Birthdays & The First Day of School

Hi! I've been home for several days now. It's nice to be back in familiar surroundings, but it's tiring too. Just walking from room to room and up and down the stairs is a workout. I'm not used to being so incapacitated. I want to make meals, get the kids ready for school, do some household chores, and putter around the yard. But I can't. Fortunately, I can still write. I'll be working on an article later today, so that gives me something to do.

We've had lots of excitement around the house, too. Jack had a little birthday party on Saturday. Kelly organized some pirate activities in the backyard, then we took Jack, the neighbor boys, and his cousin Ashton to McDonald's Playland. I'm not sure what we'll do to celebrate his actual birthday, which is today. It's also the first day of school today. We dropped Aubrey off at middle school for her first day of 7th grade, and then took Jack and Regan to Wilson Elementary. Regan is starting 2nd grade and Jack is in all-day senior kindergarten (last year was half-day junior kindergarten). He was excited to pack his Spiderman lunch box and take birthday treats to school.

Kelly's brother Jim has been here since Sunday, along with his wife Amy and son Ashton. They've been very helpful. Jim mowed the lawn, and Amy has handled all of the cleaning duties. Plus it's just good to see them. They live in Alabama so we don't get to visit with them very often.

I'm posting three pictures: the first is from Regan's birthday party last weekend, the second is from Jack's birthday party on Saturday, and the third we took this morning when we dropped Jack and Regan off at school. We didn't get one of Aubrey. She was excited to talk to her friends before school started and ran off before we had a chance to get the camera out. Oh well. Such is life when you're 12 years old!

Jeff