WITL 2015 - Wednesday

 Today was the last day of summer vacation and the last day of M's life before she begins "real" school at the local elementary school.  Granted, she's been in preschool for years and is totally set, but still a big deal.  Pictured here, she's helping with the dishes and being silly. I think she is enjoying the WITL photo fun more than most of our crew.

 E is not so much a morning person....

 Here, I am ironing M's dress for tomorrow while E tries to get dressed for the day with much whining. (No, I basically never iron the kids' clothes, but this is a special exception).

The new house has two really long halls with interesting views.  I'm trying to capture some of those new perspectives this week. 

It was again around 9am before we made it out the door.  We dropped by the elementary school to see which teacher B was assigned. I love that they run to the building and love playing on the paw prints.  in less good news, there are 5 larger 3rd grades rather than the 6 smaller classes we'd hoped for.  So it goes. 

Next up, Target for some last minutes supplies and food for the specially requested dinners the first two nights of school. 

We returned the library books we had finished (and could find) as once school starts there is a tendency for the public library books to become VERY overdue. 

 We stopped by the house long enough to unpack the groceries and pack a picnic.  We were on our way again by 11ish.

 I don't think we'd had a picnic all summer, but kept meaning to.  The temperature today was in the low 60s, which is very unusual (like 40 degrees lower than usual).  We had a lovely picnic anyway.

 M loves using our fancy picnic basket.  Thanks to B for the photo.

I returned the favor -- love that he is willing to look right in the camera these days.  We played for a bit on the playground, but were fairly chilly and headed to the Plaza district around 11:40. 

 It is nearly a 30 minute trip these days, but a cool area is fun art like this mural.

 The reason for the trip was Roxy's Ice Cream -- this was top of the request list before the end of summer and a great trip.  The favorite flavors today were - Pistachio (B&E), Peaches & Cream (M), Cherry (Me).  (12:08).

We headed back home to wait for Granddaddy to come and play.  Kids got a little electronics time and I checked my work email (yes, even on vacation).  I discovered I have been approved to work more hours starting Sept. 1.  This is a blessing and yet a tiny bit sad too.  Too complicated to go in to here, but it did prompt me to FINALLY mail in E's preschool enrollment forms.  Once Granddaddy arrived, E enjoyed his new presents from Granddaddy of two small batman vehicles. 

 Granddaddy helped B organize his Pokemon collection in the new binder we just purchased this week.  There was lots of complicated sorting.

 Photo by E while Granddaddy played with B - there are, of course, about 20 more similar ones and many of a pile of towels, which I deleted.

 E was ready to turn on the charm too though and looks so big in this photo!!

I made the beginnings of dinner and folded lots of laundry while all this was happening. I should have had the kids fold their own laundry, but gave them a break on this particular chore for the day. 

4pm - meet the teacher. She seems lovely and likes warm hugs.  I filled out all the appropriate forms and resisted the urge to volunteer for all the things.  We took Granddaddy over to see M's classroom too. 

 Then we went back to the park to play and swing on the newly deemed "pirate ship" with Granddaddy.

 We explored the dock a bit too.

 The big mystery here is an umbrella in the pond that hadn't been there this morning.  After this, Granddaddy headed home and we began prepping for dinner (and playing). (5:10pm)

 B organized more Pokemon cards.

 M created dances in the backyard.

 M introduced her little brother to the hammock.

He loves it! This guy doesn't start school for another 12 days and is SO going to miss his siblings during that interval. Around 5:45, we had dinner (Mexican Chicken Rice Casserole, Carrots, & Hummus).  Then we made a rush trip to the pool. 

Brent had dorm night tonight and would only be around for a bit so he supervised from the swim deck today. I actually joined him there most of the time, which was quite relaxing, especially on a cool day when we had the pol to ourselves most of the time. 

 Then, it was time for summer vacation to come to a close as we wrapped up in towels and headed home.  Brent went back to work for dorm night and I began the baths and prep for tomorrow ritual.

 I bathed M & E and put curlers in her hair before we read part of her Neverland Girls book and the "Going to Bed" book for E.

 We sprinkled the special "sweet dreams" confetti from her Kindergarten teacher under her pillow so she can have a good, calm rest before the first day.

 Today, she seems happy and solidly more excited than nervous.  We shall see about tomorrow.

Right after that, I want to ignore my "grown up" responsibilities and read a book. I remember that B randomly asked for pancakes for breakfast. I don't think we've had special back to school breakfast before because that is crazy, but I make up a "mix" of sorts to quickly throw together in the morning.  It features lots of oat meal and oat flour in hopes that they don't starve during the morning.  Of course by then I'm on a roll and do most of the chores I was avoiding (dishes, laundry, cleaning up the kitchen...).  The house isn't clean by any stretch, but I call it good enough and come to read and blog.  Hopefully Brent will be here soon as we'll have an early start tomorrow for the very first day of Kindergarten and Third Grade!  

That was a lot of photos. I suspect that as we move back to a school/work schedule the next few days that there will be a lot less, but there will, I'm sure, be back to school pictures tomorrow including drop off and my little lady's first day riding the bus home!

Just joining our WITL adventure this year? Monday and Tuesday are available through this links!