First Day of School

Yes, I realize school started over a month ago. Give me points for still trying to keep y'all in the loop with the zoo. I didn't want to post about this until I had pictures to post. Remember, the whole missing camera saga? Let me pause for a second to tell you about that.

I was just going about my business cleaning the house per usual. While vacuuming the dining room I saw that some items had fallen on the floor between the desk & printer cabinet. I really....REALLY want to just pretend that I didn't see such items down there. To the regular passing by it was not noticeable at all. But being that slightly (?) clean freak that I am....it was just calling my name. "Caaaarmeeeeeen! Pick me uuuuuuuupppppp!" (Do not question my sanity at this point). It wasn't as simple as reaching down & picking up the items. I had to literally move over the printer cabinet to reach the items and I figured that since I was doing this I might as well pull it all the way out and clean the entire area. As soon as I pulled out the cabinet I spotted a little purse way in the back. My heart did a little pitter patter. I snatched up the purse, opened it & to my lovely eyes I saw Angel's camera. Even though I was alone I still started to yell & jump up & down.

It doesn't stop there. Once I got done doing my little jig I sat down at the computer to post on facebook about my find. Yes, I knew my friends would rejoice with me. When I sat down to post I checked my notifications and a friend had alerted me about a camera she had seen for sale by another friend (thank you Rikki!). Long story short and thanks to the advice of my dear friend Suzie I ended up buying the camera. It is a Nikkon and once I got to working it I was blown away. What was I thinking all those years using Kodak?!?!?! Yes, it's still a point and shoot. And yes, I'm still longing for a "real" camera. It fixes part of my problem and I now have a nice working camera AND I have found the missing camera with the coveted pictures of Mexico & the first day of school. Yay!

Here is the rundown of the animals starting school this year:

Angel, 10th grade:

Mandy, 8th grade:

Brianna/Nina, 6th grade:

With the older kids I can only get away with taking their pictures in the driveway.  It is so not cool to take a picture at school in front of the sign.  If I do it's not that morning in front of all their peers.  They want me to drive them & drop them off, but beyond that....whoa, keep it at arms length.  So I relish in at least being able to take their pictures and enjoy my moments with my elementary kids.  So  off to school we go with my 2 boys.

John, 5th grade & Andrew, kindergarten:

Once we got past this picture, John was out of sight to go play ball with his friends.  So I focused on Andrew.  I won't bombard you with the several pictures I took of his lining up with his new little friends.  I was busy chocking back tears and just enjoying the moment.  I even followed his class in to take this picture.

Beyond that, the day continued on and even though I missed my babies, I embraced my new phase in life.  I still had Carmen with me.  I have already posted about her starting school.  I enjoyed the start of the new school year.