A Banner Day for Maren

 It's a pretty awesome day to be a 6-year-old when you not only start First Grade,

(with your new Mystery Machine lunchbox, no less)

but also learn to ride your two-wheeler that evening!

A big day like that earned an outing to the frozen yogurt shop to celebrate. I celebrated too--isn't the day you send your kids back to school the best day of the year for moms? I will admit--I simultaneously cried and cheered when I dropped off Maren yesterday morning at the school. I had my teary moment in the classroom, but didn't bawl all the way home like I suspected I might. The day without her actually went pretty quickly--Porter naps for the last three hours, leaving us only 3.5 hours before that to get anything done, which really went a lot faster that I expected.

I LOVE summer, but I'm glad for the change, glad for the routine again. It's still in the 90s here and as much as I moaned this spring about wishing for the hot weather to finally arrive--I'm ready for it to depart! I'd be perfectly happy with 85 degree temps and warm summer evenings, but 93 degrees makes for an awfully sweaty walk to and from the school. All of our vacations are over (we were gone 3 times in 4 weeks), and I'm looking forward to being home and getting some projects done, especially now that I have my precious 2-3 hours per day to myself while Porter naps.

Are your kids back to school yet? Did you cry? Cheer? Both?