The View From Here: thoughts on a sunday (a few sundays ago)

Lisa calls it the "back-to-school phenomenon". All summer her kids hardly play with friends. They lay around the house bored and suffering through summer. About a week before school starts there's a little buzz in the air. Kids start coming over more. Playing with friends they haven't seen all summer begins to happen everyday. Night games they haven't once played start occurring nightly. Pretty soon school starts and the friends and games get even more concentrated. That's the back-to-school phenomenon. This year I am totally relating to this. Last week my girls began to play with each other ALL day. Last week my girls started playing with toys! They never play with toys! Well, Ellery doesn't anyway. And here they are being best friends playing all day every day with toys. . .right before Ellery starts kindergarten. Phenomenon.

Ellery met her teacher this week. She was so excited. One thing I've noticed about Elle is that she is quite quiet at school. McKay is Mr. friendly with adults and will talk their ears off, but if someone isn't in Elle's family, she's not going to do a ton of talking. She was this way with her sweet teacher. She loved meeting her though and listened to every word and direction she said. Ellery told me after that she loved her sweet, high voice and that it just made her feel good to hear it. That's good because she'll be hearing a lot of it.

I am really starting to get sad about Elle going to kindergarten. I am going to miss her. Layla is going to miss her. But she is so excited to go- I can't be too sad.

Blurry pic that almost hurts my eyes, but the tooth fairy visited McKay and he thought this dollar airplane was pretty cool. That tooth fairy- she is somethin' else!

We did some back-to-school shoe shopping the week before McKay started. It took quite a long time mostly because Layla had to stop and smell every. single. flower she came across. "Oh! There's a flower!"

I took McKay and Ellery to a local production of Aida. We listen to the music and they love to hear me tell what the songs are about and the story of it all. It is quite a complicated thing to explain to children with absolutely no reference to the play, so I was really excited to take them. They were really good and loved it. I love doing things like this with my little buddies. Brian was completely happy to stay home with Layla.

We visited my parents one Saturday afternoon when Brian was working. My kids love seeing the dogs, and I love sitting on the deck, especially when there is a summer thunderstorm. We also enjoyed looking at the hummingbirds who were flying around.

It seems like we have had a lot more rain than normal this summer, with a lot of thunder and lightening to accompany that rain. It's been really fun and cozy and refreshing.

Mack had his first pack meeting for Cub Scouts on Wednesday. He was excited about it and a little nervous because he didn't totally know what to expect and what he would have to do. He earned his Bobcat- we had been working on it all week- but they didn't have the award there which was kind of a bummer. Another boy got his Arrow of Light and this impressed McKay so much that on the way home he was planning on how he could get it by next pack meeting. I told him the disappointing news that it would take him nearly four years. Sad.

The kids needed haircuts so we got them this week. Rylee did the girls, and I did McKay's. All summer Ellery has been talking about cutting her hair short. One day I held her hair up and showed her how it would look if it were in a shorter bob. She loved it and really wanted to do it. Brian is a man who loves long hair. He was struggling with this. But I ultimately left it up to her and she decided to do a shoulder length cut. It looks darling, but I must admit I miss her hair. It was so easy to just pull it up to a high bun and be done. I didn't even have to brush it that way. Now it's either down or in a pony. We could do a bun but would have to pin a lot of it. I know it will grow thought and I am happy that she was able to make a big decision like that. I think it was good for her.

Caramel the guinea pig is a huge pig. He is messy and spazzy and always wants to eat. That's all I have to say about that.

On our last day of summer we hiked to Battle Creek Falls. It was hot, but the kids loved cooling off in the water. McKay even dared to stand under the falls for ten seconds. That boy and natural water sources- he's got guts. It was pretty cold water. We realized that Layla is getting quite big for the backpack carrier...which is a problem because she is not yet able to walk the long distances that the other kids can. I bet we can stuff her in there a little longer...

I can't believe summer is over. I have had such a weird feeling about it. I felt like we were SO busy all summer, which we totally were not, but I felt like it. And then all the sudden it's over and I keep thinking, "Did we do enough? Did we swim enough? Did my kids have a fun enough summer that I feel good about moving into Fall?" Like I have been obsessing over these things. And it's not like I wasn't ready for school to start- I was. But then you realize that with school starting the freedom of summer is gone and that's sad to say goodbye to.

I always stress at the beginning of school about volunteering. I want to volunteer because it's so great to see them in the classroom environment and step into their world a little bit, but it's stressful with little ones at home. This year I only have Layes at home, so maybe it will be a little easier, but I also now have two in school, so that means more volunteering to go around. I hope to help with some parties and field trips at least.