School Memories

Last week was a great week for the kids with school. James did not complain once about going to school and John came home with school work that made me laugh. Tuesday John came home with a paper that was testing their comprehension of a story. Apparently the story had something to do with rules and following them. The last question was to think of rules you have at home and list one of them. John's response was "Do not use bad words". The very next day John had a paper that had a list of words that had the ending -all. You had to fill in the blanks with these words. When John gets something wrong I look at it to see if I can explain what went wrong and also to see if I can understand his thinking. He got two sentences wrong. The first sentence that was wrong that I looked at was "That man had a lot of ________" John selected the words balls. At this point I'm laughing hard on the inside then I look up to see the word he should have used. The correct answer was gall. I knew he didn't know what gall meant. When I asked him, he said - Mom, "That man has a lot of ball" doesn't make sense, I don't get it. I said the correct answer is gall. He said I didn't know what that meant, I thought it was a fish (like seagull). Now I understand why he put gall in the sentence "That man kicked the ______ in the net". Part of me wants to know what the teacher thought when she read his paper especially how John wrote not to use bad words at home the day before.

Having Fun

I don't know who is enjoying Patrick being in school more - me or him. It has been so nice to have just Tommy around. What is really great is Tommy is not at all clinging to me like I thought he would. He is a happy little guy playing by himself and using his imagination. Just like I figured he doesn't complain when I want to go to a store to look.

Patrick seems like he is enjoying school. I think he likes interacting with the other children. Because of school he seems to have fun playing with other children when we go to parks and is not shy.

I know he LOVES playing on his soccer team. Yesterday when we were walking to his game he was skipping down the street singing and being happy in his super large soccer uniform. It was so cute to watch. He is doing very well too. He hasn't scored a goal on his own where he kicks it in. He kicked a ball last night and another girl on his team pushed it in the goal with her hands. Either way he skips back to the middle of the field to get ready to play again.

Letting go

Tomorrow is a big day in our house. Patrick will be starting 3 year old preschool. It's hard to believe his social and school career is starting. Patrick is very much happy about being a big kid. He has been asking "When is it my turn to start school/" just about every day for the last two weeks. We met his teachers and dropped off supplies on Tuesday. The teacher had the kids listen to a story about going to preschool. It was so fun to observe Patrick sitting and listening to someone else read a story and answer their questions.

This weekend we watched movies of when James and Patrick were babies just learning to either crawl or walk. It seems like a lifetime ago when they were babies. I have very much enjoyed this new stage in our lives without strollers and 3 different sizes of diapers in the diaper bags. A little of me is sad too. Thank goodness Tommy still loves to cuddle with me.

Tommy will have some adjusting to do. I'm pretty sure he thinks he and Patrick are twins and whatever Patrick gets to do, so does Tommy. It will be nice having some time with just Tommy to run errands and hopefully do a few fun things before the weather gets cold. When I go out with just Patrick and Tommy now it feels like they are my 2nd family with John and James being my 1st family.

We are now letting go of summer and beginning Fall. I am now wondering if the jeans I have fit everyone not only in the waist but in length too. Oh yea and do I have enough. I love shorts - have enough of them and I don't have to worry about length!

Summer is winding down

It is hard to believe we will be meeting John's teacher tonight and dropping off his school supplies. The 8 weeks of swimming lessons went by so fast. I don't think I ever had the feeling like we have been doing this forever - maybe because this year I did not have to get a stroller out of the trunk! John passed to level 4 in swimming and James and Patrick know how to swim the front float and some back float. They both are not afraid of jumping in the water. Tommy isn't either and he hasn't been to a lesson yet.

Last week John and James went to Bible School. They enjoyed it very much. As always the closing concert on Friday evening was jammed pack with family members watching their loved ones sing songs they learned from the week. I'm actually enjoying the post concert as we continue to play the CD in the car. I hear both boys sing the songs.

This being the last week of summer, I've jammed pack the week with fun for one last time. Monday we went to the Farmpark and Captains game at night. Tuesday James had bus safety class at school and in the evening I took them to Cleveland Browns Training Camp. They seemed to enjoy watching it. I was a little disappointed we couldn't be a little closer to the action. We ran into two areas of heavy traffic and that delayed us. Not to mention I needed to stop and put gas in the car and then we needed a potty break at a gas station. We finally parked the car and walked down the street to the practice field. I can't believe Tommy never complained because I know I was walking fast trying to get to the practice. He was probably happy to be out of the car after being in it for over an hour. Yesterday I took the boys to the Zoo in the morning and the Lake County Fair last night. They enjoyed looking at most of what the fair had to offer. Patrick did not appreciate getting to close to the cows that were laying down. They did like the caged birds - turkey and chicken. Of course they loved the rides. We were lucky one ride worker was in a generous mood because he let the boys ride 2 rides for free (without giving up our tickets) The last ride was very cool. It was a line of trucks linked together like a train. The lady let the kids ride for 3 or 4 minutes. They all wanted to do a fast pitch game which I nixed because I didn't want to blow all the $ I brought with me. Today was "get ready for school" day. The boys got haircuts, we bought jeans for John and James, and everyone got tennis shoes. They probably can start the school year in their old shoes but the store had buy one get one half off and then I had a 20% coupon to use on top of it. So I got 4 pairs of tennis shoes for $60. James talked me into some non-tying shoes which then led to John getting some non-tying shoes. They have elastic shoe laces. Both promised to continue to practice tying shoe laces. James' are pretty cool as they are Star Wars. John used to not untie his shoes half the time so I figured might as well be able to get the non-tying ones too. I'm not sure what is on tap for tomorrow in the morning. I am thinking Penitentiary Glen and then in the evening we have another Captains game.

Our Fall is going to be another busy sports filled time. James and Patrick are in soccer. Both have enjoyed practices so far. They should be starting games in 2 weeks. John is going to play Fall Baseball. Games so far look to be Saturday mornings. He will play double headers. First game at 9am and the next at 11am. I hope he doesn't get too burned out but he has had a month off. I'm not sure how long they will play. I'm guessing maybe to the beginning of Oct? That will put a wrinkle into their leisurely Saturday mornings.

Patrick will start school the Tuesday after Labor Day. I think he is anxious to go and see his classroom. They moved the location of the preschool to be in the same building as the K-8 kids. I'm anxious to see how drop off will go. I just got the bus schedules for John and James and they moved up their pick up time by 3 minutes. I'm definitely going to have to have my act together 3 days a week.

This is one HOT Summer!

We hit the pool or splash park a lot this week because it has been so hot. Poor James had a terrible accident at swim lessons on Thursday. His swim teacher wraps him & Patrick up in their towels. When they get close to me they get excited and started to run. I just finished saying walk when James lost his balance and fell face first. His hands were under his towel so he couldn't use them to break the fall. He face is pretty scratched up. Because we are going to the pool it seems to be healing fairly quickly.

I can't get over how well all the boys are doing in their swimming lessons. James & Patrick both can do the front float and they are now working on their back float. In the beginning of summer they were afraid to jump in but now there is no fear of that. Tommy still has no fear of jumping in but likes me to catch him. John is just amazing to watch when he does the front crawl or elementary backstroke. Two more weeks and lessons are over. Its hard to believe!

John is going to be in the city's Swim Show again. James said he didn't want to and I wouldn't let Patrick. Its a long night so I'm fine with their decisions.

Apparently size matters

Well - at least to Patrick. For the past month he keeps asking me either before or after him using the bathroom or the tub if he has a big penis. I tell him its the perfect size for a little boy now leave it alone! He has even bragged to his brothers that he has a big penis. Gosh, can't wait till he hits puberty!

In other news.. Baseball season is wrapping up. James had his last game last night and John is almost finished with their season ending tournament. John's team made it to the championship where they will play at Captains Stadium. I think more than anything he is really excited about playing on their field. I regret not asking for a new coach for James this year. Not once did they play catch before a game. She really didn't have much control over the kids. I don't think James got to be the home run hitter once but he got to play first base almost every game. I really have to think about putting Patrick in t-ball. I think he will enjoy the social aspect but hope that he will learn a little bit about the game. James is to move up to baseball next year and I'm not sure how ready he is. It will definitely be a learning experience for him.

John going off the dive

He did this on Wednesday and then Thursday when I didn't have my phone he did a cannon ball! Friday he wouldn't do the cannon ball again so I couldn't film it.