First Day Of School. 2014.

It begins.

I officially I have a high schooler.

I officially only have one child left in elementary school.

I officially have four kids in middle school.

I didn't take individual pics this year, mostly because it was raining, and I had just blown my hair dry, and had already stood in the rain on the front sidewalk, waiting for my kids to quit fooling around and stand still.

One picture and this mom was done.

I didn't want frizzy hair from the rainfall.

Priorities.

This year Casidee is a freshman at the high school.
Jayme is ruling middle school in 8th grade.
Brynn is in 7th grade.
Sean and Tayler are in their first year of middle school.
Cali has hit what has always been "big kid status" in my mind, 4th grade.

4th grade has always been "big kid status" for me since I was in elementary school.  We had a big kid recess, and a little kid recess.  Kindergarten did their own thing.  1st thru 3rd went to the little kid recess.  4th thru 6th went to the big recess.

I remember thinking on my first day of 4th grade, "I'm a big kid now!"

Apparently that's stuck with me because I see it in all of my kids when they hit 4th grade.

I don't have any "little" kids at my house anymore.

Things to be excited about this year?
Casidee: well, high school in general.  I mean, come on.  But also her first year of seminary.
Jayme: higher level of art class.
Brynn: dance class.
Sean: doesn't get too excited about school in general, but I think he's happy to know he has friends in his classes. And he decided to be involved in the PTSA this year.
Tayler: involvement in the PTSA as well as another season of soccer.  And art class.
Cali: she's going to try her hand at learning to play the violin in the school orchestra.  And probably choir too.  This is also the year that's gong to determine grade and citizenship wise if she can tryout for student council in 5th grade, so she's excited to prove that she can be responsible.

We have good things ahead of us this year.

Simplistic.

I'm thankful for those moms who go all out for their kids and throw end of school/summer's here parties.

Because that means my kids get to go to parties to celebrate the change of the season, and the change in the schedule in life as we know it, and I don't have to do any of the work for it.

Have you all read this blog post?  Seriously me. Except I think I fizzled out about November, so there's that.

But I did volunteer to help with Field Day.

If you call getting a text from the PTA who live in your neighborhood asking if you could possibly take the afternoon off to help.  I figured since they know me personally, and know I work, then they must be really desperate for help to ask it of me.

So I did.

And that still counts.

I'm pretty sure field day has gotten a lot more "cool" since I was in school.  I remember very little water involved, and lots of running back and forth relays.

We sure didn't get to wear our swimming suits, slide on giant slip and slides, or get to eat popsicles while sitting on towels on the lawn.

Those kids were sure excited to see me there.  I'm thankful I got to take the time to do it, even with the wet, cold hugs from them.

It's the simplicity of it.  Cali said that night at home, "Thanks for eating a popsicle on the grass with me, Mom."

Here's to a simplistic summer with a lot of grass moments.

But maybe not so many popsicles because I don't want to have to keep picking popsicle sticks off the lawn.

Parents and Pastries. And a Random Rant About TV and S-E-X.

Every year our elementary school does Parents and Pastries.

This year we got ready for school, got our chores done

(have you done your chore?  Oh yeah... times six)

and faced the steadily falling snow and drove to the school where we ate donuts and read books or,  in my case, studied nine inches of biology flashcards.  Because that totally counts as reading, right?

The Man and I were talking last night about how grateful we are that our kids talk to us.  We know what's going on in their lives and we know we can trust them.

We know this because our kids want us to tag along.  They're not hiding anything if they're constantly asking us to be where they are.  And I'm not just talking about school functions either.  They want us to join them in any activity that they're doing and that, to me, says I can trust my child and know that the life that they present to me is the life they are truly living.

I think our biggest battle right now is finding appropriate TV shows for them to watch.  Gah, the stuff that's on TV is disgusting and horrifying.  We've banned a few popular TV shows from our home because of all the casual talk of sex and the blatant innuendos that are dropped constantly.

Sorry guys, I just said S-E-X without giving you a warning.  My bad.

So I'm also grateful for my kids because when we tell them we don't want to watch that show anymore, and explain why, they understand and move on to something else.

It's my job to protect my kids for as long as I possibly can.  Some of this stuff doesn't need to be common place for them... ever, but certainly not at the age of 12 and most certainly not at the age of 8.

Maybe I'm old fashioned.

But if old fashioned means raising respectful kids who don't mess around with casual sex as teenagers because we've taught them that it means so much more than that, then I'm okay with that.  Because it should mean so much more than that.

Wow.

So how's that for a rant.  When all I really meant to do was post pictures of Parents and Pastries.

Yeah, so... Cas made the honor roll again and we're pretty excited about that and so proud of her and the work that she's putting into school.

Now all we need to do is get Cali to start doing her part around the house.  This has been an uphill battle for so long, but dang it, that girl is going to learn that stubborn just isn't going to work when it comes to doing chores.

Okay, here's our pictures from this morning.  Also, it's kind of hard to do a self shot with seven people.  We get extra points for pulling that one off.

These kids are amazing.

I might be biased, but I still stand by that statement.

Jayme and Brynn Graduate NOVA

 NOVA is a pretty big deal to the kids.

It ranks up there with concert choir and field day.

I'm graduating from NOVA today, you're going to be there, right Mom?

I wouldn't miss it for the world.

So I sit through a two hour ceremony type deal and listen to the police officer (this year it was Officer Martin) talk about how our kids are the funnest and the best and his favorite of all the kids he does NOVA with.  I watch a slide show of the kids making faces at the camera.  I listen to kids read their constitutions for life, about how they won't do drugs and they'll go to college and be good people.  I listen about to the stories of when they made and flew their rockets, and how well the "no TV for a week" challenge went.

Brynn conveniently chose the week when we had no TV hooked up because we were doing the family room floor.

Smart girl.

And then I sit and watch as each and every child is called up for their certificate.

Usually this is a 6th grade thing, but since our school district is changing and putting 6th grade into the Middle School (and subsequently 9th grade into High School) next year, this meant that this year they also included the 5th graders, since they won't be in elementary next year to do it.

What this means for our Circus is that we had not one, but two kids in the NOVA program this year.

6th grader Jayme, and 5th grader Brynn.

Just for the record, they still brag about knowing a police officer.  He's like, their best friend.

They're like this.

I appreciate anyone who makes my kids feel that way.

And I'm proud of these girls for putting in the effort to learn about how drugs and alcohol, and even media can have ill effects on their lives.  And how education can have a significant effect on it as well.

Kids, alcohol will eat your brain.

But college, now there's a way to build it.

Oh, and since there are six of you within five years of each other... get good grades and get really good at sports.  We're going to need all the scholarships we can get our hands on.

Thanks.