This and That

 

The other day, they repaved our street.  This busy guy cleared his busy schedule and got a front row seat.

When I picked the carpool up after school and turned onto our street, every kid in the car (there were a few extra for a total of 9) every one of them ooohed and ahhed very sincerely.  They barely waited for my car to stop before jumping out to grab their bikes and give the new road a go.  I love that it was so exciting.  I love that kids appreciate the little things.

The first day of school rolled around a few weeks ago and sadly, Anna, the big 9th grader, left too early for me to remember to get a picture of her, but here are the others:

 

Ben the 1st grader and Abby the 6th grader

Nate the 4th grader

Then last week, Joshy had his first day of our little preschool co-op.  Me and two other Moms take turns having them over once a week for some play and songs and activities.  I’m so excited and of course, so is he!

Can you even begin to register how cute that little face is?

In my 14 years as a Mom, this is my first time having all my kids gone at the same time (on a regular basis)  I’ve had them gone with a baby napping, but never all gone.  I’m trying not to focus on how sad it is, because it’s just once a week and he’s only 3 so I still have a few years before he’s gone full time.  It was fun to go shopping all by myself!

This weekend was our school’s Fall Festival.  My kids LOVE that event.  Brennan and Anna missed out to go to Anna’s soccer game, so me and the rest of the kids went.  They each got a handful of tickets and Abby and Nate disappeared with their friends while Josh and Ben and I focused on getting rid of their tickets.  They played games, rode rides and ate lots of junk.  What’s not to love?

 

Abby and Paige duking it out

It was a fun night and so many people went to so much work to make it happen.  There was one kind of painful part though.  They had a dance floor and a dj which all the kids love.  They did that last year and it was a big hit.  This year, someone decided it would be awesome to have 3 of our local NBA team’s dancers there on the dance floor with the kids.  I felt so bad for these girls, they had to stand on that dance floor, the only adults, and dance.  Everyone knows they can dance, but they weren’t about to break into full dance mode, so they just sort of awkwardly stepped back and forth sometimes with an admiring little girl but most of the time just kind of on the perimeter of a bunch of kids.  Wow.  Well, come to find out, they had to endure even more.  When we got home Nate was telling me about how much fun he’d had with all his friends and all the crazy stuff they did.  Then he proceeded to tell me about how at his friends’ bidding (what can you do when your buddy dares you?) he ran up and spanked one of the dancers and then put his hand to his ear in the shape of a phone as if to say, “call me!”.    I was kind of dying, but tried not to make too big a deal as I tried to calmly say, “Wait are you serious?”  (I was shocked, it’s kind of way out of character for him.)  “Uh, honey, you can’t spank people, especially females.”  Oh dear.  We talked to him again when Brennan came home and was so cute and is super embarrassed.  So, if you happen to be reading this, please don’t tease him or say anything to him about it.  I thought it might be funny to him someday though so I had to record it. 

Anna’s super busy with Soccer right now.  Her games are further away this year so I haven’t been able to go to all of them, but fortunately a lot of her teammates’ parents are great photographers and have posted tons of great shots.  Here’s a few of my favs:

Here’s our tiny girl trying not to drown in her uniform

 

She may be small, but isn’t afraid to tangle with anyone.