It's another year and another first day of school. This one is the beginning of many sad ones for me, I think, since Laney will be leaving us soon. We will not have another first day picture with all of our babies together. Life is getting ready to change a lot for our family.
My day began super early since I am teaching early morning seminary again this year. This year we are dividing the classes so that I am only teaching the kids from our ward. I think that it is going to be a really good seminary year. Everyone was super involved in our discussion, and it seems like our group gets along pretty well. First days always go pretty well in general, but today seemed especially good. Herman said that it helps that I have been teaching for a few years now, so I'm feeling more confident about what I am doing and I'm spending more time refining my teaching instead of fretting over unnecessary things. This year I lost Laney as a student, but I gained Spencer, so I have Savannah and him in class. I really like having my kids in my class. I feel like if everything goes to pot (which it rarely does ... but) at least I have a couple of students who will always think well of me. We are studying the Book of Mormon this year. I think that it will be a great year for all of us. The kids are super excited to study this book, and they feel a desire to stay up with the reading so they can be prepared for missions in the future. After all, this book is what makes us who we are as Mormons, so it would do us well to understand exactly what is in it, don't you think?
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| My EXCELLENT early morning seminary class! |
After seminary ended we had just enough time to fly home and take our obligatory first day of school picture. (See above). Everyone was already ready to go, even though the elementary schools don't start until 8:30. I love how excited kids are for the first day of school. There are just some things that imprint themselves on my memory, and those first day smiles are one of them.
This year, for the first time ever, Savannah drove to school. I can hardly believe it. What is crazy is how normal it seemed to me. The drive to the high school is horribly crazy since there is only one road that leads to the school. Add to that a bunch of fairly inexperienced drivers who THINK that they are excellent drivers, and you have a recipe for traffic disasters. Luckily, Savannah did just fine. Spencer gets to ride with her to school each day this year.
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| Savannah and Spencer heading off to the high school. |
This year Katie moves into the upper grade levels as she heads to the 6th Grade Center. Our district is completely insane when it comes to long term infrastructure planning, so they have a million different schools for everyone to go to. Instead of staying in one place for elementary, another for middle school, and another for the high school, they actually attend three elementary schools before heading to the middle and high schools. Crazy, in my opinion! (But after I posted this I got to thinking about my own experience growing up, and my town had three different schools for elementary school, so maybe I shouldn't be too harsh on my district. If only there was a better system for dropping and picking up kids, maybe I wouldn't be so moody about it). Katie's school is brand new, though, and the staff is wonderful, so we know that she'll have a great year.
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They wouldn't let us walk her to her class. (After all, she's a big girl now!)
But we did get a quick picture by the library. Isn't Katie getting super tall? |
With the big kids off to school, we were able to take a little break before heading over to the elementary schools to drop off Hyrum and JoJo. JoJo has the exact same teacher he had last year. It's a good thing that we like her so much.
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| Hyrum with Ms. Vergara |
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| JoJo with Ms. Sheriff. I'm not sure why he isn't smiling. |
Minsy didn't have to head to school until later in the morning since she is in the afternoon preschool class this year. Hurray! So Herman, Laney, Minsy, and I headed to Cracker Barrel for our traditional first day of school breakfast. Next year Laney will be gone. Hopefully Herman won't be putting on a workshop so he'll be around. Otherwise I might have to go it alone. Or I guess I could invite another mom to come with me. I guess I'd better work on my social skills so that I can work up the nerve to ask someone by then, right? I've got a year or two to get things together. Surely I'll figure things out by then.
I like a lot of our breakfast pictures, so bear with me as I put a few up here.
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| Here we all are! |
But finally the time to head to the bus stop arrived. This year Minsy is taking the bus to and from preschool. It is kind of a bum deal in some ways because she is the first to be picked up and the last to be dropped off, so she is on the bus for quite awhile. But she takes a nap as she rides, so it isn't horrible, and she really, really loves riding the bus. They only have four or five other kids on the bus with her, and there is an aide to help out, so it is really a luxurious ride compared to what the older kids have to endure.
Here's another spot where I have a bunch of pictures to share because I like them so much.
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| My oldest and my youngest together, waiting in the shade. |
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Now minus Laney and plus Dad. I love that Minsy is doing
great at smiling for pictures now. She wouldn't do that
when we first adopted her. |
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| Isn't that smile darling? |
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| I love this picture of Minsy waiting. |
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| The bus finally arrives. |
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| And off they go ... |
Another successful beginning to the school year. I am grateful to have kids who love learning, and I am grateful to live in a community with a good school district. I think it'll be a great year. I'm going to try to focus on enjoying the last few days I have with Laney at home before she heads to college in the next few weeks. Life goes so, so fast!
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