Back to school!

The weather is cooling down and the days are getting shorter.  It's definitely back-to-school season!

It's hard to believe that summer is over.  At the same time, the kids were starting to go crazy without the structure of school and it is nice to get back into a routine.

Xiao Yu was the first one to start up school again.  He goes to his pre-school four days a week and loves it.

Here he is on the first day...he is waiting outside for the little bus to arrive.  His backpack is so big it looks like he is wearing a turtle shell.

The bus picks him up and drops him off every time--it is soooo convenient.  Also...he LOOOVES riding the school bus.  It might be the highlight of his entire day.

Eliana is being home schooled right now but goes to school in a classroom through the school district once a week.  She has opted to take the bus, which is convenient except for the fact that the pick up time is at the wee hours of 7:02AM.  Ouch.  That means either Mommy or Daddy have to get up at 6:30AM to get her up and help her get ready for school.  It's hard to believe that only a short time ago we were getting up at all hours of the night to take care of crying babies.  But now that our kids are (mostly) sleeping through the night, we've gotten spoiled and are used to sleeping till 7:30AM.

On Eliana's first day of school last week, everyone in the household was excited and decided that they also needed to get up early.  Hence the "group goodbye" to Eliana as she boards the bus.

Also on Tuesday's, Karina attends one day of classroom school in addition to being homeschooled.  She leaves for that a little later in the morning.  

On her first day last week, Daddy drove her and walked her in.  Here is her classroom and in the background, her new teacher.  This is a big adjustment for her; it's the first time in a "real" school as opposed to the pre-school that she's attended for the past 3 years.

In addition to school, the kids are starting up various extracurricular activities.  Karina is doing dance along with Eliana.

 Here are the buns that Mommy braided for her.

And last but not least, Ruffy is starting up pre-school again.  This year, unlike last, he is happy to goes and enjoys it. It helps that he has the same teacher, Mrs. Nuce, who is very nice to him and a great teacher.  He is wearing his new basketball jersey outfit and his new Paw Patrol sweatshirt, which has a mask on the hood.  You can pull the mask over your face so that you'll look like one of the characters (Chase the dog) while still being able to see through it.  Very exciting stuff.

So our family is getting back into the swing of things.  Hope you are having a good fall!