(not so) big man on campus

It's done!! K has been successfully dropped off at his first day of kindergarden! I imagine by now he's had snack, rest time, lunch, and all sorts of big fun. Too bad it's a rainy day - hopefully he still got some outside play time. I'm so anxious to hear how the day has gone. We had a pretty low key morning. All the bags were packed the night before - school supplies? check. lunch? check. snack? check. towel for rest time? check. K seemed a little excited, though very controlled. Just had a bit of a smirk on his face all morning. He was a little upset about the rain and the potential for storms, but he seemed pretty in control over that, too. Once he realized it was just a drizzle, he had no problem walking up the sidewalk to the building. We found the kindergarden hallway, signed him in, and off he went. That was it! No muss, no fuss. I had to call to him to get him to wave bye. He's always been good about going places - school, babysitters, playdates, Sunday school, drum class, etc. - activity is not something in short supply around here. So it should be no surprise that this was just one more new thing to try. No tears from the grown-ups, either. I'm excited to go on Friday night to meet the teacher and hopefully learn more about what his days will be like. So one day down ... oh, I can't do the math right now... many many many many more to go. :)

K's week

Last week I tried to plan some fun activities for us since it was K's last full week at home before starting school (which starts tomorrow!!!). The week did not start off the way I had planned as I woke up Monday morning very sick and pretty much had to lay on the couch all day. But I was so glad to be feeling better on Tuesday because our good friends the Roberts family came from Virginia to spend the day with us. The kids had so much fun. Maura and I hardly saw the big kids all day since they spent most of their time entertaining themselves upstairs in the kids' rooms. K&A have been asking for another play date with them soon.

Remember when Maura and I just had K & Katelyn? Now we have 7!!!

On Wednesday we had a very fun morning exploring the local arboretum. It was a bit warm, but there was lots of shade and we took lots of breaks and we managed to stay for several hours. I think I overdid it, though, because I felt sick again all afternoon and we had to have a pretty low key day after that.

don't you agree that she is too big for the stroller??? What a nice big brother, though.

On Thursday we went to the kids museum. We hadn't been all summer, so Thursday morning I loaded them into the car but wouldn't tell them where we were going. They kept guessing the whole way there, and K figured it out pretty quickly, but I wouldn't confirm until we were parked in the parking lot. They were so excited and K couldn't wait to check out the Olympic sports area. I could tell he was getting a little old for some of the permanent exhibits, but we found fun things for him, like getting to work with real tools, building a race car and racing it down a track, and of course, the indoor hockey rink was a hit.

trying out flippers on dry land

He loved doing the hurtles

and the hockey - maybe we should scrap the current plans and put one of these in the basement!

it took some patience, but he finally managed to saw off the end of the tube.

I think she makes a very cute pirate!

Thurs night we went out for pizza and then did the bunjee bounce at the mall. It was K's first time doing it, and he had so much fun! Now they are both trying to earn another trip back to do that again ! And of course, Friday I was home sick again! It was frustrating for me not to be feeling well when I really wanted to do as much with the kids as I could, but I powered through and we did as much as we could, and hopefully K had a very fun week!

vignettes

I've not been worrying too much this week about the state of the house. It's K's last full week at home before he starts school, so I wanted to try to do some extra special things to make it fun (more on that later). Today I was remembering how nice and clean and straight everything was last week when the kids were out of town, and I was getting discouraged at all the stuff that's piled up. Then I kind of took a different perspective. As I'm getting ready to send one off to school with another one not far behind him, my days of a household filled with the trappings of preschoolers is numbered. There will be a day when I clean the house and it stays that way for days and days. There MIGHT just be a day when I miss all the piles and colors and papers and other childhood detritus that sometimes drives me mad. So I grabbed the camera and started snapping pictures of some of it, thinking maybe one day I'd actually want to see it again. :)

I bet that when it's just me and G, our pile of dishes won't be nearly as colorful! And while I could fold laundry all day, I find it hard to believe I'll ever miss putting it away...

Better than anything we could ever find in a gallery

Sweeter than any prom dress

what's "cool" to him now

way better than any video game or ipod

only clothing for little ones comes on hangers like these

maybe you CAN have too much of a good thing...

why did i just discover?

Why in the world did I not know about the local arboretum? It figures I would discover this fun place during the last week of summer! I'm too lazy to upload pictures twice, so click the picture below for pictures.

Session anyone? ;)

So Says my Girl

Funny words from A's mouth:

- (back on the ear piercing thing) - She's still talking nonstop about what it would be like to get her "ears appeared." I LOVE IT!

- asking about when were were leaving for today's field trip to the arboretum - "Mom? when are we going to the importance?"

Fancy Princesses

Our dear friends, the Roberts family, spent the day with us today, and as usual, the kids picked up right where they left off and played together like best friends. Maura and I had our first babies together in Maryland, and then our second ones came along together, too, so they've been good buddies for a while. Maura now has 4 little ones (yes - SHE is the awesome mom who drove a van full of kids from VA all by herself just to spend the day with us! How great are you Maura!!), and they are such fun kids.

A came home from a week at grandparents' houses to find a new Little Mermaid costume waiting for her, and she's worn it every day since then. When Katelyn arrived she couldn't wait to show it to her, and within minutes this was the scene on the stairs:

A was so nice to share her new costume with Katelyn. I LOVE it when A dresses up, because she doesn't do it that often, and I think this is the most blinged out I have ever seen her! They switched dresses back and forth all day, playing so nicely all the while having epic battles with the boys - zapping them with their wands and hiding from them under the covers. They went from being pretty princesses to wicked stepsisters and back again. Just too funny! She didn't want Katelyn to leave so she could play princess all the time.


side note - A saw an older girl getting her ears pierced at Claire's tonight, and she went in and asked her if it hurt. Then she fingered a rack of earrings, picking out which ones she liked best. Is this something in her future? I would bet not, but with A you just NEVER know!

what i think

is that there should be a way for moms to call in sick sometimes - like today!  ugh, it is no fun feeling so horrible when the kids all feel fine and want to do everything business as usual.  hopefully tomorrow i will be feeling better.

uh-oh-spaghetti-o

Lesson Learned: DO NOT put that half pound of cooked spaghetti noodles that you found hiding out in the way back of the refrigerator down the garbage disposal in the kitchen sink. I suppose I might have done the same thing, but I'd like to think that if I had been present when this decision was being made, I would have said the garbage can would be a better option. :)

While dear husband G is fantastic at his day job, household repair is just not something that should ever appear on his resume. So when he called me into the kitchen and I saw this:

I was sure that I would spend today waiting for a plumber to arrive and put the pipes back together and me explaining 1) why in the world a half pound of pasta was stuffed into the pipes and 2) why in the world my husband took the sink apart himself.

Quotes from G, our happy plumber:
" ooooooh yuck!"
" these pipes are really grimy"
"there's a chance I'll be able to put this back together"

" how far could it [the spaghetti] possible be? I mean, how far can spaghetti go?" [after taking off piece after piece of pipe and not finding the clog]

"the noises and sites associated with this are very similar to those of vomiting."

I'm happy to report that G DID get the pipes reassembled and the drain now drains and the water seems to be flowing without any leakage. I was amazed, and G was beaming with pride all evening! Who knew he could he so handy?

Dee - Dee - Dee?

She is missing her big brother and sister. Over the past couple days she keeps walking up to pictures of A&K saying "Dee-Dee-Dee?" (her word for big sister's name) and pointing to them. It's cute and a little sad, too. Today I pulled a picture down for her to look at and she pointed and talked to the pictures for a while. She'll be happy when they get back home tomorrow.

"where's my big brother, Mom?"

Another one!

ooh - this is WAY too much fun!

My first storyboard!

OK, the subject matter lacks variety, and the colors are odd, but I was just playing around trying to figure some things out and voila! My first storyboard! I'm so excited - endless possibilities! My poor kids will have my camera in their faces all the time, and my poor husband will never see me again now that I have my new software... ;)

1607

On Saturday we again took advantage of one of the great things about Williamsburg and visited the Jamestown Settlement, which is just up the road from our families. I went a lot as a kid, but we hadn't been in ages. The big kids went last year as part of "Camp Grandma," and K wanted us to go back so he could show me something about the bunks on the ships. They have redone the settlement since I had been there, in celebration of Jamestown's 400th anniversary. It was really nice! We spent time in the Powhatan village, exploring the dwellings and watching an interpretor make stew and corn cakes on a rock. EB was a riot - she insisted on walking everywhere, toddling in and out of the houses and fingering everything. Such a tiny tourist! Then we went to see the ships, but K was too scared to stay on board very long. He was SURE that they would fire off the canons, and even more concerning, that they would fire them off at him. I even had him ask the captain about it, and he assured K that they would NOT be firing any canons, but I don't think K believed him. So I didn't get to see what it was the K wanted to show me about the bunks (except that they are REALLY small and I am so glad I don't have to travel for 4 1/2 months on a 17th century cargo ship to get to a wilderness land populated by hostile indians). BUT, here's my interesting bit of trivia (especially for my friend Heather who thinks I have all kinds of interesting tidbits in my past) - G does a lot of genealogy, and he's traced my mom's direct line back to 2 people who came over to Jamestown in about 1614. I knew my family on both sides had been in VA FOREVER, but it's neat to know that they came over so early and to see how they probably lived. I don't believe either of those ancestors was a governor... Anyway, below are some highlights from the day.

The Powhatan dwellings were filled with all kinds of animal pelts. EB couldn't keep her hands off, and A thought it was interesting that they still had faces. Interesting, but a little creepy!

Tiny tourist heading out to the next building

The "scary boat" filled with canons. We waited safely on the dock while the others explored on board.

Trying on protective gear in the British settlement. K was so worried about the guns they were firing off nearby, so we told him this would keep him safe. EB's helmet was a little heavy, but she was determined to try to wear it.

Chores - trying to carry water. That yoke was so heavy!

It got pretty warm and the kids were tired, so we headed inside the new visitors center museum. They had recreated several houses inside the museum that you could walk through - another cool fact: my brother Ben actually built this house for the museum. He would come in after hours and work on it at night. It was amazing to see his work!

The visitor's center had a kids craft program, and K learned how to play mancala while A finished her craft. It was really fun!