It’s the first day of school

 

The house is definitely too quiet.  It’s not so-sobbing-sad…it’s just a melancholy noticing-that-time-just-keeps-passing sad.  Ah, parenting.  Such a contradiction all of the time.

Here are the obligatory pictures, and some fun moments/comments to go a long with them:

Emma started 7th grade today.

She was excited, mostly because she thought she had the best outfit of all time.  She even said, “I was dreading school, till I got my back to school outfit and now I’m excited!”  Never underestimate the power of a winning look.

Gabe started 6th grade, which is at the middle school.  I asked them if I could take pictures at their school and they said sure.  We began talking about being embarrassed of their parents (which they haven’t been, yet.)  They were truly confused by the concept: “why would we be embarrassed?  We like you guys.  I act like I’m embarrassed when Dad starts joking around, but I’m just pretending, because I know my friends think he’s funny.”  Sweet, huh?

I started tearing up a little bit, when my boy left elementary school forever.  Boo.  (And yes, that shirt’s too big.  It’s a Men’s Medium, but he couldn’t find a smaller size and HAD to have the Patriots t-shirt to start the year off right.)

Jane started 3rd grade, and as always, was easy and fun.

She had a few eye rolls at all the pictures, but I think she does that because her older siblings do.  She got the teacher who ALL the 3rd graders wanted (and Emma and Gabe had) PLUS, gets her cousin Elise in her class.

Seth started 1st grade.  1st grade is worse (for the mommy) than kindergarten and I’ve gotten weepy any time I’ve talked about my fun, talkative, easy going buddy leaving me ALL DAY LONG.  He’s so happy with whatever you put in front of him, though, so it was fun to see him off today.

I’m slightly worried about his spaciness, though.  I’d left him playing on the playground, with plenty of directions about where to line up and when, and then went to document Jane.  The bell rang, all the kids rushed into line and I took some pictures of Jane in her classroom.  As I was walking down the hall, I hear “Oh, hi!  Mom!  I just didn’t remember to come in when the bell rang, so I’m a little late and by myself, but that’s okay!”  as Seth rushes by.  That kid.

Now it’s just us. 

Faith’s only asked me about 16 times this morning “What we doing today, Mom?”  She’ll definitely be at a loss without her cadre of pals. 

So to sum:  I’m a little blue, Faith’s a little lonely, Seth’s a little too easily distracted BUT my kids aren’t embarrassed of me, all have the teachers/classes we wanted and my kitchen is sparkling clean and will stay that way until 3:05. 

Welcome, School!