First day of school--woo hoo!! And it's not just me (though I was VERY excited.) The boys were both ready to go back--so ready in fact that they were dressed and done with breakfast 30 minutes before we needed to leave. That left plenty of time for observing the torrential rain. And hail. Yes, about 10 minutes before departure it was not looking good for walking as tiny ice pellets came crashing down. We snapped this picture on the porch shortly after that ended.

 Edward was far too excited about his new "tie shoes" (a.k.a. "Uncle Joe shoes") to wear his rain boots. He carefully stepped around the puddles while Daniel waded through. (Side note about the tie shoes--we picked them out last Thursday and then Edward set himself to the task of learning to tie. Many frustrating attempts later I tried to console him by saying, "Edward, it's OK. You'll get it soon, but no one learns how to tie in just one day." "I WILL!!" he declared. By the next morning he could do it.)

So the rain cleared out just in time to stroll over to the two schools. Edward jumped right into the first grade line and barely looked back. He has several friends from last year in his class this year and already loves his teacher (though I doubt anyone will achieve the rock star status of his Kindergarten teacher.) The mom of one of Edward's friends who has already sent two kids through first grade reports that the homework load is impressive--not in amount, but in consistency. About 15 minutes worth every night. Good for building work habits.

Daniel is now one of the "big kids" in his class, which comprises three-, four-, and five-year-olds. He changed out of his boots and marched right in without even stopping to wave good-bye at the window.

I took this week off from work to spend "summer fun days" with the boys M-W and then enjoy a bit of "me time" today and tomorrow. When I got home, the power was out, which was weird, since the storm had ended before we left. It was a very localized outage, but lasted about two hours. I was delayed in getting out to my errands because I couldn't lift the garage door after disengaging the electric opener. Note to self (a.k.a. note to John): Install handle on inside of door.

Edward has one-hour early dismissal every Thursday so he had some extra playground time with friends before we had to go over to pick up Daniel. Then we had some more playground time there before heading home.

An after-dinner bike ride for ice cream cones completed a great first day of school for all.