Gaggle of Gradeschoolers

This morning I was laying in bed, enjoying the fact that Addison was sleeping in, when I heard a low hum of noise outside my house.
Turns out today is the first day of school for St. James students ~ essentially all the gradeschoolers in our neighborhood. I kid you not, when I say that there was a gaggle of gradeschoolers, I mean there was at least a dozen elementary aged kids and their parents in our driveway waiting for the school bus.
By the time Addison and I got outside to say hello, the kids were getting on the bus, and several parents were, I swear this is true, jumping up and down and cheering.
There were cameras and video cameras and new backpacks and orderly parochial school uniforms. There wasn't, however, anyone wearing an old red robe, holding a camera, with a mangy mutt at her side barking out good luck wishes....not like I endured every first day of school.