The Next New Thing

*Just a note: I plan to be very much more pithy and theme-y and funny with blog posts in the future.  Bear with me as I get my blogging legs back!  For now, it's just the news.

This has been a big week for the twins.  They had their sixth birthday on Thursday, and today is the first day of 1st grade in a new school.

Their birthday was great (except of course for the absence of all you wonderful people!)  They got presents in the morning, then we headed to the Food Pyramid (no Vons or Ralphs or Albertsons around here, people, and you know I'm not shopping at Walmart) to buy ice cream sundae ingredients.  Then off to the library and to lunch at CafeBella, which is a cute little cafe downtown that seems to have a good amount of mediterranean food on the menu.  Of course the children just had PB and J.  But there was an older couple that complimented us on how well behaved the children were, so that's always nice.  Then we came home and the neighbor Z. and her big brother D. came over for ice cream sundaes!  Then it was play time, dinner time, and time to head to Meet Your Teacher Night at the school.

I really like the idea of Meet Your Teacher Night; the kids get a chance to scope things out with their parents near by.  I just feel so out of the loop as far as information goes around here.  I want to know in advance how everything works, I hate the idea that I will be that one person that doesn't know what they are doing.  So I guess I meant that I liked the idea of Meet Your Teacher night because I got a chance to scope things out.  I had a hard time sleeping last night because I didn't know how the snack situation worked at school.  (and I know, yes, I am silly and obsessive.)  At our old school, kids brought a snack as part of their lunch, and they would eat them during morning recess. Will Charlotte and Ramona get a chance to eat the snacks I packed?  Will they eat them in the morning or in the afternoon?  How will they know?  I worry about these things way more than the girls ever do.  I try not to project my anxieties onto them; they were just plain excited about starting school, not nervous at all.

So this morning was the first day of school.  They will be able to take the bus, which stops in front of our next door neighbor's house, so once we get into the swing of things I think I will try to let go enough to send them on the bus, at least to school.  Maybe not on the way home, though.  I hear they get home really late when they take the bus, and school already ends late, at 3:45, so I think I'll pick them up.  I figured out the snack issue when I talked to their teacher this morning.  I guess our students are so "economically diverse" that if they did it the way we did it at our old school, most of the kids wouldn't have snacks and would go hungry.  So the teacher asks for donations for snacks, and then everyone gets the same snack, at 10 am.  That's fine, I suppose.  I don't really like the idea of not having control of what my girls eat everyday.  But then, I'm kind of a control freak.

Speaking of which, I predict I will end up as Room Mom for R and C 's class.  Their teacher had asked me if I was interested on Meet Your Teacher Night, and I had said that I would be willing to be very helpful, but since we just moved here, I didn't really know enough about things in the community to do the job.  But it looks like there may be no one else to do it.  And I do like having my hand in the pot, so to speak. The only real trouble is that I don't have anyone to watch Elsa here, so it would be hard to do parties and things like that.

Their teacher asked the kids to bring three small things to school to help everyone get to know them.  Here's what my girls brought. Ramona: a picture of Sam Cooke (in case you don't know who Sam Cooke is) printed on the computer and colored by her, the birthday card Aunt Caitlin sent, and a picture of the twins with Aunt Natascha and Zachiah. Charlotte: another picture of Sam Cooke (who knew he was such a cutie?) a little Pikachu figurine, and a pokemon card.  I'm sure these girls won't seem peculiar at all...

Ready for their first day!