Tonight is the Snow Cone Social!!

Tonight is Keith Elementary's Snow Cone Social, and as the first day of school (Monday!) quickly approaches, I can hardly contain my excitement. No... It's not because I'll have both girls in school and my days to myself again. It's because I love the start of school!!!

When we were growing up, we'd take a make a big shopping trip to Lubbock. New clothes. New notebooks. Picking out spirals with what we hoped were the coolest covers. And REAMS of notebook papers. Mom would find a deal somewhere -- like 250 sheets for $.10 and she'd go crazy buying notebook paper. She would store it at home in the little cabinet to the left of the dishwasher, and it was always fun to see if the "year's supply" she bought in August would last until May.

Our trips to Lubbock for school supplies were always a really big deal. I always wanted the big box of crayons with the sharpener. But with three kids, Mom was practical about that. No sharpener for me. I think that was a holdout from being a teacher herself -- she knew there was no way the sharpener and box would last with me at the helm.

We'd come home with new clothes and try to do a fashion show for Dad. Being the manly-man he is that wasn't really his cup of tea. But that didn't stop us from planning and figuring out our first day of school outfits way far in advance!

The first day of school, Mom would line us all up for a picture. True to form, we were always running late, so Mrs. Underwood would be sitting outside with the bus waiting for us to take our pictures. There are more than a few awkward first-day-of-school pictures around with me in them. My awkward phase lasted from 2nd grade through last week. So there are plenty to choose from!

My kids miss out on a little bit of all that. Being in Houston, the clothes they've worn all summer work just fine for the start of the school year. Unlike good, old Borden County, they can wear shorts -- so there isn't this mad scramble to buy jeans before school starts. And it's not going to be cold enough for jeans until November or so -- no hurry there. I buy the "good" backpacks, and both the girls' still look good enough for school.

School supplies are "streamlined" as well. We buy ours from the PTO -- they're already in the girls' classrooms, all labeled and ready to go.

So where's the thrill?? The girls don't seem to miss it, but I do and that's making me a little sad.

But don't worry -- I've got a plan. Luckily, Abbie's tennis shoes are on their last leg!!! So we've got school shoe shopping to do!!! Whoo-hoo!!!

Update: I was just talking to Granny Nelva about this. We decided the start of school was much more exciting growing up because we didn't see our friends much over the summer. Growing up going to Borden County, we were all so scattered. Kate Ph. was off at Waldemar every summer, and Kait Po. was way up in Vealmoor. You might see someone at 4-H camp or something, but that was about it. So when you got to the first day of school, it was always cool to see how everyone had changed -- and how they hadn't. And now you know the rest of the story.