Back to School!

Wow, summer's over and the kids are on to a bigger and better adventure. Cody started high school, Troy started junior high and the girls are the only ones left at the elementary school. The house is eerily quiet but they are all enjoying school very much.

Troy is taking guitar for an elective, how cool is that? He has to lug his guitar to school everyday which is a pain when your taking the bus but he's managing.

Cody loves high school and is having an easier time keeping himself organized thanks to the block schedule at the high school. With the block schedule you only go to 3 classes a day so on Monday and Thursday he has odd period classes, on Tuesday and Friday he has even period classes and on Wednesday, which is half day, he goes briefly to all of his classes. So much easier to keep track of assignments for 3 classes at a time instead of 6.

The girls got their favorite teachers, and no it had nothing to do with their mom being PTA president ;o) Thankfully, I will not have that responsibility this year thanks to Ty but I can't seem to pull myself away completely so I will still be on the board.

Lastly, I would like to thank the Fairfield Suisun Unified School district for continuing to provide transportation!!! You have made my life so much easier! The thought of transporting 4 kids to 3 different schools on 3 different schedules was going to land me on the funny farm! I now just have to take the girls to and from school...good times!

Whose cute children are those???

Cody exiting the bus on the first day

Troy exiting the bus on the first day.

The 3 musketeers; Troy, Eric and Olivia have grown up together.

You don't bite, you don't starve...

Ty Daniel's first tooth broke the surface on August 3, 2009 at the ripe age of 3 months! His second tooth broke through on August 15th. I'm sad to see his baby gums disappearing so quickly especially since there will be no more Addington children in our future. It's also sad to see him so desperate to gnaw on things but not quite coordinated enough to put the ring in his mouth on his own, so frustrating.
So far so good, only one close call during his feeding but after a short discussion, I'm hoping we have a mutual understanding...

So funny, he was more than happy to show off his new teeth!

After about 10 flashes he was done letting me take pictures of his teeth!

The coolest thing ever...

In the hunt to find a small point and shoot for my diaper bag, I came across the coolest camera ever! It's a sports camera that's shock proof up to 5 feet and waterproof down to 10 feet. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it for rafting. Now I can have pictures going down the river without relying on the professionals. Sweetest thing ever!!! And for those of you wondering what would happen if I dropped it in the river? Good question, I bought a float strap for it! Saweeeet! Can't wait for the cool pictures next summer.

Underwater pictures taken by Troy:

We are women, hear us roar!

Six women, sixteen children...no problem. After realizing that summer would be over in two weeks and my girls had done pretty much nothing all summer while the boys were off to all sorts of camps, I decided (out of guilt) to take my girls on a quick vacation. I called a handful of friends for an impromptu camping trip; just women and our kids.

I have to say, despite the teasing by the y chromosomes in my family, it was a huge success. We only had a couple of days to book a campsite and pack. I set up a tent for the first time, started the campfire, loaded and unloaded my car successfully and all the while taking care of my teething 3 month old without a man in sight. One man in the campground commented several times on how brave we were!

We had great fun socializing together, the kids had a ball with all the fun things there were to do. I have to give the babies credit, Ty and Carson were unbelievably good the entire time, they loved being outside. I think we will definitely make this an annual trip!

Ty sleeping on my air mattress


Carson playing out a scene in a really bad horror movie


Morgan and Allison on the jumping pillow


Brooke and Tim at the campsite


Ty, Morgan and Mom at the pool


Brooke and Claire in the spa


Brooke and Allison taken with my cool new underwater camera


Morgan


Brooke