First Day of Kindergarten, 2nd Grade, 4th Grade, and 6th Grade!!

Look what I did before 7am:

FOUR nutritious, homemade, hand-packed lunches! (The 6th grader has graduated to a brown bag lunch, too big for a lunch box, apparently.  That or he's just getting out of the chore of cleaning out his lunch box at the end of the day.)

Really those lunches ought to be accomplishment enough for the day, I should have just gone back to bed, but oh no, there was so much more to be done!

Like getting these four out the door for their first day of Kindergarten, 2nd Grade, 4th Grade, and 6th Grade:

A friend told me today that she had a time getting her two children ready for school and said she didn't know how I did it with four kids.  "ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD!"  I told her, and it's true!  Each and every day I get to witness God's hand at work because clearly my husband and I are outnumbered and so God must show up in a big way in our house every school morning! 

I am thankful everyone had a really great first day!  The kindergartener didn't get in trouble which is amazing and my new middle school student was able to get his locker opened between each of his 8 classes!

Just don't ask me how long it took to drop them all off or pick them all up.   Or how long I spent filling out a multitude of school forms times 4 kids!!!

Okay, ask.  Really I want you to ask.  Because otherwise you'll be all, "What did you do all day with all four of your kids in school?!!  Wow, you must have so much time on your hands now!"

1 hour 15 minutes to drop them all off.  That includes the hoopla of parents hanging out a bit with their new kindergarten kids on the first day and attending an info. coffee with the principal at the middle school.  Does not include getting them ready for school time.

1 hour 15 minutes to pick them all up.  This number will hopefully go way down, but there was a big delay with elementary school pick up today, they were trying out a new strategy for releasing the kids to parents and even though I got to the school 15 minutes before it let out, I didn't get to pick up my kids for 40 minutes!  They are going to do dismissal differently tomorrow and I pray it is much smoother!

And then 1 hour 45 minutes filling out all the school forms tonight!  My hand is still cramped up!  Dear school district, where are the on-line forms?  Are you trapped in 1985?

But, we have the first day under our belts, and I am truly thankful that my kids are in excellent public schools, all four with wonderful teachers, and they are poised to learn a ton this year and not just book knowledge, either!