Back to School Again!

I can’t believe it is already time to send my little monsters sweethearts off to school again! Summertime goes so fast nowadays. And really, that’s true – because, they barely get more than two months, the poor little buggers! It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was posting that they were going back to school last year! Crazy how time flies, isn’t it?

Our schools around here started on the 7th, so the kids have had six days of school so far. Back home, though, they don’t even start until August 25th! And I think some of my friends up north say they start even later than that. They stay in school for some of June and we are usually out by then.

My daughter is in sixth grade and the ‘top of the school’! That is such a fun year! And it is also the year that the kids start switching classes to get ready for high school. So she has six or seven different teachers. She really likes all of her teachers so far, but, she absolutely loves her homeroom teacher! I do, too – she is the reading teacher – so you know I like her! She is really nice, though – it’s not just that she’s the reading teacher – she is very spunky!

My sons had to read several books this summer for their summer reading, since they are in honors classes. Shawn read “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe and “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. Patrick had to read three books that, for the life of me, I can’t remember. I am pretty sure that two of them had to do with censorship. And one of them was a series of essays. I just looked on the school website, but, I think they’ve taken them off of there since our new school year has started. I’ll have to tell you about his books later.

My exciting news for this school year is that Shawn will be joining his brother in the marching band, playing the trombone! I’m so excited! If we still lived in Texas, the boys wouldn’t march until 10th grade, but, since we are in a small town, they march in 8th grade. Being involved with the marching band and all of their activities has been fun for our whole family!

And more exciting news is that Sammie gets her instrument this year! She is going to play trumpet, just like Patrick. (Patrick also plays the French horn, but, he uses the school’s – I think THREE of these expensive suckers is enough for us! Well, not to mention our drum set, electric guitar, and keyboard – man, we’re like Music City, huh?) So anyway, Mark is going to buy Patrick a new trumpet and Sam will get his ‘old’ one. (We bought it brand-spankin’ new two years ago!)

The trouble here is, that our first ‘event’ for marching band and Sam’s instrument sale are on the same night! Total bummer! And they both start at 6pm – gah! The high school is having their ‘Meet the Players’ night, where they introduce every kid on every sports team in the school and the band plays at this event. So even though it’s not our first game, it is Shawn’s very first ‘event’ with the band. I’m SO not missing it. Mark will have to drop the boys and I off at the high school and go buy the trumpet at the elementary school. And then I bet he’ll have time to come join us for at least some of the event.

I’ll try to get some good pictures to share with you from the event, but, the kids will not be in their full uniforms, so I’m sure the pictures won’t be as exciting for you as they will be for this mushy mama! (I’m sure I’ll be crying! I did last year! LOL!) The kids have blue band shorts and a blue band shirt that they typically wear under their uniforms. For the first few events, according to the weather, they only wear the shorts and t-shirts. I think it’s really cute, though, because, you can see their black gloves. The rest of the year, the gloves blend into the outfits, but, when they just have a t-shirt and black gloves – I think it’s just adorable! (Let me tell you, they all just love my gushing!)

“And you may never find a freak without at least one glove!” [That song just popped into my head! Can anyone tell me what song it is?]