First Day of School

I was ready for a break after that week of not-so-awesome stuff.

Good thing it was Labor Day weekend.

We spent much of the weekend cooped up inside letting Katie recover from pneumonia.

You could tell the kids were ready to get back into the school routine.

Sometimes, there's TOO MUCH hanging out with your siblings.

Check out these notes....

The first one was hand delivered to Mikey.

These are posted on Katie's door.

At least she is polite about it in the last note.

By Monday the 1st, we were all ready to get out of the house.

So, we headed on out to a local park to get some sunshine.

(Katie's low on Vitamin D anyways)

Labor Day weekend marked the first time Ralph could visit places outside our house and yard.
His immunity to doggie diseases is at its highest and safest levels.

"I like to walk and sniff things."

"I love the water.  It is so wet and cold."

Watch out.  Wet (and sandy) puppy.

The next day it was time to start school.

Katie was first up.

Here are the neighborhood kids geared up and waiting for the school bus.

Ralph was in heaven.

So many kids.
So many people.
Can't stop tail from wagging.

Ralph has a lot in common with Dug.

"My name is Ralph. I have just met you and I love you."



Bye, Katie!
Have a great day!

~wave, wave~

And then, on Thursday, it was Mikey's turn.

He was optimistic about his first day in kindergarten.

He told me that it would be awesome and totally fun.

But, then the bus pulled up and his deameanor changed.

He got serious all of a sudden.

As if he was thinking, "It's really happening...."

The bus driver helped me turn Mikey around for this picture.

"Honey, your Mommy wants to take a picture...."

Yes.  I did follow him to school.

I had to go there anyways to distribute PTA flyers.

Really.  I did.

Anyways, the kids started getting off the bus.  Only two got off.

There were about four kids total on there.

The bus driver turned around and said,

"Ohhhh, honey, do you need help?"

It was Mikey.  The bus steps were a bit too steep and he asked the bus driver to give him a hand getting down.

He jumped out and gave me a very curt wave before lining up to wait for his teacher.

The bus driver was playing games with them and then pointed out a bug on the sidewalk.

Every kid standing there went to examine and poke at the bug.

Except Mikey.

He was very stoic.  Not smiling and certainly not bouncing with excitement to start his school career.

Afraid that I was making his nerves worse, I did not follow them into the classroom to take pictures when the teacher came out to greet them.

I told him I'd see him later at the bus stop after school and blew him a kiss.

He blew one back without making eye contact with me.

The kid I left at school was NOT the kid that jumped off the bus at the end of the day.

He was excited and happy.

He wouldn't give much info about his day except to say that it was, "Okay."

That night, as I was tucking him in to sleep, he told me about his entire day.

From the time he entered the classroom 'till the time he packed up to leave.

He told me about counting as high as he could go, reading "The Little Engine That Could", writing his name, getting into the wrong line after recess....sounded like he had a good time.

The first week of school was over.

Everyone survived.

Even Ralph, who gets totally depressed when everyone leaves and he's stuck with me all day.

We took advantage of the warm, sunny weather and headed over to a local park.

Ralph came too and ate and sniffed lots of stuff.

His usual routine.

Mikey rode his bike and both kids played on the playground and ran around.

Ahhhhhhh.

The Saturday afternoon nap.