Summer's Winding Down around here

It is hard to believe after living in NY for so many years (where school starts after Labor Day) that school starts next week. For most kids around here, they are already in session. The girls start on the 21st. I'm so excited that I will get a little bit more ME time, but sad because it seems so soon to have summer end. Although summer is not officially over, so much changes once the kids are in school. There is less freedom to just enjoy being outside and not worrying quite so much about bed times, no homework to do, and no getting up early if we don't want to.

Lilly will be starting 2nd grade this year. It seems so weird. I remember when our friend Alyssa was in second grade and I thought she was so "old." I see Lilly growing up, but I also have a hard time admitting that she's old enough to be in 2nd grade. She's going to be learning so much this year. Each year I am amazed at all the things that she can do and how much smarter she is getting. She just got reading glasses on Monday and is VERY excited about them. She has been finding things to read just so she can wear them! We've worked on the "On the face or in the case" rule, and she's doing very well with them. We'll see what happens when school starts. It's going to be hard to remember to bring them back and forth.

The other big excitement is that Katy is starting Kindergarten this year. This is so hard to believe. My baby...old enough for "real" school. She won't be attending school with her sister, but rather staying home with me. I'll be home schooling her. We got her textbooks about 3 weeks ago, and she just can't wait to start working in them. We did do a few pages last week, but haven't started full force yet. I did get lesson plans done for the first few weeks.

There were many things that led to the decision to home school Katy. One of the biggest ones was her chocolate allergy. It's hard to have Kindergarteners understand that someone is so allergic to chocolate that they can't even touch her. The school also serves chocolate milk and other chocolate like desserts. This is way to dangerous for Katy to deal with or have to comprehend. She does quite well, but...

I have already told Lilly that we may make a big deal out of Katy's first day of school like we did when Lilly started school. We'll still take pictures and have fund with it as usual, but Katy deserves excitement too. Although there will be no uniform for Katy's school, we'll enjoy the same books Lilly did. She will be learning to read this year. That is so exciting (but scary for me since I'm the one that has to make sure she learns properly.). She was talking to her bear Ella tonight and told her that she would be able to read to her once she learned. It was really cute.

The countdown is on. 5 days left.