Summer's End Draws Near

I realize that summer isn't technically over until late September, but it already feels like late summer to me. Why? Because my kids are already back in school!!!!

Yes, my beautiful babies have been taken from me again, thanks to our cruel education system that doesn't care how much fun you are having with your kids during the summer. Our charter school always starts in late July, so you'd think I would be used to it by now. But even for them, this was an early first day of school...July 21st! That meant our summer vacation was only seven weeks long...despite having lots of fun, it just didn't feel long enough.

At the beginning of summer, both Lorelai & Celeste whined about how short their summer would be. However, when it came time to go school supply shopping, and when their teacher assignments came in the mail, they got excited for school again very quickly! They were all smiles on the first day of school, and only looked back when I asked them to pose for pictures.

Lorelai's class is teeny tiny this year; only 12 students in class so far! I'm not complaining.

I can't believe I have a fourth grader and a first grader this year. What's even more unbelievable is that soon, my "baby" Aurora will be in preschool three days a week as well! I am one step closer to becoming an "empty nester," and I really don't know how I feel about that yet. I have a lot of ideas about what to do with myself (part-time work, master's degree, community service, TV binging sessions), but who knows which of those ideas will be the best option? I am going to have to pray about this in the months and years to come.

We are all excited about this upcoming school year. Aurora's preschool teacher is the same teacher Celeste had two years ago, and Aurora is excited to experience Smart Scholars Preschool for herself. She is the biggest "mama's girl" out of our children, but a few of her friends will be in the preschool as well, so I think that will help Aurora transition more easily. In any case, she is overjoyed by the new backpack we bought her, and is asking every day when preschool starts.

Celeste is happy to have many of her best friends in her classroom again this year. Because of the cost of preschool, our lovely ballerina won't get to participate in dance class this year. However, we are going to try out Girl Scouts and see if that will satisfy Celeste's extracurricular cravings for now. She is already very excited about it, despite knowing next to nothing about the program. I should have known that our girliest girl would be gung-ho for Girl Scouts!

Lorelai's getting older and wiser, and her extracurricular schedule will get correspondingly busier. For example, this is the first year she's eligible to join the school band, and she's very excited to join up! She insists she wants to learn the trombone; it will be very interesting having another instrument besides the piano hanging around our house! In addition, there's going to be another school play at GEA this year; this time, it's Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which will likely be a bigger, more ambitious program than the previous year's Cinderella. Lorelai has declared she wants to play The Beast; I keep telling her that they probably can't gender-swap that role, but she is undaunted. Hopefully she will still have a good time participating, whatever role she gets!


As for myself, I am also getting geared up for my various school-related activities this fall. For example, I will be teaching twelve piano students (this is a record for me; hopefully I don't burn out too early on in the year). I'm also hoping to volunteer in all my girls' classrooms, in one capacity or another. Time will tell how all that plays out.

Our family still has a few more fun summer activities up our sleeves (we're going camping as a family this weekend, for instance), but it is a little hard to admit that this summer vacation is ending, and that our summer together went by so fast. Writing this blog post has helped, though, as I realize that we have many great things to look forward to this fall as well. Can't wait to share it all here!