Another new school year

School started up again this morning and the kids were all excited to go back. Alaina spent all of yesterday saying "I can't WAIT for tomorrow!" Allison, as always, was perhaps a bit apprehensive. Ian was just glad to be getting back to school so he could hang out with friends. Unfortunately, he didn't get to do a lot of that this summer. Here are pictures of the kids before they left for school. I think this is the first year I didn't get all the school goers in a photo together! Last year, I made Ian get up that early to take the group picture . . .but then it was a LONG wait until he actually had to be at school. He's playing the baritone for the second year -- he's gotta lug that thing back and forth to school everyday. My next door neighbor told me this morning she wished he reconsider riding a bike to school with her daughter and the girl across the street. I think the days of him wanting to go to school with them are gone -- at least for now! tehehe . . .but told the neighbor there was no way Ian could balance that honkin' thing on a bike!



The girls were juggling backpacks, paint cans, and in Alaina's case, lunchboxes. We always buy something off the teachers' wishlists, if they have them posted, to bring in the first day of school, so Alaina's backpack was full of baby wipes. She was a trooper and carried it all in herself!



Each year, we bring the teachers a first day of school gift. For at least the past 5 years, it's been a decorated paint can. I had a bit of a hard time figuring how to make one look more manly this year, as we have our first male (elementary school) teacher. I fill them with whatever I can find that I either remember always running out of when I was a teacher or know might be something they'd need/want. This year's cans had: 2 packages of "teacher" stickers, a magnetic notepad, a calculator, rubber bands/various clips, a set of dry erase markers, post-it notes, hand sanitizer, some sharpies, and Hersheys Hugs and Kisses. I usually try to decorate them to match the teacher's rooms (as we go the Friday before school starts to meet the teachers), but this year, there wasn't any obvious theme for either teacher's room. So my goal for Alaina's teacher was for it not to look girly, and noticed Allison's teacher had bright colored curtains on her windows, so I went bright with her. Here's what I ended up with:



It's a little lonely around here. . . definitely a lot less noise! However, I am free to go shopping and out to lunch with my sister who ended up with the day off.