Grace's arrival HOME, a driver's license, teacher reveals and school prep

The couple days leading into school had some pretty exciting events.

First of all, Grace arrived home from China.

Oh boy, were we ever excited to get her home!
 It was a pretty JOYFUL reunion I tell you that!
 Let's get a closer look at that welcome home sign because that, my friends, is a masterpiece right there, don't you think?
HA!  But hey, at least we had something.
Woo Hoo!

The next day, bright and early, came the moment this girl had been waiting for since she turned sixteen the day before she left:

The DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST.
It was kind of a fiasco because I accidentally signed us up for the wrong DMV...the one where we had gone the night before to practice three-point turns with her friend and she felt READY for.  They told us no big deal, we could just head to the other place where we had the appointment.  But when we got there Grace was stressed like nobody's business because she hadn't practiced her parallel parking like she would have liked and she was so worried that was what they were testing her on there.  (Which, btw, she is really great at, and would have passed with flying colors.)

But it was still the three-point-turn after all and this girl came out with a huge smile after that little test.
 Does that look like a happy girl or what?
But I'll tell you what: her mother was more happy than she was.  And still is.

I cannot tell you how that little piece of plastic added to her wallet does to my life as a mother.  We've missed having a driver around here!  She is the BEST to run errands for me and pick up or drop off whatever, and I'm telling you, we are both loving the freedom like nobody's business.   

Meanwhile, the day before that girl of ours got home, the long-awaited class lists were posted at the elementary school.  Oh man this Lucy girl had been counting down the days.  And I had been sick to my stomach with worry.  Really, who she gets for a teacher is a pretty big deal.  I don't want to sound dramatic, but I really think it could make or break her year in a lot of ways.  She needs structure but kindness.  She needs understanding but expectations.  She needs to have someone who "gets" her and it makes such a huge impact, so much more than my other kids.  I had had some meetings the end of the last school year with a few teachers at the school because of some things that happened at the end of 4th grade that made me even more worried about the upcoming situation.  Really not big deal things to anyone else, but I just know how Lucy works, and I know having good kids in her class and having a great teacher can make such a difference in the life of this girl.  Sure, you always want great teachers for your kids.  But that desire is sure stepped up a notch with a child with special needs.  Really, all the fifth grade teachers are supposed to be great, but a lot was riding on this for Lucy and I was pretty nervous.

We kind of have a little tradition to go check out the class lists with this cute friend with the glasses shirt below in the middle, so we went and met up with this other cute friend too and found out they are all in the same class with the best teacher ever!  

This girl got SO LUCKY!  And she knew it.
 (Do you like how she has the list of what she can and cannot eat with braces clutched in her hand?  Just in case, you know, there could be some questionable food there at the school in the 110 degree weather.  Ha!  She seriously carried that thing around for almost a week after she got those new adornments on her teeth.)  All about those braces back HERE.

A couple nights later we went to meet-the-teacher night at the school.
Her teacher used to be the librarian so she knows Lucy really quite well and is darling with her.  It's going to be a great year.  This is how we felt coming out of our little date to the meet-the-teacher night:

The next day was "the-first-day-of-school-eve" and we did some last-minute errands and Grace handed out the gifts she got for her sisters in China.

Sweetness.

And she brought me my own set of beauty chopsticks too:
Sweetheart.

She also took the girls to Bahama Bucks with her fancy new driver's license...
...which promptly turned everyone's lips blue...had to scrub those puppies pretty good before the first day!

And see that lady behind her up there?  That night before school I had scheduled her to come do haircuts.  We kind of have a tradition of that and missed it last year (she was having a baby).  So we were excited to have her come and fix us all up.
(Love that Aubrie!  She's cut our hair for years.)

She came at 2:00 and didn't leave until ELEVEN O'CLOCK at night, because we had a family of neighbors join in and my sis-in-law's family who was getting ready for a wedding.

The most entertaining part of the night was watching this nephew get shorn:
 (He had sported that hair for a long time but was chopping it off for his brother's wedding.)

We were all quite entertained:
 Let's get a closer look at all those faces:
There we go.

Finished product:
(The mustache was going later:)

Claire had to try on her outfit with her new pretty hair:
 She was pretty excited with those braces blinging out her teeth.

And this rainbow was somehow mixed into that last day of summer.
Then school started (more about that back HERE), and schedules started to rule our lives once more filled with lessons and appointments and sports and all that hoopla.

But to wrap up what still goes with this post, we need to talk about Grace's "report" on China.  That first week of school we invited the kids that went to China with her and their families over to spill out all the details of their trip.
 Loved it so much.
They had so much to say about those adventures over on the other side of the world, and were all glowing with happiness about it all.

The other two girls who went with them were in Idaho, but we were to glad to get these four and see all kinds of pictures and videos of all they did.
 Hopefully it helped cement it all into their brains...and hearts too.

Grace and her sweetest-ever roommate:
 Who also happened to be one of Elle's great friends from high school.
 (and who also happened to have the exact same shirt as Elle that Grace had been wearing the day before:)

Oh, and one more important thing:  Grace got her Young Women medallion right when she got home as well.  (all about that over HERE).
It was a pre-requisite to getting that driver's license, and it was pretty cool because she learned so much from that and finished off the last stuff the last day in China.

What a summer that was!