Not your average first-ride-on-a-schoolbus photo :)

Yes, no little preschoolers toddling down the lane with backpacks as big as themselves :).

Vignettes from the first day of school:

Iain: Couldn't stop talking. Had (mostly) a wonderful time. Was taken under the combined wings of Emily and Danielle and give a tour of the playground during recess. Emily made sure he would sit with her on the bus :). He's pretty sure he aced all his pop quizzes and spelling test, and is feeling quite pumped about the whole school thing :).

Claire: Loves her teacher, and is excited about music and other classes. Didn't connect with anyone specific yesterday (please pray that she finds herself a buddy), and was shocked more than she imagined she would be by the swearing and boy crazies. Claire is an auditory learner, processes everything she hears and does not "tune out" like us visual types. She was looking most forward to school, and was a little disappointed. However, we pointed out that she hasn't met everyone in the class yet :).

Alison: "There are three groups of girls in the grade 8 class. The cool kids, who are all chasing after A.J. The not-cool kids, who are all chasing after Taylor. And the last group is Bobby Jo and I, who are watching and snickering at them all."

Yup, Alison's commentary on the day. Also surprised by the boy-obsessiveness of the other girls ..."Mom, the girls don't talk about anything else!", she was able to immediately find someone else who was like-minded, loving animals and involved with 4H. However she is completely disheartened by the level of academics at the school. They read only one book in grade 8 (can that be true????) and it is a book she studied last year in grade 7. Scarily enough, the one subject that I did a lousy job teaching and was quite concerned about (French) ... has turned out to be fine for her. This doesn't encourage me; she really should be behind.

And in an ironic twist for the girls of grade 8, she is the only eighth grade girl on heart-throb A.J.'s bus, and was chosen to be his study partner :D.

So, an interesting start to the school year. We shall be watching how the academic stuff plays out, and whether there will be any support for our kids, who although are not gifted in any sense of the word, do love to learn.

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And on a different and more somber note: my friend Tricia brought her truck round today and we took the cull ewe and two meat lambs in to the abbatoir. I didn't blubber (although did tear up once: Stew was such a kind ram), and I will be thankful once we pick up the legs of lamb and shoulder roasts etc. But it was certainly not easy to do. I did, however, leave the abbatoir confident that these animals had good, happy, spoiled lives, were loved and cared for properly, and were put down instantly and humanely at the end.

Something to think about next time we pick up that shrink-wrapped package of something on a styrofoam tray at the grocery store.