First day - K and 2nd

After a VERY short summer, it's that time again!  Brynn is in second grade and my little buddy is officially a kindergartner! 

I was so stressed about the first day of school.  I thought all of that anxiety would end when I stopped having "first days," but since I went strait from being a student to marrying a teacher and then sending the kids, I haven't really had that luxury. :)  I was worried because we had all been passing around a cold that we brought back with us from Utah (happens EVERY summer).  And I'm afraid to say I sent Brynn to school on her first day feeling pretty yucky.  She hadn't had a fever in 24 hours so I told her to just try it and call me if she needed me to come and get her.  And then I knew our schedule would be really tight going strait from school to the airport to pick up my cousin.  I was questioning my decision of putting Bryce in kindercare (it's an hour-ish day care at the school so I don't have to pick up Bryce and come back 40 minutes later to get Brynn from her shortened school day schedule).

But everything worked out peachy!  Brynn came home feeling fine, Bryce seemed to do ok with the longer kindergarten, and I felt better about putting him in kindercare when I realized just how much of that particular time would be spent in the car.

I was also wondering what it would be like to go back to having just babies at home with me.  Brynn was in pm kindergarten and Bryce had preschool last year, but it's not very long.  So this is the first time in a very long time I've had just little ones at home with me during the day.  I was a little worried that the babies would sort of follow me around all day moping and whining without the big kids to entertain them.  But now that it's been a week with BandB in school I can say...I actually quite love it. :)  The babies do in fact follow me around most of the time, but they are as sweet as triple chocolate cake!  They help me with my chores, ask lots of questions, play pretty well while I do what I need to do.  After a couple of hours, Camille takes a nap and Gabe watches some Dinosaur Train while I do whatever business I need to do on the computer.  Then I grab Gabe and give him a little attention, get Camille up, have a snack, a little more attention, maybe run some errands or do some more work, and then before I know it it's lunchtime and time to go get the big kids!  I can tell there will never be enough time to get done what I need to while the kids are gone, but I suspect that would be the case if they got home at 3, or 4, or 5.  I think that's life.

I was also worried about missing my Snuggly Tornado.  And I was a little worried about him missing me (this boy looooves his Mama, if I do say so myself).  But so far we are doing just fine.  When the big kids get home, the little kids take a nap and we all split up have quiet time for an hour.  For the second hour of the babies' nap, the big kids and I do homework time, reading time, a piano lesson depending on the day, and just try to make the most of that hour together.  After that, it's time for the babies to wake up and all other schedules and routines succumb to the chaos that is the four of them together.  All bets are off. And I totally live for it.  Having said that...I love seeing Marty walk in the door!  The days are bound to get more hectic as the kids bring home more homework, start sports and dance, and life just continues to be life and throw curve balls.  But a week into our new routine, I really love it.

Need to know what time it is?  Just ask Bryce!  We are still getting regular updates....

This one was Bryce's idea....

Excited to be there, but feeling lousy.

Very excited to be there, and showing a lot less anxiety than I had expected.  He just dropped his backpack, started playing, and lost sight of me as I walked to the car.

So far, so good!  The kids love their classes and their teachers!