First Day of School - the X Files

Today these beautiful ladies went back to school!

Or I should say, went to school for the first time. We never go "back" to school in this family! Brooklyn has changed schools every grade so far. Kate is starting her fourth school (in 4th grade!), and this will be Brooklyn's third school (and 2nd grade!) But this is the last time! No more moving!

Well, at least they'll be adaptable and easily adjust to new surroundings, right?

Anyway, here are the obligatory adorable back-to-school pictures.

What's that? You've seen enough of those and want to see what the first day of school really looks like? You want to hear from someone who had a worse morning than you?

Sure, I'm happy to oblige. Let me give you the behind-the-scenes version.

I'm doing this to make you feel better about yourself.

You're welcome.

*Foreword: School begins at 9:10 am*

6:30 am - My alarm goes off so I can work out, shower, and get ready before anyone else wakes up. But I'm too tired from staying up late making breakfast for the morning and not folding the mountain of laundry I washed yesterday. So I turn off the alarm and go back to sleep.

7:00 am - I wake up to work out for real this time. Just as I grab my shoes, I hear Nolan crying. We both go to the basement to work out. I get through about 8 moves before he is crying and wants me to hold him. Give up and go eat breakfast.

7:30 am - I make the girls' lunches and realize I am way out of practice. I thought I unpacked the kitchen in a logical manner, but suddenly everything is hard to assemble. I drop an ice pack in the sawdust on the garage floor three times trying to get the door open.

7:45 am - The girls are up and complaining that Troy woke them up (even though it was time to get up anyway!) I get their breakfast ready and jump in the shower. Brooklyn calls upstairs that they hate the apple cinnamon oatmeal I made and it makes them want to throw up. I call down to put more sugar on it and eat it anyway.

8:15 am - Brooklyn can't find any socks, and the expensive shoes she insisted she needed and she would wear all the time and were comfortable suddenly hurt her feet too much to wear to school. She wears some old glittery pink shoes instead (which I'm pretty sure she actually wore on the first day of school last year.)

8:30 am - Their hair is still a mess, and they can't decide how they want it done. I run through it with a flat iron and a curling iron and call it good. It starts to rain.

8:45 am - We're gathering backpacks, lunchboxes, Nolan's shoes, camera, and car keys and bustling out the door. Troy looks bewildered and holds up the bowl of cereal he's just poured milk on. I rush everyone out the door into the rain, brandishing my camera, and snap some quick front porch pictures.

8:50 am - I open the car door to discover that Travis had removed all the car seats and folded the seats down to bring home a pile of lumber yesterday (to build some amazing beds for the girls which I can't wait to show you!) The girls start folding back the seats while I open the garage to find Nolan's massive car seat. The straps are stuck and it's impossible to tighten the LATCH strap into place. I buckle it in as best I can anyway.

8:59 am - We finally pull out of the driveway. The school is probably a 7-8 minute drive away. When it is not raining.

9:07 am - We pull onto the street where the school is, behind a daycare bus and about 45 other cars. Wait patiently to finally pull into the parking lot.

9:09 am - Jump out of the car and run toward the school. Snap a picture or two on the lawn. Enter the foreign new school and suddenly realize that on back-to-school night, someone led me to the second grade classrooms and I wasn't paying attention to which direction. Every hallway looks the same. Circumnavigate the entire school until we find the right room.

9:11 am - Sneak Brooklyn into the classroom full of patiently waiting, quiet second-graders. She is paralyzed because all the cubbies are full of school supplies and she doesn't know which one is hers. Stealthily slip into the classroom with her (and the remaining 3 kids) to help her.

9:15 am - Straight to Kate's classroom, which I found right away this time! Quick goodbyes are easiest anyway!

9:20 am - Back in the rainy parking lot with the two boys. I put Nolan on the floor of the car and go into beast mode on that darn car seat. I hit him in the head a couple times with the car seat while the seat and I are wrestling. It's hot and humid in the car and I'm wedged in there on top of the car seat. In frustration I wrap the elastic from my wrist around my hair on the top of my head (because I'm upside down). The door was still half open and I'm clearly struggling. Pretty sure my pants were also kind of falling down. I'm not sure if all the other parents in the parking lot thought maybe they should offer to help or run away scared.

9:35 am - Finally get the car seat tight enough to ride home. Buckle Nolan in. Troy wants to sit in the gray car seat and not the pink one, and he wants it on the second row next to Nolan and not the third row. And I can't forget to put the booster back on it.

9:40 am - Finally (last car in the parking lot) start driving home. Remember as I'm driving that I forgot to put a drink in the girls' lunches. Furthermore, remember that I forgot to add a cute "Have a great first day of school!" note with maybe a little picture and some hearts, in colorful marker. Or maybe one printed off of Pinterest with a cute modern font or subway lettering. Another mom fail. I was picturing my girls, after a scary morning in a new school with strangers, sitting down with their lunchboxes to find no drink and no note, while their classmates all had cute reassuring notes from their mothers. And then they'd start to cry. Then instead I changed my mind and pictured my girls bouncing into the lunchroom with their new friends, throwing down their lunches in the allotted 14 minutes and 17 seconds, too busy having fun to even notice whether I'd included a cute note or even a drink. Yes. Much better picture for me. I'm sure I'll hear about which was the reality later.

9:45 am - Pull into the driveway. I left the garage door open.

And this is where you find me.

Now off to tackle that massive pile of laundry that I mentioned I didn't fold last night.

But first, I'll redeem my crazy morning with our back-to-school festivities last night.

Starting with our back-to-school celebratory feast!

 Okay I had grand hopes for this one, but it didn't really pan out. I wanted to have a big table in the backyard with candles and a fancy tablecloth. Then I stepped outside yesterday afternoon and instantly sweated off all the water I'd drunk all day. So indoors it was! Then I went to dig out my tablecloths and candles, and none were to be found in any box. They'll turn up in a year or so, I'm sure. Meanwhile, I did find this old Christmas tablecloth. And a single jar candle. Done and done.

After lunch yesterday I went into the kitchen and didn't come out again. I guess I was super hungry? The kids and I made strawberry jam, rolls, and chocolate chip cookies, and then we started on our back-to-school feast. We had rosemary lemon roasted chicken and potatoes, cucumbers, fruit salad, and the homemade rolls and jam. And of course cookies! No one cared about the thrown-together table setting. 

And yes it's only 10:30 am but I already need a cookie.

Here's to another first day of school for the books!

UPDATE: Later, this happened. 

And after school: 

The only reason I even have this picture is because I was standing at the bus stop with about 15 other parents and then suddenly realized I was the only one not holding up my phone as they all got off the bus. It was comical - we all had to kind of crowd in for a shot, like it was a school music program or something. I made a couple jokes about "Someone just take a picture of all of them and send it to the rest of us!" or something. People don't know quite what to do with my humor around here.

Consensus: The girls didn't mention my shortcomings until I brought up the missing drinks. They were like, "Oh yeah..." I think they were in such a hurry to eat in such a short time they hardly noticed. (Our last school gave them like half an hour or something for lunch!) It was 5:00 by the time we got home. FIVE!!! We still managed to squeeze in piano lessons, a quick bike ride with the neighbor kids, and make dinner. All in all, we'll just call it a successful first day of school. And go to bed.