First day of school

ok, I am not quite done with summer, but I have to move on.  The summer posts left are all the kids youth camps and I want them to write those posts and I keep forgetting to tell them.  So those will come later.  Since the year is half over by the end of the week, I guess I should post about the first day of school.  Haha.

This is a pretty fun school year for all of our kids so far.  Some "first", some "lasts" and a lot of "new".

Megan's first year in middle school, and the only time she will be in a school all by herself.  She was SO nervous for middle school.  I was a little worried about how worried she was.  I knew she was going to be fine and the middle school would be easy for her.  But she got all in her head that it would be too hard and way too much homework.  Maybe it would have been hard pre-covid, but they have really made everything so easy since then, plus she is smart, organized, responsible, and "on it" - I have no doubts about her.  Luckily I was right (she admits that now) and she is going great - even in her advanced classes.  She is in Tundra pod (a family favorite) and has lots of friends in her pod and classes with her.  Now if we can just get her to put down her book and talk to her friends!

These boys are in high school together and I feel like my heart could burst.  I just love them both so much and am so glad they have each other.  They are killing it at early morning seminary - they seem to really like it, they get up on their own, are ready long before they have to be, and brock even rides his bike at 5:45 in the morning.  He likes to get there early and stare at the stars.  Jason is still teaching (not their classes) so he drives Noah and David. 

Both of the boys decided to really push themselves this year and are taking 2 honors classes each. I am so proud and impressed with their class choices.  They are taking great electives (Brock: Orchestra, weights, and ASL. Noah: Choir, Drama, and Weights).  They both have good friends, teachers who love them, and a pretty good relationship with each other.  

This is Madison's last year of Elementary and the only Herbert at Trailblazer!  And she is living it up.  When she wakes up everyone is already gone, so she gets everything to herself!  She was so cute this summer.  She really cared about her back to school items and purchased most of them by herself.  She wanted a "theme" and bought all things to color coordinate.  I wish I would have taken a picture, it did all turn out so beautiful (mostly white and gold).  She packs her own lunch every morning (they all do, but she does more variety than the rest).  She typically rides her bike to school and loves that she can leave whenever she wants.  The babies and I also love having her around in the morning.  She was initially sad about the teacher she got (Mrs, Casey) and that all of her friends were in the other class, but by the second week she was happy with her class and her teacher.  She felt like her class was more unified and fun. (however b half way through the year I can report that she has gone back to being pretty negative about her class/teacher... so that is disappointing.)

Madison has such a great group of friends that she just adores.  She is my first child to have a "group" of friends in elementary school that she wants to hang out with all the time.  It has taken some getting used to by all of us.  My other kids preferred to be home rather than be with their friends, so we are all trying to not let it hurt our feelings.  However, I was like that so I totally get it. 

Since Noah and Megan were both starting new schools they both started a day before everyone else.  So a picture of just them!  These 2 have found each other for the first time in their lives.  They have always been my 2 that fought and didn't get along.  However, I have probably 4 or 5 blog posts about how they are so similar and if they chose to stop fighting they could be b3est friends.  Well. .. they might be taking my advice because they are becoming great friends and realizing they have similar interests.