A Day of Firsts

It has been an exciting day at our home. The first day of school is always eagerly anticipated by all. Allie is excited to be going back to school and I am excited to be relieved of my duty to entertain her all day long. To go along with the first day of school we had many other firsts:

• For the FIRST time Allie came cheerfully to family scripture study and stayed upright and awake without any nagging from us.
• For the FIRST time Allie took a shower in under 10 minutes. That is practically a miracle. Yesterday I let her get ready at her own pace and she took a 43 minute shower.
  
• For the FIRST time in 3 months I went to the grocery store and didn't find any "surprise" items in the cart when I went to checkout.
  

The first day of school is sure exciting! It's not without a little anxiety though. Allie asked me at breakfast what it means to have butterflies in your stomach. I explained it to her and asked if she had butterflies in her tummy. She said "No" but a few minutes later declared that she had kangaroos in her stomach. Her fear seemed to disappear as the boys started showing up to walk her to the bus stop. This is kind of a funny ritual because the bus stop is a whopping 30 feet from our front door. The same group of boys has come to get her every school day for the last 2 years. Some serious competition has developed over the years. Last year we had boys showing up half an hour early to pick her up. This lead to a new rule that they had to wait until 8:35 to knock or ring the doorbell which they reluctantly obeyed. Landon and I joined the kids at the bus stop and as usual he was the center of attention.

Waiting for the bus.

The whole group waiting for the bus.