Today is such a memory packed day for us all.
First of all, its the first day of school for the older kids. My sweet sweet Tristin is going to middle school now. Oh how the years have gone by and I couldn't be prouder of her. She is so ready to take this big step and I am excited to see what this year brings her. I keep telling her that she is at such a hard step in her life right now, she wants to do things...like have a cell phone..or walk the mall with a friend...or go off by herself at a fair, yet I want her to stay a kid for just a wee bit longer. If she can bear with me through the next year or so she will be allowed to grow her wings and start to fly. This protective mama bear is still keeping those wings clipped for a little while longer. She is a beautiful person inside and out, and I'm so happy to be her mom.
Camille is going into the second grade. I love the elementary school my kids attend as its a multi-aged classroom. Kindergarten and 1st grade are together, 2nd and 3rd are together, and 4th and 5th are together. This is great because you get to keep your teacher for two years and not only is it comforting for the kids to know who their teacher is when they go back, but the teachers also get to know eachs child's personality and can work with them for two years. As long as the student and teacher get along...its a great thing. Camille is going to a new teacher, Mrs. Sayers and she's really excited because one of her good friends from K-1 now followed her to 2-3 so Izzy and Camille will remain "school sisters" for another two years. I hope that Camille has a great year and she connects with this teacher as she did with the past teacher.
Elijah....oh my Elijah. He's probably the most excited to go back to school. He loves the structure of it all. He's very intelligent and I was surprised at how much he calmed down after going to Kindergarten for just a few weeks. I know he'll do great and I'm excited for him too. A tradition of mine is to make the kids hold signs on the first day of what grade their going into that way when I look at them years down the road I don't have to calculate what year equaled what grade. Tom thinks its silly, I think its genius!!
And Second, a few weeks back I was contacted by the local chapter of The American Red Cross. They are getting ready to launch a new campaign and was looking at past blood recipients to use as models for advertising. They said we had a very encouraging story with Isaac and asked if we would consider allowing them to photograph him and use his story. I was honored and excited about this. We set up the photo shoot for today and I was nervous myself because we were told last week that they intended to make a video clip to share on their website, use some of us in a tv commercial, use our voices in radio advertising, and the photos will be used for various advertising things. WoW! I was a little nervous this morning as both boys were snotty nosed and fussy, but boy when we got there their moods changed. And for the BETTER YaY!!! They were all smiles and they were plesant and we really enjoyed our time there. It took about an hour to do everything. We all sported American Red Cross shirts, they gave us lines to say for the commercial and for the radio and took tons and tons of photos. It really was fun! I'm excited to see the end product and truly thankful for them choosing us so that we can show everyone our beautiful twins and let them know what a blessing they are to us.
