Back to school

SCHOOL! We met Rose's teacher on Friday and Rose starts kindergarten with a half day on Monday the 29th. It goes: half day with half the class on Monday, then the other half of the class goes on Tuesday (so Rose has no school on Tuesday), then the whole class goes all day on Wednesday. It's supposed to be a gradual gentle introduction to school, but it doesn't seem very gradual to me. Oh well!

Jay's first day was Thursday, August 25th. He is in SECOND grade. Crazy. On the morning of the first day of school, I realized that I hadn't given Jay his back-to-school haircut yet, so I roped him into the bathroom and gave him a trim. The unplanned haircut plus a laborious shoe-tying session left us with about 2 minutes for some traditional first day pictures. In our time crunch, we had to sacrifice walking to school and drove the half mile instead, which turned out to be a nightmare. Apparently most of the parents forgot how to drive over the summer, because cars were all OVER the place and the tiny school parking lot was jammed. Parents actually parked IN the carpool LINE and left their vehicles unattended while they slowly ambled into the school with their kids. It was maddening! And so totally not allowed! We vowed to walk forevermore to avoid that potential ulcer.

Jay's class has 31 students in it (last year's class had 17) so he has two team teachers.They seem enthusiastic so far. While we were walking home in the blistering heat after Jay's first day of school, he was happy to inform me that he has five of his friends in his class this year. I guess with a class of 31, the odds of having people he already knew increased drastically!

R2D2 is back in business, double time with the lunchbox and backpack. 

 Normal face and excited face! Jay can't tie his shoes tight enough for a day at school so I'm trying to have him practice a few times each morning before I tighten his laces up for the long day ahead.

 All the sibs on Jay's first day. AMBER!

After we dropped Jay off at school, I suddenly felt the reality speeding towards us: this was one of my very last days with my two girls at home with me! I decided right then and there to make a day of it. We went to our favorite park in Grandview: Eastside Park. I've been taking my kids to this park for their whole lives. I still remember watching little one year old Jay slide backwards down the red slide over and over. We have lots of good memories at Eastside Park. We stayed for two hours on Thursday morning. I brought the camera and amused myself practicing my limited photography ideas in the tricky mixed lighting of bright sunshine and deep shade. It was a golden motherly moment, watching my girls play together and romp all over the wet grass at the park. We lingered and soaked it up. That afternoon while Amber took a nap, Rose and I snuggled up and watched Cinderella in the basement. It was a happy mother daughter day.

Such a big person in that little body.

Amber wasn't so sure about this old school metal slide at first, but after one ride she was hooked. They spent a solid half hour-plus going around and around, up and down, playing on this slide. 

 Bahaha.

Slow motion leg-squeaking rides down that metal slide. 

 Ah, the carefree grin of childhood. About to be cranked through the school system. Please let her keep that smile through to the other side of the school year!

 The cousins stopped by for the last 20 minutes we were at the park: five kids swinging in a row.

 School year, here we come!