Playing Catch-Up

Sorry I haven't posted in so long! This will be a long and somewhat rambling post, I am sure. And probably out of order since I am going to start with events from this morning - my baby is at school!! :( We had to wake all three kids up this morning - they NEVER sleep past 7 (except for Ella, she is our late riser) but by 7:30 no one was awake! We needed to leave here by 8 so that didn't leave much time to get all 4 kids fed and dressed.

The morning went more smoothly than I expected (luckily I had packed Caleb's lunch and laid out everyone's clothes the night before - Caleb informed me several days ago that he wanted tuna salad, crackers, and yogurt for lunch on his first day!) and we all piled in the van to take Caleb to Kindergarten. Just for today they had all the K families meet in the cafeteria so we would have time to say our goodbyes. They made us leave before the kids lined up to walk to their class, which was definitely a good thing for me. Scott told me I had to hold myself together until after we left because he didn't want CB to see me upset. That's just what I did - the second that cafeteria door closed I LOST it.

Then my sweet husband offered to take me (just me, just the two of us!) to lunch today to try and take my mind off my missing child... forget flowers or jewelry, he knows the way to make me happy is to take me out to eat somewhere! So I am definitely looking forward to that.

When we got home from taking Caleb, the girls ate the rest of their breakfast and then Ella started folding laundry for me... which leads me to what all we did last week and why my laundry pile even looks like this:

Ella and her pile of folded clothes

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Last week was a whirlwind of activity! There was so much I wanted to do with the kids before school started and last week was Caleb's first week not being at Summer Camp.

Monday morning Jackson had his 4 month well-check. He weighed in at a hefty 16 pounds, 2 ounces (about 10 ounces bigger than Caleb at this age) and was 25 1/4 inches long. He survived his shots and came home to take a really good nap! Later that afternoon we went to get the backpack full of school supplies and school uniforms that Parker Street Ministries provides to kids in the neighborhood. Caleb got a Transformers backpack and was THRILLED! After that we had a community dinner so momma got a night off from cooking!

Waiting for the doctor and talking to Mommy

Tuesday I took the kids to Backyard Adventures, an indoor playplace here in Lakeland. It is a bit pricey so we usually only go once a summer. Madisyn and McKenzee came with us to play, and Mima came along, too. That night Parker Street was having an Open House for its donors and volunteers, so I went to take some pictures of the event. Madisyn so kindly offered to bathe the girls for me while I cooked dinner for everyone.

Wednesday we trekked over to Daytona to visit the beach. I had wanted to spend the night over there instead of making the drive there and back in one day (by myself in the van with all the kiddos) but it just didn't work out because there was so much going on the rest of the week. Caleb told me he wanted to see the ocean one more time before school started so I was determined to get him there! The kids did great in the van, I just made sure to leave right after a feeding so Jackson would sleep on the way there. Grandma and Grandpa packed us a picnic lunch and we all went to the beach together.

Thursday we had orientation so Mima watched Jackson and the girls at her house while Scott and I went to Caleb's school with him. Earlier that morning Caleb and I went to breakfast together, something we both love!

Friday we met several friends at Chick-Fil-A for lunch, playtime and ice cream and then that night we had a special Kindergarten send-off night with just Caleb. Scott had gotten some tickets to a Devil Rays game from someone at work so we took Caleb and Papa to the baseball game. We had to eat a quick dinner on the run so we drove through Burger King. Caleb got to order a real Kid's Meal instead of something off the dollar menu and we even let him pick his drink (Coke - which is why I usually pick for him!). At the game he even got some dippin' dots.

7th inning stretch

I can't believe summer is over and my baby is old enough to be in Kindergarten.