First Days of Fifth and Eighth

As I drove Brayden to school this morning I joked with him about how I'd be spending the day today - shopping at Target, TJ Maxx, a drive to the outlets?  He was confused, but I clarified that with both the kids back to school - it marks my "days of freedom".  He laughed, but made it very clear I was NOT to hit the Nike Outlet without him!

Of course, that freedom aspect isn't nearly as big of an issue as it used to be.  It's more like a "lonely" issue.... =(  But, I definitely have some projects piled up that need to be tackled...

Mikayla's last year in elementary school began yesterday - my big 5th grader.  Unbelievable.  The day before, she'd found out who her teacher was and who was in her class.  The teacher (and student teacher) both seem great, but sadly, her class has very, very few of her close friends - it's a big grade, so they were all split four ways.  She was in tears on Tuesday, but regrouped impressively and came home yesterday feeling okay about it all knowing she could catch up with her BFF's at lunch and recess.  Whew!

Brayden's final year in middle school started today.  Eighth grade - ahhh!  We also laughed about him being "big man on campus" - kind of a "tongue in cheek" comment as he quickly pointed out that most of the 6th graders are bigger than he is.  (For the record, Brayden finds this amusing and is not easily saddened by his slow growth....)  In contrast to Mikayla, Brayden was pretty thrilled with his schedule and teacher line-up.  I'm hoping it will be a stretching year for him, but one that he feels is manageable.

So, there you go.  Summer FLEW by....but it was a good one.  On to the next season....