Happy-sad time

Melancholy is the word of the day as both kids went back to school yesterday.

This time of year really brings home how little time we have left with the kids at home, as they move on to a new grade and new adventures.

We now have two kids in high school. That is pretty hard to wrap my head around.

Amy was very excited and a bit nervous to start high school, but she was absolutely ready and is going to do great. She's most excited about having a Technical Theater class, and also her first opportunity to have a study hall. She's already familiar with where things are in the school (from attending summer camps at Heritage High School, which is the same exact layout as Freedom) so I doubt she'll go through her adult life like I have, still having periodic dreams about not knowing where the high school classrooms are (well now that I think about it, I haven't had that one in a while...I've moved on to being lost in different places in my dreams!) She has friends in a few of her classes, and we really really really hope that she will find a kindred spirit in the theater crowd who loves Broadway shows the same way she does. Fingers crossed.

Reed has signed himself up for a heavy course load this year, all on his own (I swear we had zero to do with it). He's got three honors classes, three AP classes, and two classes that are dual enrollment for college credit - one through the local community college, and one through James Madison University. We are most excited for him to take the Geospatial Science class through JMU...it could be a really marketable skill if he turns out to enjoy it. It's the school's main specialty program, which he wouldn't have had access to elsewhere. He continues to not love school, but he does enjoy riding the bus and having lunch with his friends. We are still just curiously waiting to see what he will want to do after high school - I don't think any of us have any clue at all.

I hope they have a great year, have a lot of fun with friends and learn a lot!