First day of school

Today was Ryan's first day of school and we got off to an early start. I set my alarm clock (something I haven't done in a long, long time) last night just to make sure we were up and ready, but as usual, Ellie woke me up well before the alarm went off - thank goodness for little babies and all they do for us! Once Ellie and I were up, I went downstairs to wake up Ryan. It only took one little rub on the arm and he popped right up and said, "is it time for school, am I going to Kindergarten today?" Obviously he was pretty excited! I left Ryan to get himself dressed while I went to feed Ellie. Once he was dressed, he sat down for a bowl of cereal with Trav. After that, he brushed teeth, went to the bathroom, and then he was ready for the big day. While the boys were getting all pretty for the day, I managed to get the girls fed and ready as well so we could all head outside together to take a few pictures before the bus came - here are the results . . .

I imagine these are just the first of many, many "first day of school" pictures to come with Ryan and the girls. How weird will it be when all three are actually going to school? I won't know what to do with myself. After the pictures were done we headed down the road to the bus stop (which is right conveniently located at the end of our cul-de-sac) where we meet up with a couple other families from the neighborhood. The other two families are old pros at this first day of school stuff - both of their girls are in the 3rd grade - so it was nice to know that Ryan would have some "helpers" on the bus. Waiting at the bus stop was probably the hardest part of the day (I had told Ryan earlier in the morning that I could drive him if he wanted, but he was insistent that he ride the bus). So there we stood (it was a family event) waiting for the bus to come. When the big moment finally arrived, Ryan eagerly followed the girls onto the bus and into their seat - oh no, he doesn't know that he can't sit 3 to a seat. It was at this point that I started to tear up a little knowing that he was probably confused. Luckily the bus driver helped him out by nicely telling him that he had to find a different seat (which ended up being right across the aisle from the girls). Once he was settled in (he was in a big seat all by himself - so sad), he looked out the window and waved at me - this is when I nearly lost it. But, because half of the neighborhood was there and because Ryan seemed so happy, I kept myself together and waved back with a big smile - my heart breaking the entire time. And now here I sit, watching the clock and counting down the hours until he'll get off the bus again and come running home. Usually it is nice to have a break but today I can't get him home soon enough. I can't wait to hear about his day, find out how the bus ride went, and everything else I'm sure he'll be eager to tell - so exciting! Here are the last few pictures of him waiting for, and then getting on the bus - such a big boy!

Summer is over

Summer officially came to an end today for the Quast family. With school starting tomorrow, there are no more "free" days to do whatever we want. So in order to make the most of the day, the kids and I decided to head south to enjoy Grandma and Grandpa's pool one last time. Trav decided to stayed back to get some "odd jobs" done around the house (upon returning later that evening, I learned that "odd jobs" really means nothing - funny, last time I checked those two things were not interchangeable - oh well). Anyway, the kids made sure to make the most of their time in the pool. There was lots of swimming, jumping, and even a few squirt gun fights - what would the pool be without a little squirt gun action? Here are a couple of pictures from the day. Ellie sported her bikini for the first (and last) time this summer - at first she was a little hesitant to show so much skin, but by the end of the day she was really strutting her stuff!
Grandma Donna had one last mission before the summer was over . . . get Lauren to jump off the board on her own. Unfortunately Lauren wasn't too sure about the whole thing. She was willing to jump off with someone, or to be dropped in, but she wouldn't do it on her own - oh well, there is always next summer. Here she is showing her skills.

It's almost time

Today we, well actually Ryan, is one step closer to being a kindergartner!!!! The five of us all headed out to his school tonight for an open house to meet his teacher, check out the classroom, and get ready for the start of the school year. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I can't believe he is going to be in kindergarten already - where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday that Trav and I were taking him home from the hospital - two 20 somethings and their brand new baby boy, and now we're here five years and two sisters later and he is the "big boy" heading off for new adventures. I know he is super excited about it all and so I am I, but it is also kind of sad. Today he is 5 getting ready for kindergarten, tomorrow he'll be 16 and getting ready for high school - it just happens so fast. Instead of thinking about that sad stuff, I'm trying to focus on the good stuff - Ryan's excitement, his great teacher, the new friends he'll meet and the new experiences he'll have - it's going to me a great year! Monday is the official start of the year - expect lots of pictures and smiles that day!

The girls are keeping us busy as well. Lauren has become a real social butterfly lately. In the past when we would go out to the Y, she would stick pretty close to Ryan. But now she goes off on her own and finds her own friends to play with. I'm glad to see this for two reasons. First, I think Ryan and his friends were getting kind of sick of having her around all the time. Second, (and most importantly) Lauren is able to do what she likes. Now instead of running around chasing a group of boys, I usually find her playing with the dolls, coloring pictures, or digging in the sand. The good thing with Lauren is that she is pretty easy going - it doesn't take much to make her happy! Now onto the babe. Ellie is changing everyday. She is smiling, cooing, holding her head up - it seems like each day brings a new talent. She has also (I hope I'm not jinxing myself right now by saying this right now) started to sleep through the night on a more consistent basis. That is the positive right before the negative - the negative being that it takes FOREVER to get her to bed lately. She usually gets tired right around 7-7:30pm but somehow after she nurses for a good half hour, she pops right up and has a ton of energy. At first it was kind of funny. Here is this baby pretty much asleep on my boob, then all of a sudden she turns her little head and smiles at me. When I smile back, she grins at me again, then frantically dives back to the boob (apparently she thinks someone else might come along and try to steal what is hers). She would do this like three or four times and then she was just done. Done with nursing, done with smiling, but not tired - what the heck?!?!? She would literally just sit there and stare at me. It's almost like she is waiting for me to make the next move and depending on what I do, she'll react accordingly. And by this I mean she'll start crying (it is really more of a whimper because let's face it, there is really nothing for her to cry about) until I do what she wants (which is rock her until she finally decides she is ready to sleep - sometimes 2 hours later). It's been like this for the last 3 or 4 nights and I'm seriously considering letting her cry it out pretty soon. The babe needs to know Mama is is charge, not her - I talk big now, but when it comes down to it, I might not be so tough - we'll see.

Just a couple more days of summer left to enjoy. We've been taking advantage of the nice weather by getting outside and playing as much as possible - hard to believe the end is so close.

A real live baby doll

Lauren had her wish come true last weekend at Grandma's house - she got to push "her" real baby in her doll stroller (or should I say Auntie's old doll stroller) . . .Check out the legs on that baby! Pretty soon Ellie is going to be dragging her feet on the floor while Lauren is pushing her - she is one long little lady - wonder where she gets that from?

Things I've learned . . .

These past couple of weekends we have been busy - not busy bad, not super exciting busy, just busy. And looking back, I've realized I've learned some things during all the chaos . . .

For starters, taking three kids on multiple shopping trips is NEVER a good idea - even if you have three adults to watch and help with those three kids, it is still NOT a good idea. When we were down visiting Grandma last week, we tried this on more than one occasion, and the outcome was always the same - crabby kids and not getting all the shopping in we wanted. Duh, that should come as no surprise. I hate shopping, I can't imagine it would be anymore fun for three kids who are either strapped in their car seat, or clutching the the hand of someone who is hurriedly dragging them around various stores where the only thing that they can see at their level is the legs of strangers - sounds like a blast! After our shopping debacles, the adults (Grandma, Auntie and I) decided to reward the kids for their patience. We thought a nice little campfire with smores would be the perfect way to wrap up a busy day. Well, there was only one problem with that, none of us had ever really started a campfire before. Ash and I figured it couldn't be that hard so we got some newspaper, a few small twigs (I believe this is called "kindling" for all you die hard campers out there), and some larger pieces of wood and started to construct what we believed would be the perfect campfire. And I must admit, the wood did look great all shaped in a nice little tee-pee, but as far as an actual burning fire, well, we didn't really have one. Mostly we burned up the newspaper, and one bigger piece of wood caught fire long enough to make exactly 9 smores - which was just fine because that was more than enough for the five of us. After our campfire (which is also when all those terrible mosquitoes attacked Ash and I), we went back to being civilized people and went in to the house where we rested peacefully in our nice comfy beds.

That wraps up last weekend, now onto this weekend. This weekend, Grandma and Grandpa Loken took the kids to the Steele County Fair on Saturday. The plan was to meet in Montgomery - half way for me and for them. The plan seemed simple enough until I started heading down 169 at around 8:15am and saw some of the worst signs ever . . . Renaissance Festival 3 miles ahead - Oh NO!!!! I hate that stupid festival - not just because I actually hate the festival itself (which I actually do), but because I also hate what it does to traffic in our area - think rush hour traffic at it's worst and multiple it by a thousand - it is awful!! Luckily the traffic that early in the morning wasn't bad, but I knew it would only get worse as the day progressed so I had to find an alternate route to get home, and then back again later to pick up the kids. So on my way home, I just followed some new signs, made a few extra turns, and wouldn't you know it, I got home safe and sound. And the great thing was that I actually think this new way is quicker than my old way (Trav likes to refer to these new routes I find as my "short longcuts" - I'm pretty sure he does that because he is jealous of my navigational skills). After the fair was done and the kids were back home, we embarked on yet another new adventure . . . life with 4 kids! Trav's brother Troy had a wedding in Shakopee so he asked if we could watch their little guy while he and Nicole attended. We said sure figuring what's one more kid - boy were we wrong! I'm going to say it right now, any mother with 4 or more kids most be some kind of super woman because I felt like all we did all night was meet the basic needs of the kids - nothing more. There was no playtime, no rest time, it was just go, go, go. And even when we did that, we still had crying kids! Now I'm sure we could make it work if we actually did have four kids, but this just reassures me that getting my tubes tied was indeed the right decision for us. We have three happy, healthy kids - I love having extra time to enjoy them and not just "maintain" them. The following day (today) we were back to just our 3 kids and suddenly I had lots of free time. I used the time to make some salsa for Travis. He has been asking me to make this certain salsa for a while now so I figured I might as well do it today. When I pulled out the recipe, I was a little shocked at the number of ingredients I needed, but I was determined so off I went to the grocery store. Most of the ingredients were pretty easy to find, but there were a few that threw me off - black eyed peas and shoepeg corn - really?? First of all, black eyed peas are not peas at all, they are beans - how tricky is that? And shoepeg corn, well at least it is corn, but it is still really hard to find. The Cub Foods I was at only carried white shoepeg corn but by the time I found it, I really didn't care what color it was as long as it had the words "shoepeg" and "corn" on the can - that was good enough for me. With all my ingredients bought, I was able to get home and make some of the best salsa ever - thank god it turned out good after all the work I put into it or I would have been more than a little bit mad!

That wraps up all the lessons from the weekend. One more thing before I leave though . . . you will all be happy to know that Steve (Ryan's fish) has rebounded nicely from his near death experience and is now a happy, swimming fish. I guess I can add "I know nothing about life and death when it comes to beta fish" to the list of things I learned. I would have bet my last dollar that fish was going to die a couple of weeks ago and now he is livelier than ever - crazy fish!

Our little fish

This past weekend Ryan started swimming and jumping off the board without floaties - check it out . . .

It is amazing how far he has come this summer - hoping he remembers it all next year!

Why I hate nights in MN

This is why I try to NEVER go outside at night in Minnesota . . . My legs and feet are covered with mosquito bites! And to think we were only outside in my parent's backyard (which is in town) for about an hour. The good news is that the kids didn't get a single bite on them - momma took one for the team and now I'm paying. These stupid bites itch like CRAZY!!! Hoping they go away sooner rather than later!