We survived the first week of school...

Gavin likes Gabby's infant hooded towels so when I ran across some for bigger kids, I just had to pick one up for him. When I realized they were on clearance for $3.50, I decided to pick up a few. After all, Zachary wants everything his brother has. So today, I finally got around to embroidering their names on them. Gavin always wants to pick his own thread color and loves to watch so I waited until he came home from school.

It was a fun way to end our busy school week and the boys love them!

Tomorrow I'm going to a beginners sewing class to learn how to sew Gabby a dress.

I'm hoping Tropical Storm Fay won't interfere with those plans.

Priceless moment...

This is Gavin's big smile when he realized that Gabby and I were joining him for school lunch today.

He told me I could come back anytime I wanted. I wanted to clarify if this was a long-standing offer so I asked him if I can still eat with him when he's in fifth grade. His reply.... "Of course!"

(Just wanted to make a record of that!)

All before 8am...

It's been another early morning. Getting the kids up and out of the house by 7:30 has been a huge challenge for me, but I'm adjusting.

We actually got to school early this morning and since this is the only week that I'm allowed to walk Gavin all the way to his classroom, I took a few pictures.

This is Gavin with one of his friends from preschool last year.

and here's Gavin with his teacher.

When we got back home Zachary wanted to lay back down on the couch with his doggie.

He's still adjusting to the early mornings as well.

Gabby has another runny nose so we had to skip the gym. Since this added a few hours of extra time in my day I decided to snap a few extra pictures and take some time to blog...

After about a dozen or so pictures Gabby reached for her head as if to say, "Mommy, stop with the flash. You're giving me a headache!"

Gabby's increasing mobility....

Crawling

Walking...

Climbing

In an effort to keep up with her brothers, Gabby continues to become more mobile.

In the picture above, she is climbing up a tunnel slide to get to Zachary.

She also can walk half way across a room before losing her balance. However, if she's on a mission and needs to get somewhere quick, she still resorts to crawling.

She's such a determined little girl and we're so proud of her.

She may be completely on her feet by her 1st birthday!

Second day of school...

Gavin's school starts at 7:50 which is very early for me. I'm usually asleep at that time so Sam called me this morning from work to make sure I was awake. Before he hung up, he made sure to inform me that he was wearing his last clean pair of underwear so I dropped Gavin off at school and headed to Target.

I guess I could have just done laundry, but I didn't want him to think I was cheap. Afterall, he works hard and deserves more clean underwear.

Kim called while I was in Target and invited me to join her at the mall.

While I was there I picked up a few things including some little surprises for Gabby's birthday.

We were so tired from all the shopping that we had to come home and take a nap before picking up Gavin from school.

Apparently he didn't finish some of his school-work today so his teacher sent it home for him to complete. After about a half hour of trying to keep him focused enough to do it I contemplated coloring it myself.

(No, I wouldn't actually do that although I do enjoy coloring.)

Thankfully it's done. I can only imagine what it will be like when the homework starts!

The first day of school

The first day of school was quite stressful. I'm sure part of it had to do with my difficulty accepting that I was actually sending my precious Gavin to elementary school.

He's such a sweet and tender-hearted child and it's been so hard to imagine him in a school amongst all the bigger kids.

A trip to the principal's office on the first day assured me that everything was going to be ok.

Yes, I'm a crazy momma, but hey I was just looking out for my baby.

Here's a picture of him sitting at his desk.

After dropping Gavin off I attended the PTO breakfast. I didn't have an appetite, but it was nice chatting with Amanda. We both had a small break before we needed to pick up our 3 year olds and bring them to preschool. Thank goodness Sam went in late to work....

(If you consider 8:30 late.)

Zachary immediately spotted Vivi and Bella in the parking lot so of course we snapped a few pictures.

Amanda and Laura were already inside. It was really tough to get Laura to stop playing long enough to take a picture, but I managed to get one.

It's really nice that Zachary knows so many of his classmates.

For months we planned to get some moms together on the first day and go to breakfast.

We ended up going to a French cafe and bakery for chocolate crouissants and Diet Coke.

Gabby was happy to have her Cherrios. She doesn't know what she's missing.... (yet!)

Our very busy week....

This week ranks right up there with one of the busiest we've had around here in a long while. We had soccer camp 4 days, Taekwondo twice, two separate school orientations, a few unscheduled playdates, and a MOPS dinner / fundraiser at the church.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted, but there's too many cute pictures not to blog so here it goes.....

Gavin earned a blue stripe at Taekwondo for standing still for a full minute. I may have noticed a few wiggles, but I'll never tell. He did the best he could and was very proud to show off his blue stripe.

On Tuesday morning I dropped by Vanessa's to get some MOPS paperwork signed and next thing I knew, it had turned into a playdate.

Tucker and Gabby are playing so well together these days.

A few hours later Vanessa, Amanda N., and I headed to Sams to pick up items for the MOPS Italian night fundraiser. I'm not sure what we were thinking when we brought 7 kids with us, but we didn't have much of a choice and we survived... things were great until Zach got an upset stomach, but I'll spare you the details on that one....

Wednesday was another busy day. Gavin had soccer camp and then we had to go to the church to prepare the Italian dinner for our MOPS fundraiser. Sam came home to watch Zachary since I didn't want to expose him to other kids.

Gabby looked like she was dressed up for a Luau. She was wearing one of Vivi's dresses from their years in Hawaii. I must have taken a dozen pictures of her in this dress.

The dinner was a huge success. We served over 100 people

The chef at the church decided to prepare the food for us.... Aren't we spoiled?

As a little "thank you" I embroidered him this apron.

Vanessa, Joia and Sandy were our smiling servers.

Amanda's family and her parents came out to support our fundraiser. They even brought Gavin out of the nursery to eat with them. Of course Leah and Gavin were very happy to see each other.

Meanwhile Tucker, Gabby and Vivi played together.

Afterwards there were a lot of dishes and cleanup to do so Gabby took a little nap in the nursery. She feels so at home there.

On Thursday and Friday we had school orientations for the boys. Here they are below with their teachers.

Tucker came to hang out at soccer camp for a little while on Friday. Zachary was proud to be the big boy escorting him around.

The rest of the weekend was a little stressful. Getting ready for school to start was very draining. However, I know that once we get into the routine and the kids are settled in to their new schedules, I should be getting the opportunity for some down time.

Jason is not as hard-headed as we thought...

Talk about freak accidents....

Today my twin brother, Jason was helping out some of his employees at work when a glass clock fell from a shelf and the broken glass lodged into his scalp.
What you see is a 7 inch piece of glass that was lodged securely in his head. It has since been carefully removed at the trauma center after a CT scan verified that it did not penetrate through his skull.

He is doing fine although I imagine he's not pleased with his new hair cut.

(Blog post title contributed by Kimmie)

From "soccer kid" to "soccer mom!"

Yes, it's official... I've finally achieved "soccer mom" status. I just need to get the magnet for my mini-van and I'll be all set.

Gavin is enrolled in the local soccer league and he started an all week camp this morning.

Soccer was my favorite sport growing up so I've looked forward to this day.

He was too cute out there running around aimlessly trying to figure it all out. I'm sure each day he'll get a better grasp of the rules, but at this age it's really about having fun...

(I hope!)

He enjoyed the breaks too and was so happy that I stayed to watch. I'm sure in couple of years that won't be cool so for now I'll enjoy the opportunity.

We were a "soccer family" growing up. Here are four out of five of us kids below.

I'm the first one pictured with my hands on my hips.

Jason and I played on the same team for about 4 years. At some point he joined a traveling league and I started playing on an all girl's team.

Jason still plays on an adult league.

I don't envision myself joining a league, but when Gabby gets a little older and I'm not chasing toddlers around the park, I'd love to help coach.

God bless all the parent coaches. What a huge commitment!