Today was the first day of Kindergarten for Caroline and First Grade for Evan and all-day-Mommy-all-to-himself for Lincoln. Linc celebrated by getting up at 4:30 am and not taking a real nap ALL DAY. Luckily because he was the old kid I had to take care of I put my babywearing skillz to use and wore him all day. It means I blew my 10,000 step goal on FitBit out of the water PLUS my house is starting to look more like a place people would want to live and less like a nuclear bomb exploded. I have hopes that in a month I might get to the bottom of the Summer Crap Piles and start putting away the I’m Not Really Sure Where This Goes Things and then MAYBE I can add some Adorable Vintage Decorative Knicknacks That Look Good In Instagram Photos.

The morning bus came almost on time, which was great because I didn’t have to spend 45 minutes worrying I had somehow missed it or debating driving the kids to school myself. I was busy talking to the bus driver and forgot to a) take bus pictures and b) hug the kids goodbye but they cared exactly zero percent. Both report they had great days and Caroline’s report was backed up by a super short phone call from her teacher telling me she was great. Caroline also reports she has a new best friend named Bella. Evan reports “Mom I was good, NOW can I use the iPad?” Since I didn’t get a call to the contrary, I allowed it.

I’m really excited about this school year FOR them. Evan’s teacher is doing something called The Responsive Classroom, which sounds like exactly the kind of emotional and structured culture that he really responds to. As long as we can stay on top of his at-home reading he should have a great 1st grade year. Caroline cannot get enough of her letters and her desire to write is incredible, so I expect she will be very sad when she wakes up on Saturday and DOESN’T get to go to school.

These are from last night at Open House and this morning before school (all taken with my rented wide-angle lens which is super fun):