Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

Anna and Hailey have officially been back in school for five weeks now, and I am finally getting to posting the first day of school pictures. Hailey is in first grade this year, which means a full 6 1/2 hours a day that I have only two children - can you smell the freedom? Anna is in fourth grade - I don't know how they do things anymore, but when I was in school fourth grade was part of the "upper grades" - I can't believe Anna is that old! So far they are both loving school, except for the discrepancy over what time they should get there. Since we live across the street, they walk to school every morning, and Anna is of the opinion that they should leave here no later than 7:55 (school starts at 8:20) so that she will have time to play soccer, while Hailey feels that 8:10 leaves plenty of time to get over there before the bell rings and they can then go straight to class. Many a morning has been filled with the sounds of Anna urging Hailey to hurry up and Hailey replying that she isn't ready to leave yet and that it is too early. I finally started having them switch days so that they go early one day and on time the next. That makes everyone happy, right? Wrong. But at least they are unified in the belief that Mommy is unfair. And once they are off to school, I have 6 1/2 glorious hours before I have to hear any more about it. Yay school.