First Days of School, and a Visit from Irene

So the kids both started school this week. Sophie had her first day on Tuesday, and Ben started on Wednesday. They were both so excited and love getting back to school!

The start of this school year was particularly exciting, though, as it happened to coincide with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene (Hurricane Irene, shortly before the storm got to us)... which left us without power for most of the week. We got hit with the brunt of the storm on Sunday afternoon, and we lost our power when the two poles in front of our house were snapped by a fallen tree. When school started on Tuesday, we were still without power and it was a pretty strange way to start off the year. We actually cooked scrambled eggs and cheese outside on the grill because that was what Sophie requested for her first day of school breakfast.

That night we actually went to spent the night with friends who live nearby who had a generator. It was nice to have power for the evening and it was a real treat for the kids to have a sleepover like that on a school night. The whole experience was so extraordinary for them, they were really thrilled. Wednesday morning was Ben's first day back, and then on Thursday around noontime we finally got our power restored.

It was a very strange week, but we made the best of it and I'm sure the kids will always remember this back-to-school week!