First Day of Kindergarten

Yesterday I left my oldest in the hands of the state education system for six LONG hours!  Evelyn was super excited and had had her first day outfit picked out since it was bought.  I drove to across the street from the school, then I walked with her up to the school doors.  There were helpers/teachers there at the front organizing kids and as soon as she heard her teacher's name, she walked up to the line and didn't look back.

With her backpack full of new supplies to make use of as well as some extras from me, like a bookmark, cute erasers and a fun chapstick, I felt like she was pretty prepared.  For food, Evie had a snack in her backpack and ate hot lunch at school.  (I may get up the ambition to make her lunch soon, but I just got back from vacation.)  I followed the group of kids to Mrs. R's door and watched Evie hang up her pack and jacket and settle onto the welcome rug, near the back.  I nearly had a panic attack when another mom near me was trying to get her son in the door and he was having a HUGE fit, screaming about missing her.  I waited to see if Evie would have a similar delayed reaction.  I hovered.  And she was fine.  I was glad for her but a little sad for me.  I used a tissue on my damp eyes and nose and went upstairs.

I stuck around for a little PTO meeting where we met the organizations' officials.  Those women have so much energy and are so excited to be a part of all the kids' education.  I want to be involved and have volunteered for two groups (baking and book fair) and I was very impressed with all the dedication I saw there.  After the meeting, I snuck back down to Evie's classroom for one last checkup.  She was doing great, so I vacated the building, deserting her for several hours.

Due to that exhausting vacation, which I had NO IDEA wore me out so much, I slept nearly the entire time Evie was at school.  Thank goodness it was Aaron's day off and I had that luxury!

After several hours' nap, I got in a line of other minivans picking up elementary kids.  In retrospect, I'll leave home about 15 minutes earlier, since I had to wait about that long after school let out and I was one of the last moms in line.  She was happy to come home, and Lizzie, who had come with me to pick up Evie, was SO excited to have her sister back!  I went through her backpack to find a daily folder that gets sent home and read a note about her first day of school, which we talked about.  I was glad for the page informing me, because Evie wasn't super talkative - I'd say..."did you draw a picture?"  "Oh, yeah!  I drew a picture of me!"  "Did you dance?"  "We danced and then stopped, like this".  Anyway, I'm so glad she already likes school and went happily again today!

The Ducks at the Dells

On our final day at the Dells, we took the opportunity to see the natural side of the dells.  (Because, you know, the natural stuff was here long before the resorts were.)  We went on a 'duck' tour, so named for the military's amphibious vehicle, the Duck.  If you look in this first collage, you can see where the duck in front of us had just driven, then was on the water.  It was pretty cool!

My favorite (no surprise) and the only rock formation I got a good picture of, was the piano.  The story was that the formation on the left of the picture is a tall 'podium' and the piano was on it.  A preacher was going at it to the congregation gathered in boats on the river below when the pianist wouldn't stop.  The preacher got fed up and broke the piano in two, sending half down this side and half down the other side of the podium.

Carson had fallen asleep in the car on the way to the tour and continued to do so until the trip was almost over!  We got to see several deer - I was so surprised that they weren't really afraid of the duck at all.  Here was this huge noisy thing on a dirt road, and the deer merely looked up from grazing not 10 feet away! 

This gives a better idea of what the 'duck' was.  It was quite a neat experience! 

Tuesday Dells

Tuesday morning dawned slow and gray.  MomB had noticed a cute shop in the resort where she wanted us all to make a memorable piece to take home - the Pottery Pizzazz.  The girls were thrilled to pick out ornaments and choose their own (creative!) colors.  I chose to do Carson's ornament and a tile for my kitchen counter.  Aaron wanted all his kids to contribute to a mug to sit on his desk at work.  Aunts K, C and L did ornaments as well, while Uncle D chose an open-mouthed frog.  MomB did several pieces, including a platter and two large cereal bowls; she's SUPER artistic and I loved watching her!

That evening was Evie's school meet and greet, so after lunch, she and I headed back to town.  She was a trooper, taking in two two-hour drives and an exciting evening of picture-taking, teacher-meeting and watching me serve cookies for half an hour pretty well.  I enjoyed getting to know members of the PTO (that's organization, not association), getting a feel for the school, and meeting her teacher, Mrs. R.  Mrs. R really does like to be called that, since her real (Russian) name is sort of a mouthful for a bunch of kindergarteners.  There will be more on Evie and school in a future post!

Day 1 at the Dells

Our 'real' first day was Sunday, but we got there around 5 in the evening.  Our first little bit revolved around exploring, making room arrangements, eating pizza for dinner, and playing a round of pool or watching a movie.  It was really hard to get Carson to sleep and Aaron eventually got himself to a couch to avoid our wiggly, sleepless son. 

Our first full day on vacation was spent volleying back and forth between the water park and the rental house.  Two hours up; two hours playing in the water.  Two hours back at the house during which time the kids' cousins arrived for the day, then we took them out to the water.  Two more hours back for a snack and refresher.  After that, the kids, Aaron and his mom and the cousins went to the amusement park section of the resort for two more hours while I made dinner, since it was 'our night'.  The girls decided and I made spaghetti, fruit salad, green beans and bread.  Yum, yum!

After all that fun, the kids went to bed fairly well.  After that first rough night, we could see how we should share a room and two beds; it was decided that I sleep with the two youngest (and snuggliest) and Aaron shared with Evie.

I have yet to get myself another plain ol' point and shoot and there was no way I was going to take my pretty Rebel down to the water, where I was as wet as the kids and could trust to leave it with the towels.  Therefore, I got absolutely zero pictures of Evie being so thrilled she topped 42 inches and could ride nearly every slide there.  I didn't get a shot of Lizzie going around and around to all the little slides in the kids' area, exhausting me just by watching.  I missed a bunch of shots of Carson chilling in the water in his life jacket, refusing any assistance from Mommy.  But as many as I missed, I'll still remember how excited they each were every time we headed down!