Back to School. Back to Blogging.

Every year it's the same.


Taking pictures on the first day of school, first thing in the AM when they have to look into the sun.


I need to change our traditional picture taking spot. This may be the only time you ever see these shirts, except for school pictures. We bought them when we were in Ohio and heading to Eamonn's cousin's wedding in Virginia (which you haven't heard about because clearly I STILL haven't uploaded the pictures). The boys liked the shirts and I said I'd buy them for the wedding if they wore them the first day of school. And so they did, but of course, in skater style, not wedding style (buttoned up, no t-shirt underneath). I'm OK with it even though there was grumbling at breakfast about having to "dress up" on their first day of school. I swear, next year I'm whipping out the clip on ties to freak them out.


Heading up the street.


With good friends and neighbors, Cameron and Hayley. Everyone is still blinded by the sun.


There were definitely mixed feelings in our house this morning about the first day of school. For the past two nights, Finn has cried and said he wasn't ready for school to start. When I asked why, he said he didn't want to go seven hours without seeing me and Eamonn. This is sweet and it tugs at my heartstrings just a tad, and I think it's partially true, but I also think he's a kid that likes to be at home...near the Wii. And of course, I also know that the "unknown" is very troubling to Finn. Is it his personality? Is it his SPD? Heck, I don't know, but I also know that after the first few days of school and becoming familiar with the routine, he will settle in. He was adverse to giving me a goodbye kiss in front of his friends, so obviously the peer pressure of PDA with your mom is more intense than the "I don't want to go seven hours without seeing you" pressure.

Declan seemed to go off without a worry. He's the BMOC this year--5th grade. He was a little bummed out that his closest friends aren't in his class this year (he's been with several of his Posse since second grade), but there are kids he knows in his class and he makes friends pretty easily. Of course, who wouldn't say that about their kid?!?!? His cousin, Garvin, started middle school this week and is raving about it, so my guess is that Declan's thoughts are already a year down the road when it's his turn to wander into that hideous phase of life (at least as far as I'm concerned) that is middle school. Ick. But if he's excited, I won't squash it by telling him it was the worst two years of my childhood life.

My mortgage-paying work is finished for the day. I will now run some errands and go back to the school to put up a bulletin board for a fundraiser for which I am our school's coordinator--along with two of my friends that I strong-armed.

Volunteering. If I got paid for every hour I did it, I'd be a millionaire! In fact, I've just been hit with inspiration. As parents continue to refuse to volunteer over the years and my kids grow up, I will become a Mercenary Volunteer. I'll prostitute myself out to anyone who needs bulletin boards made, committees chaired, book fairs set up, cookies baked for teacher birthdays. I'm telling you, this is it.