So I’m a week late on this, BUT since all my ‘Toban and ‘Sotan friends just put their preciouses on the school bus today, I figure it’s still timely. My contribution to the back-to-school-pic barrage:

(How come you can actually see the kids in everyone else’s pics instead of an overwhelming amount of gray siding? Oh yeah…cuz I’m behind the camera on these ones….)

One thing my home peeps don’t have yet is a whole week’s worth of first impressions. First day is too scary and overwhelming to really form an opinion, but one week? Eh, you can get a pretty good sense of how the year will go.

And oooo, my spidey senses are tingling on this one! I think it’s gonna be a good year!

The Girl has classes she LOVES. She is a TA in metalshop (LOL) and Biology (double LOL) and is already coming home with tales of schooling the youngsters in sharp object safety. She also has English (she had to read Unbroken over the summer, so I have high hopes for the group discussion), Chemistry, Mindfulness and Yoga (oh Portland!), Geometry, and History. A bunch of it is stuff she covered in Minnesota (#Edinaacademicinsanityftw) so she’s off to a nice, easy start.

The Boy is equally well-positioned. He informed me that now that he is in 8th grade, he is actually going to try (since, apparently, marks count starting in freshman year, so he wants to get a year’s practice in). Fine by me! He’s got the usual roster of Math, English, Science, History, and Woodshop. Oh and choir! Oh I *do* love choir concerts!!

Both kids have slid pretty much effortlessly back into the school routine. “Pretty much” because we had our standard first-week meltdowns last week, but that’s par for the course. It also may have been somewhat effortless because I let them skip school on Friday, so they didn’t actually get a full week.

(I know! Bad parent! But my BFF cousin and her daughters came into town on Thursday and the first words out of those dang kids’ mouths was “can The Girl and The Boy skip school tomorrow? PLEEEEEEEEEASE.” I am no match for second-cousin-once-removed pleas.)

So, we’ve had a total of five days and each one has been 5/5. Onwards, friends!