2013/2014 school year

 I blinked. And just like that, summer is gone. Ted started school Thursday, August 15. Sophie started today (Wednesday, August 21st). Last week we had meet the Kindergarten teacher night. meet the 2nd grade teacher night and a home visit from Sophie's teacher. The kids are riding the bus this year which has already proven to be most excellent. It gives me about a 15 minute buffer on either end of my work day which allows me to run by the post office, get gas, 10 minutes to myself at home or stop and get a sweet tea at McDonald's. And the best part? We're meeting all sorts of neighborhood people. It's really great! And the other great part? (Ok, there are 2) I do not have to sit in the horrible drop off and pick up line at school. Hallelujah!

About 2 weeks ago, we hit the "it's time to go back to school" period of the summer. They had had enough of each other and were really needing some structure. I was really needing a bedtime and some time to myself in the evenings.

The kids sat down to breakfast with wigs on this morning. So that's how we did first day of school pictures. (We waited for Sophie to start to do the actual photo shoot. Which then led to a forgotten lunch.) I think Ted can totally rock the mullet.

No more glasses for Ted. His eyes have improved enough to not need them. Originally when he got glasses 2 years ago, he was borderline needing them. But because of his headaches, the eye doctor suggested he go ahead and wear them. We later found out the headaches were actually caused by his arachnoid cyst. Last year his eyes were better than the previous year but he one eye didn't converge very well.  So we kept them. This year, his eyes are top notch. I'm slightly sad about it because he looked so cute in them. But he didn't wear them all summer, so I guess that's good.

Sophie was somewhat nervous about starting Kindergarten. Two weeks ago she cried about it one night in bed. Not one of those loud cries. Just tears running down her cheeks, silent cry kind of thing. But she got on that bus like a champ this morning. There are actually 4 kids at our bus stop that were in her class last year and 2 that are in her class again. That helps. So does having a big brother.

 Ted class of 2024

Sophie class of 2026

I think if I didn't have to go to work today, I would've really been sad to come home without Sophie. For the past 3 years she has been my sidekick. Even last year when she was in PreK 4 days a week and I went back to wrok, we still had Fridays together. Now, she has started her school career and will be in school for the next lot of years. Ben and I have a "date day" planned for Monday. We plan to use Mondays (the day I have off from work and a day he hopefully will take a 1/2 day since he works a lot of evenings and Sundays) as our dates. Then we don't have to pay for babysitters and can maybe even hit a matinee movie. Again, Hallelujah!

Here's to the 2013-2014 school year.