Summer's End

Today is the last day of Summer vacation. It has been a long summer here at chez Mitchell. It was a fun summer, a stressful summer and a happy summer, but most of all it was a long summer.

Tomorrow we will send Piper off to second grade and the thought brings a few tears to my eyes. I am so proud of her and the strides she is making. I am excited to see her grow up and into the person she is to be, but I am also sad when I see all that she has become and how she seemingly needs less and less of me. Childhood is so bittersweet in so many ways. In a few short months my baby girl, my first born, will become my oldest of two daughters. She will be a little mother in so many ways to her baby sister and while I am excited to see that, I am also amazed that my 6 pound wonder could possibly be the squealing 7 year old with two missing teeth headed to 2nd grade. Bittersweet, I tell ya!

Tomorrow will also be the day we send our sweet little bug to his first day of school. He will be going to PRE-K five days a week for three hours a day. I am so excited for him and so sad to see him go. He has been my sweet little snuggle bug and it is hard to imagine that the time has already come to let him have adventures without me. I know that it is time and that he is ready. I am not so sure I am. He told me that I would be fine and that I would have a new baby to take care of while he is away. Doesn't he know that he will always be my baby? After 7+ years as a Mom I will finally have a portion of my days all to myself and that is a strange feeling. Granted my alone time will only last a couple short months before Phoebe joins our little family here. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

In celebration of the last day of Summer we decided to go to the movies and end the day with Daddy's famous homemade sour cream pizza. We saw Ponyo at the kids request and all really enjoyed it. The kids have repeated the line, "I want ham!" all day long. Lucky little kids will find ham sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. After the movie was over we headed over to the elementary school to meet Piper's new teacher. When I say new, I mean really new. She is brand new to our school and possibly to teaching. This makes me a little nervous, but also excited to see what lays ahead. Piper was excited to see a few names she knew on the classroom list and I was relieved to not see the name of her tormenter from last year. Second grade is going to be a good year.

As I type, the pizza is in the oven and the kids are running around outside with Matt and Roxy Sue. I hope when the kids look back on the summer they have happy memories and know how much we love them. It can be stressful to be with each other for weeks and months on end after getting used to the break that school allows. We have had to be more patient and tolerant, but I also hope we have grown closer this last summer as a family of four.