Back-to-School Retrospective, Complete with Excessive Photos of the Kids

Oh, I love a good retrospective.

Especially when it is set to touching music and includes a segment that will make me cry.

I am a sucker for emotional pain, which is why I've compiled some pictures of the kids and in all of their back-to-school glory.

Lilly's first day came and went this morning. I shocked myself by NOT crying. If tears are really anti-freeze for the soul, then I am in big trouble.

Although (and this is a tip for those of you out there with younger kids), I like to watch a lovely iPhoto montage of my babies growing up--complete with sappy music--a few days before school starts. 

That way, when it's actually Go-Time, I have gotten the weepies out of my system and can focus on things like feeding them donuts for breakfast and reminding them not to talk about topics like farting at school.

Maybe it's a little crazy for me to reminisce over the past few years, seeing has Lilly hasn't even begun her formal public education yet. However, she is in her senior year of preschool, so that counts for something.

I've contemplated explaining to the blogging audience-at-large why my child is a preschool veteran at four, but instead, I'm hoping you'll choose to believe I did what I thought best each year.

It was either preschool or a large cage, so hopefully that will paint me in a more humane light.

Here we go...

Freshman Year, 2005

As you can tell from that first photo op, Lilly wasn't too excited for the back-to-school picture opportunity.

But on day two... 
...she got all giddy and posed pretty well. Considering she was a baby. A baby with a lunchbox half her size.

And a mullet. (I'm sorry, baby.)

From then on, she and Jackson made me take their pictures each day before school. 

For real.

I probably have 20 pictures from the fall of 2005. Thank goodness it finally snowed in November, at which point I successfully convinced the kids that we couldn't be found frozen to death on our own doorstep in the name of Before-School Photography.

Sophomore Year, 2006

I think Lilly's biggest accomplishment this year was growing her hair into a cute bob.

Or maybe it was that she wore metallic sandals on the first day. I can scarcely remember life in the Pre-Sock Obsession Era, but these photos are evidence that such times were both real and beautiful.

I sure hope you noticed the Spiderman band-aid that Lilly so gracefully sported on that sweet knee.

To this day she prefers Batman or Spiderman over any girly band-aids. I practically dropped to the ground while begging her to buy a Care Bears or Strawberry Shortcake set of band-aids last time we were at Target.

She would not have any of it and chose Scooby Doo. 

I really can't complain because I wasn't exactly ruffles and lace growing up, either. 

Junior Year, 2007

This was a big year of transition because we had just moved and Jackson started kindergarten.

He was busy never going to school thanks to the year-round system, and Lilly was left to forge the scary halls of preschool alone for the first time.

But she survived.

Did y'all notice that sweet little pink backpack that faithfully stood the test of time? It is from The Gap over FOUR years ago and still going strong.

And that is one of the many reasons I feel it blesses my family when I shop there.

Senior Year, 2008

Jackson is just a stand-in since his big day isn't for another 8 days, 8 hours, 36 minutes, and 17 seconds.

Also, I had to take their picture today because his new elementary school is FORCING them to wear a t-shirt with a picture of a golden retriever on it for the first day.

Help. Me.

(Look! The Gap backpack and lunch box! I am so thrifty and stretch my dollar(s) soooo far!) 

(Be sure and mention this to Brad.)

Somehow my sweet little baby has sprouted into a bigger sweet little baby.

I would mention that she is only a few months away from turning 5, but then I might break into the Ugly Cry all over my keyboard and wreck it.

And I hear computers aren't cheap. (But with all the money I've saved on backpacks...)

We had fun celebrating the first day, but perhaps the greatest moment caught me by surprise.

One of my dearest and wildest Fashion Fantasies came true when UNKNOWINGLY(!), Lilly and her two best buddies arrived at the first day in color coordinated outfits.

Be still my beating heart.

Have you seen The Gap's fall line? Well if not, here it is:

A key to academic success is the First Day Outfit. That is pretty undisputed. And these chickies pulled it off quite well.

The only thing better would've been to have the entire class coordinating with their Pottery Barn Kids room decor, but that is probably best left to the catalog professionals.

But I am nothing if not filled with ambition.