Back to school!

The bigs are back in school – wahoo!  I adore spending time with each of them one-on-one (or really one-on-one, plus Keanan), but they are like oil and water right now and being with both of them is SO challenging.  They honestly (and regularly!) start fighting within minutes of waking up and continue fighting until they’re in bed at night.  The wailing, screaming, crying, whining, and general grumbling is just constant.  They owe me big when they grow up!

In an effort to minimize the fighting…or at least the number of hours that they’re together…we have Charlie in school on Mondays and Thursdays, and Ellie in school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Now I have one day each week that I’m alone with each of them (plus Keanan), so I can give them some extra attention.  Hopefully this helps…if it doesn’t, I’m looking into boarding school for preschoolers.

We moved the kids to a different school and instead of baskets, they have the kids bring baskets for all of their stuff (so the backpacks were just for show in the pictures above).  The kiddos wheeling in their baskets:

Charlie parking his basket in front of his name plate:

Charlie and his teacher, Ms. Rene:

Ellie and her buddy, Dylan (Jackson is also in her class for a few weeks until they move to Austin (BOO!!)):

Ellie and her sweet teacher, Ms. Charlena.  Ms. Charlena has been at the school for 31 years and she is just awesome – so warm and loving!

Rub-a-dub-chub

It’s possible that I squeezed Keanan into his baby bath a little longer than I should have.  It was just so convenient to give him a bath on the kitchen counter so I could supervise the bigs, but about a month ago, I finally accepted that my big 11 month old was ready to move to the big bathtub.

His last bath in the baby tub:

And a month later, he still gets crazy hyper during bathtime in the big tub.  I can only fill it a couple of inches because he splashes an insane amount of water out of it!

Charlie’s party

Given Charlie’s love of all things with wheels, we had a little transportation-themed birthday party for him.  “Theme” might be a bit generous – we had adorable invitations, courtesy of Auntie Jamie:

And a little road out front:

As soon as his first guest arrived, the sweet birthday boy ran to the table, sat down and said “can I have my party now?”  I think he meant cake, but it took some serious bargaining to get him to get up and enjoy the party instead of just waiting at the table.

Cain ready for some birthday fun:

Ellie was in gymnastics camp the week before the party and she met a little girl named Deya.  They hit it off immediately and Ellie was thrilled that her “best friend” came to the party!

Jess Morris, Emilie and Andie Jane.  It’s so cool that these ladies have been a part of Charlie’s life since he was a tiny baby.

Jess Geiser and Jay (I love that Jay came (with his big smile) after having to spend the morning at work):

Hillary and sweet baby Lincoln.  Jackson’s 4th birthday party was the first party that Keanan went to (at 5-ish days old) and Charlie’s birthday party was Lincoln’s first.  We have truly done (and continue to do) life with the Adams family and it’s so hard to believe that five years ago there were 4 of us and now there are 10 of us!!  Can’t imagine our lives without them.

We played pass the parcel, which I thought would be a huge hit since all of the kids got a couple little trinkets.  Not so much.  Nearly all of them ended up whining at some point because they inevitably wanted the trinket (and by “trinket” I mean “total piece of junk that was guaranteed to break before they left the party”) that the kiddo next to them got.  Oh well.

How old is Keanan?!  He’s ready for the action.

Frankie Joy unwrapping a layer

Think he was having fun?

Instead of doing a pool party, Daddy made a drive-thru sprinkler for the kids to play in and it was a huge hit!  It was so fun watching them run, ride, and generally scream their way through the spray!

Sweet Kiri:

Hillary was the official party photographer (these are all of her pictures) and she specifically sent me this gem.  I have no idea what I was doing, but it’s definitely the most awesome picture of me.  Ever.

                

After burning off some energy, the kiddos came in for lunch.  We decided to serve Charlie’s favorite foods…PB&J, watermelon, Pirate Booty, pretzels, applesauce, Baby Bel, and juice.  Easy-peasy.

I rented a cake pan so I could make an 18-wheeler cake for Charlie.  My first attempt was a total failure, so I changed directions completely and made cupcakes in ice cream cones.  It had nothing to do with our “transportation” theme, but the kids didn’t seem to mind.

        

Ellie and Deya waiting to eat:

Jack and Rileigh:

 

Frankie:

Charlie was pretty excited about lunch

    

I didn’t realize that Charlie had a mini muffin in his hands when we started singing to him:

Still holding on to the muffin:

I made the mistake of saying “Charlie, just go ahead and finish your muffin and then you can have your cupcake.”  Charlie thought about it for about 2 seconds and then just stuffed the entire muffin in his mouth:

Still working on chewing that muffin:

Bear was pretty excited about scoring a cupcake with sugar: