School Picture Day...Oops!

 Last year, two days before picture day at school, Gavin hit his head on his bed and gave himself a black eye and concussion. Last year's school picture features his very black and blue eye lid and cheek. We laugh now because we figure it'll be a great story that we'll always remember.

This year, I figured picture day would be easy. Ha! Not only did we have temps of 100 degrees, making the kids sweaty and red faced, I also got an email from the school office the day before picture day. Gavin got hit in the face with the tire swing. They gave him two ice packs, but there was definite mark on his face. The picture below is the cut/bruise on the day it happened. They next day (picture day) it had darkened and bruised more. 

Once again, we will have a story to tell about picture day. And, as Grandma Pat says, at least he is consistent!

Heat Wave!

We have had a ridiculous heat wave here in lower Michigan. Temps between 90 and 100 degrees. It has been so hot that the schools actually had two half days and cancelled all sport activities. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be in the lower seventies. Still high for this time of year, but a respite from the crazy heat. It is supposed be in the sixties by Friday, but next week we shoot back up into the eighties. I really want my 60 degree fall weather. I've got flannel shirts and knitted socks that are ready to be worn!

Henry's birthday was last week. We had a small get together at Lou and Pat's. We used to try to do something special for his birthday. Unfortunately, every year since we moved here we have horrible weather on his party day. We'll try to go to a zoo, orchard, park, etc. and it'll be tipping down with rain. This year I almost felt bad since it was sunny...then the heat climbed up to 98 degrees. Yeah, no one wants to be outside in direct sun with temps like that. Instead we had a nice lunch of hamburgers, salad, and cake while we enjoyed the air conditioning.

Here's hoping that October will bring us some fall-like temps.

Yeah...

It Keeps On Going...

We are all still stepping along here. Gavin's cold/flu managed to grab a hold of everyone but Mark. Thankfully, Henry and Irene only suffered for a day, but I have a cough that just will not let go. 

School keeps moving along. We are starting to get into an actual schedule with the schools. Having so many short weeks meant that the homework schedule was rather up in the air. I think we may be finally seeing what it is actually supposed to be. It'll help us get set into a routine.

Henry's birthday is next week. He wants a laid back day of cooking hamburgers on the grill followed by cake. I think we can handle that!

Aside from the short school weeks, and the illnesses, September has been mostly us trying to get back into a school pattern. 

First Week of School

I think this picture of Captain sums up our week.

Got up at 5:30 am Tuesday and got Henry to the bus. LuLu took off as we were walking out the door. I finally got her back only for she and Captain to have a huge fight. The fight, and clean up from it, put Irene, Gavin and I behind schedule a bit. Thankfully, I did managed to get them to school before it started.

Thursday morning, Henry's bus showed up five minutes early. As I was walking home a boy came running up to the stop. Even though he was technically on time he still missed the bus. I gave him a ride to the middle school. Talk about a crazy mess of cars! There are a lot of people that drop off middle school students each day.

Thursday afternoon, as I was waiting for Henry's bus, a stinkin' wasp stung me on the thumb! Ouch!

Friday dawned with Gavin not feeling well. Yeah, in the three days of school the kids had, Gavin managed to catch the flu. The weekend has been full of....well, all those lovely bodily functions that having the flu ramps up. The Flu; the gift that keeps on giving.

I have been frantically trying to have everyone hand sanitize while cleaning as much as possible. I do not need to have anyone else come down with it!

So yeah, not quite how I pictured the first week of school going. Although, we did watch all 7 hours of the Slow TV Bergen to Oslo train ride on Netflix yesterday.

First Day of School

First day of school is over and we survived it. Henry's school starts an hour earlier this year so he and I had to get up before everyone else. I walked him to the bus stop which is half a block from our house.

I am driving Irene and Gavin to school this year, although they do ride a bus back into town. We were about ten minutes late leaving this morning due to a fight between the dogs of all things. Still, we got to school with ten minutes to spare.

Henry's afternoon bus was about ten minutes late. No big deal. Irene and Gavin's bus was over twenty minutes late. Again, no big deal, but I started to worry I was at the wrong place.

Only three days of school this week. I'm hoping it continues to go well!

Lions and Tigers and School Meetings, Oh My!

We had to go to Henry's school for schedules and lockers and pictures and a lot of walking. Apparently, we were supposed to talk to the transportation department as well, but I missed that.

Got Henry's school picture taken. Had to carry his sweater with us since it is 85 degrees out. I was under the misapprehension that picture day was in late September, so the sweater that would have been great for then was rather warm for now. Oh well, it was easily put on and taken off and it is one less thing to worry about in September.

Henry decided that he no longer wanted to take Orchestra. My heart broke a little over that decision, but he was adamant about it all summer. I didn't feel it was worth pushing the issue since he really didn't want to do it and I didn't want to pay for an instrument he wouldn't use. We did manage to change his schedule really easily which was a relief.

The locker was easy to find, but it took two adults and two children to get it to open. Yeah, feeling really smart today! Once we got it open it was pretty easy to do again.

Found all of Henry's classes. Holy cow is that school bigger on the inside (feel free to insert Tardis jokes here). Henry is going to be doing a lot of walking each day. He will have to hustle to get between a couple of them.

I missed going to the bus info section. I know he is on a bus to and from school since I spoke directly with the bus garage a couple of weeks ago. I just don't know what bus number he is on. And yeah, missing that is really making me feel like a crap mom right now.

After all that school fun, Grandma took us to McDonald's. The kids felt the need for silly faced pictures.