Day 833

The first day of school is finally here!!!!!!! I am now the mom of a 1st grader, a 4th grader, and a 6th grader! The kids bounced out of bed this morning and were ready long before the bus ever came. Caleb kept begging to go outside to wait. I am glad for excitement!

Here are Samantha and Caleb. Seconds before this picture was taken Caleb was trying to do bunny ears on Samantha, but he ended up with a handful of hair. Can you see Samantha's annoyance? Can you see Caleb's "i got busted" look?

Caleb decided he wanted to sit outside and wait....for 20 minutes!

Josh was my goofball this morning! He got ready quickly too. He wanted to go to the bus stop early and started out the door. He came back in and said, "mom, there are elementary kids there." I explained to him that those were not elementary kids because the bus came a long time ago. He said, "mom, they are so little." I had to laugh. I don't think he realized he was that little last year! He finally made it to the bus stop and yup! Those kids are little! He was close to a foot taller than one of them. Amazing how much growing happens in one year!!!

Hannah wants so badly to go to school. She is wearing a backpack--it is actually a lunchbox. She would have gotten on the bus if I would have let her! I told her we will have school here. We will spend some time today on letters and numbers. She will learn something this year...I hope!
I am glad to be back in a routine!!!!! I got out early for my run. I am thankful my muscles have a memory. I managed to get out about 4 miles. I felt like I could have kept going, but I didn't want to push it and risk an injury. There is not much time left before the marathon. I still have to go to the school nurse to drop off all of Caleb's stuff. Then I am left with the domestic bliss of laundry and dishes. Might be a good idea to try and find where a new 'smell' is coming from....

Day 832

Do you remember THIS? It will make today's picture make a little more sense. Last year I was a little more organized and prepared. Life just got crazy this summer and I found myself having to go to the grocery store today....the day before school starts because I needed stuff for school lunches. Some great mom I am right? This afternoon we washed and bagged grapes, carrots, celery, pineapple and some other stuff. The overflowing bowl of fruit will stay on the table and the basket of stuff will go in the fridge. That is the "school lunch" basket. I am all about simplicity...we just grab and go!!! After the bagged all this stuff we made 18 sandwiches and put them in the freezer. Why 18? I shop on Monday's, so 18 is enough for each kid to have a sandwich every day this week and Monday of next week. Anyone want to split my grocery bill???? Oh and incase you are wondering, by Monday when I go grocery shopping again these baskets will be empty!!!!

Sunday 8/22

Day 829

What is "meet the teacher" without a downpour? I looked to see if I had pictures from last year, but I don't. We got soaked!!!!!! I am talking about the kind of downpour that had me get in with Hannah and I buckled her by wiggling around INSIDE the car! Everyone at the elementary school knows Caleb. One of Samantha's 4th grade teachers received this email from Caleb's kinder teacher last year. That is not the exact copy of the email, but it is pretty close. She also remembered Josh from 4th grade....even though he wasn't in her class. They got to have a nice chat. I feel really good about Samantha's teachers this year. I talked to her language arts teacher about her reading. Samantha LOVED to read before 3rd grade. Then she got hit with all the TAKS drills and it is like pulling teeth to get her to read. I have started working on it at home. She is loving our reading time together. Her teacher told me...and her that she will once again love reading by the end of 4th grade.

Caleb got the teacher we requested. I didn't get to spend much time with her because Caleb and Hannah were being goofballs. This is the teacher that his Kinder teacher and the school nurse recommended for him.

We hung out at the elementary school for a while waiting for the rain to stop...it didn't. Samantha and Josh talked to all of their old teachers while Caleb hid from EVERYONE because they were saying hi to him! The power even went out while we were there. Hannah kind of flipped out after that. I finally gave up on the rain letting up and we ran to the car. We then headed over to Josh's school. It was a quick in and out trip. I think he is embarrassed by us...his wonderful, loving, CALM family!

Here is a photo of Hannah (and Caleb) soaking wet in the car. This was before I managed to get her buckled in. She was too busy enjoying the freedom of being able to climb into the carseat by herself.

Thursday 8/19

Day 475

Today was the first day of school! What happened to summer??? I wasn't ready for it to be over, but it was time. Caleb went into Kindergarten. He had a good first day. He thinks he likes his teacher...funny little guy. Since he had a great year during PreK he already has a leg up. He knows all of his letters, numbers, and a handful of sightwords. Samantha went into 3rd grade. Gosh, when did she grow up??? She didn't have any of her friends in her class, but made friends with a new girl. She loves school and was ready to go back. Josh went into 5th grade. He is at a new school. They didn't change classes today, so it wasn't too overwhelming. Not sure how he will feel tomorrow. He thinks he has the best teacher, which is good. She seemed really sweet and wanted to make sure she had all the info she needed about his eczema and what might irritate him. She is the science teacher and they actually get to DO science...in a lab! The downside is his bus. He no longer gets picked up in front of the house. He has to walk down to the stop sign. He also gets picked up (and dropped off) an hour later than Caleb and Samantha. All of the scheduling (our stuff) will have to adjust a little. Hannah did ok today. She slept most of the afternoon. I had to get her up because I had to much that needed to be done. She got excited when Caleb and Samantha got home. She was giddy when Josh got home. She just couldn't wait for him to come to her, so she took off running down the street and jumped into him hugging and kissing him. (Don't worry, I was close behind looking for cars!)