Back to School

Last Monday was our last day of summer.  Throughout the afternoon/evening I took the kids to meet their teachers.  I had to take Ellie sometime between 1 and 3 so Molly said she could stay with the twins.  Then she realized that she had a meeting at 1, so that wouldn't work.  I had decided to just go ahead and take everyone even though I knew it would probably be a disaster.  The twins don't like being in the stroller right now and also get antisocial when in large crowds :-).  I knew I would have a lot of paperwork to fill out and they would not be happy boys, but we would just have to deal with it.  But then Andrew offered to come home and stay with everyone.  He wasn't feeling that great (I had a cold the previous week, so I think he got what I had) so he came home to rest while the twins napped and I took Ellie to meet her teacher.  Ellie was excited to meet Mrs. Tovar and she found her desk was grouped with several of her friends.  Their classroom also has two hamsters which made Ellie happy.  While I filled out more paperwork and signed up for parties, Ellie unpacked her school supplies and looked around the room.  I think it will be a great year for her.  After we got back it was about time to take Jackson to meet his teacher.  There was a bit of a line when we got there but it went quickly.  His classroom was full of activity.  We followed the same procedure as Ellie-I filled out paperwork and signed up for stuff while he put away all of his supplies.  We briefly met his teacher, Ms. Higgins.  I knew of her, but didn't really know her.  She was a Mary Immaculate girl between Lissy and Kaitlin.  When she was in high school, her and a friend started Kirksville's first soup kitchen, Hope's Kitchen.  It is still going to this day.  She seemed very energetic and puts a lot of information about the class online which I think is great.  But then it was time to head home and take Lincoln to meet his teacher.  His went really quickly as Janie Fouch, the principal, came in and quickly gave her speech needing to yell over the kids playing.  After that we just handed over his supplies, checked out his cubby and coat hook and headed out.  There are only a few kids from his class last year in his class this year.  Some of them went on to Kindergarten while others are in the afternoon class.  But he has a couple new boys that I think he will be great buds with, Josh and Benson. 

After we were all done, I picked up the rest of the kids and headed over to my parents for dinner.  A couple of Molly's friends joined us too.  The kids wanted to go swimming (we are now in a bit of a heat wave since school has started back) but we head to get home and get to bed early.  Ellie did want to get in a bedtime story to the twins though.

Jackson and Ellie had me set their alarm clocks for six so they were already dressed and ready when I came up from the treadmill Tuesday morning.  And Lincoln got ready pretty quickly too.  Maybe it was the first morning jitters and the crazy thunderstorm we had that morning.  It did quit raining a bit so we were able to do some very quick pictures outside and then head out to drop them all off.  We just dropped Jackson off at the door.  I did request that he turn around and wave to me as he walked in and he did :-).  I walked Ellie in and we found the spot her class sits while they wait for their teacher to come pick them up.  We battled about her wearing a dress for the first day.  She was finally okay with it until she realized she had PE that day.  I told her to not worry since I was sure other girls in her class would be wearing dresses too.  I was wrong and only one other girl had a dress on.  Ellie rocked the dress though :-).  Then it was Lincoln's turn.  Andrew and I both took him in along with the twins.  He told me that he was going to play with the boy that he was shy to the day before (Josh).  Josh wasn't there yet but Annie sent me a picture a little later of them together.  Miles found some fun toys while we were there and was ready to stay.  I will have to expose them to the school a little more since they will be going next year-eek!  He was pretty sad when he realized we left Lincoln at the school.  He started asking, "Where Lincoln go?" and crying.  They were also trying to find out where Jackson and Ellie were.

The twins and I went grocery shopping after we dropped the kids off at school and then headed home to get dinner started and make cookies for when the kids got home from school.  I offered to pick them up, but Andrew said he would for a few days.  As much as he doesn't like messing up his work schedule, he does enjoy getting to see the kids for a bit and seeing how their day went.  I think they all had good days but Jackson and Ellie did have a bit of homework the first day.  Even though our office/study room/mudroom isn't ready yet (it is just empty), Ellie still wanted to do her homework in there.  So I went ahead and set up a card table in there.  Then the chairs I ordered were delivered that day so I put them together the next day so she had someplace to sit.  While I was working on them, Lincoln and Alex came to the house to get Lincoln's tool belt and "tools".  They were telling me that Alex had a real saw and he uses it all the time.  I thought they were just talking about one of those fake toy saws.  A little later Leah asked if Alex could just hang out at our house while she picked up her kids from school.  They were playing outside and I went to check on them and discovered that the real saw was actually a box cutter.  After a little coaxing, I got Alex to hand it over so I could give it to his mom.  They were cutting a cardboard box with it.  Lincoln tried to convince me that they should be able to keep it because Alex was really good with it. 

The rest of the week went pretty smoothly.  As I mentioned earlier, it has been pretty hot so Lincoln got to go to the Country Club on afternoon with Alex.  I think them and Autumn's mom, Julie, were the only ones there.  They had a lot of fun.  Earlier that morning and then that afternoon while they were swimming I started working on the desktops for our office.  My parents gave me some old tops from a bar that used to be set up in their basement.  In the morning I worked on stripping them.  Then that afternoon I started staining them.  That didn't go as smoothly as I was hoping.  The first coat didn't really get that dark in a lot of spots.  So I would wait a while and then do it again.  I worked on it more the next day too.  I had to rub pretty hard to get the stain off in some spots while other ones didn't take it that much.  And it was hot in that garage-I was dripping in sweat.  Now I am waiting for the humidity to go down so that I can do the top coat.  They are kind of rustic, distressed looking but I am totally okay with that.  Andrew had to go out and fix his electric fence Wednesday night so he took Jackson with him to help out.  Jackson really does do a good job helping him out.

Thursday and Friday we did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.   Sara had challenged me while Bella challenged Jackson, Ellie and Lincoln.  Lincoln was playing at their new fort (in the brushy area behind the Vincent’s house) so he didn’t get in on the first round.  Ellie went first and her friends were happy to help her out by dumping the water on her.  Next up was Jackson and he acted like it was nothing.  Then I got to go and Andrew surprised me by throwing a cup of powdered sugar on me after the water was dumped on me.  He said he wanted to use flour but didn’t know where it was.  At least the powdered sugar didn’t taste too bad.  We finished up with Lincoln the next day after school and he wanted Alex to do it too.  I went online and made our donation without even thinking about it.  Then my mom sent us an article the reminded people that ALS does support embryonic stem cell research and they recommended donating money to a couple different organizations that could still help the cause.  Actually, Faith Lutheran, did it and donated the money to our local Hospice which I think was a great idea.

Friday night was Jackson’s first football game.  It was a hot one so I didn’t even bother bringing the camera.  I thought I would mess with pictures when it was a little more pleasant outside.  I didn’t get to see too much of the game since I was trying to keep track of the twins.  I did see a couple good plays on Jackson’s part though and Andrew said he did a good job.  Then I thought it would be nice for everyone to cool off after the game and invited some people over to the pool.  We ordered some pizza and all had a great time.  I think the kids thought it would be a great way to follow up all hot football games.  And Lissy even showed up for the party.  My parents were out of town for the day, so she was waiting on the front porch for us when we got there since I had a garage door opener. 

 

Andrew took the older kids out to the ranch for a little bit the next morning and they said it was like an oven.  He had to fix some fence and they got to join in on the fun.  He actually does try to make it fun for them though.  They brought back a couple cowboy hats that Mary got them and Miles was excited about it. Then we just let them have a lazy afternoon/evening just hanging out at the house and playing with their friends and went out for Dairy Queen after dinner.  They have spent a lot of time at the new fort.  I am not sure what they are building back there but there is a wagon of 2x4s in front of the Vincent’s house waiting for their next project.  They always come back with bug bites so I don’t want to go back there right now to check it out.

Sunday we went to church and then headed to my parents for some swimming after lunch.  It was definitely a good day for a swim.  Andrew got his workout in throwing everyone up the air.  Ellie and Lincoln were doing flips.  Actually Lincoln’s were more like layouts J. 

 

Then Andrew packed up the kids while I headed to a K-Life board meeting.  The kids played outside that evening.  Lincoln practiced his soccer a bit.  For having never actually played he did a pretty good job dribbling the ball.  Then Miles and Bennett wanted their turns with it.  They each approached it a different way.  Bennett would take it slow and steady but would eventually make it to the goal then take a few steps back and run up to kick the ball in the goal.  Miles would try to do it more quickly but then would trip over the ball.  He also liked to pick up the ball and line it up with the goal again. 

Since the twins didn’t have a nap Sunday afternoon and the kids had school the next day, we put them down a little earlier than usual and rent Roman Holiday to start prepping for Italy J.  We have both seen it before and it is a cute movie.