Life At The Circus

The kids returned to their tutorial this morning. Well three of them returned and one, very excited 5 year old entered the building as a student for the first time.  Despite the fact that I have been working tirelessly to prep for this school year AND I even woke up 2 hours before we needed to leave the house, we STILL arrived late.  BUT, perhaps that late arrival made for a smoother drop off for Momma b/c there wasn’t time for me to get weepy as I ushered my lil man into the opening assembly.  He was so, so excited to finally be at school.  As we walked up to the building, wearing his backpack and carrying his lunch box, I had a flashback to his toddler self carrying a backpack to the building when we dropped off the big kids.     He’s been lugging a backpack to the building as long as he can walk.  Often filling it to overflowing with books and pencils.  Today as we walked into the building, he happily exclaimed, “hooray I get to go t...

Well, it’s pretty much official.  I think I will pull out the fall décor this weekend and start lighting my beloved pumpkin spice candles.  Summer has come and gone.  But before I take my first sip of a Pumpkin Spice Latte (I always hold out for that one till the kids first day of their tutorial….), I do want to look back on our summer. I did a lot of deep cleaning this summer and attempted to reign in the chaos and instill some order in the circus house.  It pretty much takes all summer for me to catch up on the back slide that occurs during the school year.  The kids played.  Nothing notable really.  Just unstructured play.  I’d almost say 2015 was the summer of play. I got to go on a few date nights with my most favorite person.  I love living life with him.  But I also love sneaking away for some time alone with him. This summer we got to do both.   We went camping… several nights at state park in PA.  We also did o...

The circus fam started back to school last week.  Some students were more enthusiastic than others. And yes, I decided to do recorders for music this year.    After our Bible lesson, our very first lesson of the 2015-16 school year was music.  30 minutes of ear piercing recorder playing. The kids are enthusiastic and I am finding it to be an IMMENSE lesson in patience for this Momma. After years of watching round the table, my youngest was beyond excited.  And I must say his excitement was rather contagious.  I am totally keeping his art project from this day, forever.  It was his very first art project on his very first day of school.  He was so proud and enthusiastic and I was rather impressed.  ( art for kids hub is a WONDERFUL resource for art with kids). Our tutorial doesn’t start until Sept 14, but I felt that was MUCH, MUCH too long to wait to start school, so we began on August 31st.  We have been working very, very ha...

I think one of my favorite things about our annual Labor Day weekend away with our friends, is the fact that it has elevated Labor Day to the status of super special holiday.  Prior to our tradition (14 years in the making) Labor Day was just a three day weekend at the end of the summer, or a reprieve as you adjust to the routine of school back in session.  Because my kids have literally grown up celebrating Labor Day with a 3 day weekend away with friends that feel more like family, they assume Labor Day is right up there with Thanksgiving.   Ok, maybe that is my second favorite thing about Labor Day.  My first favorite thing is watching our children grow in their friendships with each other.           And every year I think I am enjoying it more than the last, but this year I feel like we truly are in that sweet spot where the kids are old enough for both us and them to enjoy letting them have independence.     As...