Back to School, Back to School...

So my dad won't think I am a fool.
I got my lunch packed-up and my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight.
Back to School, Back to School."

Sorry for the "Billy Madison" reference but I started typing the title and it just popped in my head.

So we have less than a week before school starts. Lily is loving horseback riding camp. She is already begging for a pony.

Apparently she has been training on a small shetland since she is a first time rider.
"His name is Pumpkin and he is gray with blonde hair. I did his hair today."
"Oh really?"
"Yea, I braided it."
"When did you do that?"
"While I was riding him."

So, I'm paying for her to braid a horse's hair. Hmmm.

Today was a rite of passage for Lily. Her dad finally agreed to let her cut her hair short. Well, shorter. She cut 7 inches off. And of course she looks so much older. I asked her what she thought and she said "Now I look like a 1st grader".
:( Makes mommy sad. Ok, I"m over it. Mia and I also got our hair trimmed. Here are some pictures to commemorate the occasion.

7 Inches GONE!

Mia the "Princess"

So I went shopping for school supplies for the first time. I've never seen such chaos.
I should say that I am not one to shop...ever. I enjoy shopping in bookstores and coffee houses (not the Amsterdam kind) and that's about it.

People are crazy when it comes to shopping. Especially back to school! I set a time limit to get in and out. 30 minutes. Didn't happen. It took 30 minutes just to get half of the stuff!

My question to all the teachers out there. Why do you require your students to have a certain color of notebook. You do realize that everyone is looking for the same color..which means...there are none left.
"A blue plastic folder with pockets and brads"
I had to ask someone what "brads" were. Just say prongs. They're prongs. Prongs is more fun to say anyway. So after 59 minutes I was able to check out.

Orientation is Monday and school starts Tuesday. We've been trying to get the girls in bed earlier to prepare for the early morning wake-up calls. I think we should have started earlier. The girls have built up a resilience to late nights. Lily usually wants to be asleep by 8. That will end next week hopefully. 6:30 is going to come very early for her.

Mia has a few weeks before MDO starts again so it will be just the two of us for a while. I'll have to keep her busy. She doesn't like it when Lily is gone.

Hopefully we will hear something from BG by the end of the year. We're going to make sure we start early on our home study update and stay on our HS agency to do their part and get it done in time to have the approval letter back and send it off before our HS expires this time.

If not by next summer then we will be updated our address, as well as our home photos. But luckily the plane tickets from Boston/DC are much cheaper than from Memphis.