First Days and Solar Eclipses

Now that our internet is back up and running... I can update the blog! 

We have had much excitement around here, especially for the boys! Yesterday was Christopher's first day of third grade! I remember starting this blog and thinking, "Yeah, I'll do it for the first year of his life." And now look at him!

He had a great first day, although it wasn't your typical first day because of the eclipse--more on that later. And today was Jonathan's first day! As I mentioned last week, J was looking forward to Mommy dropping him off and then getting the heck out. He didn't kick me out when I dropped him off, per se, but he went right in and got down to the business of playing so Mommy took a picture and departed. I mean, look at him. Is he ready or what? 

Yesterday, Chris was very tired at the end of his day and I'm assuming our little boy will be the same today... So I don't know if you heard but, there was a solar eclipse yesterday and once again, Kansas City seems to be the best place to live for us. Here is how it went... In the morning, we had some major storms that passed through with torrential rains and crazy lightning, which of course we drove through to get to Jonathan's return to My Gym. Also, this was the source of our lack of internet for the rest of the day. I was thinking, "Well, there goes the eclipse." Around 11:00, the clouds parted and the sun came out with barely a cloud in the sky! The beginning of the eclipse was 11:40. My mom and I went on our back patio and watched with our super cool official eclipse glasses. Jonathan checked it out for a second too but then was far more interested in his water table! I put J down for his nap at 12:30 and Mom and I just sat out and experienced the whole thing. We were like 99.9% totality and we didn't even have to drive anywhere! Plus a lot of people who went north had clouds and rain. What we had in our backyard was perfect! For the moment of the most darkness, our patio lights came on, the cicadas stopped their insane noise and the crickets started. Then all went back to normal about 2 minutes later. Then it started to cloud up again for the rest of the day. Talk about great timing. It was a great experience! The shadows on all the plants and trees in our backyard were so cool. Chris and all the kids at his school also got to check it out. They laid out towels on the field hockey field and watched the whole thing. What a great way to start his first day!