First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. The kids were so excited. Last night Scott gave them all father's blessings, and we picked out their outfits for today. This morning when I woke them all up, Aaron was the most cheerful. He usually is very hard to get out of bed, but this morning when I said, "It's time to get up for school", he jumped out of bed with a smile and said, "OK mom!". I love that little boy.

I got to help 4 kids get dressed, make 3 sack lunches, do the hair of 2 girls, spike the hair of 2 boys, and drive 4 great kids to their first day of school (Scott stayed home with Nate and Owen). I helped Sara find her class, then Josh, then Savannah, then waited with Aaron till his teacher called them in from the playground. When his teacher stepped out and blew the whistle, Aaron looked a little nervous. I went over to him, and he said, "I don't know where I'm supposed to go". I took him over and showed him where the class was lining up. He stepped into line, then gave me a gentle push and said, "K Mom, now you can go back over where you were". He was so excited, it was great to see him so eager to go into his classroom. I held myself together till he walked into his class, then I began the lonely walk back to the truck. I cried the whole way.

I hate sending my kids off to school. I'm not one of those parents who rejoices when the kids go back to school--I dread it. I would prefer to keep my kids with me all the time. I love summer time when I can watch them play together and listen to their fun conversations. I feel like once they start school, they are never fully mine ever again. First it's half days with Kindergarten, then on to full days in 1st grade. Then there's middle school, and high school, then they leave for college, missions, and marriage. I don't want my kids to grow up, I want them to just stay my little kids forever.

But, having said that, I also love to see my kids so excited about school. I love that they get to go off and make new friends, and learn new things, and be exposed to things I would not be able to offer them. Our school has an amazing art program (we are an arts magnet school), the kids have been assigned fantastic teachers, and they are surrounded by uplifting friends. My kids love school, and I love what school has to offer them, but I'm always watching the clock in the afternoon, eagerly waiting for them to walk in the door.







After I got home from taking the kids to school, Scott headed off to work. I loaded up Owen and Nate in the double stroller and I took them for an hour long walk. I'm excited to be able to get some consistent exercise now that I can fit all my kids left at home into one stroller. After our walk, we came back home and I packed up two more sack lunches. This morning Nate was feeling more than just a little left out of things with everyone else heading off to school. So, I tried to think of something that would be fun for him. I packed a lunch for him and Aaron (like I had the other kids) and planned to take them to a park. Scott picked Aaron up from Kindergarten, and then had about 20 minutes with us before heading out the door with his suitcase to catch a flight to Vancouver, Canada. The boys and I headed out the door at the same time and drove to a park. We had lunch, then Aaron and Nate played for a couple of hours. It was a fun way to celebrate Aaron's first day of Kindergarten.

The older three kids got home just before 5. Their school gets out at 3:45, but their bus didn't get them home till 4:50. I find that absolutely ridiculous. The school is only 2 1/2 miles away! The kids had to wait forever for the shuttle bus from another school--stupid budget cuts. I'm hoping the busing will get itself figured out soon, that the huge delay was just first day kinks. If not, I may be driving to school every day to pick them up (which I also have to do with Aaron at noon, because they completely cut the Kindergarten busing to save money). Savannah, Josh, and Sara all came in the door excited to tell me everything that had gone on during the day. They all LOVE their teachers. And Sara lost a tooth at school! Lets hope they are that excited again tomorrow!

Back to Routines

Last week gymnastics and football started. Aaron and Nate are in a class together on Monday evenings, Owen and I are doing a Mommy and Me class on Thursday mornings, and Savannah and Sara are in back-to-back classes on Thursday afternoon. Josh decided to give up gymnastics and move on to flag football. His practices are during Sara's gymnastics class, so it gets a little tricky getting everyone where they need to be, but I think we'll be able to make it work.

On Saturday, we had a crazy busy day. We started the day with a ward picnic at a local park. We left that early to go to Josh's tailgate party to kick off his season of flag football. It was really fun. We had lunch with his team and their families, then we watched the pep rally. They had BSU cheerleaders, marching band, and pep squad there to entertain us. And Josh got to run through a tunnel with his team out onto the field. It was such a fun event, and it got us all excited for this season of football. From there, Scott and I split up--he headed to his parent's house with Josh, Sara, Aaron, and Nate to install an outdoor faucet in their back yard, and I took Owen and Savannah to drop Savannah off at a birthday party. After I dropped her off, I planned to take Owen home to nap while I cleaned the house uninterrupted. Except, Owen didn't nap, so I only made partial progress on the house. After Scott got home, he hurried and mowed our lawn. Then we got Savannah home from the party, and got ready to host a fire pit get-together with our neighbors, the Masons. We had hot dogs and s'mores, then went in the house to enjoy the air conditioning and let the kids play while we visited. It was a fun evening, but a completely exhausting day.

I feel like last week was just preparing us for the real chaos that will hit now that school has started. Life just keeps getting busier every year (I guess that is what happens when you have 6 kids). I have really enjoyed our laid back schedule of summer and really hate for it to come to an end.

Sara's Dressing Up

Sara is my girl who loves to dress up. When she was 3, all she would wear was her Cinderella dress--everywhere we went, every single day.




Now it's my earrings. She loves them! She drapes them over the top of her ears, paints her lips up real shiny with her chapstick, and parades around the house just waiting for someone to notice how pretty she looks. Sara definitely loves being a girl! (Notice how she even dressed her bears up with bows on their ears.)

Busy Little Owen

These days, this kid keeps me hopping. (He crawled under this stool by himself and got trapped.)




Owen is into everything. The other day he discovered that the kitchen cupboards open up and that the stuff inside can come out. He has also discovered that he can go up the stairs (although he usually only makes it to the second or third stair before he tumbles back down and bumps his head on the hardwood). He loves to pull himself up to stand next to things, but when he loses his balance, he bumps his head on the way down. Everything goes in his mouth. I have to watch him constantly! It's a fun age, but SOOOOOO busy!

Eagle Island Again

Last week I followed through on my promise to the kids that we could go back to Eagle Island to swim. We went last Tuesday morning, and it was wonderfully deserted--only a handful of other people were there. The kids swam and dug in the sand for hours. It was such a great way to spend one of our last free days of summer.











Owen slept in the stroller a good part of the time.

When it came time to leave, the kids played on the play set to get dried off.





Because the kids had been so good (and since our $5 parking pass was good for all day), I promised the kids that after we went home and had lunch and let Owen have a nap, that we would come back. Because Owen had napped a bit in the stroller, he ended up taking a late afternoon nap. He didn't wake up till it was time for Scott to come home from work. So, we took Dad along with us, picked up Dominoes Pizza on the way, and went back to Eagle Island for the rest of the day (we stayed till the mosquitoes started to come out). It was a great day!

Eagle Island State Park

Last Saturday we took the kids to Eagle Island State Park. It's only 2 or 3 miles from our house, but in all the 6 years we've lived here, we've never gone. It's only $5 for entry, and we had a coupon for free entry, so we didn't have to pay that. When we got there and headed over to the water, we instantly regretted coming on a Saturday. It was packed with people everywhere. I was really worried about trying to keep an eye on all 5 kids in the water, so we skipped the whole beach thing and headed over to the water slide. We had a coupon for 10 free rides, and then we bought 10 more, so each of the 4 older kids got 5 rides on the slide.













Nate wasn't tall enough to go on the slide, and he was really not happy about that. Here he is showing me just how tall he is.


To try and make Nate feel better, Scott bought him a snow cone to eat while the older kids were doing the water slide. It definitely made Nate happy.





Owen wasn't so sure about the snow cone--it was COLD!





After the kids used up the 20 rides, they were begging for more. Nate was begging Scott to let the kids go on more rides, too (which I thought was odd, because he had been so upset that he didn't get to go on the slide in the beginning). Scott gave in and bought 20 more rides for the kids to share.


The kids headed off up the hill to the top of the slide....


And then Nate turned to Scott and said quite emphatically, "Now lets go buy me more treats!!!". Scott agreed, and they headed off to the concession stand. This time they came back with Air Heads.

By the time the kids had used up the second set of tickets (they each ended up getting to go 10 times), we decided it was time to head home. The kids didn't want to leave, but I promised them I'd bring them back to play in the water during the week when it wasn't so busy.