Mom's are so important...they don't get to call in sick!

With the start of school, change in routine, and this annoying hacking cough and acheness, I have definitely neglected my blogging duties. I wish I could say that we have escaped the dreaded change of going back to school. Yep, we have had a pretty steady plague of attitude, crabbiness, less-than-patient kids and parents. And to top it off, everyone has already had a round of the "crud" that is going around. Elle loves school. Carter is glad to be back at daycare. Christian is just along for the ride! He goes with the flow, that is unless I am trying to grocery shop or put him in the car seat. He is revisiting his less than forgettable stage of screaming EVERY.TIME. I put him in the car seat. For only 18 months, that little bugger is remarkably strong! I honestly have to sit on him to get him buckled. LOVELY!
I have been feeling under the weather for about 2 1/2-3 weeks, but have been managing to be distracted enough by the pace of life to forget about it as much as possible. Friday I came right home from work, took a 45 minute nap then went to pick up the kids. I have been in bed at 8:30 the last two nights. Thankfully, I am feeling better today although my cough sounds just as terrible. All the responsibilities of motherhood should somehow exempt us from cold and flu season, right???

Ella is loving school. I am so glad. It is really very funny on the days she is there, the boys miss her so much. It has changed the dynamics of our family on Monday's and Wednesdays. I am constantly shocked at how instrumental she is to both the boys on a day to day basis. She is such a helper, in ways I had failed to notice. Carter consults her for so many things: my favorite lately is "Ella, do you think my "rock-star" flip flops go best with this outfit?" She can be so far off on her own fashion these days, but with Carter, she usually gets it right! I thought with the long days at school she would be snippy and tired upon our pick up from school. She usually only takes 3-5 minutes to snuggle Gus but then gets right to work playing with the boys. My heart is warmed. She has tended to be a little more touchy on her days off. Later this fall, I plan to sign her up for swimming lessons on these days, to break up the down time.

This week, Scott and Ella went to school for a Daddy/daughter pizza dinner. The school is trying to get the dad's to commit to coming to school for one day to help out. I think it is brilliant. A few of our friends from small group also attended the dinner. Scott chose a day in November. I am eager to see how it goes. My husband, the engineer, working with kindergartners all day. I love it! Maybe he will even have a deeper appreciation for my daily adventures. I will keep you posted.

Today they had a very cool event downtown Grand Rapids. The ArtPrize festival is going on so we loaded the kids up, took them down and watched the release of 100's of thousands of paper airplanes from the rooftops of downtown buildings. The kids loved it. The weather was perfect and then we walked around checking out some of the various art that is put on display. I will post pictures shortly.

Cousins

Since the start of school, I have been busy with the typical "teacher stuff" and now getting Ella ready for her days of school. We are a family who thrives on structure and routine. We are struggling with the common issues of bedtime, sleep deprivation, and making sure we get out the door on time. The kids are doing well with it. The days seem to fly by. Ella is at her first day of all day kindergarten. It is weird around here without her. I've spent the time playing Legos, wrestling, and playing gas station. Even though I miss her dearly, she is ready for this next step and I feel like this time with the boys is super special. There was a time (long, long ago) that Elle and I had lots of time just the two of us and now I feel like I will get that with my boys. Yep, I'm letting the boys skip naps. We were busy having too much fun. Plus, it is part of my grand scheme to have everyone in bed by 6:30ish so I can go to the PTO meeting and see how things are run on the parent-side of school. :) The kids will surely be pooped. I am anticipating lots of crying and unruly behavior at dinner....but hopefully they will welcome their jammies and bedtime stories with happy, tired little hearts.

Over Labor Day weekend, we were so happy to have Mike, Sarah, and Josie come visit. The cousins had so much fun. Elle had fun playing dolls and dress up. They were hamming it up. Josie is so adorable. I only wish we were closer so we could see them more often. Elle would love a sister to boss...oh I mean, to do girly things with. Josie was a sport and let her play dress up. They played babies, Josie wanted the baby naked, Elle of course is very into the "outfits". We had fun at the park and getting ice cream as well. Wow! Time flies. We look forward to playing together again soon.

The little princesses

Uncle Mike & Aunt Sarah gave Ella her bday present.

Dollies

Look at taht ham! She is such a stitch.

Out for ice cream. We got him his own baby cone. Yea--he likes it!

Josie---not really a fan of ice cream...what???

Comparing cones

Mike, Sarah, and Josie

Polly Pockets from Ryan, Carrie, and baby Logan

Fun at the park

The girls having fun

The big guy

"Let me put these wood chips in your hair. Lovely!"

Two silly monkeys jumping in the crib. Looks like trouble right??

Orientation at Kettle Lake

This morning Ella woke up all by herself (not sure exact time), dressed Ainsley (her beloved doll) in her "back to school outfit", and matching glasses, and new backpack and then the two of them popped their heads into our closet door beaming and exclaiming, "we are all set for school!" all before 6:15 a.m. :) I am thrilled that she is so excited for her transition to Kettle Lake and kdg. on a new schedule. Today was orientation. Scott had the privilege of taking her this morning to learn how to "do" kdg. at Kettle Lake. They learned the logistics, procedures, and even had a chance to sit on the school bus! Here are the highlights:
Ella LOVES Mrs. Williams (although I am not sure anyone can replace Mrs. Galer (our ultimate, favorite kdg. teacher who called and left Ella THE.SWEETEST. VOICEMAIL. EVER today- how did she find time to call, tell Ella how much she missed her, and wish her well with Mrs. Williams. You should have seen the shock on Ella's face when Mrs. Galer mentioned Mrs. Williams. Teachers---of course know EVERYthing!).
There is another Ella in her class. She has a twin, Lola who is also in their class. We have discussed this since mid summer when the class list was revealed and after much deliberation in her own mind, Ella revealed at breakfast this morning that she planned to tell Mrs. Williams that she would like to be referred to as Ella M. (not Elle and definitely not Ellie!) How sweet, thoughtful, and independent! A little self assertion. Mom likes all the thought that went into this decision on her part.
There are 13 boys and 9 girls. Scott is sure Ella MUST be the oldest, smartest, and most mature girl in the class. (Dad's are never prejudice, right??)
Ella loves the loft in their room. She is thrilled to be eating lunch and having art once a week. And much to Ella's delight, she will get to ride the bus on Friday afternoon's for about 20 minutes to be dropped at daycare. Scott did a through job of taking pictures and reporting back all the important details. Here are the pics:
Mrs. Williams....Ella loved that they had matching glasses and white sweaters!
Ella and Ainsley all set for school. You can't see it but Ainsley has her backpack all packed and her matching glasses as well. We are in the "matchy-match" stage right now!
Hanging up the backpack at school
In the reading loft.

Listening to the story with her buddy Jacob (we are so tickled they are in class together he is the sweetest boy and they will totally look out for each other).
Doing the fun teddy bear graphing activity.
Eating the assignment!
Jacob and Ella Thrilled to be on the bus!
The bus!
In front of the fun Kettle Lake sign
In front of the building

Jan, our sweet daycare provider had to snap a picture of proud dad and his little girl. Aren't they sooooo cute! Glad they got to share this special day. Ella thinks I should "come along" next time. :) We are easing into the first week. Today was a little over an hour. Friday is a half day, and Monday is a FULL day, until 3:30. I am sure she'll be in bed by 6:00. The boys were so pooped from today that I put them both down at 6:30 and Elle was out by 7:15. I am headed to bed. I haven't been sleeping so well with all the back to school thoughts running through my head at night. On a positive note, Christian has been sleeping through the night for the most part the last 2 nights. He was up at 5 for a bottle this morning. Poor baby had shots at his dr. appt yesterday. Here are his stats at 17 months (ok, so I missed the 15 month appt....I am a mother of 3. He is the third. I was writing my thesis. Enough rolling your eyes grandma---he is now caught up on all the vaccines!) Christian height 34" =95% weight25 pounds = 50% on target for all skills..except dr. did say he is capable of sleeping through the night it's just up to me. Hmmm???

Now I am feeling bad that Ella and Christian have gotten all the press on this post. So I have to share a funny Carter quote. We are in the bathroom and I am helping him snap his pants. I am bent over and Carter is looking directly down my shirt. "Mom, what are those two pretty bouncy things???" Me: giggling: "Carter that's mom's chest "(honestly, people breasts is one of the last vocabulary words I want to give this 3 year old right now!) Carter: rubbing his chest and looking at mine: "Wow! Mom your chest is different than mine!" Me: "yes, I have a mommy body and you have a boy body." Carter feeling me up: "I like these mommy!" Then he steps up to the stool to wash his hands. Enough said. Sheeze. What a man! What more can I say???

Elle turns 6!

It is this crazy mixture of feelings. It seems like life moves at warp speed especially around birthdays. How is my baby six? Where does time go? She.is.six. School starts for her this week and she is thrilled! These transitions are tough for her. She says she is fine, but I can tell she has some apprehensions about a new school, new teacher, and new schedule. There are so many wonderful perks to being a teacher. However, when it comes to your child's first day, you can't very easily "call in late" to your job. That being said, Scott gets to take her tomorrow to her orientation day to kdg at Kettle Lake. I feel like I am more of a wreck about this year than she is. Simply put it is lack of control...on my part. It's not my school, not my friend as her teacher, I don't know all the ins and outs, I don't know the kids. Whew! Good thing I can hide my issues!!
When I look back at Ella turning six the things I really want to remember are: how sweet and helpful she is. She is such a mother hen. Sheeze! I will remember how meticulous she is and how much joy she gets from spending tons of time on her ponies hair and she will spend for-ever doing Ainsley's hair and changing her clothes. She is full fledge into the American Girl Doll stuff. We are bonding over it. She adores all the little accessories, getting her ready, and changing her outfits. This was the main gift theme for her birthday. Even though she picked a My Littlest Pet Shop Theme for the party (decorations only). Most of her gifts revolved around her doll. She was over the moon, thrilled! It is so sweet. I am soaking it up, enjoying these simple joys.
Our party this year was on a more simple and intimate scope. I couldn't believe how easy it was. We had a few friends and family over for pizza on Sunday--her actual bday. It was over, before school began. I didn't have any major projects hanging over my head once school started. WOW! It was nice. I even went commercial and we did an ice cream cake from DQ. Evan's bday is next weekend so we decided to combine the celebration. I figure I will throw her a big AMG Doll party when she is 7 and has local friends who have dolls. Then we will do it big. As for this year, we seemed to celebrate all August long (gifts and cake in MN, party & gifts on bday, Gifts from out of state family this weekend). She is blessed and our family is richly blessed by her. She is so full of life, spunk, silliness, and seriousness. My prayer for her is that she hits a great balance of all of this and lives life to the fullest.
I am behind in blogging (typical of this time of year) but stay tuned for pics from a great Labor Day weekend and the first day of school.