Schoolboy

 Today was Nathan's big day--his first day of preschool.  He even woke up excited.
 

Look at the grin on his face before we walked Rachel to school!  (Even though his school didn't start until later, he brought his backpack along.)
 

 A big hug from Daddy for a big schooboy.

The hour between dropping Rachel at her school and leaving for Nathan's school was probably the longest hour of his life.  He had just a little trouble saying goodbye, but he had a great day.  He was the line leader for the walk to the gym.  The first thing he told me after school was that his snack was goldfish and apple juice.  Someone painted his hand orange and he got to put an orange handprint on brown paper after they read a story about a kissing hand.  And there were lots of detailed stories (the only kind Nathan knows how to tell!) about other things that happened at school.  Watch out, world--Nathan is on his way!

Braids and shin guards

Rachel is an old hand at kindergarten now, but the milestones keep whizzing by.

 Today she wore her first single French braid!  I don't think this milestone is mentioned in most parenting books, but I both appreciate some variety in my braiding tasks and think of this as a pretty grown-up thing.  After all, I wore my hair this way to my wedding!

And after school today, she had her first soccer practice--and scored a goal during the scrimmage.  Most important, she thought it was a lot of fun.

This is what Nathan did during the soccer practice.  He's been a good sport, and we've had a lot of fun together, but he does miss Rachel a lot when she's gone.  Today he asked repeatedly what she was doing at school at that moment, and when we picked her up, he chattered on to her all about his (very thrilling--it included grocery shopping) day.  He had obviously been thinking about her quite a bit.  Tomorrow it will be his turn to go to school and have experiences of his own!