Daddy's Shoes

Shoes are SO fun to wear! Even when Gemma is running at top speed. Even when they are huge. I'm finding shoe all over the place in crazy places. The bathtub, her room, on the steps. Everywhere but where they are supposed to be.

It is very cute, but makes getting out of the house just a little more difficult...

Racing

For the rivers. We do it every year. I think we're crazy. Probably it is just me with the crazy.

The non for profit I work with (less and less these days) has their big fund raiser in August. We have run the children's activity booth for the last 5 summers. It's a fun day, but super exhausting as well. We were at the park at 9:30 this morning and finally packed it all up at 5pm. A long day in the sun.

William was my helper this year. He stayed ALL day without complaint. Not one. None at all. What a great guy. He played and helped and ate a sno cone and played some more.

The picture is one of the activities we run. William is showing our high school helpers how the activity works. He then continued to show them for the next 2 hours.

Kindergarten work

I'm organizing papers and ....well trying to get organized. I ran across these two papers and they made me laugh. Both of these papers are from the end of April/beg. of May last school year. They read as follows:

On Fridays I get chokolit melk in my lunch. It is the last day of the skool week ten I get to stay home for Saturday and Sunday.


If I went scuba diving, I would play with the dolfin and ried on them. I would tak a pishr of a sqid. I would take a riad on a wale.

Unintended uses

I went to change Gemma's diaper last week and she had the top to the plastic shape sorter in her hands. She hasn't been very tolerant lately about holding still and allowing a diaper change to occur. C'mon. She has messes to make and trouble to get into.

As I set her down, she stuck both of her hands through a shape hole in the sorter. And they got stuck. My daughter had handcuffed herself with a lid to a child's toy. She was NOT happy about being restricted and quickly wiggled herself free. But, the hands being held still did make the diapering portion easier.....

PreK

Amelia started her prekindergarten classes this week. There has been much preschool drama (on my part) as of late. We struggled with finding the right fit for our big girl. Of course, if I hadn't left it up until the last minute, it would have been a much smoother process.

Luckily, Amelia wasn't part of the emotional turmoil over making the Right Decision and she is enjoying her first week of school as well. For the record, I did take her picture on the first day, but it is on the big camera and I am too LAZY to get that all sorted out right now. Instead, you will need to make do with this Open House picture of her. As an added bonus, I will regale you with several stories about her new school and her first week. (warning, much bragging is ahead).

#1
The Friday before Amelia started school, I went in to drop off the necessary paperwork and make sure everything was squared away. You know, since the decision for her placement was made less than 24 hours before. Seemed like a good idea to appear organized at least.

I was standing at the counter and filling out paperwork. The director of the preschool was standing at the counter chatting with all of us. Amelia was standing next to me and Gemma was on my other hip. I vaguely heard Amelia say

"Learning together is lots of fun for our team."

I was very occupied with making sure I had the right birthdate listed and was signing up the correct child with the correct information.

Mama: MMmmhmmmm

Director: Wait. What did she say?

Mama: Huh? I don't know.

Director: Amelia! What did you just say?

Amelia: Learning together is lots of fun for our team. (then she points to the words painted on the wall.) It says so right here. I can't read those other word though because they are in clursive (cursive).

Director: Are you kidding me? She knows how to read? She must be almost 5, right?

Mama: Yes. She can read. Except, obviously, cursive. She isn't 5. She isn't even 4 and a half quite yet. She started reading just before she turned 4 and has really been getting good at it lately.

Director: (practically dancing) What does this say? (has Amelia read a few other various signs at the front desk. Amelia reads them back to her).

Director: (Giggling). This is so awesome! Do me a favor? Don't tell her teacher. I CANNOT WAIT to see her face when she realizes that Amelia is reading so well.

Mama: Okay. I promise. But, if the teacher doesn't notice by the end of the second week, I'm going to have to tell her. Deal?

Director: (squealing) DEAL!


#2

*It's the first day of school and I am picking Amelia up. I can't wait to hear about how Amelia's day is going. I pass the front desk the director of the program sees me coming. She has a HUGE smile on her face.

Director: Amelia had an amazing day!
Mama: Great!
Director: I could only wait until 9:30. I tried to wait longer, but I just couldn't. At 9:30, I finally went back to the classroom and had Amelia read the sign on the door to me.

Mama: Oh?
Director: She read it like a champ! And her teacher was AMAZED! She said "Did you set this up to fool me?" I had to tell her "NO! It is for real!!" The teacher is so excited. Then we had Amelia read all the other signs in the classroom for fun. And Amelia read ALL of them! AMAZING!

Mama: Great! (inside I'm thinking: keep talking! I love hearing great things about my kid).

Director: The teacher is SO excited to get started with some reading instruction for her to focus on comprehension and upping her confidence in her skills!

Mama: Yehaw!

Then I walked down to get Amelia and she was beaming! She was so happy and excited about her first day of school.

#3
We went to Open House night at the preschool to hear about the programing for the year. Also, they had free ice cream and a bounce house. we are totally suckers for free ice cream.

When we arrived in the classroom, a little girl in a yellow dress popped up and squealed: Amelia!!

Amelia: (dropping my hand) Q___! (name edited for obvious reasons)

Q: Hi Amelia! Let's play! (she proceeds to grab Amelia's hand and pull her away. Amelia is beaming. Her smile is electric and it is lighting up the entire room.

Teacher: those girls are already inseparable! They play together all the time!

3rd child

They say the third child is tougher because they have to be to stand up to their oder siblings. Here is the proof folks: Gemma carries knives. Plastic knives with a serious look on her face. Look out for her at your next playdate.

Note to self

Do not buy the floor model. Ever*.

Also: shopping for a new refrigerator is our idea of a fun Friday night. Wahoo! Fun for the whole family.

* note: this behavior was not encouraged or tolerated. Except when I had to take a picture. Because inside I was cracking up at the open/shut sliding door fun that was causing my children to cackle with delight. But, on the outside I was stern and mean. You know, after I took a picture.