Flashback Friday -- Beginnings and Endings and Beginnings

Good evening, folks!  It's been a while, but I'm back and I've got lots of little odds and ends to catch up on.  So, to start things out, I thought I'd give you a flashback to the beginning of the school year.  Remember this picture?  The horribly out-of-focus one from the first day of school that was literally the ONLY group shot I took of the bunch?  Well, believe it or not that was almost 10 months ago.  All good things must come to an end, unfortunately, and the end of the year brought a mixture of excitement and sadness for the kiddos.  Excitement for the beginning of summer vacation, but sadness in knowing that they were saying good-bye to Barretts and all their friends and embarking on a new adventure in just a few short weeks.

First Day of School -- 2012-2013 School Year.

Last Day of School -- 2012-2013 School Year.

As always, it was difficult to get a decent shot of the group, so these will have to suffice.  

For today's flashback, I turned to the kids and asked each of them the same set of questions --  What was your favorite thing about this past school year?  What was your favorite thing you learned?  What will you remember most in the years to come?  Here are their answers...

Posing with Ms. Pleiness

Ethan -- 4th Grade Memories

Best friends -- Brody and Gavin {and Ms. Pleiness}
Favorite subject -- Math
Favorite thing he learned about this year -- The Civil War and Slavery {???}
Other memorable memories -- Being at the front of the line instead of the back

Posing with Ms. Siegel

Grace -- 2nd Grade Memories:

Best Friends -- Anna, Ryan, Maddie, Grace P., and Alivia
Best thing she learned this year -- Cursive
Other favorites things about this year -- Ms. Siegel

Posing with Mrs. Unwin

Sophie -- Kindergarten Memories:

Best Friends -- Annie, Ainsleigh, Lana, Ava, and Ada
Favorite Special -- Music
Favorite Subject -- Science {???}
Favorite thing she learned this year -- Persuasive Writing and facts about the moon.  And also that lightning can be 5 times hotter than the sun.

And that was that.  They were not overly expansive about their school year memories.  It's probably because I cornered them all right before they were about to start watching their movie for our Friday Movie Night.  Oh well, you get what you get.  Just what ARE they expansive about, you might be wondering?  That would be Summer School.  Hahahaha.  Seriously.  They LOVE summer school.  This whole entire week, as soon as I've picked them up, all I've heard is non-stop talking about what they did in class for the rest of the day.  It's kind of hilarious.

Summer school started this Monday and since it begins a whole HOUR earlier than regular school does, I knew it might be a challenge.  Especially since it's at a different school this year and they have to be at their school even earlier for the buses to shuttle them over.  The very first day was close to a catastrophe -- at least to the kids.  I was so tired that I totally didn't wake up until it was 7:30.  And I only woke up then because Ethan came screeching into my room that all the kids were loaded up in the car and I needed to get up and drive them to school.  Hahahaha.  What what say what?  You would have thought it was Christmas morning with the excitement hanging so thick in the air.  As I stumbled to the car, Ethan assured me that they had all eaten breakfast and were all dressed and he had buckled Alex and Jane into their seats already.  Thankfully, we made it to the school in the nick of time and the buses took them on their merry way.

This is what I came downstairs to that morning -- an absolute disaster area.  But at least they had all eaten breakfast before we left.  Oh WAIT.  No they didn't.  As Ethan -- and Grace -- so nonchalantly admitted after school, neither one of them had actually eaten anything because we were all out of milk for the cereal and there was nothing else they wanted to eat.

First day of Summer School -- June 3, 2013 

{Ignore the fact that the lens was smudged and Grace's face is out of focus.}

Ethan opted for Games Galore again this summer and added Sports of All Sorts to round things out.  He says he's really enjoying playing games with all the kids who will be going into 5th grade next year and he likes it much better when they do sports OUTside then when they are in.  Grace went for Fiber Arts this year and a class called Girls Just Want to Have Fun that she is absolutely LOVING.  They had a pajama and movie day today and as she has told me almost EVERY day this week, they are going to decorate cupcakes and paint their nails at some point this session as well.  Sophie has died and gone to heaven with her CHEERreading {yeah -- you read that right} class and Computing Fun.  She has been cheering almost non-stop since she started this week, to the point that last night I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time because I had her "Fire up, Puppies! Fire up!" cheer stuck in my head on auto-repeat.  Her favorite thing about the class so far is that since she's the littlest, she gets to be on top of the pyramid each time they do it.


After the first day of summer school -- and our first REAL day of summer vacation since we've been back from our trip -- I decided a special treat was in order for Family Home Evening and tried to teach Sophie how to make chocolate-covered strawberries.  This was a mistake seeing as to how everyone else wanted to try and help as well {creating more fighting than it was worth} and she ended up getting more chocolate on her hands, face, and clothes than she did on the strawberries themselves.  Hahahaha.    "I got some chocolate on me," she off-handedly declared when she was done.  Hahahahaha. Ya think?

{Ghiradelli's semi-sweet chocolate chips (in the gold bag) are dairy free, in case you were wondering.}

The rest of our week as fallen into a pretty sweet routine for the time being.  The kids get home at lunch time, I've been making them do Quiet Reading Time while the baby naps, and THEN after he wakes up we've been heading over to the pool where I check the two little ones into the tot care and then sit on the side and space out or read a book while the older 3 play in the water.  It is the BEST setup EVER.  There are no deep parts in the outdoor pool, so I don't have to worry about the big kids at all, and I can sit on the side and veg out to my heart's content.  It's been a much needed bit of respite over the last few days.  Hahaha.  Today, however, I struck out when I got to the Rec Plex and realized that the tot care isn't open on Friday afternoons.  Boo.   I ended up having to go back home to get swim suits for me and the little ones -- because there was no way I could convince the older ones to change our venue for the afternoon -- and then had to suck it up and get in the freezing cold water with them when we got back to the pool even though I really didn't want to.  I think I'll avoid doing that again until it is MUCH hotter.   And that's all folks.  To end, I'll leave you with a few random pics from our trip.

Hannah and Grace -- still BFFs for life.

This one's for you, Mimi!  Baby Gaga wants to be just like you.  :)

And Lover Boy finally got a haircut.  As did Ethan and Scott.

Thank you and goodnight!