First Day of School

 

First day of school for Joseph, Luke and Patrick

Getting ready…

so excited…

Gotta get all of the goofing off out before we’re at school!

Andrew was precious this morning.  He knew something was afoot and was so afraid of being left behind that he got himself into Scott’s car and buckled himself in.  There was a lot of crying when the situation was corrected.

  Look out, K4 and K5.  Here we come!

  Joe waves ‘bye’ as he follows his class inside.

Patrick’s first activity – coloring a bear.  Notice Luke in the background… so far away from is buddy!

Luke is all finished.  Time for mom to go.

After their first day, the boys are showing off Corduroy.   Andrew was glad to see them again, although he didn’t miss them as much as I thought he would.  Maybe he appreciated the extra mom time.

 

There was a little orientation day before the first day of school.  Joe is showing off his new classroom to Andrew

Luke in front of his cubby with his very own “BEE Book”  He’s proud as punch!  There’s something so inviting about finding your name all ready for you.  The teacher knew you would be coming.  She prepared a place for you, and you belong.

Who would have guessed that Patrick would love the Little People tree house?  Little People has been a big hit in our house… if even for just a little bit longer.

Last Hurrah of the Summer

Yes, we do it up right.  Mini-golf. Bay Beach, breakfast out, the works.  The last weekend before school starts deserves a lot of fun!

Andrew in his orange striped shirt and pink binky.

Joe was being such a good big brother by taking Andrew on the bigger kid rides with him.

Look, Ma, no hands!

    And, after several trips for Dad on the Ferris Wheel, mom finally got a chance.  That seat was meant to fit three, max, so it was a little snug.

We found a little mini-golf place in Cedarburg with a very generous owner who let us play as long as we liked and only charged us for three players.

 

The boys did a real round with mom and dad, then a second round as a free for all.  Here’s Luke sinking his putt.

Whoa… who taught Patrick how to hold a club??  Daddy??

Here’s Joe lining up a putt.  When he sunk it, he did a little celebration chant:  “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!  Loser, loser, chicken boozer!”  No joke, he made that up himself!  Let’s hope he didn’t know what boozer meant.

They also spent a lot of time rinsing the balls in the 18th hole’s water hazard.  They thought it was so fun to ‘rescue’ the intentionally shanked balls.  Don’t fall in, Andrew!

Glory to God

We caught Luke playing “air guitar” to the Gloria at Mass today.  funny stuff.

Pacifier Phil

Andrew lost his pacifier leaning over the groundhog exhibit at the zoo today.  Some poor animal thinking he’s getting a little treat will be having a hard time.  Yes, I informed a uniformed zoo worker.  No, I don’t want it back, even if it can be retrieved.

Company Picnic

You just can’t beat Scott’s company picnic for family fun.  The boys always look forward to it.  I think they believe that work is this much fun for Daddy everyday.   In case you’re wondering about the shirt Andrew’s wearing, and it seems familiar to you, yes, he IS wearing it in almost every picture this summer.  It’s a great shirt for a little boy to wear in a crowd, especially a little boy that wanders off quite a bit.  It’s super easy to spot him.   He wears it to every special event we go to… which is when we take pictures… which is why it seems like he’s always wearing it.

The three oldest boys at the top of the slide.

Luke and Patrick take the plunge

The Joey Jump game was such a crack up.  Note the flying kangaroo near the pouch.  Nice shot, Patrick.  Or Luke.  I can’t tell.

  Joe takes a shot at ‘The Man’  They had mostly the executives sitting for the dunk tank this year.  Pretty funny, unless you’re a 6 year old and you couldn’t care less who you were sending on their watery plunge.

Wait… All we need to fix this is a little screw and a screw driver.  Does anyone know where I can find a screwdriver around here?  Seriously, just a screwdriver.  Anyone, anyone?

Long Summer

I know I will be regretting saying this at some point (like when the wind chill is forty below and we haven’t been outside in days except to scurry to and from the car) but this has been such a LONG SUMMER for me!

With T-ball and swim lessons over, it’s pretty much just me and the boys. together.  non-stop.  all of the time.  Even the wading pools are closing, no VBS, no classes or activities to pass the time… it’s getting excruciatingly long.  I just want to be able to go to the grocery store without losing my mind.  When will school get here???  And how in the heck am I supposed to shop for school supplies before the first day of school??

The boys bought themselves a gumball machine with their allowance money.  Joe is 6 now and the twins are almost 5, but no one has really ever had gum.  Well, that has all changed.  Not only has everyone (including Andrew!) had their share, even things like the carpet, car seat belts, and Luke’s hair (see above) have gotten involved.  I can’t wait for that machine to break.

Sam and Tricia visit

Our friends from Columbia came to visit us.  You may remember Jaclyn, their oldest daughter and the love of Patrick’s life.  He’s always thinking of her when we talk about Valentines day.  Well, they came for a visit.  Bad timing for them since we were still without carpet for the basement.  So, if you’re keeping track, that’s 8 children, 12 people all together in our three bedroom, one bath house.  It was a little crowded, but totally manageable, and FUN!

We took a trip to the zoo.  Crazy times keeping them all together, but everyone had fun!  back row: Jaclyn and Patrick, front row: Luke, Sadie, Lexi, Andrew, Joe and Robert.  This was not an easy photo to take!!!

We also visited a splash pad and park.

Tricia and baby Robert

One of their three little girls, Sadie, even celebrated her fourth birthday while she was here. 

We had a pink cake!  (We don’t often get a chance for a pink cake in our house!)

When Sadie opened the gift the boys gave her, she actually hugged it!  You don’t get a better thank you than that!

 

PS – all photos are courtesy of Tricia!

Mosquitoes

Yikes!  They’re out of control here!  I remember biting flies, gnats and the dreaded chiggers in KC, but the mosquitoes here are TERRIBLE!  We played with the slip and slide in the grass and Andrew came in with 21 bites on his back.  Luke had 42 (that I could count)!!!

Andrew was so miserable that he woke up a few times in the night to scratch.  He took off his shirt and was scooting his back on the carpet just to itch it.  He looked like a little bear cub!  Poor guy!

Something cute Andrew says now:

“Oh!  I yike-ah dah cookie!” (Oh, I like the cookie – for those of you that don’t speak toddler)  He sounds like that foreign guy “You lika dah juice?”  I can’t remember what it’s from, probably some SNL skit.

Things are ‘changing’

For the first time in over 6 years, there is not a changing table up in our house!  No, Andrew is not exactly out of diapers yet, but the changing table is too small for him.  We’ll start potty-training when he’s almost three, maybe before then if he’s interested, but mommy isn’t interested yet.  It was just a big change for this family… a little reprieve from baby furniture and toys.  In fact, I need to toss a lot of baby toys around here.  Andrew is only interested in toys that his brothers play with, so the little kid toys get neglected.  Will it be that way for all of the rest of the babies in our family?

Speaking of which, (no, I’m not expecting) for some reason, the older boys have been interested in and asking for another baby in the house.  You would think the twins wouldn’t be such big advocates of new little ones since the little one we have is already making their lives miserable.  Andrew, in typical little brother fashion, is a pro at destroying puzzles, yanking away toys and causing general mayhem during playtime.

In other news, this weekend, we did two fun things:

First of all, we bought a swing set with a fort:

 

This is not a good picture, and Andrew is in the process of falling off the swing (unhurt), but you get the idea.  It’s a little rough, but we’re replacing old boards and some rusty swings as needed.  It was way cheaper to do this than to get a new one all together.  And, the family threw in a bike that was too small for their youngest.  It was well taken care of, and while it’s a bit big for Joe now, next summer it should be perfect.  Even if it’s not, heck, it was free!

 

On Sunday, we went to the county fair!  For some reason, we always love the corn pit, so here’s a bunch of shots for you to enjoy:

Patrick giving himself a corn shampoo.

 

Andrew loved jumping in.

Hey, Luke!  Whatever you do, don’t move that bucket on your head!

The boys always enjoy checking out the animals, and since we go before the rides are even open for the day, there’s no battles.  Patrick tried his hand at milking a cow…

 

You can see his anxiety at being so close to dairy!