First Day of School 2013

Here are our obligatory first day of school pictures. This year Carter will be in first grade. I don't know anything about anything with his class yet. His teacher is from the high school and just moved down to teach 1st grade. I didn't get to meet her this morning since I had to take Clay to his class because Kindergarten orientation was the first hour of school for him. Luckily, Cory walked him into class today. Hopefully I'll get to introduce myself this afternoon when I pick him up.

 Clay is in Transitional Kindergarten this year. California is in the middle of moving their cut-off date for school from Dec.1 to Sept.1 (like the rest of the country). So, in order to do this gradually over 3 years they've moved the age cutoff up each year and allowed the kids who would have normally been eligible for Kindergarten with the old cutoff date to attend 'transitional' kindergarten. Anywhoo, it boils down to the fact that Clay will get 2 years of Kindergarten.

 I do know SOME stuff about Clay's teacher. She has recently been teaching 1st grade at Branch (Where the boys go to school) but moved down to Kindergarten this year. She has taught Kindergarten in the past as well. She seems very nice and Clay was ready to go today. Not a tear was shed by anyone. Actually, I take that back. Vivi cried when we had to leave Clay. I think everyone (especially the boys) were ready for school to start though.

 Although I am going to take this moment to vent on how much I DO NOT LIKE the way the beginning of the school year is run around here. First of all, we don't find out who our kids' teachers are until the Friday before school starts at 4pm. The office secretary literally tapes a list to the door and runs away. This led to many a flustered and confused parent on the various Edwards FB pages with "Does anyone know if so and so is a good teacher?" "What about this teacher?" "Anyone know anything about this teacher?" Etc. Also, there is no meet the teacher before school happens, or letters sent out with school supplies. It is very frustrating. You know NOTHING until the 1st day of school. Okay rant over.

 Drop off went okay and I'll be interested to hear about their days when I go to pick them up at 2 today. This is the first year that either of the boys get to pack their lunch and they were very excited about it.

They wanted one silly picture

Cory was able to drop by Clay's class quickly after dropping Carter off and before heading to work.

In an Honest Attempt

to blog more regularly....

We went to the outlet mall to do some school shopping and last minute cruise shopping. Have I mentioned that the whole Naddy crew is going on a cruise in a week?! I haven't? It would make good blog fodder I am sure. Too bad I kind of like my in laws (and would like them to continue liking me) and it would be in bad form to write a tell all after the cruise. darn.

So, back to the outlet mall. Basically, there's not much to tell, other than shopping with the rest of San Bernardino county at an outlet mall on a Saturday, 3 weeks before school starts was a BAD IDEA.

I am not a shopper. Much to my mom's disappointment, I never have been. I had a plan of what I needed, I had even looked up where the stores I needed were. But even with all of that, It took us 4 hours to get through our list. 4 HOURS. I basically needed some shirts for the boys, an outfit or two for Viv, and new school shoes. And it took us 4 hours. This does not include the 1.5 hour drive one way. 

Almost all of our time was spent standing in enormous lines and navigating the walkways with a stroller....

Also, I still have to find water bottles for everyone and buy school supplies. I guess I will do that this week before the cruise.

But none of it sounds too bad when I remember that we will be on a boat in 1 week.
This means no cooking. No dishes. And as many fruity, beach beverages as I can handle.

Unorganized Summer Pictures from Texas

We spent 19 days in Texas spanning the last half of June and the beginning of July. I know I am just getting around to posting about it. I hate that I haven't done a lot of posting on my blog this year. I think the rise of Facebook has made me lazy about posting on my blog. Every now and then, I'll go back and re-read some of my blog posts from Korea and I posted about everything. I didn't feel the need to post only about BIG! EXCITING! THINGS! That's what I need to get back to, posting about every day stuff. If I truly want this to be a way to remember the kids when they are older I should include more than one post a month. Sheesh!

Cory was at some training at Luke AFB in Phoenix right after Memorial Day. We had a few weeks at home before we left. (One of those weeks I drove down to Tucson to see some good friends.) We had soccer camp, then a few days to ourselves and then the kids and I headed to TX. One of the crappy things about being where we are is the distance we are from any airport. It's frustrating enough to have to fly with kids and get them to behave. But when you have to drive 2 hours to just GET to the airport, that was 2 hours of good behavior wasted in the car! Arrrhg! You know, if your kids are like mine and the ticker starts as soon as they're awake.....every minute after that is downhill, right?

Luckily, they did GREAT traveling. We found a decent parking spot in remote parking, rode the shuttle to the terminal and got through security with minimal incident. Even with Clay saying, "BOMB" as we were putting our shoes back on. No, seriously. He said it. He didn't yell it or anything. But was making some matter of fact statement that happen to include the word BOMB in it. I was like, "You have got to be kidding me!" Lucky for us, I don't think anyone heard us (or they realized we weren't a threat) and didn't mention anything to us. They were really good waiting in the terminal and on the plane. I had TWO people come up to me and comment on how well behaved my children were. They were like, "How do you do it? With all three? By yourself?" I wanted to say, "Um...mostly luck?" But I mentioned something about how we do a lot of traveling without Dad and they are used to it, etc. etc.

The kids had a great time in Texas with Grandma and Grandpa. They had CABLE! and GRASS! We did a lot of fun things during the first week when both my mom and dad took off work. We even had my nephew Dylan (who lives in MS) with us! So, as you can imagine, having a 6, 5, 4, and almost 3 year old was super.....fun!

Vivi loves Barkley. Barkley does not share the sentiment.

Carter loved having trees to climb. It is probably his favorite pastime. This is unfortunate considering we live where there are absolutely no trees.

Morning cartoons and Grandma's ipad. 

We went out to Hibachi one night. 

Vivi and Dylan riding horses at the Ft.Worth Stockyards

Waiting for the cattle drive to start. It was HOT that day. 

Longhorns!

Vivi loves Ribs!

They all love to feed the quarters in the "ridey-horses" when we come. 

This is Clay's weird smile he gives when I tell him to smile these days. We're trying to work on it.

We ate some bread at Grandma's House

Carter and Clay riding at the stockyards

Carter loves ribs too!

We visited the petting (aka: goat) zoo

Crying because she dropped the grain in 3...

2....

1.

End of the Year Cub Scout Campout

   At the end of the school year the Cub Scouts do an end of the year camp out. This is the time that the boys all 'graduate' to their new den. Carter crossed over to a Tiger this year. He is pretty excited since this is normally the first actual cub scout level. He was a Lion this year which is a new (and not nation-wide) program. There aren't really any badges to earn. So, Carter was excited to a get a Tiger book and objectives to meet. He also will now get to wear a real cub scout uniform (his favorite part)! Also, Cory took over as Pack Master this year so we will have a very exciting year ahead of us!
   For this camp out Cory and Carter drove up on Friday night and camped out with the pack. Clay, Vivi and I joined them mid morning on Saturday. The boys were all still on a hike (a VERY long hike) and we were able to all eat lunch together and stay for the 'Crossing Over". Immediately afterwards, me and the little ones raced back to Edwards to say goodbye to our WONDERFUL neighbors who were leaving that week. Cory and Carter stayed for the rest of the day and the evening activities and came home very late on Saturday night since Cory had to leave to go to Phoenix the next morning. He's still there and me and the kids are in TX for a visit. Here's a few pictures I captured with my phone while we were up there at the campsite.
 

Kindergarten Program

The Kindergarten classes did an end of the year program on the last day of school. They didn't do any kind of graduation, which is fine by me, and I'm assuming did this performance instead. There were plenty of cute songs and we've been singing "This Land is Your Land" for months now. While I know that in a few weeks I'll be begging for school to start again, I am so GLAD it's over for the summer. Carter and I (and the rest of the kids) were all needing a break from the everyday school happenings. I have some video of this performance as well but can't figure out how to get them to play on blogger.

Carter and his EdBest Austin

Say "Cheese!"

Viv's best friend Emma (Which happens to be Austin's little sister)

Carter's teacher Mrs. Berglund. We will miss her for sure!

In laws for Memorial Day

Cory's parents visited for Memorial Day. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving, so it was nice to catch up. We hung out at the house the first day and took a quick trip to town to play some mini golf. Carter, Vivi and I actually all got hole in ones! There was one time, that I still remember, when I was about 5 that I got 4 or 5 hole in ones in one game! I don't have much skill, but every now and then, good luck will seep from my pores. I always seem to be far away from Vegas when this happens. I hope that Carter and Vivi get some of my good luck genes.

The next day. we decided to venture out and hit Santa Monica Pier. Everyone was tall enough to ride most of the rides, so we got the all day pass and everyone had a great time! We tried to put everyone on a "swingy, back and forth boat ride" and Vivi did great....until they put down the seat belt bar. She burst into tears and we had to take her off. Poor kid. This is new territory for me. The boys will always try something and tell me afterwards whether they liked it or not. But Vivi seems to be a bit more scared and reluctant to try a lot of things. I'm not sure how to handle it. With the boys, 'force it until it works' has actually worked out well for us with food, roller coasters, discipline, etc. But leave it to that next kiddo to throw a wrench into things when you think you've got it figured out. If you need more proof of this, have at least 3 children and see also: potty training.
Vivi has all these delicate....emotions. What the heck?

Cory and Viv posing on the pier

Luckily, Vivi was not scarred for life and rode all the kiddie rides just fine

We had a pretty good time at the pier and the kids did really well. They're all getting old enough to handle days out without much tumult. It wasn't too crowded amazingly! It started to get pretty bad at around 2-3pm - when we were leaving.

View from the Ferris Wheel

End of the pier. Just previous to the photo we all had giant margaritas at the restaurant there at the end.

It was chilly at the top!

Chillaxin' on the sand

After we left Santa Monica, we drove down Hollywood Blvd to point out the stars on the ground and the Chinese theatre. I had forgotten about all the sketchy characters that hang out on Hollywood for tips (Scary looking Elmo, Mickey Mouse, etc.)
The boys flipped their lids because there was a Sonic the Hedgehog, A storm trooper, Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker and Batman all hanging around. One of the boys (I don't remember who) started screaming to PULL THE CAR OVER, WE HAVE TO GET OUT! But after the long day, we weren't about to pay $20 to park for 5 minutes and brave the insane Hollywood Blvd crowds. Eek.

Two stinkers