See how they grow

Mitch had his first day of school today, starting the first grade! He's going to be gone from 8:30 am until 4 pm every day! Poor Luke, by noon he was saying he missed Mitch. But Luke will start preschool next week, and we'll be back into the swing of things. I took this picture before school today. Mitch is so grown up, he picked out his clothes last night, set them in a pile in the order he would be putting them on (i.e. underwear and socks on top because he would put those on first, shoes on the bottom, etc.). Last night I made his lunch and put it in his cool Lightning McQueen lunchbox, but he informed me this morning that he didn't want the lunchbox, he just wanted it in a paper sack. I can't believe he cares so much about these things already...at least I'm still cool enough to be able to walk him to his classroom and kiss and hug him in front of his friends!

Mitch was also relieved to discover that homework will not take over his life, and that no bullies bothered him at school. He had this idea that he would come home from school, do homework, eat dinner, then go to bed (did I put that idea in his head?!). And he's been kind of obsessed with there being bullies at his school, and we've had to say a lot of prayers to help keep Mitch protected from bullies.

I took this picture after the second day of school last year (I forgot on the first day...) and thought it would be fun to compare the pictures to see how much the three have changed in a year.

Oh yeah, and another funny song Mitch was singing last night as he was going to bed (I love when my kids sing!), Viva la Vida. He totally was singing the musical introduction and then knew the first few lines of lyrics. And I heard Mitch and Luke discussing what song it was, trying to remember the name of the song (which they actually remembered). It was so funny! I guess they pay attention to the songs I crank on the radio!

Tonight I made plum jam from plums I picked off of trees that grow on common property in our subdivision. It was so easy, but something about canning makes me feel old-fashioned and totally domestic! I feel like I should enter the county fair or something...oh wait, except I kind of wasn't paying enough attention to the fruit as it was boiling and it kind of burned, so there are these black flecks in the jam. But it didn't really seem to affect the taste. Still good enough to give to friends as gifts, right?