Off to school they go

Ella and Lily started school this morning. I can't believe the summer is over already, but I'm grateful it is. The bicker twins were getting way too tired of each other and of me. We came home from vacation to the good news that we'd gotten the teachers we'd requested, even though we'd heard rumors that the principal didn't take parent requests into consideration.

Our school is one of the few in Austin ISD that has mult-age classrooms. Last year Ella was in the combined kinder-first, and we LOVED both of the teachers. So when we found out that Lily is now in that class, we were thrilled. It made dropping Lily off at her first day of kinder much easier for everyone since we all already knew her teachers from last year.

Ella is now in the combined second-third class, and it will be interesting to see how she handles not being one of the big kids in the class. She can get a little too big for her britches sometimes, and I think being in a classroom where she's not the oldest and smartest (that's her opinion, not mine), will be good for her.

In preparation for school, I let the girls pick out their own first-day outfits. I wasn't thrilled with Ella's choice, but given some of the things I'd already vetoed, I viewed this as a good compromise. It turns out that it's hard to buy clothes for a seven-year-old if you don't want things with Hannah Montana or High School Musical on them. So far, we've been free of both those movies/shows/whatever they are, and I'd like to keep it that way. Plus, all of the stores we went to seemed to think that we live in New England, where it might actually be cool enough to wear long pants and sweaters and tights. I really had to scrounge to find any shorts. My quest for clothes is complicated by the fact that Ella refuses to wear skirts or dresses - because she can't hang upside-down on the monkey bars when she does.

Shopping for Lily, on the other hand, was much easier. The little girl sections had lots of cute skorts and dresses, and Lily's not all that fussy about her clothes. If it has hearts or flowers, she'll take it. And she'll wear dresses. She did, however, refuse to wear her new "very fast" running shoes until she went to school today because she didn't want to get them dirty.

Tomorrow I take Campbell for his first day of preschool, and I have a feeling it will be hard to decide which of us cries harder.