C'est la rentrée!

Today my kids went back to school- after almost two and a half months off! Am I the only person who thinks that the summer school holidays are far too long?
They have been fortunate enough to enjoy their holidays in three different countries- Ghana, South Africa and France; and I have been quite the organizer of 'Things to do with kids between 6 and 11'...in fact that's what my next post should be about-there's been enough organization in these quarters. Despite all the activities across the three countries, by last week they just wanted to get back to school, or in their case, start their new school.
I experienced my first dose of 'the madness of the school supplies shopping'.
In the eight years since becoming the parent of a school-aged child- 6 years if you don't count Nursery- I have never had to buy school supplies- well, not in the same way as I have had to here.
My daughter is starting Middle School or Junior High; so we are at that stage where...playtime's over.
The daunting "List" is what I was faced with, and between that and my passable French, it proved to be more than in and out of the store.
What was more interesting to see though was the last-minute scrambling at our local Monoprix yesterday- the day before school started.
Yours truly had it all covered a couple of weeks ago, so was able to cast the odd, non-judgmental, cursory glance at the 'scramblers'.

It's good to be back! Routine and rhythm never hurt anyone.
Hope your 'return' was not too stressful.