The Kids Are Driving Me Crazy - Website of Paula Henderson

The excitement has been building in our house all week long as the kids anxiously awaited "party day" at school scheduled for today. The second graders have been reading Polar Express and doing all kinds of fun activities related to the wonderful book. Today they got to wear their jammies to school and take treats to contribute for the special breakfast they were going to have as they watched the Polar Express movie.

Well, I got the call at 10 from Samuel's teacher saying he was sick to his stomach and may need to go home (his teacher is a friend of ours who goes to church with us) - she was very sorry he was going to miss the rest of the day. By the time I got there he had gotten sick a couple of times - but his teacher thought maybe he had just had too much too eat.

After he was feeling a little better I finally got him to tell me what all he had eaten during the party. Here we go:

1 cupcake
3 cinammon rolls
2 pigs in a blanket
8 cheese cubes
1 fruit punch juice pouch
1 wild cherry juice pouch

Nice. Needless to say we need to work on a little thing called self-control with the boy. And by the way, for comparison's sake - his twin sister apparently had much lighter party fare. After learning about Sam's gorgingbreakfast, she was (much too) proud to report her food choices for the morning: 2 oranges (the little cuties), 2 small sausage links, 2 apple slices, 2 cheese cubes, and a "few" donut holes.

These are the words I have heard more times than I can count from Philip over the past couple of weeks - usually accompanied by this face:

The toddler years are a joy - right?! Anyway, I have had this "I don't want to" mantra going through my head as I am reminded from sales papers, supply lists, and TV commercials that it is time for back to school shopping. I can't believe it is only three weeks until school starts. Matthew and I got a giggle out of what our shopping list looks like when we combined all three of the big kids list from CSISD. Here is what I will be looking for when I get started:

72 #2 pencils
3 soft pink erasers
5 boxes of 24 count crayons
3 boxes of markers (Crayola originals only)
3 4pk of dry erase markers
3 boxes of map pencils
6 red pens
3 pairs of pointed scissors (Fiskars preferred)
1 12in ruler
8 bottles of glue
14 glue sticks
3 packages of 12x18 colored construction paper (no tablets!)
4 packages of wide rules notebook paper
6 70 page wide ruled notebook paper
2 composition books
3 small school boxes
6 boxes of tissue
18 brad/pocket folders

And, if this year is like the past few years, I will not be able to find everything at one store and end up going all over town looking for those last couple of elusive items.

Keep in mind that this list does not include clothes, shoes, socks and undies, backpacks (the boys have to have new ones this year), lunchboxes (they all need new ones this year), and a few things Philip will need for Sonshine School. Ugh. But, I think that these kids are worth it:

They have really had a great summer and I have SO enjoyed being home with them. Even when they are all driving me crazy, I know we will miss this time once the busy days of fall get started.

OK, I apologize to all for the break in blogging. When me and the kids hit summer break, my brain went into hibernation. Over the next several days I want to backtrack through the summer and share what a great time we have had. But for now, check out the pics I posted in Flickr!

Today was '80's day at the kids school (the teachers did this as a reward to the kids for raising lots of $ for Relay for Life). I just read the note about it yesterday, so we didn't have a lot of prep time, but I think they were happy with the outcome.

Luke went for the Karate Kid bandana, original Hobie shirt (I think this was my brother-in-laws at one point), and spiked hair.

Samuel went for the rockin' Billy idol spiked hair and studded leather wrist band that was Matt's when he was in elementary school!From what he says, he did a lot of trading to get that bad boy! Sam was really shy this morning and wasn't sure about it, Matt kept telling him how cool he was and he finally warmed up to it.

And Madeline went with the classic side pony tail and pink leg warmers. She even had a denim skirt that I though was really cute with it.

They all had fun dressing up (especailly Luke - as you can tell from the pictures!) and we even rocked out to the '80's Hits station on the way to school. Nothing like a little Huey Lewis and the News and Van Halen to get the day started right!

OK, the finish line is in sight. It is now just about 19 hours until I am completely done with this semester, and with Blinn! I have my last two finals tomorrow from 7:45-12:15 (Chemistry then Calculus). After that (and as long as I do well on them) I will have finished up my Associates of Education at Blinn and am all set to start A&M in the fall. I found out last week that I was accepted to the Education program - so that was a huge weight off my shoulders!!

Matthew and I took the kids to the Aggie baseball game last Thursday night (thanks for the tickets - Chris!) and it was really different to be sitting at an Aggie event as a true Aggie for the first time. We even sang the Aggie War Hymn - the kids liked linking arms and "sawing those horns off" with us.

I promise to post pictures and updates of the kids this week - after I take one monster nap tomorrow after I am done!!! They are all doing great - they are real troopers and have been so patient with all my studying the past couple of weeks.