Morning Routine!

So the bus situation has still not been fixed and I'm kind of over it. Thankfully the kids don't seem to mind riding on it in the morning for 25 minutes....in the afternoon they hated it so at least that got fixed. As for the safety issue it's not my kids and I can only do so much....the transportation department will just have to deal with it if some kid ends up getting hit by a car. I am going to try one last ditch effort of emailing the lady in charge to see if I get any sort of response. After that it's just out of my hands as I can't deal with the stress and the frustration anymore. 

Now that the bus leaves at 7:32 the kids have to just get a move on in the morning. I wake them up at 6:45 to start their day. This school thing isn't a new thing they have been doing it for years now, but the whole having to rush thing is new. In order to keep them on track in the morning I thought a picture chart was in order. 

I had remembered my friend Starr had made something similar, but she used magnets to hold up the flaps. I tried that since I had some magnet sheets handy, but they just weren't strong enough to go through two layers of cardstock. Enter the Mill Creek Garage sales and I found a brand new package of sticky velcro for $1!!! Yahoo! 

I found all the images on Google....I just typed in clip art toothbrush or lunch or breakfast and up came a ton of pictures. I copied them onto a word document, re-sized them and then printed them in color at the library for free. 

All the kids have the same clip art pictures except for the first picture for getting dressed and the thumbs up kid when you complete your task. 

At first I was just going to put a check mark on the outside, but then I saw a picture of a boy with his thumbs up and I thought that was more appropriate since that's something the kids use a lot at school when they agree with something or someone has done a good job. 

So far this has helped the kids to stay on task and know what they need to be doing. I also added in an incentive if they finish their chart by 7:20...5 minutes before we leave...they can add an extra piece of candy to their lunch. So far Jack and Owen have been able to make that happen, but my sweet Ella Beanie is such a slow poke!!! I guess that candy just isn't motivation enough! 

Crazy Kitty!

Charlie is such an odd cat really. I say that with love! He just doesn't act like a typical cat. 

For one thing he actually LOVES his cat condo. I'm super happy about that for sure, but again it's just odd. Most of the time you get a cat a toy and they will sit right next to it. Thankfully we got it for free off the Des Moines Buy Nothing Facebook page. Score! 

Another thing is he plays with toys that are almost as big as he is. 

He literally will pick this dinosaur up with his mouth carry it across the room or down the stairs and just kick the living snot out of it. When he carries it he has to walk like a bulldog in order to move since the dinosaur is so big. 

He has to be in the middle of everything. He doesn't like to be on the sidelines. In this picture of the boys were playing on the X-box and they were moving all over, jumping up and down and making all sorts of noise and there was Charlie....asleep on the floor one foot from the action. I was even worried that he'd get stomped on!!! 

Another thing when it comes to the kids he can not stand it when they go outside. It's like he's a guard dog and he's so worried about them. He will run to the window so he can see them and then he whimpers because he wants to go outside with them. Oh and he has access to their rooms all day long, but he never goes in them....until it's bed time and then he thinks their rooms are the greatest thing in the world! Silly cat!  

He also falls asleep in the strangest positions. Sometimes on his back completely stretched out showing off his tummy. 

Or in this case at the top of his cat condo with his head dangling over the edge! 

He's a goofball and we love him!!! 

Artist Expression!

Normally the school doesn't let parents volunteer until later in October. I think it's to help the kids establish a good routine in the classroom and also to see their teacher as an authority figure. Since I've volunteered at school a lot my kids are used to seeing me so it's no big deal. All of their teachers were more than happy to let me start volunteering earlier than October. It's so much fun to be at school and see what's going on and getting to help the teachers. One of my tasks a couple weeks ago was to glue the kids self portraits onto paper so they could be displayed in the hallway. As I was going through the portraits I was just blown away by how amazing some of them were. They were great! I mean I probably couldn't even draw that well. I was quite impressed. Now normally I wouldn't think that this would be something that Owen would have taken his time on. I know my kid and I know that art is not his thing. Doing art would be taking up valuable reading time. I know that about him and I love that about him. But after seeing so many wonderful portraits I got to thinking maybe by some miracle Owen's teacher got him to take his time and make a really good self portrait of himself. Then I got to his portrait.......and I about died laughing!!!! 

Now don't misinterpret this! I love my child and I love that I KNOW my child. This portrait is really not surprising at all. Art is honestly useless to Owen. This is actually the way Ga-Ga feels too although she has started to work on those adult coloring books that are all the rave right now. But give Ga-Ga a book or coloring and she'll chose the book every time. That is how Owen is and it's what makes him Owen. He loves other things more and that's okay! 

The part that had me laughing my head off was the fact that my milky white skinned, blonde hair boy drew himself as a brown boy with redish brown hair! Also I have no idea why he drew himself with a black line on his cheek. One day when I visited him in class he did have black dry erase maker on his face so maybe that's the same day they did their self portraits so he was making it true to life. I don't know, but it's one of those things where whenever I see this picture I'm going to laugh...not a teasing laugh, but a loving laugh because I know my boy so well!!! 

So Many Pieces!!

One day during school Zeke and I decided to put together a puzzle....well of course the puzzle was missing a piece. I was pretty sure we weren't missing the piece and that it was just in the wrong bag or box. So that meant we had to put together all the puzzles to find it. Zeke and I put a few together, but then it was time to get the bigger kids from the bus. Ella wanted to help put her girly puzzles together. It was really fun working together and we did find the missing piece. The kids were so proud of their accomplishment we had to leave the puzzles up so Daddy could see them all! 

My Birthday At The Fair!

Sorry for the blogging hiatus...I just haven't had the energy to get on here and type. September is not only the start of school, but also....MOPS, BSF, Mom's in Prayer, Volunteering at school, PTA  meetings and also a routine! Getting into a routine is coming along now so maybe I'll get back on the horse and start writing more frequently!  

My birthday fell on a Friday this year so Michael decided to take the day off and we kept the kids home from school because of the "Fair Flu"! I didn't think of that one I stole that from my SIL Becky. 

I had a hair appointment later in the day so we had to leave the fairgrounds by 2pm so in order to get the most out of the day we got there about 10 minutes before they opened for the day. One of my huge pet peeves about the fair is the parking. I hate paying for parking...period....at any time! Thankfully it was not a weekend so the prices weren't ridiculous. We parked at the Rotary Club lot and our money went towards ending homelessness and it only cost $5! Win-win! 

Time to Do the Puyallup! 

I'm never going to call it the other name! 

Silly guys! 

We wandered around a bit first...most stuff wasn't even open yet since it was only 10am. We stumbled across the Army recruiting area. 

They had a Hummer set up for the kids to sit in. 

Owen was nervous at first...he gets so shy! 

This guy was so sweet! He gave the kids so many free things....lanyards, pencils and nerf footballs and basketball. 

As we were walking off we noticed they had this vest all loaded up with the supplies the guys would need. It was fun for Owen to try it on and see how heavy it was! It was also so nice to tell the solders how much we appreciate what they do for our country! 

After that we walked around a bit and I got super grumpy. First off my foot started hurting me on September 6th and at this time it still wasn't feeling any better and secondly it just makes me so angry how much they nickel and dime you for everything at the fair. There was this cool Dinosaur exhibit, but that was going to cost an extra $6 per person for us to check it out. They also had an amazing American Ninja Warrior type obstacle course, but that was going to cost $20 per person. We live modestly and so going to the fair alone is a treat so all these extra costs just add up and make it really hard for bigger families to go have fun. 

Basically since we walked in the gate Ella had been complaining about how hungry she was....even though it was only 10am. Of course this added to my grumpiness....around 10:30 we stopped and got the kids 2 corn dogs to share. 

She was a happy girl after that! 

Yummy corn dog! 

Totally faking the smile right here! I'm just keeping it real. I was seriously in a funk at this moment and wasn't finding much joy in the whole experience. 

Who needs a corn dog when you can chew on your shirt! 

After getting the kids food we walked over to the animals. We got to pet...goats, sheep, pigs, bunnies and chicks. 

Then we headed over to the rides since they opened at 11am and we wanted to get started on those. While Michael was standing in line buying the tickets.....again I was so mad with how expensive they were....I saw this super cute free tractor course for the kids. 

Zeke, Ella and Jack were able to go on it. Owen was too big and he didn't really want to go on it anyway. He is definitely growing out of these little kid things! 

The course was fun and had different routes. The nice thing was they let the kids go around more than once! 

Jackson was almost too big for the tractor, but he made it work. 

Ella didn't want to ride at first so she just walked around with Zeke. 

She was so cute leading him and encouraging him. This was when my attitude really started to change! 

This water tunnel was fun!

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Of course Jack was all over it. Zeke never did go through it though! 

After one time around Ella decided she'd like to go as well! 

And Zeke switched to a green tractor! 

I wanted to get a picture of Ella on the course, but she was so fast....she just took off! 

I had Zeke take a different route so we could drive by the cute little town. One of the speakers for the music was hidden in one of the buildings so it was really loud over in that area! 

Ella parking her trailer! 

After that fun time it was time to hit up the rides. I tried to stop thinking about the money and just enjoyed seeing the kids having fun and thankfully that really helped! 

Owen and Jack's first ride was the huge slide! Jack is in the blue shirt.

Owen is in the one in the dark blue shirt. This was one of my favorite rides when I was younger! I would have loved to go with them, but I didn't want to use up their tickets so Michael and I just let the kids have fun instead! 

Next up Ella and Zeke wanted to drive a car around. 

There they go! 

Hey mom!!! 

After that Ella and Zeke wanted to go on the carousal. 

Michael got to go on to help the kids and it didn't cost any extra tickets. 

Round and round they go! 

While Michael stood in line for another right with Ella and Zeke I took the boys over to this Indiana Jones adventure course. 

It was so much fun, but it honestly took the kids all of 30 seconds to run through it and it cost 8 tickets which is $4 per kid. There were also no other kids there at all so it would have been nice if they let the kids run through it a couple times to make it worth it.

The boys and I just happened to be next to the superhero tent when they finished and it was only about 10 minutes away from Superman and Supergirl coming out so we decided to wait and meet them. 

They were so cool and it was nice to see Owen and Jack being brave about meeting them. 

I loved Superman's curl on his hair...it was perfect! 

This is such a funny picture...I'll have to tell you the back story though. We took the kids to see the latest Ice Age movie about a month before the fair. One of the previews was for the new movie Trolls. In that preview it shows this guy/troll....I can't remember, but he holds his hand out and says, "Fist bump"...that's when the other guy grabs the guys fist and then says, "Gear Shift!" and starts shifting the guys hand like you would on a stick shift car. All the while making car noises like...nerrr, vroom, urchhhh! It's hilarious! Well Owen did this to Superman!!!! You can see that Superman has his fist ready and that's when Owen grabbed it and did the whole thing. I wish I had it on film. Superman's mouth was so big and then Supergirl came to the rescue and said...."Watch out he's strong!!!" 

It was definitely worth the 10 minute wait!!! 

These are some strong kids! 

Holding that taxi up with just a pinky!

Once Ella and Zeke's ride was finished Michael brought them over to the Superhero tent as well and they worked on some crafts! 

Owen tried to climb the building! 

We had enough tickets for the kids to each go on a couple more rides. Owen and Jack went on Zero Gravity. I was sure when they got off they would be crying, but they actually loved it! 

They survived! 

Zeke and Ella wanted to drive more cars! 

Ella got the pretty colored Jeep. 

Around and around they go! 

This was Ella and Zeke's last ride. Michael ended up having to buy 10 more tickets so Owen and Jack could go on one more ride. They chose to go on Zero Gravity again! 

I had to use the restroom so I went over to the red barn and Michael took the kids to the food area so they could spend their money they brought. 

Jack chose this cup with a Slurpee in it. He got to keep the cool reusable cup! 

Zeke didn't quite have enough money to get anything so Owen gave him some of his money so he could get a cotton candy! 

Even though Owen shared some of his money he still had enough left to get himself a whole bag of cotton candy! 

Ella also had enough money to get a whole bag of cotton candy. 

After the kid ate it was time for Michael and I to eat. I got my favorite....a greek gyro and then Michael got chicken teriyaki with yakisoba....I probably spelled that wrong....noodles. 

It was getting close to 2pm so we started heading to the gate. The kids thought it would be fun to sit in these interesting chairs. 

Right at the gate I got my last treat of the day....a Dole Whip Float! Amazing! I hadn't had one since we went to Disneyland in 2014 so it was well overdue. 

After the initial grumpiness went away I had a really nice time watching the kids have fun and it was a good way to spend my birthday. 

And getting a fresh haircut always cheers me up!