formal education.

And thus beggineth our years of formal education.

Finn and I are going to kindergarten. Well, technically Finn is going to kindergarten, and I'm just along for the ride. But when he's in school, I feel like I'm in school.

So, we had some shopping to do.

We needed to get Finn some more shorts, and everywhere we went, they were out of his size. It was quite frustrating and I had to keep reminding myself "this is kindergarten, not a fashion show. Kindergarten, not a fashion show."

In desperation, I dragged him to Kohl's. Nothing against the place, it's just not normally where we shop.

Little old ladies were milling about, laughing and talking. Smiling happily at me, Finn and Twain. They make me feel so much better about everything:)

As I am digging through racks and racks of Tony Hawk clothes, Finn is silent. We pass by some McQueen swim trunks and Finn perks up. They did not have his size. Thankfully.

And then Finn spies something out of the corner of his eye.

"What are those things mommy?"

Oh, he knew full well what those things were.

They were backpacks. McQueen backpacks. Big, huge, plastic, obnoxious, 12 dollar backpacks.

I kind of gulped. Then remembered what I wrote here, about kids getting to pick out their own backpacks. This was it. It was really happening to me. I took a deep breath,

"Do you want that McQueen backpack, honey?"

Finn kind of stammered and looked away, all sheepish.

"You can have it, if you want it", I offered.

"Um, uh...no, I don't want that backpack. I already have one...besides it would just make Calvin want one..." Finn muttered wistfully.

And I knew, right then, that I wanted to surprise Finn with a backpack the first day of school.

But not that backpack. I ordered a plain black backpack online, along with a cute McQueen patch from ebay and sewed it onto the backpack. I also ordered a Mater patch for Calvin and sewed it onto Finn's old backpack.

It was the perfect compromise-- Finn still got his "character" backpack, but it was still neutral enough to go with his clothes. And Calvin got to recycle Finn's old pack.

I was so excited. I could not wait to give these backpacks to the boys, the night before school.

In the meanwhile, I had a few bucks left in my "health and beauty" envelope, so I bought some new make-up for our first day of school.

I'm loving that shade of purple/pink nail polish. As are my boys. They love staring at my brightly painted toes. Even little Ollie says "oh-ohhhh" when he sees them, and tries to pull my toes off.

Last friday, Finn and I (along with 120 other people) got to meet the kindergarten teachers.

It was hectic.

It was chaotic.

It was hot.

Nobody was really smiling.

Not a lot of people were mingling.

But Finn's teacher. Mr. M, was awesome and I was thankful for that.

I went home beat.

The night before school, I got out the backpacks and gave them to the boys. They were quite ecstatic and started running around the house filling them up with loot.

Finn said "You got me this backpack because you knew I wanted one when we went shopping for clothes". I could not believe he remembered our Kohl's shopping trip. It was over a month ago.

Here is my little-big-boy-darling the first day of escuela.

And in case you can't tell, here he is wearing his happy face.

What can I say? My kid is just exuberant.

John's mom watched the "littles" while I carted Finn off to school.

On the way over, I almost cried.

I escorted him to the cafeteria, where he sat by little Jordan. Such pip-squeaks.

I was very busy talking to all the kids and made friends with a little boy named Harry. He wanted me to open his Sponge-Bob fruit snacks and I happily obliged.

I talked to some moms and about this-that-and-the-other. Everyone seemed much more friendly and talkative today.

Soon enough, they lined up our kiddos. It was time to go to class. Moms were taking pictures right and left.

Hm. I have no words for this picture...

Here is Finny's new teacher Mr. M. He sang them a cute little song, with sign language,

"Good morning, good morning, good morning to you"

They played some Simon says,

And after roll call, Mr. M instructed all the kids to turn around and wave goodbye to their parents. I desperately tried to get Finn's attention and was waving wildly. Our eyes met and then I had to leave.

It felt odd. Our home felt empty. And very quiet. I was very excited at the prospect of seeing his shiny little face again.

When I returned to get him 3 hours later, the first thing Finn said was "I had so so so so fun today".

He's an eager little beaver, that's for sure. He can't wait to go back tomorrow.

And this kindergarten thing?

It's wreaking HAVOC on our nap schedule. Ollie napped for 1.5 hours and then I had to wake him up to get Finn. Thankfully, I was able to get him back down for another nap after we got home, because he was Mr. grumpy pants.

And Calvin crashed on the floor right before dinner.

Big adjustment for our humble little home. We are doing well though. Just taking this school thing one year at a time!