First Week of School.

With a little while until the final Afternoon Roundup of the Urchins begins, I hope it's safe to say we survived the return back to school.
There were strikes and gutters, to be certain, but we made it. 
Back to School nights are done, sports are started and the routine is about to be set.
GO!

This year, in multiple places, we're having to deal with people with SSS (Special Snowflake Syndrome).
I can only imagine how difficult it must be to go through life with that much pressure and importance.  It has to be exhausting. 

It's hard to get used to Nate being gone.  The house is eerily quiet, especially since he goes to school during Benjamin's naptime. 
It's nice to have a chance to do things.
I've had the  feeling that this year will be the time that I develop "car projects".  There is lots of time waiting in cars - and instead of wasting it (so glad I don't have a smart phone!!!) - I'm trying to come up with productive things that can be done.  Bills, letter writing, small sewing projects, reading, homework, Liturgy study...anything that involves Nate and Ben in a 5 point harness.  ;)
It's all good.  It will just take some adjusting. 
Such is life. 

We went hiking at Cactoctin Mountain National Park.  We saw lots of fish, threw lots of rocks and hung out with the Ranger.  Nate got to handle lots of bones and try to put some skeletons together of deer. 
Pretty cool. 

The coolest part is that we think Nate may have found an arrowhead hiking on the trail. 
It looks as if it has been carved in places and fits perfectly in a hand to use as a tool. 

We have contacted the Rangers and are headed up to the Park someday soon to have them look at it. 

First Day of School, Nate Edition

Nate was very excited to go to Pre-K today. 
We got out of the car and saw one of Caroline's friends. 
"Hey Kaylie!" Nate yelled, "What you doing at MY school?  This is MY school now!"
He said he had an awesome time, but it was hard to get any specific information out of him - only that he built a "beautiful castle" and a "little kid" knocked it down. 
Thems is the breaks in pre-school, dude. 
Better get used to it.  

Sam had his first night of soccer last night. 
I'll admit.  I was worried. 
Visions of the last time he played soccer kept playing in my head.  The one with a very frustrated Sam laying on top of the soccer ball in the middle of the field, mid-game screaming "The ball is MINE!" repeated most often. 
Other than some pouting when he and another kid knocked heads, Sam did great.  He is certainly not the most aggressive kid out there, not the best ball handler, not the fastest, but he hung right in there.  He was near the ball and kicked it more than a few times.  Most importantly, though - he had FUN!  He says he can't wait for the next practice. 
So far, so good. 
I hope he keeps it up. 

First Day of School.

So when did this happen?

Consensus is that the First Day went as well as it could have.
Sam is so proud of himself that he complimented the kindergarteners and called them "big kids" today. He said school was "awesome'.  That's something, coming out of him.
Caroline *loves* her new school and locker.  She has 2 new girls in her class.  The boy:girl ratio was 2:1 previously - so this is cause for great celebration with the 3rd grade female set.  
We definitely had some hiccups tonight with Caroline at ballet, but we're hoping that will smooth out.
I discovered a new level of hell, unimaginable to even Dante, when I had to keep the three boys entertained in the car parked in on-street parking in Frederick City for the hour that CJ was in class.
The nadir was when Nate announced frantically that he had to pee.  When he makes announcements like this, usually bladder explosion is imminent.  The very thought of getting Ben out of his seat, prying the boys out of the car, dragging all three across the street to the studio, making our way though the slough of parents and *not* getting to the bathroom on time was enough to make me cry.
So we improvised.
I won't go into details, but it worked. 
And I hope we never, ever have to do that again.

Nate is excited beyond words for school tomorrow.
I got teary thinking about it tonight - he has been my little buddy since we've been here.
"Don't cry, Mommy.  I'm four now.  It's okay."
I know that too soon I will miss the days when he asks to play with my hair, has to snuggle with BabyNate and puts a pair of socks on his hands to "play boxing" whenever I'm doing laundry. 

 The Youngers were decently out of sorts this morning after the Olders left.
So we celebrated by reading and doing puzzles and taking the obligatory selfies. 

 Then we trekked down to the Duck Pond.
We spent a lot of time looking at "seaweeds" and had a most excellent time scaring minnows with our shadows. 

We saw this stork that we've never seen before.  Usually we've seen a grey heron, but never this guy.

And now it's time for bed.
If only everyone could wind down...it's going to be a loooooong week. 

The Day Before School Starts.

End of Summer.
The Sunday before school starts.
Sigh. 

3rd grade, 1st grade, Pre-K and home with Mama. 
When did all that happen?!?

So we're in *get things together* mode to prepare for tomorrow. 
I'm sad the kids are going to school, but looking forward to a new routine and all that they will be learning.  Ballet/tap & jazz start this week, along with soccer.  Swimming for Nate starts in 2 weeks.  Put that with Christian Formation, Children's Liturgy, Little Flowers and other things that will come up...it will make for a full schedule. 
I hope not frenetic. 
Just full. 
With some time to enjoy being and dinners together every night. 
At least that's the plan. 

To celebrate (?) the Last Day of Summer Vacation, we ventured to the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.  It's part of the Smithsonian, so we knew it would be interesting.  But we had also heard it was just a bunch of planes to look out - so I had doubts it would hold the kid's attention all day or that they would learn much. 
I was right and I was wrong. 
It *was* a bunch of planes and helicopters and engines. 
There was no problem holding any of our attention and we had a lot of fun. 
There was something about the airplanes there that could catch the imagination.  I'm not a flyer.  I don't get why people would want to go in the air when it's perfectly  nice down here with both feet on the ground.
But looking at all those airplanes and helicopters and engines and gliders and especially the Discovery, I started to understand.  I still don't *get* it...but I'm starting to see the allure.  

The Cold War Aviation Exhibit was hands down everyone's favorite. 
The Blackbird can only be described as sexy. 
Aviation pornography.

The Space Shuttle Discovery was surprising.    
It was huge, bulky and beat up. 
We could see where the tiles were individually numbered and pieced on. 
In the ways that the Blackbird is the Playboy model, The Discovery is the chesty, dumpy old lady scrubbing her clothes in the washtub. 
Decidedly un-sexy, but getting the job done. 

I enjoyed the WWII Exhibit and was brought almost to tears looking at the Enola Gay, thinking it was 69 years almost to the day since her mission that changed the course of history.   It was also really interesting to see where all the different aircraft and engines were made. 

We all also thoroughly enjoyed going up in the air traffic control tower and watching the planes land at Dulles.  Honestly, we could have brought lawn chairs and spent the day just doing that and been perfectly content. 

We're already making plans to go back.  :) 
It was good to get out and have fun and smile. 

-The pictures are strange because somehow my camera got put at the "fisheye" setting.  I only figured out how to fix it once we got home.-

The kids were fascinated watching the open engines work. 

In front of an engine made by the Lycoming Company in Williamsport, PA.  "Hey - I know were that is!  That's where they play Little League!"

In front of the Blackbird. 

In front of the Canadarm at Discovery.  Nate was upset because he was spoken to by one of the guards for touching a railing, so he boycotted pictures. 

Discovery

In front of the rockets. 

Watching the big planes land when we were in the Observation Tower was very cool. 

Everyone on the catwalk.  It was a good perspective to see everything up there.  Once I overcame visions of Nate jumping off, it was all good. 

Rebekah and me in front of Discovery

Caroline and Emily.  BFFs. 

Nate particularly enjoyed the rocket engined powered hand dryers in the bathroom.  He would sit under them while they were going to blow his hair and the skin on his face every which way.  All I could do was shake my head (and record for posterity). 

 

Coffee

I don't like coffee. 
It's warm and it feels so good to cradle the mug.
Where else is it acceptable to drink cream and sugar?
It smells so good.
It makes me want it.

And then I take a sip and I can only think that it tastes like a swamp. 

I have to look at it as purely a medium to transmit caffeine into my body.
I need that caffeine desperately after this summer. 

With recent lack of sleep and re-establishing my running routine, I'm up to 2 cups a day. 
I am currently choking down my second cup to stay awake.  We need to run errands later and any time that I'm stationary can make me fight the Zzzzzs. 

Bottoms up. 

We had a nice morning.  It's good to finally be caught up from being away. 
All the laundry is finally caught up and put away and we're re-establishing some sort of routine.
Just in time for school to start.
The joke is *so* on me.
But it does make me appreciate more the routines we've set this summer.  I hate feeling like I"m behind and we did a good job getting on top of things.
I'm looking forward to reestablishing routines come Fall.

The Youngers got their birthday packages from Ria yesterday. 
There is something amazingly ghostly and surreal about seeing handwriting from someone that has died. 
It's so personal.  It feels like you're touching the person that's gone by touching their handwriting.  Somehow, they feel closer than they really are. 
It's nice. 
In typical Ria fashion, the  box is packed in newspaper.  This means that the kids have a ball making a mess opening the box, then get to play with their present, then have fun jumping in the papers and reading the funnies and then get to play basketball with the papers while cleaning everything up. 
That one box occupied everyone for the whole afternoon. 
I love her.  :)

And now everyone is awake from Rest Time...so no more coherent thoughts will be written. 
Here are  some of the cute pictures from NH (courtesy of Grammy and Grampy).  Thank you!

Happy Birthday Nate and Ben. :)

Our house is a disaster.
A disaster in the way that only a house with 4 small children who have just returned from a week away with not a lot of food and tremendous piles of laundry can be.
Dang.
It's pretty bad.
And with Back to School Nights and gearing up for the new year, it isn't getting better any time soon. 

So, I will be setting my timer and seeing how much I can get done in 15 minutes.
Hopefully, I will be pleasantly surprised. 

But before that, I wanted to wish the Youngers a very Happy Birthday.
In the midst of Dottie's and Ria's funerals, we were able to take a day to celebrate these two Turkeys. 
A BIG thanks to Grammy and Grampy for a hosting us for so long, partying with us and helping us take everyone to go see "Fire Rescue Planes". :)