get ready, get set,

Registration at the girls' elementary school was this morning.  It's more of a half day prep day type thing -  Matt dropped them off at their classrooms and then waited for a chance to talk to the academic dean about our scheduling/attendance hopes.  [Things are looking good - we'll hear the final word tomorrow but we are hopeful that the school will agree to let the girls just attend afternoon classes.]

Excitement (and a bit of nervousness) was the theme of the morning - they both picked out favorite dresses, then added their uniform jacket (even though it was too hot and then ended up taking them off before they left Matt!).  They loaded up their backpacks with school supplies and headed out the door.  Lydia balked a bit before walking in to her classroom but Julianna pranced in as confident as ever.  It's been nine months since they last attended school there, so it's a bit of a readjustment.  Word from the girls was that their classmates are glad to have them back and Lydia was especially excited to see one of her favorite school buds.

After talking to the dean Matt walked back by their classrooms and took a few pictures.

They each came home with a backpack FULL of books!

Isaac worked on Happy First Day of School signs for each of them.

All smiles here but he didn't have the best afternoon.... fell from a monkey bar type thing and really managed to do a job on his face.  Swollen nose, big bump on forehead, busted lip, extra scratches.  It's the real deal.  We scrambled to try to get some medical advice and - unless the nose is looking much worse tomorrow - I think we'll avoid anything more significant than ice and tylenol.  I'm slightly concerned his nose might be fractured?  But the swelling seems to be decreasing so hopefully we'll get a better look in the morning.  He had a rough stretch but perked up before bed and seems ok.  I'm expecting we'll hear from him in the night when the Tylenol wears off.

Honestly, after the past two weeks I'm feeling stretched fairly thin.  We could use an easy day tomorrow.  Cause it's back to school on Monday and that's no small deal.

Local school enrollment brings more blessing to our family than I could try to list in one sitting.  It also consistently proves to be a very effective means of keeping me humble.  I'm not totally ready for another big slice of humble pie, but it's gonna be on my plate this week, that's for sure.  [And if you have a child attending school in your home culture, and you spot another parent who is clearly the fish out of water .... give them a big smile for me.  It's harder than it seems.]