first day excitement

Because I'm a few days behind in my blogging, the first day of school excitement has worn off a little, it is the third day of school this morning and the kids are just beginning to remember why it was that they enjoyed having their summer off! (Mainly the getting up early part.) But I'm not here to blog about that, I'm going to try to capture a little bit of the first day butterflies and try to convey everyone's (but me) excitement about going back to school. It is kind of a special year for each of them for different reasons.

Of course Taylor was excited because Jr. High is so much more fun than elementary school, according to him anyway. His reasoning for this theory is that there's so much more freedom and they treat you more like an adult there. Plus if there's a teacher that you hate you only have to be with them for one hour and then you're out of that class for the rest of the day. (that's looking at the glass half full) The classes are more fun because you get to do a lot of different things during the day and sit with whoever you want to at lunch. AND you can eat pizza every day if you want, he is generally a home luncher so I'm not sure why this appeals to him so much, maybe just knowing that he could have pizza every day is what's cool about it. He was also much less nervous this year being an eighth grader and having done the seventh grade-nervous-to-start-jr.high-thing already, he knew what to expect and how to find his classes and wasn't afraid of getting a swirly anymore. :) In fact, he came home from the first day and said, "man, the sevvies are so short this year!"

Allie's excitement was centered around one important thing: ruling the school. Sixth grade is the top of the pancake stack when you're in Elementary School still and so she was definitely looking forward to all of the fun things that come with sixth grade, like DARE and the graduation dance and being called on to help the younger grades with various things. She was really sad that Functional Skills is no longer at our school, the sixth grade classes volunteer their recess times (on rotation) to help out in the class with the special needs kids and she was really looking forward to that. She is also part of the Student Council this year and is very excited about the service projects and different things she'll get to do with that. Of course, FRIENDS are a big part of why she is looking forward to the sixth grade, she hung out a lot during the summer but nothing beats being able to spend every day all day with the same girlfriends that she loves. One more thing, the year after second grade, her wonderful teacher Mrs. Bryson moved to sixth grade. Taylor had her two years and ago and Allie was thrilled to get her again, she is really fantastic and we are looking forward to a great year!

Spencer's excitement about school is finally knowing a big group of boys from our ward and finding out that they are ALL, except one, in his class this year for fifth grade! This is a big deal because in our last neighborhood it was a difficult thing for Spencer to try and fit in with a really hard group of boys. This move has been the best for him because he has been surrounded constantly by a great group of boys and so that makes school that much more fun. He also has had a whole year now to get used to being on his own at a different school than Allie (he switched to the new school in our boundary after we moved and Allie stayed) and he finally doesn't feel like the new kid. He also got two of the most wonderful teachers in the universe! Mrs. Snow and Mrs. Lawson team teach fifth grade and I was so impressed last night at Back to School night, I'm excited because I know Spencer will have a fantastic year with them. The school Spencer attends just barely finished an addition to their building and he was excited to find out that the fifth and sixth grades were the ones who got brand new classrooms and they smell so nice and new!

So I guess that's it, it was a crazy morning, the only one NOT looking forward to school starting was me, but that's a blog for a different day. Everyone enjoyed their first day of school and it went off without an incident. Ethan wasn't too happy to be pulled out of bed early but when you're the tail-ender of a family, that sometimes happens. It has been fun to have alone time with Ethan this week, we'll see how much he likes hanging out with only me in a few weeks. Here's hoping for a wonderful 2007-2008 school year!