Summer is officially over in the CGQ!

Today is the First Day of School in Changchun.  All four of mine have started!!  My house is oddly quiet.  My Ayi is looking sad.  But I have had the most productive morning... in two months.

Now, I don't love the alarm going off at 5:45am.  And I usually don't like dealing with the mass amount of grumpiness that flows thru the house starting at 6am, but today was quite surprising.  They all bounded out of bed (minus Milly), got dressed, ate, and backpacks ready to go by 6:20am.  By 6:40am, Elly was complaining, let's move it already.  As soon as our driver arrived, we did quick pictures and then they loaded onto the bus.  It was 6:48am.  That had a good ten minutes to get to the school bus....which is a two minute drive away.

My handsome boy ready for 2nd grade!

Elly off to 4th Grade

Jocy headed to 7th Grade! GASP

 The Clan ready for CAIS

Climbed into Stella the bus way too quickly!

Next was Milly.  She woke up sometime before the sun was up.  I let her crawl in bed with me so I could go back to sleep.  It worked!  When I made my way back upstairs....

          

I grabbed her clothes and mine and decided I'll get ready before waking her.  I finally kissed her good morning and she sort of woke up.  She does the most adorable stretch when she is woken from a deep sleep.  Then... "I don't want to go to school.  I want to stay with you".  I nicely said Hell No and reminder her that she has been asking multiple times daily, when does school start.  I knew she was just tired and would soon change her tune. And thankfully, I was right.  By the time we got downstairs for breakfast, we couldn't go fast enough.  We made it out the door by 7:35am.  I was a bit worried how long it would take to get to school since it was raining.  It should really only take 10 minutes to get to her school.  But because of the Chinese have no common sense and driving is a clusterfuck, it takes no less than 30 minutes.  It is a good day if I can get home within the hour.

So oddly enough, traffic was fairly tame and drop off area wasn't too crazy.  Milly popped out of the bus and headed right on in, like she owned the place.  Sounds very familiar (cough - Elly - cough).  I wanted a first day pic at school.  But as soon as we walked in the door and everyone was yelling for Milly, she ran right off and jumped into Ms. Ruby's arms.  I got a quick kiss and out the door.  I am so happy that her teachers are staying with her this year.  She is so excited to be in the Big Kids room on the 3rd floor!  Looking forward to what this school year brings for her.

I had to make a dash back to CAIS to get uniforms.  That school is just a HOT mess.  How can you not expect students to grow out of their uniforms over the summer?  The uniform store should be open the week before!  But no... they just have an open house for new people.  Then... the bus.  UGH.  At BISI, the bus driver would come round the week before and drop off a card with your times. CAIS waited until the day before to send SMS to Joel.  Not even me.  So I had to get in touch with all 3.  Because one is too easy.  There is a morning lady.  One for Elly and Nate on the 2:30 bus and then one for Jocy on the 4:20 bus.   I got the last message for the bus.... at 7pm.  THE NIGHT BEFORE!  

I could keep going on but once I was finished with school stuff, I got mom time!  I stopped in for a mani/pedi and then met some of the other moms for lunch. It was such a fun crazy day.  

I wish I had gotten pics of when they got home... because they were flat out exhausted.  All in bed by 7pm... on their own!  Milly usually likes a hall light on but she told me to turn it off... she was DONE.