First Day of School.

By the grace of God I survived the first day of school.

I am not a mom that likes the first day of school. In fact, I dread it. I love, love, love having my children home with me in the summer. While I'm excited for them for the first day of school, I am sad to have a quiet house when they are gone for the day. I also think the first day of school includes so much anxiety -- how will the new teacher be? how about the other kids in the class? will it be a good year or a not-so-good year for my babies? This year was extra, extra tough since Small Fry started kindergarten. I have to say it was a bit easier than expected (thanks to God's grace). I think because Small Fry was so very excited to be in big school with his hero -- his big brother.

The first day of school was a busy day for me -- I had a Kindergarten mom sip and sob or hooray. It was a nice way to start the morning. Then I exercised -- always good medicine and an emotional pick-me-up. And I went to Bottega for lunch with my IPC mama friends. Boy did I need that. And I am so thankful for those friendships and pray that they don't flicker out as our children go to different elementary schools. I got to pick Small Fry up at 2 so it was a quick day.

Without further ado, pictures of me not crying and of my precious children. (I did lose it not once but twice, though never in the presence of my children despite Small Fry's constant asking "Are you going to cry Mom?")

Aim high Small Fry -- he wants to be a "shark" on Shark Tank. Fawn has explained to him that that means he's going to have to make a lot of money first.

That's a proud face.

That is a tiny child with a backpack. Oh could I write a blog post about the backpack search. He ended up with a small Pottery Barn Kids backpack because he's just too much of a little guy for an Under Armor backpack. I promised him next year we'd try again.

Fawn wants to be either a lawyer with Buck or a MLB player.

Handsome child.

Guess which brother was excited about pictures with the other and which one wasn't?

How is he this big?

Oh I miss him so. The three years of one-on-one time on the back end of preschool were the biggest gift from God (as were the three years of one-on-one time with Fawn as an only child). Through God's perfect timing I feel like I truly got to know each of my children and bottle up precious memories of them as little ones. "But [she] treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19.

Here's to another great year at BWF!