tuesday tip - i got nothing

it's been a long couple of days and madelyn starts school tomorrow. i am giving myself the day off. feel free to share your own best tip in the comments. love.

soccer on the big field

our big first grader moves up to a bigger field this season and has practice every week!  daddy was just going to take her on his own, but madelyn started crying about being away from me when she will be away all day at school tomorrow and mason was crying because he is so excited about starting soccer this season and didn't want to be left out.  so i loaded everyone and our gear in the van while matt was on his way home from work. 

it wasn't ideal to have everyone there, but they did well.  matt watched the big boys on the playground right next to her field and manning played with my water cup.  manning then spent the rest of the time climbing in and out, in and out, in and out of the wagon.  seriously, like 20 minutes.  our friends were cracking up.

madelyn was pretty excited to find her friend from kindergarten that was on her team last season was on her team again.  it looks like it is going to be a good season!  can't wait for her first game on saturday.  love.

caught

manning was having a ton of fun climbing up and down at the table.  he was even laying on his stomach on the bench and swinging his legs back and forth.  so silly.  love.

preparing for the first day of school

unfortunately, the kids all had catastrophic meltdowns last night and we were not able to do anything fun/special today for madelyn's last day of 'summer'.  but we still had to prepare for school tomorrow.  so after lunch, she and i sat at the table and labeled all of her school supplies that needed labeling and then loaded everything up into her backpack.

madelyn has been doing a wonderful job of not biting her nails (we have been working really hard on getting some "white tips" all summer) so i offered to paint them for her first day.  this is what she picked - one hand of pale blue and one hand of magenta.  these are both colors found in her outfit and madelyn isn't one for simplicity.  the hardest part was waiting for them to dry (we even use a quick 60-second dry coat).

i was feeling worse and worse about not having met her teacher so i sent her this email:

I just had to write because I am so disappointed that I won't even know who you are for three more weeks!  I am really shocked that there isn't an open house, but that is not your decision so I will just leave it at that.

Madelyn is a little nervous about not knowing you or where to go tomorrow but I have assured her that there will be people there to help her find her way (and I just saw the post that I am correct).  Of the few kids she knows in the class, two were ones that gave her problems last year.  I don't want to tell you their names because I am optimistic that this year will be better!

I don't really have any specific questions or concerns but I am just struggling with Madelyn spending 8 hours a day with someone who I would not recognize on the street and thought that at least sending you an email would be some sort of connection.  

Madelyn is really very excited and thinks she might know who you are from seeing you occasionally last year.  We are looking forward to a great year and meeting you in a few weeks!

Have a great first day tomorrow!

so what do you think?  i don't come off as too crazy, do i?  it made me feel a little better.  at least i tried to connect with her teacher before dropping her off tomorrow.  i never did get a response, but i didn't really expect one either.

now we are off to her first soccer practice on a week night!  love.

girls day

it was originally going to be just a few hours but it turned into an all day shop-a-thon!  madelyn and i left the house at 10 and didn't get home until after 5!  (we did stop at the grocery store too.)  i was utterly exhausted - and still had to put it all away and make dinner.  it is nice to shop when matt can watch some of the kids, but shopping on a saturday is just not ideal.  it didn't help that it was the last weekend before school starts so everyone was scrambling for supplies.  since we didn't have an open house, i couldn't ask questions about the list so i just bought what i thought was best and we will see...

the school supply that proved to be the most difficult to find was the "supply box".  first of all, there are hardly any sold because almost everything is a bag style.  and then the ones that were available just seemed too small or were too plain for madelyn.  after the fifth store, i suggested that we go back to target, get the plain pink one and then we could pick out some rhinestones to personalize it.  here is the "before"...

... and the after.

she is pretty happy with the result and so am i.  i brushed off as much of the glitter as i could - like almost scrubbing it off - in the hope that her backpack and desk are not covered with it!  glitter was not my first choice but madelyn wanted it to look like "snow".  the glitter went in the recessed squares and rhinestone 'clusters' were glued on the raised squares.  madelyn laid out the 'pattern' for the clusters, but i glued everything down.  i picked out some heavy duty glue and we sanded the plastic where we were gluing in the hopes that everything doesn't fall off in the first week.

we also picked out a first day of school outfit. we didn't do much in the way of clothes shopping because she didn't really need much beyond jeans - which she hates.

now we just need to label her supplies and load up her backpack for the first day!

it was really nice to spend the whole day with madelyn on her own.  after the women living well conference, i wanted to ask the kids (and matt) how i could love them best and try to get an idea of their love languages.  it was nice to hear that i knew what madelyn's were, but i think that it will help me meet them by having them written down and revisiting it twice a year.

she is such a neat little girl.  i truly enjoy her company. which is good since we are in a sea of testosterone here!  love.

preschool open house

tonight was the boys' open house (thank goodness they get one!).  they were pretty excited to go but disappointed to hear that they still have a few weeks before school starts (not until after labor day).  i had to work a mops table during the open house since this is our host church (some miscommunication left me without relief) but i stepped away when matt brought the kids up to meet their teachers.  they both know their teachers because they had older siblings in the class already but still acted a little shy to be the center of attention.

matt brought the kids because i had to come set up the mops table and then i got a call from the coordinator that the bulletin board in the preschool (a small one right next to the door) was very, very out of date (like last march out of date) so i grabbed a roll of brown paper, markers and printed off the theme logo (beautiful mess) on my way out the door.  not too bad for five minutes and no supplies, right?  lucky for me the theme is "mess" because my slapped together board worked great with the theme!

the open house was well attended and there seemed to be a lot of new faces.

unfortunately, i did not get any pictures other than the mops bulletin board.  i just forgot in my hurry to walk around with the kids.  i will get another chance on the first day of school so it is okay.

after the open house, matt and i were talking about when kids would be at the same schools, etc.  turns out that if we hold mason back (which is what we are planning to do at this point) he and madelyn won't be at the same school until high school!  and if we don't hold back manning, he and maddux would be in the same grade.  the boys are going to 'rule' their schools by pure number (and probably size)!  crazy stuff.

so off to another school year!  love.

loving oral hygiene

manning was very quiet and out of sight, so i knew i had to go find him.  he was in 'wholesome' stinky-ness tonight - tooth brushing!  he had climbed up and gotten his tooth brush and was going to town brushing.  he was even dancing a little while he brushed.

i think the toothbrush felt really good on his gums where his eye teeth are coming in.  and, i was surprised to see, he was actually trying to brush and not just chewing on the brush head (like his brothers and sister did/do).

now if only he would willingly let me have a turn.  love.