first day of school...

Today our teenagers entered their junior and senior years of High School. I'm already starting with the sentiment around here. Saying things like, "where did the time go?", or "this is your very last, first day of school as a child" and I can't believe we just went on our first college visit.

I'm ridiculous with this kind of stuff. Every June when the graduating seniors at our church go to the front of the church and receive a blessing, I cry, no matter if I know them well or not.

I'm not sad about it, it's just strange, it's new, it's change. He has already begun to spread his wings, I can feel it and this is good, really really good. It is our job as parents to raise our children to become faithful, responsible, human beings and their job to grow up and hopefully be just that.

We are so very grateful for our children. Our littlest one, she has been such a gift, perhaps because we never expected God would bless us with another child to love. As older parents, this time around we are doing things a little differently.

I registered her for preschool again this year and once again called to tell them she would not be coming. Actually I registered her only to hold a spot while we figured out if we would send her or not.

I understand that for most people this is a no brainer, you either know that your kids will go to school or know that you would not ever consider doing preschool. For me the answer was not so cut and dry. I will probably go into that thought process another time as this post is already getting way to long.

Anyway, this morning after we watched all the neighbors kids get on the bus we went to the kitchen table for a leisurely breakfast, then played some counting and letter games.

Then we were off to the orchards for some fruit picking with some friends from church.

We picked blackberries...
peaches and raspberries...
and all the kids ran around the orchards for a couple of hours and had a great time.

The little one and I had gotten there before everyone arrived and picked lots of blackberries. She followed behind me picking and eating as she acted out the story Blueberries for Sal, which she completely remembered because we have taken it out of the library a couple of times.

Yes, we like this kind of preschool...