Our Life in Pictures: First Day of School 2012

Today was the day! Kate started 3rd grade and Jack had his Kindergarten open house leading up to his first real day of school tomorrow.

Kate seems to really like her teacher and the people in her class. She is especially happy that a boy, Jacob, is not in her class this year as he is the one that would chase her on the playground. She came home with a take-home-binder, instead of a folder, this year, complete with an assignment notebook. Let's hope that she puts that to better use than I did in school. She has been packing her own lunch the night before, tonight it took her a 1/2 hour, but she really likes deciding what goes in and she has been making some really good healthy choices.

Jack's day consisted of finding his cubby where he will put his back-pack every morning and where he will keep his brand new gym shoes and putting away his giant box of school supplies…all of which is community property which really kicks all of the fun out of bringing in your own supplies. I have gotten smart and just bought the supplies straight from the school "PTA". We bought the supplies outright Kate's first year and lost our steam when we couldn't find the mandated brand of scissors at Target and then had to go to every office supply store in northern illinois to find the. Ugh. Tomorrow is is first real day where he plays on the playground before school and then walks into the building with his class. We'll see if I can hold it together.

The other big event for tomorrow is that Kate gets to ride her bike to school. Shannah and I sat the girls, Kate and Alannah, down and had a discussion on rules and routes offering them several scenarios asking how they would react. The main rule is that they must always stay together, no exceptions. They are both so very excited at this little taste of freedom. Plus, it will make our little school bus much less crowded during the nice weather. And as Kate pointed out, if we have a winter like we did last year, they may be able to ride all year long. Ha.

So, that's the wrap up on the big day. I think everyone, including myself, was ready to get back into the routine. Now the next question is how Peter will like being home with me alone. I know that I am certainly not as much fun as either of the other kids. :)

I hope you are well, and we hope to see you soon. Here are the pics from today.