The last day of summer

The boys start school tomorrow - a fact that I'm happy about, and they're not. I'm happy for many reasons: the boys will have their school friends to hang out with, and not having to pay for daycare is a plus. The biggest reason I'm ready for school to start is the routine. I love the routine we have during the school year of having to get them to school at the same time every day. It's a comfort to me to have a routine. A comfort that I need to carry over to other areas of my life, but that's a whole other blog. :)

I took Chris to his open house tonight to meet his 3rd grade teacher for the first time. She seems very nice, and Chris seemed pretty comfortable around her. He had a hard time remembering her name tonight, but I encouraged him that by Friday, he'll have a hard time not calling me Mrs. Miller.

Chris is getting so big, and it's an odd adjustment for me. I realized a week ago that this is the year that he'll be learning to write in cursive, and he'll be mastering his multiplication tables. With him being my youngest, it hit me harder than when Jake was learning the same skills. I shared with Chris my shock in how much he's grown, and he wasn't fazed by it. He just figures that's the way things go, so "what's the big deal?". Tonight, when we walked in his classroom and his name was written on his desk in cursive, he realized what the big deal was. He felt pretty grown up to see his name in cursive.

We stopped by his 2nd grade classroom so he could say "hi" to his teacher from last year. Mrs. Neff was very happy to see him, and greeted him with a big hug. She went on to share with me that she has the same feelings that I have about how fast the boys are growing. You see, she had Jake as a 2nd grader as well. She said that having taught 2 siblings, and having them both out of her classroom has made her feel pretty old. At least I'm not alone in my feelings. :)

The boys are both enjoying their last day of summer to the fullest extent. Michael was able to come home early and work from home today, so the boys have been outside all day playing with the neighborhood gang. As I type this, we have 2 extra kids in our playroom, and one more just got called home for dinner. They're fitting in as much play as they can before the official end of summer.

Something tells me that they're not going to let the start of school get in the way of having fun - I expect to hear these giggles for a long time to come!