That time of the year...

when school starts and everyone at the stores are fighting over the last pack of loose leaf paper (until everyone realizes that they are bringing another box).

When the lazy days of summer are replaced by alarm clocks and routine. 

I hate this time of year.

I suppose that hate is a very strong word. I really tend to dislike the end of summer. The end of any break really. I enjoy break, a LOT :- ). I mean, I have a child of the age that I can utilize for a very large array of chores - what's not to like???

But there are more changes than school starting, but why don't we start here. (OH, and friends, I am still editing the vacation photos. I use "burst" mode to try to capture at least 1 decent photo in an array of 12ish, so, let's be patient shall we?? PLUS, I STILL don't have good photo editing software on my Netbook - but let's not start with that again...)

1. ADog is my new 7th grader. He's such a nice poser. Basically every "first day photo" since Kindergarten looks like this. Some have teary eyes, but this one doesn't. Same pose, same smile, different length of hair. He's good like that!

2. Then there is my new Kindergartener Agent P. Also a nice pose - however, not necessarily 'framable'.  All 5 I took look like this, or crazier. The kid was coming out of his skin for 3 days before school started. It's a miracle he I survived.

Agent P is in afternoon Kinder - but really, it's only like 3 hours. He rides the bus home with ADog and it is the sweetest thing!.

On day 2 of Kindergarten, he asked me why I was walking him to his class AGAIN. He KNEW where it was. I told him the school requires I do this, sorry. So he says "can't I just ride the bus to school?" So, now I don't make the 15 mile round trip journey, I let the bus do it. He just loves the independence - and it's all about him. (we won't go into MY feelings of rejection tho..)

3. I now drive a minivan. We knew we needed another vehicle that held all 6 of us - my sweet husband suggested the minivan. I personally was not a fan, but it works.

Pretty sure I was boon-doggled into this one.  I didn't realize that I would be driving it until we got it home and my sweet husband says "do you want help putting the car seats in there?". I mean we did trade in his car, not my suburban. Now the twins call the minivan mine and the Suburban mine. So sweet!

4. Our twins now sleep in toddler beds.

Personally I would have kept them in their cribs until at least 2nd grade, but one of my girlfriends is having a baby and I told her I would give her one of the cribs. So, since during vacation, the twins slept on the floor and that went decent ("well" would be overstating), we decided to bite the bullet.

Mini P has been ready for this for quite some time. We were waiting for Monkey and frankly, if I could have gotten away with him in a crib still, I would have. He is the worst at nap. While she stays in bed reading and goes to sleep - he plays loudly with trucks (siren and all), drops them on the wood floor, kicks the wall and gets out of bed for more toys. Yet, somehow, she sleeps thru it all for the most part.

Notice on the photo, where he has several letters from his name missing? Those were removed a few weeks ago. They are out of reach - so he must have used a book, truck or just banged the walls so violently hard that they fell down (and he subsequently destroyed them). Now I just call him "ike" :- )

5. I applied for one of my kids to join the circus. The Freak Show specifically. I'm sure Grandma would be super proud of this kid - but it is just wrong.

The question "why is he putting crayons between his toes" will just have to remain unanswered. Sometimes, there are just no answers.

Keep hanging on to the edge of your seat - vacation pictures will be up soon!