Catching Up: Birthdays Part 1

You know, I would love to share with you about this week and all of the preparations for today, the first day of school. I would tell you about shopping at Walmart and how - miracles of miracles - I did NOT intimidate any nice, old ladies this year.

I would share about shopping for 4 children instead of 3 and I don't care what anyone says, a fifteen-year-old boy still qualifies as a child in my house.

I would share - with great humor and hardly any cussing - about our school's Orientation Day which happened last Monday. This is the day my kids and I - along with 917,384 other students, parents and siblings - all show up at school at the same time.

We bring our school supplies. We find our new classrooms and desks. We practice opening the combination lock on the locker 847 times. We meet our new teachers and new classmates. We see old friends and goof around with them instead of paying attention to the teachers, who are trying like crazy to help everyone understand the confusion of schedule changes and rotating classrooms.

We see tons of people and:

1. Lament the end of summer (parents and kids)

2. Lament the start of school (kids)

3. Lament the eminent arrival of homework (parents - the kids haven't thought that far ahead)

It's a great way to start out the school year - to figure out the basics like where your desk is and how to organize it BEFORE the first day of school.

It's also crowded, loud, busy, chaotic and stressful.

Stressful because I want to help all the kids but alas, I can't help the 10th-grader figure out his locker combination AND help the 6th-grader/new middle-schooler figure out where all of his classes are. I can't help the 3rd-grader put her supplies away in her desk AND help the 5th-grader do the same.

I end up going from classroom to classroom, trying to do little bits at a time. Fortunately, Daniel and Katie are completely self-sufficient and don't need my help at all. In fact, Katie is so independent and organized, she'll probably be running the classroom by the end of September. No joke.

By the time we're finished, 31/2 hours later, my brain has exploded, I'm squinting at people and I've developed a tic in my left eyelid that makes me look like I'm winking at everyone. Worst of all - my hair is flat.

So I invented vodka slushies. I'm pretty sure there's a market.

Anyway, I'd love to share all of this - especially the pictures of the kids in their first-day-of-school finery but guess what? I lost my card-reader AGAIN. I should buy stock in that company. Dang it.

So, being the flexible, easy-going, go-with-the-flow kinda gal I am *snort*, we'll work with what we've got which is - pictures from this summer! Let's start with last June, shall we? I believe I promised you birthdays at some point. And we all know you've been waiting, wondering and sobbing uncontrollably over the lack of information. Here we go . . .

Matthew celebrated his birthday with - shocker - a Lego party! He invited . . .

. . . several other goofballs/lego lovers . . .

. . . and they went crazy.

We were at Luke’s Lego-cy Carnival for the evening. It’s a Leukemia Foundation fundraiser and is held in honor of a local boy who lost his fight with leukemia a year ago. It was a fabulously successful, joy-filled event.

Aaaaaaand . . . . I posted this picture because lately, it’s typical of my photography skills. Please note:

1. Five boys, only 2 of which are smiling and posing for the camera

2. Matthew, who isn’t paying attention

3. Half of a boy on the left.

4. A complete stranger, whose rather large back is in the picture and is almost obscuring the birthday boy plus the other 3 boys.

Can anyone say “Pulitzer Prize”?

So, my first-born turned 12. My sweet, no-longer-little, baby boy is closing in on being a teenager. I am so proud of him. He’s a thoughtful, funny, sweet-natured young man. And he still likes cuddling with me.

I think I’ll keep him.

Next up - birthday #2. Stay tuned.