Saying good-bye to second and fourth grades today!
teacher gifts - check.
end of year picnics - check.
passed end of grade tests - check.
Now it is just the final day to say good-bye to friends, high-five the teachers for making it through the year, and eat whatever leftovers the cafeteria cobbles together for the last day.
I love comparing first day and last day pictures. Elise has definitely changed a lot... hard to believe she'll be at the top of the school in fifth grade next month!
Easter was so long ago, but I hated for it to pass me by completely with no photos, so here are some long overdue Easter pictures.
My little cupcake baking helper
and cupcake decorators in cute bunny aprons from their sweet Aunt B. Thank you, Aunt B!
The cupcakes were nothing if not well decorated... or, er, overly decorated.
We didn't decorate eggs this year, and nobody complained. I felt no guilt in skipping a year of that mess. Perhaps we'll dye them next year.
Elise and Addie participated in our neighborhood egg hunt. Addie looked so sweet in her spring dress.
I could not convince Elise to wear something pretty. <sigh> Khaki shorts and a grey tee just don't scream Easter to me, but I have to pick my battles.
To give her some credit though, she did have a good point that the hunt location for the big kids doesn't exactly lend itself to fancy dresses and nice sandals.
Fortunately, the bunny at this egg hunt was much friendlier looking than the creepy horror movie bunny from the last hunt we attended.
The night before Easter, the girls put out a snack for the Easter Bunny, "Eat up and Enjoy!" Do you think the Easter Bunny really eats Tootsie Rolls?
Then, they killed me. They put out notes to the Easter Bunny requesting what they wanted in their baskets! Whaaaa? Letters to Santa... yes. Letters to the Easter Bunny? Um...NO! The Easter Bunny does NOT take requests. No way. No how. Not happening.
The letters read:
"I want a white paint and purple paint, new games for my leappad, books, Pez, candy, paint set (water colers) from addie (pink basket)"
"Dear Easter Bunny, Happy Easter!! You must be really busy so I'll make this quick. For easter I would like: Books (Hunger games), Amazon gift card, and Book of advansd jump rope trick. (Elise, purple basket) P.S. thank you!"
"Dear, Easter Bunny Hi! I'm Nina and I'm 8 years old. I would like make-up, and Hank Zipzer books, jewelry, candy, watercolor paint, and paint brushes, and a paint pad. from Nina (Blue Basket)"
I'm not sure any of them received things on their list except for Addie and her Pez. They all seemed happy with their baskets, regardless. After breakfast, they went hunting in their pajamas for the eggs the Easter Bunny left in the yard.
We had a nice Easter dinner with both sets of grandparents later in the day where I neglected to take any pictures. It was a nice dinner, despite the lack of photo evidence. One of these days I'll figure out how to host a meal and take pictures too.
Easter is long gone, and summer is nearly here. Time flies when you aren't a timely blogger. Hopefully I'll do better this summer. It is going to be a busy one though!
The joys of child labor...
Dear Nina,
I'm a full two months late with your letter this year, but better late than never, right? Some days, it is hard for me to believe that you are only eight. You are as tall as most of Elise's ten year old friends, but more than that, you are just so self-sufficient. Whether it is washing your hair, making your lunch, doing your laundry, or making breakfast for Addie, you rarely ask for help. You are independent, take care of yourself, and usually seem so much older than your eight years.
Then there are the times like a couple weeks ago when you called home in tears late at night from a sleep-over at a friend's house wanting to come home. Your allergies were bothering you, and you just wanted your own bed. That night, I was reminded that you are still just a little girl. As you got in the car sobbing, needing your mom, and needing a hug, you hardly even seemed eight. Those moments are fleeting. You are growing up so fast. I think those moments are good for us though... to remind us that there is still a little girl in there under the tall, slender, fashion-conscious, self-confident exterior.
School is going well, and you are so enthusiastiac about everything science related. You loved participating in the science fair this year and can't wait to go to science camp this summer. You spend hours quietly and patiently working on a "dinosaur dig" or science experiments at home. You tune out the rest of the world as you concentrate.
You are such a thinker and a problem solver. It makes me wonder what you will be when you grow up - an engineer? a pharmaceutical researcher? an archeologist? You love to solve puzzles. We took a family trip to Great Wolf Lodge last week, and you were more excited about the MagiQuest game than the water park. You spent hours running around the hotel with your wand trying to solve different quests. You were completely in your element.
Of course, I could be completely wrong about your future career. You love to design dresses and put on make-up. Perhaps you'll be a fashion designer, make-up artist, or stylist. You and I have a great time watching Project Runway together.
Outside of school, you are most involved in figure skating right now. You did skating for several months, skated in the holiday show (You were very hesitant about signing up for it but then had a blast), and then burned out. You did a couple months of gymnastics, but now you are back to skating. You don't have any desire to compete yet, but you have so much fun with your friends at the rink. I think you love having an activity and group of people that are all yours. You jump out of the car in the mornings of ice skating camp and walk in there with your head held high and a spring in your step, knowing you belong. I don't know if or when you will decide you're ready to compete, but for now, you're just having a ball. I can remember feeling the same way about my rink friends when I was a skater, so I know exactly what you are getting from it... that sense of belonging and comaradarie. Enjoy it!
You are also still involved in Girl Scouts. You joined a new Brownie troop this year, and you seem to be enjoying it. You were very geared up about Girl Scout cookies this year and wanted to work a lot of cookie booths. I think your 400 box goal was a little higher than your energy level, but you did sell 300 and worked hard for them.
I'd say your biggest challenge right now is dealing with the ups and downs of friendships. Girl friendships at age 7-8 are tough, particularly when there are three of you on the same street. I remember Elise having all the same issues... the cliques, the hurt feelings, the frenemies. Fortunately, it gets better. You have a great group of girl friends, and if you can survive the catty 7-8 year old fights, your friendships will be even stronger. I grew up in a neighborhood with two other girls my age, and it was hard for me too. I promise it gets better.
Nina, you are a fun, funny, determined, passionate girl. I love you and can't wait to see how things unfold the next eight years.
Love,
Mama
This past weekend, my mom invited us to a family Easter event at their retirement community. I had no idea what to expect, but it turns out those old folks put on quite a nice little celebration for grandkids!
We had lunch, and then there was face painting.
There was a magician making balloon animals.
There was a photobooth, crafts, and the creepiest Easter bunny ever. Addie was scared of him. Can you blame her? Check out that face. He looks like something out of a horror movie.
Of course, no Easter celebration is complete without a good old-fashioned Easter egg hunt. Nina declared the age 6+ hunt "the worst Easter egg hunt EVER". (Apparently it was quite disorganized.) Addie had fun at her hunt though.
As we got ready to leave, I thought it would be a great opportunity for a nice picture of the girls with their grandmother. Uh yeah... maybe not. We'll have to try that again another time.
Happy Easter!
I love that my kids get excited about the science fair. We need more women interested in science (see this post if you don't believe me), and an elementary school science fair is a great place to start. I love how enthusiastic they get about planning and working on their projects.
Actually, I think I mostly just love the science fair in theory. I love the idea of it. I love how it stimulates my kids' brains and creativity in ways their regular school work doesn't. I love listening to them talk about their ideas. I love seeing their eyes light up as they finalize their project plans.
Every year, participating in the science fair seems like such a great idea. Then... we actually do it. No matter how simple the experiment or project may seem, it always takes at least twice as long as anticipated. We barely have time to get homework finished as it is, so I'm not sure why we think adding a big project on top of that will work well. Then there is the sticky, syrupy sugar solution that spills all over the kitchen table, chairs, and floor. There is the sugar solution that isn't concentrated enough, doesn't grow any sugar crystals, and causes us to start over a week later.
There are the styrofoam balls that sound like the perfect choice for planets but cost a ridiculous sum of money. Who are the millionaires producing styrofoam balls, and how do I get in on that racket?
There are the hours spent watching 8-10 year olds type up their results painfully slowly, my fingers twitching, desperate to just jump in there and type it for them but knowing they need to do it themselves.
That brings me to the actual night of the science fair. There are the darling projects where you know the child did every inch of it themselves with no parent involvement whatsoever. These are my favorites.
There are the majority of the projects, like ours, where the parents provided some direction and consultation, but the kids did the work.
Then, inevitably, there are always the projects where you wonder if the child was involved at all. (Yes, that display has its own light source and dry ice to simulate clouds).
The science fair is always held in winter months when you typically bundle up for the weather. It is insanely crowded though and miserably hot. You shove your way through the crowds with sweat dripping down your back looking at dyed carnations, Pepsi and Mentos photos, and more sugar crystals.
Again, in theory, I love the idea of walking around looking at each child's project, admiring their hard work, inspiration, and creativity. Yet, in reality, I find myself counting down the minutes until we can pack up and leave. The crowds make me claustrophobic.
Despite the sticky floor, fortune spent on styrofoam, and claustrophobia, I know it is all worth it at the end. They learn a lot, get a great feeling of accomplishment, and have smiles on their faces all in the name of science. I know that's a good thing.
I'm just glad it only comes around once a year, so I have time to recover and forget the experience from the year before.
One of my favorite movies of all time is The Parent Trap. I love both the 1961 version with Haley Mills and the Lindsey Lohan version from when she was cute and not on drugs. In high school, I babysat for a family in my neighborhood at least once a week who owned a VHS tape (remember those?) of The Parent Trap. I watched it every time I babysat. I knew every line of that movie and could practically recite the whole thing from start to finish.
One of my favorite lines is the camp director saying, "Let the punishment fit the crime. Let the punishment fit the crime." If you can't hear her exact voice in the back of your head like I can, watch the clip. You just have to watch the first minute.
(And as a side note totally unrelated to the rest of this post. My summer camp uniforms were almost identical to those. Does that make me old?)
I have watched that movie enough that any time I am trying to come up with a punishment for my kids, I hear her voice in my head, "Let the punishment fit the crime." I think her voice was hardwired into my brain after watching it so many times.
So, this week when Nina decided it would be funny to throw a friend's jacket into our garbage can and then not fess up to her crime when the friend's mother came by looking for it, causing that mother to drive to the movie theater in search of the lost jacket, that camp director voice in my head was repeating her line over and over once I found out. "Let the punishment fit the crime. Let the punishment fit the crime." I asked Nina what she thought her punishment should be. Her answer was a month of no TV or videos. That would definitely be a punishment, but it didn't exactly fit the crime.
We made Nina go apologize to the girl's mother and return the (freshly laundered) jacket. To truly fit the crime; however, she needed to understand what a disgusting choice she made for a hiding place for her friend's pricey REI jacket. She needed to think about how she would feel if someone had thrown her jacket in there.
She needed to share the experience of the jacket. We made her clean the garbage can.
She spent all afternoon hosing down, soaping up, and scrubbing that nasty, stinky, vile container, and she hated every second of it.
The camp director in the back of my head was proud. Nina will definitely think twice before pulling a stunt like that again. In this case, I'd say the punishment truely fit the crime.
February: Playing in the sprinkler today... forecast for snow tomorrow.
In my recent blog post about Addie's birthday party, I listed my four rules for a successful birthday party. Let's see how I did with Nina's party.
I loved seeing all their faces.
They were anxiously excited,
happy,
and perfectly relaxed.
They got manicures,
and pedicures
while watching videos in the massage chairs.
J.C. felt a little out of place, but he waited patiently
until we were all done.
After nails, it was time for lunch and cupcakes.
Check it out... the nail polish cupcake toppers doubled as part of the party favors!
Yum!
All said, it was a fun morning for these eight-going-on-sixteen year olds. Happy Birthday, Nina!
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