Back to School, Back to School

I can hardly believe it, but summer is over! The kids went back to school yesterday. No more staying up late and sleeping in. No more cake for breakfast. It's time to get serious.

Little Miss Molly is in FIRST grade. She was so excited to go back to school. Her teacher is Mrs. Macaulay and is very nice. Molly was really happy to get her own desk. In Kindergarten you only get a table. Today, she took a whole bunch of extra supplies to school, "you know, just in case a crayon breaks or something...." She had scotch tape, a stapler, a calculator (she's really advanced in math), markers, colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, two extra boxes of crayons (they break REALLY easily) a HUGE eraser (thanks, Ashley) and probably some other things. I noticed them in her desk while at the First Grade Parents Night tonight and asked the teacher if she should have them. I brought them all home. So my child likes to be prepared - that's a good thing. I also learned at Parent Night that she's only allowed to wear footwear appropriate for PE except for on Friday. This could be a problem. Molly is pretty much the six year old version of Emelda Marcos. She has quite a variety of shoes, but very few are "appropriate for PE." Guess we're going shopping for tennis shoes.

Anyway, she's so stinkin' cute. She has this really big, ROLLING backpack with matching lunch box. It's bigger than she is. She's getting the hang of it though. It doesn't flip over nearly as often on the second day. Molly has her clothes picked out for the rest of the week, knows when she's buying school lunch and taking home lunch and finished the whole week's homework on Monday. She's totally into it.

Will is now in fourth grade and has Ms. Young (fitting name) for his teacher. I haven't been to Fourth Grade Parent Night (it's on Thursday), so I don't have many personal observations yet. He, too knows what days he's buying school lunch but would be pretty happy wearing the same thing every day. He's getting right on the homework, which is great. Hopefully it's not a "first two days of school excitement" thing. He only has one person in his class from last year, but told me today there was a new kid (already?) who was very polite. He said things like, "May I take the rest of my lunch home?" Sounds like he moved in from another planet. Ms. Young, can Will sit next to him?

Lucy started her last year of middle school - eighth grade. She's had her schedule changed several times. Mostly to accomodate her desire to have as many classes as possible with Megan. Now she has at least four with her. She's taking as many honors classes as possible, so she has a pretty rigorous schedule. Today was the second day of school and I've already been there twice. Nice. So far all her teachers are really nice. She's anxiously awaiting the arrival of her new Vera Bradley messenger bag which she saw in Pittsburg, but we didn't get there, and they don't have anywhere in Dallas, so we ordered from the store in Pittsburg, to match her lunchbox. In the meantime, as embarrassing as it may be, she's using last years backpack. Horrors.

I am surviving the loneliness and sense of loss I feel with the kids gone all day. I manage to fill my time with little, mundane tasks. Actually things are so busy, the day flies by. But so far I haven't forgotten to pick them up. Two days in a row, YESSSSS!