Labels for the Boys' School Clothes

So, something I have been working on the last couple of weeks is getting all the school clothes we will need for the boys for this fall and winter. I have gotten most of the clothes we need, except a few more pairs of jeans and some pajamas I am still looking for for Kolby (and we just found out that we’ll need an extra set of clothes for Kolby and Eli because they like to keep an extra set at the preschool in case they get messy painting or something). But I was trying to think of a good idea to mark the boys’ school clothes so that they could easily tell who’s clothes are who’s. (This saves me time, because then the boys can pick out their own clothes when they get dressed without having to ask me to find a size on a tag – since so many of their clothes are similar or the same sizes, and it will also be easier when we are doing laundry if someone doesn’t know who’s shirt they are folding, they can just look inside). Last year I used different colored sharpie markers and put a different colored dot on the tags for each of the different boys’ clothes, but the problem with that was that sometimes the dots were hard for the boys to find, and sometimes the dots changed colors when the tag wasn’t white. Anyways, I came up with the idea of iron-on tags, and I went to the internet, but couldn’t find what I wanted – all I could find was big, colorful full-name tags that didn’t seem especially inexpensive. So I decided to make my own. I got paper that you could print on your computer to make iron-on transfers, and I printed out a small letter with each boys’ first initial. In one afternoon I finished ironing on all of Kolby’s, Eli’s, and Camden’s, and I have since put off ironing on Isaac’s (but that shouldn’t take too long once I decide to get it done). I think they turned out pretty well, although I don’t know how well you can see them in the pictures. It was nice, because I could iron the labels onto a tag or right onto the inside of the shirt if there wasn't a tag. I didn’t want the labels to be too big, just a little letter that the boys could find easily. So, that’s one project that I’m almost done with for this season.

The labels that I printed out
(I realized later that I printed way more 'K's than I needed for Kolby).

A couple of Kolby's shirts with the labels on them.

Kolby's fall and winter clothes with all the labels on them.

Eli's clothes with all the labels.

And Camden's clothes with all the labels.

Feeling Rather Gypped

I have been feeling rather gypped lately. It is not quite Spring yet here in Milwaukee (I don’t care what the calendar says), but I can tell that it is getting close. It has been up in the low 50s a few days recently, although it’s still usually too cold out for t-shirts. One thing that is kind of fun about Milwaukee is that after the snow starts to melt and you can see some of the grey, muddy grass again, once there is a good rainfall or two, the grass is noticeably greener overnight. It is nice to look outside and see green instead of grey. The grass isn’t bright green yet, but it does look much better after the rain this week. But I have still been feeling kind of gypped – I have officially survived the second snowiest winter on record in Milwaukee history (I don’t think we had quite enough snowfall to break the record, did we?), and now we are going to move next month before we have barely anytime at all to enjoy the nice things about Spring and Summer in Milwaukee. Oh well. I guess we’ll just have to enjoy summer in Salt Lake.

Waiting Game

Well, tomorrow’s the big day! The Match starts at 11am, but I’m sure we’ll be getting up pretty early in the morning to get the kids ready and get over to the school in plenty of time to get enough seats for us and all our boys next to each other. I have not really been nervous so far, waiting for Match Day, but tonight am feeling it a bit – not really nervous, I guess, just so many questions and thoughts running through my head. If we went to California we could be with my family . . . if we went to Texas I have heard the housing is so cheap . . . if we went to Pennsylvania we will be in a pretty small town, how would that be? . . . if we stayed here, I would be pretty bummed to have to last through four more Milwaukee winters . . . but if we stayed here we wouldn’t have to leave our friends . . . what is there to do in Ohio? . . . if we happened to get into New York City wouldn’t that be such a cool place to live? (and how could we ever afford it with all our kids?) . . . if we got into Florida that program has totally free medical insurance for the whole family – that would make a big difference . . . what if we ended up in some other Wisconsin program and had the cold winters to deal with, but didn’t have our friends? . . . if we went to Utah, we could live with my Grandma and save up for a house . . . how are we going to figure out if it is best to buy a house or just rent, no matter where we go? . . . I just have to keep telling myself to just wait one more day and then most of these questions won’t matter anymore because we won’t be going to all of these different places, just one or two of them. It’s pretty exciting! I’ll be sure to post tomorrow what we find out . . .

Winter in Milwaukee

I know I complain about the winter here in Milwaukee, but there are some nice things about it:

• If I don’t feel like bringing in the groceries from the car, it is cold enough to just leave them in the trunk until Michael gets home from work to help me.

• My children’s constant runny noses that last all winter long here make me look forward to visiting my family in San Diego where the noses clear up almost immediately.

• We don’t have to wait for the water from our kitchen sink faucet to cool down – it is always nice and cold right away.

• Every once in a while the schools and businesses close for a snow day.

• It’s nice to stay inside sometimes and light some candles, wear fuzzy slippers, and wrap up in a blanket to get cozy – as long as you don’t have anywhere to go.

• The snow provides an opportunity for service – there is always someone in need of shoveling their car out or giving their car a push.

• The few times that there is a big snowstorm, it is really fun to bundle up the kids and go out to play for a few minutes, as long as it isn’t too cold and windy.

• Hot chocolate.

• Sometimes it’s fun to change up your wardrobe twice a year when the sweaters come out and then when they go back away again.

• The snow is really quite pretty after it falls (and before the cars drive by and make it all grey by the sides of the roads).

Actually, we had a beautiful big storm yesterday and then went out to play in the snow with the boys last night and it was very nice. As long as there is enough snow that Michael doesn’t have to go to work and all of the kids’ classes and appointments get cancelled so we don’t have to go out in it with all the kids, it is really nice to have a big storm every once in a while. But I have to say, visiting San Diego in December and being able to walk outside with the kids to play in the yard barefoot sure is a pleasant contrast to the lengthy bundling and un-bundling event that takes place every time I have to take the kids out of the house in the winter here.