First day of School 2012

 School started, and not a moment too soon.  Boredom has been ever present in our home since returning from grandma's house.  Getting them to do anything was impossible.   The played hard in their last few days of summer resulting in many messes made and little help with the clean up.  Hooray for time to get things done again!

He loves his Angry Birds Backpack

Mr. S started preschool this year.  He's been two days now without mom and loves it.  I guess I was hoping he would miss me a little bit. But he's my little order lover.  Routine makes him happy and I'm afraid I don't have enough of it in my home to meet his needs. 

Don't you just love the shoes?  She begged and I relented. Shoes are really the only area where self-expression can be found in a school with uniforms. 

 Kiwi started second grade today.  Back to the same school with many of the same friends, and even the same teacher for science.  She's excited to show G-man around because...

Feeling the weight of the upcoming school year.

 G-man has moved schools this year.  We needed to have the two at the same school and have liked Kiwi's charter school in comparison to the GATE program at TUSD.  So, simple change right?  Just switch schools, my little 4th grader will surely find success at a new school that emphasizes math and science right?

Well, charter school have to complicate things.  G took a placement test and they determined that he scored high enough to move into the 5th grade.  They called and told me this yesterday.  So I now have a 5th grader and I'm totally freaking out about it.  That means middle school next year?  I'm not ready for this...

The whole bunch, minus the baby.

 So good luck kiddos.  I hope you work hard and make lots of new friends. 

Introducing Little Gorky

While we thoroughly enjoyed California, we came home to a small tragedy.  G-man's pet frog Gorky escaped out of her cage while we were away.  It was completely our fault.  There was a hole in the top of the cage that had been there for months.  I guess in the quiet of our absence she got a bit too brave and decided to explore.  Unfortunately for frogs, they are not well suited to our dry climate.

Chillin' with J-Dub.  We didn't have any pictures of her with G. 

 G was pretty upset about it.  When the family we had caring for our animals called to say she had escaped, I think he was hoping we would find her alive when we came home. There were many tears shed and a burial in the backyard.

Little Gorky, as she is called thus far.  Still hoping to find something a little more creative that will stick.

G spent the summer working to earn money for a new cage so he could get a replacement.  We were out the other day and found a Petco with a White's tree frog.  So we snatched her up.  She's small and cute and we made sure we got a good picture this time.