First Week of School

Well, the first week of school in the Brinton home was fun and a bit frantic. A while back Dan brought home 2 hamster cages from a garage sale across the street. I looked at them and thought Oh NO. So one night a couple days before school started Dan took the kids out. When they came home they suprised me with a box. I thought it was donuts and when I looked in and saw two little mice my heart stopped and I screamed. I was informed they are NOT mice, one is a hamster and one is a gerbil. O-Kay. So the gerbil lasted 5 days. The poor unfortunate thing had a heart attack from too many kids coddling it and possibly Maysa holding it by its tail and running away with it at least 3 times, -that didn't help.
But the hamster is still living... However on the second day of school Elena decided to open the door and just see what it would do. It immedietly ran out the door and stayed under the couch for a good half hour. We kept trying to coax it out with a piece of cheese but it was having way too much fun eating little bits of popcorn and nuts and raisins and whatever else treasures are under our lovely couch. So I finally told Elena to go get ready for school right now and I will catch the dang thing. Twice it came out from under the couch and I could not talk myself into grabbinh it. I'm telling you, it looks exactly like a mouse. Finally it came out again and I grabbed it and maybe sqeezed it too much cause its eyes were bulging, the whole time thinking (THIS IS NOT A MOUSE)and put it back into the cage.
So the same day, we get a call from the school informing us that our neighbors have a killer bee nest in their yard so I should not let the kids walk to and from school. So I've been driving them as well as having nightly nightmares about my kids being attacked by killer bees. So anyway
The kids seem to like their new teachers. They don't have any of their church friends in their classes so thats too bad. Elena's best friends weren't at school this week because one went to Disney and the other is attending Legacy school now. So she spent the recesses reading her book. Sierra is still the social bug, she does well.
Our house continues to be the neighborhood open house every day after school. The neighbor kids start poring in around 3:30 and I think they really love Dan. He entertains everyone ( cuz he's still a big kid at heart) and I hear constant giggles and shreiks until 5 oclock when everyone gets sent home. We then eat dinner and kids do homework and chores till 7. Its been really great to get back on schedule. Even though this first week has been hectic its also been fun.
We are now in the process of planning another trip to Canada for fall break in October. Dan's little sister Cindy will be getting married in October. SO from now till then we have to scrimp and save every little penny we can manage. We'd REALLY like to fly.
I've been enjoying my time with little Maysa all week, she gets bored without her sisters so she clings to me all day. I've been taking her to the kids club at the gym, library, visit teaching, Mcdonalds play place and shopping. Looking forward to having her in pre school!
Also this week I've been trying to enforce healthier eating habits in our home. Since most of the summer we spent eating pizza and ice cream and all sorts of other rubbish. I'm tired of forcing my children to eat veggies so I've been cleverly putting veggies into smoothies. They really love drinking smoothies. SO yesterday they had spinach, avacado, orange, blueberry and strawberry smoothie with their dinner. Did they know it- nope. Dan said he would NOT drink it, but he did try it and totally suprised himself. He loved it and wanted more. hmmmm