School's in Session

What an experience that our first day back to school was.

I am SO thankful to have my nieces here, Rachel and Dani, visiting from Montana.

They took the blow out of having the kiddos all going to school.

We started out strong with our big breakfast.

We invited a few friends and all the cousins.

Soon the house was filling up with lots of anticipation and hungry kids.

The day before was overcast and rainy so we made a big batch of cinnamon rolls to add to our breakfast.  By "made" I mean, bought frozen rhodes rolls that you rise & bake :))

I realized that I hadn't filled out paperwork from the meet'n greet with teachers.  

Not off to a great start on that one.  But we managed to pull out and sign (hopefully) everything!

This is now an everyday scene in my bathroom.

The girls LOVE to overtake my space.

Kayli's friends, Katelyn and Courtlynn spent the night the eve before first day of school.

They were up bright and early to do hair and makeup

Mastins were over to fill their bellies before high school starts for Grace and 6th grade for Ava.  

I'm cringing at how fast these girls are growing up.

YAYYY for grandma being in town.

She loves her grandbabies and they love her back.

Wish she and grandpa were here to stay.

Everyone was excited about school starting.
I was pretending to be really happy.
I knew I had to keep it together so that Brayden would have a good start to his first day of kindergarten.

Everyone lined up for their annual 

"first day back" school photos.

 Daddy stayed later from work so that he could see everyone off.

 

So basically what we had was a happy start.

Big breakfast, loves, cousins in town, lots of smiles...

I knew Brayden was ready to fly and I felt great about that.

We jumped into the car and headed to school.

 I was expecting a twinge of sadness.

But I'd forgotten what to expect for the scene ahead.

 We kissed Kyler and Brooklyn & sent them off to their door.

And then headed to the kindergarten playground with Brayden.

 I lead Brayden to the edge of the playground.

I purposely stepped back from him and let him process what laid ahead of him,

instead of talking him through the fact that he needed to go meet & play with his new classmates
(every one of them a stranger).

I knelt down and took this photo behind him, as he shifted his weight.

chewed his nails.

rubbed his eyes a little.

my heart sank.
And then,
he jumped right into the mix. 

I was so proud of him, I wanted to cry.

He was playing and running the monkey bars like he'd always known these kids.

 It was time to line up for school.

A few more moms were crying at this point.

Kids tears become more obvious.

My stomach is doing flip flops.

Cue: funeral procession.

The parents line the sidewalk as they walk into the school.

Children sobbing.

Moms lips trembling.

 Stopping several times for children whose tears clouded their walk.

This is where one mom whispers to me tearfully "I feel like we're in a third world country where they're lining them up.
We're handing our children over for war.
Their backpacks are bigger than they are, it isn't right."

 I cried behind my big black sunglasses.

Brayden beamed and I returned a big smile.

 Several more times, the lines stopped as parents tried to calm their 

child in the walk to torture chamber kindergarten.
 Seriously, here- we are set up to fail if we're hoping for happy transitions
to a new adventure.
Nobody with a heart gets out of that line without crying,
I've experienced it 4 times over.

 At this point, it was time to get myself together and take

3 waiting 8th graders to their junior high.

I curled Katie's hair, re-directed some wardrobe choices ahemmm 

and grabbed some snapshots of these blooming beauties.

Driving to school, one confided she was terrified.

This snowballed into the whole group confessing they were beyond nervous.

So I put out my hand and said "who wants to pray"?

Right in the middle of our drive, hands were extended.

 We don't share the same doctrine.

But we share the same belief in the power of prayer.

I asked in the name of Jesus that all fear be gone.  Angels protect them.  Be a light to others.  Healthy minds would learn quickly and easily -oh- and those minds wouldn't be thinking about boys.

They all busted out giggling, we agreed together "amen".

Courtlynn said "gosh that is a GOOD prayer.  I'm glad you added that" haha!

 ..

I headed home and had Dani, Rachel and my friend's little 4 year old Alex, to spend time with.

They all got haircuts, starbucks, and shopping time.
Did I mention how happy I was to have them this week??

 At this point, it was already time to pick the kids up.

I will note that everyone had an awesome day, except one.

The kindergartener beaming on his way into school,

was fire hot mad coming out.

"well that was stupid.
I hated it.

It took forever.

All did was sit there ALLLLL day.
I'm not going back."

(I asked Brayden to tell me what he really thought -trying not to laugh).

 The conclusion is for another post.
We finished our afternoon with our annual ice cream "school is cool" cake.
Took out paperwork, signed homework, laid out tomo's clothes,
and rested in that these days are overrun with things to be thankful for.