School Daze

School has officially begun. In fact, they have already finished five days of class. These pictures are from my phone so I apologize for the low quality. Can you tell how excited they all were for that first day? Meg is in 5th grade, Karli in 3rd and Nate in Kindergarten.
Northridge is sooooo overcrowded that one of the five sections of third grade (Karli's class) is in a portable and all five kindergarten classrooms are being held in rented space at Corpus Christi. It works out ok for us so far. We drop the girls off at the main school first and then I take Nate down to the "north branch" for his school. They added playground equipment (fenced in of course) and created a mini office for a secretary. They use the gym space for Phy Ed, lunch and breakfast. It is going quite well.

He was just a little nervous that first morning. He chose not to color a picture or look at books but just sit in his chair and wait. Evidently that worked out for him...
After school they all ride the bus home. I met them at our front door that first day. Nate was a little upset because I didn't tell him how fun the bus would be. I'm so glad he's enjoying his new adventure.

Stay-cation

Jon started back to work this week so I took three days off. Jon watched my brother's kids for the past two weeks since their summer program ended August 1. I have them for this week before school starts on Thursday. They are really pretty easy for the most part. People tell me how crazy I am to take six kids around town or go on outings and that kind of thing. I don't think it's any big deal. Last night Karli had a friend sleepover so this morning I had seven kids here. As long as I don't have any diapers or butts to wipe (except my own, of course - butt, that is, not diaper) it's nothing extra but to referee a couple little "she won't let me play with that Polly Pocket" issues and making a little bigger lunch.

Today Michelle (their mom) picked them up at noon and everyone got to go meet their teachers. Our kids were very excited and everyone did well. Only two more sleeps! Hard to believe our youngest is going to kindergarten for all day everyday school. How can it be more than two weeks ago that Megan was born???? C.r.a.z.y!!!

OK - so I was checking out blogs tonight and came across this fun little idea.
Just a little exercise to include one word answers. Only. Just try it. It is harder than I thought it would be, thinking of one word for a few things... You can copy my list and add your own in the comments section, or do it on your own blog....

You're Feeling: relaxed
To Your Left: darkness
On Your Mind: blogging
Last Meal Included: pork
You Sometimes Find it Hard To: Motivate
The Weather: perfect
Something You Have a Collection of: figurines
A Smell that Cheers You Up: bread
A Smell that Can Ruin Your Mood: puke
How Long Since You Last Shaved: days
The Current State of Your Hair: greasy
The Largest Item On Your Desk/Workspace Right Now (besides computer): speaker
Your Skill with Chopsticks: hilarious
Which Section You Head to First In the Bookstore: fiction
...and After That?: kids
Something You're Craving: Milky-Way
Your General Thoughts On the Presidential Race: whatever
How Many Times You've Been Hospitalized this Year: none
A Favorite Place to Go for Quiet Time: bedroom
You've Always Secretly Thought You'd Be a Good: psychic
Something that Freaks You Out a Little: illness
Something You've Eaten Too Much of Lately: junk
You Have Never: bungee-jumped
You Never Want To: abandon

Your turn....

Updates...

I got a check in the mail today from the wedding couple. They apologized for having missed me after the wedding and said the music was beautiful. Awesome!

The girls are still enjoying their play practices (taking after their mother without the Perkins part, yet). Their performances are next week already. The show is really taking shape nicely. I tie-dyed their shirts tonight with some other parents and cast members. It was fun and I hope they turn out really cool. I'm a believer in don't try too hard to create a pattern - just slop it on and hope for the best. We'll see in about a week how they turned out.

Today Megan started Band Camp -- no not THAT band camp and she doesn't even play flute!! She is taking up percussion. She loved the first day and is excited to go back tomorrow.

I heard about a cool Monster Concert that I decided to take part in. It is a piano recital kind of event except instead of each person playing a solo, there will be five pianos on stage at the Belle. Five pairs of players will play the same song at the same time. It is going to be so neat. I am playing Chopsticks Here and There. I have the lower part with kind of oompa-pas for most of my part. Karli will be playing a song called Ladybug, Ladybug and Megan is playing My Dog Has Flea. I will play the duet part with them both also. I had my first rehearsal tonight and it sounded great to have both parts together. The performance will be October 19th. I'm sure I'll have more posts about it as we get closer. Maybe I'll be able to post a little video of the performance (if I can figure out how to do that).

I need to get to bed. Hope you're having a great day!