School Days

All summer I have been thinking how great it's going to be when school starts. I know this probably makes me a horrible person, but it's true. Usually, I love everything about the summer. I love the sun, pool, flip flops, bar-b-ques, having the kids around, sleeping in, picnics, watermelon, and of coarse the beach. I think I even like the mosquitoes because that means it is summer (ok maybe not the mosquitoes). Usually I'm sad when the kids go back to school but this year, it's time. Ben and Olivia have been fighting like crazy. They are both so competitive with each other that every thing is a competition.
I was reading one of my favorite magazines the other day (thanks Real Simple) and the editor's note for the month said something that struck me as so true. She said that 'living with kids is a long exercise in simultaneously wanting them to reach the next phase of development and wishing time would stop completely.' That is exactly how I had been feeling.
The night before school started Rick gave the kids blessings and I read 'The Kissing Hand' to Ben. I cried.
The first day of school started out with breakfast in bed. Ben can never actually wait in bed for breakfast to be ready so he gets back in bed to eat.




Surprisingly Olivia was very upset that "her best friend was leaving and she wasn't going to have anyone to play with".

Ben wasn't nervous at all for school to start. He was most looking forward to having lunch and recess at school for the first time.

Ben with his buddy Max

Ben and Mr. Cronin

I went to visit him at lunch and he was having so much fun. He was talking so fast (which is what he does when he is excited) and telling me what he had done that morning. Olivia, Will and I left and went home to have a picnic lunch and make cookies for when Ben got home. It was a great afternoon but it was quiet. No fighting. Is it time for him to be at school all day...yes but I miss him.