First Day of Soccer Practice

Kherington had her first day of soccer practice.  I wasn't set on signing her up this year until I looked at the cut off age here.  The cut off is just 7 days after her birthday so she is youngest on the team.  My thoughts were that if I waited another year she would be that much further behind the other kids.

She was excited when I told her she was playing soccer this year.  I thought there might be a fight over wearing shin guards, but she was excited to put those and her cleats on.  When we got to the field for her first practice she didn't want to go play with the rest of her teammates. She was literally in tears.  I was that mean mom that said too bad you have to.  She loved it.  When it was time to go, she started whining that she wanted to stay for another practice.

More About Moving

Mom stayed a couple days longer and was huge help.  We spent one evening cleaning our old apartment, then then next morning I dropped her off and she cleaned while I worked out.  Not a bad deal :).  It was huge help and made it so Ryan didn't have to worry about anything (moving 15 days before one of his big deadlines might not have been the best time to move).

While we've been working on getting our new house put together, the kids have been left to fend for themselves quite a bit.  And by kids I mean Kevin (Kherington's in school and Jonathan is still pretty needy).  I found these pictures on the camera courtesy of Kevin.  He asked me to turn the timer on and this is what he did with it :).

We are enjoying all the extra room. A lot of it is empty, but it is refreshing to have that empty space.  I am sure with time it will get filled.  We have been good about unpacking boxes, but after spending so much time packing, we are starting to lose steam with actually organizing what we have unpacked how we want it long term.

Moving Day

 My mom and dad came into town on Thursday to help us with our move.  Before they came, I was sure it would take about 2 more hours to finish packing up our stuff.  Wrong.  I would look and think we were almost done, then the stuff would just keep coming.

On moving day my dad and Ryan were up at 4am, packed the boxes the truck and unloaded them at our new place.  They were back by 7am when a couple of guys from our old ward came to help move the heavy stuff.  It took about an hour to load.

When we got to the new place, we started putting the previously unloaded boxes into the correct rooms.  Then people from the new ward came to help unload the heavy things.  We had thought 4 people were coming but ended up with closer to 15.  It took 20-30 minutes to unload.  Then we had donuts and gaterade and everyone was on their way.  Pretty sweet.

Once they were gone, mom got to work unpacking the kitchen and dad built us some boxes so we can put up a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. 

Long School Days

While Kherington was at school, I took Kevin and his buddy Isabel to the splash pad.  They had a blast since all the older kids were back in school and they could rule the pad.  The pictures I took of them cracked me up.  I didn't realize until uploading them that they are both doing the same thing in each picture.  Cute kids.

The sun is still shining and the days are still long and hot.  On the drive home from school each day, all the kids fall asleep.

Kherington's First Day of School

Kindergarten starts at 7:40 here in Texas. That is crazy!  Plus for the first week of school we are still in our apartment which is a good 20-30 minutes from the school.  Well, we made it out the door in the morning. Kevin was excited to take Kherington.  It was pretty cute.  We took her to the cafeteria where they lined up, then the parents got to follow the kids to their classroom.  When I got there, Kherington had pulled her teacher (Ms. Augustine) aside and was showing off her $3 walmart backpack.  I told her we were leaving and she shrugged and when to her seat.  I thought it was going to be much more rocky than that.  Kevin was excited that they had donuts out for the parents and younger siblings. 

When I picked Kherington up she was super happy. She had a great first day.  I didn't get many details though.

I asked Kherington what she wanted to do to celebrate her first day of school and she said she wanted to get a pink smoothie from Costco.  We decided to go for dinner as soon as Ryan got home.  We also needed to pick-up a couple things and Jonathan rode in the seat part of the cart for the first time.  What a big boy!

Meet the Teacher

We had Back to School night at Kherington's new elementary school.  Kherington met her teacher, but wouldn't make eye contact or say her name.  Uh-oh.  We hung out a little in the classroom and I convinced Kherington to try saying hi again and taking a picture with her teacher.  Well, when we went to do it, there was another family chatting with the teacher and they just kept talking and talking and talking.  It was a bit ridiculous.  I ended up interrupting them to ask for the picture (which the teacher seemed thankful for).  While in the class the teacher had a table full of sign-up things and a whole packet full of paperwork to fill out before the first day of school.

The Kindergarten wing had Tupperware spread out for us to sort all the school supply items into then we headed to the cafeteria for more information sheets.  I signed up for the PTA and bought Kherington a school shirt (they are supposed to wear school color on Friday's...I don't know if this is a Texas thing or what but seems pretty standard here).

Library Summer Reading

We picked up summer reading calendars from the library at the beginning of the summer.  Each time the kids read for 20 minutes they got to check a box off.  For each 7 days there is a different reward that the library gives them. 

The kids were super excited to earn a medal (the final prize).  We did really good with the reading at the beginning of summer, we needed to refocus.  I would set the timer for 20 minutes and tell the kids to go read.  One of the times, I walked in to find Kevin laying in the middle of the books asleep.  Pretty cute.

They had just 5 days left until they finished everything but we decided to stop at the library to pick-up the other rewards they had earned with the thoughts that we would return in 5 days for the final reward.  The library gave them the medal even though they hadn't finished.  When I pointed out that they still had a couple day left the librarian just responded that she was sure they would finish.  It frustrated me since I want the kids to learn they need follow all the way through and earn their reward.  I took the medals away and made them finish up their reading.  When they finished we had a little award ceremony at home.