School!

I can't believe that we are already back to school!!! School starts for my three big kids on Wednesday! And for my two preschoolers it starts next Monday. But this evening we got to go to the school and meet the teachers. It was quite the event... and I wouldn't put in it the best of times category.

We had spent the afternoon out at a friend's house playing games. Probably best part of the day, but we had to rush from there to get home and grab the kids school supplies to get to the school. The meet the teachers night started at 4pm and only went to 5:30, and we had 5 different teachers to meet... or so we thought. I am not entirely sure where I got 4pm in my head, because I can't find anything that states it started at 4 in my house. But I had in my head that it was from 4 to 5:30 and so we rush to get to the school, and we are running late (in my head) when we get there at 4:35. We even drove to the school, even though you can see the school from our backyard, because it would be faster (but to be fair we were already in the car because we were coming back from our friends house). And then we find out we are early and have to wait 20 minutes to go in to the school. It is also about this time that I realize I forgot to bring the paper with the teacher's names on it with us. Now you'd think we'd just run home... but we are already unloaded with Myra out of her car seat, the kids backpacks with ALL (and there is a lot of stuff) their school supplies, and it would be too much work to go back home for one little paper. So I head over to the park with the kids, and Josh waits by the school with all of their "STUFF". Catalina decided that this would be a good time to throw a fit. She doesn't want to walk over to the park, she just wants to play on the playground right by the school. She starts to cry and lays all the way down on the ground refusing to go on. Josh Jr. came back and some how convinced her to come with us (I think he promised to give her a piggy back ride, but he never did, so who knows). The kids play at the park for about 15 minutes and I get a little break... oh wait no that's right I pushed two kids on the swings (they weren't my kids, just two lonely looking kids... j/k). And then we headed back to the school. At this point there is a line of too many people to count waiting out front to go in the school. And as I walk past them all with my 6 kids, I was rewarded with some grumpy "the lines back there looks". I tried not to give them back the "I was here a long time before you look" as I ushered the kids on to find Josh. At 5 o'clock on the dot the doors opened for us to enter the school (just kidding about on the dot, it could have been 5 after 5 for all I knew, my watch is broken). And then the mad rush to be the first one in the building begins (ha ha suckers we already won that race... we went in the school at 4:35...and then we came back out at 4:35 and 10 seconds).

I'll try to save you all the boring details of the meet the teacher night. We walked the whole school to find the three older kids teachers. Looking at all the names of the teachers outside their doors (because remember we don't have the paper with the teacher's names on it). Hoping that we would remember the kids teachers names when we read them (we actually did find all of them pretty quick). Now I forgot to mention that through all this Catalina is throwing another fit. We walked past a water fountain and Savannah took a drink. Well I didn't stop long enough for Cat to get a drink, and so she decided to throw a fit. So we have three backpacks full of school supplies, 7 boxes of Kleenex, and baby Myra to hold, and Cat decides that now would be a good time to throw a fit. Plus the school is packed with people. So our little procession of Cases traveled around the school with a grumpy Cat to meet all the teachers. We ended with the Preschool teachers, because we didn't have to bring school supplies for the little girls. And Cat has grumped the whole time! And then she decides that the preschool rooms are not her preschool. And another fit begins. I leave Cat with Josh and take Savannah in to meet her teacher, and Josh lets Cat play with the toys out in the front room. By the time I get back to take her to meet her teacher she is not as grumpy (thank goodness).

So now we have met all the teachers and go to find cookies. The school is still packed and we have to stand waiting for people to move. Then the hunt begins to find the cookies (I had found them, but allowed the boys to lead us off to find them). Only to discover that the cookies are white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, which I love, but most of the kids do not. Now something I have neglected to mention in this longer-than-I-had-hoped-to-write post is the fact that it is raining. Not only raining... but a HUGE thunderstorm has been going on for most of the time we have been in the school. It wasn't raining when we got out of the car, so we have no umbrellas. I am not afraid of a little water, but this was not a little water. There was a good inch of water all over the ground and parking lot. A lot of the people in the packed school decided to wait out the storm. This would not work for us. There were way too many people to wait inside the school with, and I had to feed Myra before a 7pm meeting for the pool board that I am on. So we decided to brave the storm and make a run for the car (now I am glad that we thought we were late and drove down to the school). Josh carried Cat and Savannah, while I carried Myra and the older kids ran on their own. And we were soaked! Soaked! Soaked to the bone in the short run to the car.

And so the moral of the story is... read the info you are given from the schools, and never walk! Always take the car, because you never know when you might get stuck in a downpour :)

Just a little side note...grumpy Cat went and put herself to bed after we got home from the school (a little after 6pm), and fell a sleep. She is still sleeping 5 1/2 hours later.