First Days (and getaways)

That look... that hair... that rock... all signs point to trouble.

I am writing this morning from one VERY quiet house.  Eerily quiet.  Faye is here, but still sleeping -- otherwise, I have the place entirely to myself.  Clark has landed in Ireland for his week-long conference, and for the first time ever, both kids are off to school on a Monday morning.  I am not exaggerating when I say that this is, in many ways, the beginning of a new era for me.   Juniper will get off the bus at 2:50 each day, but until then I have five full days to myself, every single week.  It is kind of sad, granted, but also exciting - this may actually mean that I finish my thesis once and for all.  I can't even imagine how good that would feel.

Contemplating the boating scene

Anyway - I will get to first days of school, because that is obviously the focus of this week's post.  First, however, I wanted to put up some pics from our very fun and adventurous trip out to Lac La Pêche last weekend.  This is our third trip to the lovely Gatineau Park in Quebec, and it has so far never failed to delight.  This time around we planned for a full day trip, and went to an area where we could rent boats (a canoe for us, and a kayak for Faye), and make our way to a popular rock jumping location.  The idea was to pack in as much summer goodness as we could into one last-weekend-before-school expedition, and we succeeded fully, if I do say so myself.

Eating a picnic lunch at a camping site we paddled to

Our boats patiently waiting as we ate lunch 

Ready to go!

Some lily pads along the way

A family picture that Faye snapped

 The scenery, as you can probably gather, was spectacular.  And apart from a few very windy stretches, the paddling was also pretty ideal.  We stopped at one site for lunch, and then made our way straight to the jumping rocks.  Everyone had a BLAST.  Juniper even jumped once from the really high rock, but that was enough for her - I think the impact scared her a bit.  Clark is determined to actually go camping there before the fall gets too chilly, so we may yet have another Lac Le Pêche adventure in the next few weeks.  Clark has also decided that he is going to build us a "simple" canoe this fall, so that we have our own boat to take on such outings.  I'll keep you posted!

Faye and Linden, mid-air

Clark takes his first leap from the tall rock

Faye and Juniper tackle the big rock as well!

Chatting and drying out in the sun

SCHOOL!
And finally, the much-anticipated first day shots.  Juniper and Linden both had different first days.  School officially began on the Tuesday after labour day, but the junior kindergarteners had a much slower, staggered entry.  We had an intake meeting with Linden's teachers for half an hour on Tuesday, but his first real day wasn't until Friday.

Taking Juniper to the bus stop

Showing off her exceptionally black outfit (not my choice), and her psychedelic back pack

A close-up on her hair ribbon - the one burst of colour in her ensemble

Excited to start!

Despite Juniper's nerves about starting the "big leagues", she had a fabulous first week.  As it turns out, she has a little friend named Lindsay in her class that she had met over the summer  (in fact, they are seated right next to each other!), and they are already besties.  And while she claims that she "doesn't understand anything" in class, she picked out a french book at the library over the weekend, and read the whole thing to me.  I think she will be just fine.

Group shot, waiting for the bus

 Linden has also started school off with a bang. At our intake meeting, he was at his most charming, and was super excited about all the toys and play spaces in his new classroom.  His teachers seem amazing, and he took to them both right away, offering hugs as we left the meeting.  He was also incredibly keen to take the bus - I think he'd been waiting his whole life to be big enough for that day.  There were no apparent nerves or fears; no tears, and no looking back once he was seated.

Mr. Dapper (with some serious bed head)

Wearing his first-day crown (to identify him as a JK student in the purple class when he got off the bus)

 Though it was certainly quite emotional sending Linden off, on a BUS, on his first day of school (he's still just a wee little lad, after all - he won't turn 4 until October!), I didn't find myself getting weepy or distraught.  Mostly I was just excited for his new adventure, and happy/proud that he was so confident and pumped to be a big kid.  I will say, however, that Clark and I promptly jumped on our bikes as soon as the bus rounded the corner, and raced to his school before his bus got there for some good old-fashioned stalking.  Like, we literally hid behind trees with a big zoom lens so that we could watch him get off the bus, and make his way into the playground.  He was cool as a cucumber.

Stalker photo

It was also really fun meeting Linden when he got off the bus at the end of the day - both Juniper and I were excited to greet him and hear all about big boy Kindergarten.  He was full of smiles and energy and stories, and pretty pleased with himself about the whole experience, I'd say.

Front seat keener

Holding the handrail - safety first!

I think they were both pretty excited to see each other

Holding hands on the grass

One last first day shot!

And that's about it!  I think I might go start my first Monday off by going back to bed - just a wee little nap.  It is already exhausting flying (mostly) solo, and Clark hasn't even been gone 24 hours! Then I'm going to -gasp!- get some work done!  Wish me luck!  I'll leave you with a picture of what Linden likes to get up to on a rainy weekend day.  Naturally, it involves mud and construction.  See you next week!

Some serious brick and mud work

Things got real when Clark contributed some scrap wood