The First Day

School started yesterday for all four kiddos around here. What am I going to do with a quiet house all morning? (Believe me, my list is already growing...)

Everyone was very excited to get back to school.

The school has a traditional pep rally on the first day of school for the elementary and middle school kids. The middle school cheerleaders do a few cheers (which Hannah is still just enthralled with) and the superintendent says a few things that nobody can really hear very well and they send the kids off the class.

Hayley is in Pre-K this year (she missed the Kindergarten cut-off by one week). The school district offers a half-day program at the elementary school. She is doing the morning session and since she can't ride the bus, we're carpooling with our friends. That means I drive the kids (all of mine) every morning and my friend picks up the two "Pre-Kers," as Hayley calls herself. She's home before lunch, so we still get to hang out together every afternoon.

Courtney is a big 1st grader this year! And she's still got the two front teeth missing to go right along with 1st grade. She was a little nervous and kept wondering how she would know what to do or where to go in 1st grade, but she had a great first day. Her best friend Audrey is in her class this year (which could be good or bad for their teacher!) so they were both very excited about that.

Hannah is moving on up to 3rd grade. Her teacher's bubbly personality seems to match her own, so I think they will get along great! She didn't even want me to walk to her classroom with her -- she had to do it all by herself (although I did sneak in later after dropping Courtney off to take a picture).

McKay also had a few nervous butterflies the first day of school. He not only made the move to middle school this year, he also skipped up to 6th grade. Fortunately, he was able to get to know a few kids at the end of the last year that are in 6th grade with him this year so he had a few familiar faces. He is especially excited to be able to start in band, playing the trombone. He's learning about lockers and bell schedules and all that fun middle school stuff.

The hardest part about school is the long days. Since I'm driving them to school every day this year, they get to ride the bus home. Hayley and I went outside to wait for the bus yesterday.

Our kiddos are the very last ones off the bus and don't get home until about 5:00pm. I guess that's one price you pay for living "way out yonder." :-)

I can't wait to see what where this year takes us!

Move Over, Travel & Tourism

Tonight I was talking to my dad on the phone and he mentioned he got a really cute e-mail the other day from Hannah. I said she had asked me for Grandpa's e-mail address (after having set herself up with her own account!) but I hadn't seen a word of what she wrote to him.

He forwarded it to me and I just have to share. She cracks me up! A plethora of exclamation points, no capitalization, but wow, she's already got a way with words.

Here you go (exactly as she typed it):

hi grandpa! it's me hannah.the workers have made lots of progress on your house! they have even put concreat in the walls! and tell tyler that i'm waiting for the rest of his story. okay? by the way I just can't wait for you to come live by me! I just know that you'r going to love it in amarillow! we have even seen doble full rainbows!blisards that give lots of snow and high snowdrifts that are big enough to dig a cave!lots of thunderstoms that give amazing lightning patters across the whole sky!I love you! see you soon! love hannah.

(Unfortunately I have not been successful yet in capturing the amazing lightning shows, but we certainly get them!)

So is anybody ready to move to Amarillo? :-)

Summer Bingo

Now that the end of summer is just around the corner with school starting in a couple of days, I figured I needed to hurry and get this post done. I've been meaning to post it before now -- before it had totally fizzled with my kids (which, not surprisingly, it has, as do most of my attempts like this). But I did still want to record what we tried this year and put the idea out for anyone else. I do still really like the idea and think we'll do it again next summer, so this will help me remember how we set it all up!

Every summer I make some sort of attempt at keeping my kids busy and active and doing a little reading and math. Usually they're very excited and gung-ho about whatever program I've set up for a week or so and then the enthusiasm slowly starts to die out. And then when you throw a vacation (or a move) into the mix, it can kill it pretty quick. But still we keep trying!

This year, I saw an idea on another blog about doing Summer Bingo. I loved the idea and set out customizing it for our family. Here's the basics of how it worked:

Each week, my kids got a new Bingo chart. On the chart (different for each kid, depending on their age and interests) were things I'd like them to be doing during the day, rather than just sit and watch TV and play on the computer for hours at a time.

I decided not to incorporate chores into the Bingo charts (we tried a separate chore system for the summer). I wanted to keep it all fun and away from the dreaded chores.

I made a page for each kid with the Bingo rules and rewards and put it in a sheet protector so they would have a place to keep their cards and tickets. I decided presentation was worth some effort to get them excited about it!

The kids got one "Free" sticker each week that they could cover up a square with. I told them they couldn't cover up the same square each week (otherwise, I think McKay would have always covered up "Do Something in your Webelos book"). When they completed an item, they would get a sticker to cover it up (I just printed some stickers on address labels and cut them up). When they earned a Bingo in any direction, they got a Bingo ticket (again, just something I printed on cardstock).

With their Bingo tickets, they could purchase different rewards. 1 ticket equals 1 ice cream treat, 2 tickets equals an extra hour of Nintendo, 4 tickets equals lunch at a fast food restaurant, etc. When we first explained the system to the kids, they were all talking about how they were going to save all their tickets for fast food, but once I stocked the freezer with some pretty darn good ice cream treats that we don't usually have on hand, I found that the tickets went pretty quick for treats!

If the kids got a complete blackout (all squares done) by the end of the week (Saturday night), they would earn $5.00. The first week, all 4 kids got blackouts on their cards -- I don't think it happened again!

After a couple of weeks, I read about a modification that we also incorporated. I made 2-3 of the Bingo squares Blue, which were bonus squares and the kids would automatically earn a Bingo ticket for completing just that one square. I also made 2-3 of the squares Green, which were "must-do" squares -- they couldn't be covered up with a "Free" sticker.

So, even though their enthusiasm didn't last all summer, it did seem to last longer than other things I've tried. It was fun to see a lot of things like this:

and this:

and this:

and this:

I also have to share one other thing. One week, one of Hannah's squares was to write a poem about nature. She sat down for a few minutes and then handed me a little scrap of paper with this on it:

the river flows

downstream while

the forest spreads

out west and everywhere

the bees are buzzing

in the springtime.

(The line breaks are more because of the size of her paper, I think, but I kept it as it looks.) Usually she writes rhyming poems, but I thought this was great!

I think we will definitely do this again next summer!

Visitors

As I've mentioned, my parents and brother Tyler were able to come and visit us for several days. My dad has been here before, but this was the first time my mom and brother have come. As you might imagine, it is quite a challenge for my brother to travel with all of his medical needs (he has Muscular Dystrophy), but we're so glad they made the effort!

We had to rearrange our furniture and sleeping arrangements a bit, but we all managed just fine. (Not that we've got everything put back yet and it's already been a week since they left, but you know how it goes...)

One of the main reasons they came was so that my mom and Tyler could see the progress being made on the house my parents are building. We sold them some of our land and they are building a second home (for now), complete with a shop and everything. Right now, they are working on the basement.

(By the way, we've noticed that while some people here in the panhandle have small one-room basements, like we do, that often double as tornado shelters, having a full basement, like my parents will, is practically unheard of.)

We will eventually have a sidewalk that goes all the way from our house to theirs, but for now it makes it almost to their new shop building. (And when it's finished, my kids will think they've died and gone to scooter heaven!)

We managed a couple of outings while they were here. Tyler wanted to see the Amarillo Zoo.

And we also made it to the Discovery Center one afternoon.

We all enjoyed having them here!

Happy Birthday to Me

I'm only a week or so late for this post, but since I am getting older and wiser I try not to let missed deadlines stress me out too much. :-)

I have always loved my birthday -- August 8. 08-08! (And as a result of my birthday, 8 happens to be my favorite number!) This year it was so fun to be able to celebrate with my parents and brother who were here visiting.

My mom got the cake (so Brian didn't have to bake one this year) and fortunately they didn't make me put ALL the candles on this year.

Next year will be one of those "big" birthdays -- but I think my kids will help keep me young at heart!

Wonderland!

Wow, I'm seriously getting behind on blog posts here. We've had lots of visitors and between trying to get ready for school and other stuff going on -- it's been crazy and busy, but great! I'll keep plugging along to stay on top of things.

Last week we went to Wonderland for FHE. Wonderland is Amarillo's amusement park. Not exactly Disneyland, but it was actually quite fun! We bought discount tickets through the school back in May and had until the end of August to use them. We never made it there last summer, so this was our first visit.

The kids were SO excited, although Hannah was nervous about roller coasters and such. As it turned out, she pretty much refused to ride anything that looked remotely fast, spun a lot or had a big drop anywhere. Hayley, on the other hand, wanted to ride everything she was tall enough for. She got a little scared on a couple of rides but decided when it was over that she liked it.

Here are the girls at the entrance as we waited to get in.

Waiting to get in was pretty much the only line we had to stand in all night. The park is only open from 7-10 in the evening, so we got there right when they opened (as did a lot of other people). But once we were in the park, the lines weren't bad at all. We were pretty much able to just walk right up to the rides and get on.

The very first ride we went to was the "Rainbow" -- this big platform-type ride that takes you way up and swings you around, sort of like a pendulum. Hannah wouldn't get on, but smiled for a picture afterward.

Hannah was excited about the Wonderwheel -- a speed much more to her liking!

The view from both sides of the Wonderwheel:

I was surprised when Hannah wanted to try this log ride -- it basically just took up on a hill and then dropped you down for a splash.

As we got to the top, she started to get more nervous and as we were falling, she kept saying "Oh, my tummy!" Funny girl!

McKay & Brian rode in the log behind us:

Bumper cars were awesome!

Hayley was my bumper car co-driver:

McKay & Brian are in the middle car of this medium-sized roller coaster. (Hannah wouldn't go and the other two weren't tall enough.) Brian and McKay also went on the big Texas Tornado roller coaster which has a couple of loops.

Hannah did find a ride that she loved (and went on three times) -- the Fiesta Swing.

Hayley wasn't tall enough so she had to settle for watching this one.

Here's Hannah standing with some of the park behind her. See those big tubes? You climb a whole bunch of stairs and then sit on a little plastic raft to ride the water down.

And this is what happens to the back of your pants when you ride down the tubes.

We stopped at the "little kid" area before the park closed and had to do the Carousel.

And the Frog Hopper (yes, McKay is probably about too big for this ride!)

Courtney was very brave too and even went on the Haunted House ride all by herself. (Brian and McKay were off on the big coaster and I couldn't go with her because of Hayley.) The old man working the ride was quite surprised I let her go by herself (he told me "I wouldn't let one of mine that small go alone"), but she told me "I won't be scared, Mom. I know it's not real!" She did great. The only ride she didn't want to go on was the chair lift that goes across the park. She remembered not liking those chair lifts at the Alpine Slide in Colorado.

Thanks, Wonderland, for a great night together!

New Specs

Hannah has joined the eyeglasses club in our family!

I didn't realize how bad her vision was until our vacation this summer. She's never said anything about having trouble reading the board at school or anything. We were attending church in Frisco, CO and sitting at the back. I asked her to tell me what the hymn numbers were (off the board at the front of the chapel). She said she couldn't read them (Courtney could read them just fine). McKay handed her his glasses and then she could read them! So we started asking her to read other signs while we were driving around that we thought she should be able to read, but she couldn't.

I took her in for an eye check-up after we got home and sure enough, she needs glasses. Her vision was 20/80 in one eye and 20/100 in the other eye (much worse than McKay's were when he got his glasses). She was so excited to pick out some frames (red ones) and they were even able to get the lenses put in while we waited.

Now I'm just having to remind her to wear them! We only have one pair so I'm crossing my fingers they don't get lost or broken.

I must admit I'm having a harder time getting used to Hannah wearing glasses than I did with McKay. I immediately thought McKay's glasses suited him and his personality. I think Hannah's glasses look fine, I just miss having a clear shot of her big beautiful eyes all the time. (I know, I'm being a little vain about it...) She is so thrilled with how much better the world looks to her now!

18 Years!

Today Brian and I are celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary. (At least it counts as "today" since it is after midnight and I don't know how soon I will be able to post this tomorrow!)

Wow, has it really been 18 years? I still remember very clearly many things about August 2, 1991. Some big things, some little things. But mostly gratitude and love for my new husband. He is the best! He does so much for our family and I rely on him in so many ways.

I decided to put together a little slideshow of pictures spanning our 18 years together. (I first heard this song on a friend's blog and liked it so much I had to download it and use it myself!) It's hard to fit 18 years of pictures in 3 minutes, so they move kind of fast!

Happy Anniversary, Brian! I love you forever and always!