After we got the kids to bed to stay I laid out their clothes, shoes and backpacks for the next morning.
Wow that first getting ready for school morning was hectic!! We had all become rusty over the summer--that's for sure! Here's the kids' pics that morning:
Matthew:
Josh:
Daniel:
Sarah, of course, saw everyone else was getting their pictures taken and screamed until I took her picture, too. That is why her face is all red and splotchy.
Unfortunately, in moving our kids had to change schools. It wasn't too bad for Matthew because he had to change schools regardless of wherever we moved. He is not attending the same school as Josh and Daniel. The change in schools has been hardest on Josh. It has been hard for him to be the "new kid" when he had lots of friends at his old school. Hopefully things will get better as the year goes on. One positive thing about living in the rental home is that we are far enough away for the kids to get bussed to school. That sure makes things a lot easier for me!! Matthew's bus comes first and picks him up right in front of our house--it's so nice!! Josh and Daniel's bus stop is about a half a block and around a corner from where we live. The first morning I wanted to walk Josh to the bus stop to make sure we knew where it was. I had good intentions, but we got out the door a little late since someone had pooped their pants and had to be changed ASAP!! We were walking to the bus stop and I was trying to hurry. Sarah had other plans. She wanted to dawdle and take her time and every time I tried to grab her hand she either ran away from me or threw herself to the ground in tantrum mode. When we turned to corner to find the bus stop we saw the bus was already there and was getting ready to drive away. In a panic I ran down the middle of the road trying to get the bus driver to see that Josh needed to get on. Since I had to leave Sarah and Daniel behind in order to get Josh on the bus, Daniel was coming unglued. He kept screaming at me that Sarah wasn't coming. Thankfully the bus driver saw Josh and let him on. However, after Josh got on the bus and it drove away Sarah and Daniel were still screaming down the street. Daniel was screaming that Sarah wasn't holding his hand and Sarah was screaming because Daniel was trying to grab her hand. It was a right regular scream fest for all our new neighbors to see. Thankfully, Noah was contentedly sitting in his stroller watching the screamfest going on like it was the best entertainment he'd seen. Since it was so chaotic I didn't get a picture of Josh getting on the bus for the first time :(.
Daniel's first day of kindergarten was only an hour so he didn't ride the bus that day. I had to drop him off and pick him back up again at the school. When we went to drop him off he walked right in and sat down in his seat. I was a proud mama, but secretly I was a little sad to see he didn't need his mama like the other little kid who was screaming her head off. He was excited to go. As I was leaving he did come over and give me a hug goodbye so that made me feel a little better.
Besides that hour on the first day of school the rest of the week the kindergartners didn't attend. All the kindergartners have to be tested to see what their skills are. Daniel's testing time was Thursday afternoon. I had to take Noah and Sarah with me. While the teacher was over testing Daniel I got to fill out a bunch of paperwork. While I was trying to do that I gave Noah a bottle and Sarah my phone to play with to keep them busy. After Daniel had finished testing the teacher came over to talk to me. She had a few questions about Daniel's food allergies. During the testing and while the teacher and I were visiting Sarah had been playing Angry Birds on my phone. There happened to be a lull in mine and the teacher's conversation for a second. At that exact moment Sarah screamed at the phone, "THAT TOOPID TING!! (that stupid thing)" I guess the game didn't do what she wanted it to so she was telling it off. However, that is what I usually say whenever I can't get something to work. I am sure glad she chose that exact moment to mimic me for the teacher to hear and everything. Awesome!! Hey at least it wasn't something worse than 'toopid'--phew!! In visiting with the teacher I did find that Daniel's class were going to have 12 color food experience days that different parents volunteered to bring in. The only bad thing about that is I don't have any control over what is brought in so who knows what would be Daniel friendly and what wouldn't be Daniel friendly. I decided to take matters into my own hands and went shopping to get some Daniel friendly rainbow food options. 
All I can say is good thing Skittles is a Rainbow of Flavors!!! For the color white we did lifesavers, brown--rootbeer barrels, black--oreo cookies and for all the other colors we just found different flavored Skittles. I hope I covered all the colors that they are doing. If not, I threw in some fruit snacks and crackers for good measure.Since all the kindergartners had testing instead of school all the first week, Daniel didn't get a chance to ride the bus for the first time until yesterday morning. I also wanted to take a picture of him getting on the bus for the first time. As we were getting ready to leave the house to walk down to the bus stop I smelled something quite foul. Yep, sure enough both Sarah and Noah had way stinky diapers. What great timing they have! I hurried up and changed them both and we left to walk down to the bus only to have the same thing that happened with Josh's first day happen again--as we turned the corner the bus was starting to pull away. Luckily, they waited for Daniel and Josh to get on before pulling away. That also means I did not get a picture of Daniel getting on the school bus for the first ride to school either--Doh!! Oh well, what can you do? However, I did get a picture of Daniel getting off the bus after kindergarten had gotten out. It is almost as good right?! Geez--who knew that Sarah and Noah could be the stereo poopers?
I must say that only having Sarah and Noah around during the morning is awfully quiet. Sarah thinks so, too. She waits patiently by the window with her backpack (on upside down, of course), and her pants on backwards for Daniel to get home from school. Lately she likes dressing herself and does not like to ask for help--thus that is why her pants are on backwards and her backpack on upside down.
Of course with the start of school brings a lot of homework. I try to keep the crayons, pencils and erasers up on the counter within easy reach for Daniel, Josh and Matthew to do their homework with. Unfortunately, they were within too easy of a reach for Sarah, too. She broke in the rent house yesterday when she took a pencil and went to town on the walls. Good thing for Magic Eraser!!
I must say that only having Sarah and Noah around during the morning is awfully quiet. Sarah thinks so, too. She waits patiently by the window with her backpack (on upside down, of course), and her pants on backwards for Daniel to get home from school. Lately she likes dressing herself and does not like to ask for help--thus that is why her pants are on backwards and her backpack on upside down.Of course with the start of school brings a lot of homework. I try to keep the crayons, pencils and erasers up on the counter within easy reach for Daniel, Josh and Matthew to do their homework with. Unfortunately, they were within too easy of a reach for Sarah, too. She broke in the rent house yesterday when she took a pencil and went to town on the walls. Good thing for Magic Eraser!!One last thing is when we sat down to dinner we asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. Daniel thought about it and said he didn't want to do anything. We then asked him what he would do all day. He said he and his wife would just sit around. We then asked him how he would pay his bills. He thought about it and then said, "Oh, the Tooth Fairy". Now there are a few fatal flaws with this financial plan of his--one is you have a finite number of resources (teeth), and also after you lost all your teeth what then? Also at a dollar a tooth you wouldn't get very far after you lost all your money makers. Glad to know I am raising such ambitious children!! Afterward he did change his mind and say he wanted to be an engineer like his dad. We all breathed a sigh of relief and I think his mouth did, too. Glad the first week of school is over and that we are settling into somewhat of a routine around here.
Thankfully, G&G T took all the kids for the weekend so we wouldn't have any little kids underfoot while we were trying to move and unpack in the rental home. Aaron and I worked late into Friday night making sure everything was packed in boxes and taped shut. We got to bed about 1 am only to wake up again at 5:50am to finish everything up. The moving party didn't officially start until 8 am, but we had some early birds come and start to help load up the truck which was nice!! We had a ton of help from friends, neighbors and ward members which made things so much easier! I didn't realize how much stuff we had. We filled up the entire truck and another trailer attached to a truck. Plus we had to come back and pick up all the straggler boxes that we didn't get the first time around. 
We have really accumulated a ton of crap in the last 8 years--that's for sure!! It only took about three hours to move all the boxes from start to finish. However, unpacking and cleaning up the old house took a lot longer. Thankfully, Johanna, my sister came to help me clean up the old house. After everything got moved out you see how dirty everything is!! Wow, I try to be a good housekeeper, but it was sure dirty!! I was thankful for the help! It took Aaron and I the rest of the weekend to unpack and try to fit a 2300 square foot home into a small 1400 square foot rental home with half the basement unfinished. Luckily it does have a huge garage so most of our stuff fit in the garage even if we have no room to park any of our cars in there. 
Who even wants to park in a garage anyway ;)?! In living here we have discovered some of our essential living items have been packed away. In looking at the garage and facing the prospect of going spelunking trying to find something, we have to decide how essential that particular item is. Most the time we decide that essential item is not so essential anymore. And if it still remains essential most of the time it is easier to buy a duplicate than to try searching through all the boxes to find the original!!
To celebrate we went bowling. When we got to the bowling alley they were doing galactic bowling. It's where they turn out all the lights and you bowl by black light with loud music. I was glad to hear the loud music because that meant it would drown out all of my kids' screaming! Yay me!!
Afterward we went out to dinner at McDonalds. After feeding an army (at least that's what it feels like after our family blew through 100 nuggets, some fries and a few hangaburgers) we were ready for the birthday cupcakes. Sarah had no problem blowing out her three candles--she must get all that hot air from her dad ;).
Judging by her face I think the cupcakes were a hit.
After dinner and cupcakes we came home and let her open her presents.
She was excited to come and show me her new fancy pretty pretties (jewelry) and her fancy dress up shoes.
She even got a tea set. Unfortunately for me I didn't read closely on the box that the tea set was actually porcelain. By the next morning half the tea set had been broken. I thought everyone knew that all kids' toys should be made of non breakable material!!!
Sarah's interview:
Here it is with no people in it and you can really see how tiny that bathroom is!!
Grandpa T also helped Aaron build some much needed shelves in the garage. We will miss those for sure!!
Noah had lots of fun being a standing boy in the stroller. He thinks he is big stuff. Sitting down in the stroller is so babyish--Geez! I did find that Noah was quite afraid of the animatronics dinosaurs because when he saw them he started screaming and crawling up my shoulders--poor kiddo!
We were able to come back to the Dino Park the next day, however, our trip was cut short again. I got another call from Aaron saying we needed to go put the deposit down to guarantee we got the house. During this second visit before we had to leave we were able to see most of the outside part of the Dinosaur Park. This little photo place is one of my favorites so I made all my kids pose for a photo. Noah of course is standing up in the stroller and Sarah is climbing on the bars. The sign says, "World's Most Dangerous Creature!" Boy, do they have that right!!
We got to use the magnifying glasses to see the brine shrimp:
They had an actual elephant ear you could touch. The boys thought that was interesting--Aaron and I thought it was a bit creepy.
We got to watch the Silverback Gorilla get checked out by the Veterinarian:
Here's how the kids measured up to the gorillas:
Here's how Daniel's hand measured up to the gorilla's hand print:
It was a hot day so all the kids needed to stop and get a drink from the lion water fountain. I remember drinking from this exact water fountain when I was a kid coming to the zoo!!
Looking at the crocodile:
Feeling a sample of tiger fur:
Noah made his own fun by leaning over the stroller, drooling into the stroller basket and finger painting with the drool. Fun!
Looking at the elephant enclosure. For some reason Aaron didn't get the mom and baby elephant in the picture--and no that is me in the black shirt not the elephant ;). I so need to start losing that baby weight!!
Looking at the globe fountain in the entrance. I couldn't see too much of it since Sarah decided to use my sunglasses as a hand hold while sitting on my shoulders.
The highlight of Matthew's day was seeing the train go by:
Here we are at the prairie dog encounter. Matthew is in the pop up cover looking at the standing prairie dog, while the standing prairie dog is looking back at him.
Here's our family picture on our way out of the zoo after a long hot day. Sarah was not happy at all and Noah had fallen asleep. We did have a fun day, though!
