*first day of school 2012*

Although I always get a little sad when my kids have to go back to school, it is nice in a way so there is a little structure in our lives.

I was dreading this year of all years since my baby would be going all. day. long. and I knew that it would be super hard on me. When did he big enough to start first grade?

So my good friend, who's baby is starting all day kindergarten, and I planned to spend the day together to ease the pain.

The boys were a little nervous since they would be starting new schools this year but super excited to meet new friends.

I saw one of the boys off early in the morning...Nick to eighth grade:



then later on my three littles.

Liam to first,




Luke to fifth,






and Andrew to sixth.

King of the school.




We live super close to our new school so we were able to walk together and Liam held my hand the whole way.


It was uber chaotic when we arrived. Kids everywhere. I didn't know where to have the kids line up and since the school didn't have a back to school night before school started we had no idea what their teachers looked like. And the fact that the younger boys didn't know very many kids made it more stressful for them.

I was not impressed.


As we waited in some random line, Liam began to cry and I was heartbroken. I just wanted to tell him he didn't have to go and that he could stay home with me today. But I knew that wasn't good so I tried not to cry myself and luckily held it together and stayed strong.

I walked him to his class and got him situated.

And he did just fine.




Andrew was too cool to hang out with me so I just snapped random pictures from afar.


Luke found his class and settled in.

Success.


Walking back home, I called Justin and lost it. I told him how I hated how unorganized it was and that Liam was crying and how I hated leaving him there.

He was a sweet dad and picked him up for lunch.

My friend and I went to lunch and got pedicures. It was wonderful.

Then we had a swimming party with some of our new friends in the neighborhood.

Just a funny side note: Justin met me at the party after Nick and Andrew's football practice. Nick was wearing his sleeveless shirt and he actually is pretty muscular. One of our friend's three year olds saw him getting out of our car and she said: "Whoa. That's a tough guy."

I thought it was pretty cute.

I also snapped these on the second day of school. Andrew again was too cool to hang out with me so I didn't get one of him.




The second day went much smoother.

Thank goodness.