Rocky start but good outcome

Now that we are entering third grade, we are old hat at first days of school. He did wake up early and came into our room dressed and ready for the day! What a change from sleeping in all summer long. He was excited to tackle the day and see all his friends.

The little kids didn't feel the same way . . . they didn't want to lose their best buddy for the day. All day long they wanted to know when Max would be home!

The ever popular backpack photo.

This year is a bit different in the fashion, music and just general attitude. He is an eight year old who is influenced by older kids in the neighborhood, on sports teams and at camps he attended. We went to the mall last week for shoes and he really wanted to pick out some "fancy" t-shirts that weren't his usual sports teams. He asked to go into Aeropostale and he picked out some t-shirts, a hat and a lovely chain with a dog tag on it. I was proud of myself for keeping my lack of enthusiasm for the fake chain in check. He knows he can't wear it to school, so really it didn't do much harm. I am learning with the music choices to pick my battles for the ones I can't live with losing.

Here he is from the weekend with the new hat and he is feeling very stylish and cool.

I need to dig out the first day photos I have taken in front of this lamp post since pre-school. He is really getting tall!

I took a couple shots of our bus stop to use in the yearbook for school this year. It is a job I took on with a friend last year and lets just say . . . tons of work! This year I vow to keep up with it throughout the year so it won't be so much work in the last couple weeks.

I love this shot from oldest to the youngest kids. We have 6 Kindergarten kids on our street this year, three at our bus stop! What fun! The only problem today was the bus didn't really show up! It broke down earlier in the route and a new bus was sent. Not a great way to start the year. We ended up driving the kids and just as we were leaving the neighborhood with minutes until school started, the bus sped onto our street. Lets hope Friday the whole thing goes a little better. Yes you heard me, we had a day of school and now we have a day off for the Jewish holidays. Not sure why we didn't wait for Friday or Monday to be the first day . . .

Max is a rule follower and our house is actually its own bus stop. We often get lonely and go and hang with the neighbors a few doors down. Max always feels like he is breaking the rules and he didn't want to break them on this first day. Ellie and Sam always wait with him. I was waiting to get the shot of them waiting and the bus pulling onto the street, but this year that didn't happen.

True to form, we didn't get many details. Looking forward to chatty Ellie's school days and actually knowing what goes on. I did learn that - he likes his teacher, she is nice, lots of his favorite peeps are in his class and his favorite part of the day was learning that one of his best buddies, himself and the teacher are the only three Red Sox fans in a sea of Yankee loving New Yorkers. He is quite anxious to learn to write in cursive and is thrilled that they will learn slowly.

Have a great year Max - we are thrilled, proud and expecting you to try your best!

P.S. I started writing this post around 8:30 and Max was fast asleep . . . the first day of school is draining!