I said I'd never do this

I've always said I wouldn't put a child lock on the refridgerator door...until today. I was making my bed this morning and found a hot dog in it. I also found one on the train table and another next to the tv. Not to mention, the jar of salsa a little wandering barbarian named Wyatt rolled under the couch.

Driving. Me. Crazy.

lunch money and life lessons

buying a hot lunch at the cafeteria is, well, totally awesome. i get that. the boys get to choose two days every week to buy a hot lunch and on the other three days, i'll pack a lunch for them. it's always a huge, exciting ordeal for them to read the menu and choose which two days they will buy. dominos pizza on friday is usually a given.

i let michael buy a hot lunch on his very first day of kindergarten and he couldn't stop raving about it. then on the following days that he would buy lunch, i'd pick him up and he'd have a huge grin on his face. he'd say, "guess what i have in my hat?" and then yank his hat off of his head and a package of cookies or crackers that came with his hot lunch would fall out. then both of us would giggle about it the entire walk home. awesome.

wanna know why it's awesome? because he hasn't yet figured out that, on top of buying lunch two days per week, he has the entire spread of breakfast items and snacks and chips and anything in the cafeteria that his little tummy could wish for at his fingertips, literally. the kids access their lunch accounts with a fingertip scan, so they don't need punch cards or anything ancient like that.

isaiah, on the other hand, is a veteran hot lunch buyer and knows the ins and outs of this lunch account business. he knows that if he has time before the bell rings after i drop him off in the morning, he can go into the cafeteria and grab a muffin for breakfast. he knows that at morning recess, he can run into the cafeteria and buy a bag of chips. then, he'll go in at lunch time and buy his hot lunch.

tap. tap. tap. he goes finger tap happy. in the later part of last school year, we told him that he could buy a snack once a week with the money we deposit. if he wants snack on any other day, he'd have to use his allowance. he was totally ok with that and it worked out well.

i think we need to go over the lunch account rules with him again.

i dropped him off this morning and told him that he was buying lunch today, not by his choice but because i didn't have time to make his lunch this morning. he said, "aww, mom. i don't have enough money in my lunch account and i'm going to get labor." in third grade, the kids are expected to be responsible for their lunch accounts, know how much money they have left and replenish if they need to. if they need to "charge" a lunch, they get assigned "labor", which is wiping cafeteria tables and picking up trash.

i knew i deposited $20 just two weeks ago, which should last 8 hot lunches - four weeks if we followed our rules. it's only been two weeks. i immediately knew he was buying snacks. so i looked at him and said, "why don't you have any money left? i just put $20 in your account." he drops his head and replies, "i've been buying snacks." so i said, "then it's not my problem if you get labor." and he said, "okay." and shut the door and ran to his classroom.

so i drove off and immediately started to feel like a shitty mom. i thought about bringing a check to the cafeteria. i thought about packing him a lunch and leaving it in the office. but then i went online and checked his lunch account.

apparently, my kid has a thing for flaming hot munchies. or just munchies, in general, because he bought six bags in ten days. i don't know what a buttermilk bar is but is sure sounds good, so maybe i don't blame him.

but the point is, he's been spending his lunch money like it's going out of style. i immediately lost sympathy for him and decided to let him "labor". and anyway, i think one day of cleaning the cafeteria during lunch recess will serve a better lesson than me saving him by bringing a check to replenish his funds. mommy isn't always gonna be there to save your ass, buddy. you need to pay attention to where your money is going.

miscellany monday

1. kindergarten - two down, two to go for us! isaiah and michael are in the same classroom three years apart, and i love that the teachers do the same project every year. once we move, i'll have to continue this little hand print tradition on my own for liam and wyatt, if their new classroom doesn't make the same ones.

2. pinterest - i heart pinterest. seriously. wyatt recently started in-home ABA therapy and with his very short attention span, it's really hard to keep him interested in anything. we are constantly thinking up new and exciting ways to keep him engaged. pinterest is a one-stop shop where i can find endless ideas for things to do with him. one of his latest favorites is this cardboard house. and guess what...it's collapsible! it collapses flat and can be stored against a wall, in a closet, behind the sofa. find the tutorial here. and follow me on pinterest, too, while you're there!

3. soccer - michael loves soccer. really. except when there's practice in 104* heat.

4. rain baby - liam new obsession is algebra. isaiah reads basher books and he's currently reading the algebra and geometry edition, which means liam is reading it (and memorizing it), too.

4. dollar store win - i took a stroll through the dollar store and found these awesome 'staches, furry and all. i had to get them because i knew the boys would go town with them.

and i was totally right.

5. welcome - i usually unload the boys from the car and tell them to wait by the front door while i unload other things. lately, they've been sitting on the doorstep together waiting for me and i just love coming around the porch to find them sitting patiently like this. my sweet boys. 

6. day on the green - the boys had soccer pictures for the fall soccer league last saturday. we now have three boys playing on this league. crazy how time flies. 

liam is playing in a program is called TOPSoccer, which is hosted by the local soccer league. it's a program for special needs kids that gives them to opportunity to play soccer, and in liam's case, the chance to play just like his big brothers do. it's an amazing program and we are so grateful to have this resource available to liam.

i had to sneak a picture of michael posing for his rookie card. super cute.

7. surprise - on our way to soccer pictures, we stepped out and found this nice surprise in the sky above our house. one of the many beautiful things we love about living in the "country". 

8. super fresh - liam's grandma gave him these super-fresh, bright green, skinny pants. he wore them to school one day and all of the teachers couldn't stop gushing about how cute he was and how he looked like such a rock star. he loved the attention, i'm sure of it. 

9. silver - michael's summer soccer team played their final games on sunday and they finished in second place. not bad for his first time ever playing organized soccer. super proud of these silver medalists - go team rascals!

embrace the camera ~ aug 22

i'm embracing the camera with my kindergartener and third grader today!

and this is how daddy likes to embrace the camera with his boys...

i just could not wait for school to start. last week was their first week, and with the temperatures hitting nearly 1,000*, i was happy that they were in their classroom doing something fun {under someone else's supervision} and not at home nagging me about who's coming over? or whose house we are going to? or what are we doing today? or whyyyy can't we play outside and attempt to get heat stroke?

i hope all the kiddos have a great start to their new school year!

skool is kool

the big boys started school last monday, so this post is a little late. what's new, right? (btw, i realize i haven't posted in over a month. but i'm just going to start right up again and pretend like my unplanned hiatus never happened. ok, thanks. i knew you'd understand.)

isaiah started third grade and, well, he's pretty much over me. i'm no longer allowed to walk him to class. i have to stop a minimum of three doors down from his classroom and use sign language to tell him "goodbye" and "i love you". then, i have to discreetly separate myself from him as to not draw any attention to ourselves in the hallway. i do all of that, as directed by my 8-year-old baby boy, and also shed sad tears of longing as i turn and walk down the hallway toward michael's classroom. i'm totally exaggerating. sort of. maybe.

michael started kindergarten and he was really excited about that. he hit the ground running when he stepped onto that kinder playground and was ready to take on the world. {insert sinister laugh here} i'm excited that he's excited. his excitement for school is all i could ever ask for. and at least he still lets me hug and kiss him goodbye. that's really all i can ask for.