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. 

It's Great to Be Two!

JW loves frogs.  This was the perfect ride for him.

 For JW's birthday this year we had a whole bunch of fun at Peter Piper Pizza.  We skipped the pizza and did a ride only excursion.  It was a lot of fun, and my body was thankful too. 

G-man "scared" on the Himalayan ride.

Kiwi and mom being crazy.

This was more the little boy's style.

He loved his cake, but nothing is quite as amazing as FIRE!

This kid is pretty awesome.  He is large and in charge and may steal the role of second mom away from Kiwi.  He will not let S. be the boss of him, and proves it with scratches, bites, and pinches.  We have a bit of a bully on our hands.  But we're working on it and he's getting better.  We're learning to live with the insults of "stupid" and "meanie" that he throws at us from timeout.  

He loves to be the center of attention and is constantly finding ways to make his siblings laugh.  He is very independent and has no problem helping himself to any food he can find, even if it's off of another's plate.  He is truly in the middle of his terrible twos and is driving Chad bonkers. 

Although he's a handful, I absolutely adore this age.  He can melt your heart with a look and a cuddle, demanding multiple hugs and" kitts" at bedtime.  He's so innocent and sweet that it's hard not to love this guy, even when he says you're a meanie.

Little Piggies

The kids like rain because rain = mud in our backyard.  Chad and I rarely allow the kids to absolutely wallow in the mud. We try to let go of our anti-mess ways to let this happen every now and then. You can still find the river and castle in my backyard.  Obviously we haven't let them do it again.   

Making a castle

This we taken right after he laid down in it.

That is one dirty boy!

Staying Cool in the Pool

We spent a good chunk of the summer at the pool.  We bought a membership at a private pool this summer and I'm so glad we did.  It included swim lessons and the pool was open to free swim all afternoon/evening.  We especially loved the parties they hosted on holidays.  We were able to go swimming on Memorial Day and Fourth of July with daddy.  I really didn't like that the public pools were always closed on holidays.  We were always trying to squeeze in time after work to show daddy all our new swimming tricks. 

The playground

 With four kids taking lessons, it took 1 1/2 hours to get them all done.  So we played on the pool's swing-set while we waited. 

Kiwi  loves to swing

S "swimming"

 S. made the most progress this year.  He went from crying on the side of the pool and refusing to try to swim, to begging mom to let him swim to her. He can kick off and front float about five feet or so.  He's still working on adding arms and legs to propel himself in the water.  He also needs to figure out how to get a breath without sinking. If he tries to swim, he sinks, but if he just put his face in the water and floats, he does great. 

G-man just chillin'

The two older kids can swim without worry.  Kiwi is making progress on freestyle and back-float.  G-man learned breast stroke, elementary backstroke, sidestroke, and butterfly.  We're hoping to do swim team next year now that they've gotten so more experience with the strokes. JW is a crazy daredevil, jumping off the side into mom's arms over and over and over again.  The child has no fear and loves the water.  Good thing we don't have a pool at home, or we might be in trouble. 

Haircuts!

I like to give a buzz to the kids for the summer.  I didn't do JW the first time around because "he's my baby!"  But I just couldn't handle the mop anymore...

Before:

After:

Father's Day 2012 Edition

Father's Day is always fun. I love having one day that I don't have to work as hard for the kids, and get them to work for me. :)

Family around the party table!

This year, Luann out did herself. I love the usual treats (No cake! Yeah!) and little gifts of things that I need/want. This year, I mentioned about the local big box alcohol shop having a large selection of soda, she got a nice variety of root beer and related drinks. Some were good (normal root beer flavors, cream soda) and some were not really good at all (I'm looking at you, a chocolate soda called Coco Fizz). I was great fun pouring a little from each one for the kids. The best is always the gross ones, to get that priceless looks on their faces.

Selection of Sodas