I'm almost finished with our vacation report and pictures -- I know there have been a ton of posts already! I just love taking pictures and telling the stories that go with them. Just a few more and then I'm all caught up!
So the last couple of days I have started (and almost finished!) doing some school shopping for the kids. School for us doesn't start until August 27th this year (later than past years), so I've still got plenty of time, but I'm the type that once I get started on something, I want to finish it. Plus I'd much rather shop early and have a better selection of things like back packs, lunchboxes, etc., rather than fight crowds later and have to pick over what's left (even if there is a sale going on then).
(I picked up Hannah's backpack during a late-night Wal-Mart trip and showed it to her the next morning for her approval. She got mad and started crying about having to wait so long until school started! She knew it was the end of August, so when I told her that the next day was August 1st, that perked her up a little. She can be so passionate/sensitive sometimes about the things you least expect!)
All 3 kids got new backpacks this year. Courtney is going to be attending "real preschool" (as Hannah keeps calling it) and I was going to make her use a hand-me-down backpack, but the ones I found weren't too expensive, so I let her get a new one too. They all ended up with the same style, just different colors. The girls were especially excited about the "mini backpack" that came attached to theirs (not sure what they'll use it for).
(And no, Courtney is not wearing any pants in this picture in case you were wondering. Sigh... that is the topic of a whole other post...)
I already ordered school supplies through the PTO that will be waiting for them in the classroom. I learned the hard way that even though it might be more expensive, it is definitely worth it! (When McKay was in 1st Grade, I stressed myself out going to countless number of stores to find just the right lined paper --red baseline with so many inches of spacing, etc. It was a shopping nightmare!) So that's all taken care of, which just leaves a few new clothes.
McKay is in need of new shorts for school, so we've been to a few stores. He is the hardest kid to buy pants or shorts for (pants are worse, because of length issues, but shorts are hard too). I'm not sure why. He likes them loose fitting and a lot of the ones we try on fit in the waist okay, but he complains they are too tight through the crotch or thighs. Turns out most of the ones we ended up getting him are Size 14! For some reason, that just boggles my mind. He is 8 years old! Maybe it's not that unusual, but it still seems a little strange.
Tonight I took just McKay out for some shopping after dinner. We had gone to a couple of stores earlier in the week with all 4 kids, and that can be such a disaster-in-waiting. Courtney's running all around (or off riding the escalator by herself!), Hayley's crying and doesn't want to sit in the shopping cart, Hannah's ducking into racks of clothes, etc. So tonight we waited for Daddy to come home first. :-) We did end up finding some clothes that will hopefully have him all outfitted and ready to go (plus we scored a girl's shirt for $2.00! It might be a little big for Hannah still, but I couldn't pass it up if she'll grow into it next summer.)
When we got home, Brian told me what mess the girls had gotten into. When I left after dinner, they had supposedly gone upstairs to start picking up the game room (I had been telling them all day that if everyone helped clean up, we could go swimming tomorrow morning -- no one except me had done any cleaning up to that point). Brian went to check on them after a little while and found all three of them in the upstairs bathroom with the door locked (never a good sign!). Turns out they were "cleaning" toys in a different sort of way. They had taken the removable potty seat from Hayley's potty chair and put it in the sink as a little wash basin(something they've done before, since we've removed the sink stopper mechanism). They had also added what seems like most of the bubble bath, liquid soap, shampoo, etc. along with some toothpaste for good measure. Most of the bottles are pretty much empty now! What a mess!
So we'll see if we end up going swimming tomorrow or not. There's still a lot of picking up to do. That is something I really struggle with -- getting the kids to pick up their stuff. It doesn't seem like it should be such a hard thing to instill in them, but for us it sure is a constant battle. Especially with McKay. He is the absolute worst when it comes to picking up. He hates to do it, tries anything he can think of to get out of it and moans and groans and complains the whole time usually. He thought he was off the hook since he wasn't home tonight, but I told him he still had all morning to get his room cleaned. We'll see how much of an incentive going swimming can be.
I know this is getting really long so if you're still reading, I'll end with just a few more of our "oops" and "uh-ohs" from the day:
-One of the overhead lights in our kitchen burned out a couple of days ago and it always bugs me to have one corner darker than the rest of the room. So tonight while McKay and I were out shopping, we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart and got a light bulb. Came home and checked the cupboard and found we already had an extra! Oops.
-McKay decided he was going to cut up the watermelon for me today while I was sweeping the floor. He set it on the cutting board, got the big knife out and cut it in half. One half immediately rolled off the counter and landed with a splat on the floor. Oops. (We were able to salvage some of it so it wasn't a complete loss.)
-McKay also decided this morning that he was going to "fix" this little mechanical dinosaur that used to be Brian's and has been sitting up in his room. He took it into Dad's office (which is locked, but McKay knows where the key is) and proceeded to "work" on it for a while. When Brian came home, he noticed that McKay had been using his small computer desk as his work station, which doesn't have any sort of protection on it (like the glass on the big desk), so now it has a whole bunch of nicks and scratches all over it. Uh-Oh.
What will tomrrow bring? (Hopefully the rest of our vacation pictures and some kids who are motivated to clean up!) :-)
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