Mommy School

This year I'm not signing myself up for classes or making goals for my own education like last year.

I'm committed 100% to "Mommy School" with Carver and Grace. Between Carver's extra needs and Grace staying home this year before starting preschool next year, they both need it. And I slacked ALL summer. No more! It's school every morning as soon as we get those big sisters out the door. :)

We start on the bus (the couch) and sing "the wheels on the bus." We prefer babies and mommies for the verses. Then we walk in a smart little line over to the table and hang up backpacks. We talk about that particular day of the week and what we have planned, we sing the ABCs and work on letters. I copied an idea from Ellie's kindergarten class and do "rainbow letters" by using many colors to trace our letters inside some bubble letters that I draw pretty incompetently. We cut out pictures of things that start with that letter and glue them into our ABC books. Whew! The hard stuff is out of the way. Then we try to find a fun thing to count or some sort of activity. I love this part.

F is for Fire and Fire Fighters. They used straws to blow away those little fires.

G is for Goggles and Gloves. I got such a kick out of that one. :)

and then it just happened that D was for Dentist last week.

In a nutshell, Grace was worried and so she held very still. She got her teeth polished and flouride-d, sprayed with water and sucked with the sucker-thing, she even got x-rays of her front teeth. It was pretty darn impressive. Carver sat on my lap and watched.

Then everything fell apart. They switched and Carver wouldn't have any of that dental stuff. (longer story on his own blog.) Grace wasn't the center of attention anymore and was Done with a capital D. We left with Carver spraying the window with some water on the tool that the assistant thought he might like to see. Or touch a lot. And spray as often as possible. :) Whew. We didn't make a 6 month appointment. I'm still recovering. At least it was free, right?

I'm swamped with school schedules and trying not to be cranky for the few hours a day I see the big girls. I think I'm ready for summer vacation. :)

First day of school - part 2

HIP HIP HURRAY!!

It's finally Carver's turn!
And boy, oh, boy am I excited.

And so is he - even if he insisted on strange faces.


We've been doing Mommy School every day this week and I am so impressed with how hard he's worked - both in writing and learning letter sounds and in other fine motor skills. It's been really rewarding to see. He and Grace LOVE it. They are such cute friends.


And just because she lets me, I took pictures of Grace while we waited for the bus to come.


Happy preschool to me!
:)

First day of school - part 1

It's not really the first day of school to ME until Carver starts on Friday... :)

For Ellie and Lydia, yesterday was the big day.

Ellie's been excited since move-up last year when she met her new teacher, but she was all grumpies in the morning. I don't think she slept well the night before. Lydia'd been savoring every minute of summer, worrying a little about starting a new school with new friends and a new (harder) Discovery Program. But then she was a happy helper all morning! Go figure.

They both came home SO incredibly excited, talking all over each other about the fun things they did and how wonderful it all is. I love the first day of school!

Carver is all out of whack from a new routine, but we're hanging in there. Grace keeps telling people she's going to preschool, too, but really she's doing "Mommy School" one more year with me.

With Ellie's old backpack. :)

Last days of summer

I kept meaning to take a picture of Carver's crocs. They lost one of the little circle tabs that hold the strap on, but I was determined to make them last another week. So I used a paperclip to secure them just til the end of the summer. They're pretty classy looking.... :)

That's how summer felt around here.

Like I was at my wit's end - barely hanging onto sanity. But at the same time, like I just wasn't ready to give it all up. Which definitely strengthens the case for my deteriorating mental state.

I loved lazy mornings. Not that I actually "slept" in or lounged around in my pjs, by any means. But we just had time to get ready at our own snail pace every single day. It was bliss. I also loved seeing the kids play with each other (when they weren't yelling or fighting about toys or hurting each other.) I even more LOVED visiting grandparents so much this summer - we are pretty darn lucky to live so close to them.

I was pretty proud of myself for taking pictures and looking at them on the computer once in a while, so collages are as good as it's getting around here. Carver hasn't started preschool yet and there is NO lunch break in this house.

We packed more fun into 48 hours with my parents than any of us thought possible. Omsi, swimming, This is Silver Falls, Oregon.


And then, because I'm a huge sucker for the beach and especially pictures at the beach... here's a sampling of the amazingly warm and wonderful weather we had on the Oregon Coast. We kept telling the kids it's practically a once in a lifetime experience. :)


We played in Spokane with Derek's parents:


And then last Saturday, it had the nerve to get all cloudy and rainy here. So we ran away for a quick day trip, over the mountains, to sunnier skies. Leavenworth, WA. If only we'd brought swim suits, it'd have been the PERFECT day. And maybe if we hadn't blown $50 on German hot dogs! Sheesh.


We spent Labor Day at Mt. Rainier. Derek summed it up perfectly when we wondered aloud why we'd driven 80 miles and paid $15 to eat dinner in our fridge. It was a whole lot chilly sitting at our picnic table! But we had a really pretty hike afterward and saw a little tiny bit of sunshine. But no mountain views that day. Still, it was great to have one more adventure before we're swallowed up by school, seminary, swimming and soccer. And piano and YW. :) Not all our commitments begin with "s."


Finally. I caught us up. Just in time, too - today was the first day of school and summer is officially over.