'Twas the Night Before School Started

Sometimes it's really hard being me.  Okay, scratch that -- it's kind of hard being me ALL the time.  You see, I have this tendency to have very specific ideas in mind, and when things don't play out the way I've envisioned them, I get really frustrated.  Apparently, I'm kind of an intense person.  Hahahaha.

Today was a packed day.  Aside from all the little last minute things that needed to be done for school tomorrow -- you know, like doing laundry, making bread, and cleaning up -- I also needed to squeeze in a 5 mile run, a haircut for Ethan, a trip to the grocery store, Open House at the school to drop off school supplies, and finally, all the prep for our Back to School Feast and Family Home Evening tonight. 

I was moving full steam ahead the whole day long until the Open House hit in the afternoon, and then things started to fall apart.  At least for me.  We ended up getting home a lot later than expected, and I didn't even START throwing together our Back to School Feast until the time we should have been starting to eat. This shouldn't have been that big a deal, but I was just aggravated and annoyed all over again that the Open House had cut into our last-night-before-school-family-time, and things just weren't going according to plan!

 In her classroom! (Ignore the weird pose.)

With Scott's help, and some of the kids, we finally got everything ready to go with our feast, and feast away we did!  We had hamburgers and hot dogs, corn on the cob and watermelon, chips with dip, and an attempt at specialty drinks {that didn't quite pan out} in the form of Brazilian limeade and regular old lemonade. 

The food was eaten in far less time than it took to prepare it, and then the kids were off to try on their first day of school outfits to show Scott since he'll already be at work when they leave for school in the morning.  After changing back and carefully laying out their new clothes for tomorrow, we were finally able to move on to Family Home Evening where I introduced a last-minute-flash-of-inspiration theme/motto for the new school year and then moved on to father's blessings for the kids.

I was annoyed once again to discover that the battery pack was dead on my real camera!!!  Aaaahhh.  At least I found that out tonight and not tomorrow morning while trying to take first day of school pictures!  These cell phone pics are not the best, but they'll just have to do.  Here is Ethan demonstrating "How to Photo Bomb 101."

 

 

 

 

 Ummmm.  How hilarious is Alex's unprompted pose up there??  Hahahahaha.

THEN it was off to bed!  I'm tired.  Tomorrow is going to dawn bright and EARLY, so I'm going to sign off for now.  Wish us luck for tomorrow!

 "Hold to the Rod"

 (Family Motto for the 2014-2015 School Year.  Inspired by the second verse of our hymn for Scripture Time this month -- "As Zion's Youth in Latter Days" -- where it says, "with faith, we hold the iron rod and find in this our joy."   And from another hymn,

 "the iron rod is the word of God -- 'twill safely guide us through.")