First Day of School

It was an early morning in the Clapper house on August 31st. Lil' G was up and about sporting around his new digs. Jacob whined "I don't want to go to school" and Gracie was all bright eyed and bushy tailed for her very first day of Kindergarten. I must admit, I was dreading the trip to the bus stop because I was unsure how Gracie was going to react about leaving me or George and getting on the bus but she proved me wrong...she was such a big girl. I thought I would even shed a tear, but I didn't. I think it's because she made it very easy for me and I knew in my heart she was fine. I was a bit worried/bothered at how she was going to react once she got off the bus and into her classroom with a bunch of strange people. She called me at work after she got off the school bus and told me she had a great day. I was elated.
Until.....that evening at around 9:15 p.m. we were laying down in bed watching TV and I heard some sniffling. I turned and asked Gracie if she was crying and she had tears just streaming down her little face. I asked what was wrong and she said "I don't want to go to school" - she just broke my heart with her little lip quivering and those big blue eyes just filled with tears. So...I had a little talk with her, which did not help one bit so we went downstairs and took a look at the calender and circled all the school days for the month of September in orange, all the days off in black and our Disney vacation days were circled in blue. For some reason that mad everything all better - go figure. Jacob told me he had a good day at school and that was it on his part other than the overwhelming amount of paperwork he bought home for me to fill out. Lil' George said he spoke with his guidance counselor and told her he was interested in going to college for "sports medicine" after he graduated high school and she provided him with a bunch of information that he needs to view. Ohhh.. all the wonderful changes me, George and my babies all have to look forward to this year. .
I am excited, but scared too - I am totally fine with Gracie starting school, I am just not so keen on my baby boy graduating from high school and moving on to college. I know, I know, I am just being selfish....this is going to be a new chapter in his life and I feel me and George did do our part and prepared Lil' G to go out into this world on his own so I am comfortable knowing he is mature and responsible enough to take care of himself, I am just not ready for him to leave home is all

Welcome to Kindergarten

My neighbors (dear couple) surprised Gracie with a sign they made and displayed at the bus stop for her very first day of school. I think I was more excited to see it then her....I was like OMG this is such a good scrapbooking pic! I really did appreciate all that they did for her, I thought it was very kind and thoughtful on their part.

The End of Summer

It's hard to believe that summer is coming to an end and the kids will be starting back at school as of August 31st. I am finally done with all the clothes/supply shopping for all three kids. Can you believe my princess is going into kindergarten, Jacob into 3rd grade and Lil' George will be a senior and graduating this school year. Lil' George has a big school year ahead of him with lots of adult decisions/choices that he will need to make when it comes to college and what his plans are for his future. I think he is struggling with the whole "college" thing. During the past year or so I have been trying to talk to him about college, but it's a topic he keeps putting on the back burner. Part of me knows he is "afraid" of moving on (though he will never admit that to me). So it's new beginnings for all three kids this year - lots of exciting things to look forward to. I would say we had a rather eventful summer with sleepovers, family visiting, trip to Jersey shore, Hershey Park day, visits to Altoona to see grandparents, I even got to see two friends from my school days that I have not seen in over 20 years and our big trip is at the end of September when we all go to Disney. So...we are now counting down the days until Disney World.

Firm Outing - Harrisburg Senators Game

On Friday, August 14th the firm I work for (Eckert Seamans) had a summer outing which included a Harrisburg Senators game at City Island. George and I took Jacob and Gracie to the outing for some hot dogs and hamburgers and around later on we headed to our seats to watch the game. I am not sure how many of you all remember "Elvira" from back in the day (If not - just google her and I am sure you will recognize her)...anyhow she was the guest celebrity that evening and threw out the first ball.

Wow...what a weekend.

What a weekend it was - I planned on meeting up with two high school friends the weekend of August 8, 2009. Cami and Dennis were coming to Hershey with their two little boys (Spencer and Colin) for summer vacation and I made plans to meet up with them. It was a fabulous visit. When I got home from the visit I decided to log on to Facebook and post a message about my visit and I noticed that my long time friend Mark (Dedio) posted that he was in Hershey. I took a chance and shot him a message that I was only 20 minutes from Hershey and to call me. Within one hour my phone rang and Mark called me - I was so blown away to have heard from him and we made plans to get together so the following day Mark and his wife came to my house for dinner where we caught up on the old days.

Weekend at Raystown

We were invited to Raystown for the weekend by our friends/neighbors Theresa and James Hatley and their daughter Makayla. They recently bought a new boat and thought it would be nice to go to Raystown for the weekend and celebrata Makayla's birthday and they were thoughtful enough to invite our family. Unfortunately George had to work and Lil' G has a very busy social life these days so it was just me, Jacob and Gracie. It was Gracie's very first time on a boat and she did great. I was afraid Jake would get motion sickness because his last experience on the boat was not a good one. We gave him some meds prior to the departure and he did great. I absolutely fell in love with Raystown. Even the scenice route drive to/from Raystown was just beautiful. I believe we are going boating with our friends, again, over Labor Day weekend - it should be a great time.