School starts

So far the transition to the school year has been very smooth. Ellie started last Thursday and has a friend from the neighborhood that sits next to her on the bus and at school. She seems to be enjoying her class and teacher too which is good.

Surprisingly, Katie also took to school like a fish to water. I thought for sure that she would be scared when it came time to get on the bus and go. But when the bus came, she just marched right on without hesitation! I took some pictures as we did with Ellie. After school, I intended to go and meet them at the bus stop (just a couple houses over) but I slept through it! When Katie arrived, I told her I was sorry that I wasn't there and she just confidently responded "It's ok Mom, I like to walk home". Such a grown up now! I then tried to question her about the day and she said it was "fun" and I couldn't get much more out of her. When Steve got home I mentioned this to him, so he questioned her as well and she said her favorite part was "playing" and "games" and that she liked lunch. So there you have it, we now have two of our kids officially in "school". I think it is going to take me a little while to get used to the schedule though.

We have decided to put the girls in some other activities too. They are all in a dance class which, of course, they all really enjoy. Additionally, we enrolled katie in gymnastics because she has always shown a great degree of coordination and strength since she was a baby and we think she'll enjoy that (plus there is a friend from the neighborhood that is going to do it with her). Lastly, we decided to put Sarah in a play/dance/drama class. She LOVES it! It is right up her "Drama" alley!

Steve continues to love teaching and is finding his "groove" there. He is also doing some ultimate Frisbee with some of his peers. It is fun for him to compete again in sports. He is biking around here quite a bit and even tried to ride down to work and back. Downhill was all brakes due to the steep hills and then coming back up to where we live here was all uphill and about killed him (especially because he though he would take a "shortcut" into the woods that turned out to be an non-groomed trail that ended up at a very steep hill and fence that he had to climb and traverse).

I've decided that I need to get back on the exercise wagon myself, so I have ventured a couple of runs around the neighborhood over the last couple of weeks. I normally do not run and haven't in the past because it usually hurts my knees, but surprisingly, I've been able to run most of the way around the mile+ loop without needing to stop due to knee pain. I attribute this to all the walking/jogging that I did this past winter on the treadmill back in Illinois. This is all very exciting for me to finally be able to run and feel like I'm getting some good calorie burning.