1st Day of 1st Grade

I woke Eli up bright and early today to get ready for his 1st day of 1st grade.  The only problem was...it was raining!  His school typically has an assembly in the schoolyard on the 1st day and announces classrooms and teachers (you don't know prior to this).  Well the rain puts the Ka-bosh on this because his building does not have any rooms that are large enough to hold that many people. 
It was so anticlimatic just walking him up to the door and the teachers told him to go to room 1B.  The parents all scrambled on their smartphones to see which teacher correlated to which homeroom.  Since I don't have a smartphone, I had to find a computer to see who his teacher is.  I have no opinion either way since I don't know either teacher so I can't complain.

 

Last year the entire family walked up to depost Eli at school.  This year, I drove him.  I don't like when the weather messes up my traditions!

Bye Nate!

Ben Ben!

Bye Sam!

Bye Dada!

Let's go Mama!

#1 for 1st grade!!!

new backpack!

 

The report I got after school was that he was super excited to finally have a SmartBoard in his class!  Yay!  He also will be sent to a different room for Math.  I had no idea that they started to "level" aka "homogeneous mix" kids that early.  I just wonder if he's in the high group or the low group for reading and math...hmm...

Cheers to a good year!

August Beach Day

We try to go to the beach every month in the summer.  Miraculously we had a free Saturday so we packed up and headed up north.

Natey got hungry along the way.  Luckily he found a snack nearby.

Camping out...

Ben

Nate

Sam

Eli

4 little monkeys "swimming" in a tide pool

3 little monkeys passed out in their strollers

(they haven't done this in about a year!)

 

We were there for supper and decided to head down to find a place to eat.  We tried "Bessie's".  It was awesome.  It's got diner food, but it's legit and delish.  The littles mostly slept through dinner so that was good for us too!

Go Cart Racing

We discovered a new favorite ice cream place, Jay Gee's in Methuen.  Mostly because they have my favorite flavor of ice cream (Toll House Cookie) and they make ginormous ice cream sundaes.  In addition to the yumminess, they have go carts, mini golf and an arcade.  We took a trip up there and decided to surprise Eli with a go cart race.

Dave and Eli went for a spin.

The babies watched and snacked on some ice cream.

Then Eli and Renee went for a spin.

 

Eli had a blast!!!

Drinking and Driving

We couldn't have posed this shot if we tried...

Umm...Ben...You're on the car backwards...

S-N-B

Benson's

A million years ago (when I was growing up), there was a zoo nearby called "Benson's Animal Farm".  It was local and fun and I think I might have gone there (I have the worst memory!!!).  The owners went out of business (or something) and the animals got relocated, but the community has pulled together and is beautifying the property and renovating some of the old exhibits. 

Again, being a nutty mom, I decided to bring the kids out by myself and explore this new place all alone. 
The first spot we stopped at was a super huge playground...

Peek a boo Benji

 

Then we meandered around a bit and we stopped for snack.

 

 

 Then we finally found the shoe from the Old Lady in the Shoe.

 

They also dedicated part of the park to a 9-11 memorial.  As I'm trying to take a moment to explain 9-11 to Eli, a family has to stop and ask about the trio.  Honestly, sometimes people need to give it a break.  I'm trying to have a deep conversation with him about the tragedies of that day and people want to ask how I can leave the house with 4 kids by myself.  Get a clue!

The beam on the right is from the Twin Towers.  It's just a powerful thing.

 

Because I had a successful lunch the day before, I decided to try it again.  This time, we stopped at Pizza Hut.  I did call ahead to see if there would be room for us and 3 high chairs so we wouldn't be caught off guard.

 

When we got there the hostess and a waitress couldn't have been nicer.  Then I realized it was $5 lunch buffet.  I was in a mini-panic because I didn't want to have to pay $5 per kid when we only usually order them 2 kids meals to split between the 4 of them.  The lovely ladies explained that kids under 3 are free (score!) and Eli was only $4 (double score!).  They seated me close enough to the buffet so that I could see the kids while I fetched the food.  They also ran up and got food for me at one point.  Super nice ladies and super yummy (although naughty) lunch.  Triple Score!!!

 

Crazy Mama!

Either I'm getting old or I'm getting crazy, but I decided to take the crew out to lunch by myself...We went to Applebee's.  Not my favorite place but we were in the neighborhood and I figured they'd have 3 highchairs and kiddie food. 
We scored a great parking spot and the hostess was a bit perplexed at first.  She managed to figure it out while we waited on the bench sitting nicely.

OK...maybe not...

 

 Once we sat down at the table, I realized that Nate needed to be changed.  The only problem was I had to lug all 4 kids to the bathroom to change 1 kid.  Eli ran interference and helped keep the littles out of the stalls while I changed Mr. Nate.  OY!!!

Eli took these pix...Ben was there...he's just not in the pix...

Besties!  Eli & Sam!

 

The meal was going so well I thought I'd reward us with a yummy dessert...Well I should have known...sticking around for that last 5 minutes would be an issue.  Sammy dumped my drink all over my lap.  Oh well!  The waitress didn't seem to mind!

Rainforest Cafe

We were housebound one day due to rain so we snuck out to the Rainforest Cafe.  We were hesitant to try it because the last time we went was when Eli was 2.  He was petrified of the thunder and lightning.  We thought we'd try it out anyway and see how it would go...
Ben-Blue, Nate-Red, Sam-White

 

Everybody loved it!  Eli was still a little scared of the thunderstorms, but they didn't bother the trio at all!  Yay!!!