It's hard to imagine that Abigail is going to be starting school next week! A lot of the last week has been spent getting ready. The children here are expected to bring their supplies to school with them. These include things such as crayons, tissues, pencils, erasers, dry wipe markers, and even four tubs of play dough among other stuff! All the schools in the district put out their "supplies list" in the the two main grocery shops in Coshocton. I am expected to go in, find Abi's school list and buy all the supplies listed for Kindergarten - very different to Scotland. Last Saturday morning all the new kindergarten pupils from Coshocton County were invited to a local school to receive some of the supplies for free.
We headed out at 9am determined to beat the rush. We got a lot more than we bargained for! Abi walked around all the tables collecting supplies to put in her bag and there were balloons to decorate also. Outside there was a fire truck where we could spray the hose - I don't ever remember having a shot of a real fire hose myself so of course, I had to have a go! Then Abi climbed into the drivers seat for a look. There was also a school bus there from the Riverview District for everyone to climb aboard and explore. Our house and Abi's school are both in the Riverview district as we are on the outskirts of Coshocton town centre. This meant I was able to gather lots of information from the lady driver, who may even be the one picking up Abi next week!
As if this wasn't enough free stuff and excitement for one day, while walking across the car park I was asked if we would like our child car seats checked by their safety experts. I agreed thinking this should not take too long. I was wrong! It appears that our British Britax car seats are not recognized by US state law as being safe and therefore we could be fined if stopped by the police. Just as my heart was sinking at the thought of having to buy two new American car seats, they offered me two for free!!! This turned out to be another half an hour of form filling and car seat fitting. Abi and Matthew were delighted with their new seats, and so was I. This means that we can take our British car seats back to Scotland in October and leave them. No more flying with two strollers, four cases, AND two car seats! What a blessing! I only wished I had cleaned the inside of my car out before I ventured out last Saturday!
Later on that Saturday we had a lovely family evening out. We went for pizza and took it to a park in town to eat. Then the kids played and rode there bike/trike. Then we went to the video rental place and let the kids pick a movie each We ended up with five DVD's including a new release. The assistant scanned them all and said they were all free today! How does anyone make a living here? LOL! We topped off our family outing with a trip to "Earls" for some crazy, yet utterly delicious ice cream. I believe Abi and Matthew opted for the play dough flavour. We don't eat like this every day may I add!
We headed out at 9am determined to beat the rush. We got a lot more than we bargained for! Abi walked around all the tables collecting supplies to put in her bag and there were balloons to decorate also. Outside there was a fire truck where we could spray the hose - I don't ever remember having a shot of a real fire hose myself so of course, I had to have a go! Then Abi climbed into the drivers seat for a look. There was also a school bus there from the Riverview District for everyone to climb aboard and explore. Our house and Abi's school are both in the Riverview district as we are on the outskirts of Coshocton town centre. This meant I was able to gather lots of information from the lady driver, who may even be the one picking up Abi next week! 
As if this wasn't enough free stuff and excitement for one day, while walking across the car park I was asked if we would like our child car seats checked by their safety experts. I agreed thinking this should not take too long. I was wrong! It appears that our British Britax car seats are not recognized by US state law as being safe and therefore we could be fined if stopped by the police. Just as my heart was sinking at the thought of having to buy two new American car seats, they offered me two for free!!! This turned out to be another half an hour of form filling and car seat fitting. Abi and Matthew were delighted with their new seats, and so was I. This means that we can take our British car seats back to Scotland in October and leave them. No more flying with two strollers, four cases, AND two car seats! What a blessing! I only wished I had cleaned the inside of my car out before I ventured out last Saturday! 
Later on that Saturday we had a lovely family evening out. We went for pizza and took it to a park in town to eat. Then the kids played and rode there bike/trike. Then we went to the video rental place and let the kids pick a movie each We ended up with five DVD's including a new release. The assistant scanned them all and said they were all free today! How does anyone make a living here? LOL! We topped off our family outing with a trip to "Earls" for some crazy, yet utterly delicious ice cream. I believe Abi and Matthew opted for the play dough flavour. We don't eat like this every day may I add! Last week was not all fun and laughter. Before Abi and Matthew are allowed to start school, or pre-school, they must prove they are up to date with immunisations. This involved a trip to the doctors last Monday. They wanted to give them four shots each but I felt this was a little much at once so they had two and we shall go back in December for another two. The latter are not essential but very beneficial considering where we may be going in a few years. Abi was quite shocked by the ordeal and was convinced she couldn't move her arm or hand all day. Then she commented later on that the needle in her arm was sore. I realised then I had told her a needle would be going into her arm but had forgotten to tell her the needle would be coming out again! She thought it was still in there! LOL! I am glad to report that everyone is back to normal now!
As mentioned earlier, we can confirm that we are returning to Scotland on the 13th of October and will be leaving again on the 29th. Our primary purpose is to renew our visa in London but the rest of the time we will be catching up with family and friends. We will let you know when and where in Scotland we will be sharing and hope you can join us in person.
Love in Christ
Heather
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