Monday, August 28, 2006

First Day of School!

Last night, my family asked me what I have planned for the first day of school. I'm sure most moms who send all their kids to full day school for the first time have a great "first day of freedom" planned. I, however, responded with, "Well, I have a doctor's appointment!" All of them agreed that next year, for my first day of school I should schedule a dentist appointment - LOL!

We spent a better part of this weekend getting organized for school, getting school clothes laundered, teacher gifts chosen and cards written. I spent Saturday morning shopping for lunch boxes, shoes (forgot to get a pair for Katie - oops!), finishing up with school supplies and purchasing games and play doh for kindergarten. We are all exhausted, which likely won't bode well for my doctor's appointment this morning, but I definitely feel a sense of relief that it's over - at least this part.

Last night, the girls each had a bath, different bed times (which did not go over well at all for Em until she crashed on her pillow!), choose clothes for today... Kt, for the first time, is not overly excited about the start of school. In fact, I think she is slightly depressed about it. I'm hoping and praying that she will have a wonderful first day. Em is her usual fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants self. One minute she is "so excited" about kindergarten and the prospect of spending an entire year locked inside a building with her best friend, the next minute she declares that she never wants to go to school. She just wants to stay home and play!

I think our funniest moment today was when I announced at 8:30, while both my children were still eating, one not even dressed yet, no hair brushed, no shoes on, that we needed to hurry it up as the bus was coming at 8:50. Em stopped in her tracks and yelled, "I get to ride the bus???" We all busted out laughing. I'm quite certain we've been over this 100 times, but clearly the reality of the situation finally hit my happy-go-lucky child. What a day it will be for her!

For me, probably the saddest part about today is that I won't get to experience it with her. I don't necessarily want to be with her, I just want to watch, like through a hidden camera or something. The first day of school isn't meant to experienced by any parents! It's a special day for teachers and their students, but when I was teaching it was so fun to watch the expressions of my students on that first day, when they were all angels (this changes really quickly by the way!), and everything was new for them. It's such a pleasure to experience!

So, for me, well, I'll get to blog a little more, get my house organized for the first time since I had children (oh, wait, I don't think it's ever been organized!), I will be tutoring a high school student through his senior year a few hours a week and teaching 3 year olds at a Mother's Day Out program on Friday mornings. On top of that, I'm hoping to find a pool to join so I can fit in some swimming and I am planning to do the Parent Partners reading program that I did last year. I doubt I'll have a lot of free time, but it will be fun to do some of the things that I've always wanted to do but couldn't. T is being kind enough to not make me get a job for this first year at home. The last thing I want to do is squander any of this precious time!

Happy First Day of School to everyone!

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