Backing up just a bit

One early morning a few weeks ago, I put Annie on a bus headed to an outdoor education outing for three whole days and nights up in the mountains.


I felt a little sick in my stomach because she really did look like a baby boarding that bus.

And these things have the potential to turn out so many different ways.

She's got such great friends ... (who Eliza gets confused, see why?)


And though she was not placed in a group with anyone she knew, she made friends with a new group of girls and expanded her horizons.


They were all braiding each other's hair by the time they returned.


No mean girls.


No badness.


Nothing but good memories 

And she came back looking much more like a middle school sixth grader to me.