My New Toy

I’ve been looking for a solution to my calendar/organization problem. I think I found the answer in my new iTouch. It can synch to my calendar and email with my iMac, store music, video and photos, access the internet and serve as a GPS with built in google maps and I downloaded this awesome free app last night called Stanza that lets you read books (keeping track of where you left off in each one) and even download a ton of free ones.

It is pretty much exactly like an iPhone without the monthly fee. It accesses internet via wi-fi. It does not have a camera, but then the one on the iPhone isn’t that great anyway. Sure, it cost twice as much to buy, but will end up being way cheaper when you take into account the monthly fees. My pay-as-you-go phone costs me $100 for a year and works just great fo what I use it for. No way I want to pay almost as much per month as I pay now for a year.

Twins First Day of Kindergarten

Jared and Riley also had their first day of school today. They were so excited to be starting Kindergarten. They get to be in the same class and have the same teacher that Aidan had for Kindergarten. She is pretty much the perfect Kindergarten teacher. I am thrilled that they both have her. To make it easier for everyone to tell them apart, I got different colored shoes. Jared has the white shoes and Riley has the black ones. They both had a great time on their first day. The both like their teacher and all the other kids in the class. Since I am the class photographer and memory book mom, I got to stick around and take pictures in the classroom. It was so much fun watching all the kids on their first day. A few of the kids had a hard time leaving their parents and there were some tears. But by the time I left, which was about an hour later, they were all smiling and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Here’s more pictures of their first day.

Jared


Riley



Jared and Riley


Taken at the school




Talia’s First Day of 8th Grade

Talia had her first day of 8th grade today. This is such a big year! It marks the last year she will be at the school she has gone too since Kindergarten. Next year it is off to High School. There is so much that goes on during this year, science fair, frog dissection, the big Constitution testing, dances and graduation. There is so much this year that they have a special parent meeting in October to go over it all. That combined with all the Kindergarten activities for the twins and the First Communion activities for Aidan, makes this an unusually busy year for us.

Since this is the 9th and final year for Talia at this school, I dug up and scanned in the first day of school pics that I didn’t already have online and put together a mosaic of the first day of school pictures from Kindergarten through 8th grade. Here it is:

I thought I had a picture of Talia with her friend Chloe on the first day of Kindergarten, but I couldn’t find it. I did find one of them on the first day of 1st grade.

Here’s a picture of them from today.

It was so much fun to see how much they have grown over the years.

Here’s more of the pictures taken from this morning.



It was also the twins first day of Kindergarten, here’s a picture of all three of them at school.

Kayli’s First Day of 5th Grade

Kayli had her first day of 5th grade today. She is excited to be moving over to the “big kids” wing and being able to switch from jumpers to skirts this year. She is thrilled to have the same teacher this year that she had last year. I’m also pleased, because she is such a wonderful teacher. She is also happy to have a lot of her friends in her class. She said the first day went well and she is happy about where she is sitting. At her parent orientation meeting I won a raffle for a state puzzle. This year they spend a lot of time studying the states and capitals. Her teacher recommended having the kids do this puzzle each day to help learn them. Kayli was not all that thrilled when I told her she gets to do the puzzle every day.

Here’s some more pictures from this morning.




Aidan’s First Day of Second Grade

Aidan had his first day of 2nd Grade today. He has the same teacher that Kayli and Talia had for that grade. She is a wonderful teach and I’m glad that he will have her as his teacher this year. This is a big year because of First Holy Communion. A lot of the year will be centered around that.

Aidan had a great first day and said his teacher is very nice. He is happy that a bunch of his friends are in his class and had fun playing with them at recess.

Here’s some of the other pictures from this morning.




Happy 6th Birthday Jared and Riley!!!

We are so blessed to have our miracle monoamniotic twins in our life. They are such cute, adorable, and busy boys. They have such a wonderful imagination. They make up elaborate games to play and usually play together so well. They start kindergarten next week and are so excited! They get to be in the same class and have the same teacher that Aidan had. The last six years have gone by so fast! It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that they were tiny babies.

For those of you that haven’t read it before, you can read their birth story here: cindy.minear.name/?p=505

Somewhere I have the video from the Life Moments show that featured their birth. I’ll have to see if I can track that down.

ETA: Found it! Here’s the link: minear.homeunix.com/Movies/twins_movie.html

Made it half way through Falyn’s 365 project

Today is day 183 of Falyn’s picture a day for a year project. That puts it at the half way mark and it is also Falyn’s half birthday, making her 2 1/2 years old today. I can’t believe I have missed a day yet. Hopefully I can continue that and make it all the way to her 3rd birthday.

Here’s the first picture in the set taken on her 2nd birthday.

She looks so much older now!

Soccer Season

With four kids in soccer, the soccer stuff really piles up! This year I got talked into coaching the twins U6 team. Wish me luck! At least with me coaching, I am able to set the time/date for their practice. I was able to line up the twins practice with Aidan’s team practices, which will help to reduce the number of trips I have to take each week. As it stands now, I have to get kids to soccer practice on Mondays, Tuesdays and twice on Thursdays. The games start the first Saturday in September and run through the Saturday before Thanksgiving. With kids on three different teams, games pretty much take up all of our Saturdays. It’s hectic, but a lot of fun.

Meet The Teacher

The twins had their “meet the teacher” day today. They both think she is very nice and are looking forward to starting kindergarten next week. They are so excited that they get to be in the same class. They will have the same teacher that Aidan had for kindergarten. She is fabulous teacher, pretty much everything you would want in a kindergarten teacher. I am sure they both have a great year. I am not looking forward to having to get back into the school grind. It’s going to take a while to get used to it again. We’ve been sleeping in and not getting going to 8 or 9 each day. Having to get the kids out the door at 7:30 each morning is not going to be easy.