was great!  I took some great advice from Terri Maxwell's column for moms, and took it really easy for the first day, not a lot of school at all.... rather, starting traditions that will be great memories for years to come.

First of all, I took their pictures in front of our "picture" tree in the front yard.  I first took my "official" student, Violet, holding a current favorite book and the accompanying favorite toy that goes with it, Misty of Chincoteague.

Next, I took all three of my "pupils"... I call this one "I WANT YOU to homeschool, too!":

I think Jack-Jack is pretty hilarious!

Next, I allowed them to go downstairs into our brand newly cleaned and rearranged "learning and fun" room.  I will post some pictures once it is 100% done, I still have to put up a couple things.  I wrote "Welcome to our Homeschool!" on the white board with their names on it, and had Violet's stuff all set up at her table, and Dash & Jack-Jack's toys and activities ready to go.. they LOVED it!  Violet took a marker and wrote MOM on the board and told me that I am part of our homeschool, too!

Next, we borrowed a Burlingame family tradition for our own... we went to IHOP for breakfast!  We invited our next-door neighbors, who are the most wonderful homeschooling family, to join us, and two of them did.  It was so much fun!  (Thanks to Cre8iveMom for that wonderful idea!)

I had Violet do a writing sample when we got home, so we will be able to look back and see how much she has changed at the end of our year.

That was it!  Tuesdays for us are "Grandma Day", and so I took the kids over to Grandma's for the afternoon.  I came back and normally I work on my business like mad with no kids around, but today I fell into bed and napped... because yesterday I got hit with the yuckiest cold!  I feel pretty yucky, but I was so glad it did not diminish our first day.

Tomorrow we will begin to ease into academic work, but I was so glad we chose to make today a special day.

To top it all off, Violet had a soccer game tonight and received the Star of the Game award from her coach!  She was so thrilled!

I would love to hear about your first days for those of you who just started!