First Day of School!!

So, the kids started school last Wednesday. They were all pretty excited to get to school, especially Josie. She is in 1st grade this year and is so excited for all of the fun things that will bring. In a lot of ways I am not ready for school to start. It seems like the summer has gone way too fast and for the most part I have enjoyed having the kids at home. I am not looking forward to homework, our busy, busy schedule and COLD weather. All of these things come when school starts. However, being home the last couple of days with just Kate has been really nice. The house has been so quiet (there has been absolutely NO fighting, I guess Kate and I don't really have much to fight about), we have gotten quite a bit of stuff done and it has been pretty relaxing, so I guess I am ready for school to start after all. The kids were up early and ready to start the first day of school. Here are some pictures that I took of them before they headed off. Don't they look cute in their new school clothes? Taylor looks SO old! I can't believe that he will be 12 on Sunday. Brenden, I swear, has grown 2 or 3 inches this summer, and look at my little girl, Josie. She is so big and ready for all day school!

Taylor is in 6th grade. Next year he will be in junior high. I am so glad to keep him in elementary school for one more year. He is excited to be the king of the school. He totally likes his new teacher, Mr. Andersen. I think they are going to have a GREAT year. Mr. Andersen loves sports, need I say more?????
Brenden is in 3rd grade and also has a fabulous teacher, Mrs. Paul. She loves to play games and plays the guitar in their class. Brenden totally loves that. He wants to learn to play the guitar really bad. I told him he has to take a few years of piano first so he starts piano lessons next month. He is excited to learn to write in cursive and to do multiplication and division. Oh, to be in 3rd grade again. I LOVED elementary school when I was there.
Here's our sweet Josie Mae. I have never seen a little girl get more excited about things than Josie does. She giggles and laughs and you can see her excitement just by looking at her. She is excited to go to school all day, eat school lunch and all of the other cool stuff you get to do in 1st grade. She has 2 teachers this year, Miss Berger and Mrs. Peterson. They are also fantastic teachers. I was really impressed with both of them when I met them at the open house. Kate is having the hardest time adjusting to school. She can hardly stand it that Josie is gone ALL day. She has asked me about ten times each day when we are going to pick up Josie from school. Poor girl. Good thing she starts preschool after Labor Day. She needs something to keep her busy!
The first day of school was definitely a success. The kids all came home happy and excited to tell me about their day. What a blessing it is to have them enjoy school. I'm sure it would be so hard if they didn't.