Back to School 2015: Family Edition

I am in denial that it is fall. It is 90 degrees outside. I was so in the thick of things from the spring and summer that I didn't really register those two seasons, not to mention those important life-milestones.

Like Nathan's May graduation from pre-school.  Whoops!

Congratulations Nathan Buddy!

(Unimpressed girl is unimpressed.)

But now that the school calendar has flipped, the big kids in Idaho are off to school.

Quoth Christina on September 1st:

Off to school for these three! Amber is going into 4th grade, Elle 2nd, and Nathan Kindergarten. 

Wow, my kids are growing up.

Sadly, on September 4th, the bane of parental planning struck. School germs. (sad trombones)

Quoth Christina: Well that didn't take long! School germs are the worst. After 3 days at school Nathan is home today sick.

 

Momma is also learning what its like with not so many helpers around. Grumpa reported that Christina said she was not sure what she was going to do without Elle around to help, now that school was starting.

Meanwhile, down in Nevada, Drew started 5th grade in mid-August.

OUCH!

(The kids in New York barely started this week, and some don't start until next.)

 With thanks to Grumpa for grabbing these off the sib's social media, so I can collect them and share all at once.

Back to School 2014: Letters from Drew

This guy headed off for his first day of Fourth Grade today! 

 Fourth Grade!

He continues to amaze me with how grown-up he's getting. I mean, listen to this letter I got about a month ago, relaying his some of his summer adventures and travels.

"Dear J dog, it's soooo hooooooooot dagaaaay here, it feels to me like the world is in slow-motion, so I thought I'd write back to you today on this fine Thursday here. Where do I start? Ah I know. I'll start at the beginning. So it all started when it was Saturday after I learned I was staying at grandma and grandpa's in Bloom-in-ton so I had to start packing for three days there and a week with the other grandma & grandpa (both new records). So the next day after church they came over and picked me up. When we were there I upacked. (sic) At 9:00 I read and went to bed. The next morning I woke up at 5:00 in the morning my time and I was pooped. Grandpa said we might not go earlyer (sic) that night but the weather changed and we ended up going. All three days we had the same routine. So after we went kayaking the third day. I showered and grandma & grandpa took me to mom and dad to go to gamdg Hughes. The next day we woke up at there (sic) house and I was in the guest bed and I was not the first awake. next paper -->  I was actually almost the last one to. That day we went swimming at our cousin's city pool. A few days later on Monday me, Levi, mom and dad went to Lagoon. If you know what Lagoon is, in your next letter write to me that you know but if not I think you should look on they're (sic) website. After we were done we went back. A few days later we packed up and hit the road. After that things were pretty normal, dad taking naps, mom going to work. On Tuesday we went and saw the M[redacted] cousins. Then on Thursday me, mom, and the kids drove to Axtell for three days, and I can tell you, I got eaten (sic) by mesquitoes (sic). I almost got bitten by a spider while watching fireworks! We watched the parade the next morning going to the Reber's house is always fun. The second to last day were there, me, Laini, Levi, and Uncle Matt went swimming. The next day we started packing and left. After that everything was normal! And now you have part of my summer.

Love, Drew"

And conveniently enough, Grandmary and Grumpa sent me pictures of Drew and his cousins playing at the grandparents house.

l-r: Nathan, Elle, Amber, Drew's back

The twins do solemnly swear they are up to no good, 

which Nathan can't believe, and Cannon just grins off and tries again.

Finally, for some quiet, a DVD started playing in the library, so the "big kids" could goof off in there.

More from Grumpa:

 Drew on the water kayaking and then refilling his poor empty belly.

Gunlock State Park, Utah

 Blink, and you miss it.

Breakfast inhaled.

Hey. He's a growing boy and paddling is hard work!

Keep writing Drew!

Back to School Fall 2013

It's almost time for Columbus Day and I'm finally getting around to posting the annual Back to School round-up! Whoops. Time got away from me again.

Time moves so quickly - which is really evident when you see how tall and mature some of the kids are getting to be. Thanks, as ever, to all their parents for permission to post the pictures here.

Like Mr. Drew the Dude here. He's in third grade now, and totally seems to have the 'tude to match. As you read earlier, he's now playing flag football.  And he likes to read, THANK GOODNESS. I'll take suggestions please, since he's out of series and I'm out of the YA loop.

Moving north to Idaho. There must be something in the fresh mountain air because look at how tall the girls are growing! Amber - on the left - is off to second grade now and still showing her love for purple on the first day of school, just like last year. Elle - on the right and almost as tall as her older sister - was officially a schoolkid this year and off to kindergarten.

 

As you can see, Amber is still quite the ... dramatic one.

Elle is starting to show inclinations about future career trajectories. Here she is caring for Nathan and his Pup Pup.  Watch these clues carefully. Sometimes our "play" tells people what we may end up doing. Such the serious doctor/patient faces. I wonder what she hears.

via J's Instagram

While Nathan isn't technically in school yet, he does manage to look quite studious in his Poppa's spectacles.

Moving East, My Blondie Girls have been in middle school for months now. All of them.
To quote their mother: It's back to school time!! Look out middle school, they're all yours! #havefunandlearnalot

from the twitter

All three of them are multifaceted threats. Smart, beautiful, athletic, and musically inclined. I hope their father is working on his "date" deterrent dialogue and demeanor!

Up in Maine, the Crew is all in school now, much to their mom's delight. The Eldest is now in seventh grade and "recently scored  the only goal in her team's field hockey game." Way to go M! I think you are taller than me now.

from the Instagram

The other Mr. D is now also super tall and now in third grade. Also Mr. Sporty, according to his mom: "he scored the only goal for his [soccer] team today in their tie game. He played a great half as keeper too. It was a perfect day for soccer."

also from the Instagram

The twins, A & I are now in first grade. According to mom: "they’ll stay together until a) they start to compete with each other, b) they request to be separated or c) all of the above. They each have their own strengths (I is a strong reader and A has strong math skills) so they don’t compete too often. Having twins in school is still a new phenomenon for me, so we’re take things year by year."

Ditto

Another summer down - and in spite of all the tumultuous-ness and togetherness, everyone survived! Gold stars for all the parental units. Thank goodness for venting/sharing/therapeutic methods of choice!

Photos courtesy of parents, via e-mail, Twitter, and their blogs.

Back to School, Returning for a Retirement Party

As if this time of year isn't busy enough as it is, about a month ago I got an e-mail from the alma mater that they were have a celebration in honor of 15 retiring professors, including my beloved English professor Dr. Marion Perret.

The list also included a few other familiar names, so I reached out to some of the girls to see who could quickly come to town to join me at the 'Ville. It seemed especially important to try and get up to the school, since we all missed the party solely in honor of Dr. Perret that was held last year. Even though it would have been a blast to have a mini reunion, it was just impossible to get travel, teaching, soccer, softball, orchestra rehearsal, and, in some cases, real estate showings, schedules to coordinate, so I had to go up and "represent" the classes of 1993 and 1994 by myself. (Ouch, the math hurts.)

I took a personal day so I didn't have to rush around quite so much (ha! though I did), and figured out the whole ZipCar rental thing (which I now LOVE!) and did some much needed grocery and retail stocking up. (Grocery shopping is SO much easier when you have a vehicle.) Somehow I forgot the one important detail of my timeline - leaving enough time to back, find a parking space, change, and then get on the highway on a Friday night, during rush hour, but I still managed to get to the College on time to see it at dusk.

What you can't see from my iTouch photos (the regular camera wouldn't fit in my clutch with everything else), is the true beauty of the place at dusk. You can't see the red-tailed hawk perched up on the cross on the chapel, or see the glow off all the maple trees, or the glimmer on the quad in front of Reid Hall aka The Castle.

You would think I wouldn't have forgotten the impressiveness of the East Room, but I had. It was crowded with friends, alumni, professors, family, and tables with photos and remembrance books. Thank goodness for name tags, but I was still easily identified by some good professors regardless of the passage of time. Aside from some slight physical differences (grey hair, stooping, stockiness, "laughlines") we all pretty much look the same. (Though some aging English professors should probably have gotten rid of the pony tails BEFORE the 1990s, I'm just saying, and now it's 2013? Yikes.)

After the brief cocktail party, I wandered a bit through the building before Security shooed us out. I ran up to the second floor to look out the balcony over the East Room, walked down the hall to where the Castle and the additions came together,

and realized, as I ran my hand down this bannister on the left, that this was the sensation, and these were some of the stairs and halls, that feature in some of my dreams. 20 years later, I can still feel those polished wooden bannisters under my palms. That's so strange, right?

I took some other photos to send to the girls. Like the one above on the right, of the pathway back to the dorms from near the cafeteria. Some of those trees were saplings, or not there, when we were there. This building below didn't exist when we were there.

Once upon a time, when I was a work-study student in Development, I had the privilege of exploring the offices at the top of this Castle. And not offices that looked out the three windows at the top you can see, but also the secret office tucked until the ramparts. If you look closely, you can see the two windows that were in the locked, almost forgotten office of one of the prior owners of the Castle. Those were fun years. I'm trying to pay it forward, even now.

 Good night alma mater. 

Thank you and farewell to the 15 faculty members with over 500+ years of service who have retired.

 Wishing for wisteria

And finally, the most important reason for the trip back in time ... to find, hug, and get the updated contacts for Dr. Marion Perret. What a lady.

l: Part of the slide show at the reception. r: Kari and Dr. P with the knight in shining armor, St. George that we found for Dr. P and polished up as a gift for her when we graduated in 1994.

Hey Kari, Dr. P still has St. George with her. Isn't that sweet? But please, no comments about the quality of this photo. You are lucky there is one at all. The things I do for friends.

Thanks for everything Dr. P. There are almost no words.

Back to School Fall 2012 Part 2

Note about Back to School: I had actually written the first part of this post up a few days before it "aired" and in the interim, someone had not only posted the pictures to Facebook, but to their blog as well. Thanks gang!

I'm happy to report that the Monkeys in Idaho also headed back to school in style.

Ms. Elle is much more styling than I ever was - what with the matching shades, sox, and accessories. What a pretty pretty pre-schooler!

Big sister Amber headed off to first grade also decked out in purple pastels. Again, so much more confident in pictures and poise than I was at her again. You go girl!

So proud of my girls - especially their Mama for surviving. It's a good thing that Papa took them out on the water from time to time to play.

Back to School Fall 2012

Rather than wait and forget to do a Back to School round-up like I did last year, I have been diligently mentally flagging e-mails and other social media contacts with my friends and family in order to share in a post. Many thanks to friends and family for permission to post their pictures of all cutie kids.

I don't have a full round-up -- I'm waiting for an installment from the Idaho contingent ("but I posted them on Facebook, but you aren't on there ..." Yep, and not going to be, so please? e-mail?) -- but here's a few of the back-to-school pictures from a few of my crews.

There's been a lot of things happening out West this summer, not the least of which is Drew the Dude starting second grade in August. SECOND GRADE! What?! If you've been reading along, that makes Drew about the same age(ish) as some of my ramblings from old notebooks. We just had a conversations the other night about how I like mail - like letters and cards. Well ... apparently, HE just likes to call and likes leaving voice messages, but he does like getting mail too. I think he's sloooooowly getting the correlation between writing letters/cards and sending them and then getting stuff back. What he doesn't know is that I'm encouraging him to write me stuff, so I can save most what he sends me - so he or his descendants also have some old-fashioned pieces of his childhood to boggle over when they are "mature" like me.

Drew the Dude, posing in the yard/squinting in the sun

Drew was also recently recognized in his local paper, as one of 46 local school kids who participated in the 2012 "...County Library District Summer Reading Program, taking advantage of the summer months. They were able to complete challenges and earn prizes, working hard to not lose reading skills while they are on break."
Can you pick out the Cape Cod loving-kid in this photo? (which is courtesy of the paper submitted probably via the school)

Moving East, the St. Chuck Gang aka My Blondie Girls also got back to school in mid-August.

I was so blessed to spend some time with these three sweethearts back in January and my, how time flies. I can't believe that they are 11 and nearly 13! There is skating, soccer, sibling spatting, violin, viola, guitar, drawing, dancing, choir, cello, piano, orchestra, teasing, tempers, tantrum, and tears -- the latter especially from Ms. "StarGirl" on the momentous day. Here's a photo commemorating the first day of 5th and 7th grade, and apparently there was this interaction between mother Kari and her beloved eldest:

Me/Kari: "StarGirl, you're just going to school, not to prison!"
StarGirl: "It's the same thing!!"

This apparently was just one of several photos of her crying and wiping her eyes on her sleeve. I have a feeling the next few teen years are going to be eventful for the St. Chuck crew. (Poor Poor Noel. The only man in a house of four hormonal women.) I'd refer you to her new blog, but oh my ... the expletives! [Oh wait -- she shared the expletives somewhere else, the blog is semi-okay for this family-friendly site.]

Meanwhile, in the north, the Maine Crew got back to school after Labor Day.

According to Krippy:

"[Eldest daughter] headed back to the middle school for 6th grade .... She’ll be with her entire group of friends, have some of the same teachers, and will be having a new teacher for her math and science classes. Her band and chorus permission slips are already signed and she’s looking forward to just getting back to school."
Her Dude: "... in his last year at the elementary school ... as a big 2nd grader. He’s excited to do lots more math, be with some of his guy friends from first grade and check out all the non-fiction books in his classroom."

And her babies? Her twins? "... will be in the same kindergarten class this year, with the same teacher that both [their elder sibs] had. It was an easy decision to make, because I know that the teacher is a perfect fit for them both, and having them together to start such a big, wonderful adventure will be good for them both. "Another summer down - and in spite of all the tumultuous-ness and togetherness, everyone survived! Gold stars for all the parental units. Thank goodness for venting/sharing/therapeutic methods of choice!

Photos courtesy of parents, via e-mail, Twitter, and their blogs.