First day of school

 Twas the night before school, when all through the house, the backpacks were packed and busting at the seams with school supplies. 

The night before Addie and Ben slept over at Graham's house, so by Sunday night they were in bed and asleep by 6:30pm! Monday morning they were up bright and early at about 6:50am, and they were roaring to go!

 Sunday night I had a mini-Mommy-fail when I went to look at the clothes we had bought for the kids. None of them screamed "first day of school outfit" so once my little cherubs were in bed, I went out to shop and found some better choices. No too shabby, right? I didn't even try to color coordinate them, I swear. I actually gave Addie five options on what to wear and this is what we chose. Look at Ben's chin--that's the now dried scab from his face plant on the obstacle course. So all of his school pictures look like this. 

 Something about the dreary rainy weather made the flash on my camera interact with their eyes.  I'm not kidding, every other picture I said, "you've got drunk eyes." "Now you've got drunk eyes." and so on. Seriously. Look.

 Look.

 See?

 For real.

 A little better (and there you can see the new paint and trim color we did in the dining room!)

 Solos were fine, but the duo shots were all kinds of messed up eyes!

 Right?

 This was a time when Addie was giving Ben a kiss. 

 Addie had chosen to have her hair braided after bath time, to give the waves. She really wanted to crimp it, but I told her the braids would be better for the first day. I am quite happy with it!

 With their backpacks on.

 Doing the "backpack train" clearly a first day of school custom.

 Ben wanted to do his "pose." Don't mess with him! And sorry I didn't close the front door, because you can see the buckets full of stuff that we're getting together for the yard sale in a week. Oops.

 Cool second grader. 

 Awesome kindergartner

 Fun pose!

 And the ceremonial kindergarten split. I don't know either.

 By the time it was time for drop off, the rain was starting to sprinkle.

 Addie couldn't stop smiling. Ben wanted to get out of the rain.

 Here he comes into classroom 1!

 Once we dropped Ben off, I walked Addie down to her room.

 There was a quick stop to chat with Mr. Farr the principal. She told him, "I was so bummed it was summer and we didn't have school."  Right. Like lounging in Jamaica was punishment.

 Beaming with pride as she walked into her classroom 102.

 All settled in! 

 I stopped back by Ben's class to take some pictures. Ben didn't know I was there...

 until the flash went off and he smiled. 

 There he is in the back right.  His first assignment was to draw a self portrait. One of my favorite things about Benjamin and his self-image is he always draws himself with bright red hair.  Ms. Melgarejo used Ben's picture as an example to the little boy at his table.  It was cute to see. 

As I left I took this very artistic picture. It was raining and I wanted a picture looking in on him.

When I picked them up that afternoon, Ms. Melgarejo said "Great first day. I love a man who I know I can count on." Overall I think it will be a great year.  The kids think the coolest part is that Addie's second grade class has recess with the two kindergarten classes! So they are together for recess. Addie's class eats lunch with the fourth grade. Ben eats with the third grade. I don't get it, but it works I guess!