1st Day of 8th Grade

1st Day of 8th Grade
Anna officially started 8th grade at St. Mark's on August 26.  It is hard to believe she is in her 10th...and last year at St. Mark's.  It was a big first day.

On thing that was not big was her school uniform.  Unfortunately Anna and Theresa realized a bit late that she was not going to be able to squeeze one more year out of her uniforms (at least not without being in violation of several dress code rules about mini-skirts and tight shirts).  As luck would have it, her new uniforms were back-ordered, so Anna is making do the first week.  So far, only Grandma noticed.

There is a new principal and several new teachers (including a recently retired college science professor who has taken on the middle school science teacher position).  The new principal is learning the ropes and quickly realized her first challenge:  white soles.  As the parade of students entered the school, it became apparent that parents completely disregarded the uniform guidance in the handbook and purchased black sneakers with white soles (easy to find) as opposed to black shoes with black soles (hard to find).  It is unclear why black soles are better than white soles, but students were directed to get the correct shoes.  Considering hundreds of parents already purchased white soles, a protest is likely to ensue.  Stay tuned to see which sole is saved.

There was all of the usual chaos during the first week of school, including figuring out the carpool line.  An added challenge this week was re-striping the parking lot....during school....on two different days.  One might wonder how this came to pass as it would seem this would have been done before the school year started.  Picture the crew in the parking lot trying to paint lines while dodging a parade of Honda mini-vans.  It definitely made pick-up and drop-off much more interesting.

The most exciting thing about the first day for Anna was getting her braces off!  Anna was surprised to learn that her teeth progressed much faster than originally planned and she was able to get her braces off earlier.  Unfortunately the first available appointment was also the first day of school, or she would be forced to wait until mid-September.  Theresa sent the apology note to the school and Anna got to leave 45 minutes early for one of her final visits to the orthodontist.  Anna now has retainers to wear and a picture perfect smile!

Anna gets to finish off the week by hosting a sleepover with her friends to celebrate the new school year and her 13th birthday.  So far, a great start to 8th grade!

Celebrating being brace-free with ice cream

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