8th grade and Kindergarten x 3

Whew!!  Another school year is upon us.  This time ALL my kids are going to school.  How does that happen?

After many years of thinking we were going to keep the boys in the same kinder class, we decided last fall that we should split them up.  We had a preschool issue that made us make that decision.  So we met with the principal over the summer and we all sat down and discussed our goals and our thoughts of splitting the boys up.  She thought we were very brave and smart to do that.  She recommended putting them in the same class when homework becomes an issue - as you don't want three separate classes doing different homework.  We also discussed personality of each kid so the principal could understand each kid before placing them with a certain teacher.

There were some obstacles we had to figure out when we went to drop off supplies and meet the teacher before school started.  Three boys, three classes...two parents.  So we asked Lauren to help us and she took one Ian to his class and Mike and I each took a boy to their class.  It was about 30 minutes of labeling, reading directions, and picking out a locker.  The Scott triplets are already known in this school since Lauren went and we are good friends with a lot of the staff.

The only picture that was taken at Meet the Teacher...Mr. Logan picking out his seat!

Day 1 of kinder was full of emotions.  I was not upset that my boys were growing up going to kindergarten, I was not excited, I was not sad, I was BUSY.  I had three boys to get up, one girl to get up, four breakfasts to make, four lunches to prepare and three boys to get dressed (Lauren is on her own on that aspect of her morning) and out the door on time.

We had the same dilemma on day one of kinder; so we had Lauren help us and we all split up again taking each boy to their class.  I took Travis and he was fine when I said my goodbye and left him at his desk.  I went to check on Logan and he was a little sad but not crying.  I went to check on Ian and he was doing just fine.  As I was saying bye to Ian, Lauren came up and said that Travis was crying.  So I went back into the room and he was quietly sobbing at his desk.  Yup..the waterworks started on me too!  As I posted on Facebook as my status that morning, how do you give a pep talk when you have tears in your eyes.  That just broke my heart.  But I gave another hug and walked out of the classroom.

Travis (and his friend Kiera from preschool)

Logan not looking real happy

Ian

 

 

 

 It was a looooong day for Mom.  I said for a long time that the first day of kinder I was not going to do any work around the house.  I hung out on facebook, Mike and I went to lunch and then I waited patiently for school to be over to pick them up. 
Its is the end of week three of school and we have no problems getting to school, but I do hear some grumbling about going to school "tomorrow".

Lauren is in her final year of middle school and is taking two credits of high school classes; spanish and alegbra.  She also made the 8th grade volleyball team. 

All in all, the school year has started pretty well.  We are busy with both school orientations, mandatory band and sports meetings, and I'm on the boys school PTA board.  You would think I would find time to update this more often....hmmmmm

Ian wanted to sit right there on the curb even tho it was wet!

Logan, Travis, Ian and Lauren

The boys following sissy since she knows where she is going!

Annual Michigan trip

The countdown

Ever since I left Michigan at the ripe old age of 19 I have managed to make it home at least once a year.  There was a couple of years after the boys were born that I didn't make it home but it seems we are back to our once-a-year visits!

Of course we have to hit the Trufant flea market - no trip home would be complete without this (and sweet corn gorging).  No picture there since I was trying very hard to keep the boys focused on walking and not going back to the car.

Luckily I got seated with a tired little boy on the plane!!  BONUS for mom!

One of the many outside dinners we had

My great grandfathers blacksmith shop.  Had no idea it was still standing!

The boys love Uncle Bob's hot tub!

The only pic from the party!  Uncle Jim, Bob, Aunt Joyce and Dad

Helping Aunt Brenda get firewood for the campfire.

Too chilly outside??  No worries, Aunt Brenda can make anything even a tent.

Hanging out on Aunt Brenda's boat.

After the boat, we headed to a farm for a hay ride!

What an awesome trip we had.  There are no pictures from the visit we took to see Aunt Kathy.  If there were you would see a boy or two throwing a fit, a cold dip in the pool, me pushing Keaton in the pool, Keaton then pulling me into the pool and a picture that was left on Kathy's phone that I'm sure she will not soon forget.

5 years old...5????

Yup, the boys are 5 years old.  The time has flown right on by.  I know it's the same old saying, but it's so true.  Lauren is 13 and it's hard to believe that in 5 years she will be graduating high school.

But keeping with tradition ;-), we had a birthday party for the boys.  We just moved into a new house so I decided to call a gymnastics place for a party.  The boys and their friends and cousin had a blast.  Since the boys have summer birthdays I'm looking forward to having pool parties, but not just yet, for mama's sanity the kids have to be a little bit older.

yup...that's Ian.

Logan

Drew and Lauren on the trampoline

Looks like she is Velcroed  to the wall

The kids loved this game..they would hang on the mat and tip it over.

even the kids not on the mat had a blast watching the other kids

Next up...VACATION!

summer 2013 visitors

Don't let the title fool you, it's not like we had lots of visitors but we had two special ones this year.  Aunt Brenda came for her annual summer visit and she secretly brought my niece Drew.  Lauren was completely surprised, although she will tell you that she had a suspicion.

we can tell who is taller, but which one is older?

birthday pancakes....with sprinkles

teaching Ian to cut watermelon...he went on to cut an onion without anyone's knowledge...yup cut himself.

come visit us and we will take you to eat CUPCAKES

Found some superheros at Walmart

Picture sneak peeks...

After my little trip to Michigan to surprise my Dad we had family pictures taken with a new photographer, Julie Dawn.  I have only two pictures to share until the cd arrives in the mail....and I'm waiting patiently.

The move of 2013

When we bought our last house in 2003 I said I would not move again.  When I was pregnant with the boys it was discussed that we needed a bigger house than 3,000 sq ft to raise four kids; I quickly nixed the idea as I was too big to even consider moving. 
Just as we finished one of the major projects in the house (converting a formal living into an office), I happened to be checking out zillow.com and found a 5 bedroom just down the street.  The only way I would move is if the layout was perfect for our family and the kids could stay in the same schools.

We went and checked it out and both Mike and I loved it.  It had a three car garage, plenty of room for all including the growing boys and Lauren and her friends for many years to come.

After a long discussion and a second look we made an offer and it was accepted.  We decided that we were not going to try to sell our house until we moved.  Our agent advised that there were a couple families wanting to look at our house, so we did two informal viewings and on the second appt we had an offer for more than we had asked. 

The rest is history.  I won't say that both sales went without some drama, but it was a pretty easy transaction for both houses.

We closed on this house on the 14th of June and moved ourselves over the weekend and had movers on Monday (my birthday) to move the big stuff.  We continued to move ourselves for the next 5 days.  We worked from 7 a.m. until 10:00 each night from the day of closing.  A family of 6 has a lot of stuff! ;-)  I don't consider myself a pack rat and purge twice a year so I'm not sure where all this "stuff" came from.

Here are some pics that I took today (minus the outside shot - that was when our offer was accepted).

yeah the pic is crooked...turn your head to the left just a bit

This is the current view when you walk in...the box right in the middle of the way is typical right now.

The office is to the right of the door.

Living room

My so spacious laundry/mud room!

Upstairs playarea/game room.

The media room!

My view from the backyard.

There are some nice features in this house but I was not prepared for "little" things to go wrong once we moved in.  Mike calls them little things, but there have been many little things lately (one of them being the $2k dishwasher that leaks that the home inspector didn't find) and a couple days ago I had a defeatist attitude.  I'm back to normal again and ready to tackle the "little" challenges this house may present.

wow - it's been awhile

Like the title says, it's been awhile.  Things really got busy back in March, nothing in particular just life.  Then comes May and we found a house that is just perfect for our family.

In order for us to leave our beautiful house both Mike and I had some stipulations.  It must have a three car garage, 5 bedrooms, an adequate sized living area, a kitchen that is comparable to mine already, a bigger laundry room, and most importantly it had to be in the same neighborhood as I was not going to make Lauren change schools.  Then blamo - there was a house that came on the market that I just happened to see on Zillow.com.  Come to find out it is a house of a family that we had known a few years earlier.  I knew they moved out of the area but had no idea that they kept the house.  They also had triplets plus two other kids.  They built this house to accommodate their family of 7.

So long story short, we close on the house on the 14th of June.  Our house is already sold too and if we can pan out a couple of issues this week then we will close on this house on the 25th of June.

In May my sister and I concocted a plan to have me fly home for the weekend to surprise my Dad for his 75th birthday.  I had previously thought about it when she had mentioned the dinner plans, but after looking at the prices of the flights I quickly talked myself out of it.  But when she called and she brought it up (20 minutes after we offered to buy the house) I thought I better give it another thought.  By that time the price had jumped $400.  Luckily Mike had plenty of frequent flyer miles for me to use.  The week of the trip was so busy that I had to keep a list of all the things that I had to do that day - each day was a whole page worth of things.  It was such a crazy week.  But I'm so glad that I went for the weekend.  It was so wonderful to spend some time with the family and have no responsibility for anyone but myself.

Of course, we had to stop at Rockford for some dogs and a beer.

Surprise!!

This is what's called a wet burrito - Yup I ate the entire thing!

Dad and Bob doing a karaoke duet!

It was so good to surprise Dad and to see everyone.  I actually surprised everyone - no one other than Brenda knew I was coming in for a quick visit.

Ever since Mom passed away Brenda has taken over the duties of cleaning up the grave sites of our grandparents, great grandparents and aunts and uncles.  I was able to help out that weekend, but we got a late start and was only able to make it to one cemetery but it was the important one; where mom is buried.

Dad supervising the work!

As since I'm really into the genealogy of the family Brenda suggested that we stop and take pictures of my great grandparents farm, which is right around the corner from the house where I grew up.  It was pretty cool to walk around the property and listen to Brenda tell me what she remembered when our great uncle lived in that house.  I've always heard the stories from Dad, but Brenda had some great ones as well.

Then we headed to the house where Dad grew up; again right up the road.  We stopped and talked to the owners of the house and they were very excited to show us the work that they did on the inside of the house and allowed us to take pics of the farm.  They even came across an aerial picture of the farm but didn't know when it was taken.  As soon as I got home and showed Dad the picture he was able to guesstimate that it was taken in the late 60's early 70's.

Whew - another post done.  I promise not to take so long to update next time.