First day of school

Well, it is finally upon us! The first day of school is here! I must admit that I have been anticipating the start of school for some weeks now, (well, really since the LAST day of school)! It's not that I don't enjoy the carefree summer days, and spending every waking hour with my children, but I do love being in a routine and having set schedules, set bedtimes, and the absence of the every half an hour question, "Can we have a snack?"

Our school district had a delayed start this year, due to the construction taking place at East High Elementary, and also the building of a very new school, Bear Creek! This new school will now house the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders from the entire district. The elementary schools will now consist of Kindergarteners thru 3rd graders. Abbey will be starting at Bear Creek, while Evan stays at Rheems for this last year. Mason will start his school education in kindergarten at Rheems as well.

All grade levels, except for kindergarten, started today. Kindergarten open houses will be held today and tomorrow, with an official start date of Thursday, Sept. 8th for them. So while I'm not completely childless (yet), it is quite different without the older two here! Mason will be placed in the morning kindergarten class and will ride the bus to school with Abbey and Evan and then will need to be picked up at 11:35 every day. He is excited to go, has his bookbag and new clothing all laid out, and is anticipating this new adventure! It's hard to believe that all my babies are now school age children!

The rainy, damp weather seemed to match the gloomy, reluctant moods that my kids had in returning to school today. While I think they are happy to go back, I know that they will miss there lazy days of doing whatever they please! The alarm went off at 7am this morning, and I heard some groans, and had a few issues getting them motivated, but overall, they were ready on time and were at the bus stop with time to spare! Since it was raining, I drove them to the bus stop and waited with them in the car. We had a word of prayer together before they ventured off. That seemed to calm them down and gave them a sense of peace, that they WILL do fine today! As the bus pulled up, I got a hug, kiss and an I love you, and then I watched quietly as they gave me one last wave as they climbed the steps of the big yellow school bus.

I will fill my day with cleaning and getting some things done that have been neglected over the summer months. It's nice to spend some time alone with Mason as well, before his big day! I've never really been too emotional when my kids have started school, but I'm not sure how this will be, as Mason is my very last "baby"! We'll see what Thursday brings. If he is ok, then I should be fine!

Even though the weather was not overly cooperative this morning, I did manage to get a few pictures. I will take more on Thursday when Mason joins the gang (hopefully it will be nice).

Here's to a great school year!

Until next time....