The first day of school is here. I feel like a kid, crying, "where did summer go??" Guess this whole having a baby, married to a masters' student, working extra hours busyness made time fly a little faster than usual. We still managed some fun activities on our Sundays off together or, as in the case of cherry picking, I just went with Mimi =)
Walter's Fruit Ranch
The trees were a little picked over, so we were proud of the few we found!
This summer, Kellen has become Mr. Independent. While the older two pal around together, he's content playing in his own little world. Like this tractor ... we all crowded together, while he climbed to his own seat and sat watching the world go by.
Whenever we go fruit picking, we choose Walter's for the dried-peas sandbox and the goats. We gotta make that 45 minute drive worth it!
Elliot, the calmest baby in the world, was just happy to be along for the ride.
As much as possible, we spent sunny days in the water. After swim lessons, the boys improved dramatically and loved showing off their strokes in the lake.
One day, we even rented a paddle board and Landon gave everyone rides before taking over for his own moment of peace. Of course now he wants to own one!
The other advantage to these sunny days was three tired boys who went right to sleep. One night we caught them all sharing one bed...by choice!
Landon felt sick for the rest of the night after this spinning ride.
Trenton, on the other hand, kept begging to go on wilder and scarier rides as the night wore on. The yo-yo, the pirate ship, the tilt-a-whirl, the gravitron. I tried to say no to start, but finally decided to let him bear the consequences of his own choices. And he loved every one of them!
We now have carnival junkies on our hands. Kellen woke up crying the next morning because we couldn't go back to the fair. Until next year...
Which pretty much catches us up to September 3rd.
Somebody's birthday! And the first day of school.
Elliot is four months old. She has started giggling, especially at Landon. She smiles at anyone who gives her any sort of attention. And she is a great sleeper, putting all three brothers to shame. I'm a late bloomer to this stuffed animal idea, but here she is with her giraffe. Then, every month, we can see how she's grown compared to her animal friend.
Love this goofy expression.
Happy Girl
Some giggles...
Besides celebrating our girl, the rest of the day was all about school. I got everyone dressed and out the door by 8:25. We ate breakfast at Trenton's school together and then walked him to his room.
"I'm just a little scared, mom," he said.
"What are you scared of?"
"Everyone is just a little scared on the first day."
Then he hugged me, walked in, sat at his desk without a backwards glance, and raised his hand in response to a question Mrs. Inlow posed to the gathering class. The four of us walked down the hallway and I felt like I was forgetting someone. I'm beginning to hate the first day of school and the goodbyes.
Then at 12:25, we took Sawyer to Kindergarten. Once again, we all walked in together and, this time, sat with Sawyer while he ate his first school lunch. It was the bright spot for him during an anxious time. Poor kid had hoped to be at a different school with his friend Conner and I had to tell him two weeks ago there wasn't room. He cried and I cried with him for his broken heart. Then we went as a family to open house at his school, only to find out he had the same teacher as Trenton, who we did not like. But he met her and toured her classroom and seemed accepting. Five days before the start of school, he was offered an afternoon class with a different teacher and we gratefully accepted. So, that first day, he was going in blind. No friends. No familiarity. When it came time for me to leave, he crumpled into my lap crying and repeating, "I'm not ready for school." I cannot describe the torture of pulling away from him, taking his best friends Kellen and Elliot, and walking away while he cried. My only solace was the fact that I loved his new teacher, Mrs. Hansen, who was taking his hand comfortingly and leading him to her side for story time as I walked out. Sure enough, at the end of the day, I picked up a different kid. He was smiling and bouncing around, talking in run-on sentences about a new friend Blake who "asked if I wanted to be friends ... because I was pushing him on the tire swing with two other kids ... and I said yes ... and every time we sat on the ABC carpet, we sat together. " Even if I knew this would happen, I was still immensely relieved.
A year has passed.
2012
2013
Thus begins a whole different kind of busy.
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