We are still around! Oh my goodness! I know everyone's been wanting a back to school post, and I promise I am planning to upload the pictures this week. Life has been B-U-S-Y since school started! I honestly, for some naïve reason thought my life would get so much easier and slower when school started and boy was I wrong! I almost feel like it's one of those things that no one tells you and just lets you find out for yourself, kind of like when you are pregnant and no one REALLY tells you how labor and delivery is, they just kind of let it be a surprise-ha! I feel exactly that way about school! No one told me how insane life is to have kids in school!
Anyway, school did start and the twins are adjusting really well. Life is definitely different around our household these days. It is a good change though. Bedtime is 8 p.m. sharp, everyday. Even weekends we have been sticking to this for the most part, and we have tried to leave family dinners earlier to accommodate this as well. Despite the early bedtime, we still end up waking the kids up for school, around 6:30 each morning. What has been working for us has been for Dustin to shower while I cook breakfast, then he feeds the kids while I get a shower. He is going to be working at 6 a.m. the next few weeks though, so I will have to do it all myself. I did everything yesterday and it went okay. Emilynn is happy to get up, the boys are not. They do get up though and we leave home around 7:15 a.m. each day. 7:30 is the latest I like to leave. School starts at 7:54 a.m. but we try to be early because things just go smoother that way. We have not been late even once! Yay! I honestly have not minded getting up early. I enjoy the school days because they are structured and I get so much more done. I feel like non-school days are very laid back and kind of lazy. We just chill and get up when we feel like it. I still firmly believe it's better for the kids to sleep until their bodies are ready to wake up.
It is so nice having Tuesdays and Thursday to just recover from school days and gives the kids time to still be kids and just play. We are probably going to start swimming lessons again in the next few weeks, and that will be on Tuesdays or Thursdays.
As far as the busyness of school, I feel like it is so much to keep up with! I never knew how much paperwork came home from school! There are papers everyday, times two. I feel like I am in school again! Dustin was teasing me saying I was doing my "homework" one night as I filled out some forms. You also have to keep up with which day library books are due back, show and tell day, remember to send nap mats, blankets, and pillows back after being washed for the weekend, etc.etc.! I guess I just never thought it through and realized all of these things! Ha! I really don't mind at all, it is actually a lot of fun and I love that I am able to focus just on the kids right now in this season of life. I have NO CLUE how working moms do all of this! I really don't and my hat is absolutely off to them!
With all that being said, we had our very first field trip yesterday! It was to an apple orchard and it was so much fun! I think part of the fun was following the bus with my cousin Kristen! We lost the buses for a spell and just shared a lot of laughs along the way. The kids enjoyed the bus experience, despite me being a nervous wreck about it. The whole orchard experience was fun though, we did a hay ride, picked apples, went to apple "school", and tried cider and apple donuts. Overall, it was a great experience and the kids loved it. They were so tired afterwards! I was too actually!
We have another field trip coming up to the pumpkin patch I think next month, and a big grandparents' day celebration.
I have to also say, I LOVE the kids' teacher. She is amazing and they absolutely love her. There are 7 students in the class, and Carson is the only boy! I think he may be the teacher's pet! Ha! I knew he would be! He hates nap time, so she lets him read and play quietly while the others sleep. She is just very nurturing and compassionate, and very excited about her job. I think it's the perfect match for my kids' first school experience.
We are trying to do as many nice things for her as we can, so I have to share this neat idea I found online. I found a survey you send your teacher the first day of school, and they fill it out with all their favorite things and give it back to you. I wasn't even sure if she would do it, but she did and sent a note about how sweet it was that we cared so much. I am sure you can find it easily online, but it was a great idea and we've been able to treat her to little things here and there because of it.
It asked her favorite flowers, color, food, candy, drink from McDonald's, coffee drink, what she would do with $10 to spend in her classroom, what she would do with $10 to spend on herself, you get the idea.
I was so glad I did this because she chose things I would not have thought of. For example, her favorite candy bar is Hershey's Take 5, which I had never heard of!
Henry and I were a little lost once school started, but we have adjusted more now. I was actually able to get groceries while the kids were in school, which was really nice! It's funny what you appreciate when you have kids!
Of course, we have been doing other things too- like going to see Disney on Ice's Frozen this past weekend-it was awesome! I loved it as much as the kids!
We also have had four birthdays so far this month with two more to go! Loggers have been at our house clearing space for a calve pen so we can start raising baby calves-a new adventure for sure! Dustin says we will have a "mini-farm"! I love that idea! :-) The kids have LOVED watching the loggers and now want logging toys for Christmas. They are definitely outdoor kids. Every night after logging is done, they ask if they can "explore" the logging spots...and they do! They found a hat one night one of the men had lost. He was very happy to get it back!
I think that is all for now. I hope to get pictures uploaded by the end of the week. I am SO behind on that....I don't think Henry's birthday pictures have even been posted from Feb. and his farm party was so cute (I thought so anyway!).
