Happy 1st Birthday Ava!

First Week of School

Ahhh, the first week of school .... it's over!!!

Basically I hit the floor running at 6am Monday morning and haven't stopped yet!

Monday was odd, as neither of the kids wanted to get up and get ready for school!! Normally everyone is ready within 15 minutes and impatiently waiting for the school bus to pick them up ... not this morning!! I had to drag the kids out of bed by the toes or other appendages all the while they told me they wanted to sleep longer and not go to school that day! I was surprised to say the least. But we did get off on time and Morgan Haley and I went to the chiropractor, then by the grocery store and then off to StoryTime at the library before I dropped her off at the babysitter. Then I went to shooting practice, to which I actually left on time and made it back in plenty of time for the bus.

Unfortunately the bus is getting here later than last year and it thru me off by 20 minutes. Well, the kids are running to the car when Madison lets me know the bus driver wants to speak to me. So I went and took care of that and then we took off to the chiropractor where Bailey showed his little hiney! This made us 25 minutes late to the first day of ballet. Apparently though, it is just fine for the first day as many are late on the first day. We don't get to watch ballet class so it is bit disappointing to say the least. Oh well, that's where Bailey and I get our homework finished up :)

Paul took Bailey and Morgan Haley on with him from class while I took Madison, grabbed a bite to eat and then ran on to cheerleading practice! It was a make-up practice from last week's being rained out. Paul picked her up since the kids were spending the night with him because of me having school the next day. So I finally was able to get in bed at a halfway decent hour for once :D

Tuesday saw me at school all day long as has every Tuesday for the last month and a half has. This also saw me losing my keys at school, which I have never done before. I didn't find them until nearly 11 o'clock, so the kids stayed with Paul another night and he dropped them off in the morning to get ready for school. Madison had cheerleading as well. It was decided that I am going to pack a small bag that stays with the coach for the days her dad brings her in order to make sure she has everything she needs (ie. pony tail bands, water bottle, etc).

Wednesday I babysat all day while attempting to do homework. After school I sat all the school kids down for snacks and homework (I babysat two more kids in the afternoon). Then we all headed out to gymnastics for two hours and ten minutes! It was miss Morgan Haley's first day of gymnastics without me in the class with her!! She was so sweet and was sooo good :D Then of course Madison had her first day back in nearly a year. She did amazingly well but is a little frustrated that she isn't doing everything as smoothly as she was used to doing. It shouldn't take long before she is completely back on track though.

Thursday finds us with more school and more babysitting and more chiropractor! But in the middle of that, I get an email that tells me all competitors are required to be at a crime scene class on Thursday afternoon!! So I call up a friend who is the only person not working at that time of day to babysit! That was an awesome class to attend ... and we will have one every single week until competition. So it was back to the grindstone after fighting traffic for nearly two hours. Then of course it was more snack, homeowrk and let's not forget to mention it was cheerleading practice with our very first pep rally the girls performed for the boys! Madison's little friend, Jordan, was so happy and surprised to see Madison is cheering for him, even though she's been telling him since camp started in July! For some reason he just didn't want to believe her. Madison and Jordan have been close buds and in the same class since Kindergarten.

Friday - today - found me eating lunch for 3 hours! I took, Morgan Haley, Casi and Sam up to the school and we ate lunch with Bailey, Kady, Madison and Sarah over the coarse of 3 hours and 10 minutes! It was a bit challenging but a lot of fun and the kids loved it!!

Well, that concludes the actual first week of school itself. Tonight Bailey has his very first T-Ball practice as well as tomorrow afternoon. That should be fun. My Saturday morning will be just as busy as any school day. We have to be at the parking lot at 8am to decorate our cars for caravaning to the Jamboree game which is at 0940. We will have to leave 5 minutes early to get to ballet on time (since we were so late on Monday and Jamboree doesn't count for anything, I want to make sure we are on time tomorrow). We'll get out of there and head toward T-Ball practice, where we will hopefully have time to eat a little picnic lunch on the bleachers before practice starts. After that I have to run to College Park for some running and kung fu in preparation for the physical agility portion of the competition. (We are required to compete in 4 of the 5 events.)

Sunday, we'll go to Church, then I have to drop the kids with Paul in order for me to make it to Forest Park to shoot at the range with my partner's weapon.

Next week shouldn't be nearly as busy as this past week because last week some things were rearranged in order for Bailey to ride the bus on the first morning of school.

I hope everyone's first week of school was very exciting and fulfilling!!

Madison's CRCT results

I am just so proud of Madison! I got her CRCT results in the mail from the school. I sure would like to understand how they actually "grade" these things.... are certain types of questions weighted more heavily than others or what?! Anyway, she exceeded grade level on everything ...

Skill Area/Number of Questions/Number Correct

Reading / 40 / 39

Vocabulary / 8 / 7
Comprehension / 32 / 32

English-Language Arts / 50 /46

Grammar-Phonological Awareness-Phonics / 36 / 32
Sentence Constrution / 8 / 8
Research / 6 / 6

Mathematics / 60 / 57

Number Sense and Numeration / 16 / 14
Geometry and Measurement / 13 / 12
Patterns and Relationships-Algebra / 9 / 9
Computation and Estimation / 13 / 13
Problem Solving / 9 /9

I'm so very proud of her!! I'm just waiting on open house in order to get the little sheet that explains the scale score ... they forgot to send one in with the results like they normally do.

Christian and Toree

Just wanted to let everyone know that Christian and Toree flew out to San Antonio this evening. I will skip the drama and just say that I was able to get gate passes for the younger three to take Christian and Toree to their gate because we were done dirty at the check-in counter. It was the first time that the younger kids got to go to the airport and go through the security check points. They all did so well, too. They had to hold their own gate passes and answer questions that the security people asked them all by themselves ... even little Morgan Haley! I've never once had security ask me or Christian and Toree questions before. Oh well, ya never know. Bailey and Madison really enjoyed watching the planes take off while we were waiting. But when it was time to board, Madison really clung to Toree and cried her little eyes out - as did Toree. On the way back to the car, we rode in the first car of the train. The kids were loving it until it was coming up toward Baggage Claim and they could see the lights of the other car that was about to turn around and go the other way. Bailey hid behind the little seat and Madison held on to me and closed her eyes, barely peeking! Even after I showed Bailey that the car was moving somewhere else, he decided to stay hidden. Moo just sat there right in the window - fascinated. When we stopped and were about to get off, Bailey stands up and says confidently, "Now this train will go the other way like the other one did."

Well, we are back home and Madison is really missing those two - as am I.

Happy 5th Birthday, Marshall!

to Emily!
to McKayla and Aiden!