Logan and Aiden started 3rd and 1st grade on Monday. Brady had “kindergarten round-up” on Tuesday and started full time today (as in ALL day…like his brothers). Kindergarten round-up is a 2-hour period where the parents are able to walk their kids to the classroom where they get to stay, hang out with new friends and do fun things. Meanwhile, we parents go to a meeting and listen to transportation information, school nurse stuff, what to expect etc. It’s also an opportunity for our wonderful principal, our assistant principal and (my very very good neighborhood friend), the school social worker, to try their hardest to make us cry by telling us how much they love our kids, will care for our kids and then read us a super sappy book called The Kiss Box (damn you Kristin and your adorable book about a mama and baby bear who have to be parted and make boxes full of kisses for each other! I cry every year!) After the meeting, we go back to our child’s classroom, get more information and gather them up to take them home. Today (Wednesday), we are allowed to walk our kids in and get them settled. Brady was SO excited to run off with his brothers today, to enter the doors of the school as a true student and buy his first school lunch (apparently he chose salad which was like…WUH?)

I cried when Logan went to 1/2 day kindergarten. I might have even cried when he went to first. I definitely cried when Aiden went to full-day K last year…when I had only my Brady at home in the mornings with 1/2 day pre-K in the afternoons. But let me tell you – Brady NEEDED to go to school today! That child is LOST without his brothers! He is the most social creature I’ve ever met (Brian says he wonders which of us that came from…Ha! I’ll tell you it’s not him!) Brady needs CONSTANT entertainment…and God love him, he never stops talking! On Monday of this week, I had his besty neighborhood friend over for like 4 hours just to keep him entertained! On Tuesday after round-up, he went to the same friend’s house for like 3 hours (love you Heather!) He is my SOCIAL kid! He is READY for school and I was so happy to give him that opportunity today!

I also realized that the only thing standing between me and being the mom-I-know-I-can-be is actually having the kids in my house (ok…that’s sarcasm, but sadly a little true). Today, I did the dishes, put away laundry, planned out meals, had dinner in the fridge by 2 to throw in the oven when needed…the house was clean for HOURS on end and I have HUGE list of stuff to get to that I’ve been putting off for like…um…years! I got the oil changed in the car and had only myself to worry about during the 1-hour wait! I had soccer gear organized and loaded into the car, emails about PTA (“Home and School”) answered, soccer-team-manager stuff organized….I might even mow the lawn tomorrow…you get the drift. They still come home at 3:35…we still have plenty of time together…I’m SO SO happy they are still little and love their mommy…

….but, I’m so very happy they are all in school now!! They get to do fun stuff with friends and get smarter while I get to organize and…be me for just a little while every day! GO SCHOOL!!!!

Here are my beautiful boys on their respective first days of school

Monday: Logan and Aiden. While Aiden is still very willing to let me pick out whatever he wears, Logan is insistent that his wardrobe reflect his athletic personality and only wants to wear “sports shorts”. Guess I’ll be passing the massive amounts of “nice shorts” down to his brothers.

I like their Merrell's this year (the shoes)

The usual gang ready for the first day of school walk

Sam, Logan and Aiden. Nice face Aiden! ;)

Aiden (behind our blond friend Ashley front and center) heading for his seat

Logan at his desk – number “6” in class this year (they all go by numbers based on last name.) Logan was 8 for K and first, 6 for 2nd and 3rd…guess “H” always lands somewhere in that range! Aiden is 8 this year just like Logan in 1st!

Monday: Jack and Brady get ready for their morning playdate

and then he came shopping with me and decided to use his (daddy issued) back-to-school-special-treat to buy this crazy pillow.

Heading to K-roundup

Friends from pre-K

New Seat!!!

Happy to be a big boy!!

Full Day #1 – My sweet baby heads off to school!

Love the little stepping-stone brothers pose!

 

Me when I came out of the school today after dropping Brady off! Bender from The Breakfast Club – FREEDOM IS MINE FOR 7 HOURS A DAY! 

I honestly think this is the most fun I’ve had all week! I love school supplies!

organized by type

organized by child

packed into bags and ready to go to preview night this evening!

Have you ever faced a hot summer day and thought, “wow…it would be great to have my very own pool!” ? BUT…in-ground pools are so expensive…and such high maintenance! If you’ve ever wished you could have your very own water oasis – fear not! Brady and Aiden have the answer (and it’s cheap!). All you need a body-sized plastic bin, a hose..maybe some toys…and voila! Plus it’s a VERY versatile solution! Want the pool in the backyard? No problem! How about on the drive way? Done! Just call your mom to dump the water, drag to a new location and refill for hours of fun!! Ahhhh…refreshing!!

Ahh – totally forgot about Brian initiating a “snipe hunting” expedition with the kids (a joke we played on our nephews at Yogi Bear like 12 years ago when we went camping with them…apparently Brian did it in Boy Scouts growing up).

Wikipedia Etymology of Snipe Hunting:

The origin of the term is a practical joke where inexperienced campers are told about a bird or animal called the snipe as well as a usually preposterous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a bag or making strange noises such as banging rocks together.^[1] Real snipe (a family of shorebirds) are difficult to catch for experienced hunters, so much so that the word "sniper" is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.

Here’s what we did:

When it got dark, Brian had all the kids get pots, pans and spoons etc. to bang on in the woods. He instructed me to get one of the stuffed animals from our tent (we used Brady’s teddy bear named Jelly Bear…which I shoved up the back of my coat). Brian and Pete got pillow cases. Brian gathered the children on an un-used site across from our area and told them about “the snipe” using hand-gestures indicating the size of snipes at a variety of ages. He said they are shy creatures so aren’t seen a lot, but they really like loud noises and will come out when called using the words (high pitched voice please) “snipe snipe snipe snipe!” We all went across the road to a big, open area of trees while Brian instructed the kids to bang on the pots and pans and yell snipe. A lot of the kids were timid…wanted to hold hands with the adults (which I think was just me, Pete and Brian). Logan was apprehensive and kept saying, “are they REALLY real mom? really???” At one point, Pete came around behind me and I dumped Jelly Bear into his pillow case. Later, Brian “spotted one” and Pete ran to get it. The kids freaked out when Pete opened the pillow case and threw jelly bear into their circle. Then they all laughed and said they knew we were kidding once they saw it was a stuffed animal. The whole thing was pretty cute. Brian then had them gather around and talked to them about traditions and having fun and how they need to take their own children snipe hunting some day :)

We just got home this afternoon from our 10th camping trip at Yogi Bear Campgrounds. Fun times as always! It’s so weird to think that I packed diapers, a pack-n-play and pacifiers for some of our first trips. This time, we barely saw the kids as they ran around the forest, went to the park by themselves and even wandered to a different forest area alone to hunt for frogs. Per usual, we fought some rain on Friday night (always on Friday night…I’m not kidding!), but were rewarded with a beautiful Saturday and a nice morning for packing up to come home and wash the campfire smell out of our cloths, blankets and pillow cases.

I’m not into lugging the camera around lately, so here are pics from my phone.

We took along a big pool and the water slide as is standard for the “summer” trip. The water from the hose was quite cold, but the kids had a blast anyway.

This is actually Logan “mid air” doing “the greatest save ever”

Aiden acted as the “keeper of the spray” for a while. He would only spray the kids coming down if they requested it. Otherwise, he would aim it away and let them slide down without water in their faces

AJ and a cool spray shot

Brady made like his mama, avoided the cold water and found a snack instead. Somehow, the mommies double-purchased cereal (not seen here, but we had like 12ish boxes!) and I swear the kids did their best to eat it around the clock for 2 days straight.

Brian had the brilliant idea to buy a covered car port tent so we could hide during the rain. Guess what giant thing now lives in my garage with all the OTHER giant camping stuff? ;)

Grace, Aiden, AJ and some of the other kids wandered off to hunt for toads…and they caught 4 of them! Aiden and Isabella released them later in the day after giving up the attempt to catch and feed them flies.

These two had literally nothing to do with catching frogs, but wanted a picture with them.

Men cooking awesome food! We had flank steak, chicken kabobs (which they are threading on skewers here), grilled corn with mexican cheese on them (Delicious!) and potatoes with bacon and cheese. SO good!!

Brian and Pete man the grill

The ladies…just sitting and looking pretty…

Our job was to mass-assemble the AWESOME camping desert that Susan found: take a sugar cone (Jen), spread the inside with peanut butter (me), put in mini chocolate chips (Anne), put in mini marshmallows (Erica), wrap in tin-foil (Susan), place on the camp fire in a tin pan until it becomes one delicious, gooey cone of AWESOME! We made like 36 of them!