Back To School...

We are well underway for our first day of school. This year I have a 7th grader, 5th grader, 3rd grader, and K. Awesome and fun variety!! It is going to be a bit of a juggle and all the kids are going to need to be on their best behavior in order to give everyone their turn with mom, but the kids are used to sharing;) Getting a schedule down will take awhile but I know it will fall into place. We started out this morning with a fun walk just to wake us all up(especially mama, who is not a morning person and is already missing the summer routine!)

It was a gorgeous fall day!! Crisp cool air and bright sun!

Then we made our regular, first day of school, donut run! But we were greeted with this creepy fellow when we got in the car. Let's just say he is still giving me the shivers!!

We splurged on chocolate milks-yum! I took the oppratunity to read some more to them from my Corrie ten Boom book. We read about her experiences working in a leper colony. I am always so grateful for Corrie's honesty of her struggles and failures as well as her successes and the glory she gives to the Lord for her accomplishments.

A few weeks ago, Matt and I took Bell on a date. With five kiddos, we try and make special times for each of them to get some one on one time with them. Since Bell is starting school this year, and is beyond excited, we decided to take her out to get some school supplies and ice cream. Here is the happy girl on our school shopping trip...

She had fun picking out some of her charts....

some fun books and even pencils with her name...all the while, enjoying that funny lollipop!

We finished our date with a trip to DQ!

The last few days I spent time working to get the basement ready to start school. It has to transform from crazy forts and art projects to something that resembles a school room! The younger girls have a combined work station.

Madison has her own desk with a laptop for her lessons, and Cole works upstairs now where it is quiet. Our basement is all open which works really well for us right now. Since the 5 kids share only 2 bedrooms, we keep all of their toys in the basement.

Noah lives at his train table!! He is an all out Thomas fan! He plays very nicely while I work with the kids but he does like to get in on some of the coloring!

I am thankful for a good first day.....only a couple hundred more to go;)