Green, Party of Five: A Day of Firsts ...

It started before we even left the house. Three kids. Three first days of school. Quick, honey, get the camera. Let's take a few pictures (there's a surprise event) before we drive them to school. With all the flashes, they probably missed the first hour of school trying to get that little flashspot to quit annoying their vision. But they were good sports about it. "Hurry up, Daddy, we need to go." "I don't want to take a picture" (that was the big kid). "Cheeeeeeseeeee." "Flash!" Got it - the very best first day picture I've ever seen. "I'm gonna be late, if we don't hurry up!" (nevermind that it's still 45 minutes before 8:00 and it takes all of 3 minutes to drive to school).

I forgot, did we feed them breakfast? What about their teeth? Did they brush? Potty? We gotta start a list of morning things to do. I know we dressed them - and even put in hair bows (Austin chose not to include that accessory with his new outfit). Tennis shoes all around, even for Lilo and Stitch (that's their new nicknames). Lily Grace and Lia Faith never wear anything but sandals and heels, so these tennis shoes are a bit awkward. Socks! Ugh! (Again, Austin chose not to include the socks in his ensemble).

School days, school days, good old golden rule days. There's reading and writing and rithmetic. And so much homework it makes you sick! Well, at least it does normal kids. Ours have been so excited about school they'd probably do extra homework if allowed. Even the big kid made up his notebooks and prepared meticulously for his classes.

Austin will be a sophomore at East Limestone this year and is beginning to see a bit of freedom in his scheduling of classes. No PE for the first time in his school career. It's been replaced by Latin - uh oh, I don't think he knows what he's in for. He also has an art/music appreciation class. You know, Johaan Sebastian Bach, etc... Of course, he will again march with the East Limestone Marching Indians and participate in every other band that Ms. Sam can dream up, But he stuck with the advanced curriculum for all his core stuff - good for him. He has his sights set on attending Florida State in a few years, so he knows he has to challenge himself.

Lily Grace will be in the K-4 class at Faith Christian Academy's East Limestone campus (they call it their Madison campus, but it's clearly not in Madison). Her teach is Mrs. Faulkner and Lily says there are no boys in her class because they are too loud and rowdy! She will only attend half days, but her day will be packed with lots of learning - even math. Lily Grace is very smart and constantly amazes us with things that we've never taught her, she's just somehow discovered. So, she will do fine. She might even get a little bored every now and then, so we hope she is challenged by her teacher. I don't think she even realized we had left this morning. The biggest concern we have is Lily's love of talking and asking questions. The talking part will ultimately be her achilles heel we're afraid - can you say timeout (or do they do that anymore?) Oh, poor, poor Mrs. Faulkner. She doesn't have a hint of what's she's gotten herself into!

Of course, Lia Faith couldn't be left out of the school days, so we decided to go ahead and try her in K-3 at Faith Christian Academy. Her teacher is Mrs. Brock. And she says there are three boys in her class - even one from her China! She will also attend a half day and will learn all that she can in that time. Hopefully, she will be able to attend two years of pre-K before starting Kindergarten. We feel like that will give her a good, solid head start on learning. She was a little more timid this morning, but never cried according to her teacher. She only asked about mommy a few times.