Yes, it's that time of the year again - school is back! Woohoo! It will come as no surprise to my family and friends that I have found my first proper experience of the long Canadian summer holidays a little trying to say the least.
When we arrived in June last year we took the children out of school a week before we arrived and so I knew that we were all going to be at home together for quite a long time, 13 weeks in all if I remember rightly. However, having just moved to a new country we had so much to do, not least of which was buying a new home, that the time really did just fly by. Before I knew it the first day of school arrived and they were off!
This year we obviously haven't had all those other things to keep us busy. Here they usually break up around the 3rd week of June but don't go back until the 2nd week of September, 11 weeks in all (and yes, I've counted! LOL!). This is basically twice as long as the UK school holidays which I found to be plenty long enough for the girls. Now, I know most Canadians put their children in to a couple of summer camps, sometimes more, but this wasn't an option for us, or at least I was hoping it wouldn't be! Having put our house up for sale in May we really didn't expect to be here over the summer or if we were then only for a part of it and we thought that this would be spent frantically trying to pack. Obviously we are still here so they could have gone to camp. {me now kicking myself}
Considering the length of time they've been home we have had a good summer break together but I knew the girls were really looking forward to returning to school, mainly I think because they would be attending a brand new school. Last year the girls were bussed to an out of district school, Rockingham Elementary, and this wasn't ideal, largely in part due to the fact that they had to catch the bus at 7:30am. Ugh, me and early mornings do not a good mix make. The sub-division we live in has now grown sufficiently to necessitate it's own school and so Kingswood Elementary was built and completed in late August this year, yes the end of last month! The school was pretty much ready by the skin of its teeth, or should that be bricks? And the bus pick up time? A far more civilised 8:13am, yeah!
Here are the girls, all dressed up (just click on the thumbnail for an enlargement), excited because they have new lunch bags, new backpacks and new clothes!
Don't they look smart? Obviously I have lots of the obligatory "Back to School" scrapbooking photos! I was very proud of my girls today. The both had great first days and came home so excited and chatting about their days. And the best part for them both? "No homework yet mum, not till next week anyway!"
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