off to school

The boys headed back to school on the 17th.  They were all really excited which made it easier to send them off (all of the arguing I dealt with over the summer made it easier too).  The boys are in 7th, 4th and1st grade this year.  They've been in school for a week now and they're loving it so far.  Here are a few pics from the first day....

This pic CRACKS me up...apparently Ellie decided that 

she should be in kids back to school pics!  (I did not

invite her to sit there and both the boys and I were 

laughing so hard when we noticed her!}

Cale was so excited about taking his lunch...it's his 

first year to go ALL day and actually eat lunch AT school!

pretty sure the boys were over having the before school pics taken by this point :(

Cale at his first DESK.  I missed my buddy SO much....it was

hard to send my baby to school and the emotions caught me off-guard!

 Coby at his desk

I just had to add this  pic of Cale's shoes because he REALLY likes them.  In fact, the other day before school he very seriously said, "I'm not wearing these shoes to attract the chicks.  They really don't care about shoes anyway."  haha  Why is even thinking about attracting chicks!?!  I'd better keep an eye on this boy!

The boys first day back to school was tough on me.  I knew that Connor and Coby would be fine, but I was concerned that the seven hour day would seem like forever to Cale.  Thankfully all of my concerns about him hating 1st grade were put to rest as Cale ran to my car at the end of the first day.  He had the biggest smile on his face.  He immediately told me that he loved school and wondered if I could sign him up for Saturday and Sunday school.  And not only that but could I please sign up for summer school!?!  He just kept saying I just love school soooo much!!!  I was thrilled and that really eased my mind.  I am finally getting into the groove of having all my boys in school. ALL. DAY. LONG.  I think know I'm gonna like it.  I might actually get caught up with the laundry and housework for the first time in twelve years!  

This is worth documenting:  The boys have been back to school for a week and so far I have made TWO batches of homemade blueberry muffins for the boys breakfast, plus I even made eggs one morning!  Who have I become?  This is abnormal behavior on my part and Darren wants to know what has happened to his wife!  I am normally a Eggo and cereal type of mom.  I always say that I like to set the bar low so the boys won't have many expectations which makes Darren laugh...only because he knows it is true :)  I know there are many moms who make their kids warm breakfasts everyday.  I've just never been one of them and I'm OK with that.  There are a lot worse things I'm sure!

5 weeks

{I just wanted to put this out here so I can look back and remember how I felt in this moment....I may feel completely different next week!}

Last week one of my friends mentioned something about there being 6 weeks until school starts.  Initially I felt excitement and then panic quickly set in.  I couldn't help but think to myself, how can we be down to 6 weeks and we haven't even begun to do everything we've planned to do this summer!?!  Now I sit here a week later and we're already down to only 5 weeks until the first day of school (yep, we start on a Friday)  and I'm already thinking about buying school supplies!  This summer if flying by for the most part...however if I were being completely honest, I'd say on that on some days it feels as if  it's going at a snails pace (like today when the boys fought ALL DAY LONG...thank goodness mom and dad watched the boys tonight so Darren and I could have a date night.  I was able to regain what little sanity I have left!).

What I'm about to admit will surprise no one more than I surprised myself when it happened!  Over the past week I've found myself in tears and losing sleep over the fact that Coby is going to be in the fourth grade and that Cale is going to be a first grader (I had my tears over Connor going to middle school last year so I'm OK about him at the moment!) in FIVE short weeks.  When it comes to Coby going to 4th grade I just can't help but worry.  Fourth graders at our school actually rotate between classes.  I feel like it's at this point that things get REAL in hurry.  School is no longer just fun and games.  My biggest concern is that because the kids rotate, I feel that the teachers don't really get to know each child very well.  I remember so well that Connor's 4th grade year was the first time he had a teacher that I didn't really get to know (the 4th grade teachers in our school don't necessarily welcome the parental volunteer help that the lower grade teachers do).  It feels like the teachers have so many expectations at this age and they are a little bit less tender (for lack of a better word) with the kids.  And I hate this for Coby.  Coby is the only one of my boys that really needs compassion/sensitivity and a teacher that understands him.  He is such a special boy and I just want him to be treated as such. I SO hope that he gets a teacher that understands and appreciates who he is.  That's all.  I'll just have to keep praying about this because I'm so unsettled about this right now.

As for Cale...I cannot believe my baby is in first grade already.  First grade is the hardest year for me to deal with as a mom.  I'd be lying if I said I'm not excited when each of my boys go to school all day, but it always makes me sad for the boys when they have to face going to school 7 hours a day vs the 2.5 hrs they went in Pre-K and Kindergarten.  That is a HUGE difference and I worry.  I know Cale will be fine and will quickly adapt to the longer school day just as his brothers did, but I just feel sad for him.  It's going to be an adjustment for the both of us.  He and I have spent the past few years hanging out from 10:30-3 all by ourselves.  He's definitely a mommy's boy and I think he (and I) will miss our time together.  I know he'll be alright in time...it's just those initial first weeks of the school year that I really dread.

This is such a weird time for me.  All of my boys will be in school all. day. long.  What will I do with myself?  haha  I have PLENTY to keep me busy while they're in school, but it will be odd having seven hours of quiet.  Maybe I'll finally get and keep caught up with the house and laundry.  That would certainly be a change...one that Darren would welcome I'm sure!  We'll see... :)

meeting Koda

Today was a long time in coming. Darren took me and the boys to meet Koda. Darren and Koda have spent the past few weeks bonding, but this was the first time for the boys and I to meet him. I was concerned about meeting him (I have it in my head that all GS's are vicious and mean), but all my fears were washed away upon seeing him. He was everything Darren told me he is...an absolute sweetheart that acts much like Ellie.  Now my concern is that Ellie and Koda won't get along.  It won't be the end of the world if they don't because Ellie Mae will continue to live the good life indoors and Koda Kai will be living outdoors regardless. However, it would be nice if they could have fun together and wear each other out on a daily basis!  While I do have some reservations, I truly believe that before too long we'll be one big happy family.  Time will tell....but oh, how I hope I'm right!

excuse the iphone pics...it's all I had with me for our impromptu visit

{D would kill me if he saw this pic}
He is in love with this dog!

Poor Koda watched as we left him. :(  I can't believe I'm saying this about a German Shepherd of all things, but he really is sweet!  I can't wait to bring him home.  Let the adventure begin.

fifteen years

Fifteen years ago today I married the love of my life.  At times I simply can't believe that it's been 15 years since we said "I Do" but then there are other times that it seems like it's been longer (we've been together since the summer before 8th grade...that's 22 years...WOW)!  We've had our ups and downs and in between times, but I can honestly say that there is no one else that I can imagine doing this life with!

Darren and I celebrated our anniversary a bit early last month with a vacation.  We spent a week in Rosemary Beach, FL.  It was our first real vacation without the kids and it couldn't have been more PERFECT!!! {I wish I was there right now!}

More on our Florida getaway to come, but for now I'm off to a date night with the hubs a quick dinner with all four of my boys (Swadley's BBQ) and then we're heading to Cale's baseball practice.  Our anniversary date night will have to wait until next week.  AHHH, such is married life with kids!  :)

bike rider

Cale learned to ride his bike without training wheels today.  Over the past year we've asked him a few different times and he just wasn't ready (or in the mood) to learn, but tonight he looked at me out of the blue and said, "I want to learn to ride my bicycle without training wheels."  SO, I immediately looked through Darren's tools until I found what I needed to get the "trainers" off.  From there it took all of five minutes before he was riding with confidence.

We ran inside to tell daddy to come watch (he had NO idea what we'd been up to) but he immediately guessed as he was coming out to watch.  So much for surprising him!  

Don't let his picture fool you.  I am the one who taught Cale how to ride! :)

Cale and I went to get snowcones to celebrate and then I told him we should ride our bikes over to GramPat and Papa's house to show off his new skill (his brothers were already over there...they like to bike over there and have ice cream after dinner and poor Cale has to stay behind because he isn't old enough to go without mommy and daddy).  When we were getting ready to head out,  Cale sincerely said, "Please Jesus, let this go well."  It was precious.  It went okay...he fell down a few times on the way, but that is to be expected.  He reluctantly got back on after each fall and we eventually make it over to GramPat/Papa's house.  Cale had a snack and then GramPat took pity on him and drove him home.  The rest of us had fun racing home to see who could beat each other on our bikes and also GramPat and Cale in the van.  Darren won, Coby lost and obviously Connor and I were somewhere in the middle.  We all beat GramPat and Cale. :)  

Proud little guy.  He was doing his Johnny Bravo moves (Don't ask!!)

I'm so proud of my little Calebug!!!

baseball

Baseball has been a huge part of our lives in the spring/summer for the past six years or so. This year has been no different. We've spent many evenings at the ball field lately (Connor had three games just this week and Cale was supposed to have two, but one was cancelled due to wet fields so he just has one).  Tuesdays game didn't start until 9:30 which meant that we didn't get home until 11:30. That is a late night for the boys, but hey, at least it's summer!

I just have to brag on Connor for a minute....he hit his first HOME RUN last week and then he hit another one at the next game! I was SUPER proud of my boy...in fact, I may have had tears in my eyes as I watched him run those bases! I think the reason it got me so emotional is because just the week before he told us he was ready to quit baseball at the end of the season. It made me sad because I think he has a lot of potential and he really does love the sport. I know he was just down on himself because he wasn't getting many hits for several games in a row and he felt like his fielding wasn't where he wanted it to be. BUT that happens and we explained to him that we didn't raise a quitter and that we didn't want him to quit just because he was having a few "off" games. Everyone has those times, even the best of players. Thankfully Connor is gaining his confidence back and I don't think he'll quit after all. :) HE told me that he finally found his rhythm! I'm so glad, I'd really miss our evenings at the ball field if he quit. I couldn't have honestly said that a few years ago....my how life changes!

Here are a few pics of my guy at the game tonight...

 

And here's Cale at the game (he came late with GramPat who was gracious enough to take him to have his team pictures made tonight).  Thank goodness for GramPat who is always willing to help us out when we have more than one sporting event in a night.  Those days are becoming more and more frequent now that all three boys are involved in sports.  It gets REALLY crazy when all three boys have something to be at at the exact same time.  Somehow we always work it out though and I try to remember to enjoy these moments because they'll be over before I know it.  The boys are growing up WAY to fast. :(

first swim of the year

The boys and I had a great second day of summer break (I knew things could only look up after yesterday!).  The boys had a ball playing together this morning.  All THREE of them playing together rarely happens so I was thrilled when I heard all of them in Coby's room playing today.  I didn't dare venture into Coby's room to see what they were doing because I didn't dare interrupt this rare moment.  When they finally came out though I saw that both Coby and Cale were dressed in some of their Army get-up.  They told me that they'd been playing Army.  I don't know exactly how that is played, but I'm pretty sure it included several nerf guns and make-shift barricades (I've never seen so many pillows piled strategically placed around Coby's room).  

Sgt. Coby

Cale came out of Coby's room and was all business.  He walked into the living room and got out my weights and began to work out.  He lifted weights, did push-ups, sit-ups and sprints into the piano room.  Connor asked him what he was doing and he said, "Workin' out so I can win the war!"  ha  After lifting weights he came over to me and flexed.  He said, "Feel my muscles."  I did and then he felt them too and said, "Ahh, they're still squishy!" and from there he went back to lifting weights!  He is so funny.

Late this afternoon the boys and I loaded up and headed to mom and dad's for the boys first swim of the year. Darren had to work so I figured that would keep the boys and I entertained until dinner time and I was hoping to wear the boys out (apparently it didn't because they came home and played Army again and I didn't send them to bed until about 10:30.  I just couldn't send them to bed when they were having so much fun!).  

Of course I took swimming pics....

 Connor went back and forth between swimming and playing basketball

What a fun Saturday I had with my boys!  I can't wait to spend many more days in the pool with them this summer!