successful first week of school!

The first week of school is finished.  We started school here one day later than we would have in Ontario.  Which meant on facebook I got to see all of my favorite kids from back home on their first day before we started.  It's bittersweet seeing all of those pictures - great to see the smiling faces but sad to know we aren't starting school together.  Even though it was only for one month, it was great to start school last September back home and see everyone on the first day.  That being said, it's nice this year to be starting the school year here from the beginning, a lot of information comes home in the first few weeks of school so I felt like I was playing catch up when we started school Oct 1 last year.  Also last year I had some anxiety about the kids starting at new schools.  Much easier this year to send them off to school knowing they have friends and know their way around the schools.

Here are some highlights from the first few days of school...

*Jillian has two of her best friends in her class and is excited to start playing an instrument this year
* Kyle didn't start until 12:45pm on the first day so he had a relaxing morning then we went out for pizza and menchies as a pre-grade 8 lunch
* Leah loves her teacher and class although her two best friends are in different classes (but they see each other at recess)

this kid was super excited to start grade 1!

* I was worried Leah would feel a bit sad or left out because she knows in grade 1 both Kyle and Jillian started learning French...I was wrong - she's actually quite happy to not have to learn French, go figure.
* we had beautiful weather all week for walking to and from school
* I met a few new moms while hanging around at drop off and pickup - always great to meet some new people
* this year Kyle is taking the bus to school which makes my mornings much easier than last year (with the move last September he was stressed about taking the bus so I offered to drive him at first and that turned into me driving him for the whole school year...this year we decided to give the bus another try and it's working out so far)
* at the beginning of the school year I have much more energy for fun lunches so the girls lunches have been looking like this...yes, I sometimes am that annoying pinterest mom, but seriously it doesn't last long...by the third day I was already losing steam.  I figured I may as well take pictures now while the lunches look cute and color coordinated - no need to have photographic evidence later in the school year when I'm throwing them together last minute.

Here's to another successful school year for Kyle, Jillian and Leah!