Alex texted me from school to find his ID card in his room. I’m not sure he wanted me to find everything he had in his drawers….
Teague had cross country try-outs again today. He came home starving and ate a complete meal. This from my boy who gladly skips a meal if allowed.
Kaitlyn has had her nose stuck in a book all week. She’s reading a new series – Dragon Girls.
(Also of note – this is what she calls “Jasmine hair”)
Ben recently pulled out a lot of recipes that he wanted to cook. First up – zucchini fries.
Kaitlyn and Wade spent the weekend cleaning and organizing the barn. She was intrigued with the go-kart so Wade decided to fix it for her. She loves it and Ben couldn’t wait to drive. We finally agreed to teach him and he did pretty well (only running over small bushes and hitting the house once). Teague even got on for old times sake.
Saturday was chore day and each child always has “clean room” on their list. Somehow Alex’s room looks like this on Wednesday (and wasn’t much different on Saturday afternoon). He managed to empty (mostly) his laundry basket, but his drawers are still out and his cleaning supplies are definitely not put away.
Although a little reluctantly, Teague is trying out for cross country. Poor kiddo -it’s hot this week!
The hottest new “old” toy at our house. Newly fixed up by Wade.
The hottest new “old” toy at our house. Newly fixed up by Wade.
For the first time, all four Burch children are in full day school. Alex and Teague are in different schools, but they are on the same campus and start within 5 minutes of each other. They also both have to walk (we are too close to justify paying for the bus – which is charged for middle school and high school). After Alex’s awesome big brother ways yesterday, he had quite a different attitude today. Teague asked to walk with Alex this morning and Alex responded with, “You can follow behind me”
Next up was Kaitlyn. Her bus comes about 30 minutes after the boys leave. Thankfully our neighbors ride the same bus so she enjoys the bus ride and has fun waiting for the bus with friends.
Ben is the last to leave and his bus is about 45 minutes after Kaitlyn’s. We have been using the time waiting for the bus to review his sight words.
First day of 9th grade!
First day of 7th grade!
First day of 3rd grade!
First day of Kindergarten!
Our schools have a practice day for kindergarteners. The day before school starts, the buses run their routes and pick up the incoming Kindergarteners at their normal time. The kids go to school, meet their teachers, and spend a little over an hour in the class with the other students. Then the parents go to school to pick them up and meet the parents. It’s a great first introduction to buses and school before adding additional students into the chaos.
Ben was excited for school, but a little nervous to actually get on the bus. Thankfully a teacher was on the bus today and she was great at making him feel immediately comfortable. When I arrived at the school to get Ben, he was playing with some new friends and not ready to leave.
My kids will probably be glad to go back to school just to get away from my rule about eating leftovers for lunch. Alex skirts the rule by using leftover ingredients but creating something new.
Tour the campus day, but at the middle school they are too old to meet their teachers before class starts. Alex was a great older brother and wanted to come and show Teague around. Teague was only interested in the vending machines and was quite disappointed to learn that they had been removed.
Meet the teacher day!
Practice day! First day of Kindergarten tomorrow.
Kaitlyn had her first football game to cheer for today. She seemed to love it. The only downside was that the game was away and the schedule was running behind. We got there on time and then sat and waited over an hour before our game started.
Alex wasn’t sorry that I picked him up some chips and cheese today.
The boys were immediately enthralled with the books that Granny sent.
First football game of the year.
We had s’mores and video games outside last night, but that means cleanup today.
Kaitlyn had picked out several recipes she wanted to cook and today we finally made Won Ton Soup. It was on the menu last week, but we never quite made it happen. Today she made it for lunch and everyone enjoyed it – although I’m not sure it will be requested again.
Alex is still working hard on doing a pull-up. He’s almost there.
Teague got bonus points for helping to clean out the barn today.
She’s the happiest when she’s in control.
I’d call him our official berry picker but none of the berries ever make it inside the house.
This laundry basket evidently now lives in the middle of Alex’s floor – full of clean clothes…
Ben showed up in the kitchen with a piece of paper and lots of questions. Evidently he and Kaitlyn had a little fight and he wanted to write her a note. I was expecting something along the lines of “I am sorry.” Instead he started writing and didn’t stop till he had thirteen words and had used both sides of the paper. I was so impressed.
I love that these two can actually play games together (without help).
I was determined to try a new trail on our hike today. The problem was I had forgotten about an ortho appointment for Alex at noon and swim lessons for the littles at 4:30. That made our time available rather short – especially if we needed to travel to the hike. I decided to try it anyway. We drove to Wachusett Mountain and decided on the West Side Trail. I knew we might not have time to reach the top, but decided we would try. We reached the top (I think) and decided not to loop down, but to return our original route.
Kaitlyn once again a mountain goat in the steep rocky areas. She loves them! The trail wasn’t overly hard, but definitely much more challenging than anything we would find in Grafton. Coming down is always much faster, which was good since we were racing the clock. We were a few minutes late to swim lessons, but nobody seemed to mind.
I told Alex he didn’t have to go hiking with us if he made plans for himself. He arranged to meet a friend. This particular friend is not always known for showing up so I told him if he canceled that Alex still had to come hiking. Alex assured me that wouldn’t happen. The other kids and I were partway up the mountain when Alex sent me a screenshot of a text exchange showing the friend cancelling. He asked me what he should do. I jokingly told him to run a mile. Above is his picture proof showing me he ran the mile.
One last hike before school starts.
We arranged one last outing for Ben and his preschool friends. The plan was to meet at West End Creamery and enjoy their Adventure Farm for the morning and afternoon. The kids had a blast!
Alex typically makes his bed and doesn’t have random items all over his floor. However, his desk and bedside table are always covered with “stuff.” Today it was money. I left and told him his job was to clean all flat surfaces.
Sneaky nap strikes again.
A day of fun!
Preschool besties.
It’s the last week of summer so we tried to squeeze in all the things. Today we had a park playdate with some friends we hadn’t seen in a really long time. We ended up spending hours and hours there. The only downside was I forgot Kaitlyn’s scooter, but thankfully our friends brought two and were happy to share.
Mario Kart has become an evening thing.
Teague and Ben spent the night making each other into burritos.
Ben, Kaitlyn, and I met some friends at the park today. My kids loved the track around the play set.
I was doing a quick clean of our kitchen cabinets when I realized someone had added a little decoration to some of my drawers. There is no doubt in my mind who decided to embellish them.
After two weeks of vacations, Alex was glad to have a short meetup with one of his friends – even if it was just in our driveway for a few minutes.
Summer has done a number on everyone’s rooms. We spent the day working on them. Teague’s books were shelved every way but neatly so he worked on them for me.
Summer has done a number on everyone’s rooms. We spent the day working on them. Kaitlyn has more books in her room than are in the book closet. Her job was to sort and then reshelve as needed.
Summer has done a number on everyone’s rooms. We spent the day working on them. Ben’s job was to get everything out from under his bed.
Sunday lineup.