Oh, Oh, Oh

An amazing performer

She gets very into her music.

Yea.

Bareback Rider

Everyone uses the ears to steer, right?

Leaves

This seems out of place now that it is freezing cold, but it really wasn't that long ago.

Eda Curls

Animals

I had some animals hopping about my living room. Can you tell what they are?

Kangaroo, bunny, kangaroo

"Mommy, I wrote my name!"

Royalty

While I was working on Ruby's Halloween costume the girls used the scraps of felt to make crowns. Varying sizes of scraps meant they had to find varying sizes of heads to wear them.

Guess who had a birthday?

They loved the crowns they got at school and wore them all day. I loved the way Cora's rested on her ears and eyes. It's rather crazy to me that they are six already. How did that happen?

Jack-O-Lanterns

We carved the pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. Cora drew the face on hers, I just cut where she drew. I helped the other two.

We did do it before Halloween. Then I found I only had one candle that would work in a pumpkin so we lit them up one at a time so the girls could see them.

More snow pictures

These are from the same snow storm that covered Ray's pickup with tree branches. The girls had a snow day from school so they got to stay home and play. We did some snow shoveling and, amazingly enough, I wasn't as sore as I expected the next day. Did I mention that the snow was really wet (and subsequently really heavy)?

Let's play a game: Where's Ray's Pickup?

Can you find it? This was what our backyard looked like after a very early, very wet snow in October. The pickup is fine, not that a new dent or two would have been noticeable, anyway.

Happy Halloween!

Can you tell what they are?

I "dressed up" to go with the theme. I'm wearing all blue. I didn't figure you needed a picture but you can try to guess what I am, too, if you want.

Better clues for Ruby:

In the last pictures of Eda look at her feet. I made her fin in two pieces and attached them to her shoes so she could walk. It works great as long as I dress her. When she puts on her own shoes she ends up pigeon-toed. (Or would that be pigeon-finned?)

The Story of School

Or: The Causes of All Stress in My Life (possibly a slight exaggeration, but not much)
*Names have been changed

This is not going to be an eloquent and funny post. Actually, if you are looking for eloquent and funny posts you are probably on the wrong blog anyway. But that's beside the point. This is also a very long post. You really don't have to read it. I'm not even putting in any pictures.

Herewith the story of getting my children into school.

This story begins way back in February when the school district began running ads for kindergarten registration in the paper. The ads said to register your kindergartner at the school they would be attending. Not knowing what school area we were in I called Mr Jones* who was listed as the contact for questions. (Maybe this should have started a year earlier when they changed the school boundaries and our house fell into one school boundary on the map and a different one in the description, at the time I didn't think much of it because my children weren't in school.)

I had several questions for Mr Jones. He answered them all quite concisely until my last question, how do I know what school to go to? He said, "There is a map on our website, but I can tell you." He then proceeded to hem and ha for several minutes and finally told me School A.

Now, perhaps I should have been concerned since it took him so long to figure it out. I was a little. So I thought I'd just look at the map myself. I went to the school website. I looked all over the school website and couldn't find a map. So, I concluded, Mr Jones should know what he's talking about, maybe he just didn't know where to find the map, either. Besides, School A was the school that I wanted my children in. It is located a few short blocks from Ray's office. Ray drives past it four times every day, at least. It is in the area of town where all the shopping is. No school in town could get more convenient than School A.

I registered my girls in School A. I filled out all the paperwork. I talked to all sorts of people. No one questioned us being there. The principal said we'd get a packet of information in June. She also said we could talk later about whether the girls should be in the same class or not. I'm not really sure when she meant by "later" because I never actually had another chance to talk to her before classes were assigned.

In April we went to kindergarten screening. I talked to more people from School A. Everything seemed to be going great.

Somewhere in here I searched the website again and finally found the map. I actually found it on accident after I had given up looking for it and decided to look for something else. The map clearly showed us in School B. At this point I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't want to go to School B. It was by far the least convenient school for me. In the eight years I've lived here I believe I'd driven by School B once. It was the school furthest from our house. It wasn't close to anything I ever needed to go to.

Then I ran into my old boss who told me the girls were definitely in School A because he had just redrawn the map for the school district. They just hadn't released the new map yet. Okay, that might explain the hesitation when Mr Jones told me which school, so I went on with School A.

So far, so good. The girls are registered, screened, we're just waiting for some information. I wasn't really sure what information I was waiting for, but I assumed it would contain info on classes, teachers, and school supply lists. Maybe busing, school open house. I didn't really know.

June came and went. No info. All my friends with kids the same age were talking about the classes their kids would be in. July came and was almost over. No info. Now I was starting to get a little stressed. I tried calling the school but of course no one was there because it was summer break. So I called Mr Jones again. He told me the girls were assigned to the same class, told me who the teacher was and said I could find the supply list on the website. And, if I didn't hear anything by the middle of August I should call him back. The middle of August? As in a week before school starts? Really? That's the best you can do? By then someone should be back in the school. I really wanted to ask what the heck he was getting paid for.

I looked up the supply list. It was ridiculous: three boxes of 24 crayons, three boxes of tissues, dozens of pencils, it went on and on. What kindergartener needs 6 dozen crayons? Are they eating them for lunch? I thought it was bad enough for one kid but I was looking at this as someone who had to buy twice as much. I was not happy. But I started to pick up a few things off the list. Being the non-complier that I am, I only got one box of crayons for each child, etc. on down the list. I also skipped the hand sanitizer completely (I've heard from other parents that it doesn't get used anyway).

The beginning of August I finally got a postcard in the mail from the girls' teacher. It didn't have much info but did say she would call with more. That was a start.

But the phone call I got a few days later didn't come from the girls' teacher. It was the principal of School A. She basically said, "The bus barn just called and you're not actually in our school boundaries. I'm really sorry, we'd love to have the girls but you're just not in our boundaries. I'll send all your stuff to School B." I said that Mr Jones told me School A. She replied, "Well, I talked to him and he said he might have given you the wrong information."

Two or three weeks before the start of school. I finally felt like I knew something and suddenly I was starting over. I called Mr Jones again. Of course he didn't answer. I left a message. I don't think it was very nice. He called me back. He apologized. He assured me that School B is just as good a school as School A. The class sizes were smaller in School B. (The real reason, I've since concluded that all this happened.) That's nice and all, but it's still absolutely the least convenient school for me and now, two weeks before school starts, we're starting all over. Mr Jones said he would have Mr Smith*, the principal of School B call me.

Mr Smith called. He was very nice. He asked if I wanted the girls in the same class or not. He assigned them to classes while we were on the phone. He told me who their teachers were. I felt a little better after talking to him.

About three days later I heard that Mr Smith had resigned as principal of School B and was moving out of state immediately to take a new job. Great. The one person at School B who knew we're supposed to be there was now leaving. At this point I was seriously considering homeschooling. Well, not really seriously, but it was crossing my mind a lot more often.

The one upside to School B that I found was the school supply list: much more reasonable. In fact, I already had pretty much everything on the list and I had only purchased about half the stuff, if that, for School A. Bonus.

Now, the bus barn was who caught that we were in the wrong school, I was told, so I assumed the busing would be worked out. Then the bus routes came out in the paper. The closest bus stop to our house was for School A and it was two blocks away. (Fun side note: the School A bus drives right past our house every day.) The School B bus stopped 3-4 blocks south of us, across a major street, and 3 blocks west of us, across another major street. From the looks of the route I was pretty sure they didn't even come into our neighborhood. I called the bus barn. I talked to some guy. I told him my story (the condensed version). He took my information and said he'd have to get back to me.

A couple more days go by. The start of school is getting much closer. No call from the bus barn. I called again. This time I talked to Stacy*. As soon as I said who I was she said, "With the twins? I've got it all figured out." I think Stacy at the bus barn should run the whole school district. It would work much smoother I'm sure.

That's pretty much the story. From that point on things were looking up. We went to the school open house, met teachers and the bus driver. The bus driver said we could have the bus stop right across the street from our house. That's pretty handy. I like the girls' teachers. I like the school. It's still not convenient in any way, but I'm sort-of getting over that. Even with the girls riding the bus most of the time I find I'm driving a lot more than I did before school. That's the part I hate.

The first day of school there was another kid waiting for the bus at our bus stop. I talked to his mom for a minute. They lived on our block (until a week ago) and last year he was in School A. They just switched him to School B about the same time they switched our girls. Which made me think we probably were supposed to be in School A to begin with but they switched things when they saw the class sizes. I don't really know.

Now if you read all of that you will understand the angst and difficulty comment I made a few posts back.

Are you happy now, Holly?

Pumpkins!

The girls and I decided to visit the pumpkin patch before the weather got too cold. It's a pick-your-own site. We got a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch, picked out our pumpkins, then got a ride back. They also had some farm animals to look at and some cookies to eat.

I fully intended to take my camera along. But my brain isn't what it used to be. When we got there I realized I'd forgotten my camera. Then Ruby reminded me I could take pictures on my phone. 

The girls all wanted to pick little pumpkins, but I wasn't going to pay $6 for a little pumpkin so I made them get bigger ones. Ruby and Cora did pick their own. I helped Eda (hers is the big one by her feet). They all liked the green ones.

The advantage to not taking many pictures the last few months is that I actually got the pumpkin post up in October. And not even that late in the month!

My kind of pet

It doesn't make a mess. It doesn't make any noise. It is never underfoot. It doesn't have to be fed.

My kind of pet:

While I didn't use my camera much, I did take an occasional picture with my phone. Not great quality, but you get the idea.

Swimming Fun

I discovered that I didn't get my camera out much the latter half of the summer. Not at all in September. I guess we were just too busy. (Or I was too sleep deprived to think about it.)

Anyway, the girls made it into one session of swim lessons.

By the end of the two weeks Ruby would actually put her head under the water and jump in without someone catching her. Cora didn't ever get very comfortable in the water. Although they both did jump off the diving board once. Their teacher caught them. The best part was the last day when they got to go down the big water slide.

Eda and Me Time

Since Ruby and Cora are in school, Eda and I have most of the day for one-on-one time now. I've tried to encourage her self-entertaining abilities. But she mostly wants to play with me. Since I can't spend all day every day playing Ring Around the Rosies and Hide-n-Seek, she has taken up helping me with whatever I happen to be doing:

Like cooking and doing laundry. It's actually kind-of fun to have one two-year-old to help with such chores. Not nearly as stressful as having two two-year-olds trying to help at once.

I am apparently not nearly as much fun as her sisters, because Eda gets very excited when they get home. The first few days of school she started asking earlier and earlier each day if she could watch for her girlies. She is getting used to the schedule finally, I think. She's not quite as clingy as she was at first. But she still does get awfully excited when the girls get home.

School Started

I just realized how long it's been since I last blogged. I'm blaming it on school. I'm blaming everything on school these days. I'd forgotten how hard school was. It's almost more than I can handle. And I'm not even the one going. :)

After a great deal of angst and difficulty on my part*, Ruby and Cora started kindergarten. Here they  were waiting for the bus the first day and getting off the bus when they got home. They wanted to ride the bus the first day, so I let them. It stressed me out more than I expected. I blame that on Jenn and her children's first day of school bus riding experience. It's not too big a deal now that I know they know where they are going. In fact, today Ray took the girls to school (it was Donuts for Dads Day) and he said they showed him all around. It was the first time he'd made it to the school.

The girls love school. They are having all sorts of fun. They get to play outside three times every day. They also get to play inside. Beyond that I'm not sure what they do, that's pretty much all I hear about.

But back to me, since we all know this is all about me, I think school is trying to kill me. Or at least completely deprive me of sleep. Eda is doing her best to assist in the sleep deprivation department. We've also already had the first school sickness come home. Oh, the joys of school. Only how many more years to go?

I LOVE school. Okay, okay, I don't love school. In fact, I don't really even like school. But the girls are enjoying it and that is what really matters. They seem to be making friends and doing quite well. So I think I'll probably be able to survive.

*If you want to know my getting the girls in school story you can ask. I'm still a little unhappy about how it all happened, but I'm getting better.

The flower girls:

and the happy couple.

She already loves a camera

and she's too cute not to share.

Five years later...

The twins with the twins, again.

It means you're smarter...

if you have bigger glasses, right?

Making good use of the dance floor:

Lots of Elk

BIG elk.

One was even friendly.

Roy and Tiffany -- this is for you

It's perfect. :)

Notice anything different?

Size Comparisons

Ruby, "It was really big."
Cora, "Almost as big as a giant?"
Ruby, "No. Almost as big as a mother. Almost as big as a fridge."

Great. Now I know that my children rank my size in the same class as a fridge.

A trip to Devil's Tower

 with cousins.

Lots of fun with all those little girls.

Three strong girls...

Acrobats in the family

It wasn't raining...

but there must be a reason to use umbrellas if you have them. It was too sunny.

Matchy-Matchy-Matchy

One day when Cora and Ruby put on matching outfits Cora informed me, "Now we're twins!"

A Riveting Story

Best Friends

Like Father Like Daughter

Learning to crochet

Maybe we'll try again next year.

Riding double on a trike?

Ruby Mouse

Another pic from my phone.

Another Corastyle

I found some pictures on my phone and these were amongst them. Sorry for the quality but I only own a dumb phone that really isn't meant to be used in place of a camera. :)

Sometimes it stinks to be the youngest...

So, Ray went to Turkey

and he brought us back these gorgeous scarves:

You can't really get the full experience without touching them. They are so soft and very pretty. I've never been much of a scarf wearer, but I had to try anyway.

In answer to your questions: Ray was in Turkey on a work trip. He's working on a project in Turkey for an Australian company on the Canadian exchange. You can't get much more global than that. :)

I was only slightly jealous. That's not an area of the world that is high on my list of places to visit. However, after his descriptions I'm more interested in seeing it now. 

I wasn't going to put myself through it again, but...

Ray noticed in the paper that Clifford was coming and read it out loud. In front of the girls. (I already was aware of it but I hadn't mentioned it, intentionally.) But once the girls knew there wasn't much to do but go.

We've come a long way since the first time the twins met Clifford. The room was still crowded, loud, and hot. (Worse than last time, actually, because on top of the moms with kids and huge daycare groups, three or maybe four kindergarten classes showed up. Insane.) But I know to expect that now. I also took my own stories to read while we waited. Only a semi-successful undertaking due to the noise but it did keep the girls entertained for a short while. Clifford improved, too. This time he interacted with the kids (no talking, but moving around and looking at them, dancing when he first showed up) instead of just sitting there. And whoever was in charge got smarter and put Clifford on a small couch instead of a tiny chair. Much easier to take pictures of children sitting next to Clifford instead of attempting to escape off his lap. Eda wasn't too sure what to think. She didn't really want to get too close to him but was fine sitting with her sisters. She also talked about it a lot afterward. I knew how insane the crowd would be so I did my best to keep my girls entertained and we were one of the last to get pictures. That was what I was aiming for so the girls had time to get used to the idea by seeing lots of other kids sit by Clifford.

I also invited several friends. (If I have to go through it, I don't want to do it alone.) So it turned into a playdate at the library after all the pictures were done. That part was a lot more fun than seeing Clifford. I'm pretty sure the kids would agree with me.

Building snowmen .... in APRIL!?!

These snowmen were built in April. The end of April. A whole snowman family.

Thankfully, the snow melted fairly quickly. A day or two later the girls and I went out through the backyard. Eda stopped so I went back to find her. She was wandering around the yard as if she was looking for something. It was the snowmen. I tried to explain that the snowmen had melted. Not a particularly easy concept to convey to a two-year-old.

(I really should get used to building snowmen in April eventually. But I still don't like it. It should be spring. Flowers, birds, grass. Not snow. Or so my mind believes.)

Where did my baby go?

Because sitting on the couch just isn't challenging enough:

A great new hiding place:

Hopefully she's gaining an appreciation for the organ. :)

Cora has taken up styling her own hair lately

Here are a couple of examples:

She likes accessories.

I know this isn't the best picture

but it was the only one I got of Eda and Daniel hugging. These two have become great friends. They haven't always been so friendly.

The girls' curls: