catching up

Hello! Remember me? Once again, this holding down a job thing seems to be kicking my butt! But I'm here now, with pictures of the adorable babies. Be glad.

Because of scheduling issues, Greg was not able to take all the girls to the first day of school.  Only one other time did this unfortunate event happen. All the other years, we've been lucky enough to have him off work on the first day of school.

No daddy on the first day of school means I'm in charge of the first day photos. Now I can take photos well enough, but that means I have to be extra organized and on time to have a moment to do that. Those of you who know me well, really well (or read well since I've told you before), know that being early is not my strong suit. Merely being on time is a huge challenge.

I think we did pretty well. Stephanie was not tardy the first day. Whew! For the record, she was only tardy twice last year. Uh, and once already this year. Yikes! I better clean up my act.

Stephanie and Heather were so excited to go back to school this year! Stephanie is in 7th grade and Heather is in 4th grade. Like every mom says, where has the time gone? Just look at them, all sassy and cute!

Stephanie is returning to the magnet school this year, which means uniforms for her. Well, uniform in a loose sense of the word. They actually call it student standard attire. A little more flexible. She chose a more casual outfit for the first day this year.

Stephanie had open house this past week. I love going to middle school open house. We go through her school day, going to each class. I'm liking all of her teachers so far. She is going to be starting work on a big semester project ~ a living museum. The kids will research someone from history, write a speech, then become that person for the living museum. I'm looking forward to that night.

Heather is still at school with me. When people find out that I've moved back to 4th grade, they ask if she will be in my class. Nope. She needs to be with other teachers during the day. We have mommy-school all the time. She needs another face during the day. Plus she absolutely adores her teacher & can't wait until she comes back from maternity leave.

Heather declared that she will be wearing more skirts and dresses this year. So far, she's kept to her pledge. I still have a few skirts to make that I promised her.

So far we are surviving this year. We are getting used to getting up at the crack of dawn, homework, lesson plans, more homework (Stephanie has lots), trying to go to bed early, grading papers, & getting presentably dressed every day again.

Just for fun, let's take a look back to the first day of school last year.