Since school started

We've settled in to the routine of the school year now. Annie likes school now and started going for the whole day last week. And they started letting kinder kids out 15 minutes early so we can escape the horrible after school traffic since we HAVE to get out of our car to sign the kids out in their classroom and can't just wait in the parent pick up loop. It's way better than when we had to pick up at regular let out time and it we'd be leaving her school 20 minutes after school got out. Now we're gone 5 minutes before school gets out. :)

With Rachel and Annie at school I get some one on one time with Ryan when Megan is napping, and with Megan when Ryan is at preschool. And some much valued solo time when Ryan is at preschool and Megan is asleep. We also get a few adventures with just the three of us. We went with Grandma to the playground at the mall when it was still too hot to go to the park to play.

 Megan and Ryan loved it, but this is the only picture I got that wasn't blurry. Ryan ran constantly the whole time we were there. :)

Jacob's cousin, Susie, invited us to bring our kids with us when we go to the temple so our kids could hang out with her kids. She also invited their cousin Ben who also has kids the same ages. We all had a good time visiting and the kids had a blast getting to know their second cousins. This was a rare sight that day, having everyone was sitting still in the same room:

 It was fun and we look forward to doing it again in a few months. The kids didn't do too bad on the drive, but where Megan normally has two 1 1/2 hour naps, she fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of our drive up, then took a 10 minute nap a while later when we sneaked out to head to the temple. Thankfully I left under the impression that she would sleep for an hour, so I didn't worry about her being cranky or nervous around new people while we were gone. I enjoyed our time at the temple and came back to a happy Megan (and other kids).

Rachel's teacher, Mrs. Curtin came for a home visit. Rachel showed her around, played some piano for her, then they spent the rest of the hour playing games.

 I really like her teacher this year. She's been teaching for many years and seems to have a good grasp on how to challenge Rachel and keep pushing her. Rachel is loving school.

Megan is protesting her high chair. She is much more likely to eat when standing on a chair at the table than when sitting in her high chair. And even more likely to eat when she finds a bowl of food that is meant for someone besides her. Here she is eating Ryan's yogurt that he had left unfinished.

 Annie's class has a class pet. It is a guinea pig named Elsa. Mrs. Xochitl lets the kids take Elsa home over the weekend sometimes, so we brought her home last weekend. The kids loved it.

 The spent the entire weekend around the cage. Poor Elsa. But she survived.

 And we had a pet for 2 1/2 days, which should be sufficient for another 2 years. :)

Jacob took Ryan on a man-date. Ryan kept calling it a daddy-daughter date. Jacob tried to correct him: it was a father-son outing. I don't think it sunk in for Ryan. :) They went to the Pima Air and Space Museum and had a great time.

 Ryan's favorite places were the air control tower with all the buttons and lights and switches,

 and the cockpits where he could play with all the levers and buttons and pretend he was a pilot.

 Apparently the chairs that were placed around for waiting for kids to get done playing/exploring were also a big hit for Ryan. He liked that the seats went up and down.

 The boys came back happy from their outing. And Annie was very sad to have missed out. Not necessarily because of the cool stuff they saw. She just wants it to be her turn for a daddy-daughter date every time. :)

That's just a few of the things we've done since school started.