The first week of school

Things went well this week for the family as we started another school year. It will be a big one as I begin a new role.....I am the volunteer coordinator at the elementary school. I have been and will be learning lots of new things as I embark on this journey, but I like to be involved and in the know. I enjoy volunteering and helping at the school. I have seen some weaknesses in the program and hope I can improve the process. Now did I go looking for this job, NO. I was asked to consider doing it by the PFO Pres. She actually wanted me to join the board, be a Vice Pres or secretary, but after learning what they do. I did not think with the twins home it was the right time. But this volunteer coordinator thing is suppose to be a lot of computer and telephone work which I can do from home. So far, it has been some work, but it should taper off after I get all the new volunteers entered for the year.

Now for the kids
C is so happy to be seeing her friends everyday. She is a social girl and likes having friends around. She has been lucky to have a core group of 4-6 girls that are always in the same class together. She likes school and enjoys learning. But she is not too keen on her teacher this year. She had heard that this teacher was mean from a few sources and so she went in dreading the worst. From little things I have heard, this is not my favorite teacher so far, but I will give it more time before making firm decisions.

T is already in a better class than last year. The bully is not there! He has a few friends from previous years including a buddy that was moved when they created a new class last year. He is very happy to have this friend in the class. I have only heard good things about this teacher and I hear she likes and uses volunteers (which many teachers don't at this school). T does not enjoy getting UP for school, he would much rather sleep in, but other than that he is enjoying school.

A was really happy to tell me that 5 boys from his Kindergarten class are in his 1st grade class and no girls! I am glad he already has friends in there. I worry about him, probably always will with his speech being so hard to understand. I did talk to his teacher and she seems great. I have heard from 2 sources that she was the best teacher my child ever had at the school. I like that.

R & S are missing the older kids, but we are staying busy. I am arranging a little home preschool for them one day a week. We do story time and are happy Ms Jo moved up from toddler time to do preschool storytime. I think she does a great job and love taking the boys. They like the songs and crafts, but prefer me reading stories to sitting in a group to listen. We have done some crafts at home.....Cutting and glueing are new to these boys and they like it. (It is just messy, thus why I waited til now) I hope to spend some quality time with these guys and have a bit of fun.

Ending summer with a splash

I guess summer began with a splash too by way of swim team, but this splash is Splashtown. We finally made it there. We had tickets to go with extended family the week of July 6th who were here on vacation, but that is when Austin got sick and we did not want to split up and go then. We choose instead to wait and go when we could as a family.

My kids really love the water. I guess they get that from me, their Mom who loves to swim and was sometimes called a fish growing up! But lately my kids have not wanted to go swimming at Mema's like we usually do. I honestly do not think we went too much this summer. 3-4 times a week max. Almost always with friends or cousins, but in the last week or so my kids have preferred not to swim.

But Splashtown was different. Everyone was excited to go except R! He is not a big fan of the water perferring to be a beach bum usually at Mema's house. C wanted to do every ride, and some of them twice. She loves adventure. A wishes he could grow 5 more inches so he could try every ride, even though we was a little scared, he did not want to miss out. T was ready to ride most things, though he needed a little convincing on one. S was at home in the water. He loved the crocodile island and the tree house. He has no fear of trying new things. It is also nice that all of my big kids enjoyed the little kid area too, because that is where the twins were most happy.

R was much more timid. When first getting him in the water he protested and fussed. I promised him I would not make him do the slide. He eventually found that he like that the water was shallow enough for him to walk in and he could do the pirate ship slide all by himself. There is a sea shell slide in the baby pool which is really small, no bigger than found at any public park, but R had to work up the nerve to do it. He must have climbed up the step over 10 times before I held his hand and he slid down. That was all he needed, he loved it after that. Same thing with bigger slides. Once Daddy or I got him to go down with us once, he was not scared and happy and wanting to do it again.

Between Daddy & I we did most all of the slides as well taking turns watching the twins. We really had a great family day together.

Return of the Dinosaurs

In the past week or two the dinosaurs have returned to life at our house. A few years ago the older boys went through a dinosaurs phase. It was lots of fun to see the exciting stories they told and the hours of play the dinos provided. We ended up with lots of dinosaurs, even jammies from Mom and dad and grandmas.

We all fell in love with The Land Before Time Movies and collected a few of them....grandma got them all! So now every morning S asks to watch a dinosaur movie. Even Daddy knows most of the songs which are very cute, and even cuter when he takes his twist to them. At our house triceratops are 3 horns, and brontosaurus are long necks. We have flyers and spike tails, just entire families of dinosaurs.

So long live the dinosaurs at our house. They bring us great joy and hours of playtime!

PS....Notice Snoopy in the picture, he has become R's play friend who must do everything with us like eat dinner, go to bed, and he even gets in trouble sometimes because he hits people! Still it is very cute to see this imaginary play.