Cougars materials pick up {new school enthusiasm or middle school blues?}

 Today I went by the middle school for first quarter material pick up.

Twice.

Once with a 'the newbie' and once with the 'BTDT twins.'

It was like A Tale of Two Cities.  One trip with a kiddo eager to see the campus and hopefully get a glimpse of his teachers and one trip with two who pretty much came only because of the donut I bribed them with.

First time was full of conversation between stops to meet the grade level principal, the grade level counselor, the teachers..."What do you thin my teachers will be like?  How will Virtual school work?  I hope that I have friends in some of my classes.  Oh, look, that mural says my team name!"

he was halfway out of the car when i asked if he wanted to have his picture taken at the mural

We had left campus with materials, enjoyed his donut and were driving back by when he asked if maybe we could drive back through to get a picture with the balloons at the front of the school. 

How could I turn that enthusiasm down?

Second go around was pretty quiet. I try to convince myself that's just a common 8th grader thing.  The only breaks to the silence came in the form of them asking where we were getting said promised donut and me pointing out that their younger brother had noticed the mural and asking if they wanted to do the same.  No verbal response but the eye roll was almost deafening...