…was ironically also the best day of Magei’s life.  Magei is officially a Gator!!

I’m not sure if Magei’s first day of school was yesterday or today, so I’m documenting them both.  A friend watched Sam on Wednesday and I took Magei to school to do all of the first day stuff.  It only lasted about 90 minutes, but she thought it was super cool.  It was really hard to get any pictures of Magei without Sam.  I didn’t have the heart to kick him out of the photo.  I think he thinks it is his first day of school, too.

Sam has been BESIDE himself all summer long knowing that Magei was going to start kindergarten.  I’ve been talking about it casually for at least six months, just to get him used to the idea.  Every time I brought it up, he would wrap his entire body around her arm or leg and start crying.  So sad.  And yet so funny.  And yet so sad.

Today was the first day for Magei to ride the school bus.  Both kids were pretty happy walking to the bus stop.

It was about this time that Sam started to get really suspicious.

Reality starts to set in…and it’s not looking good for Sam.  Magei did her best to comfort Sam.  It was a delicate balance between being so excited she’s about to BURST and not rubbing her joy in his face.

And then…tragedy.  The bus actually came.  And Magei got on it.  And it drove away.  With Magei.

It took a while before Sam would leave the bus stop.  I’m sure the contractors watching me snap pictures of my crying child instead of comforting him were quite baffled.  I take no pleasure in his pain.  But I do have to document it.  And secretly laugh about it on the inside.

I had visions of getting the laundry done while Magei was at school and Sam played quietly by himself.  However, Sam was in no condition to let that happen, so I did what any good mother would do.  I took him to Target and bought him something.  He got a new alphabet puzzle, and we played together until it was time to go pick up Magei.  I should add that he asked about one gazzilion times (is there any number higher than that?  if there is, that is how many times he asked) if it was time to go get Magei.

FINALLY, we left for the bus stop and bus-watched until we saw hers.  And all was right with the world again.

Summer, that is.  I’m not sure why I’ve been such a blog slacker the last half of the summer, but it’s time for a wrap up.  We’ve had an enjoyable summer.  The weather has been so mild that we can actually get outside…as opposed to last summer when the heat/humidity combo had me holed up in the house with the AC full blast before it was even 10 a.m.  Of course we’ve been to the zoo a million times, and while it has been a blast, I don’t have any pics to show for it.  I quit taking my camera since every picture from every visit looks exactly the same.  However, I have actually let Sam out of the stroller this year (amazing, I know), so I should document that before the summer is officially over.

Nate is going strong as a second year (SECOND YEAR!) resident.  We had a Prosth picnic not long after the semester started.  It was fun to meet all the new people.

Magei and Sam have been hard at work with various art projects all summer.  They are totally obsessed with painting, coloring, cutting, taping, etc..This particular day, they made themselves laptops.  Nate was so proud.

We finally made it to the new Clippers stadium downtown.  It is a really fun stadium, and I made sure we hit it on a night when the Toledo Mudhens were in town.  We brought dinner, did the wave, and cheered for both teams on a perfectly hot summer night.

This post doesn’t necessarily do our summer justice, but it is all I have pictures of, and therefore, all that the blogging community would care about.  And now - time to switch gears from fun-filled summer to responsibility-filled school year!