The First Day of School - 2013

 Today was the first day of school!  Wow - we had some nervous little ones this morning!  A new school, new kids, and a new routine all added up to very little eaten for breakfast and very few words spoken all morning - except by me. "Do you have your shoes? Teeth brushed? Backpack?  GET IN THE CAR!!!!" 
We aren't within walking distance anymore and there is no bus from this area to the school so I get to drive them - it'll be three times a day once Aoife starts!  I don't really see this being much of a problem.  Once I start work up again, I'm going to be out doing workshops most mornings anyway and I'll just pick Aoife up on the way to get Declan from hourly care.
Once we got to the school we went inside and it was a MAD HOUSE!  People everywhere and no one knew where they were supposed to be.  Also since very few soldiers are deployed right now, most kids had both parents with them.  We managed to find the table that Aidan is supposed to wait at with his class until the teacher comes and gets them.  I snapped this picture as he sat down and within seconds he was up and walking to class! 

 The Kindergarten and 1st grade wait in the gym so after Aidan left I took Emmy to go stand in her line.  She really wanted me to walk with her to class so Aoife, Declan and I waited and walked down to the 1st grade pod with her class.  I didn't go through the door to the pod - I knew that was something she needed to do alone.  For Emmy, the anticipation is always worse than the reality.  Aoife was really sad to have Emmy go - she said she missed Emmy all day.  It's another 2 weeks until Aoife starts school.  Hopefully I can keep her busy enough!

 After we came home Declan, Aoife and I walked down to the park and got a treat at Starbucks and played.  It was the first time that Declan has really played at the park.  He wasn't crawling well enough for a while and we've spent the past two weeks in swimming lessons without much time or energy to go to the park.  He tried the swing and LOVED it.  He crawled around and pulled up on the play area and got lots of love from all of the little kids at the park.  He was in heaven with all of the attention!

At the end of the day we drove back over to the car - loaded down with freshly baked peanut butter cookies and Nalgene bottles of milk.  We waited in the car rider line which turned out well since it was a bit rainy.  The kids were delivered to us - happy and exhausted!  Emmy made friends with the little girl who was standing next to her in line this morning.  She also had PE and played on the playground.  The best part of the day seemed to be organizing her desk space and putting together her pencil box with various school supplies.  Aidan made a friend too and also enjoyed the playground.  He brought home his planner, math book and reading book and had reading, spelling and math homework!  It looks like his teacher is going to keep them busy!!!
Everyone was tired at bedtime tonight.  They didn't even complain about going to bed at our normal bedtimes.  The girls had lights out at 7:15 and Aidan had lights out at 8:30 and was asleep by 8:31.  Declan seems to be the only one not sleeping well tonight - I'm pretty sure he's getting more teeth.  Hopefully we'll make it through the night OK - we'll be up bright and early again tomorrow!!