New School Year Launch

We have three children in three buildings this year. In fact, from now on, they will always be in their own school. Makenna started her junior year. She holds management positions and a board seat for technical theater but plans to scale back her involvement after calculating she invested over a thousand hours in tech alone throughout her sophomore year. Her parents happily support this decision. She expects to have a better year academically as the one and only teacher she has ever struggled to work with is no longer on her schedule after two very long years. Amen.

Kate started fifth grade in middle school. She is pretty excited about the big kid status. Her enthusiasm overshadowed any hesitation we were experiencing until she emerged from the bus the first day tearful because one of her teachers yelled a lot. Having the one child who was so excited about school return from her first day deflated was tough to accept. But we have been told she has a strong teacher team and one of her close friends is in her class so we are hopeful this will turn into a great year even if the teacher didn't make a great first impression. Given three elementary schools merge into one middle school, we anticipate she will make a lot of new friends as her social circle has widened quite a bit the last six months anyway. She is blossoming and it's pretty sweet to watch. 

Little man is a first grader. Some of his buddies are in his class and his teacher is known to maintain a calm classroom with a genuine love for her students. He had butterflies in his belly the final days leading up to the first day of school as he worried about the changes he was facing but by Friday he had decided he loves first grade.

This Friday, Ty and I had a sleepover and promptly at 8pm, found ourselves curled up together in bed for the night. Three school days under our belt left us wiped out because 6:40 a.m buses are brutal. Kate spent the night with a friend so he and I had a mommy-son date Saturday morning to Chick-fil-A and then to the toy store with some birthday money. My little power ranger escorted me on a walk throughout the neighborhood too. The one-on-one time was priceless

Saturday evening I got to go on a date with another cutie. Greg and I have pulled off two dates this month! Whoa! But he wrapped this one with a quick stop at the local butcher and managed to spend over $100 in five minutes flat so we won't be on another date for quite awhile!

That being said, no one complained about dinner Sunday night. Greg pulled another all nighter maning the smoker and babysitting a brisket. A full house with friends and family gathered in the kitchen was the perfect way to end July.