Open House and Orientation

Milo has his P4 open house today. He'll have, pretty much, the same teachers - one new to him. We'll go - get coffee - take all the little ones. It's nice every year (we've done this with Enzo and Milo now for both P3 and now P4) - they play in the toy house there, set up dinosaurs, talk to their teachers - in Milo's case - alternately "loud talk" and act coy ;-). Enzo likes to show him the ropes - tell him how it is :-). Lil just likes to mix with the other kids (I should find opportunities for her to do that more often - she currently reports big sis, Olivia, as her "best friend").

This morning is cool - back door open - Lil playing with Barbies on the deck in her cute little hoodie sweater (thanks to April at Vanilla Pastry Studio for delivering the missing "mouse dolls" yesterday to our door last night - they were waiting on the mailbox this morning :-) - Enzo watching cartoons and eating cereal. Hubby home and working on his laptop - Milo still asleep.

I drove Olivia to the bus stop this morning again - this time had hot lunch packed for her - still fretting that her skirt is too short (recently hemmed to OC standards) - happy to see she and her friends, Molly and Olivia B - some of the boys from Central Catholic - all standing and chatting - in ties, vests, khakis, plaid skirts.... One mother kept turning in her car to mouth "OMG" at me with wide, smiling eyes. They look so grown up - hard to believe.

So... we're happy with Olivia's report of her first day. She met a girl from Nigeria who was very shy - another exchange student from Korea in her homeroom. The school had assigned seats at lunch so that girls could get to know one another. Most of the day was really just what they said it would be - an orientation. Hubby and I both went to public high schools - albeit supposedly the best in our respective areas, but....did not get any special treatment. Both of us new our first day, we had to fend for ourselves. We were kind of amazed to see that she came home with handbooks for us to read and sign - welcome pamphlets from the youth group and student council and other items. It was interesting to hear, as I drove them all to field hockey (after having a favorite pasta meal and baked cookies ready for her end of first day :-), all their impressions of friends, new acquaintances and teachers.

And so the day starts - dappled morning light - cool air - hot chocolate on the stove - quiet sounds of cartoons in the background (totally reminiscent of my childhood). I'm watching dog walkers and runners out my window - checking email (disappointed to see that one of my brothers is not interested in the night out to Michael Symon's restaurant, Lola, in Cleveland with the rest of us, but.... will keep trying to reach him as my Dad would have wanted - besides, you never know what is going on in others' lives to make them stand-offish, right?) - getting some notes out to people for an end of summer catch-up of sorts (cards to cousins starting school - notes from Olivia to her school buddy, a second grader who has just lost her father - so... an aside - but thoughts and prayers there if you can spare as this little one and her siblings make their new school year transition this year).

Photos: The marks on the wall where Olivia used to measure Enzo and Milo on our third floor. Seriously - look at how they've grown!