Back to School

This is over-due, but better late than never... I guess.

The kids went back to school on August 25th. Yea! They were all very excited... I think for different reasons:

I'd say Treyson was looking forward to riding his bike to school. (The new one he got for his birthday.) Rylee made it her "goal" to teach him to ride a 2-wheeler, without training wheels, a week before school started. Both of them got up and ready, that first Monday morning, to practice riding. In less than an hour, he was riding fairly confidently, with no assistance. Both of them were totally thrilled. Rylee had only one problem, "Mom, now what am I going to do for the rest of the week???" Funny girl. Her "goal" was met much sooner than she thought it would be. --Thanks Rylee for being such a great big sister and for being so organized and goal-oriented. :o)

I think Taylee was excited to use her new school supplies and be at a new school. She loves to create and was probably excitedly anticipating the first masterpiece to be done with her new box of crayons. --We barely made the power-walk to school that first day. Their backpacks were heavy with supplies and they kept lagging behind. I was glad that I had chosen to put Abree in the stroller that morning. She's perfectly capable of walking the distance, but it would have been hard for her to keep up with our pace that day. The kids were starting to go into the school, just as we got there. We caught Treyson's class before they went in, but missed Taylee's. I had to give her instructions (from the outside of the school) on how to get to her classroom. She told me later she had gotten confused and ended up asking for help. Then she realized she had been looking in the 3rd grade hall...and she was now in 4th grade! She's a little directionally-challenged, just like her dad. :o)

Rylee had many things to be excited about. First on her list I think was her new school clothes. She had them outfitted and laying out a week before school started. (Well she did have that extra time on her hands, since Treyson learned riding his bike so quickly.) Also she was excited to be going into Middle School! --Yikes, I can't believe this. I went to Jr. High and was used to the idea of 7th grade being that next big step. In Meridian, you start Middle School in 6th grade. Jason admitted he was having a bit of anxiety for her, the night before school started. Cute, funny daddy. --She liked the idea of having a locker (to decorate, of course) and moving classes for different subjects. She told me when she got home that day, "I had my map with me, but I didn't even have to use it. I just looked at the room numbers and figured it out." She also had been a little worried about memorizing her 10-digit school ID#, but said, "After I wrote it down for the second time, I had it memorized already." Gosh, I wish I had a memory like that!

Abree is dying to go to school! We took part in a pre-school co-op last year and she totally loved it. I plan on doing it again this year, with new mommies and new kiddos. We don't plan on starting until the first part of October, but that doesn't stop her from asking, almost every morning, "Do I have pre-school today?" I remind her we're starting in October and then she says, "But that's when my birthday is!" Yep. --Abree doesn't make the cut-off for kindergarten next year either, although I'm pretty sure she would be ready. Oh well, when she goes to school I'll be a school-kid-empty-nester. I'm liking that she gets to stay my "baby" just a little bit longer. :o)

**Pictures to come in a later post.**

GNO

It was so fun to have a Girl's Night Out with my friends Jaime and Marianne. We went to dinner and then talked and talked and talked and talked AND talked. (Sorry, that sorta turned into a familiar primary song.) I think it's so important that women/moms take time to "play" with their friends every once-in-a-while. Jaime and Marianne, thanks for being my play buddies! :o)

Unplugged

The week before school started up again, our family went "unplugged". This meant no tv, no movies, no video games, no radio/cd player and no computer. I thought it would be a good way to get our brains in gear for school. We'd done enough of being "plugged in" during the summer and we needed to go COLD TURKEY to break the cycle. :o)

I have to admit, this was mostly to prove to myself that I could do it. (I am a self-admitting t.v. addict. I just LOVE it!) I'd never done anything like it and wanted to experiment to see how I handled it, along with my family. We purposely planned a few family outings in the evenings and made a long list of things we could possibly do without being "plugging in". (This was for the times when I predicted the kids would say, "There's nothing to do.")

I'm happy to report that the week actually went quite well. No one cheated (that I am aware of), no one was badly hurt and we did a lot more reading and playing than normal. (I read 5 books myself... and I don't consider myself a big reader.) It went so well we're considering making it a tradition, doing it the week before school starts, each year.

Western Idaho FAIR

Last week, our family went to the Western Idaho State Fair. Growing up in the area, this was the fair I went to in my childhood. It was always exciting and fun and I always looked forward to it, even though it meant that school was just around the corner. Unlike my childhood, the first thing our agenda was riding some carnival rides. I think it would be hard for Jason to go to a fair, with rides, and NOT ride them. He's a big kid. :o)

First ride of the day.

The Wacky Worm was Abree's first ride of the day. It was kind of like a very mild little roller coaster. The first 2 times around I couldn't tell if she was having fun. The last few times around she was finally smiling.
I think Abree had fun "driving", but Treyson was kind of bored being the passenger.
Taylee is our adreniline (sp?) junky. She loves big rides that "scare" her. She chose to go on the "Crazy Train" by herself.
Rylee loved this ride, but Treyson wasn't too sure. When the ride started going backwards, he finally looked like he was having fun.
As we were checking out the animals, this little girl walked by with her sheep. She let us pet it. My kids loved feeling how soft and wooly it was.

Abree bravely going on the ride all by herself.
The last scary ride of the day. It went around and around and upside-down. Taylee considered bailing, but went and was totally thrilled she did. She LOVED it and is already making plans on going on it next year.
These are the African Acrobats. The kids and Jason watched several shows while I had to duck out for 2 hours to go to my old book group to discuss "Breaking Dawn". They also watched the monster truck 4x4's . When I returned we had treats and went to the hypnotist.

We stayed ALL day. It was a long, but very fun day.

FREE Lunch!

This summer we were consistant participants in the FREE lunch in the park. We went almost every day. It was so nice not to have to think about lunch, make lunch and then clean-up lunch every day. Also it forced me to get the kids out of the house and sometimes even play in the park for a while. After lunch was done being served they did a craft time. My kids LOVED this. They made macaroni necklaces/bracelets, little guitars, colored pictures, face painted, etc. Taylee especially lived for this. She loved creating something new each day. Yummy...chicken sandwiches.
It was Jason's "early day", so he got off work and was able to come with us.

The food was provided by the Idaho Food Bank. It wasn't top notch, but was edible. :o)

Take me out to the ball game...

The kids earned Boise Hawks baseball tickets for summer reading (another family outing sponsered by the library, yea!). Although the Hawks lost, we still had lots of fun. Highlight: funny costumes worn by a Hawks stadium employee to rally the crowd; including darth vader, dredlocks dude, and police officer. He would also hold up different signs for the crowd to yell, when the team made a nice play. He was funny. (I forgot to get a picture of him though.)

Are we having fun yet?

Humphery the Hawk came to our section and gave us all high-5's, knuckle bumps and handshakes. Abree was so excited to see him... until he got too close. She did eventually wave and say hi to him, but didn't really want to hug him like Treyson and Taylee.