Back to School!

Today is the first day of school. Every year I feel like I've been planning early and then every year I feel rushed at the last minute. Last night I was frantically separating the load of stuff that I needed to take in to the classroom for the kids. I was making printables for the cover of their notebooks and making new labels for their pencil boxes (can't leave them to just be boring, plain $0.50 boxes ya know!) Back to school means back to a hectic schedule - bedtimes, homework, lunches, fall soccer.

This year Lilly is going into 5th grade. I CAN'T believe it! How do I have a fifth grader? I still remember picking out my favorite new shirt with matching skirt/leggings for my first day of fifth grade. Right now she could be wearing the exact same thing. Whose idea was it to bring back the eighties? Was it not bad enough the first time around? She is starting her last year in elementary school....sometimes you forget at what point in life your kids really start remembering things from their childhood. I remember 5th grade like it was yesterday!

Logan is starting 3rd grade this year. Unlike Lilly, he seems a little more melancholy about going back to school. I picked out his clothes this morning. He wanted to wear an old hand-me-down t-shirt and a pair of old basketball shorts. And maybe I should've let him. Why do I care what he's wearing if he is comfortable? As I left him in line at his classroom this morning he was messing with a spider and not talking to any of his classmates. He can be so social and engaging and yet also be so down on himself thinking nobody likes him. As a mom I feel terrible when I can't make everything awesome every day. I know kids have to live through things and have their own experiences but it is so hard to watch them feeling blue. I'm really hoping for a good report from him when he gets home today. No matter what, he has soccer tonight so I know even if he has the doldrums he'll be happy soon enough!

I don't know what I'm going to do when we're driving them off to college and come home to their empty rooms. I was so happy this morning when I sent Lilly a text asking if she wanted me to wait at the school for her bus to come and she said yes. Apparently they still need their Momma for a little while longer - thank goodness!