See ya, summer! Hello, school!

Well, school has finally arrived for our sweet little ones!  It was a long summer...they got out the end of May and now are back the 8th of September.  So it was a nice (most days) summer!  But they are ready to get back to a regular routine and schedule again, as I've been able to tell especially the last few weeks.

The last day of vacation was Labor Day.  We celebrated by going to Saratoga.  We visited the museum, went to the park, and swam at the outdoor pool.  The last hour, we were the only ones there, which was fun to have the pool all to ourselves!  The kids loved the slide, and we all had a blast!  It was also the last day of the season, so we were the last customers this year.  Then, we all went to the grocery store here and gave all of the kids (and ourselves) $5 to pick out whatever they wanted to contribute to dinner.  We had corn dogs, pringles, ice cream, donuts, salad (can you guess who picked that one?), tater babies, strawberry punch, and pizza sticks.  It was a crazy dinner!  They enjoyed that.   We talked about our favorite moments and memories from the summer.  It's been a good one!  We read some back to school themed books, picked out our first day of school outfits and put them out, got our backpacks by the door, and tried [ahem] to go to sleep.

The kids had no problem waking up, they were so excited for the first day!  They requested banana muffins for breakfast the occasion, which was easy.  We chattered about what was going to happen.  They admitted they were both bummed summer was over, but excited to see their friends again.  Cal was being a stink and didn't want me to take his picture, ha ha!  He's too cool for school already.

Emma is in 4th grade this year and got Ms. Goodwine, who is very sweet.  I think she will like her, and she has quite a few good friends in her class.  And was so happy to get back together at recess with the old crew.

Callahan is in 1st grade and has Mrs. Hansen.  She seems like she'll be a really good teacher.  Cal was excited to play with all of his friends at recess and he did a lot of scaring the girls who were chasing him and his buddies away (Emma and I tried to convince him that meant they like the boys, but he didn't believe us).  He wouldn't smile before school, so I made him do a do-over after.  :)

After school, we talked quickly about the first big day, made little graham cracker school busses for a snack, and it was out the door!  We dropped Cal off at football practice.  He was stoked to get started again.  He loves sports!  Then we took Lucy to dance, which she just started the previous week.  She's all over it and enjoys practicing at home and showing and telling everyone about it.  Emma said she looked like the cotton candy girl, with her blue leotard and pink tutu (you can guess who picked that ensemble out).  Emma is going to start up art lessons in a few weeks here, which she is really looking forward to.

Lucy also started Preschool.  We did our neighborhood joy school again, and she's loved it so far.  (Since I'm teaching the first week, she'd better, lol!)  This is her third year of preschool.  We also recently started "How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons".  She's doing well with it so far!

So back to the crazy routine...I admit I miss the slower pace of summer as well, but glad for better structure again.  It's gonna be a great year!  Cov and Lucy already miss Cal and Emma.  "I love Emma!"  "Where's Cal?" they keep asking.  They'll get adjusted though. I miss them, too, but it's for the best!