Back to School Whirlwind!

Whew! I'm exhausted!  We had the CRAZIEST WEEK EVER last week! The kids were scheduled to begin school at the closest campus of SCPS on Wednesday morning. Tuesday morning we visited the classrooms and met the teachers.  THEY. WERE. READY. At about 3:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon mommy received a call from the principal of SCPS offering me a 5th grade teaching position at the other campus (keep in mind school started the very next day!)  I had been searching for a full time teaching position since last January with no luck.  So...I accepted!  We have an awesome babysitter for Clara, so I called her to be sure she could still keep her full time. We very quickly swapped our children to the other campus so they could be where mommy would be.  Then all five of us spent too many a large quantity of hours last week preparing my classroom for 16 fifth graders on Monday!  whew! It's exciting, exhausting, nerve racking, stressful, and crazy all rolled into one!  But I'm going to do it!  I am so extremely thankful for being home for the majority of the past five years.  My kids really are my contribution to the world and I want to invest every second into them that I can.  I have loved just having time to be a mommy, but having two of them in school all day means that it's the best thing for our whole family for me to provide additional income.  I'm happy to be able to do that for them!  It's going to be a juggling act for sure, but I'm up for the challenge.  When Rob starts school next week, Clara will be staying with a very sweet grandmother in her home.  Her name is Ms. Janette and Clara LOVES her and so do I!  I know she'll love on my baby as if she were her own!  Cora started Kindergarten with a bang!  She didn't want to leave her friends and swap campuses, but she did not shed even one tear on the first day of school!  She has a fabulous teacher and already has a new friend named Karsyn (that's the same name as her "BFF" she left at the other campus!).  Cade made me so so so proud when I told him only hours before the first day of school that he too would be leaving many of his friends and traveling with me to the other campus.  He said, "Mommy, I'm just glad that you got a job and that we can be together!"  That attitude earned up a new Lego set as soon as I get my first paycheck!  He too has a fabulous teacher who I happened to teach next door to a few years back, and his "BFF", Colson, is in his class.  Hopefully, we can stay put for awhile and there will be no more school hopping for our big second grader. Look how big they are!!!

Look how cute they are in uniform!  Cora's favorite part is those Sperry Topsiders that Gran and Pop got her for her birthday.  (I'm not sure they're exactly uniform legal, but until we're reported, we're wearing them! They are what the teenagers wear, according to Cora!)

                                                       That's a "2" for second grade and  "K" for kindergarten!!!

         Clare Bear had to get in on the picture action!   She and Cade have the same fake smile! :)

                                              She had to do at least one Cora pose! 

                                                         When did I get old enough to have a second grader????

                            This is "no mom, don't embarrass me by taking a picture of me in my classroom!"

And this is, "I'm very nervous here and I'm supposed to be coloring this clown, but I'll try to squeak out one little smile."

Stay tuned....