First Day of School (a day late)

Yesterday was the first day of school.  I'm still trying to catch my breath.  Dave worked late last night so I think that has something to do with it.  This year we did a Meet and Greet the Friday before Labor Day weekend.  It made the first day of school so much smoother, although I admit it did feel a bit weird to have the first day be a full day of school.  I don't think I've met a group more excited to be in 6th grade.

My own babies are growing up.  All three are at St. Luke this year with me, all day long.  I love that this simplifies a lot of our life logistically speaking.  Just dropping the kids at day camp before going to the teacher in-service was tricky.  So my hats off to people who don't have their kids onsite at work.

Eileen cried when kindergarten ended.  She loved every single moment.  As we moved through August, the excitement of first grade welled inside her.  She was ready and raring to go for the first day.  Normally, she won't let me take her picture.  Today Eileen wanted all the pictures and chose the tree and our front yard for posing.  Linus felt sort of meh about going back to school.  I don't think Robin knew what to expect.  He was just excited to go back to hanging out in my classroom.

The "ashing" outside from the wildfires was sad and unexpected.

The combination of heat and having all sorts of bigger girls playing with her hair this summer has made Eileen relent, and let me start pulling back her hair.

Ready for another year of 6th grade.

At school, this cutie literally stopped traffic.  Be still my heart.  Gah.  The cuteness.

The morning was a bit chaotic but things seemed to smooth out as the day continued.  The heat was sweltering.  The popsicles supplied by the principal was very welcomed.

It's funny how easily you can forget how much goes into kicking off the school year--setting up the classroom, sorting students, giving them passwords,  uploading students into online curriculums. Seriously, so much stuff that takes time.  Luckily, it's those things that you only do once.

I checked in with the kids about their first day.  Linus didn't have much to report, but that he liked third grade alright (yet he was already getting right to work on his first IB assignment so I think he liked it a lot).  I caught Eileen out at recess literally frolicking, holding hands and prancing with two of her friends. I asked her and her friends if they liked first grade, and they squealed that they loved it, especially that they had desks that opened (as opposed to tables). Robin's teachers gave him a good report.  He was a bit overwhelmed.  He had an accident towards the end of the day, but given all the changes I'm impressed it was only once.  I am happy to say he was accident free today.

I can already tell it's going to be a good year for all of us.