First Day of School

Yesterday was the last day of summer, which means that today was the first day of school.  Well, for some anyway.  Andy and I started our dance of getting up at 6a, this year I moved it back to 6:10a, and him ignoring me while he eats breakfast and plays on his iPad and I make his lunch and do whatever else.  Last year I just played on my iPad too, this year I'm going to actually try to engage him in conversation and leave my iPad alone until he leaves for the bus.  Then I'll have about 15-30 minutes before the girls come down and my day really begins.

So Andy was off for school by 7a and then the girls needed to get haircuts and go to school for picture day and teacher evaluations.  I love that they do pictures when I am right there to "help" the photographer and they don't mess up their nice clothes on the playground.  So much easier.  Sarah met her new teacher (she is only 24, I could totally be her mom) who is super nice and helped take care of her first day worries and Amanda is back to not being so sure about Kindergarten.  I can't hold her back another year (or can I - but I won't) so she's just going to have to figure it out.

I think Andy had a little rougher day than he expected.  He's not in the same math class with the two guys he drove over with last year and "it's hard to make friends".  Yes, buddy, that's the story of our last three years here.  But he is going to do fine, just a long, tiring day.

I am mandated by life to take a going back to school picture, so here it is.  April from New Jersey asked if he actually went to school with his hair like that and maybe was still working on it, but what you see is what you get.  Keep in mind, he's only 12 and he's not quite that worried about his looks just yet.  He basically told me that you can go to school with just showered wet hair and nobody cares, but you can't go to school with bed head.  As far as he sees it those are the two choices.  Man, if everybody viewed the world the same way he does life would be so much simpler.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Today was Amanda's 6th birthday.  Holy cow!  It's hard to believe she's been around for six years but even harder to remember what our lives were like without her.  She drives me crazy, but she is also the most snuggly mama's girl I've ever known.  This family would never be the same without her.

In celebration of her big day and because it is next to impossible to throw a summer birthday party, the whole family went to Water World today in her honor.  The girls and I went about a week ago for a Girl Scout event, but Charlie and Andy had never been.  We rode huge rides in big, family-sized inner tubes and we all had a blast.  We're hoping to have a real party for her in about a month (after she makes some friends at school), but if not I think she would still say her birthday was a success.

Happy Birthday baby girl!

The Last Day of Summer

Friday was the last day of summer.  Okay, technically today was the last day of summer.  Well, if you want to really get technical, September 20 (or so) is the last day of summer, but not in the kid-parent-teacher calendar.  Andy goes back tomorrow.  The girls have teacher assessments tomorrow and go back Wednesday.  We will finally be back on a schedule, the kids will be gone all day, ahh.

I hate to do recaps, but I haven't been on here in over six weeks.  If and when the kids and I go back and read this blog, they are going to wonder what the heck we did this summer.  It's mostly the usually stuff, family and friends and camps and such, but what exactly happened this year?

This was the summer where:
1.  Sarah went to Girl Scout day camp with Julia and they were the first two girls in the troop to earn a badge as Juniors.
2.  Andy did his second year at CCO (sleep away camp in Winter Park) and the girls and I had a great adventure of spending the night in a hotel and then playing on the mountain (alpine slide, the maze, bungee jumping) before picking him up.
3.  We went to Chicago and saw Aunt Kathy's new addition, went to Shedd Aquarium, spent some time with Jack during his last summer before college and left right before they got a new puppy!
4.  Continued on to Aunt Nanci's for the first Fourth of July party at her new house.  The kids met Jason and Jack (we have yet to meet Joey), and we even got to spent the weekend with Tudor.
5.  Spent the last leg of our trip in New Jersey where April was eight months pregnant and a total trouper.  Charlie came on the entire trip which was a big plus and fun for everyone.
6.  Sarah went to horseback riding camp and may have finally, by the last day, gotten over the fear of getting thrown of a horse so many months ago.  She was a different person by the end of the week.
7.  Tried out a new house in Destin because we outgrew the old one and we really liked it.  We realized as the kids get older that the trip morphs a little bit each year - we are excited and nervous to find out exactly what that means.
8.  Sarah and I went to a Parent/Daughter Girl Scout weekend, camping in tents and everything.  It was way over scheduled and a little much for her but we survived.
9.  Andy went to Michigan to visit my parents all by himself.  They went to movies, the zoo, and just hung out ignoring each other a little bit as well.

I wish I had written more in depth about all of these things, but I didn't.  I wish I could tell you that I was so busy making memories that I didn't have time to write, but that really wasn't the case.  I hope I can get back on track and start writing more because I know at least my parents love to read what the kids are up to and I know several of my friends do too.  I don't really have any excuses now that I have three kids in school all day long, hopefully I can stick with it.

I Will Run For Fro-Yo

On Sunday the whole family did a 5k.  The kids have been saying that they want to do a race since I do three or four a year, so I found one that they couldn't resist.  The Fro-Yo 5k.  They run a 5k, and at the end they get frozen yogurt.  How hard could that be?

We started out all together, but Andy got bored with how slow we were going.  We were moving pretty slowly, he was walking while the girls were running and he was still ahead of them.  So even before the first mile we told him he could go on by himself and just wait for us at the finish.  After about 1.5 miles Sarah was widening the gap between her and Amanda, so the two of us went on and Charlie stayed with Amanda.  He said it was touch and go for a bit and Amanda almost just stopped and sat in the middle of the sidewalk, but they did end up finishing about 10 minutes after Sarah and me and we were there to cheer them on for the last tenth of a mile.

Overall, Sarah did great.  I kept her pace so when she wanted to run, I ran.  When she wanted to walk, I walked.  She never gave up and even though her feet hurt and it was really, really hard for her, she kept trying to run and she finished without complaining.  I was so proud of her and she was so proud of her medal!  I don't know that the girls are going to want to run another race anytime soon (they would prefer the next one not be over one mile), but Andy claims that he wants to run the Hot Chocolate 15k with me in October and also a 10k some time in late August or September to prep for the Hot Chocolate.  I don't know how well that's going to go and this time we really need to train, but I would love to instill the love of running in my kids because although it's something that I found later in life, it is amazing exercise and you can do it anywhere.

Here's a picture of the family before the race started (yes, Andy is ALMOST as tall as Charlie):

Make A Wish

I was driving in the car with all three kids last week and Sarah noticed that the digital clock read 3:33.  So I started one of my "when I was a kid" stories, which they actually like right now instead of roll their eyes at, and told them how I used to make a wish when all the numbers on the clock were the same but if you looked back before it turned to the next minute, say 3:34, that your wish didn't come true.  They asked me a ton of questions and then we discussed all the technicalities and how 10:10 and 12:12 didn't count because they weren't all the same digit but 11:11 did.

A few days later I was driving Sarah and her friend, Julia, home from Girl Scout camp.  Somehow they got on the subject of the clock and wish making and Sarah started explaining it to Julia just as I had explained it to her.  Andy and Amanda were in the car as well, piping in to give clarifications on the "rules".  Since Andy is now 5'3" and over 130 pounds (crazy, right?) he was in the front seat next to me.  As we're listening to Sarah explain to Julia that 12:12 doesn't count, Andy tells me how that morning he looked at the clock at 5:55 and it was really hard not to look back for an entire minute.

I looked at him and asked if he made a wish.  His response?  "Of course I did!"  Man, how I love to pass on these stupid, little, crazy things to my kids and see them embrace them wholeheartedly.  It put a huge smile on my face.

Picture of the Day

It wouldn't be the end of school without the "last day of school" pictures.

 
Amanda already had her last day but she wanted to get in on the action.

Summertime

The last two weeks of school flew.  Like a blur.  Like so much going on that I thought of trying to write it all down and it just gave me tired head.  So here I am, finally writing it down a few days after everything is over and we are already into our first week of spring break.

The weekend before school got out we took a fun trip to Dallas for a party that some friends of our have talked about throwing for about 20 years.  Pretty since we met them.  We got to catch up with so many people at the party and the day before, it was almost as if we hadn't moved.  Except, well...

We got delayed out of Dallas and the kids didn't get to bed until after midnight which wasn't that big of a deal because it was the last week of school and everybody knows that not much happens the last week of school, except that Monday was Field Day.  Yippee!  So we sent our overtired older two to school to run around and do crazy stunts and I brought the overtired younger one to watch.  Luckily Sarah was in the morning and Andy was in the afternoon so I could watch each one and not have the share my time (lucky for them but a long day for mom and baby sister), except the clouds and lightning rolled in while Andy's class was in their second event.  They sent everybody inside, started a movie and even though the sun came out about 30 minutes later they never finished Field Day.  Kind of a bummer when it's your last one.

The rest of the week was field trips and park visits and Outdoor Ed for Andy, and a stomach virus for Sarah that kept her from fun and school and made my last few days of freedom not so free.  I took the two girls to Target the day before school got out and they were crazy.  Amanda actually said to Sarah, "We're supposed to be annoying, stick to the program", which did not give me warm and fuzzies for how the summer is going to go.  I think in nine weeks I am really going to enjoy sending her to Kindergarten.

Andy had Continuation (for some reason they don't call it Graduation, probably because they are just continuing to 7th grade at the middle school) on Thursday morning, but as soon as they called his name and he "crossed the stage" they pulled me out to get Sarah because her stomach hurt again.  So I missed the Clap Out that they do for the 6th grades where all the kids in the school line up outside the classrooms and the 6th graders parade around the whole school while all the kids clap for them.  The 6th grade parents get to stand and clap in the main hallway which is the last place they go before they leave the building.  Supposedly it's super cool, I guess I'll have to wait another three years to see it.

After Continuation Andy had about 10 kids come over for a Summer Kick-Off Party.  We had food, cake, a bounce house, water balloons and a pinata.  It seemed like everybody enjoyed themselves, I know Andy had a good time.  Then a few hours later I invited a bunch of my mom friends and their kids to stop by and get a few bounces in a finish all the cake and food the older kids didn't eat.  It worked out quite well and we were all exhausted by the end of the day.

A great way to end the school year and to start the summer.  Hopefully the fun continues!