I'm Still Here :)

Ok, ok, I'll try to update the crazyness now.

So the biggest thing is that my babies start school in two days. Joey has 1st grade orientation tomorrow night and his first day Wednesday. I have parent orientation for Ben's preschool Wednesday night and he goes for an hour on Thursday. We found out that Joey doesn't get busing (bussing?) so we're trying to work out what we are going to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays since he gets out at 2:40, I don't get out til 2:45, and Ben gets off the bus at 2:51. A little tight. Today we went shopping for lunch stuff for both boys. Joey will be packing a lunch for the first time, and Ben will need to eat quickly between his AM and PM preschool on MWF. We also timed how long it takes to walk to school in case that could be an option for Grandma some days- about 15 minutes and both boys were whining the whole way home so that is going to be last resort.

What else? The boys finished up swim lessons last weekend, and we made it to the pool one more time on Friday (saw an old friend there). Joey has gotten so big and brave. He went down the slide and jumped off the diving board! Last year he wouldn't get his face wet, so huge improvement. Ben also loves the water and gets to do level one next year even though he will not be 5 yet.

My school- I've been working hard on getting my room ready, at least a few hours each day. It's finally starting to look presentable so now I have to get all those first day things ready. We drove in to Schaumburg yesterday and stopped at the IKEA for a few things. They had a rocker for $10 and some cute little finger puppets for my puppet theater. We have meet the teacher night next Wednesday and then school starts the following Tuesday. I feel good about being ready by then, especially now that I can go while the boys are at school rather than dragging them with me. I also did some shopping at Kohl's the other day for some nicer work clothes. I feel the need as the director to wear something a little nicer than t-shirts every day. I had a 30% off coupon and managed to get 2 pairs of pants and 8 new shirts for $100. The other good news is that even though I've gotten a little off track with working out this summer (I will get back to it when I settle in to my routine) I was still able to get size 14 pants. That made me very happy.

The boys have been driving me and each other nuts the last several days. We are very ready to get school started and have a break from each other. This summer has been a very new experience with having so much free time and together time. I already have plans for how to do it better next summer, but it was really great getting to do the things that we did. Even though it wasn't a hot summer, on the days when we were warm and restless we could just head to the pool for a couple hours. I got a ton of reading done, to the point where I have to take a break now or my head is going to explode. I learned how to stay up late and sleep in (though I might decide that's not a good thing come Wednesday). The boys and I played UNO and Big Fish Little Fish together with minimal fighting.

Oh- and my boy started Tiger Scouts. He loves his uniform and is very proud to wear it. This is at rocket day last weekend. He had a cool Speed Racer rocket that he managed not to lose:)

See that one bottom tooth sticking out? It came out later that day with no help from Mommy. And the tooth fairy managed to show up on time this round.And one more shot of my cutie baby. I know you love it.