First Five Busy Weeks of School

Tristan and Alex have been enjoying time with just the two of them each morning--whether it's playing in a bubble bath, going to the library for storytime, or just playing legos or puzzles or with their action figure guys.


The boys eat lunch, Tristan heads off to preschool, and Isabelle comes home from Kindergarten 10 minutes later. So while Isabelle eats her lunch, Alex and I do his workbook at the table by her. His workbook is with the Sing, Spell, Read, Write phonics program that I do with all my kids. It works really well. In fact, it is totally amazing to see how early they can learn to read, and what confidence this brings. Alex loves it and won't let us miss a day. I love how serious he takes his "school." It is adorable to watch!
In these first weeks of school, we've had 6 fieldtrips just for the 3 girls! Since you can't take siblings on them, I have only been able to go on 2 of them, but they sure were fun.

Maya's class got to go to a therapeutic horseback-riding ranch. Now you have to understand, in the 2 years that Maya has been with us, she has overcome a great deal of fears, but she still has a serious fear of all animals. It is a major accomplishment for her to pet a cat or dog, or even come near them, so I knew she wouldn't participate, but I thought it would be good for her to go and see her peers having fun with the horses. When we first walked into the horsebarn with all of the horses peering over their stall doors, she did get really scared and did NOT want to be there. But after about 20 minutes of hugging her and talking her through it, she was able to smile again and say "hi" to the horses as we went by them.Then we went into a lobby area with large windows to the arena, ate lunch and watched them get the horses ready to ride. Maya kept saying she wanted to ride the horses, but I knew that once we got the helmet on, and got close to one, she would change her mind. Still, when it was her turn we went through the motions and got all ready and walked out to meet this little horse they had picked out for her. She didn't want to pet the horse or go near her head, but when they hauled her up on top of the horse, she let them!!! We walked around and around the arena and after about 10 minutes, Maya said she wanted to go fast! So, the lady that was leading the horse took her to a trot. Maya loved every minute of it! The horse's name was Basil and Maya thoroughly enjoyed patting her neck and telling her "good job" or "walk on, Basil." It just goes to show that no matter how well you know your kids, it is so easy to underestimate them. I can't express how proud I was of Maya for being so brave, or the joy that filled my heart seeing her do this.
Maya's other fieldtrips were to a nature center and to a fire station. Emma got to go to the zoo, and Isabelle also went to a fire station and then an apple orchard. I was able to go with her to the apple orchard. The apple orchard fieldtrip started out with a hay-wagon ride out to the apple trees where we each picked some apples. Out of all my children, Isabelle loves apples most of all, so it didn't surprise me that she wasted no time gobbling up one of those fresh, crisp apples once we were back on the hay-wagon. Then we had doughnuts and apple cider before all the kids had fun climbing on a haystack and petting some goats, sheep, a Shetland pony, and some donkeys. This last week has been unseasonably warm--in the mid-70s, so it was an absolutely perfect day for this trip, and so fun to spend it with my sweet Isabelle.Meanwhile, despite all the craziness surrounding him, Sebastian continues to flourish in utero! Here we are at 27 weeks:And again today, at 33 weeks along:We had an ultrasound this week and he is still measuring on the big side of things--in the 77th% at 5lb. 2 oz. I can't believe we only have about 7 weeks left before we meet this little guy!