30 weeks, and brand-new kindergarteners

Wow, it's been quite a week.  My brother is visiting with his family, and we hung out with them all day yesterday.  My kids LOVE their cousins, so it was a lot of fun.  But we had a late night, so it was hard to prepare for kindergarten today.  My kids are in afternoon kindergarten, from 11:45 to 3.  It takes us about 15 minutes to bike there, so we need to start getting ready to go around 11:25, so we need to eat lunch at 11.  Which is really early for us.

They slept in relatively late this morning, we read some books, had breakfast, and played for a bit.  Then we practiced violin.  With Tadpole, this takes FOREVER.  She's very frustrating  The violin teacher manages it with grace, although even she can't keep Tadpole on task and Turtle is moving ahead much more quickly.  So it took us between 45 minutes and an hour to practice (which I'd really like to limit to more like 15-20 minutes), and then Turtle took another 15-20 minutes, and it was almost 10:30.  And I hadn't made lunch or packed backpacks.

We had a quick sandwich lunch, then rushed out to our bikes to leave for school.  It was an uneventful ride, and we arrived a few minutes early, which was great for taking a couple pictures before the teacher let all the kids in for the afternoon.  There is a morning class that gets dismissed as the afternoon class is arriving, so we didn't get a chance to go in early and get the kids settled, but I think that's fine.

Today is also our first day of fall swim team.  After I pick up the kids, we have 45 minutes until swim practice starts.  Since the pool is only a few minutes walk from school, we also have about 30 minutes to kill.  I'm trying to decide if I'll bring a few books to read, or if we should visit the nearby playground for a bit.

Soccer should be starting really soon as well ... Turtle has his first practice next Monday, and I haven't heard anything about Tadpole's team or coach yet.  I hope I'll be able to manage all of it!  We'll see how this fall goes and how things are when the new baby arrives, but I'm thinking that we won't be doing two sports at the same time again in the future.  It's sort of a shame that I like swimming so much and think it's so valuable as a lifetime sport, because it requires 5 days per week of practice!  And so much time for meets, as well

So that's that.  I have about an hour (actually less) until I have to go pick up the kids and we won't be home until at least 4:30.  Hubby won't be home for dinner, so I need to start planning that a bit early, too, so I have time to cook.

Oh, and yeah.  30 weeks yesterday.  The first of my twice-monthly prenatal visits next week.  Luckily I've found a babysitter who seems pretty reliable to pick up the kids from school on the days I have appointments, and take them to swimming, where I'll meet them when my appointment is over.  And no real news on au pairs, I am sorry that I didn't get on top of that earlier so we'd have someone getting ready to move in already.  Ah well, I'm sure it will all end well, one way or another.  Mostly at this point I'm worried about the first few days/weeks/months with a brand new baby, lack of sleep, and getting the twins to and from school and any other activities.  We should have my in-laws visit at some point, though for a much needed break.

OK, I've got to go work on my coffee table before I run out of time.  Cheers!