The One Where They Went Back To School

It's quiet in the house right now. Only one little Lakes boy running around. The big boys are all back to school. And for the first and only time, they are all in the same school. We had our open house Tuesday night and got to meet all of our new teachers. They all seemed to be wonderful and the boys were thrilled to run into all of their friends (including Mrs D and Mrs Fish!).

Jackson is super excited to be in a Jungle room this year. He LOVES monkeys, so I think it will be a good fit for him.

Bryce and Jarron are in their last year of elementary school, so to prepare them for middle school, they switch classes throughout the day. They each have the same three teachers-just at different times.

This morning, I did the annual "take pictures on the front porch" photos and then I put them on the bus.

It's amazing to me how much the twins have grown up. They look so big now.

Jackson was one of the last ones on the bus-he looked so little following Jarron on.

And now I am not so patiently waiting to hear how their first day went.

The One with Ten on Tuesday

1. I kinda miss Ten on Tuesday. A little bit. So I brought it back...just for a week. Maybe.

2. In addition to the super cool concert Jackson got to go to, he also got a super cool new big kid bike. (It was a big week for Jackson). He has asked to ride it every night since he got it.

3. Moosey likes Oreos. And just like his momma he likes to take them apart and eat the centers first. Since he looks nothing like me at all, it's nice to see a little bit of me coming through.

4. My kids are insanely adorable. Just saying.

5. The big boys start school next week, and I am totally finished back to school shopping. I love new school supplies. They make me happy. Especially all labeled and organized.

6. When you have three older brothers it can be hard to find somewhere to sit, so you need to be creative.

7. I am currently finishing up the last book in this crafting/mystery series. It's pretty good. Not as good as Donna Andrews' latest but pretty good.














8. Moosey is still not sleeping consistently through the night. I just don't get it. I love sleeping, Chuck loves sleeping. I just don't know where he gets this aversion to sleep from.

9. College basketball starts back pretty soon. It was nice spending time with my husband and sons, I'll really miss them when Kentucky starts playing again and they ignore me to watch the games. Luckily, the baby isn't addicted just yet. 

10. We have massive amounts of chili peppers to be picked in our garden. I have never, ever used a chili pepper when cooking. So far, Chuck's been taking them to work for a friend of his. I'd like to try to use at least one in a recipe. Does anyone have a good chili pepper recipe?

The One with the Jonas Brothers Concert

Thanks to some super amazing friends (Hi Laurie and Travis! You guys rock!!) I got two free tickets to the Jonas Brothers concert last week. I knew right away that I was taking the medium sized kid. It can't be easy being Jackson. Moosey needs a LOT of attention being the baby; and the twins get a LOT of attention because they are twins. People are funny that way-multiples just attract attention.
Jackson isn't tall enough to ride most of the rides at Kings Island so he gets stuck with me and Moose. And there isn't a lot of rides that Moose can ride so he misses out that way too. He couldn't go to Midnight Madness or Kentucky games last year because he was too young. So, this was a golden opportunity for Jack-Jack to get to do something that no one else would be doing.
Jackson isn't an overly expressive kid. When he's happy he smiles, but there no shouting or carrying on. The only way you know he's excited about something is that he turns into a chatterbox. (I have no idea where he gets that from!) The entire drive to Riverbend was Jackson chattering away- for an hour and thirty minutes he chattered about anything and everything-did I know that some people really do jump off bridges? Or that Joseph from school's favorite food is raisins? or that Jackson loves the color red, then green, then blue?  I found out all of that and more on the drive to the concert. And I loved it because he was so happy and excited to be the center of attention.

I've never been to Riverbend before and it is holds a deceptively large amount of people. We got there just as the concert was starting and it was packed. And hot. Very, very hot. At first Jackson was thrilled and was up dancing with the other kids but the longer Demi Levato and the other Camp Rock co-stars played, the more frustrated Jackson got. And he wasn't the only one. The thousands of screaming pre-teens weren't there for Allison Stoner, they were there for Kevin, Joe, and Nick and the JoBros were nowhere to be found. I seriously thought that the crowd was going to revolt at about the 1:30 mark.

Finally, just before 9 the Jonas Brothers hit the stage. And the place went crazy. You don't know loud until you are surrounded by screaming pre-teen girls. Wow. Even Jackson was in awe of the noise level.
Jackson got his second wind when the JoBros started playing. They are actually a really good live band. Jack-Jack knew most of the songs and sang along with a lot of them. After about 45 minutes, we decided to start heading out. Jackson chattered the whole way to the car. He told me about the dream he had the night before that instead of the human JoBros band, animals hit the stage, and called themselves the "Jonanimals Bros". He said, "You know what Mom? They were pretty good, not as good as the real Jonas Brothers, but they were better than Demi Levato." :)

Jackson and I had a really fun night together. When we got home, his big brothers came downstairs asking about his night and wanting to look at the pictures he took. I think for him- that was almost as cool as going to the concert.

The One Where We Went Hiking

In an effort to be healthier and more active, we decided to take the boys on a short hike last week. We went to a "new to us" park in West Chester. The trail wasn't strenuous and it was pretty easy to navigate (even with the Moose). There was a small creek bed at the bottom of the trail and the boys had a great time skipping rocks and jumping around on the pathway. I even spotted a frog hanging out by the creek side. Although as soon as he saw the four rowdy boys approaching, he froze (in terror-I could see it on his face!). He had no desire to attract our attention. I mean, if I was a frog I wouldn't want our crew poking and prodding me. :)

After the hike, the boys spent some time on the playground equipment.

When I was in grade school there was a family that had 5 boys. And any time her boys would do something unruly or crazy, the mom would just say, "well, boys will be boys". I always thought that was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard-that it was just an excuse for bad behavior.
But you know what? She was right.
Because even though this boy has visited Urgent Care more than all of his brothers combined this year, I caught him doing this. I'm not even sure what he is doing here but I know it was not the intended use of that piece of playground equipment.

Yup, apparently boys will be boys. I guess I owe Mrs. H an apology!

The One With the County Fair

There is nothing that makes it more clear that I am a "city girl" than going to the county fair. I'm not sure that I have been to one since I was a kid and I know that our boys have never been to one. Our friends at church had two daughters competing in the horse and small animal divisions, so we decided to give it a try.
The fair we went to was set up with all of the rides/games/food in the front and the animals/exhibits near the back.

As always, the boys desperately wanted to play the carnival games-Bryce and Jackson both won, but Jarron did not get the UK basketball he was trying for. (He has about 15 basketballs at home, so I wasn't too torn about it.)

Bryce was the only one who chose to spend his money on a ride and he decided to do the Monkey Maze. He was in and out in about 3 minutes, but he seemed to think it was worth it.

Moose got to go on his first pony ride and he had a big grin on his face most of the ride. I did hear him call them "Woof Woof". (Maybe he does take after his momma a little bit-there was a time when I confused a mule and a pony but in my defense they look similar from a distance.)

There was the normal assortment of booths from local agencies and governments. The boys love these booths; they love filling their bags up with free pencils, rulers, bookmarks, and frisbees.

The Army booth was a big hit because they had a few vehicles that the boys could climb around in.

We headed to the back of the fairgrounds to see the animals-here's the city girl part of the story. Did you know that when the fair is over they sell the animals? I had no idea!  These aren't beloved pets; they are "livestock". I'm not a vegetarian-although I recently gave up red meat-but I had a hard time eating meat the rest of the weekend. Of course, I wasn't raised on a farm or in the country, and I'm sure I'd feel differently if I did. But still, it made me a little sad.

The boys were oblivious to all of that, they just really enjoyed petting the animals and seeing them up close. Which is how it should be when you are a kid. They had a lot of fun and are excited to go back next year.

The One With the Link to the Tennis Pictures

The Fountain Square tennis pictures are up on the USTA site.
Go here.
Moose is in picture two and Bryce & Brody are in picture 20. :) I'm surprised that Jackson didn't make the site since they took so many of him. Still-all in all, pretty exciting.