Back to school

Since I was a kid I have thrived on routine. We attribute this to the flip chart schedule my mom put me on as a small child (it was awesome and epic and I believe still up in the her attic). Because of this love of routine I have always enjoyed the start of school, I am also a big fan of office supplies and shopping for office supplies. This is one of my favorite times of year and the kids seemed excited about it too. 

This year we had a big change in the back to school routine, we added in another school. For the past two years it has been one drop off and pick up. But we have added a seventh grader this year....

Laine started at Olympus Junior High this year. She is getting big fast, she was in first grade when Christian and I got married. She was nervous about starting junior high but also excited. She made a few friends in her first couple of days and was super excited that one of her new friends was also named Laine, something that she has never encountered before. 

Eve was so excited to start fifth grade that she was bouncing while I took her picture, it was hard to capture a good one. 

Eve has one of the best teachers ever hence her excitement. There are already plans for a spook alley, a climb up Mt. Timpanogos, and a pirate store. Eve was also excited that this year she can participate in FPS with her friends.  

James was starting third grade this year and while school shopping the only shirt he liked was this one...

He wore a Star Wars shirt last year too, so it must be a theme. James is still our quiet shy boy.  But he has a great memory and loves anything to do with science. He is so cute and was excited to start a new year. 

These two had quite an adventure the first day of school. They are bus riders and have been riding the same route for the past three years and were pretty good at it. Well the bus arrived after school and I watched kids pile off, unfortunately they were not my kids.  I went over to talk to the bus driver and sure enough the kids weren't on there. It being the first day of school the bus driver didn't remember them at all and at most of the stops she had been on the phone with district transportation trying to help a girl who had gotten on her bus accidentally.  One of my kids' school mates, who was on the bus, said he remembered seeing them that morning but not in the afternoon. By now I was freaking out a little (okay, a lot). The bus driver got the school on the phone and people started to look for them up there, then we were on the phone with transportation calling the other bus drivers for Morningside trying to see if they had any extra kids or if they remembered mine getting off the bus.While they were doing that I was on the phone with Christian, who was home with the three other kids, and my in-laws just in case the kids had missed the bus and decided to walk to their house.  After thirty minutes of no luck the district decided to involve their officers. While I waited for their call I started working the bus route backwards, as I was pulling into Olympus Junior High the officers called and started asking questions, I began answering them and then I saw two figures sitting on the curb. Sure enough it was my two kids had gotten off at the wrong stop and just sat waiting. Later when we asked them why they got off I heard, "because I thought it was Monday." (they used to get off at that stop on Mondays last year when taking kung fu) and "I got off because James got off".

So after several phone calls to the parties out searching for the kids, and to the secretary at the elementary school to let them know it was all okay, we laughed a bit and tried to let the kids know that in a few days they would see this as an adventure and have a great story to tell their kids one day about the first day of fifth and third grade.

Here's to hoping that the rest of the school year is less eventful!!!