starting school and ending school...

End of May began a new journey for my middle son... Marky-mark was going to start pre-school in a formal setting... full of structure, snacks, naps and field trips... I was excited.  He was excited.  This was going to be great for him.  New friends.  New rules.  New ways of doing things.  Greater expectations on behavior.  Higher requirements of energy.  So far it's been a smooth, easy transition... he is definitely more tired in the evenings...but not sure that isn't due in part to growing also... I swear the kid is growing longer by the day, but still looks as though he is never fed seeing as how we can see his spine and ribs... I have basically given up on watching what he eats...if he is hungry then he is hungry...I just let him eat... Some days I don't know how he is still vertical as he maybe ate a total of half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - the.whole.day! ...other days I do believe if I let him, he would eat an entire loaf of bread and scoop the jelly out with his hands...He is sometimes I am sure running on pure adrenaline!

We talked quite a bit about going to his "new school"...how he would need to have a backpack and a change of clothes with a blanket & sheet to sleep on his cot... he was too excited to get the backpack... the day it came (of which he didn't know) - the doorbell rang during the day and he squealed "my backpack is here!".  He didn't know it was...didn't know the ups-man dropped off his amazon.com order... but he was nonetheless excited to see his shiny new orange backpack.  oh orange?  yes of course - its his signature color....I think he has 6 orange shirts in his closet and refuses to wear any non-orange colored shirt... well that's sort of a lie...if the shirt has orange on it then he'll wear it, but I will tell you - he KNOWS the ones that don't and refuses to wear them... ahh well - there's always Seth.

So far school has been great - no worries from the teacher... and I do believe they both like knowing (Noah and Mark) are there at the same place...

Also at the end of May we ended a good run with my oldest cousin (who was also one of my ring bearers in my wedding - where has the time gone!?) who decided to go ahead and graduate from high school....  Not sure who gave him permission to do this...I wasn't really ready to see him do this...I know his mom was stressed to the max...him being her 1st born and all... I mean how do you see a little kid and know them and see them as a "little kid" suddenly turn into a grown human... ok it wasn't that sudden - I mean it was 18 years, but looking back it seemed to fly by.

It was a nice ceremony.  The weather was just right...warm, but breezy.  I am glad I got to be there.  I think he was thankful we were as well.  He had quite the support staff...entourage...posse!

gotta love those 'selfies'!