last day of summer

turned out to be pretty fun.

It was "meet the teacher/open house" at school this morning. So Hudson, Henry, Oliver, and I went to the school while Brian stayed home with the younger two. This past Tuesday we got the email revealing the teachers and classes for this year, and last night was a parent meeting at the school. This whole school thing really snuck up on me again this year. The summer flew by, and then we needed school supplies. In addition to a date night with Brian at Bonefish (for $5 bang bang shrimp night!) and a school supply trip to Target on Wednesday night, Oliver and I made one final trip to Walmart last night after the meeting to finish up the list. (I think we should have had school supplies/backpacks/new shoes/uniforms added to our budget long before now...this is getting cRaZy!!)

Back to the open house. The boys were super excited to see their teachers and classrooms and check out their desks, especially to see who they were sitting next to. Henry has Mrs. Stokes (whom Hudson had as well) for kindergarten, and Hudson has Mrs. Martin (mom to Tyler - who was in our youth group at Eastwood) for 2nd grade. Both are incredibly sweet teachers who love the Lord, and I am so, so grateful to be sending my boys off for 5 hours a day to these incredible women.
Henry has a few buddies going to Eastwood for kindergarten that we've known through playgroups and church, but none of them are in his class. And he's okay with that...doesn't seem to worry him at all that he knows no one. I think he's pretty excited.

In his classroom he immediately got comfortable and hunkered down to read some books about reptiles. :)


and little Oliver just soaked it all in...

Once we left the school, we immediately went to Chuck E. Cheese for Hudson's buddy, Parker's birthday. (They were sweet to let Henry join in the fun since he was going to be with us as well). I don't know what it is about Chuck E. Cheese, but it's like telling my boys we're going to Disney World...that's how excited they get about that place!

So some of Hudson's buddies decided to go in together with their tickets and buy one big prize that they would share. So they used their 300+ tickets and bought a Texas size chuck e. cheese pen that they will supposedly share between the four of them....each boy getting a week with the pen and then trading off every Friday. Hudson is the last one to get the pen. We'll see if it actually happens. :)

Meanwhile, Nate and Jake had a blast playing in the mini pools in the backyard with Daddy. (Brian got a taste of what my life is going to be like for the next year. I still can't believe my Henry is leaving me! :( Seriously, what is going on? Why do my boys continue to grow up without my permission??)

After the party, we came home and picked up the rest of the boys (while Brian left to do some sermon prep) and went and got haircuts for all four boys. Quite the adventure considering it was nap time, but the boys did great...thanks to a barber with a well stocked frig of juice boxes and orange fanta, lots of animal crackers, bins of gum and lollipops, books and coloring books, tv, and lots of toys!!

Came home to more backyard pool time, as well as their own creation of a backyard frog habitat...with some lily pad-like leaves to help entice the frogs.


4 very dirty boys straight to the shower.

an episode of Olivia.

an easy dinner of leftover rotisserie chicken, fruit, pickles, and pb&j's.

And we finished off the night with a couple of chapters of Little Town on the Prairie. I finally (FINALLY!!!) was able to unpack all of our books and photo albums this week! Brian built and painted some new book shelves for his church office and brought home his old ones that he was going to throw out, but I begged him to bring them home for us to use in the meantime until we get something better, just so I could actually unpack the boxes! Seeing how well and easy it was for him to build his own, I think Brian is going to build some bookcases for us in the near future...add it to our ever growing list of things to do on this house. :) But all that to say, I unpacked our Little House series. We had finished The Long Winter long ago but were waiting to find the rest of the books to keep reading.

So the last of summer is officially over for us.

tear.

Thankfully the boys are so excited about school, and I think the structure and routine will probably make for easier days for us. Too much free time is almost more of a curse than a blessing around here. And so even though we're excited about the new school year, it's just another reminder that my boys are growing up, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Two in school.

I just can't believe it.

Wasn't it just yesterday those two were dancing and singing to The Wiggles??