They're Adjusting

Yesterday was the first day of kindergarten, but it also happened to be an open house for the twins' preschool.  So after we dropped Hannah off, we headed over to meet their teachers and see their classroom.  We also had a few other errands to run, so the twins didn't have much time playing on their own before it was time to pick up Hannah again. 

Today was much more of a normal day.  We came home, cleaned a little bit, and then they were complaining that they were bored (and hungry).  They helped me make some oatmeal cookies for a special treat when everyone got home from school.  That distracted them for approximately two seconds, and then Maya said, "I'm bored mom!"  I told her to go and play something.  She told me, "I don't like playing anything.  I only like to watch T.V."  Lovely.

Apparently Hannah was the initiator of all things play-related in their little trio.  I told Maya that her not liking to play anything and only wanting to watch T.V. just told me that I shouldn't let them watch T.V. any more.  She wasn't particularly happy about that, but then Lilly reminded her that we had twister, and that ended the complaining for the day (well...the morning at least). ;)

Now they've been playing puzzles for almost an hour, and it's about time to pick up Hannah again.

Not having Hannah home is an adjustment, but I think they're going to do just fine.  :)

First Day of Kindergarten (For Hannah)

Today my little banana started kindergarten.  A lot like last year with Addison, it started off as a kind of rough morning!  Addison is on our district's "Early Bird" schedule, which means she goes to school over an hour before the morning kindergarten starts.  Hannah was not happy about that, so she was kind of moping when we went out to take these pictures.

Fortunately I'm an incredibly funny person...yes that was sarcasm...and after a few jokes, I got them all smiling. ;)

Addison is so sweet.  She has been SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited for Hannah to start kindergarten.  She picked the shirt she was wearing specifically so that she'd match Hannah on her first day.  After I took pictures of all the girls together, Addison timidly asked if I could take a picture of just Hannah and her.  I was happy to agree to the request.  :)

My alarm to take Addison to school went off so we dropped her off, and when we got home, the groaning about it not being time to go to kindergarten resumed.  So I decided we would walk....very slowly.  I posted a few pictures on Instragram, but I didn't get my big camera out for the actual walk. 

When we finally made it to school, we were still SUPER early, so I convinced Hannah that we needed some pictures in front of the school.

(She wasn't especially happy about it.)

Then Maya asked if she could get a picture with just her and Hannah (they were super cute holding hands for a lot of the walk to school).

We wasted a little more time at the photo booth.

And in the hall outside her classroom.

And finally I decided it was close enough to start time that we could go and bother her teacher (Miss Williams) for a picture.

She had a couple more things to do so she sent us to the play yard where they had cookies for all the new kindergartners (and tissues for the weepy moms), so Hannah played out there for a little bit. 

And finally, it was time for class to start.  Her teacher showed her where to put her backpack and folder.

Then she found her name tag.

And settled right in at a table.

And from that point on I think she was just wondering why the heck I was still there.

And, after telling her I was leaving only to return and take more pictures about seven times, I FINALLY left the room, and snapped this shot on my way out.

I think she's not going to have any problem adjusting to kindergarten.

First Day of School (For Addison)

So our elementary school started today.  (For everyone but the Kindergartners, so Hannah starts next week).  That means it was Addison's first day of Second grade.

Her sisters will miss her a lot.

We got there early so that we could take a picture with her teacher and at her desk.

We dropped off her backpack and lunch and headed back out to the front hall where all the kids were congregating, waiting for the bell to ring.  The administration had set up a photo booth where you could dress up and take pictures, so we had some fun with that.

It was raining, so they laid out the red carpet inside instead of outside like last year.

And just like last year, teachers lined up along the red carpet and welcomed the kids back.  It was pretty chaotic because it was inside, but the kids were all pretty excited.

And when she came home, she was just as excited about school as when she left.  That's always a good sign.  :)

Go Dodgers!

As I've mentioned before, when I was a kid my dad took us to Dodger games all the time.  Now, if there's a game when we're down visiting (and in the summer more often than not there is) he takes my kids.  Looking through these pictures made me feel so nostalgic!  They may be pictures of my kids, but I swear, 20 years ago, we could have taken some very similar pictures with me and my siblings.  :)

The night that we had tickets was bobble head night...and we actually got there on time, so now we have four Tommy Lasorda bobble heads.  On a semi-related note, when I was in Junior High, Tommy Lasorda brought the Dodgers to our school.  One of our friends even got Mike Piazza to kiss her on the cheek.  Coolest thing EVER!  :)



I wish I could say that in that picture Addison is really excited about the game.  But no.  She was excited because a beach ball was coming toward us.





I don't really have the right to give her a hard time though because, as a kid, I remember paying more attention to the beach balls and where the wave was  than to the game.  And yes, they still do the wave...this may still be my favorite part of any sporting event.  ;)



We always got Dodger Dogs for dinner when we went to the games, but those didn't fly so well with Addison and Hannah, so they got these GIANT pizzas instead.




There are a lot of new concessions though.





 Dippin dots???  Really?  It's like an amusement park.
 


When we went as kids, there were only nuts and that ice cream that comes in a cup with a wooden spoon that would give your tongue splinters if you weren't careful.

The nuts guy was my favorite though.  He would yell, "Nuts! Nuts!" and if you wanted some, you'd raise your hand and he'd throw the nuts to you (no matter how far away you were) and get them to you EVERY TIME!  It was pretty impressive!  My dad told me he's still there working in the section we used to sit in.  I seriously considered heading up there just to see him do it again!

My mom got on TV when she and her friend wore these Dodger snuggies a few games ago, so my girls were obsessed at figuring out where the cameras were and trying to get up on the big screen. 



It didn't work out so well for them.  Maybe next time.

They did enjoy singing, "Take me out to the Ball Game" in the middle of the 7th inning though.
 

Hannah didn't do much singing...It's a lot harder to sing when you can't read the words on the screen.  I am going to have to teach her the words before we go next year.
 

Confession: for a long time (much longer than I'm willing to admit) I thought the actual words were "Root Root Root for the Dodgers," and I remember feeling sorry for the fans of other teams because the song was made for the Dodgers.  :)

And at that point the children were really wanting to go home, so our game ended there.  But the Dodgers ended up winning, so it was a good night!   :)

California Vacation (Sans Dad).

In June Bart took a group of kids/young adults to France and Spain on a study abroad.  Since I couldn't go, I decided to take the kids down to California while he was gone. 

I wasn't brave enough to make the whole 10 hour drive alone with four kids in 1 day, so we stayed at a hotel in Mesquite. 

The kids thought it was the coolest thing EVER!  (You'd think they had never been in a hotel room before)!  I guess there was just something special about it being just us girls.  :)





The day before I had taught the Activity Days girls some origami.  Since the activity had been at our house, Addison attended even though she's not eight yet.  So she was SUPER into origami for most of our trip.  :)



The rest of the kids were just super into drawing.  :)





 After we went out for some dinner at Subway, I let the girls watch the Disney Channel for a little bit before bed time.



Splitting the drive into two days actually made it a very pleasant trip.  I think I might try and talk Bart into doing it the next time we go down.  :)

Fishing at Lake Oowah

After the hike the kids all went down for naps, and when they woke up we headed out to the La Sal mountains to go fishing in Lake Oowah.

We didn't have any Dramamine and it was a pretty windy road, so we were very worried the kids would get carsick.  We didn't let them watch a movie, and told them to look out the windows for animals.  Fortunately for them (and us) there were lots of cows on the side of the road.  Every time we turned a corner and saw another group of cows, the kids would yell, "Cow!"  It worked!  Nobody got carsick!

The kids were sooooooo excited to go fishing.  All the adults were laughing a little bit inside.  I doubt that when kids think of fishing they think of just sitting around for hours waiting for something to tug on your hook.  We all wondered how well they would do.

But we got to the lake, pulled out the chairs, and all settled in.

Maya felt very little need to even lift her fishing pole.  Bart and I had to keep reminding her not to let the pole touch the water.

Lilly followed suit.

 

Addison commandeered a chair for herself.

But I'm not sure that anyone was more excited to fish than this guy.

He was seriously looking forward to it so much.  He kept telling me how excited he was to take the kids fishing, it was adorable!  I love that man!

 

And his eagerness paid off.  He was the first to catch a fish.  True it (and all the other fish that were caught) was tiny, but it was a fish none the less. 

That made the twins perk up a bit.

Not too long after, Charles and Andy caught a fish.

At that point Lilly claimed a red chair for herself.  As she settled in and started playing with the reel, she let out a content sigh and said, "I love fishing so much."

Then, approximately 10 seconds (like seriously, I don't even think it was 20 seconds) after she said that, she hopped up out of her chair and cheerfully said, "I'm done."  Crazy kid.

Maya was done as well, and went to join her.

Poor Addison wanted to catch a fish so badly.  She moved to Lilly's chair which was closer to where Bart had caught his fish.  I think she would have stayed there all night if we had let her.  But I could tell the twins and Hannah were ready to be done, so I told her we wouldn't be staying much longer and that sometimes when you go fishing, you just don't catch fish, and that's okay.  It's the experience that's the fun part.  (I don't think my argument was very convincing).

But, on our way to the car, the girls caught a butterfly with a hurt wing.  So that kind of made up for not catching a fish.

Next time, though, I think we'll take two cars and let Addison and Bart stay and fish to their heart's content.