First Day of School

I gotta admit, I was more nervous for the first day of school this year than the boys were. I know the schools they attend are good ones, but I want them to have great teachers who motivate, inspire, and encourage them to reach their potential and do their best. I was really worried for Colton. We found out on Saturday that he has a male teacher. I asked two ladies from church who volunteer at the school about him, and both said he was fine. They both said they hadn't heard anything bad about him.
"But have you heard anything GOOD about him?"
"Well..."
Both ladies said he really focuses on Science and Math, which Colton LOVES, so that's good. And maybe since Sean is gone it will be good to have a positive male role model in Colton's life for 6 hours every day.
So, my day started at 5 am so Tony and I could do 282 push ups together (full ones, none of those sissy girl-ones-on-your-knees-ones) and 32 pull ups (without a chair folks, take that Dreya!). Then I made Colton's lunch, woke the kids, poured some cereal, and we were on the road to school before 7:10. We had to leave super early since I figured most parents would be driving their kids on the first day of school, and with over 2,000 students between the elementary, intermediate, and middle school, I knew parking would be at a premium this morning. We got to school early, did a run for hash browns at BK, and watched a movie in the car before venturing out in the cold and dreary world at 7:45 am. It was a whopping 49 degrees this morning, cloudy and drizzly. Perfect weather for the first day of school. I think the weather reflected the kids' mood as school started again.
Here are Colton and Jaxon before leaving for school:


Jaxon took off as soon as he left the car. I was gonna embarass him by shouting across the parking lot, "I love you smoochie bear!!" but figured he may decide my retirement home one day, so its better not to tick him off too much when he's young.
We found where Colton's class lines up, and waited patiently for his teacher to come. Once I saw him, I felt better. He looks nice. He looks laid back, like he knows what he's doing, and enjoys doing it. Here's Mr. Johnson with some of the class:

Here's Colton in line, freezing in his new Ramstein Intermediate School sweatshirt, while he waits for the rest of the class:

I tried to get Colton to profess in front of his new classmates how much he'd miss me after being with me for the past 2 1/2 months nonstop, but he wouldn't do it.
"Not even a little tear for dear old mom?"
"Nope"
Oh well, Ella, Mason and I said bye to Colton, walked over to the commissary, bought donuts for the kids and a chicken for dinner tonight, saw Christy there and discussed how well we felt about leaving our kinder in these new teachers' hands.
Then we ran a TON of errands. We went to the hospital to pick up mail. Here's Ella being an awesome helper and carrying some of the mail for me:

Then we all needed a pee break, and since Mason is doing fantastically awesome with this whole potty training thing, I quickly located a bathroom so we could keep up with his 100% success rate and three-day-dry-undies record. Here he is taking care of business:


Potty training in Germany rocks because everything here is so clean, including their bathrooms.
Then we had to go to the Rathaus (not a place for rodents, but for taking care of town business) and check on our electricity bill and pick up more recycling bags. Oh the joy of living in an environmentally conscious country. Wonderful for the environment, but sometimes inconvenient for us lazy Americans.
Next we went to SBK, a little German store to look for lightbulbs and vacuum cleaner bags. Oh, and of course German candy. We found everything we needed, plus some things we just wanted, like Kinder Eggs. If you don't know what there are, and you have kids, you're lucky. My kids love these things and we have the little plastic eggs from the inside of them all over the place. They are chocolate eggs around a plastic egg which is filled with a little toy. The toy is usually pretty silly, but my kids love them nonetheless. Here is Mason professing his love for Kinder eggs in the shopping cart. He seriously grabbed the package of them and kept saying over and over, "I love you Kinder eggs!"

Here he is hugging the eggs:

Then we went home where I got the joy of cleaning two bathrooms while the little ones played with new Playmobil guys from SBK. We went visiting teaching at the play ground at the food court on base, bought new ear phones for Colton so he can't hear bad words being said on the bus ride home, and met the boys at the bus stop.
It seems my worrying was for nothing. Both Jaxon and Colton had good days at school. Colton said his teacher is very nice and likes him. Colton is only worried about making friends since he doesn't know anyone in his class yet.
Jaxon likes all his classes and is even in 8th grade math. He got to be in Intermediate Band even though he didn't take Band last year by convincing the teacher that since he plays piano he should get to stay in that class. So, guess what instrument was left and he is playing? Yup, a manly masculine xylophone. Sweet. I think reggae music and dreadlocks may be in his future. I am excited for him. He has good classes and likes his teachers so far. So, once again, all is well in the Burke household. We did a quick run to Rofu Kinderland because I promised the boys to take them there today. They are both searching for certain Lego guys, but the store didn't have them. Darn. Then we did FHE about the Plan of Salvation. Thank you Friend magazine for the pictures. Now it's story time, so I have to go. Later!