First day of school

Tuesday was my kids first day back to school after a LONG summer. We had a great vacation in Utah and Wyoming but other than that summer was kind of a bust. This year for the first time I found it really difficult to find things to do that can entertain an 11 year old on down to a 1 year old. The things my big girls wanted to do we couldn't do with the little ones and the things that made my little ones happy, the big girls got bored with real fast! So my solution was to just hang out at home all day which just seemed to bore all of them! We were all ready for school to start!Amanda started Middle School this year. That was big for me. I'm never very sad to send my kids off to kindergarten, because for the most part I know I'm leaving them in a safe, loving, and nurturing environment, but middle school is a different story. I felt like I was just throwing her to the wolves! I even drove past the middle school one time that first day. I'm not sure what I thought I might see. Maybe kids walking around tattooing each other while in a drug induced haze? Amanda made it through her first day without getting lost, being able to figure out her combination lock and was not sporting any new tattoos. She even quite enjoyed it! Sam started 4th grade and has the same teacher Amanda had the last two years so was very excited! She also had a great day and even said to me how strange it was not having Amanda there. She said she usually didn't see Amanda very often during the day, but it was just strange knowing she wasn't there. That almost sounded like she missed Amanda. Of course that remark had followed a typical Sammie remark about how strange Amanda had looked that day, which had sent Amanda to her room crying. Too bad she was in there to miss the almost nice thing Sammie said about her! Connor started PEPP this year which is a pre-K program our district has. We have a really late kindergarten deadline (Dec.1) so any child with a birthday in the last 6 months of the year qualifies for this pre-K program if they don't feel ready for kindergarten. He could have started kindergarten this year, but PEPP is the perfect fit for him. Many moms think I'm crazy because our district also went to full day kindergarten this year so instead of him only going from 8-11:20, I could have had him gone until 2:20! All day! But PEPP is the place for him. It gives him a little more time to mature, and like Shaun pointed out, be a little bigger for playing sports in High School-important stuff like that! Now Mads and I are home every morning alone and so far we are loving it. She doesn't seem to miss the big kids too much, she just kind of wanders around doing her thing, pulling all the DVDs out, emptying drawers, and cabinets and sitting on the kitchen table!