First day of School 2010-2011

It is that amazing day today. All FOUR children will be in school at the same time and at the same school... well for the next two years then Child #1 will shift to 6th grade at Middle School.

HOLY SNIKIES!!!!

How did I suddenly have four children in elementary school? How did this happen? Where did all the time go? Wasn't my oldest just starting school the other day? Heck wasn't my youngest just born a couple of months ago?

What?... that was over 4 years ago? GET OUT!!! No it wasn't. It wasn't. I deny that statement. Can't possibly be true... can it?

So I couldn't get to sleep last night, too many things running through my head. Not to mention that big ole pile of paperwork from Meet the Teachers night that I had to fill out. Talk about getting writers cramp... filling out school district info in QUADRUPLICATE.

Blargh!! My poor widdle hand was sore.

Child #1 set her alarm apparently at 6 AM (WTF?!?) and she came in and woke The Hubby up around 6:25AM (5 minutes before my alarm went off) to let him know it was time to get ready for school. I got up and went into the boys room to wake up Child #2 and #3. The Hubby for some unknown reason decided to wake Child #4 up. Why? Neither of us has any clue. Her class doesn't start until 11:45 AM and she certainly didn't need to be getting up at 6:30 AM.

Everyone got dressed and was downstairs for breakfast. I made breakfast and packed lunches for everyone to take to school.


So after a tasty breakfast of toasted bagels, apple slices, oatmeal and fruit smoothies we loaded everyone up and headed up to the school. We parked on the backside and walked up. It was so weird it was about 7:30AM and there weren't very many cars around, the car line was empty and there just didn't seem to be hardly anyone around.

School starts at 7:40AM and it is usually a mad house of cars lined up to drop off kids. There weren't very many of the school safeties manning the dropoff spots either. It was just kind of weird.



Child #1 turned and went off down the main corridor through the big double doors to her new area of school. All the 4th and 5th grade classes are on the other side of the school with the gym and cafeteria between them and the rest of the school.

So off she went strolling down the hallway with her backpack slung on her shoulder... like a teenager heading off to High School or something.

Very very scary.

I'm not ready for her to grow up so fast.

We walked the boys to their classes. The halls still weren't very full, there were only 6 other kids in Child #3's class. It was like everyone forgot to come to school or something. Just very weird.

Child #2 almost walked into his old classroom (old habits) but then slide right into the groove of the morning routine... drop lunch box into the basket, remove papers from backpack, hang up the backpack on the hook... go sit down in at the table. He was even helping some of the other kids. Hopefully that will be something he can do though out the year, be a leader and help some of the other kids out.

Once the boys were in their classes we headed back to the house with Child #4. I went back to sleep for a while and Hubby and Child #4 hung out and enjoyed the quiet morning together for a while.

Then it was time for Child #4 to head to school. She was excited but also nervous. She was trying to hide the fact that she was a little nervous.

It was a mad house in the front hallway with all the parents milling around waiting to drop off their kids. They were so loud and noisy just milling all over the place.

One of the first things it said in the packet of papers we received on Meet the Teacher night was that the first day of school we were to take the kids back to the classroom then everyday after that we would meet her in the front hallway before class. NONE of the other parents were following the directions. So we just walked on in and went straight back to the classroom... the rest of them started to follow a few minutes later.


Child #4 was intently watching everything that was going on in the class.

Again, I think all the parents milling all over the place was making her nervous, I noticed quite a few of the other kids seems to feel the same way. Finally it was time to say our goodbyes and let the class get started.

We walked up to the front hallway, I wanted to wait to get a picture of the "Duck line" when they all heading over to the cafeteria in a few minutes. It took over 20+ minutes for the class to come out because I'd say at least 75% of the parents wouldn't leave the classroom. I get how hard it can be to leave your child but come on people, they tell you over and over again that it is better to do a quick goodbye instead of standing around getting in the way of the class getting started.


Finally the class was able to leave and head to the cafeteria for lunch. Of course I didn't get a very good picture of Child #4 walking in the duck line. But she seems to be perfectly happy and didn't seem to be upset about being there.

The Hubby and I decided to go and have lunch. It was nice. We had gyros which were quite tasty. Then because we were so full we went back to the house and took a nap. LOL! It was a totally funky day... rush rush to get the kids to school... slow quiet time... rush rush to get #4 to school... lunch... slow quiet time nap... go to pick up the kids and wait in a 20+ minute barely moving car line after the release time. Everyone was there to pick up their kids it seemed like. The car line went almost 1.5 blocks up the next street... it was totally insane. It is rarely more than a couple of cars past the entrance/exit into the school parking lot but it was down the block, around the corner and down the other block. INSANE!