Hope everyone is having a great summer! It is hard to believe that school is just around the corner. The office reopens on August 1 and you should all be receiving your back-to-school packets the second week in August.

Here are some key back-to-school dates:

August 18 – Faculty return
August 24, 25, 26 – Meet the Teacher. Your child’s teacher will contact you about your day and time.
August 29 – First Day of School – Noon dismissal the entire first week of school.
September 5 – Labor Day Holiday
September 6 – School resumes, regular dismissal schedule.
September 13 – Back to School Night and classroom visits for all parents.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Thank you all for making this such a wonderful school year at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School. We miss all of our little angels already and look forward to seeing many of them at Summer Fun!

The Summer Fun! dates are:
Week 1 – June 6-10
Week 2 – June 13-17
Week 3 – June 20-24
Drop off and pick up on the playground each day. The day goes from 9:00-1:00.

We wish you all a safe, happy summer – full of adventure, family time, and some well deserved rest. We will see you back at St. Matthew’s on the first day of school, August 29!

Join us on Tuesday, May 3 at Waterloo Ice House on 360 for St. Matthew’s Night. We will be there from 4:30-7:30……….so stop by for an after school snack or bring the family for dinner! Nate the Great, Balloon Artist Extraordinaire, will be on hand to add to the fun. 10% of St. Matthew’s proceeds from the night go to the school, but the main purpose of the event is to enjoy a beautiful Texas spring evening with our St. Matthew’s friends.

Send your children to school that day in their St. Matthew’s t-shirts and then join us at Waterloo that night!

See you there!

Last week was another special week full of fun here at St. Matthew’s! Our halls
were filled with cowboys and their stick horses for the Pre-K rodeo,
Kindergarten “cookies” fixin’ a mighty delicious chuckwagon cookout any Texan
would be proud of, and the firelane was transformed into a speedway complete
with a carwash, rest stop, and gas station for the 3′s road ralley. Just another week of learning, growing, and having a LOT of fun at the truly special place we
call St. Matthew’s!!

We have several special happenings this Spring that you’ll want to put on your
calendars:

- April 15 at 11:30 is the Kindergarten musical “In the Jungle”. Broadway, watch
out!!

-April 21 we dismiss at noon for the Easter holidays and return Tuesday, April
26.

- April 27 is VIP Day/ Flowering of the Cross. Be on the lookout for your
invitation. Each child in the MWF 3′s, all Pre-Ks, and Kindergarten will welcome
a special guest to school that day – usually a grandparent, but it can be a
neighbor, aunt, babysitter, etc. Guests arrive at 10:15, at 11:00 we will gather
in the sanctuary for our beautiful Flowering of the Cross service (parents are
welcome), followed by a reception in the church courtyard. ALL CLASSES WILL
DISMISS AT NOON that day.

-May 3 is Spirit Night at Waterloo Ice House at 360 and 2222. A percentage of
all St. Matthew’s orders that night will go to the School, so plan on a night
out with all your St. Matthew’s friends and enjoy a beautiful spring evening at
Waterloo! Details to follow.

-May 5 and 6 are Parent/ Teacher conference days.

-May 20 is Kindergarten Graduation and the last day of school.

Wow!!! What a whirlwind this Spring will be. I’m looking forward to seeing you
at these special community events – and every day in the halls. It seems that
every day is a special event at St. Matthew’s!!

Dust off your boots, get your blue jeans on, and get ready for a night of good ole’ Texas fun! La Noche 2011, “Round Up!”, is just around the corner. I hope y’all plan to be at the UT Alumni Center on Friday, March 4 for this awesome event!

Highlights include:

Class Projects, Live and Silent Auctions, Bull Riding, Wine Toss, Mystery Flags, Slideshow, Teacher Treats, Cocktails and Dinner

It is an evening not to be missed! Tickets are on sale now. Be sure to stop by the auction preview tables on Thursday and Friday to check out some of the great items and get your tickets.

A big Yeehaw!!! our Event Sponsors:

The Casaubon Family, UCS/ Leslie & Ben Wells, Nick and Genevieve Mounce, The Price Family, The Fason Family, The Herndon Family, Inviting Affairs/ The Esaias Family, The McCall Family, The Dennis Family,  Laurel & Dudley Simmons, The Webb Family, St. Matthew’s Board of Trustees, Ben & Nancy Wells, The Jud Anderson Family, Adrian & Jordan Bean, Marjann Cooper/ Amelia Bullock Realtors, The Cuellar Family, Julie & Ron Franklin, In Honor of Johanna & Grayson Gunter, Lucy & Phil Nazro, The Nield Family, The Northway Family, The Pitts Family, The Robertson Family, Francie & Trent Thurman, Old Settlers Dental PA/ The Zavala Family

See y’all there!

St. Matthew’s follows  AISD with regard to school closure due to weather . If AISD is closed, we are closed.

However, if AISD has a two hour delayed start, we will be CLOSED.

Check back here for updates.

Interested in learning more about St. Matthew’s? We will be hosting Open Houses on January 12 and January 27 for parents to visit our school and to experience first hand the excitement and joy of a day at St. Matthew’s!

Both days, we will begin at 9:00 in the chapel. You will get to participate in our incredible chapel service, followed by a short welcome, tours of our facilities and classrooms, and ending with refreshments and a question and answer time.

We will also hold a special Kindergarten Open House for those of you especially interested in our Kindergarten program on the evening of February 1 at 6:30.

Questions? Call Pattie McDonald in our office at 345-3040.

We look forward to welcoming you to St. Matthew’s!!

I feel a bit like the head elf in the Christmas classic Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer – “Busy! Busy! Busy!”. We have so many ways we celebrate Christmas at St. Matthew’s and all are so special and fun. I hope you will join us for the pageants and parties that make this season so magical.

Here’s a quick run-down:

Friday 12/10 -

11:30 – MWF 3′s sing at the Church Senior Activity Center Christmas Luncheon in Huffman Hall

Tuesday 12/14

9:15 – MTTh 3′s Pick-up Pageant in Sanctuary

Wednesday 12/15

9:15 – MWF 3′s Pick-up Pageant in Sanctuary

11:00 – St. Matthew’s Episcopal School Christmas Pageant in Sanctuary

12:00 – All Classes dismissed for the Christmas Holidays

If you are not already in the Christmas spirit, seeing these adorable children tell the story of Jesus’ birth will certainly get you there! Join us!

We at St. Matthew’s wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas at St. Matthew’s is a magical time. Our halls are decked and we are busy, busy, busy getting ready for Christmas. We are practicing for the pageant, lighting Advent wreaths, and sprinkling glitter on everything we can find.

Today we had a special visitor in chapel – St. Nicholas! He brought us chocolate coins and told us all about his life. So fun! Many of us gathered in the church a little later for a grown up Christmas concert by the Anderson High School choir. We all enjoyed the beautiful music and practiced our best concert manners.

Please come by the hallway in the main entrance and see our beautiful Christmas tree forest. Each class has a tree they decorated themselves and then we added angel photos of each child. Many, many thanks to Missy Ward for “decking our halls”!!!

I look forward to seeing you at the various field trips, pageants, and parties over the next couple of weeks. As you can see, these are very busy days at St. Matthew’s!

Enjoy this glorious season with your little ones!

St. Matthew’s Book Fair is November 9-12, with a preview day on Monday the 8th. It will be open from 8:45 – 3:00, TWTh, and 8:45-1:30 on Friday.  The theme this year is “Reading Saves the Day!”. Come and stock up on Christmas treats, add some new favorites to your child’s library,  shop your teacher’s wish list, and support St. Matthew’s  - all at the same time. The teachers use the proceeds from the book fair to purchase books and toys for their classrooms and our school library.

Plan to be here Thursday morning for “Muffins for Moms”. Stick around after drop off for some yummy breakfast treats and shop the book fair with other St. Matthew’s moms.

See you at the book fair!