first day of school!

Today was the first day of school, and a mighty cheer rang through the land. We all five walked together over to school this morning to start Max off on his first day of kindergarten, and Liam on his first day of second grade. I went inside with the boys, and waited in the gym with Max (the kids line up by class) for his teacher to come and get the class, and then I walked with him to the door of his classroom. Along the way, we passed several kids who were crying and being consoled by their parents, and I was sure Max was pretty nervous about the whole thing. But then we got to the door, and he shot me one last look over his shoulder, and then he was gone. Another bird takes his first tentative step out of the nest.

When they got home this afternoon, both boys were full of stories about all the fun they'd had during the day, seeing old friends and making new ones, oh, and maybe learning something along the way. Liam tells me he has two new best friends for this year. Max said that recess was his favorite part of the day, but that it was over way too quickly. I'm sure the teachers are taking it easy this first short week, so there was only one homework assignment for Liam: find three things that can be used to tell the story of his summer. They had to be small enough to fit in a brown paper lunch sack, and only one of the items could be a photo. So he chose a photo of himself with Max at the water park, a pair of goggles to tell the story of how he took two sessions of swimming lessons, and a souvenir penny from the planetarium to tell the story of our end-of-summer overnight trip. Pasta was on the menu tonight, and all three boys ate bowls and bowls of it (my little Italians!), and then they all fell asleep without a protest. Success!