Back to School Seems so far Away!

 I am craving fall things like new sneakers and pumpkin muffins and apple picking and that moment when you go into Target and all the clothes make YOUR bright, lightweight clothes look wrong because it is time for SWEATERS and more muted colors.

But.

Still summer here for the entire rest of the month and then a couple of days.

I did succumb to an Insta ad and buy Minnie a sweater because I knew it would make her look like a Care Bear, and I am not disappointed.

I also found a never-worn pair of Birks on our garage shoe shelves for Dorothy (they must have been Coop’s from when he loved Birks and then suddenly did not) and bought Jack a new backpack, a Costco pack of pens, and also a 3-pack of notebooks. Harry has the big stuff for his dorm but probably needs a white board/bulletin board and a futon, plus shower stuff, laundry detergent sheets, some kind of laundry receptacle, maybe a shoe bag for his closet door? We get to drop his stuff off in his room a week before move-in, so we can take stock then.

Still, we have SO MANY things to get in order before school really starts. New shoes for everyone's larger feet. Dorothy is absolutely not going to take a bento box to school in middle school and wants a new Hydroflask luncbhox. She also needs a new backpack because Pottery Barn Kids is also not cutting it for her new maturity **eye roll**. And Harry doesn't want to carry a backpack emblazoned with his high school tennis team logo, which tracks.

And it's not all buying stuff. I gotta go through the school district enrollment site and register everyone. Jack needs to go get an ID and a parking pass. Coop and Dorothy are going to ride the bus to school (first timers!) and have to figure out where they get it and where to get their bus passes. I think they have a day to go visit their school and check out their lockers, etc. SO MANY THINGS. (Also school supplies! How did that slip my mind?!)

We know basically when diving practice will be (maybe som days of the week swapping in for others?), but we have no clue about dance. Or what else people will do. Jack might do a dive clinic with an old coach one day a week. Hockey for Coop? Looking doubtful. Baseball? Perhaps, but on what level? He had two different tryouts this week, and the teams are VERY DIFFERENT in terms of financial commitment and time commitment.  Dance for Minnie? Yes, but the schedule has not come out yet and maybe gymnastics but there are not any classes at any of the five gyms I have checked DURING THE FREAKING DAY. I understand that lots of kids Minnie's age are in daycare, but NOT ALL OF THEM, and I would really like her to do activities DURING THE DAY because preschool plans do not make the cut for the busy after school hours. 

Speaking of school hours! Dorothy and Cooper go NINE TO FOUR TWENTY FIVE. What.

 SO MANY THINGS UP IN THE AIR, and all I want is a cozy routine.

When Minnie is sick in a few days, remind me, won't you, that we went to the Children's museum