1st day of School- 2010

The boys have been counting down to the first day of school for a while... Weston, b/c he was excited about school, and Nathan b/c he wad DREADING school.  Isn't it amazing how different each child is??? :)

We spent the week before trying to get all the supplies we needed for the kids. (It takes a long time when you have to translate everything!)  I never really had a child in primary school in the States, so I don't really have anything to compare it to.  But here, it seems like alot!!  We (the parents) supply all the paper towels, tissues, wipes, etc. in addition to all the crayons, markers, construction paper, envelops, cardboard, paint, etc... and much, much more...  Whew!  When you have THREE of them at this age?!?  Wow.  So, we did all that, and we got everything put together the night before.

Carolina wanted to go with the boys SO badly!

We also buy all the books (for each child) at a local book store, and we have to bring those in as well.  So, we had bags and bags of books, PLUS all the school supplies... for THREE kids!  You should have seen us walking to school!  Thank the Lord we only live a block away!

Well, on this particular day, I felt VERY much like a silly foreigner.  As we walked to school, we encountered lots of other families walking to school... but NONE carried bags of books or supplies.  Apparently, we were supposed to have brought everything in the week before when the teachers were preparing the classrooms.  But, of course, that was something that somehow got lost in the "language abyss."  :)


There was nothing we could do but stand there, looking dumb with all our stuff... it might have been different if it were only ONE child, ya know?  But we were ridiculously loaded down with three kids' worth of books and supplies.  haha. :) If I'd had a free hand, I would've taken a picture for y'all... so we could all laugh together... but, of course, both hands were full. :)  Oh, well... we apologized to the teachers and then had to go individually to each class (after hugging the kids and saying goodbye) to drop of "the goods."  It was the normal chaos of the first day, so everything took longer. 

When I got to Jonathan's classroom, his teacher asked me if I had his name on everything. I didn't know that we were supposed to... I just figured it all went into a collective "stash."  But no... and of course I didn't have everything labeled.  How in the world are you supposed to label one (unwrapped) roll of paper towels?  So, she told me to bring it all back the next day, labeled.  I'm thinking, can't you just give me a marker??????  :)  Nathan's teacher did the same thing to Wes, but also insisted he take the books back... she wanted them labeled (which I can understand) and COVERED with contact-like paper.  Weston's teacher was the only one who was pretty gracious to us.  Maybe it's b/c Weston is old enough to put his own name in every book?  I'm not sure. 

This is in the school "yard"... nice concrete, huh? :)  We drop Weston and Nathan off right behind where they are standing.  Jonathan gets dropped off just to the left of where they are standing.

SO... we had to walk back home and drop the stuff back off at the house, and then head on to OUR class.  Needless to say, Wes and I were very late that day.  But, "no pasa nada..." as they would say in here in Spain!   I was dreading walking back to the kids' school the next day... looking like the "dumb American" with arm fulls of bags again. haha!  Oh, well.  It took us a few days, and we finally got everything squared away... although, I still can't find plastic place mats for each of them.  I have no idea where to find these... :) Do y'all bring place mats in for your kids???? :) haha..

The day went well for the boys.  Nathan cried a little on his first day, but it wasn't too bad.  He has a really sweet teacher, who is supposed to be one of the best in the school.  He's also with all the same kids, so that's a blessing!  Jonathan has the same teacher as well as the same class as last year.  Weston absolutely loves it.  Like Jonathan, he also has the same teacher and class.  He is now the tallest (but one of the youngest) in his class, and that's a HUGE deal to a 7 year old boy.  I think it made his day. :)