Sunday, August 19, 2012

Vacation & Back to School in One Week


Last Sunday after church, we finished packing up the car for vacation and then stopped by Faith Lutheran for Lincoln to meet his new teacher.  His head teacher, Ms. Melissa, is new.  Her daughter was in Ellie’s dance class last year and though I only talked to her a few times she always seemed nice.  Lincoln has two other aides in his room to help out.  After we dropped off his school supplies and he got to play in the room a bit, we headed down to the Lake for vacation with Andrew’s family.  Kristin worked so hard on finding us a place and then just a few days after we scheduled it, we found out that the kids started school right in the middle of vacation week.  So we got down there Sunday late afternoon and got settled in a bit.  The kids explored the house and did a little swimming.  Kristin and Matthew also found some jet skis for the family to borrow, so they were all out on those that evening.  Ellie and Lincoln loved it.  But I think Andrew was a little more daring with Jackson and he ended up not liking them anymore.  But Ellie and Lincoln kept begging Andrew to go on them again.  Lincoln also just loves spending time with his dad.  He calls me his mommy and Andrew is his cowboy. 





Monday ended up being cool and cloudy with some drizzle.  I did some quick shopping at a couple stores in the morning and got back in time to feed the babies lunch.  Even though it was yucky outside, the kids had a blast playing around in the house.  We also got a game of Uno in and Andrew even played with us.  He does not enjoy playing board/card games (except for Poker on his phone J) and will usually try to cheat.  He held off on the cheating until the end of the game this time.  By the end of the day, things had cleared up a bit and they got a little more swim time/jet ski time. 

We sadly had to leave early Tuesday morning to get back for Ellie’s Sneak-a-Peek at school.  She got to meet her teacher and put away her school supplies.  And they always try to sneak in a decent amount of paper work for you to fill out.  Ellie was pretty shy about it but I think she was just tired from vacation.  As the day went on, she got more excited about her new classroom and her teacher.  But after we met her teacher, we came home, got lunch, fed the babies, quickly unpacked and started some laundry, and then it was back to the school for Jackson’s turn.  We already knew his teacher, Mrs. Kuntz.  She is Molly’s friend’s mom.  I was just not with it though during all of this.  We took all the kids and we were all pretty tired from vacation.  And I know this isn’t a huge deal, but I managed to misplace both sets of papers from the kids’ teachers before we got home.  I later found Ellie’s in her backpack and Mrs. Kuntz sent his home in his backpack on the first day of school.  I thought I was pretty prepared to do all the back to school stuff when we got home from vacation.  I already had their clothes ironed and set out, had the table decorated for their back to school dinner (Lincoln thought he was having another birthday party) and some stuff prepped for dinner.  But things didn’t go quite as planned and both babies ended up with a cold and therefore didn’t sleep well that afternoon.  Thankfully, when Andrew got home from work, he helped me with dinner.  But we were just barely getting it started when my parents showed up, not that they minded though.  We again had their favorite dinner, chicken scallopinne.  Our theme for this year is our Family Rules…Love Jesus. Have Fun. Encourage your Siblings…Share in Their Joy. Always Tell the Truth. Clean up After Yourself. Sing Silly. Dance Crazy. Obey Your Parents. Never Stay Angry. Hands are for Hugging, Not Hitting. Be Considerate, Respectful, Grateful.  No Whining, Fussing, Complaining. Share Everything, Except Bad Ideas. Ask First. Be a Giver. Use Kind Words. Say What You are Sorry For. Forgiveness is Mandatory.  We have started working on memorizing them in hopes that they will be applied to our daily lives.  And the kids also got little baskets with some pens, stickers, erasers and notepads.  For some reason, I didn’t get around to making their crowns this year.  But we did get dessert, cookie cake, another one of their favorites.  And then it was an early bed time for everyone to make sure we were ready to go for the big day.


Our morning went pretty smoothly and we were actually on time.  I brought out the chalkboard again for the first day of school pics.






First we dropped off Jackson and Ellie and it went well.  Neither of them really showed any hesitation.  Next up was Lincoln and he was pretty good.  He immediately started playing with the tractors and checking out the backhoe that was in the front lawn of the school.  So Andrew and I just kind of quietly left.  But then someone stopped me outside the door and he could see me.  He ran up to the door and said, “Mommy, don’t leave me.”  So I took him back in and explained to him that we would pick him up just like we used to pick up Ellie.  He seemed okay with that and we were on our way.  I am probably one of the only moms that doesn’t cry on the first day of school.  I was sad the night before and the early morning, when everything was still quiet and I was getting their stuff ready.  But during of the middle of it, I was holding a sick baby who spit up on me a little and rubbed his snot on my shirt, so I was too distracted to get weepy. 



But everyone had a great first day.  They liked their classes, their teachers, etc.  Lincoln I think just liked the toys J.  That night we had dinner with my parents and got to help Kathy Powell celebrate her birthday.  The kids swam and we had pizza and cupcakes.  The next couple of days went by quickly.  Jackson had his first football practice Thursday night and I think they had around 90 boys there for 1st-4th grade.  Friday, it was time to pack up again and we headed back to the Lake after school.  The kids were excited to get back down there.  We had dinner with everyone and then Andrew took Ellie and Lincoln out on the jetski again.  I headed out again the next morning to do a little more shopping.  Tom and Mary were very kind and gave me some money to buy the kids some clothes.  Mary had taken Annie and Kristin earlier in the week too.  It was greatly appreciated!  When I got home, Tom’s sister, Shirley, and her son were there visiting.  They stayed for lunch and it was nice to see them and visit with them.  She loved seeing all the babies.  Sadly, Miles and Bennett weren’t feeling that great so weren’t on their best behavior.  They did give her a few smiles though.  But they weren’t very cooperative with nap time.  I actually got my suit on and thought I could hang out with the other kids for a bit but I was only down there, maybe, a ½ hour and Bennett was crying and wouldn’t stop.  It was a beautiful day outside and everyone had a great time.  Jackson even lost a tooth while we were down there.  It had been loose for a while and he finally just pulled it out.  We packed up and headed home this morning.  It was quick and hectic, but it was good to get away and spend some time with Andrew’s family.  Thank you so much Tom and Mary for giving us a great vacation!!!






And I forgot to mention that the twins turned 8 months last Monday.  They are keeping us one our toes.  They have become pretty fussy lately and I think part of it is teething and part of it is they just haven’t felt good with their colds.  But they still have smiles that steal your heart and make you forget that they were so mad at you a second before.  Here is a picture of typical life for them lately.  Miles found a phone on the floor and Bennett decided he wanted to check it out too.  But then Bennett spotted me and my camera and immediately took off towards me.


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