First Day of School

I can't believe another school year has already begun. This one was a lot of firsts for us. Due to our district closing a number of schools we got bumped from the elementary school that Jaden has always been at to another one in our neighborhood. I wasn't excited about the move...for many reasons, but I think it's actually going to be good for us. The school seems to be much more organized that we're used to and it's a smaller school, which I like. So anyway...last night I decided to get prepared. We had everyone's backpacks filled with school supplies, all necessary forms and Rachel's snack. (Third graders are far too old to have snacks in school. :) ) Then I laid everyone's clothes out so we'd have an easy morning. Well, I awoke to a cold and rainy morning and the shorts and t-shirts that everyone had picked out just weren't going to work. Add that to the fact that my kids were still on their summer morning schedule of moving at a snails pace and tell a million stories at breakfast and we were almost late getting out the door. :) I wasn't sure how I was going to make everything work this morning since I wanted to see them both head into the school. Their new elementary school uses two doors in the morning. K-2 at one door and 3-5 at another. We ended up dropping Rachel at her door to join the line for her class and then brought Jaden to his. I held it together and didn't cry...but I wanted to. I know they were both a little nervous this morning...Rachel about being at school all day and Jaden at being at a new school and not knowing anyone....well, there is one girl in his class that was in his 1st grade class. So, off to home we went. I didn't really know what to do with myself only having two kids at home. Gretchen and Luke played for a while, but Gretchen was so preoccupied with preschool that she kept asking me if it was lunch time and kept telling me that she was hungry. (You see, I had told her that we would leave for preschool right after lunch.) Anyway, we baked the traditional "Happy 1st Day of School" cake and then had lunch. Gretchen couldn't get out the door fast enough. I wanted to take a couple pictures of her at school, but after one she said, "that's enough pictures" and headed into the room. So, home again I went and put Luke down for his nap. It was soooo quiet. I know I'm going to like having a few hours a couple afternoons a week to myself, but it sure was strange! After a few hours Luke and I headed over to pick Gretchen up from school and she had a blast. There's only 40 minutes between when Gretchen's done with school and when Rachel and Jaden are done with school, so we get a little car time. We parked out in front of the school and the kids watched a movie. Normally we will just wait for the kids to come and find the van, but since it's the first day of school and we're still getting used to everything we decided to wait in front of the school. First Rachel came out her door and she and Gretchen hugged...you know they hadn't seen each other all day. :) Then we headed towards Jaden's door and he was already on his way over. They all had so many stories to tell about their day that it was hard to get them to take turns. All in all everything went very smoothly. It will probably take a few days to get everyone in the swing of things, but it will be good. Gretchen had preschool Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Rachel has kindergarten all day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Friday and Jaden is in third grade every day. How did my kids get so old?

Pictures will follow once my main computer gets fixed this week. :)