voss voyage

Allison is not much of a breakfast eater, so when she asked if she could have a "special breakfast" on the first day of school, I was surprised. She requested pink pancakes. I happily obliged, reminding her that this wouldn't happen too often. Usually Patrick is the one to get up with the kids and I stagger out of bed an hour later. Yeah, that won't be happening anymore. Allison is the first stop on her bus route. She is also the first stop on the way home, so it works out good. But she gets on the bus at 6:45am. AH!!! I used to think the 9am preschool drop-off was early. I never knew how good I had it. When my alarm went off at 6am, my first thought was "omg, this is my new reality." But the twins are sleeping through the night (mostly) so I should be  able to adjust fine :-) Time will tell. My oldest child was beyond excited to go to school. We put her on the bus and then Patrick drove to Florence to meet her there and help her get to her classroom.

If I'm being completely honest, this has been a really long summer. I see facebook posts & pics of other moms livin' it  up with their toddlers....jaunting off to amusement parks or the lake; making sand castles at the beach; or simply sitting in the backyard while their kids splash around in the baby pool and lick popsicles. The smiles abound & you can almost hear the giggles through the computer screen. Yeah, not so much for this mama. I've tried the baby pool, but the mosquito's at our house are no match to even the highest percent of deet.  There are never enough red popsicles so someone usually ends up crying or in time out if we attempt them. We joined a pool and have gone more than I thought we would, but truthfully its more stress than fun when I have all 4 kids alone. Maggie, our neighbor, has been a lifesaver and kept the twins A LOT so I could take the "older" kids. My mom friends are awesome in helping out, and I'm super grateful fo