first day

I love back-to-school ("la rentrée", en français)!

I love fresh new starts, pristine backpacks, a new cloest of clothes waiting to be worn, clean & orgnazied desks waiting to be sat in and learned from, and BOOKS books books of any kind.

I also love sales on school supplies @ Target.

I've picked up bits & pieces every time I went in.

I literally have about 35 boxes of crayons at this point. :o)

So what grades are my girls in this year?

I had to have them show me cause I couldn't believe it:

Just can NOT believe Arissa is in FIFTH grade. I'm aware that kids, in general, grow up so fast, but it seems like once they're in school it just speeds things up a lot.

The first day of school is pretty much the only day I can get the girls to literally hop out of bed and be in great moods, be eager to get their hair done, and tolerate endless pictures being taken of them.

Speaking of taking pictures, Mariah is so funny....and so used to me and my crazy paprazzi-ness.

I noticed yesterday, as I followed the girls around all day with my camera, that Mariah can be talking to me and in the middle of a story and as soon as she sees me lift the camera to my eye, she stops...... "strikes a pose"....... waits for the click....... then goes right back to her story.

All without me directing her at all. It's pretty funny.

Arissa is on a "blue" kick.

After all the beautiful blue clothes she got for her birthday, she decided to keep it going and make it her theme for the year I guess.

She insisted on a blue backpack, a blue binder, blue nailpolish, blue shoes, blue clothes, and (though you can't see it in the picture above) a blue clip-on hair piece. :)

And this girl, she was prepared for disaster after last year (click for the story). Poor thing. She even asked me as I walked her to her class: "I don't have to get any shots?". I explained that no, shots are not a normal part of the first-day-of-school experience. Only when your mama messes things up and ruins a day you've been waiting 2 years for. Yeah I still feel horrible about that.

But this year everything went smoothly.

Well except for the day before when we went to check the board to see what classes the girls would be in, and Mallory's name was missing from the list.

My mind was a jumble of "not again" and "how did I mess it up this time?" and "how did my girls end up with such a bad mother?" and "son of a !#$&*!"..... and things of that nature. But then we saw it, there was Mallory's name, just out of alphabetical order (which is why we didn't see it at first). Sigh of relief.

So the girls are happy, can't wait for homework, and can't wait to wear the rest of the new clothes hanging in their closet. :)