Tuesday, August 24, 2010

First day of School 2010-2011

It is that amazing day today. All FOUR children will be in school at the same time and at the same school... well for the next two years then Child #1 will shift to 6th grade at Middle School.

HOLY SNIKIES!!!!

How did I suddenly have four children in elementary school? How did this happen? Where did all the time go? Wasn't my oldest just starting school the other day? Heck wasn't my youngest just born a couple of months ago?

What?... that was over 4 years ago? GET OUT!!! No it wasn't. It wasn't. I deny that statement. Can't possibly be true... can it?

So I couldn't get to sleep last night, too many things running through my head. Not to mention that big ole pile of paperwork from Meet the Teachers night that I had to fill out. Talk about getting writers cramp... filling out school district info in QUADRUPLICATE.

Blargh!! My poor widdle hand was sore.

Child #1 set her alarm apparently at 6 AM (WTF?!?) and she came in and woke The Hubby up around 6:25AM (5 minutes before my alarm went off) to let him know it was time to get ready for school. I got up and went into the boys room to wake up Child #2 and #3. The Hubby for some unknown reason decided to wake Child #4 up. Why? Neither of us has any clue. Her class doesn't start until 11:45 AM and she certainly didn't need to be getting up at 6:30 AM.

Everyone got dressed and was downstairs for breakfast. I made breakfast and packed lunches for everyone to take to school.


So after a tasty breakfast of toasted bagels, apple slices, oatmeal and fruit smoothies we loaded everyone up and headed up to the school. We parked on the backside and walked up. It was so weird it was about 7:30AM and there weren't very many cars around, the car line was empty and there just didn't seem to be hardly anyone around.

School starts at 7:40AM and it is usually a mad house of cars lined up to drop off kids. There weren't very many of the school safeties manning the dropoff spots either. It was just kind of weird.



Child #1 turned and went off down the main corridor through the big double doors to her new area of school. All the 4th and 5th grade classes are on the other side of the school with the gym and cafeteria between them and the rest of the school.

So off she went strolling down the hallway with her backpack slung on her shoulder... like a teenager heading off to High School or something.

Very very scary.

I'm not ready for her to grow up so fast.

We walked the boys to their classes. The halls still weren't very full, there were only 6 other kids in Child #3's class. It was like everyone forgot to come to school or something. Just very weird.

Child #2 almost walked into his old classroom (old habits) but then slide right into the groove of the morning routine... drop lunch box into the basket, remove papers from backpack, hang up the backpack on the hook... go sit down in at the table. He was even helping some of the other kids. Hopefully that will be something he can do though out the year, be a leader and help some of the other kids out.

Once the boys were in their classes we headed back to the house with Child #4. I went back to sleep for a while and Hubby and Child #4 hung out and enjoyed the quiet morning together for a while.

Then it was time for Child #4 to head to school. She was excited but also nervous. She was trying to hide the fact that she was a little nervous.

It was a mad house in the front hallway with all the parents milling around waiting to drop off their kids. They were so loud and noisy just milling all over the place.

One of the first things it said in the packet of papers we received on Meet the Teacher night was that the first day of school we were to take the kids back to the classroom then everyday after that we would meet her in the front hallway before class. NONE of the other parents were following the directions. So we just walked on in and went straight back to the classroom... the rest of them started to follow a few minutes later.


Child #4 was intently watching everything that was going on in the class.

Again, I think all the parents milling all over the place was making her nervous, I noticed quite a few of the other kids seems to feel the same way. Finally it was time to say our goodbyes and let the class get started.

We walked up to the front hallway, I wanted to wait to get a picture of the "Duck line" when they all heading over to the cafeteria in a few minutes. It took over 20+ minutes for the class to come out because I'd say at least 75% of the parents wouldn't leave the classroom. I get how hard it can be to leave your child but come on people, they tell you over and over again that it is better to do a quick goodbye instead of standing around getting in the way of the class getting started.


Finally the class was able to leave and head to the cafeteria for lunch. Of course I didn't get a very good picture of Child #4 walking in the duck line. But she seems to be perfectly happy and didn't seem to be upset about being there.

The Hubby and I decided to go and have lunch. It was nice. We had gyros which were quite tasty. Then because we were so full we went back to the house and took a nap. LOL! It was a totally funky day... rush rush to get the kids to school... slow quiet time... rush rush to get #4 to school... lunch... slow quiet time nap... go to pick up the kids and wait in a 20+ minute barely moving car line after the release time. Everyone was there to pick up their kids it seemed like. The car line went almost 1.5 blocks up the next street... it was totally insane. It is rarely more than a couple of cars past the entrance/exit into the school parking lot but it was down the block, around the corner and down the other block. INSANE!






Friday, August 20, 2010

Meet the Teachers Night

Last night was the annual "Meet the Teachers" night at JVE. We went up to the school and got to see who was going to be academically molding our children's minds for the next year. We were able to show all the kids where their classrooms and desks were going to be. Also dropped off the various school supplies that I'm so glad to have out of the house before someone feels compelled to open and use some of them.

Child #1 will be entering 4th grade. We met her teacher last night. Apparently she was a floating substitute at JVE last year because she knew Child #3 (while he was in PreK) really well. Of course everyone who meets Child #3 remembers him... he isn't nicknamed Mr Personality for nothing. LOL! One of Child #1's best school friends is in her class, they were so happy to see each other they were practically attached at the hip all evening. They want to be in Girl Scouts together so it looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of this friend this year. Thankfully she is a very sweet and genuine child.

Child #2 will be staying in 1st grade again this year. While it was a difficult decision I do honestly believe it was the right one. He needs that little bit of extra time to truly find his footing. He is excited to be in his class. He has Child #1's first grade teacher this year. I really liked Mrs. B when Child #1 had her. She worked with Child #2 last year when they would rotate the kids who were at the same levels between the 5 classes. So she knows his "tricks" for various things already. She can be very no-nonsense when it is needed so I'm hoping that will help to keep him focused and on track.

Child #3 got the Kinder teacher Mrs. C. I was so hoping he would get. She was the student teacher in Child #1's Kinder class then she hired fulltime and got her own class the next year. She knows his PreK teacher really well and understands his IQ level and will definitely keep him occupied and interested. Its wonderful to have a young excited teacher. Hopefully he will go into the TAG program next year.

Child #4 starts PreK this year. HOLY SNIKIES!! She is so excited and Mrs. W. can't wait to have her in the class. She was sad to see lose Child #3 (he is such a charmer) but was resilient because she was getting Child #4. I think all the parents in the classroom was a little bit intimidating for Child #4, she isn't usually around that many very loud adults in a small area. Once we were back out into the hall she was all smiles and bouncing along.

Looks like we have four strong teachers this year. Yeah!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

It is soooo quiet around here...

The house really has been pretty quiet around here. The hooligans have been gone the past couple of weeks visit with their Grandma Mawmaw and family in Houston.

It is so very strange to have them gone for so long. I miss them. A lot! I know that Hubby has been missing them a lot too. I miss the snuggles and hugs.

But I've been trying to struggle through... by sleeping late without interruption, watching ANYthing on TV without concern for who might also see it, eating a cookie for breakfast without getting the hairy eyeball from someone under the age of 10 who wants one too... it has been torture. LOL!

But just so you don't think its been all fun and no work!

I planted a bunch of stuff in the backyard to kind of finish out the big raised bed on the left side of the yard. Still have the raised bed along the back fence line to plant with something... I'm think of transplanting some of the HUGE tall grasses that have tripled in size in the front garden bed along the street. They really have gotten HUGE. The left side yard is also still a mess, maybe I'll get to it this summer... or maybe not. I really want to plant Passion Vine along that fence because I think it will grow really well over there and be nice and fragrant. So I should probably wait until September to plant them after the heat.

I have also cleaned out and re-organized my workspace in the dayroom. You can now see my computer desk, though I've rarely seem to use my desktop much anymore I'm usually on my laptop in the living room. My sewing desk is also nice and cleared off of all the clutter junk that just gets dumped on it by everyone.

I got totally caught up on the laundry. It has now taken over a week to create enough laundry to really justify running two loads (1 clothes and 1 towels). It is mind blowing just how much laundry those hooligans create on a daily basis.

I have also been working on all three of the childrens bedrooms. I have cleaned out the shelves in Child#1 room, there are no longer books that she doesn't want on her shelves taking up space. I carted off a huge trash bag of torn up scraps of paper and cardboard. I moved a bunch of puzzles and games to the downstairs dayroom which created a ton of nice space for her chapter books and three shelves of space for a bunch of Lego that I had packed away that I set up for her to have. Castles and Dragons. I think she's gonna be pretty excited. I've also gotten the paint to repainted her dresser and the shelf ends. We've started prep work on painting her nightstand (to match the dresser). I've gotten some more drapes to put up in her room and to also make some pillow covers out of the fabric to match. She's is going to have as "grown up" a big girls room can be for a 10-year old.

I have also cleaned out the shelves in the boys' room. Re-organizing a bunch of the toys and such... especially eliminating any broken or no longer played with toys. I also created a special shelf for each boy that will be for only his personal things. Hubby and I finished striping what was left of the ugly wallpaper border (that Child#2 had torn most off) and prepped the wall with Kilz primer to cover the Sharpie that Child#3 felt compelled to use on the wall because he didn't like the green paint. I didn't like the green paint either but that wasn't how I really wanted to change it. We also started painting the walls the two new blue colors to cover up the dingy blue and fugly limey green that was on the walls. It is AMAZING how much better the walls look with the new colors. The new bunkbeds for the boys room were delivered but we haven't assembled them yet until we are done with all the painting. We need to finish up the second coat and put up the new border trim... once I figure out how to cut the roll of wallpaper in half... or something like that.

We are going to have to repaint the molding in the boys bedroom (and about half the house) because the previous "painters" and I use that term loosely did a horrible job when you really look at it. But that is gonna be for a later date, maybe in a couple of weeks.

And just so the little princess doesn't feel left out... I cleared out some of the junk that had accumulated in Child#4's bedroom. Various toys that didn't belong and re-organized the shelves to hold the stuff that does belong. I've also been working on the pit of a closet that is in her room between a bunch of clothes that Hubby has in there (from when the room was still his office) and the piles of outgrown clothes from various other children... it was pretty scary. I have a sketch print of Tinkerbell that I bought a few years ago that we were going to hang in the dayroom but never got around to it, so I'll frame it and put it up in her room. I also have a bunch of fairy & flower blossom prints to put up into her room in the place of all the Classic Pooh prints to create a more Tinkerbell-esque styled bedroom. I'm hoping she will really like it especially since she is ALL about Tinkerbell right now. I also have a mirror to hang on her closet door so she can see herself when she plays dress up. She loves to play dress up... I've almost finished up painting and decorating her treasure box so she'll have her own special box for her favorite little things.

Its amazing how there is at least one box of stuff from each bedroom full of stuff that doesn't belong in there.

Sadly even with all this time, I haven't gotten it together well enough to organize a garage sale while the kids are gone. Its amazing how quickly the time has passed. There is also just sooo much stuff, I will be taking it slowly I think over the next month or so of sorting and pricing stuff for a garage sale.

Or to organizing the garage...