Life with School

I live in the car.

Now, some will say "No complaining! You did this to yourself!!" Well, of course I am not complaining so much as stating a fact. I.Live.In.The.Car.

Five kids, three schools. Where else would I be?!

I also have a problem with raising my hand and saying pick me! I'll do it! Which means I also am at these three school helping a lot. Although I think that is part of my job. But I did sit on my hand pretty well this last week when some things came up I technically did have time to do but I had other things screaming my name at home.

Bailey has been having meets on most Saturdays. He now loves practice and they run them 4-5 miles a day, 5 days a week. You can imagine I am also living at the grocery store to keep up with his food intake:)

He has brought his times mile down from 9 minutes to 7:45 and is super excited to get it down further. 

Emma is my musician, learning piano and ukelele.  She is a natural at piano and I am excited to have someone musical in the house. 

 I come in to Nathan's class once a week to do handwriting with the 1st graders. I also went on Nathan's first field trip with him. He loves when I am field trips so he can hold my hand and sit in my lap. At almost 7 that's pretty good and I'll take it while I can.

 At the Rocklin Police station

 The whole class in jail

Hopefully not future inmates

 Kate and Addison also had their first field trip to the Loomis Flower Farm.

 They got to do something so other Oram child has-Ride the Bus

 You would have thought they were going to Disneyland or something the way they talked about this bus ride for weeks. The other kids were jealous that the twins were able to ride a bus when they never have.

 Part of the field trip was harvesting the carrots on the farm

 The guide was Farmer John. He is now a celebrity in our house

 She wasn't too excited to pick the carrots.

Until they picked a large batch of them and then it was somehow fun.

 Looking at the baby chicks

 She found this orange on the ground that wasn't quite ripe.

 The TK class posing on the lawn

Playing tag while waiting for the bus to take them back to school. Half the kids were on meltdown status before the bus even came back to get them. It's hard being a TKer!!

 Happy to have Mom on the trip

It wouldn't be complete without a picture all together with Lauren and Maddie

Flashback a few weeks to our temple trip with the youth. Bailey got to go in for the first time. It was a great experience to share with him.

 The entire group

 Smart thought of the day: Buy $6 in Walmart costume supplies to get 4 dozen doughnuts on Pirate Day from Krispy Kreme

Dumb result: They wouldn't give them out per kid, but per family (even though it advertised per kid!)

Oh well...

Yes, we see them a lot:)

Emma was upset on day trying to write her talk for primary. Big brother Bailey to the rescue. It was too cute.

We have to put Alyssa on the blog! Their favorite babysitter (who isn't a grandparent:) )

And now I am finally caught up!

Tooth Fairy 3

This tooth held on for a LONG time. I tried the daddy washcloth trick and it didn't go as planned. Usually, Ben will tell them he is going to "wash" the loose tooth. When he puts the wet rag on the tooth it very easily falls out with a small tug. I thought how simple that must be, right? WRONG.

Instead, I got greedy and tried to pull both bottom teeth out since they were equally loose (or so I thought). There was a yank, a loud popping noise and lots of blood. No tooth was out. Nathan was crying, I was apologizing....and one of the teeth was just hanging. I don't know why he let me do it again to clean up the blood but I got one of the teeth out. He was so excited he forgave me for almost killing him previously.

Phase 2

I am not sure how many phases on child rearing there are. But I have most definitely moved into a new one. All of my children are in school. Not even half days, but full day, minimum 9-2 I have no little ones to chase after. Still not sure how I feel about this. It's been a whirlwind for sure. It is probably obvious that I am blogging about the first day of school weeks after it actually happened.

 These two were the first to go, a full week before the others. They have been waiting for this day all summer and we were very fortunate that they got in. 

Maddie, Addison, Lauren, Kate

 

Since birth, Melanie and I have been "forcing" these girls to all be friends. What's cuter than two sets of twins only 2 months apart being friends?

Pictured here is their very first photo op and their photo together on the first day of school. 

The girls LOVE school and are doing really well. It will make Kindergarten next year so much easier for them, because they can call this Transitional Kinder all they want but it's Kindergarten:)

This guy was next.  A new school, yikes! Bailey started at Western Sierra Collegiate Academy for 7th grade. This means changing classes, lockers, and all that good stuff. The first week was tough for him. I don't even think I can really write how I was feeling that week. It's so hard when you can't do anything to help them adjust and figure things out. Tears were shed (although maybe more from me at night while trying to sleep). But he is working through it and has really progressed so much faster than he ever used to. He joined cross country and is excited for the season. 

First and Fourth Grade

This was the easiest send off! Nathan has the same teachers and Emma has Bailey's previous ones. Nathan still loves going to school and hates weekends when he can't be there. Emma is social as ever and is really doing well with the new pile of work that comes with 4th grade.

This was taken the day everyone was all in school for the first time. Now, it was sort of a teaser as Emma and Nathan had half days all week. It took a few weeks to really have everything start to be normal. We have a nice little routine every day. I am getting better about packing lunches the night before. Getting all of them ready to walk out the door in the morning is quite interesting sometimes. Especially since I have to look normal too. Kate and Addison's school isn't a drop off, but a walk up to the class room. I can't be in my pjs for that...although some days I might be close. 

People keep asking me how it is with everyone in school, but I don't know if I can answer that yet. My head is still reeling from trying to get every calendar item programmed in my phone!