It’s all too dang fast.

Blogging hiatus?

No.  Just busy.  Life keeps whizzing by and I’m trying to be present in the crazy of it all.

This week?  My firstborn started Kindergarten.

We’ve had a lot going on around here, but I knew I wanted to have a Back to School Eve dinner.

I  knew immediately that I needed to store the idea in the recesses of my brain to use in the future…two years later.

Two years later came faster than I imagined, and in the blink of an eye, I heard myself asking Henry what he would like for his special dinner.

I wanted to decorate a little bit to make it feel special, so I shopped my house for whatever looked fun and would look like a celebration.

A few yards of polka dotty oil cloth, flowers from the living room, leftover colored napkins from a birthday party years ago, and mason jars with cute lids.

I am constantly reminded that kids don’t care if something is worthy of Pinterest.  They don’t care if it all matches.  They don’t notice if there are little labeled flags in all the food.  They just see that something is different.  And for kids, different equals special.

And polka dots.  Polka dots pretty much mean happiness, so you can never go wrong there.

Henry painstakingly picked out everyone’s straw according to their favorite color.

The girls got pink straws.  I also got pink since that’s the closest to red.  Daddy had blue.  And he picked out green for himself.  Of course.

Uncle Ben was coming for dinner too so it was great anguish and consideration to finally settle on yellow…since we weren’t sure what his favorite color was.

These are important things.

Oh, and a bunting banner.

Because nothing screams party like bunting.

This adorable banner was made and given to me by a friend who brought a practically gourmet dinner over after Owen was born…and included this.

I assured her it would get heavy use around here.

Its inauguration at Back to School Eve.

When I first asked Henry what he wanted for dinner…ANYTHING he wanted…his favorite food…his response?

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  And artichokes.

I mean, I know I was supposed to let him pick and all, but seriously…I didn’t really want to eat that bizarre combination.

So I did what any other parent would do: I gently steered him somewhere else.

Thank goodness because he changed his mind and settled on waffles.

My favorite part of having a gigantic chalkboard in my kitchen?

I get to color.

Thanks for the photobomb little dude.

And I am reminded that perhaps I should update the photos of Owen…since he is out of the womb and all.

The next day we headed out to Kindergarten with our new (but look really old already) shoes with neon green laces.

When I instructed Henry to stand for a picture, Lucy jumped in.

“Lu, get out of the picture…it’s Henry’s first day okay?”

“No mom, can she be in the picture with me?  I want her in it!”

These two.  I will never understand them.  Inseparable.  Forever together.  And always fighting.  I can never seem to keep them apart for more than a few seconds…and yet, they can’t ever seem to play without some skirmish or cry or general drama from erupting.

I love the second picture.  Lucy looking to her big brother.  Copying him.

I may lose my mind corralling these two.  But at least I’ll be smiling when I do it.

I thought I would cry.  But I didn’t.  I thought it would be sad.  But it wasn’t.  I thought I’d take a million pictures.  There are only two.

Funny how that goes sometimes.

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jeannett

I'm a mom to four. A wife to one. I believe in story. I love telling you about mine and would love to hear yours. There's really no sense in wasting our suffering and not sharing in each other's joy. We're all in this together...even if it doesn't always feel like it.

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