Back to School

You know you're getting old when you frequently say: look how tall you're getting, I can't believe how time flies, what was I coming up for?, where did the summer go?, etc, etc.

But seriously, where did the summer go? It's the first day of school and I feel like we didn't do anything this summer. I was thinking of going on lots of day trips to the beach and splash pads and zoos and cousin visits and parks and hikes. Mind you, this was when I thought I would have the car six of the eight weeks of summer which turned out to be about one week. One of Rene's coworkers was kicked out of the carpool for being constantly late and then overtime happened which his other carpooling buddy has no interest in doing. So, I was left to searching out things to do by foot.

Anyway, back to the first day of school. It's not a very exciting morning here, which I'm going to take as a compliment and that my girls love spending time with me at home. Evelyn was in tears most of the morning.  I think we over prepared her for grade one. I just remember the transition being really hard for Amelia. The room isn't full of toys anymore and there's way more desk work. We totally under prepared Amelia and so went too far the other way with Evelyn.

Amelia isn't great with change to begin with so her not looking forward to going back to school is a given. Last year it took her a couple weeks to get into the swing of things but she was hugely disappointed that her grade had been split and she wasn't in her BFF, Charlotte's, class. This year I contacted the school to request they not be split but came away with a decision to make. Turns out we'd have to decide if she would have the same teacher for three years in a row or be in Charlotte's class. Since this has more to do with her than with me I let her make the decision. I'm so glad I did. It means that she went to school today already knowing what to expect. She choose to have a different teacher and that we would make an extra effort to have Charlotte over for more play dates. They are two peas in a pod though so it's going to take more than being in separate classes to tear these two apart.

The other day we were talking about heaven and how we probably knew each other before we came here. We talked about how the people we meet are placed in our path for a reason. When I asked her if she thought she and Charlotte were friends before and that there's a reason why they gravitated to each other in JK she got a cute smile on her face and I could see a lightbulb go off in her head. I hope they have the type of friendship that lasts a lifetime.

Anyway...away they went. I'm happy that we have the same bus driver as the last two years and it picks up and drops off in front of our house (I really try to not take that for granted because I know how lucky we are).

I must say that although I missed them it was a much more pleasant day. No fighting. I had some downtime on my own while Lucienne napped and Audree watched a movie. Audree and I baked some chocolate chip cookies for the girls when they got home (might as well start off on the right foot).

The girls came off the bus happy and excited. They both have great teachers this year that should be a lot of fun. It's weird not knowing what they do for the bulk of their day now. Soon they'll be all grown up with their own lives and I'll be sitting at home wondering where my babies went. How time flies.