Second Soccer Games

So, today was the second day of soccer games.  It got hot rather quickly today.  Miss A DID play today, so that was good. 

Getting her to get up and get moving this morning WASN'T good.  It was another miserable morning.

We did make it to IC's game on time.  He had 2 games back to back.  THAT wasn't great, either.  The kids were pretty tired by the 2nd game.

Miss A did well during her game.  She played at the same time as IC's second game, so I did get to see him play.  JJ walked back and forth, while I elected to stay with Miss A's game until it was done.

The soccer teams this year aren't divided very even, and we always seem to be on the losing team.  I told the kids if they didn't want to play next year, that they could be in gymnastics during the soccer season.

I am hoping that they will do that next year.

An Up & Down Day

It's been a hard week of adjusting to the new school routine.  A lot of struggles with Miss A, fighting amongst the kids, forgotten a lunch box on the bus (luckily, we have a wonderful bus driver-he actually turned around and brought the lunch box back to our house!), seen more tears than I can count, and struggled to get the girls to stay in bed.

Tonight, it was homework-for both kids.  And some of the homework is for the parents-or me, most likely!

IC informed me that one of his classmates is moving.  She's such a sweetie with a severe speech impairment, but IC was fond of her and cried a little later about her leaving.  We'll both miss her.

It was hard to get the kids to go outside today since there were 10 sprinkles and 2 thunders during the time they were home, but I finally did get them out-only for it to be deathly still outside, terrible bugs and humid!  It took me 2 hours to convince them to go out, only for them to fight with each other over playing frisbee and who was playing!

I just can not win.

I was already tired from the week and from taking E and Mom to York.  Mom needed to pick up her glasses and then we went shopping-she paid for a couple of blouses for me that I picked out for work-and they weren't from Wal-mart!  We ate at Chances R and E slept on the way home.  I worked to get things put away and 2 loads of laundry done before the kids got home from school, so I was bushed by the time they came in, one bawling because her brother beat her from the bus to the house.

JJ got to go golfing today at the country club for the co-op's annual customer appreciation thing, plus he got dinner and supper-I'm sure it was a nice break for him today.  He likes golf; me, not so much.  I actually kinda enjoyed my time with mom today, so I guess we both got to relax a little today.

Humpty Dumpty Open House

 So, we stopped at the preschool's open house before heading to soccer.  E got to decorate a paper picture frame (with help from IC) . . . . .

Play at the water table with Miss A . . . . .

And pick out her own cubby.  She's pretty excited to come-she gets to start after Labor Day.

36 years

Thursday was my 36th birthday.  I got several "happy birthdays" from several facebook friends but none from my dad's side of the family.  Typical.  I'm not sure I even exist to them most of the time.

Anyway, it wasn't the best day, but not the worst. It was REALLY crazy busy with kids' stuff, though.  In the morning after I dropped E off at preschool, I went for a walk and then stopped in the church to discuss ordering new Sunday School curriculum.  I expressed my concern about E only being able to go 2 days to preschool and so Mina, the teacher for Humpty Dumpty, who was also there, said E could come to the church's preschool.

So, I talked to JJ and that's how it came that I got E signed up for 2 days of Humpty Dumpty preschool a week this year, in addition to the 2 days of TYKE.  I would have liked her to have a total of 3 days, but the other 2 kids went to 4 days of TYKE in the past, so we'll see if it will work.

In the afternoon, E "helped" me make myself a birthday cake (from a box, not too exciting) before the older kids came home from school. 

After they came home, there was only an hour before suppertime and then we were off to do things in town.

Many things, like drop off a cradle roll certificate for a new baby, stop by Humpty Dumpty for a registration and open house, and then it was off to Miss A's soccer practice.

After 1/2 hour, we left that to head to IC's scout meeting.  Since this was the first one of the school year, it was at the school.  There's about nine 1st graders coming in.  Since I was one of the "veterans" (parents whose kids have been in scouts for awhile), we were sent to supervise or help with the whole group of boys that was sent away from the "newbie" parents to a couple of activities.

I think I could have missed this meeting.  The boys were noisy and my girls were whiney and it was not a totally pleasant hour, but we did our duty and headed home when it was done.

It wasn't a horrible end to my birthday, but it definitely wasn't fabulous, either.

Trouble, Again

Ok, so you know how I said that I was more worried about Miss A than IC in school?

Yes, she got in trouble again.

This time, it was a little more serious, as she had 2 sticks pulled.  The first (green) stick was for lifting someone and hugging them, and the second (yellow) stick was for talking during circle time while someone else was talking.

Sigh.

I had to sign the note that was sent home to send back to Mrs. Myers.

Miss A also came home with $2 in her bag that Mrs. Myers found in her pocket.  Because I didn't send any money with her I asked her where she got it.  She said one of the boys in class gave it to her and she was supposed to give it back but forgot.  She couldn't remember his name, so Mrs. Myers was going to hopefully sort it out today.

IC, on the other hand, came home with one less tooth.  Apparently, he pulled it out during reading time in his class.

It was ridiculously hot yesterday, so when I took IC to soccer, I took the girls home, as it was too hot to sit out there for an hour.  I generally don't like to do that, preferring to be there at practice-mostly.  Plus, it's usually not worth driving home just to come back a short time later.

To add insult to yesterday's injury, today I was informed that E bunny is only supposed to come to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday (on the paper, in my defense it said Tues - Thurs, to me, that means 3 days, not 2).  They let E come today, since she was already there, but from now on, it's just twice a week.

I'm disappointed, she gets to interact more with 3 days per week, but there's nothing I can really do about it.

At least, Miss A did NOT come home with a note from class today. 

Dance Open House

Last evening was dance open house.  It was a over an hour of waiting in line to get into the open house, shoes fitted and payment started (3 seperate lines, by the way).  Both of the girls are dancing this year.  They've changed the classes a little to accomodate one of the teachers' pregnancy. 

Miss A has one class for her age (K-1), which will be a combination of tap and jazz dance, so she will be getting 2 pairs of shoes.

E bunny will be starting in the 3 yo class of Creative Movements 1, and her teacher will be different than Miss A's was, but it's all fine.  E was estatic to get fitted for shoes yesterday, and was ready to try on her tutu!  Since they didn't get their catalogs until yesterday, the teachers were unable to do fittings for anything other than shoes, so that will be done probably in a couple of weeks, so that they can get ordered.

Miss A's class is from 5:30-6:30 and E bunny's is from 6:30-7 on Mondays.  The only thing this will run into is IC's scout den meetings every other Monday, but we made it work last year and we will do that again this year.

E Bunny's First Day of Preschool

 Sigh-I sent my baby to her first day of preschool today.  She's been waiting for this for quite awhile.

 She was pretty excited this morning, but a little nervous since she made sure I was taking her to her class and was a little unsure of herself when she headed into the classroom.  There were no tears, though and was all smiles when it was time to go home.

Not the Greatest Day

So, my Saturday morning did not go well with Miss A deciding she didn't want to play-mostly because this decision of hers was in an excessive amount of crying.

All Morning.

The ONLY time she didn't cry was at the game.

Really.

There was even crying at home again after soccer.

Ugh.

So, other than making dinner, I kinda had to hide myself in my book for part of the afternoon.  The crying just totally grated me.

A Lot.

I burned my wrist at making dinner today, which hurt.

In the afternoon, I saw IC and JJ out in the calf pen, looking at the calves.  I guess IC has decided to show a steer next year for 4-H.  Just 2 weeks ago, we sold Horton at the auction, so now, I guess it's time to be thinking about next year's project already.

Bouncing B was in the yard, again.  She's been there in the afternoon the past few days.  Don't know if she started school yet or not.  Of course, the girls played with her.  IC tries to, but it usually doesn't go very well.

While I was doing chores, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and rammed my head on the grapple that's above the tractor bucket on the front of his tractor. It didn't hurt much at first, but I took a small chunk of skin out and I had a nice trickle of blood running down my head by the time I got to the house.

Luckily, it's a small nick, no stitches needed, but now I have a REAL headache.

Between the girls fighting every few minutes, my stressors today and IC being mouthy, I'm ready for bed at 6:30 pm!

First Soccer Game

IC had his first soccer game Saturday morning.  Miss A did, too, but she decided she didn't want to play in the morning, right after I got her up.  To her credit, she has had a cold for 1 1/2 weeks and was coughing part of the night.  She really hasn't felt the best.  Unfortunate for her, I have asked her at least 3 times before I signed her up if she wanted to play and said "yes," therefore, you make the commitment, you go through with it.

I let her sit out the game, but she had to sit on the sideline of her game the whole time, and she should be feeling good enough to be able to play next week.

Thursday & Friday's Craziness

Well, Thursday was the kids' first full day of school. E bunny and I headed to Grand Island to take the State Fair entries to the State Fair.  That took 1 1/2 hours to "drop off" our photography, fine art and textile art entries.  By the time we were done, it was dinner time, but E bunny fell asleep in town, so I drove to York and woke her up then.  After that, we did a little shopping in Walmart before heading home to meet the big kids.

Miss A came home with her first reading booklet (which, at this point, they look at the pictures and have the story sort of memorized).  So, she "read" to me, with a little help for her "homework."

I do remember, not so long ago, doing that with IC.  I was so excited to have him "read" to me.  I'm an old hat the 2nd time around, so it's not quite as exciting, but it's still good.

Anyway, it was a hotter one in the afternoon and Miss A's soccer practice was hot.

Friday, IC came home with homework. Easy math stuff, but homework, none the less. I had a Sunday School meeting in the evening and luckily, JJ was able to come in early enough so the kids didn't have to go along. I then had a nice conversation with Mrs. Myers, who told me yet another story involving Miss A at school.

Mrs. Myers has a box of pretty colored rocks that she lets the kids play with during center time.  She noticed after Thursday that the box looked a little lower than usual, but didn't think much of it.  After Fridays centers, though, she noticed a DEFINATE drop in the box level and asked if people were taking them after she noticed a rock fall out of a girl's pocket.  So, she asked them to give them back and I guess 5 girls came up and emptied their pockets of rocks.  My daughter, admitted to her that they were in her back pack.  Mrs. Myers was nice about it and asked her to get them.  Sigh.  Leave it up to my daughter to be resourceful enough to put them away in her backpack!

First Day Trouble

I truly told a few people yesterday that were asking if I was worried about IC in school, trying new things, etc. that I WASN'T worried about him as much as I was Miss A.

Case in point:

After the first day of school, I get a phone call from Miss A's teacher.  I had warned her about Miss A and her friend, Wyatt that had a love affair in preschool (I kid you not.  It was all very innocent, but a little disturbing, none the less).

So, Miss A and Wyatt were caught KISSING today by the para.  Lovely.  So, now they will have to sit at desks at opposite ends of the room and opposite ends of the carpet during circle time.  Yikes. 

I did talk to Miss A (as had the teacher). What a way to start the year!

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school.  I officially have a 2nd grader and a Kindergartener. Everyone, except E, got up and ready well (she was a little reluctant this morning).  They only have 3/4 of a day, but both seem to be ready to be in school.  I didn't know if I'd get emotional this morning, but I did fine-I might have a tougher time next week when E bunny heads to preschool!

After taking them to their rooms to wait for the bell to ring, E bunny and I headed to the church for a nice walk this morning before running a few errands and going home.  She is feeling the need to fill the quiet with talking and has already asked where Miss A is!  We'll need a little adjusting time, that is for sure!

School Open House

Tuesday was open house day at school.  We got there at 5 pm and JJ showed soon after, which I hadn't expected, but he said IC sounded like he wanted Daddy to come, so I was glad he came.  First, we stopped at Miss A's Kindergarten class.  She has 23 in her class and knows Mrs. Myers from Sunday School.

Next, we went to IC's class.  He also knows Mrs. Schelkolf from church and seemed pretty happy to be there.

Finally, it was E bunny's class, which had moved to the art room.  She has a nice big classroom and has been looking forward to coming to school for quite awhile.  She made herself right at home, playing in the play kitchen and even put things away without being told to!

After that, we stopped in IC's former 1st grade class to turn in his academic challenge papers from over the summer.  As a reward, he got a bag with a small notebook in it, 3 regular pencils, a box of colored pencils, a little bottle of bubbles, a sheet of stickers and a game of old maid cards.  Not a bad reward for reading 5 days/week all summer!

After that, we headed to the soccer field to eat lunchables before IC's soccer practice, which lasted a little over an hour.  It was IC's first day of practice.  Most of the kids on his team are from his class (this is a 2nd and 3rd grade team).  There's 5 teams and his first game is at 8:30 Saturday morning.

Just this week, he has an extra practice Wednesday nite and Miss A will have her regular practice Thursday nite, so this week is full of school and soccer!

Hard to believe it's time for all of this stuff again :)

Boy Scout Fishing

Sunday, we got a call around 8 am.  It was the neighbor, wondering if we were missing some calves.  Ugh.

Turns out, we were.  Apparently, JJ didn't get the gate shut right and they escaped-all 53 of them!  I helped JJ and my BIL chase 37 calves back in.  It took awhile, but the rest were WAY far away.  JJ did find them and corralled them at the neighbors before going to get the trailer and pick them up.

I spent the waiting time and time after dinner working on a dress for E, trying to get it finished before the State Fair.

At 4 pm, we headed in to town to the Boys' Pond to fish with the other Boy Scouts.  Miss A caught a couple of fish, IC caught 1 and E bunny caught 1 or 2.  We threw them all back into the pond, though.  There was hot dogs for supper, which made it a nice time, all in all.

Women of Faith

Friday and Saturday, I was at the Women of Faith conference in Omaha.  It was good.  Lots of people.  I rode with 5 other ladies there-we left at 7 am.  Mom came to our house before that and then took the kids to her house overnight.  She brought them back Saturday evening, as I didn't get home until after 9 pm.

There were some good speakers and great music.  We had a good meal for supper both nights-the provided box dinners were so-so at the event.  Food was expensive at the colleseum (that was expected) and I did purchase a few books and CDs.

It was a good experience.

Back To the Grind Stone

So, we are back to a busy week.  Ugh.

Monday, I gave in and took the kids to the pool.  I didn't really want to go, but they were bored and so on.  I dropped IC off at the pool at 2 and made the girls go with me to do kids packs at church and take a box to the post office before I took them to the pool.  We drove past the hospital and saw the life flight helicopter there-they'd never seen it before.  The girls got to play at the pool for an hour and then I said we were going home.

Tuesday, mom got to the house early, and we headed for York before 8:30.  I had a back appointment, got the oil changed in the van, and then we went to Wal-mart.  Mom had an eye appointment and the girls and I got our hair trimmed.  Then, of course, there was shopping to do.  After dinner, there were groceries to get and we got home a little after 3.

Then, I had to turn around and get ready for a pool party.  It was cloudy all day and a tad chilly in the evening, but the kids loved playing in the water anyway.  Both IC and Miss A had been invited by 2 of the pastors' girls' pool party.  Even though both girls' birthdays are in the fall, they wanted a pool party, so that's what they had.  We stayed until 8:15, and then I insisted we go home, as we were going to be late putting everyone to bed.  The kids had a great time.

Wednesday, we headed to town in the morning (with all the kids) to search for a washer/dryer set.  The seal and bearing went out on my washing machine and it was recommended to get a new washer, as to repair it was going to cost a ridiculous amount.

So, we found something in town-a front loading set, mind you.  I've been wanting one for awhile, so with all the kids' clothes I seem to wash constantly, it made sense to go with them.  Now, I have to learn how to run the things!  I did do one load of laundry and have to do a few yet today before I am gone this weekend.

We also cleaned the house yesterday and it was so nice outside, we played for awhile out there.  It was in the mid-70s with much less humidity-it was great!

Today, besides laundry, I am packing myself and the kids' overnight bags, trying to work on E bunny's dress, and hopefully, clean up some clutter around the house before tonight's last pool party.  The church is having a kickoff for Sunday School at the pool.  Miss A also has soccer practice, but since this is a church thing and the practice is just a learn-the-basics thing, the coach said that it was ok if she missed.  There will be a few others that will miss practice, too, because of this pool party.  Personally, I'd rather go to the practice, but Miss A wants to go to the pool, and told me she didn't want to play soccer.  I think she'll change her mind next week, when there's no more pool to interfere.  

Miss A's coach is the same from last year and practices will be Thursdays.  I haven't heard from IC's coach, yet.  Hopefully, we'll hear soon, as next Saturday is the first game already!

Tomorrow, my mom is coming to get the kids in the morning, as I will need to be in town by 7 am, to head to Omaha for the Women of Faith Conference.  We'll be gone until Saturday around 8, and I am looking forward to it!  I have to admit, I could use a small break from the kids, the farm, and my ever-growing pile of to-dos that never seems to get done. 

The kids are going to my mom's for the overnight, a last hurrah before school starts.

Time to get to work-lots to do before tonight's party!

A Quiet Week

This past week was quiet.  We didn't HAVE to go anywhere or do anything special. 

THIS WAS REALLY NICE.

Really.

I took the kids to the pool on Monday, Friday evening for E's makeup swim class, and Saturday afternoon.  We made play dough this week, made a special ice cream trip, did some art projects, some scrapbooking, IC cleaned his room, worked on some State Fair entry things, played games and with toys a lot-it was nice. 

It was cloudy/foggy often in the mornings and some a little in the afternoons, though the sun would come out mid-late afternoon on several days.  We never had any substantial rain, which was a bummer, but the temps were a little cooler, though the humidity was still high.

Our caterpillars hatched from their crystallis' and on Friday, we had 3 painted lady butterflies to release into my flower garden.  As of yesterday, they had all stayed, making the kids thrilled.

We had lots of time to play with kitties and just lay around the house. I also worked on the kids' schedule through December, as much as I can-I got the gymnastics schedule and Boy Scout schedule.  There's still the Girl Scout schedule, dance and soccer schedules yet.  I have also been moving the kids' schedule to go to bed at school time, and we're going to be getting up at school time in the coming week. 

I did have to mow one day and did some weed pulling and mulching in my flowers another day, but still have a LOT of weeds to catch up on.  We are down to potatoes, ornamental corn, one sunflower, and the pumpkin plant in the garden.

Now, I am trying to work on sewing the girls some things for school and today, my main goal is to get the State Fair entries done online.

Tonight, is Elly Bell's last swim class. She loves class, is the oldest and does excellent for the teacher.  She is a fish, that's for sure.

Our last week before school is not going to be nearly as quiet.  We've got 2 evening pool parties, a trip to York, house-cleaning, and probably more to do before I am gone Friday all day and 3/4 of Saturday to the Women of Faith conference in Omaha.  The kids are going to my mom's, their last overnight thing for awhile.

Last week went REALLY fast, so I'm betting this week will be that way also.  It won't be long for school to start, I'd better be getting to work!

Rocket Boy

So, last Sunday, we took IC's big rocket to the school yard to shoot it off-and it went very well!  He's been so excited to shoot this thing off since he got it from his cousins, Matt and Brian.  It went up pretty high, so he was happy.  The girls got to play on the playground equipment while JJ and IC shot off the rocket twice.  The only downside was that it was HOT outside.