School days

I sat down to write this post last week, but when I could no longer see through the tears I had to shut the laptop and walk away... so, let's keep things light!

Summer vacation has come and gone. It was pretty short this summer with a new school schedule (The kids got out on June 19 and started back August 14.) so we packed in as many activities as we could. Before we knew it, the day was upon us...

7th grade for this one. Cal has a BFF across the street and he decided it would be "easier" to ride with them on the first day of school. Joke was on him because Nathan's mom and dad walked them all the way in and to their classes. I would have let the poor kid go with a kiss goodbye in the parking lot!

Then these monkeys were off to school. Owen was thrilled to be back with his buddies and has a great 1st grade teacher. Tessa was a little nervous and cried a little when I dropped her at her class. My years of volunteering there are paying off with other parents and teacher aids willing to stay with her until she's satisfied. (If I stay, her crying only escalates.) She's been at the school so much over the past 5 years that she's got a lot of familiar faces and that seems to make things better. I've got some projects going at the school right now so I check in on her at snack time and lunch and she seems to be having a blast. At dinner time when we go through our "bests" and "worsts" of the day, she doesn't have any complaints, but she still threw some tears my way this morning when I dropped her off.

Cal was obviously too cool and he wears the same thing to school everyday anyway, but the littles still let me get away with pics for a few more days...

Excuse my pride here, but I was pretty excited about Tessa's mixed pattern outfit. I loved that she completed the look with black and white polka dot socks.

And with that you can see that Owen's wardrobe is made up completely of sports t-shirts and Tessa has been sporting the same pearls for nearly a month. She gets constant compliments on them so I don't think they're going anywhere.

With "all my free time" I've been able to have a little fun, like...

...take two of my favorite girls to lunch. I have been in the Young Women's organization at church since these two were 13. In the last few weeks they have turned 18 and are leaving me for amazing opportunities.
Although it's always sad to see summer end, I am always amazed with how much I can get done when I'm rolling solo. This morning I dropped the kids off at 8, ran 3 miles, showered & dressed, hit Wal-Mart, Trader Joe's and Bath and Body Works and was back at the school by 10:45 to work on some PTA stuff. And now that dismissal bell is about to ring so I'm out.