Moving to Colorado!

February 16th to 20th there was no school because of so much ice! It was nice having him home for an extra week. On the 20th, our shipping containers were delivered. It started snowing heavily about the time the truck arrived. Andrew gave him some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
On the 21st it was rainy so we had to postpone packing the pods until Sunday the 22nd.  The meeting ended up cancelled and yet 16 people still showed up to help us move!! It was a soggy mess. Andrew and Samantha played outside and came in covered in mud. Andrew fell flat into it once and Nana had to help him get changed and cleaned up. She said he did a good job not getting it everywhere.

We spent the next week on borrowed air mattresses, with borrowed chairs,dishes and towels. With not much to do or play with, he got way too much ipad time watching Kipper and How to Train Your Dragon. There was no school again on the 26th when some sisters had scheduled lunch with me to say goodbye. So Andrew got to hang with Samantha and Blake one last time at Frankie's Pizza and Grill.
On Friday, Ms. Hobbs made it a special day all about Andrew. Nana and I took cupcakes to his class. They all made cards for him and talked about what a good friend and helper Andrew has been to them. Ms. Hobbs gave him the book The Giving Tree with a note to him in the front.
Friday evening I dropped him off at Joy's house while I went to the airport to get Daddy and Murray. He was very excited to see them again.
Saturday morning, we packed up what didn't fit into one last pod. Several friends dropped by to say goodbye to Ted, and then they drugged the pups and started driving to Colorado. They spent 7 hours in an ice storm on the way, but made it safely around 4am to Murrays house.
Andrew and I went home with Nana - said our goodbyes to Joy in our driveway and both of us nearly started crying when we got in the van. We stopped in to say goodbye to Ann and Fred too and she reminded us to embrace the change and always be happy, not sad.

Monday morning we arrived in Denver at 8am local time. Daddy picked us up and dropped us off at the new house and headed off to work. We snacked on some nuts and took a good nap before venturing out to find some lunch.
Tuesday morning we went to his new school, Devinny Elementary, to meet the principal and staff. They decided to have us return Wednesday to assess Andrew to decide if he should finish this year in Kindergarten or in regular first grade. He would start gifted first grade in the fall.  We went to the grocery store to get fresh salad material and basic supplies.
Wednesday he spent 45 minutes getting assessed. She said he could work on his handwriting - he holds the pencil with all fingers instead of just three. But they decided to let him enter first grade! Andrew was so excited!!  I asked the office for the addresses of some fun places we could go. We went to Fun City. It has bowling, laser tag, mini golf, go carts, arcades, rock climbing walls, a little tots town, and a huge multi-level area filled with foam balls and air canons.  We decided to pay for the kid area that included the tot town and foam ball place. He enjoyed it immensely. His favorite part was filling a huge saucer with balls, hitting a button and a huge vacuum sucked the balls up and spouted them out the top. We both got hit on the head a few times but it was fun - the balls are soft.

Thursday was his first day of First Grade! He LOVED it! He was in such a good mood, calm, hugged me and his teacher.  Friday he said was a good day too, and he was actually excited about having homework. He was feeling very proud of himself to not have finished kindergarten and starting first grade while only being five. (no humility here!)   We did go to the park after school both days. Even with snow still on the ground, the sun was warm and no jacket was required.

Friday evening we went to Lowe's to look at cabinets, hoping to find some in stock we could stack to make a pantry for now. No go. So we went next door to American Signature Furniture to look for a couch since we sold ours before moving. Andrew enjoyed testing out everything - especially the automatic ones.  We found a couch and loveseat similar to what we had in TN and then realized - we don't have an entertainment center for the TV here. We got a cheap but large one that could do the job. We also found some nice cabinets that would work as a pantry for now too!  After checking out, the salesman took Andrew back to a rack of stuffed animals and asked which he'd like. Andrew picked out a small white tiger. The salesman picked out the biggest white tiger there was and offered that to him. He has been sleeping with it ever since.

By Saturday morning, Ted and I had almost all of the containers unloaded. Murray came by to help with all the heavy stuff. We finished right around lunch time. I got some burgers and as soon as we were done eating - 7-8 people from the hall showed up to help unload and were so surprised to see it done!  I suggested they could still help us assemble the office and my new pantry cabinets, and our sleep number bed. It would have taken us days to get it done and they had it completed in about an hour! They even played with Andrew a little bit during the process!