Busy, busy, busy!!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted! School is sucking the life out of us these days. I'll post a quick update now, then try to do more details and pictures next week.

The kids are still plodding along every day, trying hard to adjust to the new schedule. Some days are really good and we think "Yay! They're finally adjusting!" and other days (like yesterday) are bad and we take 2 steps backwards. Mornings are the biggest problem. We decided, after the first week of screaming our heads off at them in the morning to get going, that we would tell them once they need to get up, make beds, get dressed, brush teeth then they can eat breakfast. And if they didn't do that, they wouldn't have time to eat breakfast and they would go to school hungry. Well, several times, Xander has pushed it to the wire, getting his work done with 5 minutes to spare and scarfing down his breakfast as we were walking out the door. But, he's never gone to school without eating breakfast. Yesterday, Grace refused to get out of bed. She got her one warning and we left her alone. At 7:50 (we walk out the door at 8:00) we physically got her up, put everything on her, ran a brush through her hair, slapped her backpack on her back and shoved her out the door. She did not eat breakfast. She was pretty upset and skulked all the way to school. I asked her how her morning was and she didn't say much, though I gather she ate lunch pretty well. The afternoons are still challenging, with tired strung out kids. Xander pretty much cried all afternoon yesterday, over one thing or another. At one point, he was just sobbing and saying "I can't stop crying! I can't stop crying!" I would have him take a nap, if we had time for that and I thought he would sleep. He probably won't. The 7:30 bedtime is sticking around for now.

They have been bringing home huge amounts of homework. That is relative, I guess. Huge amounts of homework for 5 year old kindergarteners. Last Thursday, Xander had 3 pages (front/back/front) of math homework, he had to write a "story" about this bear he brought home, and had to cut something out of a magazine to bring back the next day. That, combined with practicing the piano, took us an hour and a half. It was insane! These poor kids' brains are fried. Thanks GOD the weather has been nice so they can go run off some steam outside.

One last piece of fun news. We think Xander has a crush on the neighbor girl, Nyah. She's in his class, and they live about 4 houses up on the other side of the road. He talked about her constantly. Always wants to go outside and play with her in the afternoon (which they've done several times). They invited us over last week for ice cream one night and he begs daily for us to invite them over (which we just haven't had time to do, since we've been so busy!) If she's already walking to school when we leave, he runs to catch up with her. And the other day, we started to walk home from school before her and he wouldn't leave until she caught up with him. Crazy kid! They really are a nice family. It's been nice getting to know her mom, Mindi, walking to and from school. I think we've found some new friends! Overall, it's been nice to hear the kids talking about playing with other kids from school, and talking about them. They've all made several new friends. The first (of many, I'm sure) birthday party they're invited to is next weekend.

Ok, I'll get pictures this weekend of Sebastian's 2nd birthday party and soccer. My days are filling up too, as now I have started school and I'm doing some volunteering in the kids' room. I've also jumped head-first into my duties as one of the coordinators of the multiples club. Keeping busy!!! More later!