First day of school 2008

It's the first day of school 2008. All three kids were in good spirits this morning. Brady, perhaps a bit less than the girls, but I suppose by 8th grade you know too much of the reality of school to be enthused by its newness.

Anyway, they all ate bacon and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then posed for the first day picture:


Abby's school is the closest, so we dropped her off first. I knew this was going to be the hardest one, because she'll always be the baby to me. I parked and walked her up to school, and as we got closer, I think it suddenly hit her that she's going to be all alone in this school. For the first time ever she won't have her big sister in the same school with her. She was a very brave little girl, and did her best to put on her bravest face.


So, after tearing up on the walk back to the car, it was time to take the big kids. KC wanted me to park and walk her up, too. Brady would have been happy if I'd dropped them a block away. We compromised on me dropping them off in the circle drive at school and taking pictures through the window.

I couldn't quite get them both looking at the same time, though.


When did they get to be so grown up? (sniff)


If you think I'm kidding about Brady growing up, here's a picture from me dropping him off on the first day of school last year:




I had no time to miss them right then, though, as Bill called me on my cell phone to let me know that they were looking for me in the library to fix a problem that I was pretty sure just needed a computer reboot (I was right, by the way).

I hope that all goes well for all three of them today, that they can find their classes, and that their teachers are good to them. No matter what age they are, I guess a mother's prayer is always the same. Please let them learn. Please let the other kids be nice to them. Please grant them strength, confidence, and courage. Watch over them and take care of them. I know they have to struggle a bit to grow, but please make their struggles as painless as possible. Make sure school is a place that they don't mind going every day. And bring them safely home every afternoon.


Hope everyone has a great start to whatever adventures the fall brings them (school, work, or just something fun and interesting). :-)

The end of summer 2008 . . .

This has been the last weekend before the kids officially start back to school.

It rained all last week, so the kids were stuck indoors during their last free week, so Saturday, we went to the park for a while and rode bikes . . .



saw an alligator in the pond (he's just a juvenile - maybe 4-5 feet long)


played some baseball (I don't think Bill is really trying his hardest to score here):



swam, shopped, KC went to her book group meeting (little bookworm), and generally hung out.

Today, we slept in, ate bacon, went to late mass, then went to the 10th anniversary reception of the St. Laurence Weekday children's program! Brady was a member of the very first bridge class to attend, and both KC and Abby attended for a couple of years. We had a great time, and everyone told Brady how big he's gotten which made him happy (LOL). We saw Brady's old teacher, Miss Virginia, and KC's teacher, Miss Nisha. We also learned that Abby's teacher, Miss Cheryl, lost her battle with cancer in 2006 (GRHS).

It was wonderful to see how the program has grown over the past decade. Miss Becky still runs it and looks no different now than she did 10 years ago.


We came home, ate some pot roast, and the kids are showered and the backpacks are packed for the first day of school. KC is very nervous about starting middle school tomorrow. She attended sixth grade orientation on Friday, and we dropped off her medical notes and epipen with the nurse. She practiced her locker combination and brought home a few textbooks that stay at home. Abby also attended a Meet the Teacher on Friday and just loved her new teacher, Mrs. Huckaby. Praying this will be a good school year for everyone!!

Happy Birthday Brady!

Today Brady turned 14. That sounds scarily close to high school age (although he is only going into 8th grade, thankfully).

First, my mom and dad took him shopping and to lunch on Saturday. He bought some great school clothes, so I was thrilled. Grampy also bought him a new game for his Wii.

We celebrated yesterday because Bill and I are back at work these days (which is why I haven't been posting much lately). First Bill and Brady went to Craig Biggio's retirement ceremony:




Biggio has always been Brady's favorite player, so it was nice to see his number retired (although Brady is a bit sad that he won't be able to wear number 7 when he plays for the Astros someday).


Later, our friends the Adamczaks came over for swimming and burgers. Brady had a cookie cake:



The girls (with a little help) made him a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake (from scratch):



Today Bill's parents took the three kids to lunch and to the movies while we were at work, then we went to CiCi's Pizza for dinner. Now he is playing his new Wii game while I'm so tired I'm about to head to bed.

Oh, BTW, I set up a back-to-school tree:



The 4th of July tree was too out-of-date, and I'm not ready for fall yet, so this was our compromise. The kids start back a week from today. Bill and I are in inservice training all this week, so we'll definitely be ready for school to start (not huge fans of inservice - LOL).

Take care, and we hope all of you going back to school or with kids going back to school have a wonderful, blessed school year. :-)

The Twilight of Summer

The last few days, KC has been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the 4th book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn.

This summer, her 5th grade teacher has been having a book group that meets every week or so to talk about the book Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. This week, on Thursday, the meeting was at our house.





The kids spend about 30 minutes talking about the books and about an hour and a half eating cookies and chips and talking about other stuff. Really, quite a bit like a grown up book group. Small group, kids were excellent, and bless the teacher for still caring enough to meet with these kids during the summer!

Friday was my 41st birthday (yikes). It was a really nice day. Bill took me to see the newest Mummy movie and we all went out to dinner at La Escondida for great Tex-Mex food. My folks got me some really nice clothes, a watch, 4 sets of flip flops (for my few remaining days of lounging). Bill also got me some DVDs and a cookie cake.



I'm wearing my new autographed Bucky Richardson jersey that Bill's dad bought me at the silent auction at the Warriors golf tournament.

Friday night was the release party for Breaking Dawn, so Bill brought KC to a release party at our Barnes and Noble to await its arrival.



She had a really good time!

Next up, Saturday we attended the wedding of a girl (actually a fully grown-up teacher) in El Campo. April is a really sweet, petite little red head, so whenever I go visit her classroom the students always ask her, "Is that your mom?"

She was absolutely gorgeous! Abby whispered that she looked just like a princess, and she really did. Here she is with Abby and Ashley Tate, another beautiful English teacher from our school:




We have a lot of really pretty English teachers at our school. I try to avoid being photographed near them, so as not to look any older than I do already.

The reception was lovely. And what did KC do? Read her brand-new copy of Breaking Dawn:



Too funny! I'm currently trying to organize stuff to work on a scrapbook of our trip to Grand Prairie and the World Series. I have to work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. The Twilight of summer is at hand . . .