I woke Ri up from her slumber at 6:45 am this morning. She had wanted to wake up at 6:30 am but I struggled to get out of bed for 15 minutes. Jon and I were rather liberal with our wake up times this Summer – getting up at 7 or 7:30 to get ready for work. We knew that would end today since the kids would be wanting to head out early for the first day of school. 

I got Rocco out of his kennel and took him for a quick walk in the woods. When I returned, Ri and Mario were dressed and preparing their lunches. Ri was packing salad and ranch dressing in her new containers. Mario was watching her. She walked over to the counter after placing her containers in her lunch box and began dispensing mini M&Ms into Mario’s yogurt. I had complained the night before that Mario needs to eat Greek yogurt to get more protein. But he refuses to eat yogurt unless he can dump the crushed Oreos or M&Ms in it. So Ri went to the store with me last night and bought a large container of Greek yogurt and a bag of mini M&Ms. 

“This will save you money, mom, because you can just pour the yogurt in a container and sprinkle a few M&Ms on for Mario instead of buying a bunch of separate yogurts that don’t have as much good stuff in them.” 

The girl is a born mother. Mario began pouring more M&Ms in his yogurt and Maria stopped him. 

“Whoa there buddy, that’s enough chocolate for you.”

Seriously.

They put their water bottles and lunch boxes in their book bags and slung the bags over their backs. They knew I’d need to take my pictures of them so they scurried outside to get them over with as quickly as possible.

They look a bit gawky for their first day, in a sweet way. Ri’s got the fifth grade “I’m growing into my body and it’s strange” look and Mario has the second grade “I’m way too cool for pictures look.”

But they broke loose once they hit their respective schools. Ri ran around with all her girlfriends laughing and playing. The pictures say it all.

I met up with Mario after some other moms got the crazy photos for me.

  
By the time I arrived, he looked like a little angel carrying a backpack and ready to conquer school.  

He had no desire for Jon or me to head into school with him. When the bell rang, he and a throng of kids rushed inside the doors anxious to see their rooms. Now, to keep that excitement all year…!