First Day of School '15

Katelyn, 6th grade

Carter, 4th grade

Aidan, 1st grade



I love these kiddos so much!! I can't believe another school year is here. This year we'll have four kids at the elementary school. Zach starts kindergarten on Thursday, so I'll have to take another round of pictures then. This is Katie's last year of elementary, which makes me sad. Junior high is so difficult, and I just want her to stay young and innocent. Carter is not at all excited for school this year. He's so smart, but he hates school and homework. If it weren't for lunch time with his friends and recess when he can play soccer, I wouldn't be able to get him to school at all. Aidan is very anxious about school, but that's normal for him. I can't recall a day last year when he didn't have anxiety for some reason. I hope that gets better with age.

I came down with a stomach virus yesterday, which got really bad last night. That made getting backpacks ready and clothes laid out a challenge. We just got back from a trip to Seattle and I didn't get laundry done yesterday, so I had to throw in a load last night. I made the mistake of washing Katie's new rayon jumpsuit, which I realized this morning isn't supposed to go in the dryer. So while the boys' clothes took about 5 minutes to dry, I spent quite a while with a warm iron working on the jumpsuit and then put it on the rack in the dryer. It actually turned out dry enough to wear and didn't shrink. Because of all of this, our morning was just as rushed as I was hoping it wouldn't be. It doesn't help that school starts at 8:30 instead of 9 this year. Katie and Carter decided at the last minute to take lunch from home, so I scrambled to make 3 lunches instead of the one I had planned on. (And of course I threw in some oreos with a note from mom.) I'm going to have the boys shower in the morning this year, so I got them up a little bit early. I consider it a miracle that the kids were all freshly showered, dressed in clean clothes, lunches and all necessary school supplies packed, and had smiles on their faces for pictures. My goal this year is to try my best not to yell in the morning so that the kids get off to school with a peaceful, happy start. It's so hard with all of the anxiety about going to school, fits that get thrown, things remembered at the last minute........I will do better this year. We'll prepare as much as we can at night, then I just need to remind myself all morning to keep my cool.

We missed the bus. I drove the kids down to the bus stop because we were running late, and we sat in the car and waited for a few minutes. We never saw the bus, so I ended up driving the kids to school. I'm pretty sure we saw their bus on our way, so I think it was running late. Hopefully we'll catch it tomorrow. Last year the bus ride was one hour to school, and one hour home. We live a mile and a half from school, so the kids could have walked home faster. I ended up dropping them off every morning and picking them up from school almost every day. This year they changed the route, so the kids should get off of the bus at 3:10. I hope it really works out that way - it would be nice to not fight the afterschool pickup line every day.

Anyway, the kids are all safe in their classrooms and I'm home with Xander, and Zach will be home for 3 more days before he starts kindergarten. We were supposed to go for a walk with friends this morning, but remember the part about the stomach virus? I'm lucky I was able to drag myself through the morning! We got home from dropping off the kids and as I was pouring milk in the little boys' Malt-O-Meal I dropped the full gallon on the floor (I'm pretty weak and shaky). So I got to clean up a river/lake of milk and the splashes across the entire floor and on the walls and cabinets. Now would be the time to snuggle up on the couch with the boys and cartoons. Unfortunately, the dog got sick all over the family room rug in the night. So I'm going to drag the carpet cleaner out and work on that for a few hours. At least the baby will nap this afternoon. Wish me luck until then!

* I apologize for such a detailed description of our morning. It's more for me than anything. I want to remember what life was like with all these kids when they're grown up and my memory is like swiss cheese! *