It’s really very clear how the Bushes feel about the abrupt end to their summer fun. The big “K” - kindergarten, that is - started for Maddie on Monday.

What great faces, don’t you think? I can’t decide what I like better when a picture is requested from them - the cheesy fake smile, or these great big pouty frowns. Mad’s is so frowny that she almost looks like a cartoon - and well, with Sophie it’s monkey see monkey do. But truthfully…

…Mad was actually really excited, definitely more excited than nervous, about her first day at school. Luckily Daddy was able to stay home that morning because he was flying out on business later in the day, so taking Mad to her very first big school class was a family affair. Thankfully (I think), we’re walkers and not drivers, it’s just a short stroll over to the elementary school. Of course, until preschool starts in two more weeks, poor Soph has to walk back and forth twice each day without even getting to have school fun in between! She’s been feeling a little lonely without her buddy (and thinks the empty carseat next to her is weird), but gradually she’s getting used to it.

Once we got inside, Maddie was all business. Throw your lunch bag here, hang your backpack there, and kick your family out the door already! Actually, though, we’re very happy about how confident Maddie seems, much more so than we expected her to be. She’s come home feeling that each day is easier than the next, and has lots and lots to share about what happened during classtime. More signs that this dear one is feeling more comfortable and secure in school settings, which has us over the moon.

Now onto working with Sophie…good thing preschools don’t have detention. Hope her future teachers aren’t reading this! (If you are, I’m joking…um…really.)

The hot and humid days of Texas summers are always a little easier to bear around mid-August, because the sticky air reminds us of our late-summer stay in Guangzhou to get Maddie. Five years! It doesn’t seem possible, since it has gone by so very quickly. She’s such big kid now, a far way from the little bitty girl we met on the 5th floor. Mad is definitely grasping the fact that it’s cool to have two days to celebrate a year, and it’s been interesting to hear her explain it to others. “It’s like a birthday for our family,” she says. And she’s certainly right.

Saturday morning, I got to start out by practicing my creative pancake-making at breakfast. Who can resist when your kids ask you to make a panda and a princess out of the batter? I cheated doing the princess hair in syrup, but I do think I get points for making the panda ears, eyes and nose a shade darker than the head.

The rest of the day was a lazy day for the most part, though we did have special requests for snack, dinner and cake from the girl of honor. And, the girls got to use as much big paper as they could lay out. I think they got the idea from the Ramona series, which we’ve been reading together all summer. Ramona’s dad puts a huge sheet of paper the length of the kitchen floor for the two of them to draw on - you have to admit, Mad and Soph almost got there themselves.

Gotcha Day has a few traditions with it - one being that both girls get balloons, which of course they now like to pick themselves. Our trip to get them this time was a very patient affair - the girls had to know what each balloon said before they picked them. Sophie’s is hilarious - if you can’t read it, it says “IT’S A GIRL!”. Totally apropos in that Sophie sort of way. Here, she decided it made a pretty good hair clip, too.

Maddie was a little more demure with the hair-clipping, and also with the message on her balloon. After hearing me read all the messages, she insisted on picking this one. “WE’LL MISS YOU” is what it says. I didn’t understand the choice at all until much later…Maddie is the “leaving” and Sophie’s is the “arriving” one. Very clever.

We’ve waited a long time for this too - a super-relaxed, super-genuine smile from our excellent girl from Qu. When we were singing she tried to wear her shy face, but Grandma came through with a bunch of razzes that got her laughing and back to normal. We love it when the sun’s out!

No creative spelling with alphabet candles this time, though - our choices were limited. Though most Gotcha Days I think we should rather be spelling “THANK YOU” - that is, we are so thankful to have these girls in our family and in our lives.

You came and changed everything, my dear. THANK YOU, Mad.