A New School Year

We're already a few weeks into the new school year, but here are their first day of school pictures.  This was the first year I wasn't home to see either of them get ready and leave.  Jackson leaves later now since he's in middle school - so we don't have anyone getting on the early elementary school bus anymore!  Michael took their first day of school pictures this time.  It's Jackson's first year of 6th grade - middle school...and Rachel's first year of 9th grade - high school!  It's all moving so fast.

Sweet Lucy...

Jackson gets to do band now that he's in middle school.  His first choice was trombone and he got it!  Oh boy!  He's very excited about it though.  And he did not want to do percussion...

Rachel's first football game for marching band was this past Friday night.  The band itself wasn't ready to perform their big show for halftime yet so they didn't bring down the big bell sets (xylophones, vibraphones, etc) and those are what Rachel is playing this year.  She's in the front ensemble (or pit) and will be standing still playing those instruments while the rest of the band does the marching around on the field playing theirs.  Well, since they weren't ready yet, and they didn't bring down the big bells, Rachel and three other kids, didn't have anything to play Friday night.  So they sat with the band and marched in and out with them, but didn't play anything.  So she was pretty disappointed about that but she made it through. 

And yesterday, Michael and Jackson went on a floating trip down the river with Jackson's scout troop.  They were supposed to be in canoes but the river was a little high so the outfitter had them use these collapsible kayaks instead.  They had a great time.  It was about a 3 hour float.  And the boys got to stop and get in a couple of times.