First Day of School

Well, it's finally here!  The first day of school....the day I stopped driving to Brenda's and both my little peanuts head off to the same school.  The day I started the morning drop off car pool with another family, because buses are crazy this year....and, most importantly, the first time in 5 months these little peanuts have been in a classroom!  Today is a good day. 

Honestly, we know we're the lucky ones.  I'm so very proud of our tiny little school for realizing that we look more like a rural school than we do like a Chicago school and for being willing to try.  Around us there are just a few school districts that are even attempting in person.  Of those, some are only doing an A/B schedule so we're very fortunate that the kids are getting an opportunity to go to the classroom, meet their teachers, form friendships and bonds and let things feel "normal" for whatever amount of time we can get.

While I'm hoping beyond hope that things are just going to be fine, I'm also realistic and realize that this will probably not last all school year.  I'm hopeful that we can get a few weeks (months?? - how great would it be if it was MONTHS) of school in before we're back at home and trying to figure out remote learning.  At Riley, a small K-8 school outside of Marengo, there are just under 250 total students in the entire building.  Abby has only 13 kids in her class (3 additional choose remote only) and I'm not sure that I can trust Hazel's number of how kids she has.  When I asked her yesterday she told me "Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, FIFTY"....so....I'm going to go by roughly what the school told me originally back in February when registered here....they told me there were 9 set to start Kindergarten.  Eventually I'll ask the teacher, but for now we're just celebrating that school is back in session and the world in our tiny little bubble is feeling a little more like normal these days.

My sweet mom made a whole set of masks for each of the girls.  They are custom fit to their tiny faces and use a lot of cute fabric that I've had laying around from my quilting projects.  For the first day of school they both chose these cute school days masks that feature buses, pencils, chalkboards and bring primary colors - they couldn't be more perfect for the first day of school.