wilkinsonquints

Friday, October 5, 2012

First Day of SCHOOL!!!

After counting down for 1854 days, the BIG DAY finally arrived....watch out world, the quints are in KINDERGARTEN!!!

It is so hard to believe that my babies are in school! They were SO excited! We used a large paper chain to count down the days (not for the entire 1854 days...just the last 100 or so...) and they loved everything that brought them one step closer to school---buying school supplies, picking out backpacks, trying on new school clothes, Kinder camp, meeting the teachers.

For the past couple of years, I have debated about how (or even if) I should split the kids into Kindergarten classes. I have talked to several mothers of multiples who have done it different ways and in the end, Jayson and I decided to split the kids three ways. We wanted to give them as much independence as possible without having five different classes/teachers/homework to keep track of. With that in mind, we put Kassidy and Rustin together, Kaydence and Ryder together and Kyndall by herself.

We were so lucky to get the three most fabulous Kindergarten teachers the elementary school had to offer :-) So far the split is working great and all the kids are absolutely loving school!

Riley started his second year of middle school. He turned 12 this summer and it is so hard to believe that only nine months, I will have a TEENAGER in the house! I am already getting scared!

Kaiya is loving her 4th grade teacher and has been signing up for every extra curricular activity she possibly can.

Of course, I had to take a plethora of pictures of the momentous occasion!

Riley--7th Grade

Kaiya--4th Grade

Kassidy--Kindergarten

Kaydence--Kindergarten

Rustin--Kindergarten

Kyndall--Kindergarten

Ryder--Kindergarten

Kaiya and Riley

By the school sign: Kyndall, Ryder, Rustin, Kassidy, Kaiya and Kaydence

On their way! Ryder, Rustin, Kaiya, Kaydence, Kassidy and Kyndall

One more picture in front of the school

The kids with Principal Villalpando

Kindergarten, here we come!!

Kassidy

Kaydence

Rustin

Kyndall

Ryder

As for me, I am still trying to find all that extra time I am supposed to have now that the kids are in school all day! For the past five years, I have put so many things off, thinking "I'll do that when the quints go to Kindergarten", so I was excited to get started on my loooong to-do list. However, I definitely over-estimated the amount of extra time I would have (go ahead, I know you are dying to say "I told you so"). I was a little (ok a lot) over-zealous and I agreed to all kinds of things---room mom, swim team board member, three part-time jobs, teaching extra classes and hosting book club to name a few. So, instead of leisurely working my way through my mega to-do list, I have been frantically working on whatever project/assignment has the nearest deadline. But, I think I am finally getting a better handle on things....and I can't deny that I LOVE having a few QUIET hours during the day---shopping ALONE, eating a couple of meals without constantly getting something for somebody, going the bathroom without someone asking me questions on the other side of the door, putting things away and having them stay there (at least until the kids get home from school!). It may not be quite the nirvana I imagined, but it is still pretty great!

Rachelle & Mimi celebrating the first day of school at The Cheesecake Factory!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Quints Birthday on the News

The local news station did a short story on the quints birthday today.....check out the pictures and video HERE.

Monday, July 30, 2012

It's Birthday Week!!!

Kaydence, Kyndall, Kassidy, Ryder and Rustin

Just one more day till the quints are FIVE!!! Wow, how the time has flown! At our house we have a birthday tradition---I typically only buy cereals with 6 or less grams of sugar per serving, but on their birthday, the kids get to go to the store and pick out any cereal they want--it is "their" cereal and they can share it or eat it all themselves. This year, the quints were soooo excited to pick out their cereals after watching Riley and Kaiya get their birthday cereals earlier this year.

Christmas in July, Part 2--Christmas Day

Santa Made It!

Stockings

Christmas Morning the kids have to stay upstairs until the appointed time (I think it was 6:30 am), then it is a race down the stairs.

The race is on!

Checking out the stockings

Uncovering the big presents from Santa

This year Christmas was on a Sunday and we have church at 9 am, so the kids had to exercise lots of patience! They looked in their stockings and unveiled the train table and baby doll bed, but that was all we had time for before church.

Our traditional Christmas breakfast--Little boxes of cereal and cinnamon rolls---yum! Oh, and let's not forget the Chocolate milk :-)

Breakfast!

After church, we had to take pictures in front of the tree before changing back into Jammies to open presents.

The Boys: Rustin, Riley and Ryder

The Girls: Kassidy, Kaiya, Kaydence and Kyndall

Kaiya and Riley

The Quints: Kyndall, Rustin, Kassidy, Ryder and Kaydence

Wilkinson Family

Christmas Morning Chaos---we try to take turns, youngest to oldest opening presents, but it doesn't always end up that way!

Kaiya

Kassidy

Rustin (the only one who didn't change back into pj's--he loves being dressed up!)

Kaydence

Kyndall

Ryder

The girls, posing in their new gymnastics clothes!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Christmas in July, Part 1b

Oops, here are a few more pics that I accidentally left out of the last post!

Rustin, Ryder, Kaydence, Kyndall, Kassidy, Riley and Kaiya with their Christmas Eve present

Opening.....

The Boys: Ryder, Riley and Rustin

Riley and Kaiya

The Girls: Kaydence, Kassidy, Kaiya and Kyndall

Christmas in July, Part 1!

I am finally getting around to posting our pictures from Christmas! Part 1 is Christmas Eve. Since we don't live near family (or at least we didn't last Christmas!) we usually spend Christmas with friends.

Our friends, the Park family, has an annual tradition of doing a sing-a-long Nativity every Christmas Eve. This year the quints were old enough to participate.Rustin and Ryder were shepherds, Kassidy, Kaydence, Kyndall and Kaiya were all angels and Riley was Joseph.

Rustin looking intently at the Baby Jesus and Ryder looking intently at the angels hiding upstairs!

Riley as Joseph

The Angel girls waiting for their part.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Woods family. I don't believe in cooking on Christmas day, so we have our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.

The Adult/Older kids table---decorating the table is almost as much fun as eating the dinner!

Christmas dinner---Yum! One of my favorite things about doing dinner with the Woods family is that I get to make all the fun stuff (rolls, jello, etc) and she makes the other stuff :-)

The kids table

Kaydence was sick Christmas Eve and spent most of the night on the couch---poor little thing!

While we cleaned up from dinner, the kids played games on an iPad---I thought this picture of Rustin leaning on Calvin's head was so cute!

Group shot---Woods and Wilkinson Families!

We finished the evening together by singing Christmas carols, then headed home to get ready for Santa.

The kids all get to open one present on Christmas eve and it is always new PJ's. The present opening is followed by lots of pictures in front of the tree :-)