Back to School

Today was a banner day for the Austins. It was our furriest family member Sylvester's 5th birthday! Oh yeah, and Carter and Clay went back to school.

As is my tradition, I stayed home long enough to take my obligatory scrapbook photos and see Carter get on the bus.

The few times a year I can accompany him to the bus stop, it's always an interesting experience. There are 7 neighborhood kids at the bus stop -- and Carter is the oldest and the only boy. You see why it's interesting!

Today (as is their routine) they had placed their backpacks on the road to hold their spots while they walked around, antsy for the bus to arrive. One of the girls said, "Carter, you've got the same backpack as last year!"

I was proud of his response. "So? There's nothing wrong with it. I didn't need a new one."

I then jumped in and explained, "That's the difference between boys and girls. Boys don't care if they have the same backpack 2 years in a row. They didn't stay up worrying last night about what to wear the first day of school. In fact, Carter didn't even get new school clothes."

Now that was met with a few gasps from the girls with the sparkly "iCarly" backpacks and pink tennis shoes.

It is the truth actually. I won't say all boys, but my boy (for now), isn't worried about new clothes or brand names. I will get him some new pants this fall but he's got like 200 t-shirts of all varieties in his closet and a dozen or so hooded sweatshirts. So he's good! To him, "school shopping" is school supply shopping. I'll go along with that theory as long as he does!

Tonight Carter reported that his first day as a sixth-grader was great. He even got to make an arts & crafts project out of chewed bubble gum (his own, thankfully).

That sounds way better than my technology-challenged day at work. Maybe tomorrow I'll get on the bus, too...