Saturday, September 21, 2019

7 Quick Takes - August and September Catch up

Linking up with Kelly ... let's go in reverse order because it has been that long (and doesn't include any of the crazy from this week - that's possibly worthy of it's own post)

---1---

Last Sunday... 

(A supervising the clergy : ) 

Our bishop came and blessed the grounds/site/cornerstone for the church that is being built. If you thought single parenting kids at church was interesting then you should give an outside church experience a whirl. Complete with blazing hot temps and a few fire ants smack dab in the middle of rest time. 

In reality it was a really good time and the kids did quite well - all things considered - and we got a special blessing for baby number 6 which was great. Last week I was kind of just blocking out L&D (because who wants to do that!??!?!) but I've really tried to shift my mentality and focus. 

Also, less than a week until a whole other person is a part of our lives??? I mean the baby has been a very real reality in my life for the last nine months but when you get to put a name with a face and a sibling with their siblings that's when the reality of a new baby can really hit me. 


---2---

M and the rock wall..



M made it to the top of the rock wall this week. Note the verb climb was not used. Well partially climbed but mostly was assisted all the way to the top. I think this might give her the confidence to actually climb it next time - but she was thrilled either way. 


---3---

E has some pretty high aspirations for swim this season... 





Which will require her to really work hard at and outside of practice. I would NEVER tell her not to try but it is going to be a huge stretch. She has taken to doing some exercises at home which R and M will sometimes get in on and C finds wildly interesting and she gets right in the way of her. 

I've encouraged her to run a mile once a week (or more) but I think half the thrill of that is getting to use my phone to track her run pace. I've thought about getting some sort of FitBit device but I'm not sure I'm ready to invite that into the house yet. 

---4---

M has her first take home project...



Y'all know me and a project. I've got to block out mental energy and patience to get through them. But this one is an easy one that big sisters remember doing so they had to see what was going on... 


The hot glue gun got us through and this was the final product!

---5---

AHG is in full swing:



This is actually from the kickoff meeting and the girls got their faces painted - which they thought was the best so we had to document it because it came off before bed. E moved up groups - which I think she was ready for and it already figuring out how many and who can help her with badges she wants to do. 

---6---

Fall activities are in FULL SWING... 



I love a schedule so we've been in the groove now for about a month and it feels pretty manageable. E and R started swimming in mid-August and M and A started soccer (with E and R helping me coach). Helping is very loose term but nonetheless they'll learn early to step up to volunteer. AHG for the big girls and we let E add children's choir to her line up of activities. Having a set dinner plan with quick interchangeable options is huge. I don't know why it took me until last year to see that but now I know the dinner drill requirements and it makes evenings so much less stressful. 


A opted to be the Sharks although the Chickens was a very close second - but I'm thrilled to not be shouting Chickens!!!!!!!! during out team cheer. M (and her friend) picked the Groovicorns - which if you don't know are way cooler than unicorns so check out the double sided sequins book - and I blame my friend (for buying her that book) ENTIRELY for having to yell Groovicorns for a park full of people to hear. I think I laugh every time with cheer : ) 

Yes I'm coaching (with some serious backup assistants). Yes I'm about to have a(nother!!!!!!) baby. Yes I'll probably take a week or so off from soccer but then I hope I'll be out there with new baby in tow. I make no guarantees but I sure do enjoy it. And aside from getting outrun by the kids it is going well. Between the boys and girls teams I've coach well over half the kids which is fun to watch them learn and way easier when you aren't starting from scratch because now they pretty much have a clue as to what I'm trying teach (that's another loose term too : ) 

---7---

All things school... 

This is from the day when C's bookbag came a while ago and she proceeded to march around the house shouting 'I pre-tee, I pre-tee' 


School is overall is going quite well. Everyone is happy with their teachers and figuring out expectations and all that fun stuff. M and C probably had the roughest restart runs. C had about a week stretch where she forgot how much fun she had and decided she needed to scream when I left. Which I hate leaving a crying kid but ever since that rough patch I open her door and she (tosses her bookbag to the floor) goes in like she owns the place. 

M was an interesting case too. New school. Lots of new faces. New schedule (hello all day!). New everything. So basically the first few weeks were really tough. She hated the towel I packed her for rest time - even though it was green - it was too small and the class was too noisy to sleep - she's definitely my best rester if she rests. Everything was a problem (or at least she wanted me to see it that way - to everyone else school was great). Honestly I did see a 180 degree different kid from the one who was here this summer - maybe not everyone else, but I could tell a difference. That first full week of school I finally saw the M I was used to out on the soccer field playing with her friends. It was good and it was relief. I put alittle reward on the table if she knocked some of her school stuff off her plate (but mine too because its K and basically everything at home is parent driven- HW, reading, sight words, spelling etc etc etc). She rose to that challenge - like I thought she would - and despite everything in me that says one sport per season (and an oldest child who has no problem reminding me of my policy) M went back to swim this week and is thrilled. Kindergarten is definitely a huge adjustment and now that we're a month or so in, I think M's found her groove.

Saturday, September 7, 2019

7QTs - All About School

Linking up with Kelly ... before school pics there was back to school prep


---1---

Oh the things we do to get ready for the school year around here are some times fun and some times un-fun but we do it anyways. First on the list (without photographic evidence) is shoe shopping. I don't love buying new shoes. They are super expensive to me (even though if you break it down on a daily usage basis - they aren't!) but we take the school aged kids shoe shopping at a kids shoe store because I feel better about spending money if it stays local/family-owned. 

Let's just say shoe shopping 2 weeks before school starts with 5 kids and half of the greater metropolis is not for the faint of heart. I think we got out in about 30 minutes. C tried on a pair of shoes from the sale rack because the brand is one I like and she was done. A took a few pairs and he was good to go. M, R and E were different stories. 

No one could find the right color or style or non-light up shoe. Praise the Lord they wear uniforms to school because if shoes were a microcosm of clothes shopping with those 3, I might lose it. Finally M decided on some sparkley non-pink shoes, as did R but she had to get tie shoes because that's my rule for 2nd graders... learn to tie your shoes. E took the longest and ended up with a shoe that is probably a half to 3/4 size too big but she insisted the next size down felt weird and hurt her foot and after about 30 minutes and 50 pairs of shoes between the five of them - Lee and I said forget it and just wear big shoes. 

---2---

Haircuts...


Everyone kind of needed a hair trim. E adamantly wanted to wait for a big hair cut until next school year. R was the same until the moment she sat in the chair but I told her I wouldn't let her make a super rash decision in a matter of minutes. M got a bit more than the big girls. C even sat for a second and got trimmed up (see above). I got my hair trimmed and can I be honest and tell you I really wanted a hair professional to just tell me I didn't have the TERRIBLE TERRIBLE L word that gets in your hair (which I don't) but after the girls bout with it this summer I need confirmation. So now I can scratch my head knowing it is probably just pregnancy or stress (that's what the hair dresser said). PHEW!

Also, can I tell you this hair dresser was great. We went late one afternoon. We were the only ones there. We didn't have to play 25 million questions of why we have so many kids/siblings because she is one of six. It was a profound relief to not have to sit and discuss the in and outs and hows and whys because she'd been there done that - and she talked to the kids about large family living. Totally great!


---3---

Attempt to do a marathon day at the pool...



And it was a valiant one. We got to the pool right before opening (ten) and staked out a good spot and dropped the coolers and bags and towels and stroller. We had put the word out for friends aka friendly reinforcements to help keep us busy throughout the day. 


The idea was born after talking with a few other moms just to see who could hack the pool for 10 hours straight. My kids like the pool but 10 hours is alot to ask and they don't love the pool that much and C is a crazy and that's all you need to know. Everyone was on board to last the whole day though


This is our mid-way pic. 5 hours in. We had lunch. I brought tons of snacks and water and a juice box for lunch and dinner for everyone plus everyone could visit the snack stand every 2 hours. We were doing pretty great. 


Then probably about 4:30 or 5 the storms rolled in and the pool closed on us. : ( 

No pizza dinner. 

No visit from Papa. 

The kids were actually bummed we didn't do it. 

Next year though. Next year we are going to try again and maybe even make I survived the whole day at the pool shirts. 

---4---

Get uniforms organized.

After our marathon school shoe experience, it is a good thing we don't have to do to that for clothes. I've been on the hunt for some heavy duty white polos because everything I found - Target, Old Navy, Amazon, uniform supply store were basically see through (well not really) but I'm not putting tank tops under the girls polos everyday. Can we just get a thick polo PLEASE!?!?!

I finally gave in and got Lands End and spent way more than I wanted BUT considering the polos M is wearing now were worn by E 5 years ago and I need these new polos for E to last through at least 3 girls, I figure it might be best to pay more and know they will hold up?

Time will tell

---5---

The school supply run. Last year E reports that I did WalMart pick up for a good chuck of their supplies and now that she said that I do remember something like that but Wally's swapped out stuff they didn't have for things I didn't love so it was back to the old fashion way of supply shopping. 


I felt like we were being super effective on time but we got sucked into the Target vortex and probably spent over an hour and a half there. I do have memories of going supply shopping - for whatever reason Office Max sticks out in my head so maybe the girls will remember our Target runs for years to come. 


There is something exciting out picking the exactly right notebook and cool folder so here's to the experience and thankfully we only do that once a year!

---6---

We divided and conquered the Target run spoils...


The day after we went and it killed them to not be able to touch ANYTHING. I think we ended up with every on the lists except for the fat pencils for M which Target ended up sending to us free shipping because the Target App is the bomb. 


---7---

I don't know if s'mores are a back to school tradition but they are fun!







I distinctly remember looking at the clock in between dinner and dessert and it being 6:15 and thinking to myself. 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I am not ready for summer to be over!