Their First Day

Yesterday was the first day of school. I had mixed emotions sending them back out into the real world. I really enjoyed our non-scheduled life. But real-life always interferes, and we can't hang loose forever. But another month might have been nice.

My Kindergartner. He was very excited to go this morning. As he lined up to go into his classroom he looked very stoic. He knew he had a job to do, and he was determined to do it.

Some highlights of his first day:

He said his day was not just good, it was great.
He was able to play outside.
They were able to go to the library and read books.
He said he did not talk the entire time he was there, except to tell another kid that they had turtles in the library.
I told him he could talk if he needed to, but he told me he just didn't have any questions to ask anyone.
He told me that a couple of kids had gotten into trouble, and couldn't believe kids would be bad on their first day.
When I asked him if he was excited that he got to go back to school tomorrow, he said, "Yep it's not like the old days." (meaning pre-school when he only went 3 days a week)
All in all, I could tell he had a lot of fun.

Megan also started 4th grade. She made it very clear that I did not need to walk her into class. She felt perfectly capable of doing it on her own. Of course she did! She is my independent soul. She also made it clear that she would not be wearing a skirt the first day. I reminded her that last year she was disappointed when she didn't wear a skirt and all of the the other girls had one on, but I could not sway her. By the way, she was not disappointed in her choice this year. Apparently there were a lot more girls wearing pants.

Some highlights:

Her favorite part of the day was seeing all of her friends.
She said her teacher was very nice and she liked her class.
Her class made posters on character qualities. She made a poster about responsibility.
They made their own name tags.

This little woman also enjoyed school. While visiting Jackson's classroom, I could not tear her away from these small chairs.

Ride-On!!

At my house when we go out to play in the frontyard, the kids are never content to get out one or two things, we have to get out practically every ride-on toy we own. It was quite enjoyable for them, and even for me. I was able to admire our over-cast sky and cooler weather, while not having to make any effort to entertain (unless you count, getting the countless ride-on toys out of the garage). And lest you think I bought all these ride-on toys, I can assure you I did not. I am a hoarder of ride-on toys, and can't turn them down.

Free. I saw this out in a field. Stopped my car. Left my kids. Trekked out to the middle of the field. And loaded it up in my car.

Free Big Wheel. From our Enrichment swap a few months ago.

Not Free. But second-hand, almost perfect condition, and super, super cheap.

On-sale. Seriously discounted. By the way, I am talking about the ride-on toys, not the children. Although there are those days......

Completely full price. It still pains me to say that. Not even on sale.

Completely Free! And Hotwheels no less. Given to us by a neighbor who was moving who had a son who loved Hotwheels almost as much as Jackson.

Supposed to be super cheap, but ended up costing more than I figured. But still considerably less than a new one. The garage also holds, one more scooter, another motorcycle, and 3 more kids bikes. I am holding onto the bikes because I refuse to get rid of them, only having to buy them in another 2 years when Sadie wants one.

The backyard looks much the same. All free or gifts! And all regularly played with.

Fun Mom?

Oh yeah! That's right! I'm a fun mom!

Did I mention I made them clean their rooms, before breaking out the paints. And the living room. And the hallways. And their bathroom. Maybe I'm not so much fun after all.

Meg and Sade

Oh how lucky I am that Megan loves Sadie so much. They are so similar. Both fiercely independent, know who they are women who embrace life with a sense of fearlessness.

Sade adores Meg. And the feeling is mutual. If Sade is feeling a bit sad, or a bit mad at Eric or I, she looks first to Megan. And Megan always responds with copious amounts of attention and affection.

They are so similar, that I often wonder how Megan would be now if she hadn't been my first child. She was a tough baby, but Sadie was too. I think what is different has been how I reacted to each. I am now more easy going. A fit doesn't bother me too much. I was more strict with Megan which probably positively caused her to become responsible, but negatively could have caused her to care a bit more what I think than maybe she should. I wonder if Sadie will retain her stubbornness, or develop much the same as Megan. At least they can complain to each other about me.

Jackson Said

We were cleaning up.

Jackson said: "Mom where do you want me to put these boob covers?"

He of course, was referring to bras, but I am rather fond of the term boob covers and may start using it.

Ross To The Rescue

It has been Jackson's true hearts desire to have a HotWheels backpack to start Kindergarten. Unfortunately his mother has not been able to find one. Sure I could have found one on-line, but I was not organized enough to look and have it shipped here before school started! So I have been searching and searching all stores with no luck, until yesterday when something made me go to Ross. Now I never shop at Ross. I don't like it. I much prefer T.J. Maxx (which I love with a passion). And what do you know, Jackson's Kindergarten dream came true. Staring right at us was this HotWheels backpack. And guess how much it was? $5.99. Seriously, $5.99.


Also, today I felt like I saved some major money at Old Navy. Right now they have all kids jeans on sale for $10, so get off the computer and go right away before they sell out of all of the sizes. Plus I had a number of coupons. However, I found out that I could only use one coupon per transaction, but luckily had a really great cashier that didn't mind checking me out 3 different times. Check out all of the jeans, shorts, and khakis I got for $98.70. That is $8.97 an item. Not too shabby.

Wedged

My baby wears heels. And she is still a baby right? I can't bear her not to be. And they are not really heels, but rather wedges. But if they had baby heels, I might just buy them too.

Times have certainly changed when your 18 month old has higher heels than you had before you were 15.

Matchy Matchy

There are not very many baby clothes or patterns that are also made to fit a 9 year old, therefore my two girls have never dressed alike. That is until today. You can't imagine how excited I was when two separate people (Rachael and Erin) gave me two identical dresses, in two separate sizes that fit both my girls. How I love hand-me-down clothes! Thank you Rachael and Erin!!!

And when you add a little boy into the mix, it gets even better.

Five For Friday-Plague Edition

1. If you are sick and tired of looking at my blog and seeing sick and tired kids, well I am sick and tired of it too. Guess who woke up with a fever this morning?

That's right my little man Jackson. I cannot fathom what is going on. I have kids that don't get sick. I am pretty sure Jackson has never had an antibiotic and Sadie had her very first trip to the Dr.'s last week. Isn't it summer?

2. This horse has been a member of our family for about 4 years. It has never been played with much, but lo and behold when I moved it into my room to get it ready to sell, it has become a mecca of playtime enjoyment.

Each of the children has taken many rides over the last few days. Who knew a change of location could provide so much enjoyment.

3. Megan takes after me and can never decide what to have for lunch. She is not a fan of sandwiches so our choices tend to be limited. Often it consists of something like this:

Grapes, Applesauce, Tangerine. If only I enjoyed fruit, I too could eat this healthy. By the way I continued with my lunch toast diet.

4. Last night we went and watched Eric play church basketball. For some reason we don't often go watch when he plays basketball, although we were always frequent spectators at softball games.

There were not even any fights, so watching was even more enjoyable than usual.

5. Be ready to be impressed. It is no secret I do not like to cook, but today something came over me, and this was the result.

7 meals! Now if only I felt like having any of it for dinner.

"Do you think my abundance of sick children is punishment for something, am I supposed to be learning some sort of lesson, or is it just plain bad luck?

Should I keep the horse?
Do you enjoy fruit?
Do you ever bulk cook?"

12 X 12 - August

I totally forgot yesterday was August 12th. That is until 2 in the afternoon, which in when these pictures start. For the record the morning started out very nicely, with a swim session at Rachael's house, followed by lunch, and then a nap for Sadie.

When I remembered it was the 12th I decided to leave the computer to find out what the kids were up to.

No surprise that Jackson was playing MarioKart.

But big surprise that I found Megan asleep on the couch. I guess she had still not recovered from vacation. I was really worried about her being able to sleep that night, but to my surprise it didn't take her long at all to fall asleep at bedtime. Thank goodness!

This was taken when I went in to get Sadie up from her nap. Isn't her hairdo fabulous? You too can get it if you add sunscreen, swim, and they go right to bed.

After her nap, it was showering time. Although she is not a fan of swimming, she is a fan of showering. She walks back and forth under the shower getting to all of her toys.

Due to swimming, blogging, and house cleaning, I too had missed my shower for the day. So this is me blow drying my hair at 4:30 p.m. I am just not the type of person who can go a day without showering or washing her hair.

While I was getting ready I saw Miss Sadie like this. I just love the back of her head. For the record she was sitting on this contraption that Megan was playing with in my room, and reading a book.

As I mentioned we had been on vacation, so I wanted to document my laundry pile. Seriously!

Jackson, Sadie and I dropped Megan off at Activity Days, and then headed over to Fresh & Easy. How I love Fresh & Easy. Look at all my organic produce and milk for soooooo cheap.

Sadie and Jackson did have a not so healthy cinnamon role sample while we were there, as you can tell by the extreme amount of frosting covering Sadie's nose.

We then went to pick Megan up from Activity Days. Soon after this picture was taken Jackson Karate chopped Megan in the eye. He then said, "Megan I didn't mean to Karate chop you in the eye, I meant to Karate chop you in the forehead." Oh, that's better!

That night we had Chipotle for dinner. I had been without if for a week, so I informed Eric that morning that we would definitely be having it for dinner that night. I have two obsessive soda guzzling children in my family and Sadie is one of them.

Lastly just a picture of Megan and Sadie right before bed. Megan was playing with this computer when Sadie decided she wanted it. She went and sat down on Megan's lap and then stole it away. We of course just laughed. This girl has no discipline in her life.