Back-to-School Mode

In May I couldn't believe the school year was over so soon. Now I can't believe our summer is over already. The kids go back to school in a week! Matthew starts second grade and is surprisingly excited about it. Elizabeth is looking forward to her last year of elementary school. We've been busy getting lunchboxes, uniform shirts, water bottles, and haircuts. It's such a process! 

I've also comfortably fallen back into my role as PTO secretary. I guess I missed it. Since we've come home from vacation, I've worked hard at carefully and thoughtfully crafting a flier, a teacher favorites form, and some other stuff. It's good to use my noggin, and it's good to use it on something I care about so much, I suppose. I just need to remember to not lose my noggin this time around. 

I'm glad my kids aren't terribly nervous or anxious about the start of the year. I used to always get that way, but they seem to enjoy their school and their friends and I'm grateful for that. I was looking through some first day of school photos over the years today.

Here's Elizabeth starting kindergarten in July of 2009. I've since learned to remove all promotional materials from the front door before taking these kinds of photos.

Here she is at the start of first grade. Man! What is up with me and terrible backgrounds? There's a three-year old Matthew, too! 

Elizabeth and her friends Lauren and Nina looked a little nervous on the first day of second grade. 

Third grade started off well in 2011. Here she is with Iris and Nina.

Matthew started kindergarten when Elizabeth went to fourth grade. There were some big changes at the school that year, too. The most obvious was uniforms. 

The first day of fifth and first grades, I had a new camera and snapped lots of shots.

So now we wait until Monday for this year's first day of school photos. I hope second and sixth grades go well for them and all of us. I've heard from friends that this could be a hard year for us as parents. The transition to junior high is not an easy one, but before we even think about that we have to get through all the emotional "lasts." This will be her last first day of school there and that's sad to think about. She's really enjoyed her time there so far and I'm thankful for these six and, hopefully seven, happy years of school.

I remember her first day of kindergarten. She was so excited, and I was so overwhelmed. Buses, cars, big kids, teachers with stop signs and whistles--we were so not at preschool anymore. My baby was starting school for real! In addition to all the photos above, I found this video taken on that day. She's so small, but notice how she almost plows down the kids in front of her so she can get into that classroom already. You also hear a baby Matthew crying and my voice quiver when I say goodbye to her. She's going to be just fine, but I'm already crying over the start of sixth grade.