Oh, How Lovely

A day at home. Well, sort of. We started off with an early trip to the park. Packed up some breakfast-y snack items and hauled some still sleepy-eyed girls to a favorite play spot. We started off by climbing "the hill".





This is always fun, and Miss E acted as nature guide, stopping to point out some tracks, and even the "most beautifulest thing in nature". (whithering weed flowers)



After the short trek, we kicked around our kick ball and soccer ball then broke for snacks.



Of course we hit the swings...



And both girls quickly found playmates.




Fun times!

Then on to WallyWorld for goldfish food and a new tank. Yes, you read right. E's VBS teacher so sweetly announced that "if it's OK with your parents..you can take home a fish!". Sigh. I cannot resist the sweet pleas of Miss E. Little A may just whine or whimper or repeatedly ask. E says things like, "If I sit here very quietly and don't ask again, can we take one home?", and, "I'm not asking again, but if you say, 'We'll talk about it', does that mean 'Maybe'?".
So we came home with two goldfish. And I'll admit. They're alot more fun than the Betas. Much more active and responsive. And this child has not stopped thanking me. On the walk to the car: "I don't want to take them back, but just WHY did you let me get two fish??", and "Thank you, thank you, thank you so so much for these fish! I'll feed them every day!"
Sure...feeding them is the easy part!
Anyway-a quick trip to Walmart for food and a tank and no drama, right? WRONG.
Miss A decides she wants some more water balloons. I tell her we still have some at home. She says we don't. I say we do. etc. etc.
Then begins the crying. Then screaming. WAILing. I'm not kidding. This was a first for me. Never until today was I the mom dragging a screaming kid from the store. I'm chanting with each step, "she's over tired, she'll tire out soon, she's worn out, she'll give up when we get to the car...."
Nope.
All. the. way. home.
Screaming.
WAY louder than my loud music. Way louder.
I walked her to her room and said she could come out when she was finished crying. She walked out less than a minute later, trying to control her sobs. Red, swollen eyes. Sat in my lap and rocked for a minute. Was distracted by the new fish and hasn't mentioned it sense!
Did I mention we were tired? It's been such a long week. Late nights at VBS (I'll post pics from that next) and NO naps.
About to start a little crafty project and then dinner, maybe some tramp time and a late evening walk to the mailbox. All in all, a nice summer day.

VBS '08

Another great year of VBS has come and gone. I love, love being a part of this! It is so amazing to see the kids so eager and receptive to learning and worshiping. I know, it's alot of fun and games. And the most exciting part is when the life size rooster ("Booster") appears at the end of each night...BUT they really do get something out of it. Miss E would retell the stories and the lessons each night. Miss A could name the main characters and get some details from the lessons. I could talk to Miss E about the meaning of the stories and how we could practice these in our own lives.
It's just such a magical time for the kiddos. All year long, their told to "sit still", and "be quiet" in church, and this is a time, just for them, to yell!, sing! and get a little crazy! and have fun with worship.
Here are some shots from the week:

This Little Light of Mine!


In class (yes, she's the only one standing...)


Snack Time! And, Sing it Girl!


Miss A and sweet Miss M




Dear God, Thank you for my Freeze Pop...


I know! I know!


It's Booster! Here he comes!


And there he goes...notice even some of the kids are plugging there ears. Yes, the scream were THAT loud!


And by the third night, I pull in, and look back to this:

Full Swing

I'm sorry. I was just reading the first lines of my last post. Did I say things were slowing down??

Can you hear me laughing out loud??

I am in full Operation Graduation mode. After some attempts to dissuade me, the Principal gave me permission to discuss with E's teacher possible graduation ceremony ideas. Little did she know......!!
I went straight from the Principal's office to E's classroom, ran down my list of ideas with the teach, and set up a schedule of sorts for getting things started. We hit 7 (yes SEVEN) stores after school looking for a coupla certain items.
Miss A and I were back up at the school on Friday for 3 hours on our own (Miss A did AMAZINGLY well!) to kick off the first things on my to do list.
We were back up there for FOUR hours today. This time I was smart and recruited two moms (one strategically sought out for her 3 1/2 yr. old daughter :)! ) And we were able to knock out some big things.
The girls and I stayed after school to cut strips and squares to make caps. I brought home shirts and iron ons that the teacher printed out. And the teacher...she is just as excited about this (if that's possible) as I am! She told me she was printing up diplomas over the weekend and made a special trip up to the school to look up all the kiddos middle names, so the diplomas look "official". How cute!

So I think we'll pull it off. The class will sing a song, they'll get their diplomas and special gift we've been working on. They have class shirts that we've made to wear instead of gowns. And they'll walk down the aisle to the Pomp and Circumstance playing on our little CD player!
We have donated balloons and a cake. And another mom is making custom tassels!
I have a book for the teacher to read, I'm working on programs. I'm going to include in their goody bags a "when I grow up" survey that parents will love. I'll share E's answers later.
I am very excited and I just hope it goes off without a hitch. Well, without a major hitch. :)

Breathe....

Ahhh....things are slowing down. A little. In the last 2 weeks, I have had 3 programs at the preschool, plus a graduation ceremony, 2 afternoons at the Sprinkler Park, 4 playdates for Miss A, and two for Miss E, one trip to Gattiland, one Petting Zoo and a Splash Day at the preschool, a conference and a Field Day at E's school....oh yeah-a flight to Colorado and a quick drive back....a softball game tonight....and all topped off with a much desired (and deserved!) girls night. Are we done yet?? :)

E has two more weeks of school. During which I'm determined to pull off a top of the charts graduation ceremony. If I have to hold it in the back yard.
We can add this to my previous "Vent" post: there is no Kindergarten graduation cermony at E's school. Nope. A quick "Awards Ceremony" where the kids all line up across the stage in the gym (along with the pre-K group) and each get a certificate of completion for the year.
I'm meeting with the principal on Thursday to basically see what I can get away with before the end of the year. I already have a gift in mind for the kids to have as a memory from this year (and I've cleared this with the teacher)-I'm already scripting out a little ceremony in my head. I know which book I want read. And a poem....By golly, I'll make it happen!

btw-I do have pictures of all of our events from the past couple of weeks. That's the only way I was able to remember it all!! I may do a slide show, of sorts, to share it all. Check back soon!

Sweet Nothings

Just now from my sweet Miss E, as she's finishing her after school snack and I was being silly with A:

"Mama, I've always wanted a Mom like you. I could never have a more fun Mom."

Ahhh...it just melts me. I could just squish her! :)

Love is....

(thought you might like something more lighthearted after the last one!)

Love is....

Love is Mama putting my step stool in the tub tonight so I could prop my foot up and protect my scraped up ankle from the soapy water.
Love is Daddy secretly dropping a few pieces of crushed ice on the porch to satisfy my need to hold some hail during the tornado producing storm. :)
Now that is love!

by Miss A.

Vent

Yes, I'm going to vent. Get it all out. Maybe I'll feel better. I have so many things I could be, should be blogging about. My little trip to CO to bring back preggy sis and her two pups....our fun weekend and my exciting return on Mother's Day...enjoying a field trip with E and special time with Miss A...the list goes on. And I will get to these things. But first, I need to vent. I'm getting all worked up just starting this. And I know I'm making much ado about, well-you know the phrase. But it's not nothing to me, and I'm vowing now never to let "things go" as I seem to have done this year. I'm sure some of you see this coming-I'm talking about Kindergarten. Oh, the joys.

I think what started my most recent stress was a revealing ride to the aforementioned field trip. Another mom mentioned to me that her son told her, that he had been "kissing E". Um...."WHAT?" was pretty much my response. So she says that he said he kissed her on the mouth, but when she (the mom) asked the teacher about it, the teacher said he also kissed her on the belly. Yeah.
So I'm most upset that I wasn't informed. I mean, the teacher knows me well enough by now! I'm the mom that voiced her disapproval about the love notes being passed to my E from a student in another class. I thought the frequent deliveries, and content, were inappropriate for Kinder kids, and that he surely could find better things to do with his class time than bring notes to E! Yes, his teacher let him bring the notes over during class!!
So then the kissing comment. I asked E about it and she explained. Another girl asked the boy if he "loved" her and E. He said yes, and I guess she wanted him to prove it.
Anyway. Yesterday I called the school to ask the librarian about the Six Flags ticket that E is supposed to get for a reading incentive program she completed months ago. (the kids had to read and record 360 minutes within a certain time frame)I figured the tickets would take a while to get in, but now that it's almost the end of the year-I thought I'd check up on it.
Well, E's form was never turned in. Somewhere between putting it in her folder at home and giving it to the teacher, and the teacher giving it to the librarian, it was apparently misplaced. The librarian has no record of ever receiving the form for E, and the tickets have loooong been distributed. No way to get any more. The company is very strict on deadlines. Understandably-this is a big prize.
But our E read every. single. minute. by herself. This was months ago, when she did not have her chapter book collection built up, so she would read a small book, ask me how many minutes, and I would tell her, "three minutes!" and she would record it-title and time. And go on to the next book. Can you imagine how many books she went through? She would get a stack and just work through it. She finished over a week early-maybe two. And I actually considered at the time, hanging onto her log sheet. Afraid it would get lost in the shuffle because we were sending it in so early.
So I told the librarian I would appreciate her getting with the teacher, finding out what happened to the form, and explaining to E why she never got her ticket.

Oh no, I'm not done yet!! While talking (ok venting) to my friend M this morning, she mentions something about observing 1st grade teachers tomorrow at her daughter's school to possibly get an idea of one that might be a good fit for next year. Excited about this opportunity, I call E's school right after work to set up my appt.
Well, E's school doesn't offer this opportunity. Honestly, I don't know if every school in the district does, but I know of several that do.
And I may not take this let down so hard if I hadn't been given incorrect information early in the year about other opportunities for E. Being told that certain programs weren't available, then finding out later that they should have been.
I'm at the point now of being mad at myself. For not trying harder to be involved in her year. I have no idea what they do, what goes on. Never get anything home in her folder. Oh-I mentioned that to M too. I said "I could have offered to make a weekly or monthly newsletter for the class. Then I would HAVE to know what's going on!" Her response (you'll love this) "You don't get a NEWSLETTER??" I give up.
I never, ever, thought I would so seriously consider homeschooling. I'm a PS TEACHER!! for crying out loud!
Right now I could care less about the curriculum. She's way ahead of the curve and I have complete faith that I could more than provide in that area. The only thing keeping me from pulling her now is the experience. Well, that and, the fact that I HAVE to bring in some income at some point. But I have the best memories from my school years. For the most part. I mean, it wasn't all peaches and cream. Kids are mean-there were some bumps. But I loved being part of the experience. I was on teams, in groups, part of fund raisers and charity events, enjoyed the perks of being in advanced classes and the adventures that came with leadership roles.

Oh my GOODNESS! I know I'm being ridiculous! It's JUST Kindergarten, right?? I know that if I even turn around and read this right now, I won't post it. I'm crying over her Kindergarten year! Sigh. I'm THAT PARENT. Maybe I'll feel better after getting this out. Maybe I'll feel silly. I don't know. Maybe I'll at least realize I'm being ridiculous and MOVE ON!
One can hope. :o)