i Heart Faces Weekly Challenge---Back to School

I'm always so happy when i Heart Faces has a challenge I feel like I can actually enter....and back to school shots are something I definitely have.  Not professional but still oh so cute.
This picture is of my daughter on her first day of 4th grade this year.  She had a major growth spurt over the summer and looks so different than her picture from last year.

Enter your own back to school photo over at i Heart Faces this week....and check out the great photos of others.

Another First Day......I might need to become a Red Bull drinker according to this schedule.

Today G had his first day back to pre school.....he goes to the most wonderful pre school in all of the world. No, I'm not exaggerating, his teacher is amazing and she knows how to teach any and every personality.  He wanted to stay when we went to his "meet the teacher" day where he just saw how the centers were rearranged, so I didn't have any anxiety about dropping him off this morning.  Until.....one of my friends who's child is also attending the pre school said "have a great last first day of pre school!"......doh! That hurt, I didn't think about it that way.  His very last, first day of the pre school he has been going to since he was 2 1/2.  The next step is Kindergarten (gulp!).  Not sure I'm ready for that and I gotta tell you that I'm not quite sure I will send him.  Texas isn't doing so swell in the Education department right now.....32 kids in one class is not something I want for my little guy.  Anywho.......
Today was T's 1st day of football practice!  He came out smiling and not puking so I guess that's a good thing.  He had a blast and is pumped about the mouth piece....not so much about the jock strap so I'm having to rush to the store tonight for slider shorts.  Yay.  I was in a car rider line 5 different times today. 
1. Dropping off T at the Junior High
2. Dropping off R at the Elementary school
3. Picking T up from Junior High.....until he called me 1 minute (exactly!) before the bell rang and tells me he does have football practice. So I got out of the line I had been in for an hour (2nd in line too!) and came back to pick G up from his school. 
4.  Picking up R from the Elementary
5.  Picking up T from football practice

Then, I had to make it to an Athletics meeting at 6....oh, just 30 min. after I got out of the football practice line.  No biggie.
So, this is what it's like.  I was used to soccer practices and running everywhere but now that T is school sports I can already tell how nutso it will be.  I've never had an energy drink in my life....but it might have to find it's way into my car for all this Taxi driving I'm doing. 

Here is G for his 1st day!


My big 4 1/2 year old!




Yep, that's my 7th grader. He finally got his "tree" picture we do every year and turned it into a silly photo shoot.



Back to School......are you jumping for joy or crying into your laundry?

Well.....I woke up at 5:30 this morning, my relaxing waves replaced with the annoying beep-beep-beep of the alarm.  1st day of school for T and R.  I made cinnamon rolls and cut up some fresh strawberries and made myself a huge pot of coffee.  Our summer is now long gone, only to be remembered by the vacation pictures I tend to revisit at least once a month.  I have to tell you, friends....it was tough dropping my now 7th grader off at junior high.  He just seems to small to be walking into that school full of hormones and Honors classes.  R is headed to 4th grade and will be in the same school she's been in since Kindergarten.  I'm completely at ease about today for her...she even has a teacher she's had before....and we adore her.  It's still a new year though and with girls the social aspects can sometimes be harder than the academics.

My prayer for the first day of school:
God, please guide and protect my children all school year long. 
Please keep their minds and hearts open to new friends, new places and new things.
Help them always carry Christ in their heart and represent Christians the best they can.
Let them feel secure and safe in themselves and confident in their point of views.
Please help give them calm hearts and minds and let them be a catalyst in whatever they do.
Give them the compassion and sympathy they need to make it through this school year with their integrity. 
Help me let them walk on their own two feet and be their own people.
Amen

Tomorrow is G's 1st day back....more pictures to come.