1st day of 1st grade

It's weird to me that finally, today, my tomatoes started to turn a corner and I got this:


and my first two eggplants that made this:


and basil, basil, basil for oodles of pesto cups in the freezer, that this was also the

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. For Jack, at least. I still cannot wrap my head around going back to school on August 14th. No State Fair for us (not that we were yearning for that anyway).
Jack is excited to be riding the school bus this year. I was nervous about it, but it was obvious that I could in no way get to the new school on time AND still take the younger two to their respective schools on time. The bus was actually quite wonderful. No packing up the younger ones to get to school on time, no urging them to get in the car in the tired afternoon so we can pick Jack back up.... I'm going to like this bussing thing, I do believe.

1st grade was a breeze, according to Jack! Class size at the new school (as of now) is only 20 students, which is an improvement from last year's class of 27. He has one buddy, who lives in our neighborhood and rides the bus with him, who was in his kindergarten class last year and is now in his 1st grade class at the new school. Boo-yah, as Jack would say. So far so good!

Benjamin, sadly, will probably not be going to the new half day kindergarten we were so excited about. He'll still go to half day at Westridge, which was the original plan, but we had really hoped his former pre-K teacher's new kindergarten school would get off the ground in time for this fall. The timing was bad so we are the only confirmed family, and Westridge begins next week so time is pretty much out. As much as it sounds amazing to have Benji be home schooled by a teacher who "gets" him, I think that taking him out of the classroom environment for a whole year, and then reintroducing it to him with FULL day school the year after, would be disastrous :( So back to the original plan B.

Gavin's preschool class still does not have a teacher after a mad shuffle and departure of the director and 2 pre-K teachers. There is one spot left in a local Waldorf preschool run by a friend of mine, but another friend is also interested. Since we are still enrolled in St. Tim's, I decided to let the other friend have the last spot and just hope for the best at St. Tim's.

School is causing me HEADACHES already this year. What a whirlwind of options, lack of options, questions, uncertainty, and disappointment. Not to mention all the PTO meetings I'm being called to do since I allowed myself to be roped into being co-VP. 2nd thoughts are everywhere these days.