Hunter's First Week of Kindergarten is Done

We're done with our first week of school. Hunter had a half day with me on Wednesday, an early our on Thursday and a full day on Friday. As I said in Hunter's kindergarten post, he left for school on Thursday morning via the bus, and was so focused on getting on the bus that he didn't say good-bye or at least look back and wave. I was a little heartbroken! But that was nothing compared to after school.

JP came with me to pick Hunter up at the bus stop after school. We walked across the street so I could get a couple pictures of him getting off the bus. (I was going to get some of him getting on the bus in the morning, but I was busy talking with my neighbor that I opted to not cut our conversation short. Plus I had Charlotte with me.) As soon as he got off the bus, he took off down the road towards home with a neighbor boy. He was very anxious to play with him, but his friend had to go home and ask him mom if he could play first, and I made sure Hunter came home to tell me about his day and to at least drop his backpack off. I didn't get much out of him as, "I have to be outside and ready to play when Devin comes out!" 

But Devin never came out to play. I offered up reasons to Hunter as to why he probably couldn't play, but Hunter insisted on waiting in their driveway longer. In perfect timing, two other neighbor girls, who are the same age, came out of one house and ran to the others house. Hunter asked them if he could play, but was turned down. Shortly after, another girl and her younger brother, who is JP's age, were just getting home, and they couldn't play either. I felt terrible for him!! All he wanted to do was play with someone and no one could or wanted to play with him. 

We went inside as a meltdown was happening since Devin still wasn't coming out to play. We sat on his bed together and he cried and cried. I can't tell you how many times he said, "I just want to play with Devin." My heart hurt for him. I asked him about school again and if he met anyone. He didn't. I asked him who he sat with on the bus going to school. "Nobody." How about on the way home? "I had to sit with myself cuz nobody wanted to sit with me." I believe it was at that point that we both were crying. I could completely relate to how he was feeling. Rejected and friendless. He cried for quite a while and it just broke my heart!

Other than after school, I got the feeling that he did enjoy school though. I thought they had PE on Thursdays, so I asked him if he got to go to the gym and play. "No." Why not? "I didn't behave good enough to go." Oh...What happened? "I was playing with some of Ms. Lubke's stuff." And she asked you not to? "Yeah..." Turns out they didn't even have PE, because PE is on Fridays so I'm not sure what happened there but he reassured me that, "I only got in trouble two times. Just two times." Oh good! He mentioned that they painted though - that I can believe!

Friday morning, Aunt Bobby and a friend of hers walked Hunter down to the bus and again I didn't get a good-bye wave or something similar. And Nanny and Papa were waiting at the bus stop when he got home. He got off the bus and ran straight to Charli, as she was waving frantically from her stroller saying "hi" but ignored the rest of us and walked home holding his neighbors hand.

At bed time, he expressed how much he wasn't liking kindergarten. It's not what he was expecting. I think once he's gets to know the others in his class and what's expected of him, he'll come around. He was sure to note that he didn't get in trouble at all either!

I Love a Good Rain Storm...and So Do My Kids

The other last week we had some pretty mellow summer weather where it didn't get excruciatingly hot. We had days that had high around 75 and those days I wanted to turn the heater on in our house...In the evenings we had a few days that came with down pouring rain. I loved every minute of it! 

 

It probably poured for about an hour, and the sound of it was music to my ears!

Isn't she just the sweetest thing? I love when she lets me pull her hair back! She just recently learned how to climb on the couch and loves looking out the window.

We recently finished reading "The Boxcar Children" (in one day mind you) and Hunter had the kids on his brain. Shortly after it started raining, Hunter called out to JP, "Get the pans! We have to collect the rain like the Boxcar Children!" Before they left the house, I made sure they had at least a jacket on. Hunter came up also wearing B's laundry hamper liner...

They spent A LOT of time collect rain from the leaky gutters, just to throw into the grass and start over. They were acting like they had never seen rain before!? But I suppose it's not every day you get to run around and play in it!

B had even ventured out in the rain when I was photographing the boys. She loved it just as much!

It was raining so hard that just walking across the patio to get her, left me drenched. You can imagine how soaked the boys were after playing outside for about twenty minutes. I let B toddle around the patio for a few minutes but brought her in when she started sucking all the water off the patio like a dog...

I Officially Have a KINDERGARTNER!!

I've been in denial for quite awhile about Hunter being in Kindergarten this year. In fact, he's at school now, and even though JP and B are still home, I feel....empty? I don't know if that's the right word, but I feel like something is missing. Yet, at the same time, I feel calm, which is a HUGE 360 from yesterday.

 Yesterday was his first day of school, but for Kindergartners, parents come with on the first day to help ease them into school. Both of us were SO excited while we counted the days down for the last two weeks!

 We had a great morning, better than I expected it to go! I went down to wake him up and just as I was walking into his room, he was coming out, fully dressed. Yessss!! We didn't have to fight about breakfast either. YESSS!!! We had plenty of time for pictures too!

 When Aunt Kim came over to watch JP and Kiki, she even snapped a few of me with my big kid! And then off to school we went, and that's when things started going downhill... He wanted to sit in JP's carseat, and was mad he couldn't get it buckled...We had to park around the block and he "didn't want to walk that far!!"... "I don't want to line up, I want to play!" When we finally did line up, "MOM! Walk FASTER!" Hunter, there are people in front of us, we need to use our patience... It was one thing after another. I was frustrated to the max with him by the end of the morning. At one point I wanted to leave and just cry.  

I know he was nervous. He didn't want to let go of my hand for a second, which was super frustrating. He couldn't sit on the carpet for a story without me. When I gave in, he refused to just sit there; instead he HAD to lay on me and wave his pipecleaners around. Please stop, you're poking the kid in front of you. "No! These are my swords!" Gahh! After the story, the kids followed their teacher around the room in a line singing songs. Not Hunter. "I don't WANT to do that!" I was surprised that he willingly let go of me and went to the library with his 'mates. (I'll assume he did just fine there.) Upon his arrival back to class, he put up a stink about making a craft, which really surprised me because he loves to craft and glue stuff together. We he finally decided he would make it, he picked out the glue he wanted to use and began, but threw a fit a few minutes later because he wanted to use the girl next to us's glue. And then he just got up and left to go play bean bags. Why is my kid the only one in the class acting like this?! After the craft was done, they had another story, and he willingly let go and sat down in the front row (and flipped threw her folders the whole story). 

Maybe I put too much pressure on his first day going smoothly. Maybe my expectations of him were too high. Usually when it's just Hunter and mom, he is a great kid. He listens, he's respectful, he's fun to be around. It's when he's with his brother that he starts acting out. I was a little taken back by how his morning at school went. It kind of goes with out say that his attitude carried on throughout the rest of day too. I was beyond frustrated with him. I wanted his first day of school to be a memory I wanted to remember. Now I'm just hopeful the rest of the year goes 100% better. 

 This morning went much better too! Hunter's school qualifies for a special program allowing all the students, low income or not, to receive free breakfast and lunches. He decided this morning that he wanted to try out the school breakfast so all he had to do was get dressed, brush his teeth and grab his backpack. He was still up WAY too early, but I'm okay with that. He was very anxious to get out the door when he saw he saw his neighborhood friends walking to the bus. JP decided to stay home, but Charlotte and I took him to the bus stop at the end of the road. He was SO excited to push B in the stroller that he forgot about walking with his friends.  

 There was probably about 12 kids at our bus stop. While he waited he played with the other kids, and as soon as the bus came, he got in line and hopped on. 

He didn't say good-bye or even throw me a wave! I'm pretty sad about that! But good grief is my house quiet now!

The Fair is in Town!

All day today, JP had been asking over and over, "When we're going to go to the parade?" Over and over I told him, "We're not going to a parade, we're going to the fair, as soon as dad home." When Perry arrived home from yet another business trip, he finished up some work while Charli napped, and I read out of my Beatrix Potter book in the backyard to the boys. I hoped to go to the fair in the afternoon before the swarms of people arrived. Perry thought we were going after dinner... When we finally arrived, the boys were SO anxious to hop on the rides!

 During our slumber party last night, I told Hunter and JP that the first child to go to sleep would get to pick the first ride at the fair. I thought JP would win, but Hunter passed out long before JP did. He chose to ride the airplanes first. I was shocked to see JP in a blue plane...

Right next to the planes was the Dragon Wagon. Knowing how much fun they had last year on it, they were eager to go again. 

 Except this year, JP was TERRIFIED! He was almost in tears!

 Charli was a handful for most of the fair. I think she was mostly hungry, but good grief is she going to be hard to ever leave with anyone...I WANT MOMMY! 

 She was a handful, but a trooper. The boys must have rode the helicopter at least 4 times. JP's favorite ride again. 

 When he saw the slide, he was super excited to go down it, but once it was his turn to go up, he decided against it and let Hunter go by himself. Hunter loved it! 

 After a few more rides on the helicopters, Charli was anxious to get out of the stroller... She wanted to walk everywhere!

 Hunter went on the dragon a second time, and enjoyed it much more without his crying brother. 

 The kid behind him? Not so much...

 I take it back, this was JP's favorite "ride." You climb to the top to go down a slide...

 Hunter enjoyed this kid version of a free fall ride. But it was much slower and didn't go very high...You can see how exciting the one girl is about it...

I cut Hunter's hair today. Isn't he handsome?! And doesn't he look so grown up?! Like a kindergartner!

I do miss his curls though...

We Have Raspberries!

When I was little, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I recall going to my best friend's house to pick raspberries in their backyard. We would crawl through the large bush-like patch just to get the best ones, even if it meant getting scratch after scratch. Eventually they took their raspberry patch out, and ever since, I've longed for my own. 

In high school, I thought about planting raspberries in my parents backyard, but realized by the time they produced raspberries, I wouldn't be around to enjoy them. So I waited. And waited. When Perry and I bought our house 5 years ago, we happened to get neighbors who would let Hunter and JP come over and pick berries and that made me want my own patch even more! Finally three years ago, we transplanted some sprigs off their patch, plus a couple from our local nursery. That year I harvested a solid 3 raspberries. Last year there was a handful more, maybe 15. This year rocked! I harvested enough for a batch of jam! (And it's deliciously amazing!) And we still had more than enough for just eating! I told Perry that I would be happy to make my millions growing and harvesting raspberries....Maybe some day!

We only have a couple berries left to pick now, but as soon as Charlotte is outside, she's off to the garden!

She knows how to find the good ones!

And nothing will get in her way...not even the fencing!

MOM! Charli's in the raspberries again!

 If we were playing hide and seek, she'd win every time!

Have I told you how much she adores Hunter, and how much Hunter adores her? It's so dang cute!

Camping at Grandma's House

On Friday, while Perry was working from home, I asked if we could set the tent up in the backyard for the boys to sleep in that night. We hadn't been camping yet this year, and I thought this would be fun for them. He responded with a, "why don't we just go somewhere to camp?" After a busy few weeks, I thought this would be the last thing he wanted to do. We hadn't discussed where we'd camp, but agreed to go somewhere. At dinner with Grandma that evening, she told us how she was planning on going to Whitefish to unload a grill for the house, without any help, so we volunteered to meet her there to help, and then go camping after. 

We scrambled around Friday evening and Saturday morning to get everything packed up. It *barely* fit! After a long drive to Whitefish with a lot of traffic, we met up with Grandma and had lunch at MacKenzie River Pizza before we went out to the house. Although the house had a ton of mosquitoes, the kids enjoyed running around for a few minutes. Charlotte enjoyed running/scooting/rolling down the hill off the deck. SO cute to watch! I would say she's walking 50% of the time now!

Before we left Whitefish, we stopped at Whitefish Lake to meet up with a mutual friend of mine and Perry. Unfortunately they were out on a paddle boat when we arrived which caused us to miss out on seeing them. (I'm hoping to take the kids back up there this week to see them again though!) We finally made it out of Whitefish around 4:00 and planned on camping somewhere in the Swan Lake area, about  2 hours away...and once we started exploring the area, we found every spot was taken. At that point we decide to just camp out at Placid Lake outside of Seeley...when we arrived there, we discovered every spot was taken there too.... So we camped in Grandma's backyard by the river. Basically we spent a total of about 6 hours in the car thorough the entire day, and ended up camping 50 miles from home...

 Camping at Grandma's had a couple big perks though! For one, we were able to use the tractor to haul everything back and forth. For two, it had a bathroom. Enough said. 

Before Perry and I could even get our stuff down by the fire pit, the boys were already playing in the river. Hunter was crawdad hunting and thought he found one. 

 Charlotte was a trooper the entire trip. She hardly fussed at all. She napped for a total of maybe 2 hours throughout the day. And missed out on her morning and afternoon snack. 

 The boys were awesome too! They also missed out on an afternoon snack and kept their attitudes in check throughout the day even though dinner didn't happen until close to 8:00p. 

 After a little arguing, we finally had the tent set up. Perry hates reading the directions...

 Once the boys finished eating, I told them I had a surprise for them - Glow-in-the-dark bubbles. Except they either didn't work, or it wasn't dark enough. I bought glow sticks and dump the insides into the bubbles, and the container was glowing, but the bubbles didn't. 

 Luckily I brought other glow sticks to play with. 

 Like these glasses. Hard to keep on, but fun in the dark!

 Charlotte had her fun with the glow-in-the-dark stuff too!

 JP probably had the most fun though!

 We all crawled into bed around 10:30 and despite the few rocks we were laying on, we all fell asleep fairly quickly. Charlotte woke up around 1:15 and cried for a while. She was probably out of sorts being outside in the dark. After about fifteen minutes of bawling, she finally calmed down, and slept with me. She did the air sucking thing that people do after they stop crying for about half an hour. Does that have a name? 

Just as she was sound asleep, it started sprinkling...Before I knew it, we were in the middle of a down pour with flash lighting and LOUD thunder. It woke Perry up (which is hard to do) and even though two of us were talking in our normal voices, it was still hard to hear each other. Charlotte and Hunter slept through it all. JP woke up at the end of the thunderstorm. He came over to me and told me he was scared, and asked to snuggled with me. Before I could even get a word out, he was snuggled up on my pillow, asleep. Once Perry and I were done laughing about it, I woke him back up to go get his sleeping bag and bring it over next to me. After he was laying there for a while, I asked him how he was doing. "Not good mom!" He then scooted to the bottom of his sleeping bag and plugged his ears for a while... I was just glad JP and Hunter didn't wake up during the storm and need to go to the bathroom! Perry left the tent for a while so he could watch the storm, and there was no way I was about to leave the tent, let alone my sleeping bag!

 I did get to wake up to this cutie though! Actually, it was the sounds of her and Hunter giggling, as he had crawled into the pack-n-play to play with her before we everyone else woke up. 

By the time we left the cabin, we had a lot of tire people! And I'm the only one who hasn't napped yet! Not fair!