Jayden's first day of Kindergarten

went very smoothly. We had to rush a bit in the morning. For some unknown reason, he has been getting up between 6 and 8 all summer long. Yesterday, however, when he needed a little more time in the morning, he didn't wake up until 8:15!! It's not terrible since his school day doesn't begin until 9:00. BUT, we had a lot to get done before class started 45 minutes later. I rushed him through some Cheerios for breakfast and then he jumped in the shower with Dave for a quick once over. Then it was to the bedroom for dressing and shoes. We finally made it out of here and into the car at 8:52! I'm glad we chose the neighborhood school!

He was pretty excited all summer about starting kindergarten, but I think he was a little nervous when we first got there.When we got there Grandma Tess was there with her camera to take 'first day of school pictures'. Her's probably came out better than mine, I was in a rush to get us to where the kids are supposed to line up since we were so late. I didn't want us to be late getting into the room.

They let us into the room pretty quick after 9AM. We walked in (very slowly because there were parents with every kid) and Jayden found his cubby:

He dropped off his lunchbox into his cubby and retrieved his nametag.
Then we went to find him a seat. He ended up sitting at a table with 2 other boys and then a third joined them. The third boy was wearing the same shirt as Jayden. They thought that was kind of cool! :) On our way out, I saw this sign. We were, apparently, supposed to see this on our way in. His teacher should have put it outside the door instead of inside. Too many people were blocking the sign for us to see it. Good thing we can follow the crowd and deduce what to do.

Jelly Belly anyone??

We took a trip to Fairfield today to visit the Jelly Belly Factory! It was really cool to see how the candies are made. It takes WAY longer to make them than it does to eat them FOR SURE! But, we had a great time touring the factory and then visiting the store afterwards. I would suggest to anyone who is thinking about going to call ahead and see if you can reserve a tour time. We waited in line for an hour or so for the tour; then the tour itself was almost an hour; then we wandered the store area for some time. It was a lot of foot time and my dogs are BARKING! I also recommend that you plan to have lunch somewhere and locate the where and how to get there before you start out so you don't end up at Denny's just because it's the only place there is. They have a cafe at the factory. I might just eat there next time. We'll see.

Jayden posed in front of a coin-operated Jelly Belly dispenser for me. He's so cute!

The big stuffed Jelly Belly guy was just begging for a photo-op!

Eliana was sooooooo happy to have a cute little hat that we all had to wear on the tour. BTW, if you bring a hat of your own, you don't HAVE to wear theirs. But, the hat was half the fun, right?

Jayden's such a ham! Kind of looks like a pirate in this snap.

Ashley so did NOT want to wear the hat. Too bad, it looks good on her! :)

We went to the circus...

....but didn't bring the camera. Apparently, the battery has died and there has been a serious lack of motivation to plug it in. What a shame! But, the kids LOVED LOVED LOVED the circus. We got there quite a bit early because apparently, I can't read. I thought the show started at 7, but it was actually 7:30. So, I planned for us to get there around 6:30 so we would have plenty of time to get special souvenirs, programs, snacks, potty trips, and to our seats before the show started. But, we made record time getting there and arrived just after 6. Fortunately, there was a pre-show thing going on and they let us in the back door at 6:30. So, we did all our shopping and found our seats and watched the clowns and the acrobats perform for a while before the actual show.

The kids were totally fascinated by everything. Ellie loved the clowns the best. Although, being so young, she was a little concerned about them when they "fell" or "got hurt" and wasn't sure it was as funny as everyone else did. Once she got the idea that they were doing it on purpose to be funny, she was much more relaxed and laughed extra hard (like only a kid can) at the funny clowns. Jayden was awed by the motorcycle riders, but he absolutely LOVED the trapeze artists. He watched in wide-eyed fascination and exclaimed, "I want to try THAT!" Me, too! :)

Tomorrow is our last weekday before Jayden starts school. I'm a little sad about all that we will be missing out on. But, I am glad that he is excited to start school. We are going to celebrate by going up to Fairfield and visiting the Jelly Belly Factory. I hope it's as fun as it sounds! :)

New post

I figured it was time to post something new, but I am a loss as to what to say.

We had a nice visit with our original playgroup friends last week. After playing for a while, we all went to Taco Bell and met the Shuman gang for lunch. It was a little chaotic and then it got worse....Eliana peed on the bench. Then she looked at me all innocent and said, "Mama, I have to go potty." My response, "Clearly you already have."

Stupid me, though. I didn't bring her a change of clothes. She peed at the house right before we left. But, still...I soaked up the bench with a bunch of napkins and found some 6-9 mo pants in the trunk of my car. I had a change of underwear in my purse. (Underwear and no pants? That's odd...yeah...go figure!) We (Lori and I....thank you Lori) used wipes to clean the bench up after the pee-soaked napkins. Ellie has had a series of bad days after that. Several peeing-in-her-pants sessions that were completely lack of trying on her part. I am sure it will get better soon. After all, she isn't going to go to college still peeing in her pants.

After that the week went by very quickly. I couldn't recount for certain what we did, but I am sure it involved a lot of playing on the kids' part. This week we are looking forward to playing with Jayden's friend from preschool; Eliana's last dance class; and a trip to the aquarium with Grandma. Oh yeah....and Papa's 75th Birthday!

I thought I lost my mind...

I was visiting with my parents today while Jayden played with the little boy next door. But, 5:30 rolled around and I knew we had to get going home so I could make dinner.

We were ready to walk out the door, but I couldn't locate my keys. I usually dump them on the steps when I get there, but I had my hands full of lunch garbage. After a careful search of the logical places, I searched the garbage. I looked in the windows of my locked car; I hunted the grass....I looked and looked. I thought long and hard about the path I took into the house and all of the places I was while I was there. Pretty much, I came in, threw out the garbage, and camped on the couch. The keys were not obviously in any of those places. I went through the garbage 4 (YES..FOUR) times; I moved the couch, pulled off all the cushions; I looked in the bathroom, checked the sink, toilet...even the shower; I searched. I gave up. Figured, they had to be in the car. There was nowhere else for them to be.

I called Dave. Told him I needed him to get my spare keys and come get me. I called AAA and asked them to come open the car. AAA got there first. I hunted, cleaned, hunted some more. Dave arrived while I was finishing up in the car. He hunted. He moved the car with the spare keys just in case they were under the car. No luck. I asked my dad to look in the mailbox just in case someone found them and put them in there. I had to pee.

When I got back to the family room with despair, my mom was dangling my keys from her finger. Where??? IN HER PURSE!!!!!!! NO...It wasn't ME. She picked them up when she got home and dumped them there with her keys and glasses etc. TWO HOURS!! That's how long we searched. At least I didn't lose my mind. I knew I hadn't done anything stupid with them. :)