A Bouquet of Newly Sharpened Pencils . . .

I love the line from "You've Got Mail" that Meg Ryan says about the first day of school making her want to send someone a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils. I love this time of year! It makes me think of brand-new mary janes, freshly pleated plaid skirts, and cool breezes blowing through red, yellow and orange leaves. Not exactly what you get on the first day of school in TX. Instead you get 105 degree heat, dead grass, and flushed faces as you walk home in a sauna. You try to find the lightest-weight clothes you can without sending your kids to school in bathing suits. This time of year always makes me homesick for New England. Someday, when the kids are grown and we actually have some money to spare, Rob and I will rent a house in Maine for the month of September every year :) In the meantime, I will turn down the temps on my a/c and make homemade bread and soup, even if it's still 105 outside :)

In our school district, the teachers start back on a Monday and the kids start Tuesday. We have meet the teacher night the day before the kids go back. Beth (kindergarten) got Mrs. Butley (who is from the Czech Republic), Kylie (2nd grade) got Mrs. Brooks, and Megan (4th grade) got Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Cantrell. We don't know much about any of them, except that Kylie's teacher just got awarded teacher of the year for last year :)

We let each of the kids pick one activity to do each fall and spring. Kylie, of course, picked soccer. She got into the same team as last spring and is very excited about playing goalie again! Her practices started several weeks ago and her first game is this Saturday. We find our role at this point is to pour water down her throat about every minute and a half and pour it over her head when she gets hot.

Megan asked if she could pass on any paid activity this fall in favor of sewing lessons from me, so we'll be starting with that soon.

Jack JUST missed the cutoff for soccer this fall and we couldn't find much that we thought he would really enjoy, so I'll be taking him somewhere special (like a pool or park or the jump zone) once a week instead.

Beth was adamant about wanting to take dance lessons. We looked and looked and couldn't find anything we could afford (dance lessons are EXPENSIVE!). Then a friend of mine announced that she was starting dance lessons :) It's half the price of everywhere else and the costumes for the recitals will be inexpensive as well :) Beth started yesterday. She decided on pink ballet slippers and was so excited to finally get to go to class! She got up Monday morning and was dressed for ballet by 9am . . . her class started at 4:15pm.

Beth waiting for her class to start ~

Waiting outside the classroom for the previous class to get out - note that Jack is holding his "magic bow and arrow" (the arrow is invisible), which he insisted on taking to ballet ~


As Meet the Teacher night was immediately after ballet class, we picked up pizza while Beth was at ballet. There was a Domino's across the street and not only could I order online and set the pick up time, but they had a drive thru, so I didn't even have to get out of the car to pick it up!

This morning we all got up early (except Jack, who decided to sleep in). Learning from past experience, we picked out clothes, packed backpacks (we dropped their school supplies off at Meet the Teacher night), and packed lunches the night before, so the morning was relatively calm. Beth had picked out a different dress, which she tried to put on with the zipper zipped up, and got stuck in it. After I extracted her, she refused to wear it, and picked out her purple dress instead, which I thought was appropriate as it's her favorite outfit. Megan and Beth got their hair braided. Kylie had hers cut off the night before as she keeps chewing on it.



I thought it would be nice to go back to sleep after the three older girls and Rob left, but Jack and Eva disagreed with me, so I paid bills instead. Then the three of us went to Costco. Jack was Buzz Lightyear today, complete with mismatching shoes (one flip flop and one croc). I thought Eva would have a really hard time with the older girls gone, but she had a lot of fun with Jack and the two of them laughed and talked all the way to Costco. We picked up lunch at Costco and went and ate with Rob. By the time we got home and unloaded all the groceries, it was time to pick up the girls at school. Our day went by so fast!