First day of school...

The first day of school arrived along with record heat! No one should have to go to school when it's 116 degrees!

Hallie was 100% excitement before school this morning. Steve made his signature pancakes. (His dream is to cook breakfast for his children in the mornings- unfortunately he's normally long gone for work by the time the kids eat breakfast!) After breakfast we took some pictures - which comes as a surprise, I'm sure! And then we played the waiting game until it was time to leave. We opted to take her to school instead of her riding the bus because I love the excitement of the school grounds the first day. I love watching Hallie interact with kids she hasn't seen since last school year and then the shyness that surfaces around the new kids or "new friends" as we kindly remind her.

She was more than ready and had no problem waving goodbye to us as she entered the school in boy's and girl's lines.

I was so excited to talk to her after school to hear all about the fun things she did. I think she came home with heat exhaustion because the buses took longer than usual to get out of the parking lot. She had been out in extreme heat for 40 minutes by the time she made it home. She laid on the couch as she carefully told me about her day. Towards the end, I could sense some disappointment in her voice. As I questioned her, I learned that she thought it was pretty lame that they didn't really learn anything. Instead they took a tour of the school. She made sure to point out that she only got to work on three papers the whole day. Too funny. My mother kindly reminds me that the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Which makes me love and appreciate her even more!

I assured her, the first couple days may not be a whole lot of work, but she's going to start learning so much. She looked at me with skepticism. She is definitely my child.

Life went on as usual while she was gone. There were considerably less tears and frustrations from the siblings without her home, but I also didn't get much "help" from Hunter like I get from Hallie. I better start training him better - He's got big shoes to fill! If it was up to Hunter he probably skip the shoes all together and go barefoot. That's just how he rolls.