September and Settling In

The shock of the start of school is wearing off and everyone's getting used to new routines.  We've got a lot going on, as usual, but we're making it and enjoying life for the most part.  Pics from the last month...

Mimi and GrandGene came up for a visit and we went over to Occoneechee Mountain.  Joshua got to go with GrandGene to the football game.

I don't remember why Gray's face is so dirty, but think this might be a glimpse of Gray as a young adult with a goatee.

Going through outgrown clothes our friends gave us for Allie:  "Oh, this is cute!" (Matt and GrandGene were not pleased.)

Loved watching the big boys down at the park playing gaga ball with Julia and some other little girls.

Bring your grownup to school day.  Allie was so happy preschool started up.

First day of school pics for Allie.  This outfit.  She is so ready to be a "purple owl".  She gets to go 4 days a week this time so it's weird to have her away on Thursdays.  

Another year, another hurricane party.  Our friends had us for dinner the night Dorian came through and the kids had a little celebration when the call came through for delayed school the next day!

Kids' Night Out did a huge back to school clothing night and these two were pretty adorable playing together while we set up.  Robyn and I might have dreams of a love match in about 15 years.  :)

Julia has chosen ice skating as her activity this fall and she's loving it so far!

Gray started football games and has to dress up.  The night before was an epic moment as Matt was away at work and me and three other moms attempted to tie his tie without success, resorting to calling in another dad to show us the ropes.  We were doing it right basically but it looked terrible.  I think we were all just tired!!!!  Anyway, when week 2 came along, Gray surprised me by tying it all by himself.

The middle school Wyldlife club had a parent night so the whole family went out to the barn for games, snacks and talk.  Everyone loved it.

My birthday morning, everyone pulled together to make me breakfast!  The kids did muffins, which ended up being maraschino cherry or big slices of banana filled muffins, as the box was deceptive and didn't include blueberries.  :)  They took as long to make them as Matt took to make eggs, bacon, sausage, and grits, but it all turned out great!

 Girls all ended up in stripes for church.  

Joshua bought me a new ice cream scooper by request.

Gray missed the birthday shopping/making due to all his football practice but he made me a gift certificate to take me and him out to eat.  :)

*Not pictured:  Tons of chocolate Matt gave me and a few more gifts from the kids and Matt; A joint bday dinner with Matt's sister Kim at his parents' house; A fun night out with a few couples for dinner and the game Taboo and delicious chocolate cake; My Bible Study girls bringing more chocolate and sweet gifts. There was a theme this week and it was wonderful, but time to get back to a normal chocolate free world!

Many family members, Food Lion, and VIPKID contributed to this new rug for my bday.  It was a group effort to compile enough amazon giftcards to order it and I'm so pleased with how it turned out!  Now to keep doggy accidents off of it...

The girls used the end covers to the rug as baker hats and made playdoh creations.

We got to see Gray at his first home game and the weather was perfect.  He looks so grown up in his uniform, though if you look at the first picture and see him in line, slightly right of the middle, you can see how much bigger many of the players are.  We are kinda okay with him not playing too much until he is a better match size-wise.  The first game was terribly hot, they lost miserably, one of our players broke his arm, and Gray did go in one play but we didn't know it b/c he had a different number.  I figured out that watching kids hit each other is not my favorite, though I've always enjoyed college football.  I find myself cringing every time at Gray's games!

Julia and I went back to the ice skating rink to let her practice.  I was surprised at how it came back to me, though I've only ever been a few times and it's been 20 years.  Julia was a little miffed that I didn't have much trouble but soon she made a lot of improvements and it was such a boost to her confidence.  

Sunday we went to the annual Heart Walk in Raleigh.  Matt did this for his work, but Allie was kinda the star of our show.  She got visit the "survivor celebration tent" and get a cape and stuffed animal.  It was so hot, but we powered through and got to see some familiar faces along the way-- Mr Wuf and Wool E Bull.  Allie was intent on finding a dinosaur she had glimpsed from afar, but when the kids spotted him and went over to get a pic with him, he had had enough of the heat and was disrobing from his furry costume.  Allie still insists the dino was her fav.

We get to finish this month with a day off of school and look forward to (hopefully) cooler weather, Joshua's 14th birthday, a trip to SC, and Halloween in October.  

Another August

It's the first week of school.  Again.  I'm always surprised when it comes and then as we sit in morning car line and I'm tearing up dropping off my big kids, it almost feels like summer was just a dream.  Every summer feels like it has a theme... usually nothing huge, just what I felt like our few months were characterized by.  This summer was kind of a multiplication, podcast, basketball kind of summer.  A lot of the kids' downtime at home at the beginning of summer was spent listening to a podcast- Six Minutes.  They bonded listening to this teen adventure story and it kept the peace on our road trips too.  We also picked up some other fun trivia ones along the way.  And then Allie got a cd player for her birthday and has played a narrative of Curious George stories and "Tangled" (the Rapunzel story) about 25 times a day.  She (and the rest of us) can now quote much of these cds.  Not a podcast, but sort of.

And then there was multiplication.  Boy was there multiplication.  In an effort to help Julia with math, we had her make flashcards and began reviewing with her.  It quickly became clear that we would not get out of this unscathed unless we found some way to motivate her.  So we dangled ear piercing (pun intended), which she was going to get on her 10th birthday, as the prize for learning them all.  There were many tears, arguments, sighs, complaints...and that's just from us parents-- don't even get me started on Julia's demeanor during these 15 minute, twice a day sessions ;).  But finally, one week before school started, she did it!  More about that process below.

Lastly, basketball.  We did the summer rec league and boys had to be in different age groups, so there were lots of separate trips over to the rec center, but it's close and they love it so much.  Both teams did well this year and the boys seemed to progress a lot with their skills.  Joshua is continuing to work toward his goal of making the school team and will do a short weekend league this fall.

Here's how we spent August....

Family walk while Joshua had practice.  Allie-- Miss Fine Motor Skills-- taught herself to put her hair in a ponytail this day.  She still has that toddler body structure where her head is so much bigger than her arms, so she can only put it in front like a unicorn, but hey- I'm still impressed.

Gray headed off to his 3rd year at Camp Lutheridge with buddies Will and and Eli.

And Julia got to have some fun with the Baker girls hitting the movie theater and Freddie's.

Gray all settled into to his open air cabin.  All it takes is throwing your blanket on the bed to be settled in, apparently.

Wonder Woman herself, getting strong on the rings.  This summer Joshua also took up weightlifting, Matt of course continued, and I maintained a pretty good streak of lifting too.  Joshua has nearly caught me already.  Matt has a ways to go.  ;)

Julia LOVED her week of farm camp just outside our neighborhood.  She got to go with some of our new neighbor friends and Addie.  They did farm chores, played in the creek, held bunnies, road horses, and stayed outside all day every day.

Gray loved his week at camp.  It was a smaller group and they had adventures, fun, and bonding.

 The kids tried their hand at the neighborhood yard sale.  Julia spend days cleaning and organizing her stuff, which was awesome, and then the boys threw in some stuff last minute.  They all made some money.  Gray spent a good bit of his on dvds from the neighbors, but all were happy!

Our good friends the Steinrucks moved to SC mid-August so we had a going away party at our house to say goodbye.  Sad to break up this great crew of adoptive families!!

 Meanwhile Matt was enjoying his annual trip to the river with his friends.

 The same weekend of yard sale and going away party, we threw in a 4th grade playdate to help our new neighbors have some familiar faces when they started school.  There were new friends and old and it was a wild time!  

 Allie just continues to grow up.  We tried to go on a bike ride, but she ended up carrying her bike while declaring "I'm a biker!".  She also had lots of fun making her own lunch like the older kids and packing it in a lunch bag.  "Looks like I'm going to school", she says.  She can't wait to start preschool again!!

Julia's earrings!  We had a great experience going to Merle Norman.  The lady that did it used to work with Matt's mom and remembered Matt as a kid.  While they reconnected, another customer calls down to Matt and said she used to babysit him.  So funny.  Took a little of the tension away with Julia, who kept a death grip on my hand.  It was over quickly and she did great.  She's been very responsible about taking care of her ears too.  Something tells me we'll have an easy time coming up with Christmas/birthday gifts this year.

Everyone got a little restless the last week of summer.  It's that in between feeling of knowing your freedom is gone, but not quite knowing what to expect from school yet.  There was a lot of waiting and wondering about schedules this year, which came very late for the boys.  Gray dealt with his uncertainty by creating a new hairstyle-- ponytail-- and often wearing his old "night night" as a cape. Whatever works, buddy.

Julia got to go to a fancy tea with Nanny and the Washington Duke Inn.

The Friday before school started, Julia got her special trip with Matt to Carowinds.  She was quite cautious about riding rides...and felt frustrated with her fear... but overall had a blast and only left around 8pm when they got caught in a downpour.  

Meanwhile, Joshua had an end of summer pool party with friends.  He was a little outnumbered, but doesn't seem to mind.  ;)

And Gray had a fun "progressive" party with three friends, traveling to three houses for dinner, dessert, and movie.  They loved it!

Gray's team made it to the championship game against his buddy Will's team.  I loved watching them play together, trying to guard and steal each other's ball.  

Gray's team ended up winning.  Very exciting.  Matt helped coach and enjoyed working with the team.  There were some characters for sure!

Final moments of summer were spent at the pool.  Ready or not, school is coming!!

 Oh school mornings, I have not missed you.  Getting everyone ready, no matter my approach, is always a little hectic at the least and maddening at the worst.  The barefoot one cannot take his attention from Allie for anything.  Anything.  She has some kind of magnetic force to him that he can't resist.  But we made it out the door and all were smiling.

 Sadly, I got a call midday to get Julia from school because of an earache and fever.  She had to miss the 2nd day too.  The boys had a great start to their year.  They like their teachers, have had a few bumps with using lockers for the first time, but overall managing the logistics.  Gray made a new friend who was born in South Africa and reconnected with a friend from 4th grade that had moved schools.  He has football practice every day after school and loves it (195 on a scale of 1-200, he says).  He can't wait to start hitting and scrimmaging (today...yikes!!).  Joshua gets to come home at 4 and he's working on weight lifting and practicing basketball and lacrosse.  He's keeping up with his responsibilities, though I'm trying to sway him from his new technique of using his arm to write down his assignments.  He enjoyed meeting friends to fish at the end of the summer, but they are in school sports practice after school now, so it's a different kind of season for him.  He will start with his sports in a few weeks.  Julia went back to school today and was happy about that.  She doesn't have any close friends in her class, but I'm hopeful she will make some.  She's excited to see her old friends and our new neighbors on the playground.  She was so pumped to be allowed to ride her bike with them (and no adults) or run down to their house on her own this summer. 

And Allie and I are passing the time till our school starts.  We went for a walk in the rain today with Raven.  I'm still teaching most mornings and hoping to start subbing at Cameron Park soon, though I've heard that process is much less simple than you'd think.  I will start my 5th year of teaching 4's next week and I'm looking forward to it.  Here's to another great school year for all of us!!