She's a purple bulldog!!

One of the traditions at Rikki's school is that they have eight "houses," such as Orange Tigers, Red Bears, Turquoise Turtles, and Rikki's very special Purple Bulldogs. Each house has kids from kindergarten through fifth grade, and siblings are assigned to the same house (perhaps to facilitate handing down clothes). Rikki was so excited to be assigned to the bulldogs along with our neighbor, Lea, who she has decided is her honorary sister.

Kind of reminds me when my friend Becky and I decided that, since her last name was Berman and people always asked if we were cousins, we wanted to become cousins. So her mom made a little ceremony in which we drank grape juice and ate some food - Melba toast perhaps - and declares ourselves cousins.

The good news is that, after practically needing to be dragged out the door for the first couple weeks of school, and clinging to me in the classroom, this morning Rikki was in a big rush to leave home. Then we were hanging out in her classroom and the minute the bell rang, she said, "Mom, you have to leave now, you know."

And she's off....