Catching up: School Starts

I'm a few weeks late on this post.  And a few months late on all the other posts that I kept thinking to/meaning to/wanting to/should have put up.  But, no matter, I've got to get started somewhere.  So, even though I ended summer kicking and screaming inside, here's how the kids started off the school year.

 

Max started 4th grade, which means that now not only has he moved to the second floor of the school, but he's clearly too old to wear the specially-color-coded-first-day-of-school identification-note pinned to his shirt. That, and I got to witness some new level of personal confidence when we went to back-to-school-night and he walked down the hall greeting students with high-fives and fist-bumps.  I kept waiting for him to tell me that I really needed to walk several paces behind him so as to not be identified as his mother.  

Olivia started 1st grade, so we felt that we better graduate her to a flower-bow clearly too mature for a kindergartener.   She also gets up in the morning without hassle, practices the piano without complaint, has been very intent about doing her homework, and, so far, is a crackerjack speller when it comes to those new word-wall words.  I think I love first grade.  Or else her teacher is actually Mary Poppins. 

They have a new bus driver this year. 

Summed up, it means that they went from this:

to this:

At first it was bemusing; now, not so much.  

Anyway, here's the group at the bus stop (plus Isabel).   

Ok, only 9 more months until summer comes again.