Seven Students in School (It's Surreal!!)

1)

School started for Brendan this week.  Brendan is our new three year old, and also "the baby" of our big, crazy, loud family.  He has been so very excited to start school like his siblings, and besides a few potty accidents on the first day, seems to be thriving!  Gammy gave him a "Baby Shark" backpack for his birthday, and we had a shark lunch box, so he's in oceanic heaven.

2)

I loooooove that I have five kids at the Catholic P-8 school, and two at our Catholic high school, where both Phil and I work.  We are so lucky to have these schools available for our kids and I'm forever grateful.

I am also shocked that ALL of my kids are in school.

Guys.

Nobody is away at college, nobody is at daycare, nobody is in utero (that I know of!).

#goals

(It's only taken us 16 years to get here.)

From L-R: JP is a Junior, Eamon is in 7th, Xander is in 3rd, Brendan's in P3, Declan is in Kindergarten, Maggie's in 6th, and Andrew is a Freshman.  Five kids in one school, two kids in another - all the same colors!

7 Random Friday Thoughts

Linking up with Kelly with some Quick Takes...

1)

My new Kindergartner loves using the work "random" whenever possible.  We were at the playground last weekend and he kept hanging around me, so I told him to go play, and he said "I don't want to go play with random people!"  And the introvert in me totally gets it.

Thoughts on Being An Older Mom (After Years of Being a Young One!)

My my, how perspectives change with age.

I remember dropping off my first born to preschool when he was the ripe old age of 3 and I was only 27.  I distinctly recall seeing a mom in active wear with her 3 year old son that looked much older than me.  We later became friends, and I learned she was *gulp* in her 40s! 

A year later, I was still one of the younger moms dropping off my second child to preschool.  Two years later, I said goodbye to child three, and a year after that, child number four began.  There I was, 30 years old with four young kids, all in school.  

Story Land 2019: Ghost Cars, Scared Pandas, and DISCOUNTED TICKETS!

On Brendan's last day of being a two year old, we took the "littles" to Story Land in Glen, New Hampshire.  You're free until you're three at Story Land so we made the cutoff by the skin of our teeth.  First stop was a photo with the clown (I have one of these from each year we visit).

Next stop was the Antique Cars.  This line is always the longest and so we wanted to get in right when the park opened.  Funny story, I had just sunscreened and bugsprayed everyone when we got out of the car (we travelled from MA where EEE is making history this summer, unfortunately) and while we were in line, a little girl in front of us exclaimed "Something smells!" and her mom quickly shushed her.  I laughed and said "Oh it's us!  We smell like lemons from the bug spray!"  and we all chuckled at the little girl's lack of filter.

Conway, New Hampshire and My Baby is Three!

At the end of the spring, we decided to plan ahead for a little summer family getaway to New Hampshire.  We wanted to take the little three boys to Story Land (next post!) and we work with a friend who has a rental house in Conway.  Easy peasy!  Except!  Trying to squeeze in a time between summer camps, working, an internship, a math class, a basketball league, swim lessons, you get it!  We settled on a nice four nights in the middle of August, and then had to cut it short for Freshman Orientation.  Ugh.  Oh well, three nights was actually wonderful.  

How blessed am I.

7 Tips for Back to School

EASE BACK INTO THE ROUTINE

Summer is allllllmooooost over and I am trying to stretch it out as much as I stretched out the almost back there. ;) The busyness of the school year is always what slams into me the week before school starts, with supply drop offs, student orientation, parent back-to-school nights, soccer tryouts, and deadlines for that summer work they much procrastinated over.  Once we get back into the swing of things, I have to admit that I prefer the newness of the school year, crisp weather, and routines over the humid, lazy days of summer where kids remind me how bored and hungry they are all the time.  Oh, just mine?  The first thing we like to do to get our kids back in the school groove is to start whipping their bodies into shape.  With tryouts and practices coming next week, we strongly urge them to go for runs now so that they are  not the kid puking on the sideline on the first day of practice (true story).  We also bring their sleep schedules back into school zone...earlier bedtimes and wake up times for all to start getting ready for that 6:45 am departure time.  Ugh.  That sounds really early.  Better head off to bed now ;)