Back to school and other news

So .... remember when I said summer couldn't end soon enough? Well, it didn't. Just before summer ended, Max finally stopped complaining of boredom and found a way to occupy himself quietly up in his room.

Did I mention he was quiet?

That's right.

Max.

Quiet.

Only my suspicions kicked in a little too late. He had already created this on his wall in permanent. marker.

lovely.

(and yes, those are pushpins that he used to "carve" the initials of his club members into the wall ... and, yes, I'm in the club :)

Moving on ...

The first day of school was a great day for both kiddos! Cate eased right into the 2 year old class at Sacred Heart Preschool and Max boldly went where no Harper kid has gone before -- the bus -- before getting started on a brand new year in Mrs. Goodwin's first grade class at Rocky Hill Elementary. As predicted, Cate was more than willing to pose for some back-to-school pics. Max, not so much:

I am still bound and determined to get that kid's picture sometime soon. He is so stylin' these days with his long hair and big blue eyes! You'll just have to take my word for it on that.

Since school has been in session, Max has been his usual enthusiastic self, ready for any and every thing NEW. He has made a bunch of new friends, and I just recently learned that he is the leader (I'm guessing self-declared) of a group of boys who all buy ice cream every day for lunch. He tells everybody what flavor to get and, apparently, they all follow suit. (I have to admit, I'm secretly a little bit proud :)) Cate, on the other hand has been getting pretty out of sorts when it comes to whole school drop off thing ... o.k. that is a complete understatement. The girl has been THROWING DOWN!!! And she has been starting it earlier and earlier every time. Parking lot; getting into the car; breakfast ... By this Thursday, she woke up, saw me in my work clothes and started freaking out ... Lord have mercy!!! The crazy thing is that she has an AWESOME time when she's there. Her teachers have told me this. I've sent in spies. I've even spied it with my own eyes. I think she just plain doesn't like the fact that somebody but her is wearing the pants in this family (for at least 20 minutes in the morning). Anyway, her teachers tell me they think they can "break" her, so we shall see. They don't know who they are dealing with ... ;)

Well, it's 12:45 in the a.m. so I'd better call it a night. Hopefully, I'll be able to stay on top of this blog thing a little bit better from now on. As you know, I've gone back to teaching 2 days a week. While that has been hard to adjust to, I'm glad I'm doing it, and I think we will all get used to the early mornings and long days before too long.

xo

Sarah

...

Check out this little bit of school work Max's teacher showed me at Parent's Night ... priceless!

It's true. Sweet Cate does BEG for a hug from her big brother every night before bed, and she makes sure none of us rest until she gets it :)