First Day of School!

Actually, we are into the second week of school, but who's counting?

Okay, so I know this isn't actually a particularly flattering picture, but it really sums up the first day of school for me. It doesn't matter if the kids lay the clothes out the night before, carefully label the new school supplies and place them neatly in individual bags to carry to their teachers, purchase lunch foods for the entire week, and have the car loaded and ready to roll. The first day of school always has that crazy mixture of anticipation, fear of the unknown, unbridled energy, and chaos! Even when you are a mommy. That first morning everyone was doing their thing and everything was proceeding ahead of schedule, and yet I still made that face!

As I reflect back to last week I can't help but contrast the experience with last year's. We had just arrived in Raleigh. We were living in a hotel that was almost half an hour from the school. We were still on West Coast time. And we didn't know a soul. Ugh. I think that was probably the worst day of my life. You can gather bushels of information on the Internet about communities and schools, but when push comes to shove, there is no substitute for knowing the school and the teachers and the administrators.

What a difference a year makes!

It is hard to see in the picture (you can just make out the bracelet on Rachel's arm) but they are wearing their special bracelets. As each of the girls started kindergarten I gave them a charm bracelet. Each year I add another charm (or two) to the bracelet. Each of the charms represents something special about their personality. Since things were so nutty last year I deferred Abby and Emily's bracelet until this year. The bracelets were extra special this year.

Everybody is loaded into the bus, and ready to roll!