Buses And Jitters And Tears, OH MY!!!!

On one hand, the kids slept like rocks. On the other hand, Mama did not. All I could think about was that my kiddos were going back to school and "Did we do all of the fun stuff that we could have done over this summer?" When I got past the, "there is nothing I can do about it now if we didn't", I started thinking about how quiet my house was going to be when I came back home from being the ridiculous Mom taking hundreds of pictures on our first day of school. It made me very sad and, to be really honest, a little scared. Sometimes I like peace and quiet, but today I didn't like it, I didn't like it, not one little bit.

6:30 rolled around and I rolled over and put my feet on the floor determined to be happy about this day. By 7:00, I was waking up the boys, getting them dressed, putting shoes on, combing hair, trying to feed them breakfast that they wouldn't eat due to the first day jitters, brushing teeth and rushing around trying to get Miss Ellee ready, too. We made it with 5 minutes to spare.

We were told that the bus would arrive at the corner of our cul-de-sac at 7:57, so out the door we went. As always, we stopped to take a picture under the tree in the rain.

Then the dreaded walk to the bus stop. Do they not know that it's hard on a Mom when they decide that riding the bus is much cooler than having your Mom take you to school on the first day?

The bus arrives. This is when I realized they were just as nervous about this day as I was because they couldn't just give me a natural smile. They were smiles masking their jitters, but that was OK because I was having trouble smiling today, too!

On the bus they went.Sigh.....I made it through that! Daddy, Ellee and I raced to the school but we didn't make it into the building before the bus arrived and the boys got off. In fact, I had to get Caden out of his classroom to take the next picture because he was already at his desk before I even knew it.

They gladly did it, even though I'm sure deep down inside Caden was thinking, "OK, enough already, Mom."

We made it to his desk and with one last look, behind his nerves he let me know that he was going to be OK. It was going to be OK to be in Second Grade with Mrs. Carpenter as his teacher and that I was free to go. I told him I loved him and that I was proud of him, choked back my tears and walked out the door. It would be very uncool to cry in front of his friends!

So then it was time to take my last little boy to Kindergarten.

He was a bundle of jitters and didn't really want to walk through the door, but he managed to muster up the strength to do it and we went in. He found his seat and Mrs. Fager got him busy right away, so that he wouldn't notice my eyes welling up with tears and the lump in my throat.

It was a tough morning for this mom. It wasn't long before the same little boy I left at Kindergarten earlier in the morning came home on the bus for the very first time, a little more grown up than he was when I left him.

He stepped off the bus, hugged my neck and before I could ask him anything about school he said, "So what's for lunch, Mama?" That's more like it, I thought to myself, we can talk about all of the unimportant things later. Mac & Cheese is what he wanted for lunch on his very first day of "REAL SCHOOL," so Mac and Cheese it was.

After a couple episodes of Spongebob watching, he decided he was ready to tell me about his day and it was a full morning of all kinds of stuff, but the best part is when he got to draw a picture of himself and color him green. I love Green Reeces and can't wait to see it hanging in the hallway.

Caden arrived home at 3:50 and was very excited to tell me about his day and all that he did. The most favorite part of his day was that they got to go outside for at least one recess because it had stopped raining. Why would I have ever thought that the best part of his day would be reading or math? He is a sports kind of kid and all summer long he worried about whether or not they were going to put the soccer goals back where they belonged by the time school started. So of course his favorite part of EVERY DAY always has been and always will be recess. I'm just sure of it.

It's a tradition in our house that on the first day of school they get to pick some place fun to go and eat. So Red Robin it was. Great food and the best chocolate milkshakes ever for dessert.

Who can go wrong with that? All in all it was a great first day of school for the boys and I am so proud of them.

Tomorrow is a new day and tomorrow will be better. That's what I am telling myself anyway!