6th get ade

This post title......wow......and THAT my friends is what happens when I try to do a post from my phone. Thank you auto correct.

Anyway..... 6th GRADE

I still don't hear much about his day except that is was boring w/o recess or P.E. He never has any homework (he finishes it in class or on the bus), Spanish is easy and for two days this week in Computer Tech class he played games the whole time since he was the only kid done with his project by Wednesday...... and he can  put 26 drops of water on a penny in science.

Oh, occasionally he mentions he likes the lunch I packed him......although I'm sure he would prefer eating the Chick-Fil-A and Papa John's in the cafeteria like some of the other kids at school.

That is all folks!!!!

For 2 weeks of middle school and THAT is what I get.

Oh well, I still love this kid.

And I guess I should be grateful he hasn't gone through that awkward looking stage everyone goes through during 6th grade.

He must get that from me.....

Oooooooor not.

School is IN

Here we go.......another school year to begin!

And it ALWAYS begins with Back-to-School night and meeting their new teachers. 

But we could NOT go around and meet the new teachers until Emerson got to visit his teacher from last year. Ya know the one that he REALLY liked? and that he LOVED spending time with when he stapled his finger? or the one that carried him off the playground in her arms when he faked having the hurt leg?

Oh, and I never mentioned she bought him his own napkins monogrammed with the letter "E" for him to eat his spaghetti with every day for lunch (yes, he asks me to pack him spaghetti EVERY. DAY.....and he is NOT a clean eater)

It was REALLY weird for me to go to the middle school one with Bronson though.....there's lockers.....and a lot of kids.....and a lot of hallways......and.....well, just an adjustment for me. They walked the new 6th graders around their schedule and thankfully I knew his leader person would NOT lose him because he chose to wear these socks. (where were THOSE when we went camping?!?!)

The next back-to-school tradition is a carwash on the Monday night before for Family Home Evening.

Yes, I said carwash......and you might be thinking that's boring and all, but you CLEARLY have not experienced a carwash in the Yeti. The kids love it.

However Kellyn was NOT so sure what she thought about it at first.

The kids with their Sonic drinks during the carwash......Aleeya loving it, Royce covering his ears because it was too loud(because obviously we Smiths aren't used to noise. *cough* *cough*), and Kellyn STILL figuring out if she liked it or not.

Okay, okay, she decided and she was 100% NOT LIKING IT!

Like I said, car washes are loud, so you can't really hear Kellyn losing it, or all the squealing with delight, or even the hollers from the backseat of "Mom, there is agua coming in through the back door!!!!"

Apparently it's more effective to make sure all the doors are closed tight before going through a carwash.

Huh.

School morning came bright and early with the school-aged kids heading out the door at 6 for the yearly IHOP-with-dad-on-the-first-morning-of-school-breakfast tradition

(*note*- if you have sensitive eyes you may want to put on sunglasses before viewing the below picture. Camden's shoes might in fact blind you)

Kellyn was NOT happy they left without her 

(everything is just worse at 6 in the morning anyway, am I right or am I right?)

So I have a 3rd grader

A 4th grader

A 1st grader

And *drumroll please*.........

A KINDERGARTENER!!!!

Iris was so pleased to get her tote bag (K5 students aren't allowed backpacks) with her name on it.

Their bus drove off and I couldn't help myself.....but something came over me.....in the form of a dance in the middle of the road while I belted out the song

"EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!!"

(Royce was not amused)

Next it was my middle-schooler's turn to leave and I wasn't as thrilled.....kinda mother-bear worried actually. But once again, I knew someone would find him if he gets lost with another pair of his neon socks.

I'm SO thrilled about school uniforms for Bronson's school!!!! (and he's thrilled there's no rules on which socks to wear)

My day passed so peacefully......Kellyn went back to getting her two naps, Royce needed his one, but I still couldn't wait to hear how their days went......ESPECIALLY Bronson's.

When they got home it's funny how the girls (especially Aleeya) told me EVERY detail of their day from who wore what to each word of the 3 songs they learned to what the teacher said about their skirt to what they played at recess.

Aleeya came home with a little braid in the back of her hair. I told her how pretty that braid was and asked who did it. She told me Najalen on the bus did.

Wanting to keep the dialogue going I responded that this girl Najalen sure knows how to make pretty braids.

Then Aleeya just said, "Najalen is a boy, Mom!"

Oh, obviously......because ALL boys are named that and can braid better then me. Silly me for thinking otherwise.

I cornered Iris to ask her about kindergarten and if she made any friends. 

Iris- Yep, I made 4 friends

Me- Oh, that's great. What are their names?

Iris: I don't know, but the one with the 2 necklaces was my favorite. You know those people that have black skin? Well she looks like them.

Me- How fun! And you don't remember her name?

Iris: I think it's "Sorry"

(proooooobably not, it what I thought.)

Turns out the next day she came home and the girl's name is Sorria (pronounced Sorry-a), so Iris was pretty close.

Me: What were the teachers like?

Iris: they were kinda mean and they kept telling me to whisper

(good luck with that teachers!!!!!! I've been trying to get Iris to talk quietly for YEARS and to no avail. Her voice is just loud, cutting and can break weak windows, so they are just going to have to deal with that)

Iris: Oh, and there's a girl in my class with a small hand! It's like so small, it's like Everly's size. And it doesn't even open or close. It just sits there.

Me: Well, I hope you were extra nice to her and tried to be friends with her. Plus, I want you to make sure you never say anything rude or mean about her hand okay?

Iris: Oh, I didn't, I just sat there at stared at it all day!!!

(Because clearly, staring isn't rude OR mean)

I HATE it that the boys I get the "Oh it was fine" answers. They all had a great day and nothing bad happened but I didn't hear much. I had to pry everything I got out......ESPECIALLY with Bronson. Gosh, I wish I could just send a camera attached to his backpack so I could've seen how his day went!!! Creepy? Maybe?

Emerson's second day ended up being better the the first he said, because that was the day that he brought his brown bag with "5 things that describe you".

He chose:

-a picture of our family

-a picture of spaghetti

-a picture of the 3 Stooges

-a picture of A&W Root beer

-and he brought a snake skin

A really really long and huge gross shedder-off snakeskin. 

Apparently it won over the class and I can picture him just sitting there with his smile.

So with this school year started I guess I better gear up for the inevitable school nurse calls coming my way. Bring it on.

The Last Weekend

Last weekend was our VERY last weekend before the school year starts!

I love how I have a husband that randomly surprises me with lining up a babysitter and announcing, "Get ready honey, we are going out!"

And out we went.

We went to a Japanese restaurant where they cook the food in front of you.

The last time we had been to a place like this was when we were dating...and the last time we have gone out to eat ANYTHING Oriental-tasting would be during my pregnancy with Bronson. Considering I ended up puking Chinese food up all night you can understand why it's been 12 years.

Anyway, BIG DEAL here (since Brooks loves the stuff)

We were sitting in a station with people who are "regulars". The lady sitting across from me was pregnant and it was her birthday. The Chef-knife-juggling-flame-starting guy asked if she wanted a surprise in her mouth. She smiled and said "oh no, I'm pregnant"

Then he asked if any of us are here for the first time. Brooks and I raised our hands after the guy next to us translated what the question was. You see, our chef guy was REALLY hard to understand....like REALLY.

So he asked Brooks if he wanted to try something and Brooks asked what it was. The chef answered and we didn't understand but Brooks said okay anyway (since he's a good sport). Then chef-man asked " 5 or 10?" The man sitting next to us kept saying "FIVE! FIVE! FIVE!" 

So Brooks said five.

Chef-man motioned for Brooks to open his mouth.

(I told him it might not be the best idea since a pregnant lady refused it. Meaning it's either alcohol, mercury-based seafood or....... or.......I couldn't think of what else, but I knew I just wouldn't open my mouth.)

Out came this yellow squirting bottle and in it went to Brooks' mouth.

" Oneeeeeeeeee

Twooooooo

Threeeeeeee

Fourrrrrrr

*pause*

Fiiiiiiiiiiive"

(SLOWEST FIVE SECONDS EVER!)

I watched his face and it started to grimace and his eyes watered, he dropped his jaw to hold more liquid since he was counting so slow. I was just impressed he could hold that much liquid.

He swallowed and said, "WHAT WAS THAT?!?! IT was TERRIBLE!"

By the third time chef-man answered we realized it was Rice Wine.

(Brooks' face kills me)

Actually he called it Japanese Moonshine.

The fact that my husband has never EVER in his life tried anything alcoholic made this all the more funny. His face was dying. He couldn't stop muttering, "That was terrrrrrrrrible! How do people DRINK this?!?! It really is TERRRRIBLE!" and he starts downing the ginger sauce sitting next to him to get the taste out. Lesson learned.

I told him I would be the designated driver.

Thankfully Brooks was able to wake up the next morning after his drinking issues the night before and we headed up to our old neighbor's "mountain house". The kids were so looking forward to the tubing on the river there that they jumped right in.

It was actually too shallow to really tube since the rocks poked out too much, but they didn't care.

While the kids tubed, Brooks disappeared in the garage and came out with a huge net. He was determined to stand in the river ever-so-still and a fish was going to swim right into his net. (I will not disclose how long he stood there but I will say he never caught a fish with that net.)

Ms. Kaye was such a kind hostess to my family.

Ms. Kaye (along with Royce and Iris' help) made a ton of water balloons for a big battle. She was so patient with them. Even though she never had any children all her days of being a school teacher sure helped her with patience! 

We probably spent over a hour filling water balloons and of course the battle ends in a few minutes. I was worried she would think "wow, that was a big waste of my time!"

After the water balloon fight (she had never been in one I'm assuming) she said, "That was worth EVERY minute feeling up those balloons!" It's fun having a family large enough that you can have legit teams.

Everly-the-Champ slept the majority of the time we were there. When I walked in her room upstairs she was lying on her back just kicking. As soon as she saw me she gave me this face. 

Love. her.

Eating and the water balloon fight were really the only two things that stopped Brooks from trying to catch a fish......he even resorted to using a fishing pole

After the hours we were there, it's pretty sad to report that he never caught a fish.

hahaha

For someone who does NOT like "wasting time" I sure found that funny.

Maybe the alcohol the night before was still messing with his judgement.....

Clearly, the whole day wore my kids out for the drive home.

CLEARLY!!!!

Nature Outtings

Me and the kids head over to our favorite trails close to us a lot during the summer. It's just the place you can load the shoeless kids in the car wearing whatever they are wearing (or NOT wearing)......and it's JUST US!

It's kinda our little place under the bridge. Brooks says he thinks the river is super dirty.......WHAT WOULD EVER GIVE HIM THAT IDEA?!?!?

But we figure if it's clean enough for these fish, it's clean enough for us!

Ready.......set.........JUMP!!!!

Okay, okay, so there's random tires and litter around! But we still like it. Iris calls it the "sparkly river" since it's sparkles (ya know.....with littered beer cans and pop cans and stuff)

The boys made a "dam" and used that to "mine" for their little fish. They usually catch around 20 so it's kinda exciting for them.

My job is to keep an eye on her......which on this day didn't turn out to be too hard.

However it proved a LOT more difficult to keep an eye on these mini frogs they caught. I was under STRICT instructions to not let them escape, so they required my full attention.

We also hike around the trails

We have a saying while we hike that "we're only as fast as our slowest person".....which is usually always Kellyn.

And when Kellyn doesn't meet their "speed" standards, one of them will come back and carry her for a while. (she's so spoiled). The rule is ALSO if the babies are losing it, then we turn around and go home.....so the older ones will do ANYTHING to keep them happy. haha

I don't know why, but I just love this picture of my kids.....all 8, dirty, in nature, and mostly without shoes......and they are ALL MINE!

Everly has to hike on my hip. She does okay since she has her fist and thumb to keep her busy. (The kids have been wondering which finger/fingers she would pick to suck on. The other week Iris came so excited yelling, "She picked a finger! She picked a finger!!! She's like Royce and picked her thumb!" Actually sometimes she does the thumb/index finger combo like Kellyn did)

Iris totally biffed it in the mud

And then Kellyn starts getting REALLY sleepy and the boys are still determine to hike, so here is what happens.

The walking makes Everly fall asleep too

Another time I was watching my friends' two kids and we brought them here too.

We found this awesome tree hanging over the river that the boys liked to jump from.

We played on that tree, jostled it and were really loud on it. As we were wading up the river to leave we looked into the branches and found this HUGE (biggest I've seen anyway) hornets nest.!!!!

Holy cow, that would've been bad.

Girlies

Brooks doesn't love the whole matchy-matchy thing.....

and he told me this AFTER I had already bought these matching skirts for my girlies last year while I was expecting Everly. It never hurts to pre-plan your petticoat purchasing. (How didya like THAT alliteration dad?)

And since Brooks was working on Sunday and couldn't come to church with me, I figured it was the PERFECT time to pull them out.

Such sweet and happy faces..............oh wait......

Wow, THIS should be a fun Sunday without Brooks!

Okay, how about the I'm-scared-to-death look....

Okay, THIS is more like it.

Love them.