The end of summer

A week ago I posted about Labor Day, and how it always signifies the end of summer to me, despite the fact that temperature here will be hot for at least another six weeks. And true to form, we are once again getting sucked into the hectic and wonderful and activity packed days of the school year and fall, and the lazy days of summer are starting to feel like a memory.

Once we hit September, our lives get busy in a way they are not all summer, and they will stay that way until school end again. There is school, obviously, and carpool and playdates and field trips and volunteering. Then there are the sports. Soccer just started again, and this year we have both L and L2 on two different teams, with S coaching L2's team. this means two separate practises a week, two games, snack duty and making sure everyone has their cleats and water bottles and jerseys.

And finally, as the weather starts to cool and the days get shorter, we move away from the long lazy days at the pool and move into doing more community type events. Farmers markets and festivals and events at our local parks that cannot happen when it is 120 degrees outside slowly start to come out of hibernation.

This weekend, in honor of 9/11 (Can you believe it's been 15 years? I cannot. It feels like yesterday.) out local firehouse had an open house. We went and the kids got to climb in the firetrucks and we got a tour of the station, and most importantly we got to thank these amazing men and woman for keeping us safe in our little community.

L and R especially liked the firemen hats they got, and getting to sit in the trucks, and L2 loved just watching the all the huge trucks!

After the forestation, we had our first soccer game of the season, S's first coaching game of the season, and L2's first game ever.

If you've ever watching a bunch of 3-4 year old play soccer you know it's..... well it's an adorable disaster. L2 spent most of the game just standing in the middle circle, and most of the time he was facing the wrong direction!

It was cute to watch though, and the most important thing is that he had fun. And it was also pretty amazing watching my hunky husband coach the team.

Hope you all are enjoying falling out of summer and into fall as much as we are!

Crafty Crafty!

As we head into Landon's second year of "real" school (first grade) I have to say, I am loving every second of it. Being a stay at home can be lonely, and hard, and tedious sometimes ( a lot of the time!), but I have found that I really love the school aspect of it.

And, no, I don't just mean sending him away to school for eight hours a day!

No, I really love being involved and doing this for him and for his school. I heading into my second year of being homeroom mom, which I loved last year and I'm sure I'm going to love this year, and I'm finding myself looking forward to doing things that I would have hated a few years ago.

I mean, I was a sorority girl for four years and my friends used to have to drag me kicking and screaming to anything craft related, but tell me that my son needs a Polk-a-dot shirt for dot day next week and I'm calling all the girls and getting us together to paint shirts for them!

I had more fun doing this than I would normally admit, and I think they turned out pretty cute!

And the best part is "dot day", which is obviously out of uniform shirts (apparently the dots signify every ones individuality?), also falls on L's bday next week! So the whole day now feels like even more of a celebration!

Labor Day 2016

Last Monday we celebrated Labor Day, which to me symbolically indicated the end of summer.

I say symbolically, because it will still be what the rest of the county considers "pool weather" for at least another 6 weeks, if not longer. I, however, am ready to pack up the swimsuits, light the pumpkin candles and start wearing sweaters, jeans, and boots.

But we had a great last pool party, even if we may still have a few pool days left in us!

Some good friends of my parents actually live in our town, and they invited us to a small BBQ at their house. The kids love them, and it ended up working out perfectly because my parents decided to make a last minute, surprise appearance.

We hung around the pool, swam, (OK, I didn't swim. Once it gets below 100 degrees I consider swimming season over! I have been ruined by Phoenix!), and ate a lot of food!

It was nice and relaxing. The kids had fun and we had fun and it was really the perfect way to officially "end" summer, especially as we are now fully into the school year swing.

Oh, and the best part? It completely wore the kids out!

L2's new school!

So, after a year of struggling about what our next step should be and what the right decision was, L2 started a new school today. Most of you know that Lucas has a pretty severe speech delay and was diagnosed with mild/moderate hearing loss in July of last year. We've spent the last year and a half struggling with what our best option for him was. He was receiving preschool through our district, but the speech therapy just wasn't enough to help him get caught up. And we have a wonderful SLP that we see once a week, but the commute is almost 2 hours round trips and between travel time and finances adding more sessions just wasn't an option.

Then, about a month ago, I was making a desperate attempt of googling everything having to do with kids with speech delays and hearing loss, and I stumbled upon Phoenix Day School for Deaf and Hearing impaired kids. It had a full day preschool program. It's focus was getting the kids caught up and mainstreaming back into their home schools. It was an hour away.... but still, it sounded like a dream come true.

So I made some calls and set up some meetings. I didn't tell anyone, not even our families, because I didn't want to get anyones hopes up. We pulled his IEP's to show that he wasn't making the progress we would like to see in the preschool program. (For the record, our preschool is 2.5 hours a day four days a week, and he was only getting like 90 minutes of speech total a week, it just wasn't enough)

And ten days ago we had a meeting, with his home preschool, the new school and our district.

And they approved him switching. 

If you don't know, having the district's approval is key. Not only does this particular school require it, but it means they will provide him with transportation to and from school. Even an hour away. Because as amazing as this school is, I couldn't fathom how we could make it work if I had to drive him and pick him up everyday, and still get L to school.

So today, the school bus picked him up a little before 7, and off he went.

To a school that is going to be able to give him what he needs. That's going to be able to get him caught up and communicating some doesn't feel so frustrated. That has a focus on speech and language from 8-3, four days a week. I kind of still feel like i'm dreaming, to be honest.

And the icing on the cake is that his teacher is amazing. She sent me text and pictures throughout the day letting me know how great he was doing and how well he was adapting.

We're so happy, and I'm so excited to see what this year has in store for him!

Transitioning out of summer

Well, here we are, mid- august. The long and lazy summer days are officially behind us as we head into our third week of school,  and the old routines of early mornings, packing lunches, and homework are the new normal once again. I'm getting to the point in the year where I find myself getting excited about fall weather (or what passes for fall weather in Phoenix!),  and the upcoming holidays and birthdays. But for the next few weeks we will continue to soak up the last rays of summer.

So, here's what we've been up to lately!

Carpool:

With school comes signing up to be homeroom mom, buying new uniforms and school supplies, and activating our carpool group again. Seriously, carpool is my favorite. Not only because it gives me a major break on the days that i don't drive, but I really love the days that I do. I love having 5 kids pile into my car and talk over each other as the tell me all the ins and outs of their day. Also, it's the best way to get the dirt as to what's going on in your kids life!

Impromptu concerts

Here's the thing: We are responsible adults. We have young children that we have to get dressed and presentable and to school on time every morning. On most nights, we are in bed by ten.

But.......

When someone offers you Guns and Roses tickets on a random Monday night, you take of your pajamas, put on some eye makeup and you go.

And you have an amazing time, and you get home at 1 am, and the next day you are so tired you are pretty sure you are going to die.... but it's all worth it because what an amazing show!

Pool Days

Our pool days are going to start coming to an end soon. The days are getting relatively cooler.... and by cooler I mean it's 100 degrees instead of 115, but still. This time of year we usually have about a month left before we start switching out days at the pool for hiking on the weekends, so we're soaking it up while we can!

in the last few weeks the little boys (L2 and R) have really blossomed in the pool. Not only are the both jumping in, the are both kicking and swimming unassisted at least for several yards. I'm especially proud of L2, who is surprisingly buoyant after spending most of last summer sinking like a rock overtime he went underwater!

So here's to these last few weeks of summer! I hope everyone in enjoying them as much as we are!

L2's first day of preschool (year 3)

And, just like that, summer is officially over. Two of the three kids are back in school, now that L2 went back yesterday, and it's back to our normal routine.

L2 is in his third, and last year, of preschool. He gets preschool through the district for speech therapy, and while I admit I'm not thrilled with our public schools out here, he loves it and I know he has a ton of fun and gets a lot of social time with his peers.

The last two years he has been a bit hesitant on the first day of school, but not this year! He was thrilled to pack his lunch and get his backpack ready and he sat by the window and waited for the bus until it came to get him!

Here's to kicking off the 2016-2017 school year!

L starts first grade

L started first grade today.

First Grade.

He is officially, 100%, in elementary school. This is his first of twelve quick years before he's headed off to college.

Can you tell I am equal parts proud and heartbroken by this?

But, as much as I want to keep my baby… my first baby…. little, I also can't help but smile at how happy and excited and proud he is of himself. He was nervous about starting first grade, worried it would be hard, but he was still so ready to go and see his friends and meet his teacher. I love him so much and I love getting to be apart of this journey as he figures out who he is.

I know I said last year that we were so lucky to get into the school we got into, and on top of that so thrilled that our best friends also got in, and we ended up in the same class. Well, luck shined down on us again this year and these boys are so thrilled to be together! And not only are they together, another one of their friends (and a mom friend of mine!) ended up together too!

Of our "foursome" from last year only one of us ended up in different class, but they are right next door and we are still carpooling!

Here's to our big first graders and an amazing year to come!!