Back to School

This past week was spent getting ready to go back to school and living in the middle of a construction zone. I went out for a bike ride Tuesday morning.  I was out on the lake road when something hit me on the eyebrow and then it started stinging. It stung for the rest of the ride and I got to enjoy a nice swollen eyelid for a couple days. I felt like I had to explain myself to people as we were doing all the school drop-offs.

The kids just felt like staying inside, playing games and watching TV, so I tried to do think to convince them to get outside. I remember at the beginning of summer getting some water balloons and Ellie wanted to use them. I let her use one pack and said that we didn’t want to go through all of them right at the beginning. And before I knew it, the end of summer was here and we still hadn’t used that pack of water balloons. So we filled them up and let the boys play. We tried to find Ellie to join in but didn’t know where she was. I also got out the sprinkler and let them go at it. Another day, Tiffany put the hose on the trampoline and they borrowed our dish soap and did a slip-n-slide trampoline and had lots of fun.

The workers got our cabinets set which was exciting.

Andrew also attempted to get the twins riding their bikes without training wheels. They haven’t been as successful as the others though, who all took off pretty easily. Andrew even moved them around to the back yard to force them to pedal to move. We’ll have to work on it some more. But after they were done with the bikes, I brought out the sparklers for our last late night outside.

The day before school, the younger four had the sneak-a-peeks. First up were Lincoln and Ellie. Jackson watched the twins while I took them which worked out great since you always have tons of paperwork to fill out plus signing up for Parent Teacher conferences and school parties. But the twins did manage to get in another fight that Jackson had to break up-all just beyond the plastic divide from the workers. But at school, Lincoln was excited to meet Mrs. Banner and get his school supplies all situated.  We were the first ones there since Ellie’s was at the same time, so we wanted to get to hers before it was too late.Then we went over to Ray Miller and Ellie got to meet Mrs. Hix. Ellie thinks it will be a great year and they both complimented each other on their dresses.

That evening we went to Faith Lutheran. I had all of the kids come with me since we were going over to my parents afterwards. Miles and Bennett were quick to get into the toys while the teachers did some speaking. There were several boys from their class last year there. And, of course, all of their girls, Lanie, Lu and Brynley.

After we were done, I ordered La Fuente on the way over to my parents and Andrew picked it up later on his way over. It wasn’t our usual back to school dinner, but it worked. I put together a quick centerpiece and some goodie bags for the kids that day and put it all out on the table by the pool before we ate. We have been doing the camp theme for the last several years, so our theme for the school year is Run Free- “I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free.” Some of the kids even did a little swimming before it was time to head home and get ready for bed.

We did pretty well our first morning back to school. We got all the pictures without much incident. Andrew took Jackson since he had to be there earlier. I will miss my morning drives to school with him. I took the younger ones a little later. We just dropped off Ellie, then the twins helped me walk Lincoln into his school so he could find where he was supposed to sit until his teacher picked him up. Then it was off to Faith to drop off the twins. Everyone did well and it all went pretty smoothly.

I ran home, changed and got on my bike. I did a bike ride and then a run and then had 15-20 minutes to shower and get ready before picking up the twins. It went by very quickly. After I picked them up, we met Andrew at Pagliai’s for a quick lunch. We have had a lot of sandwiches and cereal lately, so I thought Andrew would appreciate something else for lunch. The twins fell asleep on our way to pick up the other kids. Since Jackson got out first, I had him pick up Lincoln and then wait for us on the side of the school and we picked them up after we got Ellie. We also ended up picking up Kate since Leah was stuck in the line at the middle school. We met up with them at the Primary. Then we went to Dairy Queen to get an afterschool snack since Buddy decided to eat all of the chocolate chip cookies I had bought as a treat for the kids. Not to worry though, he never got sick. That evening, Lincoln and Andrew went to Lincoln’s first football practice. We also had a K-Life meeting. Molly was going to babysit for us but then wasn’t feeling well so I ran the kids to my parents and met Andrew at the meeting. Molly still did pick up Lincoln from practice and take him to my parents though. We had a good meeting with our new leaders, but it did run a little long. I rushed over to my parents to pick up the kids and get them home and to bed for another school day.

The twins didn’t have school on Friday so we hung out outside after we dropped off the kids. I cleaned out our garage. I wanted to clean up the oil spill from under my car and when I went to do that, I noticed it looked like yet another fluid was leaking for the car. Yay. I got it all cleaned up and cleaned up some old toys from the backyard while the twins played with a variety of things, including Buddy’s cage. After lunch we went to the new all-inclusive playground by the YMCA. They had a lot of fun, different pieces that they boys had a lot of fun on.

We played for a while and then came home to try to take naps. They weren’t very cooperative though. I was working on putting things back in the attic closet and they were up running around. I put them back to bed but then I could still hear them later. All the construction noise probably doesn’t help. They never went to sleep before we had to pick up the kids from school. The workers left later that afternoon aft

er they told me that I could put stuff in most of the cabinets along the wall, so I was excited about that. They also put some fancy plywood countertops on (they even rounded the corners so the kids wouldn’t hit their heads) and put in the cooktop and ovens so that we could have a somewhat working kitchen. But there was still no sink or dishwasher and we just kept microwave in the basement until we could move all of our food up to the pantry. I was very excited.

That evening Lincoln had his first flag football game and he did a great job. I forgot to bring my camera so I just had a few pictures from my phone from up in the bleachers. I did see him make a few good runs though. Andrew was helping coach too.

After the game, we went to Colton’s for dinner. We aren’t used to eating out this often. And we weren’t the only ones that had the same idea. We saw the LaBeths, the Eitels and the Wilsons there too. After dinner the kids played outside for a bit before it was time to head in. Saturday morning I went for an open water swim with our neighbor, Rebecca, who is also doing the NEMO. When we got to the beach, there were at least 10 deer standing around the beach, including several babies. They eventually moved on as we got out of the car. I started out on my swim first and Rebecca guided me in the kayak. We did an out and back which ended up being a little less than a mile and I was happy with my time. It rained on us a bit when I was doing the kayaking and was actually a little chilly. Andrew went for a ride when I got home and it rained on him a bit too. I spent part of my day cleaning up messes from the remodel and put away some of my dishes and silverware. After the rained cleared out, it was a nice day out so the kids were in and out. Ellie got to go with Grace to stand outside of Wal-Mart and help collect foot for the Birthday Pantries at the different schools. And then I actually cooked dinner…kind of. I had some frozen taco meat that I thawed and was able to make oven tacos and broiled corn without getting any dishes dirty. Andrew and Jackson were especially appreciative.

That night the kids and I went to the movies with my parents and Molly while Andrew stayed at home and mowed the yard. We went to see Pete’s Dragon and while it was totally different than the original, it was still a neat movie and the kids liked…well at least the older ones. It may have been a tad bit too long for the twins but they added a lot of their own narration.

We didn’t go to church on Sunday because someone thought it was a good idea to hand out equipment on a Sunday morning. They also did some physical fitness tests. I went to the store in the morning and didn’t get Fruit Loops much to the twins’ and Lincoln’s disappointment. They like to get big bowls of them without milk when I’m not watching-it is much easier for them to do since the food is all in the basement. Andrew and I both got bike rides in although not together as we are hoping to do again sometime. I was riding into a stiff wind for the 12 miles back and it was not fun. While I was out for my ride Andrew got the chainsaw out and cut up a dead tree that was in the brush behind our house. Then he headed to the office when I got back. After some coercion, the kids spent a lot of time outside since the weather was perfect. I got out the box that our double ovens came in and cut out a window and they played with it until it was demolished.

That evening we went to my parents for dinner and the meal was greatly appreciated. Lincoln and Ellie even got a little swim time in before dinner. Probably one of the last times this year L. After dinner we got some Disney stuff done and then I took Jackson and Ellie to Wal-Mart while Andrew took the other kids home. Jackson needed a new mouth guard for football (“you know how many new teeth I have, Mom?”) and Ellie was determined the soccer socks we had at home didn’t fit her. She wasn’t pleased with what we found at the store and ended up being okay with what I found for her at home. When we got home, Andrew and the boys were out back and he had built a fire. But it was soon time for baths and off to bed to start our first full week of school.