One of the great things that Morton Middle School does to get 6th graders comfortable with their new home is they hold a half-day walk through for both the new 6th graders and their parents. Oh, that's right, we suddenly have a middle-schooler in the house. Yikes! Fortunately, as this picture shows. Callie is heading in with a solid foundation of friends. This is fantastic, because as the parents of a new middle-schooler, we learned all about social media, dress code restrictions, and the dangers facing young teenagers these days. Eye opening for sure.
But Callie wasn't heading into Morton with only her Cassidy friends to count on. Now she was finally able to be in the same school as her Glendover friends, especially Janie, pictured here. These girls first met on the soccer field before they were even in kindergarten. They are a little bit taller now, and still playing soccer, which we love.
Callie was already friends with Addie heading into the year, but 6th grade was going to take it up a notch. They were already playing soccer together, but the timing of middle school gave them even more time with each other. Callie went to Addie's house every morning and from what we hear made herself at home. In the 30 minutes they had before walking to school Callie would often make Addie's lunch, take care of Maggie the dog, and make sure the door was locked behind them. And after school the two girls would walk back to Addie's house until our babysitter Malaney would pick Callie up.
We have to admit that we were so focused on getting Callie prepared for Morton and figuring out her morning and afternoon schedule that Reese's situation was a little bit of an afterthought. This was her fourth year at Cassidy so she knew the school well. She was over the moon excited about her 3rd grade teacher, Miss Schenning. However, the morning of the first day she was weepy and very anxious. We were flummoxed. And then when we asked her what was wrong, she sweetly said, "I've never been at Cassidy by myself," meaning that her older sister wasn't going to be there with her and for her. And neither will her sister's friends. Pretty sweet, isn't it?
Callie seemed ready to go. However, she still indulged us with a smile and a first day of school sign. She was paying attention to the school dress code but wasn't overly happy about wearing jeans. Honestly, this girl would live in gym shorts and leggings if she could.
So there they were, these two incredible girls ready for the first day of 3rd and 6th grade, respectively. They were all smiles and ready to get the year started. John was happy because his classes still didn't start for a couple of days yet.
Despite her early display of tears, Reese recovered pretty quickly once she started seeing her friends and got to be in Miss Schenning's classroom. We were happy that she was so excited about her new teacher, but we had no idea how amazing she was going to be.
After we got Reese settled, we took Callie over to Addie's house where the crew was meeting up to walk to school together. Callie certainly let it be known that we did not need to take the walk with her. However, one thing that we love about this group of girls is that all of the parents are incredibly engaged. In the end, Matt Stone couldn't let the memory go by without snapping a photo and sending it to all of the families. It takes a village and we definitely have a good one.
No comments:
Post a Comment