September 2022 Part 1: Back to School and Extracurriculars

 By the time September hit, we were ready to hit the ground running with our full school and extracurricular schedules. Car pools to and from school were in place. Dance, soccer, football, tumbling, and Let's Play Music kicked into full swing, and we began running, running, running between all the activities. 

This year, Rachel has three days of dance: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday! This adds up to eight and a half hours of dance per week! This doesn't count Super Saturdays and extra rehearsals, which they occasionally add to the week. 

Meanwhile, Michael had practice for football three to five times a week, with an hour practice/warm-up before each of his Saturday games, totaling 6 to 13 hours of football each week. 

Don't let this picture of him fool you though; he really loved playing football and can't wait until flag football in the spring. 

Gabe had fifty minutes of Let's Play Music, one hour of tumbling, and roughly two hours of soccer each week. On top of his adjustment of going to school all day five days a week, it has been a big adjustment! September was by far our hardest month. By the time he got home from school, he REALLY didn't want to go to do anything else, even though he loves doing all these things. 

It was weird not having Michael in soccer this year, but it is always fun when he tries to help Gabe up his soccer game. 

We love that Nana and Papa were able to come to so many of their games. 

We had our first round of Parent/Teacher Conferences in September, and we were so proud of all of our kids. I always loving seeing their work posted at school. The elementary school did an "I matter because" campaign. Here's Gabe's: 

And Rachel's: 

Gabe's class learned about their names. I love his little flower pot with why we gave him the name Gabriel, even if some of what we told him got lost somewhere between home and school. 

(He wrote, "My dad picked my bible name for my mom siblings." Let the record show that we chose Gabriel because it fits into our bible name pattern, and it's a name I've always liked. He was named after me with his middle name. I'm guessing he was trying to say he has a bible name like his siblings? ) 

Gabe was crushing it with the academic work and figuring out how to crush it in the social and behavioral things. It has been an adjustment, and we're so proud of him. He has so much enthusiasm to do all his homework and his take-home reading, which is good because I'm really bad at all that stuff. 

Rachel continues to do well in school as well. She absolutely loves writing, and she's constantly coming up with new stories. 

Her story displayed here is called "Fall Fun":

I wake up and smell something familiar. Smells breezy. Smells Fresh. Smells like fall. I grab the rake and start making a pile outside. A crispy, colorful pile. I look in the garden and find a squishy pumpkin. After I take it inside, I listen. Still, silent, motionless. Not for long! "Cannonball!" At night, I decorate. A scary skeleton here, a glass pumpkin there. I go door-to-door and get candy. Tastes good. Tastes fruity. Tastes chocolatey. 😋

Gabe has learned very quickly that we're not the best at checking backpacks or quickly signing his papers as quickly as he would like. We had to laugh that we found his first forged note while at the beginning of his first grade year! Look how he signed for me! 

Son, at least spell my name correctly! It's a dead give-away if you don't. 

We also got a kick out of his brainstorm. First grade work is adorable. He obviously didn't mean "We dope at school." He was actually writing "we do P.E. at school."

First grade also had a pet day at the school, and I got to bring Gracie for Gabe to show off. Gracie didn't love all that attention from all those little kids, but she took it like a champ, not like his classmate's pet cat who bolted at the first chance she got. I'm still wondering if they ever found that silly cat. 

Fourth grade means Utah History, so one of the first big assignments of the year was to make a Utah shaped cake. 

Rachel took it to school and turned it into an edible map. 

Michael loved having eight different classes. It's been an adjustment, and he's had to learn to stay on top of his homework and be more responsible for things. We've had to learn how to be middle school parents! We survived our first parent/teacher conference without having to wait in too many lines. None of his teachers showed us cute work though, so there are no cute pictures of Michael's amazingness. Just know that he is still amazing, and we're also very proud of him! 

These kids have been incredibly resilient and patient with my surgery recovery. I'm so grateful for them, and so so proud of all the work they do to learn and grow, especially on those days when they didn't feel like doing all that work! September was super busy, and we somehow all came out doing pretty well!