The first few weeks of the school year

Drop off on day one looked something like this:

It was early, and I like walking the first few days (so that I can scout out traffic patterns/potential issues) my children are not fans. = /  Also, grace wanted to play on the school playground (which she is staring at) and I told her we could not. = (

We did cross to the park playground across the way, and they got to play.

While I did an errand avia took them to A&W for hot chocolate and pie.

We waited on the backside of the school for the big kids to get out.  For some reason, any thing large enough for them to perch on now indicates a picture. = )

Pretending to be "in jail" at the thrift shop.

Emily's amazing first grade teacher encouraged the kids to read over the summer by offering up an ice cream treat at the end of summer!  She is the best teacher!  We absolutely love Ms. Jones and will miss her all year.  Luckily for us, I have 2 more rounds (William/Grace & Juliet) slated for her. = )

Grace was "fixing her car:"

Grace loves to help wash the dishes.  Juliet will sometimes join her too.  I wouldn't recommend trusting their work without a cursory check, but they sure are cute doing it!

The problem with having readers in the house is that I'm reminded of the fact that I did not have a spare filter in the basement and had to wait for the new filter to arrive while enduring a constant chorus of "we need to replace the water filter in X days!"  Note: it has since arrived and all is well with our water dispenser again.

The river is so pretty, but the twins didn't want to get to close to the railing because that is where the spiders weave their webs.

Made it to school in time for a picture!

I saw this posted outside of Emily's class when I popped in one day:

One day, we didn't check the weather, so we didn't know that we needed to take Billy and ended up walking in the rain.  It wasn't raining terribly hard en route, but on the way back the twins and I were soaked.   We had three different people stop and offer to help us (either with rides or umbrellas.)

While it wasn't too bad, the kids were more than willing to get up early to take Billy so that we could have the car.  Alice left a note for Billy, thinking that we would drop them off first, then him, but that's not the best order.

My car (as of 9-9-18) is still in the shop.  I have officially been without my car for an entire month and it's been awful. = (  Last week we finally took our mechanic up on his courtesy car, so at least Billy has a way to and from work without someone going without a car. = )

The original problem was only part of the issue, he's replaced a timing belt and is now working on the wiring since the car is still misfiring in idle, but no alarm codes are triggering.

For labor day the kids had a 4 day holiday.  Everyone was feeling puny on Friday.  I was glad to have the day off and we enjoyed a leisurely pancake breakfast.

Alice enjoyed relaxing on her birthday present before bed.