3rd day's a charm!

Right line! With Mrs. Smith! He got on the bus on time, got in the right line with the right class- and when I congratulated myself, a mom said "yeah, but they forget it all over the weekend and you have to start all over again!" THANKS FOR THE CONFIDENCE! AACK!

We're gonna have to lock her up!!

Princess diva! She got a free candy bar by flirting with a guy at a restaurant yesterday!!

School in session!

Short classic Gibson story- as a last hurrah yesterday, Gib, Joshua, Aiden, Donavan, their moms and of course Delaney got lunch and hit a park for the afternoon. On a pouting jag, Gibson went to a far bush, where he found what I thought was dog bone toy. He wanted to pick it up , and I was kinda like- that's gross, but I guess you can, and kinda walked back to my friends. He comes up and is like- look this bends! I look down and he has the "toy bone" in one hand and A DEER LEG IN THE OTHER- COMPLETE WITH HOOF AND SOME RESIDUAL FUR FUZZ. I start yelling for hand sanitizer and all the other moms gag!!!! Only my boy would find a severed LEG to play with!!!!

So school has begun!! Gibson is the BIG Kindergartner! His first official day was today, Wednesday, but there was an orientation where he got to meet with his class and learn some about the school yesterday.

Last night, I discovered that the bus pass was WRONG and all the literature we have on bus policies is that they are STRICT about where you meet the bus, and who gets on where and stuff. For those of you who know the area, we are on a dead end due to a creek with no bridge, but the road continues on the other side. The transportation office doesn't acknowledge this and had his stop on the OTHER side of the creek at an intersection that as the crow flies is close, but in truth is about a 3/4 mile drive or walk. So I start crying (of course), I am upset that my baby might not get to go to school on the bus and that I am going to have to fight the policy and all kinds of stuff. In utter defiance, I just take a pen, strike through the wrong site, and write in our street names! Derick, oh- follower-of-rules FREEEAAAKKKKED out when I did this, and swore our child would never get on the bus EVER!

This morning, I explain the sitch to Gib and of course he starts crying that he wants to ride the bus! I am on the phone with the next door neighbor ,who is a more seasoned mom to find out what to do. I also read book about angler fish, sharks and other sea animals to calm us all down. To appease Derick and to try to get Gibson on the bus, I take him to the assigned stop and less than a minute later the bus flies down the road. I grab the camera, the video, am trying to film and capture this momentous occasion appropriately and shuffle the little guy on to the bus, all the while explaining to the driver, who seems to be just learning English, about the mix up. Gibson is all acting like a teenager and rolling his eyes and dragging his feet (as you can see in the pictures....)

And in mere seconds he's gone!

I get in the car, and Delaney is bawling because "brob-bah" is gone and she wants to go to school and on the bus, and watching the bus zoom away, I started to tear up. Derick pulls up and is surprised he is gone already. we drive home, and I have to pull right out and go to the school to make sure he got there ok.

As I turn onto the road where the school is, the now empty bus passes me. I get to the school and it is a mad house. I make my way to kindergarten "yard", to his teacher's line and -he's not there. I THEN LOOOOOOSE it! His teacher is thinking "we gotta gusher!!" and says, "we'll find him". I explained that the bus has been there because I saw one of his friends that was on the bus in another line and I saw the empty bus. A girlfriend of mine takes Delaney out of my arms, so I can focus on Gibson, and I hear behind mehim- "We found him!" I wipe off my tears and turn to him and he jumps up to hug me and is so excited I was there. I talked with him and his friends a little and then his line went into the school!

The transportation office told me to just cross out the printed stop and write in my own. Derick had to leave the office when I called him so they wouldn't hear his guffaws!

Gib got home a half an hour late, but the bus left him at the right place! He enjoyed school enough I think, and he proudly presented me an adorable picture of "The Kissing Hand" that we had read on Monday to prepare him for school that he had made me! HE also made a fantastic picture of an Angler fish, and a shark! Here's to tomorrow!

Orient-ate-d

this is Gibson's room! his teacher Mrs. Smith is the one holding the book in the far left. He tried to act bored and disinterested, but I think he's really excited!

Blogger has a new m0bile p0sting thing! S0 t0 test it, here is a shiny happy picture 0f Derick w0rking 0n the HMS H00D.

The month of August.

Aw, August, Where have you gone!??! This entry will recap the ENTIRE month, so if it is too long for one sitting, feel free to read part, and then come back later to read the rest!

WEEK ONE-The month began with Derick's announcement that he will take off the first whole week for vacation. He gave me, a person who likes to research and plan less than three days notices. So it was truly his vacation he had in mind, not necessarily a family vacation. But he did let us hang out with him a LITTLE!

On Tuesday (the 5th if anyone is counting), we headed to the Seaport Museum down in Philly. We have talked about going here for truly a decade, and we got to take the kiddos. We saw the history, but of course our favorite part was exploring the ships, one a submarine and one, a 1891 armored cruiser- a flagship of the battle of Manila Bay. The people in the museum were nice enough to let us look into their education room, where these fun pictures were taken:

The scowly picture of Derick is of his "true pirate's name" I think it came up as Bloody Bart, but with the look on his face, I have to agree with Mad Legs.These are part of the exhibits. The diving suit is was revolutionary at its time because it had moving joints. The one of Delaney is ONE LINK from an anchor chain, and as you can see it is bigger than she is!

I thought this was cool picture of the Battleship USS New Jersey through one of the posts of the Olympia. One of my favorite memories of this trip was walking on the boardwalk to leave and Delaney just started BELTING "how does she know" from Enchanted in the CUTEST way possible- of course she was wearing her little princess outfit for added dramatic effect!!

On Wednesday, we went to the Shore, Seagirt, where we played in the waves and Gibson and Derick made a tremendous Sand castle! Delaney alternated between being scared and fascinated with the water, and stealing other beach goers toys, beach chairs and other articles. Another funny thing was that a seagull the size of a small turkey kept trying to steal a bag of popcorn from our blanket! Derick and I got to go watch a movie on Thursday (Yay, a date!!) and then Friday, to round it all out, I skipped town leaving Kids with Daddy!

I was heading to a "business meeting"(yeah right) with my ladies from Salem. We started an investment club over a year ago and haven't done much with it, so we need to get together- also the thought of a girls weekend was just delicious!!! We met at Hetter's in Alexandria, VA and most of our business was conducted on her front lawn! The weather was STUNNING and perfect. I did a run on Saturday morning and when I returned, a couple of ladies had secured some serious nosh from the local farmer's market! We pretty much ate and lounged and enjoyed life, and then we went and checked out some parts of Olde Towne, starting with a yummy lunch, some yarn shopping, and going to this really cool art gallery collective at a former torpedo factory. Our dinner was at a fabulous Ethiopian restaurant! All of these events were peppered liberally with lots of chatting, advice exchanging, and catching up! Sunday morning we actually did hold a business meeting and then went our separate ways (SOB!!) it was wonderful to reconnect with the GANG, and hopefully, we might not lose our shirts investing!

WEEK TWO-ISH-My mom came to visit, but for some odd reason, we didn't get many pictures together. We hit Kohl's (it is always customary for my Aunt and my mother to "take inventory" of a certain list of stores when they are together!!), Went to NYC with my aunt's step-granddaughter from Puerto Rico- saw the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, Ground Zero and M&M World!! (This picture shows a shirt that says "So over kisses" and as you can see in the background is the Hershey store!!!) attended our annual Craven Reunion, visited my Great- Aunt Doris who was a big hit with my kiddos, shopped at the most awesome thrift stores, and then she had to go home! (sob again!) We did squeeze in a chick flick, (PS I Love You- so good- laugh out loud funny, then bawl your eyes out roller coaster, oh and Enchanted with Delaney), a few songs on Rock Band (had to quit because we kept FAILING), and did some swimming together!

Week Three-ish-On Saturday, August 23, our family attended a 90th birthday party for my Biological mother's father (or my Biological grandfather) and the kids got to reconnect with my bio-aunts and uncles. It was held at a great park in Paramus and we got to go to a sweet little zoo and loved it!

Other parts of the month included reading (devouring) the vampire saga-ender- New Moon (fabulous- more gratifying than the finale of HP!), meeting some awesome bike-buddies after shredding my tire on a piece of POTTERY, two kid birthday parties (including this awesome freehand-made Darth Vader cake by my friend Maddy!), my daughter getting a nice shiner from a shopping cart at target, ,a play date at Chuck E. Cheese, welcomed a new little friend (yay Jocelyn), had a group shopping party at Sam's Club (6 kids+ 3 moms= CHAOS GALORE!!), had a fun cook out party with Aliah, played with kids in the neighborhood, watched countless re-runs of Avatar, Malissa swam over 5 miles, had 60 mile bike ride and seems to be running biking or swimming all the time, and just made it through the month of August honestly!!!

As August ends, we have been recovering from all the other stuff and trying to clean up, plan, and get ready for Gibson to go to school!!! WOW!! Summer is over!!!! (BTW- does anyone know how to text wrap around pictures on this thing? I know my formatting is wonky!)

Kids entertainment

I have to say I love the trend of "adult" bands redireting to kids music now that they have kids of theri own. Of course, the most prolific right now is They Might be Giants taking over Playhouse Disney, but the latest has GOT to be my favoirte: Barenaked Ladies "Snacktime". My kids' favorite is Popcorn (or the second movement of the Canadian Snacktime Tril-oh-gee) but we thouroghly enjoy so many others- Polywog in a Bog is sooo fun, Allergies is CERTAINLY one me and GIbson can relate to, 7-8-9 is a funny tune about the famous preschool joke, and we enjoy Food Party, I Don't Like and Ninjas too! this is perfect kids album for parents, especially if you alread apreciated BNL!!

the video to Polywog in a Bog is adorable, and the one for 7-8-9 is cute too! ENJOY!!