Camp Hardin: Our Big Boy

Wow, it's been over a week since I've posted - the week went by so quickly. We laid low, as it was Reid's last week before school started, and we had a big weekend planned. Ron and Freda came in on Wednesday and took Reid and Luke to get haircuts and new tennis shoes. They picked out the same shoes (Geox with lime green and fancy soles that blow air up on your foot when you jump), and had a great time. Luke went back to Fredericksburg for a few days, and Reid enjoyed some days with Grand Pink and some quiet time.

On Friday night we all went up to Clayton to meet Reid's teacher. He has Mrs. Beisel, a kindergarten teacher who moved up to first grade with most of her class from last year. Reid is one of four "new" kids, with 16 having been together for Kinder. I think it's fabulous - Mrs. Beisel had a whole year to work out all the "kinks" and personality issues, so the class can hit the ground running. There is one little boy from Reid's kinder class in there, so he has one old friend, and has already made some new ones. And apparently, most of the boys from his kinder class have the same recess time as Reid, so he still gets to play with them as well. His first day was Monday, and he only shed a few tears, and by today (day two), actually said he had a GOOD day! (that's huge for him - usually he won't admit that he had fun at school....)

Reid's first day of 1st Grade

We had Reid's 7th Birthday party on Saturday. He chose a lego theme this year, which meant a fairly easy cake (thank you, Freda), simple decorations (I cut a bunch of construction paper in half and stuck them on the wall at 10:30 friday night), and most importantly, a future now dominated by the age old conundrom of how in the *#@* to store all these new legos. Seriously, there are SO MANY PEICES. And we already had a lego tote, but it is no match for the realm we've now entered. Do you keep the sets together, each in their own box? And when the box inevitably falls apart, do you buy said set it's own little tote? Do you just dump them all in a mammoth tote and let your kid sort through 12,743 legos looking for a specific piece? Do you sort by color? By size?

You'd think this would be my dream come true, an organizing project of this magnatude, but alas, it's not. I'm overwhelmed by trying to balance perfect organization and containment with something that the boys can manage themselves, while not hampering their ability to play with the darn things. I have read of one system of placing individual sets in labeled ziploc baggies, then putting all the sealed baggies in a tote, and cutting the pictures off the boxes and storing them in notebook. Sounds good in theory, but since Brad just came in the office and asked if there were any clean underwear and socks, highlighting my inability to even accomplish the most basic tasks around here, I'm seriously doubtful I'm going to find the time to cut up tiny pictures off of lego boxes. Perhaps they will all just stay on the kitchen table until I have to clean it off for Gray's birthday. That gives me 3 months to come up with a plan.

Anyway, the party was great - everyone had a good time, the cake was delicious, the kids played on the zip line and playscape and tire swing, and then everyone had a good nap that afternoon. Sarah and the girls stayed until Monday afternoon, so we got an extra long visit in. Sarah watched all the kids so I could take Reid to school on the first day. It was so nice having the opportunity to take him alone, and I was able to walk him to class and say a proper good bye. My sister rocks.

Here's some party pics.