Family pictures

We decided it was about time we got some pictures taken of this crew since there haven't been any professional pictures taken of us since we were a family of 6.  My friend Amy is the Amy Murgatroyd of Amy Muratroyd Photography and agreed to take our pictures.  Despite it being Friday evening after a long week (meaning her subjects were a bit tired and grumpy) she managed to get some pretty great shots.

The back to school disease

We have had quite a week of illness.  Mr. 3's nose started running over the weekend which led to his typical wheezing.  Unfortunately it got worse and worse as Monday progressed and ended up with us in the ER Monday night.  Luckily steroids turned him around (and led to him sitting on the floor in the living room at 3am singing and playing cars while his parents lay on the couch and wished for sleep).  Mr. 9 had a cold last week and has a residual cough that is taking a while to clear.  And Mr. 5 and David both developed fevers and felt pretty terrible.  Mr. 5 seems to have recovered quickly but David is still down for the count.  Mr. 11 and I are the remaining hold-outs.  We're keeping our fingers crossed for good health!

Mr. 5's first day!

Mr. 5 started Kindergarten today! He marched in without a second glance, after comparing backpacks with best-friend J, who also started today. End-of-the-day report said that the day rated 4.5 stars out of 5, with a great puzzle-constructing team, and an exciting tour of the library.

The only thing that kept it from being a 5 out of 5 was that he painfully collided with a bigger kid on the playground. Funny enough, Mr. 9 said that his day was a 9 out of 10, the only downside being that he had to visit the school nurse for a bloody lip earned when he... collided with Mr. 5 on the playground.

Good to know that these brothers are continuing to take care of each other at school!

After 6 days, we finally have all four in school.  Here's to the year!

Mr.3's first day

Mr. 3 was excited to be a school kid - until he realized we were actually going to leave him at school by himself and then he was a bit unsure.  He told us in the morning that he was a "big school kid" and he was going to see "Miss Christina and Miss Natalie" his teachers.  He was excited to wear his truck backpack with his dino lunchbox.  It sounds like school was good on and off with periods where it was great and then some sad times.  He painted, ate his lunch, and even took a nap.  Daddy and Ms. S with Mr. 9 and Mr. 5 picked him up.  He was super excited to see Mr. 5 and gave him a big hug.  It will be good to have tomorrow home but I think it's going to be a good school year!

Mr. 11's first day

Day 2 and it was time to send Mr. 11 off to school.  I dropped him at the door after considering whether to walk him in and deciding it was not the right choice for the first day of middle school.  Mr. 5,  Mr. 3, and I had a great morning together - we biked to Quebrada for snacks, went to the kindergarten screening, and then spent some time at the park.  I picked up Mr. 9 and we jumped in the car to get Mr. 11.  While waiting in the line of car for pick-up I suddenly hear "I pee" from the back seat.  We parked the car in a questionable spot and ran inside to let Mr. 3 go to the bathroom (clean and dry all day) and then got back in the line to wait for Mr. 11.  So we were the last to pick up but it sounds like a pretty amazing first day.  He spent the drive home telling me about their skits and deciding which of the electives he will do (since he wants to do them all).

Mr. 3 starts tomorrow as does our wonderful fall nanny.  Fingers crossed for another good start!

Summer reading

One of the items on our going back to school lists was getting a picture of Mr. 5 reading in an unusual location.  He's become quite a reader over the summer and can read most books on his own (today he read Jedi Academy at quiet time and he's read pretty much every Commander Toad book).  He chose our favorite climbing tree at Magnolia and Dinosaur vs. School.  And we managed to capture a pretty classic Mr. 5 face along the way.

Mr. 9's first day of school

Somehow we managed to get 4 first days of school this fall (despite having 2 of our kids at the same school).  Today Mr. 9 started off the first day celebrations with a great day at Hardy.  We walked him and his 2 bags of supplies to school and watched him head in - nervous but ready.  It sounds like it was a great day with elbow tag, writing about his favorite meal, lunch in the cafeteria.  After school he could have stayed and played on the playground but he decided he was tired and really just wanted to go home to see his brother (who spent the morning cleaning out the workshop for him).

The end of summer

We finished our summer with a great hike up a mountain (as requested by Mr. 3), lunch out, a little Wii, and ice cream.

Now we're ready for the fall!