Back to school

A few (okay, a lot) of the customary "back to school" pics...

Annika started grade 1 last week Thursday...

It looks like she's walking to school alone, but we all walked together - she was just a few steps ahead of me and Emmett because she was so eager to get there.  So far she's really liking grade 1.  Her "best" friend from kindergarten is in her class, and she really likes her teacher.  According to her, the best part of grade 1 is staying for lunch.  She even helps me pack her lunch each night.

Emmett started preschool (his second year) this afternoon....

We got there a bit early so he had some time to play outside before going in.  Last year he would only jump off that play structure if he was holding my hand, but this year he did it once holding on and then just started running and jumping on his own.  This last picture is his classic "cheese" face (and "I'm done taking pictures mom").  I managed to actually get a few real smiles in those first pictures by quoting "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" to him. :P  This is our 4th year at this preschool (Annika went for 2 years and Emmett went last year already), so it almost feels like dropping him off at a family member's place - it's such a great place with great teachers.  This year Emmett will be going 3 afternoons a week.  He said he had a good day today, but didn't tell me much else.  Boys. :P

Pierced!

Another big change for my little girl - who is not so little anymore!  For the longest time Annika said that she never wanted to get her ears pierced, but around the end of school she started asking to have them pierced.  I wasn't sure about keeping them clean over the summer (swimming in pools and lakes and camping, etc), so I told her that if she still wanted it done, we would do it at the end of summer, before school started.  She waited very patiently (I think she actually forgot about it over the summer!), and we went today to have it done.

The salon we went to did both ears at the same time, so it was all over and done with in one shot.  There were no tears, before or after, although I could tell that it hurt her.  I think it was good that she had never seen anyone else get it done, so she really had no idea what to expect.

She doesn't look overly excited in these pictures, but she was really happy afterwards, and kept wanting to see herself on my phone or in mirrors that we passed.  We had left Emmett at grandma and grandpa's house, so we had a little "girl time" afterwards.  We did a bit of shopping (she picked out a few pairs of earrings for when she can change them) and we even found something for Emmett, so he wouldn't feel too left out.

Then we had lunch.  I had told Annika that she could pick any place she wanted for lunch, and I was expecting somewhere like Boston Pizza, however she decided she wanted to stay at the mall.  We had Taco Time for lunch and Tim Horton's donuts for dessert.

She did not let a single sprinkle get away!

We had a really good time together, and hopefully this is something that she'll remember for a long, long time.

Oh, and what did we get for Emmett?? 

Hopefully he's still into pirates by Halloween!!