First Day of School 2011

Today was the first day of school for all of the kids. Here is Natalie in her boys' shark shirt from Gymboree and boys' sneakers from Payless. The red backpack actually caught my eye first, but when she saw it she honed in on the red color, of course. It's just a plain red canvas with Aeropostale's logo. At first she hesitated because she already has a good backpack from last year, but that one wasn't a nice solid red. I also took a picture of the backpack on her back. Patrick gave me a hard time because I had her pose looking over her shoulder so I could see her face and the backpack.

I got up early to make them cinnamon crescent rolls, requested by Natalie and Alex. Natalie got up and dressed right away, but then she had to wait for me to finish breakfast. She doesn't eat fast nor does she get ready fast, so we were running out the door. I barely had time to get pictures before the bus arrived. She has a new bus and a new bus driver. There were actually only five kids at the bus stop this morning.

She didn't actually say too much about her first day except that she still wishes that she had Mrs. F for a teacher instead of Mrs. C. She said that every time she saw Mrs. F today she gave her a hug. That was nice. From what I heard, she'll like Mrs. C a lot when she gets used to her. She only said that Mrs. C talks a lot like she does.

It was Eric's turn for pictures after Natalie left. He looks a little excited here, don't you think? The poor boy had to use his old Thomas backpack, the one with the hole at the top and torn side pocket, but at least it matched his chosen shirt. He chose Cars underwear instead of Thomas underwear though, and Cars sandals. We took him to school after taking the boys.

He was a little tentative when we got to his classroom, where his teacher was reading to the class. There were only about seven kids in his class when we got there, although there were twelve on the list. He hid behind Patrick's leg--until he saw one of his good friends, then he was almost running to join him. At the end of the day, the teacher said that he was a good listener. When I asked him how his day was, he merely replied, "Good."

He kept dry all day and I picked him up just before picking Natalie up from school to take her to her piano lesson. I asked him there if he had to go to the potty. Of course he said "no" and unfortunately he ended up wetting the chair he was sitting in. Note to self--make him go to the potty even when he says "no". You'd think I would know that with the fourth child!

The big boys barely wanted to get their picture taken. Luckily I've gotten faster with my camera settings. This is the first picture. I even took a second one but Alex was purposely frowning in that one. They didn't want to wear their backpacks for the picture and I didn't want to push it.

Alex gets to wear a white polo shirt for his uniform this year. He is wearing his P.E. uniform shirt underneath. Don't ask me why this boy who gets so hot and sweats so easily is wearing TWO shirts to school. He quickly took his white shirt off after school because he didn't want to stain his white shirt. He didn't have too much to say about his first day except that he got to see his friends.

Anthony actually said that he enjoyed his first day, the only child to actually verbalize those thoughts. He said that his Calculus teacher said that she was going to try to make some improvements after last year, something he was glad to hear. He also enjoyed all of his classes. He mentioned AP Physics and AP U.S. History/English in particular. A friend brought him a stuffed bear from her trip to Las Vegas. A new requirement in soccer this year is to run Cross Country, so he'll be in track after all, after a lot of back and forth the last two years.

Patrick grilled steaks tonight. The kids were content to read their books after dinner. It was a good day. Tomorrow we get to see how soccer from 6-9pm fits into our schedule.