Welcome back schedule ... I've missed you.

It seems that the first day of school came and went without too much trouble. The picture above describes pretty well how the kids approached this day. Well you can't please them all ... but one of out three is not too bad. Ha ha! Those faces are CLASSIC! After a way-too-fast summer of pools, parks, vacations, sleeping in, snow cones, BBQ's, staying up late, bike rides, friends, fireworks, tadpoles, and playing, playing, playing, the first day of school snuck right up on us. Don't get me wrong folks, I am definitely a summer kind of gal and I do love having the kids home and just "hanging out" with them, but let's be honest, even I was getting dizzy with all the chaos around here. So here we are, back to school, and we are ALL back on a schedule. Yeah!

I did manage to get one smiling picture from the boys (after a threat involving video games and a bribe involving cookies). I think they like school more than they will admit. They are just really invested in their "cool guy" image and as we all know, it's not cool to love school when you're in 4th and 5th grade and you're a boy. Too bad, so sad - YOU'RE GOING ANYWAY!

I love school. School is SO good for kids in SO many ways. I love the social interaction/experience and the respect for order, structure, and authority that comes from school. I love hearing about what they've learned and the new and creative ways their teachers present ideas and concepts. I love watching them grow in their self-confidence as they learn and understand new things. So that's my opinion. I love school. I love the bedtime. I love the time doing homework (most of the time - when I know how to do it!). I love eating breakfast together and making their lunches and watching them walk out the door and across the street to school. I love sitting on my porch to watch them walk home. I love being involved with our school and our teachers and being able to volunteer at the school with so many great friends I've made in our community. So as you can see, I LOVE summer, but I also LOVE school.

London was really excited to start the first grade. She loves her new teacher, Mrs. Frampton. Jackson's teacher is also named Mrs. Frampton. Apparently someone at the school thought that would be funny. Ha ha. Austin's teacher is Mrs. Wade who coincidentally is a friend of mine from junior high and high school and grew up in the stake I grew up in. So that's been fun! Everybody seems happy so far. We've really been blessed with great teachers at this school.

T.J. happily started his first day of preschool all excited to see his friends and Miss Jenny again. He loves school! So we're off on the right foot with this one. Of course, I recall Austin and Jackson loving preschool too. I'm not exactly sure where we lost it with those two. Oh well. Two out of four kids happy about school is not too bad if you ask me. One more year before T.J. is in kindergarten. Woah.