Success!

The First Day of School (I capitalized that since it's just as important as any ol' holiday) was successful on all accounts!

Hayley jumped in the car with joy when I picked her up. She chattered on about how cool her teachers are and how much she likes her classes. And just as I promised she would, she made a friend right away. I now know more about that friend than I do any of her classes! LOL

Emma is equally thrilled with her teacher, Mrs. H. She's already comfortable in class and refers to her classmates as her "friends". One of the girls is even moving to the street perpendicular to ours in two weeks. How cool is that! Em will finally have a friend in the neighborhood!

Now that's she at the top of the food chain, a Fifth Grader, Emma gets to learn a new instrument! She's chosen the flute. Okay by me. At least it'll be way smaller than her violin that's constantly sitting in various chairs around the house waiting to be sat upon. :)

Budget cuts have forced the music program to provide only one lesson a week. Doesn't seem quite worth it to me to pay $25/mo to rent an instrument for one (large) group lesson.

Hayley learned to play the trumpet when she was in fifth grade, but they had lessons three times a week. Even then, it was pathetic how little they learned by the end of the year.

Emma's waited so patiently for so long that I'm certainly not going to tell her she can't play. We'll just see how it goes and chalk up the rental fees to the quickly lengthening list of child-related expenses.

My free hours of blessed silence were equally successful...

I slept.