Summer's End

It's nearly August, and in our part of the world, that means it's nearly time for school to start again.

The twins will be back at the same school they've had the last two school years, Sawyer with his same teachers and Xander trying out a new classroom that is also going to participate in the autism grant program. We will miss having him with Ms. E and Mr. K, but we are excited to have both boys in the grant program and are sure we will like his new teachers as well.

Connor is moving up in the world. He starts kindergarten in just a few short weeks. His school supplies have already been purchased (and it was a pretty lengthy list) and are sitting in his room waiting to be delivered. The kindergarten screening is a little over a week away, where all of the kids come to be evaluated for their entry levels to help balance out the classrooms with kids of all skill levels. Open house is the week after that. And the first day is less than two weeks away.

Because our move came about a little later than we might have liked, Connor will still be attending school close to our old house. That means a lengthy drive, and also an earlier start time than the neighborhood school all the boys will likely attend next school year. But we have been impressed with the school he is going to attend, and those are small prices to pay for him to get a good start with some friends he made in preschool these last few years.

What that early schedule did mean is that we've had to work on rearranging our work schedules. Connor's school will start at a very early 7:45 in the morning. On the nights when I work, I don't get off from work until 7:30 and often later, simply because the job is not one that stops and starts with a clock. And that means Josh would have to get all three boys up and ready and out the door before I'm even off from work. Not exactly a fun prospect, especially since the twins' school doesn't start until 10:35 and Xander is notorious for wanting to sleep in.

So I worked it out with my coworkers and my boss to have a set schedule, which means I'll work every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. That means there's only one day each week that the twins may have to be up and out early. And that's much better than as many as three nights on the floating schedule I've had since I started back in April. I'm not excited about working every single weekend, but it's going to make life much easier when school starts. And the good thing about working nights means I won't really miss much on the weekends, I just might need an extra nap or two!

Summer is definitely almost over, for me anyway!

Fun with Cousins, Part II

The skies cleared long enough for us to make it out on the water for a few hours. Thunder rumbled down the lake, but never quite made it to us. Everyone had a chance to jump off the boat about a 100 times, each one trying to make their jump better than the one that came before.

Everyone also had a chance to be pulled on the tube behind the boat. Today's order was youngest to oldest - Connor, Kyndal and then Austin.







Some were better at holding on than others (right, Austin?) Grandpa may or may not have circled back into the big waves. We'll never tell.

Fun with Cousins

The three amigos are back together again for a fun week at the lake (the twins are just down for a few days - Xander is in Austin's lap and Sawyer is laying down beside Kyndal).

Cousins Austin and Kyndal made it down Monday night. Connor had a scheduling conflict, since he already had plans for a fun day trip to a nearby amusement and water park with Grammy and Aunt Lynn on Tuesday. After I caught some sleep from my long work week, I brought all three boys down yesterday afternoon and will leave Connor at the lake with his cousins through the weekend.

Last night was spent playing outside in the yard and riding on the Ranger with Grandpa. Today we're going to attempt a trip on the boat in between the rain showers. We'll see how that goes. Either way, the cousins are having had a good time running around and playing.

A nice break in the middle of a long work week!

The New Neighborhood

We Live Here, originally uploaded by cheryl.

We live here, in a place where the trees are HUGE beyond belief. Surprisingly, that's never happened for me. Ever.

Even growing up, I was fortunate enough to live in new homes. My parents had just built their first house the year before I was born. We lived there until sometime in elementary school (fourth grade, I think, but I wouldn't swear to it) and then we moved to another new house down the road.

In college, I lived in the dorms the first few years, then moved out into a brand new house (an investment for my parents) for the last two years. Josh and I did live in a slightly older rental house just after we were married, during that in between stage of selling both the houses we'd had before (the one my parents owned and one Josh owned) and building our first new one together. And with Josh building, we've moved every few years into a brand new house.

This house, not so much. It was built in the 70s and hadn't been updated much since then. Hence the gutting and the rebuilding. But the neighborhood has been here forever. And for the first time ever, there are big, huge trees everywhere. They line the streets, they're all around the houses and in the fence rows between the houses. I LOVE it.

The kids love the park being so close. We haven't ventured down there much just yet, simple with the chaos that is moving a household of our size from one (much larger) place to this one. We've been busy arranging and organizing and trying to figure out our new normal. My working three nights a week also changes things, since evenings and early mornings are the best summer times to visit the park. Evenings I work. Mornings I come home to sleep.

But last night I took all three boys, for the first time all by myself. It went surprisingly well. We had to set some ground rules, mostly for Connor, that you have to stay within sight and you have to ask permission to venture away from the play equipment (there are also playing fields, like basketball and baseball and tennis and even grass volleyball). Rules are good, especially when the space is so large. But after we talked about it, he did well. Even if his friends had a little more freedom (and seemed a little younger!)

Take a look for yourself, but I'm pretty sure they had fun!

Another Day, Another Adventure

Cousins, originally uploaded by cheryl.

It's hard to be them. Yesterday the cousins left the lake and headed out for a day trip to ride a scenic railway in the southeastern part of the state. They may not have been happy posing for the picture (my son, anyway), but I'm sure he had a good time on his adventure. He loves to be out and doing, and he also loves trains!