Extras: The Rest Of The Summer

The bulk of the pictures I took over the summer were involving our travels or visits from other people. But I found a few random shots that I thought I'd post on here to wrap up our very quick but very fun summer. Kaya will actually wear dresses and hair clips now! A miracle on both counts. She still doesn't care for any more elaborate hairstyles but at least we can keep her hair out of her face.

Over the summer, Kaya also developed the ability to climb out of her crib. Usually she would come and climb into bed with us in the middle of the night. But occasionally, she'd get out and wander around. One morning I got up early to go out walking and found her sleeping on the bottom step. I have no idea how long she'd been there. So we decided it was time to take down her crib. Not so that her night time wandering would stop, obviously. But so she could be safer since she was obviously going to do it anyway. We put up a toddler bed and from the first night she has slept well. I guess when we took away the challenge, she wasn't all that interested in roaming a dark house anymore! Thank goodness.

Okay, and here is another Kaya moment. She is hilarious when she sings. She gets into it like a little rock star, closing her eyes and swaying and the works. Maybe we need to curb Lynnsey's High School Musical obsession a bit.

This summer we had a yard sale. Kendall really wanted to have a lemonade stand and so he built one out of an old dresser. It was perfect. And his little business went pretty well too. Ours didn't. This is the last time we have a yard sale here. We're just not in a high traffic area. Next year we'll try again at my mom's place and see how it goes.

The kid's had a lot of fun finding and catching all the little toads that we had hopping around our yard this year.

We all participated in our local library's summer reading program. The kids recorded all the books they read to gain entries into a grand prize. Mom and I did the same for the adult constest only instead of book titles we recorded our time. When it was all over, I got a call from the library informing me that I had won a tote bag full of historical fiction! Some of it even looks like it'll be pretty good.

We had many highly goofy moments...

The kids had fun watching this spider in front of our porch every day. It grew and grew and grew until it was slightly terrifying.

And that about sums it up. I love summer so much and I'm alway sorry to see it end. But now we have lots to look forward to with school events and fall soccer which starts this week, and Halloween which is right around the corner. The kids are still debating which theme they want to go with this year. And they've all started their Christmas lists already. So, I'm sad to see the summer go, but many adventures await...

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (But Hilarious) Day by Taylor

It all started before the sun was even up. I woke up suddenly and saw on my clock that it was 6:15 in the morning. That was bad. It was supposed to say 5:30. Every day I go to the Battle Creek Math and Science Center and my carpool ride comes at about 6:25. I checked the alarm and realized I had set it for 5:30 p.m. on accident. I jumped out of bed and got dressed as fast as I could. I gathered my backpack and jacket and was about to grab something to eat when I saw my ride pull into the driveway. So I left without my breakfast. About halfway to school I realized that my lunch box was still sitting in the fridge at home.

When I got to school the two main doors were open. So I walked right into the post in the middle! I guess that must have made me a bit off balance because later in the day I ran into a wall.

I made it through my morning classes (with a headache) and on the way back to Albion for my classes here, my friend pointed out the nice 30/32 sticker on my new jeans. Oops!

I starved my way through the rest of my classes and got outside to see that I missed my bus again. So I walked to Nana's house and she drove me home. After a big snack, I had to go and mow my neighbor's lawn which took a lot longer than I thought it would and then I still had homework to do. I thought it would take me only a little while but it ended up taking about two hours which meant that I ran out of time to do my online Seminary lesson for the day and my band practice.

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. But I'm not moving to Australia. (They have super poisonous Red Back Spiders that live there!)

Cutest Kid Ever

While I am missing my other four children terribly during their long days at school, and while I am REALLY missing the income that I used to get from babysitting (another story, but basically the little girl I tended goes to another provider now and I don't think her parent's were ever planning to let me know), I am absolutely loving this time I get to spend with Kaya. I've never had her all to myself before, so this is such a great opportunity, short though it may be (I'm going to have to look into other babysitting options, I'm afraid).

Anyway, she's such a little character. She's one of those adorable children you sometimes meet in public who is so irresistable. She smiles and says "hi" to just about everyone we see. And it is so hilarious to have a conversation with her. We had a pretty fun one in the doctor's office this morning while we were waiting to have her ear check-up with the ENT. She saw a little girl leaving with a Yo Gabba Gabba sweatshirt on and Kaya just lit up and said "It's Gabba Gabba!" Just for the record, I despise that show so much and Kaya has only watched it like twice when it was the only thing on and I really had to make dinner without her in the way. She loves it and would watch it more if given the chance. Anyway, I said: "Do you like that shirt?" She said: "Yeah. I want it." I said: "Hmm...maybe we'll have to look for one sometime at the store." She said, "Yeah. I go ask Daddy when he come home from his office." I bet if she did, he'd probably buy her one. He cannot resist that kid. No one can.

Later after the doctor proclaimed Kaya's ears looking great, we were checking out. The receptionist was getting a kick out of her jabbering about the pony sticker she picked out. As we were leaving the receptionist called out: "Thank you. Have a nice day." To which Kaya replied, "Have nice day. Thanks so much. REALLY so much!" I was just cracking up. Her expression when she says stuff like that is just so funny; like she's a little grown-up or something.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. Just wanted to share how lucky I am to be the mom of one of the world's cutest kids.

First Day

Well, it's here again. Another first day of school. We've been having these for 10 years now and it's still as exciting/heartbreaking as always. (Exciting for the kids, hearbreaking for the mom.)
This year Taylor is off to high school! Today was a half-day for all the kids so Taylor only made it to one of his schools. Every morning at 6:25 a.m. he leaves to catch his bus at 6:40 at the high school which takes him and several other students to Battle Creek to the Math and Science Center there for advanced classes in those areas. Taylor was up at 5:30 to make sure he was ready on time. At 5:45 he was ready. He spent the rest of the time pacing back and forth bouncing between nervousness and sheer terror. I think he was almost relieved when his ride came so that he could just get it over with. I made sure to snap a picture of him before he left: This is his combination "I'm-nervous-for-this-first-day-why-do-you-always-have-to-take-my-picture-especially-at-six-'o-clock-in-the-morning" pose. I just can't believe I have a high schooler already. I'm pretty sure I was just snapping THIS picture only a year or two ago at Taylor's preschool:

Anyway, he had a great time today. They did a bunch of fun activities (that's why the old clothes he was wearing--they specifically requested that the kids not wear new clothes this first week) to get them acquainted with each other and feeling comfortable around the staff. He also came home with a "calculator" that cost more than our computer and probably does more things. Tomorrow he'll get the full experience with another day at the Math and Science Center and his first day at the local high school. He's also doing an online seminary course that should keep him extra busy too.

Lynnsey and Kendall were the next to send off. They were both incredibly excited with a few nerves thrown in. They get to go to school right across the street again which I love because I know they are just right there if they need anything. Lynnsey has Mrs. Casey this year who was one of Taylor's middle school teachers last year but has moved down a few grades to teach 2nd grade. Lynnsey was so excited to get her when Taylor raved about her. She was also thrilled that several of her good friends are in the class too.

She had a great half-day today and said her teacher is really nice and she's excited about having her this year. She also said her shoes were too small, which I already knew. That's the drawback of buying stuff on clearance in the spring. I guessed she'd wear that size in the fall but she had a major growth spurt this summer and her feet grew two sizes. She has a new new pair of shoes, but I guess just to say she wore these ones, she insisted that she wanted to wear them today. When she got home, she took them off and put them right into the storage box for Kaya to wear someday and said, "My feet hurt just looking at them!"

Kendall is excited about his 5th grade year with Mrs. Peltier. And his two very best friends Josh and Nadine are in the class with him. They were all thrilled when the teacher told them they could pick any desk they wanted so they all get to sit by each other. Kendall says it sounds like it's going to be a harder year and they expect a lot more responsibility from the students, but I think he is really happy to be treated as an older kid.

And once again, I had to send off another baby to kindergarten. Spencer was probably the most excited of all the kids. For the last couple of weeks, he has been giving me a daily countdown to the first day of school. He's had his first day clothes picked out, right down to which underwear he wanted to wear. I think when today actually came, he had a few butterflies, but when we walked into his school which is the same place he went to preschool last year, he relaxed at the familiarity of everything. When his teacher came to the gym to have them line up, he let go of my hand and went right over to the line. I think he was ready for me to leave right then, but I still had to follow them down to the classroom so I could drop off his bag of snacks so he wouldn't get sick eating animal crackers and other allergen-rich foods. When we got to the classroom, he found his nametag right away and sat down on the alphabet circle (he picked the letter S of course). I stayed through the welcome song and roll call and marveled that the teacher's ability to get everyone settled in so quickly. He has Mrs. Geyer this year and she is a lady with years and years of teaching experience. She is so calm and I've never seen her without a smile, but the kids seem to sense that she means business because they do whatever she says. Lynnsey had her too and we just loved her, so we're thrilled that Spencer will spend the year in her class.

He had a great first half day with the exception of the bus fiasco. I was supposed to pick him up at 12:10 today over at the school across the street. They came at 1:05. I was not happy. I don't know if they just got mixed up or read their route wrong but they told me that they were scheduled to drop him off every day at 4:47! That would mean he would be on the bus for over an hour. I said absolutely not. I went right home and called the transportation department and when I told her what they said she said: "Excuse me? They said WHAT TIME?" I told her again and she said: "No, I have down 4:10 and it WILL BE 4:10. They'll be hearing from me!" So I hope they'll get it figured out for tomorrow because that was awful. Spencer seemed okay with it today but it was only a half day. I'm thinking that after being at school all day, he'd be horribly exhausted being on the bus for that long every afternoon.

But other than that one nightmare, everything went well and all the kids are looking forward to tomorrow. That's always a good sign. And I'm holding up as well as can be expected too. I came home and hugged my baby and forbid her from ever getting old enough to go to school. She said, "No I go school too." So much for that. At least I have two more years with her. I'm sure that won't fly by at all...

The Beginning of the End?

While the kids are enjoying one last day of summer vacation before their first day of school tomorrow, I am stewing and felt like I needed to vent a bit.

Things in Albion, as I have mentioned before, are not great. Michigan has been hit hard by this whole down economy mess and the population of the entire state is getting smaller every day as people move away to try to find some way to support their families. Then there was the fiasco at the college where everyone's jobs were on the line and we were all wondering if we'd be leaving the state too. Unfortunately for some, fifteen full time positions were cut, including the father of one of Kendall's best friends. (This is an amazing family who has been instrumental in the community and especially the schools, so this is a huge blow to this town.) Luckily for us, (for now) Kalen's job is still safe, though I predict another round of layoffs soon due to low enrollments this year. And then, as if that weren't bad enough, our public school system has hit bottom. We are now ranked in the bottom 5% of the state. We did not make AYP again (that's adequate yearly progress as based on the standardized tests that the students took last year) which means that the administrators are having to scramble to figure out a plan to get everything back on track. But if we don't make AYP again this year, one of the options is to actually close the schools and ship the kids to neighboring districts. And unfortunately, at the same time that the district has to make all these positive changes, they are losing both students and funding and are having to lay off more teachers and staff.

It's heartbreaking really. Last year I was complaining that Kendall's class had 35 kids in it. They were eventually able to lower it to 30 by creating a combined class of 3rd/4th graders. And the other 4th grade class also had around 30 kids as well. This year when we went to look at the class lists and see who Kendall has for his 5th grade teacher, I was STUNNED to see that there were only two 5th grade classes and each class had only 22 kids! I knew that a lot of families were fed up and taking their children to other schools, but I had no idea how many were doing that. And actually it makes me so furious. Because it's the parents with children who are the most involved and the most intelligent who by staying could actually help turn things around. I get the idea that you want what's best for your kids, but I also think that what's best for the kids might just be supporting their own community and seeing this thing through together. Albion has some amazing teachers and we have been really blessed to have our children in their classes. They are so devoted to their careers and love what they do so much that they are willing to stick out this horrible situation too. So many of them have taken pay cuts to their already low salaries and I don't know any teacher who doesn't pay for supplies and materials out of their own pockets. Our children have been taught well and learned so much under their direction. We made a decision awhile back when things first started to go downhill and we started seeing some of our friends removing their children from the local schools. We decided that we would see this thing through to the end, whatever that may be. We felt sure that the economy would eventually turn around and that things would return to the way they were when we first moved to this town. Now with so much less support from caring parents and families and even less caring government, I think we may be fighting a losing battle. I hope I'm wrong. We'll still work hard to see this through to the end...I'm just thinking the end is going to be bitter.

The kids are are really excited about their first day tomorrow and I wanted that post to be positive, so I wanted to keep this rant separate from their fun first day post.