or at night when I have a chance to work)

This year I get the privilege of teaching 5th grade English/Language Arts again. This will be my second year on the 5th grade team and second year in room 204. I am thrilled to be working with the lovely ladies of 5th grade again because they make my job so much fun. They are great at what they do and great at making me laugh! Needless to say we usually have a good time. We are also not going to let the fact that we have 30 kids in each class and quite a few behavior problems ruin our fun either. I know it is going to be a great year in 5th grade.

Because I am in the same classroom, teaching the same grade it was a little easier moving in to my classroom this summer. Yes, we have to box up every year because of our beautiful floors. They have to be stripped and waxed each summer so we have to pack up and everything is taken out of our rooms. But this year I kept many things up on the wall that I just covered during testing to avoid having to re-hot glue it all back up. So glad for that. I have spent days working alone and a few days the babes joined me.

Tomorrow is our opening day and we have a county wide meeting in the morning, followed by meetings at school and a short while to work in our rooms on last minute things because kids start on TUESDAY!!! I can hardly believe that it is time. We had back to school night last Thursday and I met 20 of my 28 kids and most of their parents. It was a wild night as always and I was a little overwhelmed by talking to so many people and sharing so much important info in such a short amount of time, but it did get me excited for the year. I seem to have some real sweethearts and most of them seemed excited to come back too. Because we departmentalize I get to teach ELA to all three classes and I have had many of these kiddos in 3rd grade so it is great to see some familiar faces again. I can't wait to see how much they have grown since I saw them last.

My room is always a work in progress and there are soooo many things that I would like to do to it and many things on my pin boards that I would like to try too, but for now it is almost ready for my sweeties to arrive early Tuesday morning.

Here is a glimpse into my 5th grade classroom for the 2012-2013 school year. My 9th year teaching, my 7th year in this school and my 2nd year in 5th grade. Come on in and take a look.

Welcome- Here is the view from the door.

Here is the view from the back.

Front of the room.

My library/small group work area.

I finally got my class sets of chapter books organized this summer!

Yes, my babies are in a cage while I work...

The shelf beside my desk. Loaded up, organized and ready for action.

The wall directly to the right of the door. Board has space for student work and classroom Boggle.The shelf is for sorting papers by classroom, classroom materials and indoor recess games. The black shelf next to it is labeled for supplies like paper, extra crayons etc, and the pencil sharpener  sits on top. 

To the left of the door.
Schedule, calendar, birthdays, and Whole Brain Rules.
Printed the rules from HERE.

In case you were wondering, this is not a permanent fixture.
This is where the kids will sort the supplies they bring in to share with the class.
These are the boxes I had out for open house and I will leave them here for the first few days to allow them to put their supplies away and help keep the clutter away  on the first few days. 

My back to school hallway display!
YES, That is right. I hot glued a cape to the wall...
I was going to do owls but as I began to get it ready I noticed that 4 other teachers in my building were doing owls too so I went with plan B and used Clark's leftover supplies from his party (HERE) and went with it.
I got inspiration from The Teacher Wife  and I am pretty pleased with the outcome.

I have come up with some fun superhero activities thanks to my fiend Ginger and her TPT store that I will be using for the first few days. I am looking forward to Tuesday and hoping that the 5:30 am alarm clock is kind to me! Wish me luck!!!

In case you are interested on taking a walk down memory lane I have blogged about my classroom set up in the past HERE, HERE and HERE.