And they're off...

So yesterday was the first day of school for Blake and Landon...first day of public school at that. Blake is starting 4th (MY WORD...I'm NOT THAT OLD, am I?), and Landon is going into 2nd. They decided that they would like to ride the bus, and seeing as to how I cannot do anything but drop them off out front along with a gazillion other parents adding extreme combustion and frustration, I decided...why not. The bus was supposed to come at 7:01 am and stop directly in front of our house according to the bus list, so we were all out there at 6:46 am just to be sure there was no chance at all of being left behind. For 25 minutes we saw NO ONE! We knew the neighbor boys were supposed to also be riding on the first day, but no sign whatsoever of them. Blake was just about beside himself devastated by the possibility that they would be late. He went back and forth..."just take us"..."we'll wait"..."let's just go". Finally around 7:15am, we saw one of their buddies and their mom. I asked Will's mom what was up with the late bus and she replied that it was always more like 7:15 rather than 7:00. Good to know!

Well, the boys were off! The day went by for Gavin and Holden and I with little excitement. My homebody Gavin stayed in his PJ's all day, even when we had to run to Walmart for some ice cream fixin's for the afterschool party we were planning. We made it back in time to cook the cupcakes, pop the popcorn, set up the party table, make the signs, put out some chairs and wait in the driveway for the bus to arrive about 3:05 pm and drop the boys off right where it picked them up...right in front of our house. At that time, the plan was for all of their buddies who would be getting off with them to stop in and make their own ice cream sundae and decorate their own cupcake.

Well, at 3:00 the boys come running around the corner from the front of the neighborhood. When I asked where they came from, they said the front entrance of the neighborhood. When I asked them WHY they did not get off the bus where they got on it, they replied that the bus stopped, they did not know if it would stop again, so they got off and walked home! REALLY! As we stood in the driveway, we watched the bus come down the road and promtly stop in front of our house and let all their friends off. Blake says, "Well, it looks like we got home sooner!"

Needless to say, we discussed with them the importance of staying on and getting off safely in front of the house to which they reluctantly agreed.

Then, Blake confessed that he left his sweatshirt on the bus on the way to school. Really?! DAY 1? Oh, but apparently, it is okay, because his bus driver, Mr. Wilson, turned it into the office! Then as we were doing our nighttime routine of getting lunchboxes ready...he realized that he left his lunchbox on the bus in the afternoon. Please, please, please give me wisdom in raising this child. He claimed it was NOT HIS FAULT! I guess it was the magical fairy who flew past him on the bus and wrestled his sweatshirt and lunchbox away from him while sprinkling memory erasing fairy dust on him so that he would not remember a thing! Yep...that had to be whose FAULT it was! Seriously! (We then had the "take responsibility" talk!)

Overall, the boys said their first day was good. Blake said the library was HUGE!!! He was thrilled to check out his first two books! Landon said that he walked by and noticed how humongous it was also! Landon also informed me that even though the teacher would not talk about Jesus that they would NOT be learning about evolution this year!

We gave each of the boys an assignment for their first day...remember the name of at least 1 kids name in your class. Blake very excitedly reported that he had a boy in his class named Bennett. I asked him if that was all he could remember and he said that he had tried to remember everyone's name, but they just slipped right out of his head...all 27... must be that fairy dust again. (Yes-I said 27, he has 29 kids in his class, but hopefully, they are going to make a new class, fingers crossed).
Landon, of course, knew several names if not all! Of course, the social aspect of Landon is probably what will cause him to score many a "strike" from his teacher's discipline policy! Oh, my boys! Calgon...you know the drill!