1st day of School

We only got six weeks of summer.  Thats it.  I felt like we were racing the clock trying to get it all in before the first day of school started July 25.  The Sunday before it started I decided that we just hadn't quite fit it all in and booked two nights at the KOA in Garden City and we booked it up to Bear Lake for one last camping trip.  I didn't even take the camera but gosh we had fun.  The KOA there is about as idyllic as camping can get.  The kids had so much fun.  We rented a little surry one afternoon and peddled around town, swam in the pool, sat around the campfire, built sandcastles and laid in the sun. Graham had a bunch of good sitting naked in the lake time, digging up cups and cups full of wet sand - it was perfect.  I can't remember what song we were singing one day, but at one point me and Clara and Grady were out floating on the blow up thing on the lake and we were belting out some song that had been on the radio and those two were just beaming with the warm sun on their faces and I was the very most happy I have ever been.  We even caught a whole bunch of frogs one day and made a little pond for them.  It was the best.  Then we came home and put the kids to bed and I cried and cried and cried.  Then we got up and sent Clara to school and i came home and cried and cried and cried.  I hate it.  I hate sending them every day.  I thought I was ready for it.  I thought I had myself all prepped for it.  But I didn't.  And then just when I was really really really missing them this fall, we got a break (we have year round school this year) and for three weeks I had them back.  But then that ended and I had to send them again and it was just like the first day of school all over again.  I feel like in saying this that I'm making myself sound like some sort of perfectly loving mom who never feels like her kids are making her crazy and who always get along.  Well, that's just not the case.  But I do really really like them.  And I just miss them when they're not around.  All of the sudden they have more influence outside of the home than in.  And I don't like it.  But I do like it too - that's the problem.  I love how it pushes them - how they meet new friends and learn things I don't even know - how they have to be outside of their comfort zones and learn to stick up for themselves, and other kids and I love their teachers and I really do think it's great for them.  But I think it stinks for me and I just miss their faces super bad.  And tonight is Sunday and that means tomorrow is Monday and they have to leave again and I hate it.  Man - being a mom is hard sometimes.  

Cute little first grader - all day school stinks.  She leaves at 8:25 and we don't get home until 3:45!  That's the whole darn day!  She has this whole life I don't even know about and I like her and wish it wasn't so.  But it is so, so what do I do?  Just miss her.  This picture shows what I think is one of my favorite things about Clara - she has 'curly' toes.  it's true.  her toes are all just a little... curly - or crooked I guess you could say.  They were super curly when she was a baby, and they have straightened out quite a bit now, but I really think it's because the whole time she was growing inside of me she had her toes stuck so firmly in my ribs that they never had the room they needed to grow straight.  THat's my theory anyway....

He misses her too.  All day long, "Ra ra home?  Ra Ra home mom?"  nope.  :(

Is he the cutest stinkin kindergartener ever?  yes.  I was nervous, but he's done great so far and seems to really like it.  And he even likes doing homework.  whaaaaat?  yep - I thought that would be killer with Gray but I wasn't taking into account how much he likes to work, and homework is to him just another fun job to get done.  super cool.  he needs to rub off some of that liking work stuff on a little girl i'm friends with.

Clara and Grady have the same teacher! How cool is that.  Clara has Sra. Moore in the morning for Spanish and then in the afternoon she switches teachers (Miss Edwards, who I really like too) and Grady has her in the afternoon for kindergarten.  She is darling with the kids and I feel like we really lucked out.  She is so warm and kind and teaches in a way that really works for both of them.  If they have to leave me, at least they can be with someone I like!