Anna's first day of school

Breaking news - Anna started school! (Four weeks ago. I am somewhat behind.)  As you can see from the picture, it wasn't the smoothest start.  September has been hard on everyone, maybe hardest on Anna.  Her sister is getting a lot of attention for starting Kindergarten, her brothers are turning into real little people who now require mental, not just physical attention and there has been a lot of work travel lately -Dave and I have been at home at the same time only 13 of the last 44 days, good times.  

Anna is not that pleased with the situation and she's pretty good at letting us know.  We have had some epic meltdowns.  A lot of epic meltdowns.  Topics vary, but are usually very well designed to absorb 150% of the attention of the nearest several adults.  She is quite talented.  She needs to be carried everywhere (she claims her back hurts) and she needs to be in costume at all times.  She's clearly exhausted but isn't napping.  Her shoes are all too small, her socks are all too bumpy, her pants are all too short (or too long), the food is always in the wrong place and the wrong thing, the books are read in the wrong order and brushing teeth, combing hair, putting on pjs - forgetaboutit.  I know that everything is a phase, even the good stuff.  I'm ready for this one to be over.

Outside of that, she is actually very happy when she's at school.  She's doing a lot of dress up, art and playing with her kids.  She LOVES a new boy named Blake; he's often the daddy when she's the mommy.  Her other special friends are Eliza (who she goes to swimming lessons with), Ella and Siena.  No matter what the scene that got us into the car, once she knows where she's headed, she can go with a smile.  

Here are the outtakes from our first day of school photo shoot.  As you can see, as soon as we got her sister involved, things started looking up.  It's good to have a sister.