1st day of school!

I started back to school on August 7, and the kids all came back the following Monday!  Emily is in 1st grade now(!).  We had orientation during my work week, so I was able to take her up to school to meet her new teacher.  Her teacher, Mrs. Parker, is the most enthusiastic and energetic woman I have ever met!  Her room is decorated to the nines (seriously, "wild west" them everywhere) and so organized and fun!  Mrs. Parker had cookies made for us and had cowboy hats, bandanas, and sheriff badges for each child.  We also brought home our own copy of the "The Night Before 1st Grade" book and a baggie of "jitter glitter" to sprinkle under Emily's pillow so that she isn't nervous for her first day!  

Jason is in the Pre-K program over at KGPS and was shocked to find out that he would have to attend school all five days of the week!  His program last year was just 4 days (Fridays off) but I told Jason to get ready for the real world :)  Garrett and Caroline weren't very excited for the first day because they have been back at school for the last three weeks with marching band.  So after putting in 40+ hours a week with marching band, it wasn't any big deal to just show up for classes.  Caroline is excited to take Art as an elective for the first time, and Garrett is taking the Teacher Cadet program (and hopes to do his student teaching with his fave World History teacher Mr. Shank).

A New Addition to the Family!

 We got a CAT!  Can you believe it?!  And it was (mostly) Tim's idea!  :)  He grew up with a Calico and Carrie and I had several cats while growing up, so we figured, why not?  The King George Animal Rescue League (KGARL) has a set of 4 cages in the local Pet Co store that have 4 cats, each with their life's story on the door of the cage.  The kids always wanted to stop by and visit the cats when we were picking up stuff for the dog or guinea pig.  There were 2 cat brothers that we really liked--Lotus and Cosmo.  Both are all black with pretty green eyes.  Lotus was the smaller one who seemed more outgoing.  We figured he would get adopted pretty quickly.  Cosmo was larger, more reserved, and was stressed about living in a public store (the volunteer told us that she fostered Cosmo in her house for a month because it was stressing him out to have the visiting kids in the store poke and yell at him.  Yeah, it would stress me out too!). 
 We thought, "the whole reason to adopt is to give a cat a home who otherwise wouldn't have one", so we went with Cosmo.  He came home 2 weeks ago after an extensive background search (they called my references and everything!) and the kids wanted to rename him.  We all agreed on "Midnight".  So here's Midnight Drinks!

He looks like he wants to bite my hand, but he's very happy I'm petting him.  He always opens his lower jaw and shows me his teeth, which I find adorable.

Spotted a cat toy behind the baby gate

Circling my computer desk chair.

Chilling while he waits for me to finish on the computer.