children

This is totally me right now. 

18 children all day and then 3 all evening and night.

And I am definitely looking this frazzled by then end of the day, too. 

more splashing.

The video still makes me smile. "I step in water!" 

But these pictures make me smile, too... 

state fair.

We made Gretchie a 4-H fan with cows... her favorite. I think Corey actually got her to take a bite of ice cream here. Amazing! (He may have told her it was yogurt, though.) Crazy baby still refuses to eat ice cream!

Sorry that your eyes are closed, Sophie, but Mommy wants proof that I was around at some of these events.

Watching Daddy play the Backhoe Shell game...

Someone blonde may have had to miss the face painting this year because of a bad attitude. Bummer.

I loved these little black-eyed bunnies!

Sophie has decided that she is never chewing gum again... 

I took this picture just for you, Meagan. (She gets all freaked out by fish. Aren't I a nice friend??)

Our favorite vet (Grandpa) was already on the wall of vets...

So the kids added Dr. Delean...

We promised the kids milkshakes at Bogey's before we left, but Gretchen was asleep after only a few blocks. Such a long and busy day for a little miss! So we compromised with ice cream at Twisted Cow after supper. (Our local version of Orange Leaf!)

makes me smile.

1st graders are exhausting... but they do make me smile.
I'm grading writing samples tonight.

How well can you read 1st grade phonetic spelling??

Igowni to a slepovr. 
and i goni too jup on The crap leg. 

tired.

I'm really tired. 

First grade is exhausting. 

I think Lawson would agree. We sent him to bed last Friday at 6:45 pm. Just a few too many meltdowns. When I went to check on him at 7:15, he was sound asleep.  He woke up over 12 hours later. 

** I felt a bit like June Cleaver tonight as I was vacuuming while wearing a skirt and a long, dangly necklace. I should have put on some high heels! (Except I don't really own any high heels... and I'm pretty sure June Cleaver never had to vacuum up so many leaves. Darn dog with crazy clingy fur.) 

** I really need a work day at school right now. Or a couple. Maybe three. We've added in a new intervention program that I think we'll be good. But it's intense. And it's a lot of work. And all that work has to be done by our grade level groups. We found out the other day that a few other schools that have implemented this spent an entire year planning for it. And then started actually doing it. We started planning in August. 

** We have talked for the last few years about trying to find ways to increase the amount of plan time we get at the elementary level. Somehow this year we ended up with less. Each special (PE, Music, Library and Computers) was shortened by 5 minutes. Which doesn't sound like a lot. But when you figure in 2 specials per day, 5 days a week... that works out to a whole lot less plan time. No wonder I feel behind. More planning required and less time to do it. 

** I put on Facebook last night "Sometimes change is good. And sometimes it's really, really frustrating and annoying." I'm experiencing the second one right now. And it's really frustrating and annoying. And just makes me shake my head at the decisions some people make. 

** I get really annoyed by know-it-all personalities. Especially when they really don't know it all and actually know very little about it. 

** Miss Gretchie has not been sleeping well at night. How is it that daddies are able to sleep through a crying baby?? I've never understood that. 

** My hair is finally growing back/thickening up again. Sadly, it's taking it a long time to get some length back again. I still can't really wear it down. But it could be worse. One of my kiddos in 1st grade last year had thinning hair because of a condition her daddy passed to her genetically. She showed up for 2nd grade completely bald. And it's not going to grow back. So I shouldn't complain. 

** A happier note... Pintrest. I love it. It's just happy and fun. I want to have a craft night to get together and make some of the things I have pinned. Anyone want to join me?? 

** I am nodding off here at my laptop. Is 9:40 too early to go to bed? 

rodeo.

The kids look forward to this rodeo every year. We were excited to take our little cow-loving Gretchen this year! (Whenever she spots one out the window on a drive back home she hollers out, "Cow! Cow!")

Even though we parked really close to the gate, the kids really wanted to ride the wagon. 

Gretchen wasn't too sure about it, though...

We got there extra early so that we could find a seat in the "good bleachers." (The ones that aren't completely open in the back. Can't have any little people falling through!) Daddy took Gretchen for a walk to see some of the animals up close.

They came back with popcorn...

The weather was perfect! We were actually chilly in jeans and long sleeves. We ended up wrapping up in the blankets we brought to sit on!

The cowboys were having some bad luck with the awful calf roping/jerk their heads back and then tie them up thing. (I hate that one.) The rodeo clown told these two ladies in turquoise that if they roped the next one, they had to do a victory dance. "You might wanna start stretching, Grandma." =) (But apparently, she really was his grandma, so it was okay for him to say that.) We know Miss Annie on the left...

Mutton busting is always a favorite...

And the calf scramble...

This was a new addition this year that I really didn't care for... bull fighting. They brought out fence panels and blocked off all but a small section of the arena. Then they turned a bull loose with a clown/bull fighter and somehow scored them. I didn't love it. It's one thing to watch them distract the bulls when they are trying to protect a cowboy... this was just teasing them. And watching one of them throw his hat in the air, signaling for help after he was thrown into the fence... then later hanging by one arm from the fence so that he could move his dislocated shoulder back into place... was a little creepy.

I jammied up my sleepy little baby and enjoyed a quiet ride home with my mom and 2 sleeping kids. (The other sleeping kid was with my dad and Corey in the truck.) A perfect evening for a fun family tradition!