Caz
Today was the end of two blissful and relaxing (mostly) weeks of school holidays. The boys have mostly enjoyed their time off... we've gone to a couple of awesome parks, they made their own band, spent some time with Nanny &  Grandpa, and their Uncles were over from New Zealand.  On Friday night, we rounded up the Uncles' visit by having dinner at the RSL club near the grandparents house... it was a huge hit with the boys as always.  Sam was quite stoked because we bought them tickets in the raffle of the night, and he won a $50 meat package from the local butcher hehe.  He has requested that Nan pick it up for him, and that she get stuff that would be good for a bbq so they can come help us eat it :)

 Sam was itching to get back to school to see his little mates,  Frodo seemed a bit excited too even!  Yesterday, we spent some sorting out the boys backpacks, finding lunchboxes etc, and getting uniforms set out for today. (An aside, must go buy Sam a zipper pull to put on his school hoodie... a $46 hoodie and he's had it a month... and the zipper pull rips off... awesome quality *scowl* )  Sam & Frodo didn't even complain when we told them that no, they cannot sleep together because it's a school night.  (these boys will happily sleep together, in a single bed, every night if we let them... except it takes them till 9pm to GO to sleep, so we only let them on weekends!) 

I also spent a good portion of the day baking :D   I made blueberry muffins for school snacks, and corn dog muffins for their lunches today.  A corn dog muffin, is just what it sounds like... a corn bread muffin, with chunks of cut up hot dog inside... a tasty treat in the boys' opinions!    I am, unfortunately for the budget, back on the hunt for lunchboxes... our easylunchboxes have not stood up well to Frodo's lack of impulse control *sigh*  He swings his lunch bag around and CRASH onto the concrete it goes... cracking whatever is inside... hopefully he's lucky enough that it has happened AFTER he ate whatever was inside? 

Merry is at his 2nd to last day of preschool today, Thursday is the last day for him.  I'm going to try to find something special for he & I to do together either Friday or Monday of next week  ... and I'm going to try to find some more preschool activities to make up for him, so he can have learning games and fun stuff for our days at home.   I need to give our days a loose structure, otherwise Merry will beg to play the wii ALL DAY LONG, which is not a viable option!   Any suggestions for activities, websites, or printables would be very welcome!! 

With that... I'm off to enjoy the few hours that I have on my own :) 

* my iphone isn't wanting to send pics so that I can post them dangit!  Might try to insert them later IF they come through!*
Caz
Life has been stressful my dear readers, and while I have logged in and contemplating posting... I just wasn't able to figure out what I wanted to say.    In a nutshell, the last few months have sucked for me.   Dh's work fan finally died to the tune of a repair that we could not afford to make (could up up to 4k) so we have purchased a new van (here's hoping the tax deduction/depreciation for that saves our ass at the accountants).  And just like everyone else, financial times are tough.  

Some of you may remember that Merry begged to go to preschool when his brothers went to school this year, and I obliged, and he seems to have enjoyed it.  (although there is a little separation anxiety at drop off time, he has a great time there and Miss Emma always has pics of him smiling and enjoying himself)  Well, my income is more than it was at the start, and our child care benefit has dropped significantly.... so the 300 a month for preschool has now become over 550$ a month for preschool.  I made the call that it's just TOO much, and starting in 2 weeks, Merry will be home with me every day.  I'm already on the net searching up some of my favourite blogs that have preschooler material (*waves* Hi Kylie!)  and saving things to a quickly growing folder of preschool activities in my bookmarks.   So, once again, what started out as a home schooling blog, will have a little taste of that original focus  :) 

How are Sam & Frodo doing at school?   Well Sam is the absolute Belle of the ball, so to speak!   He LOVES school, and daily during this 2 week holiday period he has said oh I can't wait to go back to school!  And he was quite upset that Monday is a pupil free day :(  His reading is coming along fabulously, and he & I still work on this at home and he's really enjoying it.  He's a mathematical whizz according to his teacher and he has NO shortage of friends in class. 

Frodo is improving :)   We are fairly sure that he does have ADD, and he has some Asperger's symptoms/behaviours as well but those are just idiosyncracies and not life impairing for the most part.   We go back to his Paediatrician this week to discuss behavioural interventions etc to help him cope better with frustrations etc.   Academic wise, he is on par with where he 'should' be... but I know that once we get plans in place to help him cope socially & attention wise, his grades will pop up to the above average range.    But he's doing pretty well these days and for now, he wants to stay in school.  I'm giving the school a term to show me some improvements and if he doesn't seem happier there at that point, I'll withdraw him and probably do distance ed for the last term before deciding what to do next year.  I will not keep him in school if he is miserable just because it is considered 'the norm'.  

Merry will be going to prep most likely next February, and at that point I'm considering University for myself.  Numerous ideas are in my head as to what I'd like to 'be when I grow up' but I'm not decided on anything at this point. 

I'm planning to get myself into the swing of blogging regularly again, so I'll see you here again soon :D