First Day of School 2014!

These kids are growing fast. Cache has finally finished kindergarten and is onto Primary School!

Here is the first morning of school starting Jan. 2014. We have to wake up at 6am to get to school on time.

The boys are addicted to cereal which is not cheap. They want to eat it for every meal and I just have to put my foot down so they have something to eat every morning. Otherwise I would always be out! 

 After a hearty breakfast they don their school uniforms. What a crazy thing! I like it because there is never any question about what to wear and all the kids look the same, but it kind of makes me crazy because since they go to different schools they can't hand down anything. It seems like a waste to me since they will grow out of them so fast. They almost wear the same size shoe. These shoes were white for exactly one week. They get so dirty so fast! Maybe its because their schools are big cement block buildings?

We found Cache the perfect backpack for his Christmas present. A nice jelly bean green colour. Ronin was bummed he didn't get a new one too. How many times do you have to explain that money doesn't grow on trees! 

Patrick has turned into an early riser! Well, its painful every morning, but without fail he still wakes up at 6 am (something I have never seen) and takes these boys to school. The schools start at different times, which is a bit annoying. But he takes it all in stride. After leaving the house at 6:30 and walking to the bus, they walk Cache over to his school that starts at 7:20 and then walk Ronin over to his school which starts at 7:40. So after almost 2 years of Ronin being late every day, he is now early every day! Patrick then gets on his own bus and rides almost an hour to his office. He started out taking the MRT but was having a hard time getting a seat and it was taking its toll on his back. Now on the bus he gets a seat and can listen to books on his phone. Which he says is the best thing about his commute other than getting to be with his boys all morning. It takes him almost a full  2 hours from door to door. Definitely the longest commute in his history. But he says its worth it. He gets to spend time with the kids (since he doesn't see them at night) and gets some quiet time on the bus and in the office since no one else is in that early! A friend here was so impressed that he does it every day that she scolded her own husband telling him that if Patrick can do it, so can he. And all she was asking him to do was take his daughter one morning at 9am. Ha! She said it worked. So funny.

Ronin is a pro at doing school here. He rides the bus home on his own and manages himself very well. Cache is learning. Here he is in the bus line after school.

 All the parents were there trying to help which just made it worse. I was up in the area running errands (I bought all the wrong books for Ronin!) and left Cache riding the bus with Grandpa hoping Grandpa would remember the way. I ran over to Ronin's school to manage the book fiasco and all the while I was sweating and wondering WHY did I put them in different schools?!

The real reason is that there were no vacancies in Ronin's school and this is all they could do (at least its in the same neighbourhood!) but later that first day, the school called and said they could move Cache over. But honestly, it was just too late. Cache was already settling into his class, friends and teachers and all the uniforms and books were purchased! So I told the school we would be staying put. I was hoping it would be a great opportunity for him to be on his own and not living in his brothers shadow so much. I hope it turns out to be the right choice.

So far the first month was an adjustment but things are picking up, which I was hoping for. We've had a few incidents to contend with but all in all, things are good. They seem happy in their schools. Well all except for the homework!