Boys will be boys

These are a few pictures from the boys playing yesterday. They were having fun, really.

Family Movie Night

It seemed like a long time since we all just relaxed together, so we had a family movie night Sunday. We ate popcorn, apples, and cheese and watched Nim's Island. The kids loved it, especially the weird cheeses and Rosemary crackers Bryan bought. It was a nice way to end a busy weekend filled with parties and arguing kids.

New bed and new clothes

Avery was sent a few new dresses from Gramma Jo. Here's one. We didn't have time to put the rest on to take pictures. Maybe this afternoon. Also, Q slept in his newly converted toddler bed. He did well and slept all night. I'm not concerned when Bryan puts him to bed, but we'll see about naps and Tuesday night. Pray for us those times.

Park pics

We haven't done much lately. Well, nothing that deserves pictures. Just keeping busy with appointments, homework, speech and fall cleaning. But... we did go to the park with Joshua and Kyle last night. Kyle had to go before I took pictures of him, but here are a few. I did manage to capture my first fighting brother picture. Enjoy.

Art and Capes

Cole has been asking if I'd sew him something special (since recently I've made some stuff for Avery), so I made him a Super-Cole cape. He has worn it all over Fresno for the past few days. I also added a few pictures of Q's art. He loves to paint and draw, and held a pencil the correct way from the first time he was handed one. Bryan loves these two and wants to frame them. THe kids are doing well. Avery has made it to school and home since that awful first day, and the fall events are beginning.

First day of School

Here are the pictures from the first day of Manchester. Avery now has a bus routine down. For the last two days, her bus driver has said, "Here she is," when he stops the bus. The boys rode in the stroller yesterday and the wagon today to the bus stop. It has also been cooler, so we've been in the yard a bunch. Enjoy. One picture is Avery and her teacher, Mrs. Console and another is in the classroom called "The Swamp".

I can't quite figure out the problem with uploading pictures tonight, so I'm just writing about Avery's first day in second grade. We got up only a few minutes later than we'd planned, but still on time and got dressed quickly. Our goal is to get up and do a devotion and pray before each day, and with my selfishness, I decided we'd get ready before calming down together. I have now learned that we will spend time with Him before doing my stuff. A good friend reminded me that if we give ourselves an hour to get ready, we'll take the whole hour, but if we have less time we can usually get ready in that amount of time. So, all that to say tomorrow He will begin our morning. We got Avery to the bus (for the first time), and the boys and I drove to her school, just to make sure she got off the bus and to class okay. We finished our morning and afternoon, then left to get Avery. As I was walking the easy ten minute stroll I realized what bad shape I'm in, so hopefully this will be easier later in the year. Well, we waited and waited for her bus- over 25 min. Finally I saw another mom(and former neighbor) with her kids and informed me that the bus actually let them off on the other side of the school, however her kids hadn't seen Avery. Nice. We took off running (with me pushing the big stroller), crying on the phone to Bryan, "She never got off the bus." I got to where she should have been, and there was no Avery. I ran home as fast as I could and called her school. They said they were sure she'd hopped on "a bus", but they weren't sure where she was. I called Mom and Dad and they came over as quickly as they could. I was called a few times to tell me they were planning to send out calls to all the buses. Finally FUSD called me just to tell me they'd found her, but the VP could not tell where she was, only that she was on a bus somewhere in the district. Great! Dad was driving around the school where she was supposed to be, Bryan had just arrived at Manchester, and Avery was still somewhere we didn't know. I drove to Avery's bus stop to tell Dad they'd found her, and saw her, having just arrived, standing next to him and the bus. It turns out she had either fallen asleep or just didn't hear the bus driver say it was her stop and then had fallen asleep. She was sitting near the back. So, she went all around Fresno for almost 2 hours. The bus driver felt quite bad and his comfort to us was (in a very thick accent and while smiling), "Next time she sit in front of bus". We made it home, but even a few hours later I'm pretty jittery and have a bad head ache. I think I'll drive her tomorrow.