Moving up a chair . . .

Back to school today. Everyone woke excited. Ty will enter first grade and Jaden will begin her last year of elementary school in the 5th grade. In fact, this is the last time both Jaden and Ty will be in school together. Jaden would tell you that she can't wait to be attending a different school than her little brother. But that's what she would tell you and that is not how she really feels! She's going to miss him.

Ty wanted to set his alarm for 4:30 a.m. Thank goodness he was talked out of that. Instead he woke at 6:30 and was fully dressed and raring to go by 6:35. Ty's teachers name is Ms. Wang--hand selected by me, of course. I don't spend hours on end at the school volunteering for nothing. She is lovely and will be a perfect fit for Ty this year. However, if Ty would have been able to request his teacher, he would have chosen Mrs. Martin. Word on the street is that Mrs. Martin lets you bring toys to class. Yeah, I didn't hear about that all summer long or anything. Something else we often heard Ty utter during the last few weeks of summer was this: "I can't wait to go back to school so I don't have to do so many chores!" That kid can't see past the end of his nose. Even after diagramming and comparing how many hours he spends doing chores in a day to how many hours he'd be spending at school, it was still worth it to him to go back to school. FYI, the kid spends an hour at most doing his daily chores.

Jaden, well, I no longer get to hand select Jaden's teachers. Her grades do the selecting. So far she has been placed with those teachers I would have personally selected anyway. This year she will have Mr. Brantner and Mrs. Matula. We are excited to hear about Mr. Brantner's lessons involving his beloved guitar. Images from the movie School of Rock with Jack Black keep filtering into my mind. In fact, Mr. Brantner looks like a skinnier, similarly hairy Jack Black with beard and all. Stay tuned on that one. And both Kyle and I were thrilled to learn that Jaden would be studying US history in Mrs. Matula's class. Dinner conversations are going to be exciting. I'm sure I'll be learning a thing or two!

Here's to another big year learning and growing you two!