1st Day of School

Friday was Sophia and Anna's first day of school.  It went pretty much as I had anticipated.  They got up and were dressed and fed in record time.  We took the traditional pictures out front and then hopped in the car to head to school.  While they are bus riders, I still think it's fun to drive them to school on the first day.

We took the annual picture outside the school in front of the sign (thanks Principal Hoy). 

By this time Sophia was getting tired of the pictures and was less than thrilled.  As we were walking down the hall Anna was getting more nervous.   She looked like she could cry at any minute.  That would be her first day eating lunch at school and she didn't know how to do it.  I promised her that none of the first graders knew about the lunch routine and the staff were going to spend time showing them what to do.  She did not feel better.  So we stopped at the end of the hall to say a little prayer for their day and their year.  Sophia said, "not another picture!"  Then we headed to the gym to drop the girls off in their classroom lines.  Sophia quickly said good bye and didn't want us to walk with her to her class.  Anna begged me not to leave her in the line alone.  So, we walked Anna off to her class at the appropriate time, hugged, kissed and watched another student tearfully hug the teacher.  It was going to be a long day in first grade! 

Then it hit me.  Freedom!  Running errands with 2 kids is dramatically easier than with 4.  I thought I'd celebrate that fact by going shopping with Sam and Isabella.  Some of the kids needed some new shoes so I was going to run over there and then go into any store I wanted.  Right.  By the 2nd store Sam had a meltdown.  He began crying "Anna, Anna, I need my Anna, where's Anna?"  Well buddy, you just dropped her off at the school.  I gave up.  Instead of doing some fun shopping, we went home.  Very sad. 

The kids played, ate, and napped. 

The girls came home from school and told me detail-by-detail all about their day.  Anna survived lunchtime.  They both liked their teachers and had some friends in their classes.  Good start to another school year!