A BIG CHAPTER IN MY LIFE CLOSES!

This was a day that I was dreading for the last 2 years. I knew there was no stopping it - if there was, I would have. I have been dreading the day my babies start kindergarten. I know that once they go to school the time will fly by and my babies won't be my babies anymore, I wouldn't have any little ones running around the house, no more shopping buddies, etc. I knew that chapter of my life would be done and there was no getting that time back. That's depressing.

With Jared living in Oregon when school started I gave him a pretty serious threat - you be home for the first day of school or we are through! I knew I would need my best friend with me the day my babies left me.

I took the boys to their school to meet their teacher on Thursday. It was very tramatic for me. I cried. I was not looking forward to this and I was so worried they wouldn't have a good teacher. I knew from the moment I met her my precious babies would be in good hands! She loved them from the first time she met them, she even described them to me when she met them 6 months earlier, she really did remember them, she was the only kindergarten teacher willing to keep them together and she was the classroom closest to the bathroom which Tyson needed! Love her! Even knowing she would love them it was still hard to let them go and grow up!

Meet the Teacher night

That night I bought the boys their school shirts, they were very happy about it! 

The next day I took the boys school shopping for their new clothes while Emma was at dance...Eli and Tyson loved shopping...Tyler just wanted it to be over with so he could get some lunch...but funny enough, every time we went into a dressing room he happily put the clothes on and wanted me to buy him everything! 

Tyler did not want to participate in the picture - he just wanted FOOD!! 

Happy now you little piggy :) 

Friday night we got to go to the airport at 8:30pm and pick up Jared. The kids were so excited! Their dad was coming home! He was starving so we made a quick pit stop on the way home to Lucille's BBQ and I guess the kids were hungrier than we thought, they ate 2 baskets of fries and ice cream sundaes! 

Saturday morning the boys all stayed home together and did yard work while me, Emma and Grandma Rodgers did our traditional back to school shopping! Emma was asked to be a GAP model for a few minutes to get a discount so she gladly participated! 

Sunday night came and all the kids got their back to school blessings. I swear sometimes I think the blessings are for me because they are saying the things I need to hear that I am worried about for them. 

The dreaded day finally came. We were up in the morning to get all ready. The kids were pumped! We did our morning prayers and then headed outside for our first day of school picture! 

 Then we headed over to Chiara and Payton's house so the twins could all take one together - they do a lot of firsts together and this was going to be one of them!

 Bus Stop here come!

 Bye my babies!

 
 Goodbye my beautiful - all by herself for the first time. I was not able to go to school with her, she does not need me, but it has just been tradition. With the boys being a different school then Emma, we had to stay with them since it was a new school for all of them.

After the kids all loaded up on to their buses, Jared and I quickly hauled buns over to the boys school to make sure they got off the bus ok and made it to their playgrounds and what not ok....

 Tyler waiting for Tyson

 Eli found his desk and is all good to go!

After the bell rang and we know all was well, Jared and I headed over to the Parrys house and we picked up Blake and Stephanie and we went to Kneaders for breakfast and talked about how proud we were that we didn't break down into big 'ol belly sobs like we thought we would. After breakfast we headed to the movies to go see The Lone Ranger. It was fun double dating with our men while the kids were all gone at school. Finally it was time to go and pick them all up  from the bus stop. They came off the bus just as I had hoped they would (red faces from being so hot) smiling! 

 Eli was found right after school outside his classroom door crying because he couldn't find his brothers and he had taken on the responsibility of making sure his brothers had gotten on the bus ok and knew what to do and where to go. He did not know that they were already on the bus so he was panicking. The teachers had to assure him they were fine and he would end up on the right bus and with his brothers. He is such a good buddy!

Emma had a quick tumbling class right after school so as soon as she was done with that we took all the kids to Gecko Grill to celebrate the first day of school! 

The next day went just as good as the first! 

 Of course we still spyed on them to make sure they were ok. I actually secretly watched them at school for the first 6 days - yep - crazy mom!

Jared and I went back to Kneaders for one last breakfast since he went back to Oregon that day. It was sad on Wednesday to not have anyone to go with me to breakfast. Here is the 3rd and 4th day outfits, but I forgot the last day, dang it. 

I kept waiting every day for the twins to hit their kindergarten crash after school and it never happened. They came home full of energy every day - I was shocked! Especially since they were used to taking naps still every afternoon. Oh, I spoke too soon - the next week the boys were exhausted in the morning and after school - grumpy grumpy! I giggled, I was waiting for this to happen. 

Thursday while the kids were at school, Stephanie and I took our Summer Movie Fun tickets and went and saw a different movie instead, we thought we were awesome for having all the kids in school, our husbands at work and we were sitting there watching a movie, drinking sodas and eating popcorn! 

Everyone was doing good. The only one we worried about was Eli. He was never quite the same. He lost some of his carefree happiness he had. We were grateful that the teacher sent out this class picture because Eli looked happy in it so that was a little relief. 

We are now on our 5th week of school and things are getting much better for Eli and the other 3 have been doing great. Eli is back to himself - happy go lucky! All in the world is good!