Last Day of School...

Hubby got home about mid morning right before it was time to take Child #4 to Pre-K. She didn't hear him come in so when I called her downstairs she squealed on the middle of the stairs and launched herself into his arms. Yep, she was happy Daddy was home.

After taking Child #4 and a friend to school, Hubby and I went to lunch. Then it was time to hit the End of the School Year class parties. Four of them. This year and next year are the only years where all four kids will be at the same school at the same time. Next year they will be in for the same hours since Child #4 will be in full day Kindergarten (she better get Ms C!!!).

All four parties were outside for part of it. In that lovely Texas heat! Thankfully it was only up to 94 degrees while we were outside. Seriously were they trying to give us heat stroke? Could have been worse, it hit 100 degrees two days earlier. The older three were surprised to see Hubby since they didn't know he was going to be home so early on Friday and he doesn't usually get to come to the school parties.

It's official. The 2010-2011 school year is now OVER!! It's summer vacation.

Child #1 is very happy! She doesn't have to wake up early in the mornings.

Child #2 is also happy because he doesn't have to wake up early or do "reading" anymore. Little does he realize he will still be doing reading this summer.

Child #3 is conflicted. He LOVES school so much. He loves his teacher, he loves his classmates and his special friend, and he loves learning. But he is happy about not having to wake up early.

Honestly who are they kidding?? Okay so I'm not waking them up at 7am, they are all awake by 8am anyways. Okay Child #1 will sleep in later if the boys don't wake her up.

Child #4 is indifferent in that classic Child #4 way.

Report cards came home and were awesome all around.
Child #1 ended up with straight A's for the year. She was quite proud of how well she was able to bring her grades up from the B's of last quarter.
Child #2 was able to show marked improvement all around and his teacher was so impressed with how much progress he made in reading & writing.
Child #3 maxed out in just about everything just like we knew he would... my little brainiac. Child #4 improved her oral language from 6 yr 4 months to 10 years 2 months! Which means she has the vocabulary of a 4 grader! She's not even 5 yrs yet! We definitely saw that learning spike in her speech... she's always been a talker once she decided she wanted to talk but its increase exponentially this year. Seriously get her alone and she will overwhelm you with her constant stream of verbal conscientiousness. She'll make your ears start to hurt and your head spin.

Sadly we will be missing Child #1's teacher Mrs. F. next year. Between the budget cuts and the soon arrival of her first child she won't be returning to Jollyville next year. So wrong that we lose those amazing young and vibrant teachers to the budget just because they were the most recent hires. I'm hoping that in a few years she'll be back...

So now its time for sleeping in (HA!), loose schedules, lazy & carefree days, fun in the sprinklers, and lots of trying to not kill each other days.

Dental Appointment for #3 & #4

So today was the dental appointments for Child #3 and Child #4.

Both did great. Both do a great job brushing and flossing.

Child #3 sadly has a lot of cavities... between his teeth which are very tight together. The oral hygienist commented on what a great job he's doing brushing because there wasn't plaque build up at all. Unfortunately it looks like Child #3 has the oral bacteria that is more prone to cavities. At least he's the one who enjoys brushing and flossing his teeth and he has that meticulous nature so maybe we'll be able to keep new cavities away.

Both left feeling positive about going to the dentist. Score!

Field Trip with 44 children aged 4-5 years old...

Yep, its that time again. The Pre-K annual field trip to Crowe's Nest Farm in Elgin TX. I went with Child #3's class last year.

A 45 minute bus ride with 44 kids and about 10 adults. Woohoo!

The kids have a blast. Between the tractor hayride, seeing Emu, Bison, Longhorns & Cows, Sheep, Goats, Llama, Peacocks and lots of Chickens & Turkey... they had a lot of fun. Then there was also the snakes, spiders, and creepy crawlies... honestly could have done without those but at least they were all in cages or tanks and not "free-range".

It was overcast for most of the day which wasn't too bad. It kept the heat down some and it didn't rain on us. Though we desperately need the rain... just not for those 4 hours.

Musical interests of the 4 year old.

Child #4 walked into the room a little while ago. I was listening to the radio and she suddenly asks," Is this the Black Keys?"

Why yes, yes it is.

"Thought so." and she strolled back out of the room.

Yep, she likes the Black Keys, Lady Gaga and Foo Fighters. No Barney or Fisher Price music for this little girl.

Why yes is DOES snow in Texas... a little

We had another snow day today. An INCH! Okay so that doesn't sound like a lot but it is a record for us. Previous record was 1/2 inch in 1906 at Camp Mabry. Now there are other places around Austin that have recorded larger amounts over the years but that is one of the official weather stations. It is located in an area surrounded by lots of streets and tons of cement/asphalt which holds the ground temperature heat in.

Anyways, the kids enjoyed it. Well Child #4 lasted about 10 minutes then she was done... ready for some hot chocolate and a blanket inside.



Snow Angels.

Snowball fights with the neighbors.

And of course the ubiquitous snowman. Okay so he wasn't huge but hey we only got an inch or so of very very dry powder. It didn't want to compact at all.

I've currently got a Turkey roasting in the oven. Stuffing, mashed potatoes and rolls... Just like Thanksgiving... seems appropriate since we have real winter weather today.

May the Force Be With YOU!!!

It was "May the Force Be With Katie" Day.

A sweet young 1st grade girl was told that girls aren't allowed to like Star Wars by the boys at her school.

That is so wrong on so many levels. All four of my children love Star Wars. We are a proud Star Wars family... my two young boys would NEVER think to tell a girl that Star Wars is only for boys. They love it too much to not include everyone.

So to show our support for Katie all four kids wore Star Wars shirts to school today.

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!

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!

So I'm about to cook some mushrooms and I reach into the butter box in the fridge and...

This is what I find. It was whole last night when I cooked dinner.

Child #4 also known as the three year old butter junkie strikes again.

I originally thought it was Child #3 who was gnawing on the butter lately because the previous one I found was a stick that had been unwrapped, gnawed on and then *perfectly* re-wrapped and put back into the butter box. Very very sneaky.

She likes to rock out with the best of them...

She may be the "Pretty Princess" if you ask her what her name is but yeah she likes to rock out just like everyone else. She is pounding her hands in the air, tongue stuck out and head pumping up and down to the Foo Fighters.

No Barney music is allowing in our house or cars. We listen to regular music. I also love to see all the heads bob along with Green Day. LOL!

Spontaneous Sibling Love

So we needed to walk to pick up Child #1 & Child #2 from school because Hubby took my Discovery to work today. As we are walking along, Child #3 just reached out and took Child #4's hand. No prompting from me but just because he loves his little sister.

Makes a heart just melt.

A few rambling moments from earlier today...

Earlier I was listening to the foursome singing offkey and a smash version of Jingle Bells, Rudolph and a song I can't quite put my finger...

So I just spent 5 minutes chatting with Hubby on IM and Child #3 and Child #4 just wiped out an entire 2 POUND container of strawberries!! Seriously!?! The entire container? You'd think I never feed these hooligans.

Yep, I guess she looks a little bit like me...

Child #4 at 3 years of age.


Me about the same age many many years ago.

Marathon Kids

For four years now we've done Marathon Kids. I have to say that this year was the most disorganized year to date. Every year they have called everyone down by grade. Why they always started with fifth grade, then fourth, then third... then kinder, first grade and finally second. Why have the oldest start first never made any sense to me. Yeah have the youngest kids with the shortest attention span wait longer than older kids who have patience.

Yeah that makes A LOT of sense... NOT!

This time instead of having everyone sitting in the sections by school (per previous years) and calling everyone down by grade is was done by section only. Which turned into a free for all. VERY POORLY planned!

This year thankfully we didn't have the heat to deal with like two years ago but it was misty rain most of the time. The only time it wasn't rain... when they were doing the non-stop speeches. While I understand how much work it takes honestly a bunch of elementary students just don't have the patience to sit through 45 minutes of speeches... most of which you couldn't really hear anyways.

And they only had the kids run 3/4 of the lap this time, in the past they did almost 2 laps. Really didn't feel like much of a run for them.

Kids enjoyed it which is what is important...

And so it begins...

I slowly poke my toe into the blogging world. We shall see how well I really do with this.

Can I blog, tweet, facebook, read tons of emails, AND "single parent" (Hubby is halfway around the world in Afghanistan) four small children under that age of 9? Along with 5 cats, 1 dog, 2 parakeets, 1 guinea pig and more fish tanks than there should be in one household... while keeping said household clean... okay we won't worry about the cleanliness too much... will we?

I won't look at your floor if you won't look at mine.

Deal?

Because you know a non-sticky crumb less floor is highly overrated. Honestly, who really needs to be able to walk across a room without having funky grit stick to your feet. Socks are great. Slippers even better. Actually I keep most of the floors pretty clean I just HATE doing the kitchen floors.

Honestly, they look like hell within 15 minutes of doing them. The only time they look great for longer than 15 minutes is when I do them late at night. Then the hooligans destroy it when they get up in the morning.

Between the gallon of milk or the jug of apple cider that doesn't make it INTO the cup by Child #3 (the almost 5 yr old boy), Child #4's (the 3 year old girl) obsession with dumping the sugar bowl on the floor, the crumbles that don't stay in the mouths because they chew like horses... actually I think horses are tidier... the dirt tracked in from the backyard especially child #2 (the 6 yr old boy) who usually has pockets full of dirt, rocks, pebbles and other bit so flora and fauna that should remain outside and Child #1 (the 8 yrs old girl) who has the propensity for tearing/cutting paper into little bits and "saving" them... is it any wonder my kitchen floor looks like hell???

But enough of my floor...