School starts this week.
Tonight I took Mr. Fantastic to his school to attend the "open house" and got all the papers that I needed - yada yada yada.  We all know how open houses go.  You all get shuffled like cattle into the gym so the principal can give her shpeel and then you get herded to the classrooms (like cattle again) just to fill out the necessary paperwork.  And then you have to get herded through the lines of "don't for get to buy this" and "booster club" and "lunch money account" etc...

Can I just say, "MOOOOO".

Gee whiz.

So we came home, and I threw all the kids into the van (thanks New Friend for holding down the fort so I wouldn't have to MOOO with 5 kids in tow) and headed out to the Cowgirl's place for a campfire w/ others from our ward.

It was a fine night.  Good food.  Plenty of conversation.  Lots of room for the kids to run.  (I had no idea where mine were half the time - I'm just glad no one was hurt.)  Mr. Fantastic had it rough.  I'm still trying to figure him out.  I'd love to be a fly on the wall while he interacts with his friends so that I can see where the problem really lies.  See, Mr. Fantastic seems, to me, to be able to interact with his friends just fine.  He laughs and plays and runs, etc...  But then he comes to me later saying his friends were ignoring him and saying mean things.
Hmmm.  While some of it may be true - a lot of the time he leaves out the part where he has done something to instigate such behavior. For example: Mr. Fantastic tells me that his sister is saying mean things.  He forgets to tell me that he told her she isn't as cute as Grand Duchess (he's right, by the way) and has hurt her feelings.  So I'm wondering if tonight's scenario isn't just a little bit different than what he has eluded to.
He asked me to call the mothers and talk with them about it.
I'm more than willing to do it, too, I want to help him be a better friend and individual.  But something inside of me is a little anxious.
Perhaps because this is all too familiar ground for me.  My subconscious is telling me that whatever those mothers say to me about him, it is reflecting on me.  Am I ready for that kind of criticism?  I'm not sure.
So I'll have to sleep on it.
However, on the way home we had a nice little chat about our actions and attitudes and how sometimes we say things in jest but others see it as snottiness.  He and I are both going to be working on that.

Anyhow.  So all in all, Mr. Fantastic struggles.

Popeye is in WA for the week.  We miss him terribly.
Open House for Optimus Prime and Thor tomorrow night.
Wednesday starts school for the 2 older and Princess Monkey Eyes starts her kindergarten assessment on Thursday.
Friday she gets to meet her teacher - she is so excited!
Wednesday afternoon some girlies and I are heading south to take the little ones swimming while the older ones are in school.  It's an indoor swimming pool with an outdoor mini waterpark.  Tres Fun!
And Friday night I'll head back to my parents' house because Popeye flies in Saturday morning.
Which also happens to be Optimus Prime's 8th birthday!!!
Sunday brings family to our little town for his baptism.

Oy vay.  What a busy week.

Oh yeah.  And there's a for sale sign in our yard.  Wanna buy a house? 

I'm really tired and missing Popeye.  This single parent thing sucks.  New Friend, I don't know how you do it!

Peace Out!