{first day adventures}

Has it really been a month since I've posted?  So much has happened over the past month, but I'll save that for a later post.  I'll just start with the exciting news of the week...school started!

I'm always torn on the first day of school.  I know we're all ready for it to be here, but I'm just a big baby. :) It was especially hard with the girls, since it's their first year to be gone all day.   To me it's even worse than kindergarten, because my girls were lucky enough to go half day, and it just didn't seem much different than preschool.

That morning dawned bright and early, and we're talking EARLY.  The elementary school starts at 7:45am, and we have to start walking by 7:15am. The girls woke up quickly though--I didn't have to ask twice!  (We'll see how long that lasts, lol.) They were especially thrilled about packing their lunch for the first time ever, and raced to the cupboard to get their new lunchboxes.  The first day makes everything more exciting, doesn't it?!  We were ready and out the door on time, and I left the little boys with Ryan while I walked the girls to school.  Even at that time of the morning it was hot and humid, and after 5 minutes, you couldn't tell I had curled the girls' hair.  I think there are a lot of ponytails in our future!  When we got to the school, they both grabbed my hand, and I could tell they were nervous as we entered the building.  It's a big deal, starting a new school in a new place, not knowing anyone, but one of the best perks of being a twin is that you always have someone with you! After getting them settled, I headed home for round two.  

Ryan catches the bus to his school, and since we're a new street with not many houses, the bus comes right to our driveway! My heart was just pounding for him, and I could tell he was trying not to show how nervous he was.   He has been such a trooper, and I'm really proud of how he has handled all of this, but I was silently praying all day that he would have a good experience. 

By 8:15am, I was down to two!  I would have loved to have had an easy down day, enjoying the quiet (it's all relative), but it was not to be.  The boys had their 3 year well checks that morning, and we were on the road within the hour.  After seeing the same doctor for 10 years, it was definitely an interesting feeling walking into a different office.  The visit went very well, and I really liked the pediatrician.  The boys were pretty well behaved, but it was large part due to the fact that there would be suckers afterward (given by the doctor) if they were good. I had to laugh, because they didn't believe me at first when I told them that Jack and Henry are twins.  They thought Henry was in kindergarten, which I get a lot around here, lol. Actually, I wonder how big he's going to be when he does get to kindergarten!   He is still totally off the charts in both height and weight, and his growth hasn't slowed down a bit. Jack isn't a small potato either, and I'm afraid he will always be thought of as the "small one".  Even Henry likes to tell him "me big, you 'mall".  Happy and healthy is all that counts in my book, and they are both!

We headed home for lunch, and I was hoping I would have some quiet time before we needed to go get the girls.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  The doorbell rang, and I opened it to a pest control company.  There are a lot of bugs here, due to the heat and humidity, and when you add in all of the construction going on in our neighborhood, hiring a company to manage the bugs is not optional.  I had already hire someone a few weeks ago, when we moved in, and they had already sprayed once.  However, the new company was here to give me some good news...that first application hadn't worked, and there were 250 baby black widow spiders that had hatched right outside our front window.  There were also dozens of wasps nests around the house, and additional black widow spider nests in our garage. So, instead of that quiet time, I spent the next two hours switching services, and making sure that our house was bug-free.  I did have to laugh when the guy who initially came to our door asked me if I was a Mormon! He and his partner were actually LDS too, and both from Utah.  It was fun to have the "Utah conversation", and I always love when I get asked that by total strangers!

It was quickly time to walk and get the girls, and since it was so hot, I thought it would be a great idea to bring them popsicles for the way home. I loaded the boys in the wagon, handed them their popsicles, then packed some for the girls in ice, so they wouldn't melt on our way.  Um, it didn't work.  It was SO hot, that the boys were covered in popsicle juice in the first two minutes.  Their shorts and shirts were soaked, their hands and face a sticky mess.  Of course I didn't have any wipes with me, because that would be too convenient, right?  So, I walked faster.  The girls were happy to see us, and talked a mile a minute all the way home.  We walk home with our friends until we get to our sub, then we each turn a different direction.  Once we turned off, quite a few bugs started circling around us.  This was Kate and Emma's conversation:

Kate:  These bugs are making me crazy, they're flying all around!

Emma:  Well, this is nature, this where they live, it's their home.  We are in their home.  

(leans over and says to me:  I didn't learn that in school, I already knew it.)

Lol.

The girls had a fantastic day, and I was a happy mama.

I knew that Ryan's bus would be late coming home--that's typical for the first day, and even the first week.  They are on the latest school schedule, and he doesn't even get out of school until almost 4pm.  His bus didn't get home until almost 5:30pm, and I had already started calling the bus garage to see if I could find out where they were.  The crazy thing?  He was one of the first dropped off!  He had a pretty good day, likes all of his classes, and most of his teachers.  :)  Off to a good start!

Oh no, the adventures don't end here!  Betcha didn't know that the movie Brave is really about me, did you?   At least in my version, lol. We usually go out to eat on the first day to celebrate, but since Rick was out of town, it would be me...plus Ryan.  Getting free kids' meals from Chili's sealed the deal, and off we went.  It actually went really well, and the kids behaved (for the most part), and I didn't have to cook.  Perfect.  :)

So, there you go--our first day of school adventures. Seriously, WHAT a day!!!  I can't wait for the craziness of the first couple of weeks to wear off, and we can settle into our new "normal".  It will be nice to everything feel routine once again!