Heigh -Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's Back to School We Go

We started back to school yesterday. Before we could go, the kids and I spent a very busy Tuesday getting ready. We started by washing and vacuuming my car. It's been cleaner, but it's also been much, much, much dirtier!

I also (with Andrew's help) cleaned the house from top to bottom. We packed backpacks and lunches, did laundry, made it past school, the YMCA, the counselor and dance class registration. We also managed to bake zucchini bread. It's amazing to me that after a day like that, I was still too worked up to sleep on the night before school started!

Aidan is so incredibly excited to be in first grade. He woke up and said, "Sophie, do you know what grade I'm in today? First grade!". Andrew was a little less excited to be in second grade, but he likes his teacher and has a lot of friends in his class so I think it will be fine.


Sophie couldn't wait to get back to the babysitter's. She loves Meme and missed her friends so much this summer. I was also glad to be back - I'm one of those nuts that prefers the school year to the summer. Not that I don't like a break as much as the next guy, but I just adore school. Fall is my favorite season. I like having a routine, I love working with my students and parents, and I really love my coworkers. I'm also excited about a new challenge this year. I'm still teaching first grade the majority of the day, but my schedule has also been freed up a little each day to serve as the school's reading coach. We're still working out what all that will entail, but I'm looking forward to it.

When we got home on the first day, we were met by the mail lady with a package from Insight to upgrade the tv in our bedroom. Tony started installing it and I got a wild hair idea to move the furniture around. Tony indulged me, and it looks great if I do say so myself. Not exactly how I planned to end the first day of school, but it worked out well!

So, here are three videos from Sophie. They are a little tedious if you don't like cute two year olds, but I have enough family members who follow the blog that I thought they would be appreciated. If you're not a fan of parents gushing over their toddlers, you might want to skip the three videos - she's cute, but only three videos cute if you have a vested interest.

The first one is her talking about the Wizard of Oz. She loves the "squarecrow" and for some reason thought Dorothy had blue shoes, but other than that it's okay.

This is Sophie's interpretation of the Jitterbug. Too bad I used the shorter version from the latest Broadway run - she was really getting into it.




Here's Sophie in Munchkinland. She's starting out hunkered down because she's hiding from Glenda in her "pod" on stage. My favorite parts are the two times she gets mad at Aidan who was trying to dance behind me and upstage her.