School Started! Yippeeee!

I am one happy mama!  Why do they let school out for the summer anyway? Kids should be in school year round, maybe just swap out the teachers on a seasonal basis. My poor kids were bored all summer and they had to do horrible things: Chores.

Mostly Gracie did chores, Libby played with Charlie and kept them occupied and out of the way. That was a huge help! Gracie did dishes, laundry, vacuuming, taking out the trash, etc. She grew up a lot this summer.

Gracie started second grade. I remember when I was in second grade. Her school is very different from mine, but I'm sure she will have a good year. She's already off to a bad start with her attitude. She doesn't want to do any homework! This makes the homeschool portion of school more challenging. Sigh. I don't even want to think about what the future holds for this kid when she hits middle and high school and really has homework!

Because she's in Montessori school, she has the same teacher and is in the same classroom as last year. There isn't much of a change for her. I am happy about that, I remember and my friends are all talking too, of the anxiety of worrying about what teacher you would get for the next year and all of the unknowns. None of that for Gracie!  Well, some. More than half of her class was replaced by incoming students. The half that disappeared either moved or were in 3rd grade and they advanced to the upper elementary. I hope she makes some new friends, she loves having lots and lots of friends.

Libby is loving Kindergarten! Her class is full! There are 32 little students. I'm really not a fan of overcrowded classrooms. I sure hope it shrinks a bit more and I hope Libby doesn't get lost in the shuffle. The class had 41 students but they moved some of the siblings up to lower elementary to join the first grade in lower elementary. Libby is a sibling but didn't move up because she is still only 4 years old and has never had any preschool or daycare. The kids they moved up were either 6 or close to it and had preschool experience. I'm glad they left her in Kindy and I'm glad they made the decision and I didn't have to ponder what would be the best fit for her. Although, it would have been pretty cool to have both girls in the same class!

Kindergarten is off to a great start. Libby is in class with one of her little friends so she has a familiar little girl to hang with and isn't lost in a sea of strange little kids. I'm sure she would make fast friends, but it is comforting to know that she already has a little friend to start things off right. The class has already had a dentist come in and speak and they cooked a healthy snack in class on another day. Special guests and cooking in class in the first week - awesome!

The first day, I walked both girls to their classrooms and took a first day photo. The kindy class was so full of parents it was hard to squeeze into the room. But we made it in and found a little chair for Libby.  The second day, I only walked Libby to her class and helped her find her little friend. The third day, I drove through the car line and dropped them both off at the front gate. I didn't even get out! Gracie walked Libby to her class and helped her get settled in. I'm so proud of myself for sending my baby off to Kindergarten without shedding a tear or hovering too much. Yay, I'm growing up! 

So happy to have both girls in school! Poor Charlie spent a few lonely days waiting for 3:00 to go pick them up again. We'll have to find something fun to keep him busy while he has his alone time. He's not too excited about being left behind.

It's Mid-June? How did that happen?

Slow down, Calendar! Where are you going so fast?  June 15th already, sheesh.  Well, must be time for a mish-mash blog post about little things just to catch up. Every paragraph is totally unrelated to any of the others, thus making this a multi-post blog post! I'm catching up!  You'd better sit down for this one with a full cup of coffee, you're going to be here a while.

School is over for the year. Keith finished his middle-school year at the end of May and I was completely caught off-guard. I thought it was over at the end of June. I forgot that they adjusted the school calendar. So nice to have him home! I love it! I'm pretty sure he does too.  He's still teaching evening classes at APU. Fenna was done on June 1st. Her last week of school was kind of strange; it was all half-days and she didn't have to go for every class so some days she only had one hour or nothing at all. But, her high school exchange year came to an end albeit a fizzled out finish. I think she had a good year and I'm proud of her for all of the hurdles she encountered and all of the good things she squeezed into her one school year. I think she enjoyed it and learned more than she thinks; the classes were fairly typical American and the school structure was very typical. She had a lot of friends in school and I'm sure she will miss them all very much. Gracie's school ended June 7th. On the 6th she got to have lunch with her future 1st grade teacher and some of the kids from that class. She's excited and she already made a new friend who has the same birthday. Her teacher is tall and as Gracie said, "She looks like she is 23 years old."  Hmm, well, I have no idea actually. Age is so important when you are six. On the 7th, the kindergarten class had a picnic at the park. The kids all played together for 3 hours! They had a blast! It was nice too. So, that's it, no more school.

Libby is reading. School is out and she decided to have a burst of brain growth. She can read small words and we practice the same ones over and over so that she'll have them memorized with ease. I'm going to go ahead and keep working with her on reading small words since she seems to love it so much.

Both girls have a reading poster in their rooms now. It is just a sheet of poster board and we are putting nametag stickers on the poster for each book they read. Gracie has to read a book and Libby has to listen to one. When they get a million stickers (this rule will likely change as we approach vacation time and they need a new toy for the roadtrip), they will each get a Merida doll. It's a very good incentive!  Right now, I'm telling them 50 stickers, which is doable in 10 weeks of summer. Plus, they want those dolls!

We went camping. It was awful but we made the best of it. We planned a two night tent camping adventure and it deserves it's own blog post. You can read all about our interesting camping adventure HERE.

Fenna is packing. Ugh. I don't like the idea of letting her go.  She's having a hard time trying to squeeze it all back into one suitcase and one carry-on. I told her to take another suitcase home or ship some boxes, but she wants to minimize how much stuff she takes home and not have the added expense of extra things. She said she'll get rid of some of her clothes and things and I asked her if she would like to donate some of it. Also, if she has some clothes that she will be saying goodbye to, I'd like to make dresses out of them for Gracie and Libby so that they'll have their own "Fenna Dresses" and they can get Fenna hugs when they feel sad for her. She loved that idea. We've been running errands and trying to tie up loose ends. We went to La Jolla for her final doctor appointment. Got her gym membership cancelled. We have to send in for reimbursement from her insurance company for the meds we paid for, and we have to settle up her Fed-Ex bills for the tariffs on the boxes she received, just business. We have a little list of places to go, favorite foods to eat and things to shop for. And we have a lot of things done that needed to be done. She took her piggy bank to the bank and cashed in her coins. She didn't think she had much, but it counted out to over $37. Pretty good! I'm glad YFU let her know when she leaves and got her e-ticket to her in a timely manner. When she arrived, they gave us barely any notice of her arrival date and time (luckily, we talked to Fenna and didn't wait for YFU to notify us!). We'll get things done soon and next thing you know it will be time to decide what to do with her empty bedroom. Ho hum.

My camera has dust or sand in it again. I want to throw it in the ocean, or run over it with the van.  That wouldn't get me anywhere would it? Sigh. It just isn't as nice as the Canon powershot cameras that I had, the  pictures are not as clean and clear and it has trouble focusing. Plus, it gets crap inside the lens all too often.  I'm noticing people aren't using cameras anymore unless they are using a big elephant professional camera. People are using smart phones as cameras now. I'm not going to get a smart phone, they are just too expensive for what I would use it for. But, I would love to get back to using a Canon Powershot.

Charlie has a new game. He loves to take his diaper off and run around half naked. He can shed his jeans and diaper before you can blink. Streaking in the back yard is his favorite.

Speaking of the back yard, the neighbors just spread fertilizer and now we can't open our windows. The kids can't play outside and we have to hold our breath between the van and the door to the house. Isn't there a law against stinking up the whole neighborhood? Why don't Californians put straw down over the manure? Ugh. It just stinks!

Another back yard item to note: Keith cut down another tree. It was huge. Luckily, he got it down before the neighborhood started to smell like crap. This tree was ripping up the fenceline and the neighbors were more than happy to see it come down. He's taken 11 trees out of our yard since we moved in.  We still have plenty left too. Who planted that many trees anyway? Wow.

We went to Scout's graduation party. I'm probably not supposed to mention this online, because the invite list was secret but now you know. Don't tell anyone. Her parents are both teachers at the same school where my husband works, and there is so much drama among the teachers and staff there so the invite list was to remain hushed to avoid hurt feelings. I'm glad they invited us, the family is such a wonderful family I can't get over it. Amazing teachers who have amazing kids! They are sending Scout to college in Switzerland. I googled the college; it looks amazing! Of course. It's an accredited American college in the middle of Europe. Perfect! I wish I would have had clear cut goals and objectives when I graduated from high school. Of course, my life would have been completely different and I probably would have skipped that whole living-in-a-trailer-house-while-collecting-food-stamps stage, so it's probably best that my life went the way it did. I am blessed and I'm happy for Scout and her family for her opportunity to start her adult life with this great adventure.

We took Henry to the graduation party. He loved it and made a new friend. George was especially happy to see Henry since he married Henry's parents. Hard to believe it has been three years ago that Katie and Andrew were married.

Lexie quit her job at Shakey's. Yes, again. But this time I think she's really done and never going back. She was so stressed out this last month and her schedule was crazy. I was on her case too, mostly because Charlie was spending the night too often and when he spends the night, she goes home and sleeps in while I have early morning babysitting duty. So, I told her that if he spends the night she has to spend the night too. Between that and the stress of the craziness at work, she decided to just leave Shakey's. She'd been through enough. She seems happier now and she's enjoying her time with Charlie. She's going to run out of money though.  But, she is launching a new photography business and I know she will do well! Starting a profitable business is always a slow process, but she is off to a great start already! And she has a natural talent for the art of photography.

The other day we had spaghetti for dinner and we all ate too much. So, we went for a short walk. Keith, Fenna and I took Libby and the dog.  Libby rode her big wheel. It was so nice, we walked an extra block or two and then decided to take a hilly walking trail behind the elementary school. I've never taken it before since I am usually pushing a stroller, so we went exploring. Up on top of the hill was a big rock that stood alone. Keith told Fenna to climb up on top and she wasn't sure she could climb it. I thought I could do it, so I kicked off my flip flops and climbed up.  I'm like a squirrel! Getting down was another problem. We made it though. It was hilarious! Keith took some pictures which turned out to look a bit deceiving. It's hard to tell that the rock was hard to scale. A walk around the block turned into a fun little adventure.

A friend of mine is pregnant with twins. I am sewing receiving blankets for her and she asked me for burp cloths.  I made 20 burp cloths out of plain white handtowels. I bought a package of 12 white bar towels at Sams Club years ago thinking they would make great bibs, but I never did use them. So, I cut a few of them into fours and serged up the cut edges. They look like washcloths now, but they'll be really handy I'm sure. I have time to put some cute appliques or trim on them. I want to sew princess dresses and kick off a little boutique, but it isn't happening with all the other sewing I seem to have. I'm storing up a lot of ideas though!

Father's Day is coming up soon. The girls and I picked out a gift for Keith and it's been hiding in the van for a while now. Libby picked out a card a couple of weeks ago to mail to her new Grandpa and it's still just sitting here. Now it will be late. Darn. The Mother's Day cards are still sitting here too. I won't be winning any awards for being a good post-office patron, but the sentiment is there. The cards are here. Maybe I'll make it my New Year's Resolution to be better about honoring Mother's and Father's Days next year. Yeah... next year.  :)

I don't know why June feels like it went so fast already. Probably because it did. I just don't think we did much though. The days have just been going along rather quickly without any outings to speak of (except for the doctor appointment and the camping trip).

Your cup of coffee should be gone by now, this was a long catch-up blog post!

Kindergarten, Take 3

Yup, another kindergarten for Gracie. 

 Sorta. 

There was a sudden change at her charter school and two teachers were cut from the budget. Gracie's teacher moved to a different class and the two kindergarten classes were merged together with the other teacher. So, Gracie is now with a new teacher in a new room, but same school and same kids. It sucks because now there are 29 kids in the class! 

I'm sad because I really loved her teacher and she was a great fit for Gracie's personality. She moved up to 1st grade, so I'll be requesting her next year!

The good part of these changes is that the two Kindergarten teachers worked closely together and used the same curriculum. Plus, she's had her half of the class for months and knows them well; she really only needs to get to know the new half. I'm sure she has seen them here and there and isn't completely unfamiliar with the students. Of course, the students all know each other as well.  This takes a lot of the "new" out of this new setup. 

Amazing as it sounds, the teacher's aid was able to keep her job! Usually, these people are the first to be cut out of a school budget. She's an important person though. This makes two adults in the room with 29 five-year-olds. I don't even want to think about what it would be like without the assistant!

Honestly, I don't think my outgoing loud kid will have trouble adjusting socially or emotionally. A bigger crowd just means she will be louder and more demanding, but she will get attention if she wants it. I do worry about academics though. She thrives on individual attention, lacks focus and needs a teacher to guide her and keep her on task. Left to her own devices, I'm afraid she won't get much done. She's five. 

I loved that her Montessori class had 18 students as opposed to the 25 that were in her class at Tovoshal. Well, now that bubble has burst! 

She had her first day in her new class today, also the first day back after the winter break. She was so excited to go back to school! I explained the changes to her and she seemed to understand. After school I picked her up and asked her all about her day.

It was crowded and there were too many kids, but it was fun.  Miss Tiffany was happy almost all day long (the assistant). Timothy brought a piece of candy in his lunch box and he wasn't allowed to eat it because it is a no-sugar school, the teacher reminded all of the kids not to bring candy.  Sarah was grabbing Gracie's dress and pulling it up so she could see Gracie's underwear. Gracie told her no ten thousand times and she wouldn't stop and the teachers didn't notice.  Everyone can tie their shoes now except Gracie and Elsa, but Elsa wears shoes with velcro. Velcro is really cool. They didn't have art, just markers.  It was so super awesome - they got to have recess three times instead of two! When is my real teacher coming back?

My goodness, the overcrowding problems sure didn't take long to surface! Some kid yanking my kid's dress up to look at her  undies? No bueno! I know they can't see it all with that many kids. I bet the kid with the candy ate it anyway, who would ever know?  

I talked to the teacher this morning about the underwear incident and pointed out the lack of attention to it. My kid is wearing pants today and will be wearing booty shorts or something under her dresses from now on. She wears dresses, that's who she is. I understand the kids are five, the other one probably just wanted to see. Panties are adorable these days with all the colors, stripes, polka dots, princesses and stuff all over them. I'm giving the kid the benefit of the doubt and assuming there wasn't any weird reason for wanting to see, just being a little kid who doesn't understand the rules of our social culture. I just hope she knows which kid is mine and which one is the pantie peeker. 

With any luck at all, my kindergarten kid will end the year smarter and still happy as can be. Three kindergartens isn't her fault, but she's the one who has to deal with it and adjust to the changes. Maybe this will be good for her! You never know which childhood experiences will be the greatest influences on your child's adult life. I'm hoping this will be inspirational and not something that sends her to therapy. Keep your fingers crossed!

All-encompassing October post

Let's pretend I keep up with my blog and don't let 20 days slide by between posts!

We've been busy and having fun. The kids were all sick one week, and that was a trying time for all with fevers and all that goes with it, but we made it through.

There have been three outings this month so far: Pumpkin Patch, Disneyland and Safari Park (Zoo). I have my pictures up on Picasa, but I don't have the posts done on my outing blog. I'll catch up someday and backdate the posts so that it looks like I'm on the ball.

Fenna has been busy with high school. She had a colorguard/marching band competition where they won first place in three catagories! Awesome! There are performances or competitions every weekend for a while; the next one is at her school so we will all be there with cameras charged up and ready to go!  She is looking forward to a fun night at Knott's Scary Farm with her friends soon and she has a birthday coming up! Lexie put bright blond hair extentions in her hair and now she looks like a California teen. It is fun having a teenager in the house.

The little kids are gearing up for Halloween. We are busy preparing costumes and shopping in the Halloween decorated aisles in the stores. Very fun to see them having some Halloween fun. We've already eaten all of our Halloween candy, and by "we" I mostly mean me. Gracie gets to dress up like an animal for school, she picked dolphin. She decided I could sew a dolphin costume for her and she gave me specific instructions for the shape of the nose and fin and all, plus told me what kind of fabric to buy. She wants to be the Little Mermaid for trick-or-treating though. Libby wants to be Minnie Mouse and a pink princess. Charlie has a Mickey Mouse costume and a monkey costume. Fenna is the only normal kid around here, she will only have one costume! She's going to make it herself too: a woodland fairy. The girls think she will look like Tinkerbell, but she wants to be more earthy and less Disney. I think it'll turn out great!  We're sure to have the cutest Halloween ever!

Gracie switched schools. She was doing just fine at the school where she was, but it was overcrowded which causes problems that I was uncomfortable with.  So I looked into a charter school and decided to move her over. She is now at a Montessori/Homeschool hybrid school where she goes three days a week to Montessori Kindergarten and has two days a week of homeschool. So far, she is really enjoying it but she misses her little friend with the pretty hair at her other school. We'll have to arrange some playdates.  On her first day of Homeschool, the school had a field trip to the Safari Park (zoo), so we went. Since it was her first day, we didn't know who was with the school and who wasn't, but the homeschool families were all on their own anyway. We had fun and she could talk about it at school with her class too. Off to a good start!

Gracie's word of the month has been "Awkward". She says it 20 times a day at least. It's getting old fast!  Awkward!

I'm getting excited for my friend's baby's first birthday party this weekend. I'm only excited because my friend also has a little boy and he is a devoted Cars fan, just like Gracie and Libby. Lightning McQueen is like a Disney God to these kids! I figure his one year old little sis is also an avid fan since she was immersed in her brother's Cars world since birth. I picked up the same Cars fabric that I made my girls' Cars dresses with and I am making a Cars dress for the birthday girl!  It is impossible to find girl things that have Lightning McQueen on them, so I know her mama will be pretty excited to have a dress for her little girl. I might even ruffle some Lightning McQueen socks if I can find some red ribbon that will work well. I have a few pair of new Cars socks that I haven't given the girls yet. I can't wait to see Lisa's face when she sees the Cars dress for her little girl!

I should get back to sewing. My serger is difficult to thread, but I have it running with red thread in it right now so I can make the Lightning McQueen dress and the Minnie Mouse costume. Not sure if I can rethread it for the dolphin costume, and then I need to get busy on some baby blankets for a friend who is having a baby shower the first weekend of November. Good thing my trusty sewing machine never lets me down.

With all this sewing to do, I'm not reading much. I read almost half of the Grapes of Wrath. I fall asleep every time I pick it up. I do enjoy the book, but it's never ending when I fall asleep after every page.  I might have to switch to something with more action than dust blowing.

I'll leave you with a quote from my husband's facebook page. A former student (aprox 10 yrs ago) wrote to him with a very nice comment.  It was great timing too, because my poor overworked husband was all kinds of crabby after working two jobs and ending his long hard day with a two hour traffic-hell commute home. He was not a happy camper! And then he read this which melted his heart and made all the stress of the entire day worth it:

"Do u remember u and jo esther gave me a ride home after i was expelled? u gave me some good advice thank you sincerely.  Well u said that my todays create my tomorrows no matter how small a decision is... And Jo Esther didnt have to say anything!!! She juss had to look at me and that was enuff... U brought out the smile in me i fought so hard to conceal u saw the diamond way inside of me and i thank you Mr.Schumacher."

The Kindergarten Registration That Didn't Happen

Gracie is supposed to start kindergarten this year. Let's hope that happens!

I have been to the school twice to register her. Both times I was turned away.

Before I went, I checked the school web site and printed out the registration forms. I think I have it all. Maybe. 

The first time I attempted to register the kid, I went to the school and found the office. We went in and there was another family in there and a very flustered secretary trying to help them. She told me it would be a long wait because she is the substitute secretary and she was trying to register a family from out of the country. I asked if I could just give her Gracie's name for the kindergarten list and she rolled her eyes at me in this "if it were only that easy" sort of way. Ok, fine, we'll come back another day.

Attempt number two:  I went back to the school a few days later.  The substitute secretary was still there. She rifled through my folder of papers and informed me that I didn't have everything I need. And, I had papers I didn't need. She wouldn't accept those because they they would be handed out to the students at school and then you fill them out and send them back.  It's the same form and I already filled it out. Doesn't matter, they want it sent home and returned to the teacher. Can't you just stick it in her file and then it's done? No. Well... Ok. I didn't have enough proof that we live here. I needed one more utility bill, my drivers license wouldn't work as ID. Hmm, well, Ok. 

And then she looked at Gracie's immunization card and said, oh no. We can't register her at all. You can take all of your papers and go. What?  Yes, the substitute secretary told me no way for registering. So I asked to talk to someone else, maybe someone who isn't a substitute.  She called over a couple of other ladies and they all agreed that Gracie was missing six shots and if she's just missing one, she cannot enroll in school. They can't even take her name down as a student who will be coming in the fall. I told them I'll sign a vaccine waiver so we can at least get her registered and I'll get her shots over the summer before school starts. Nope. No waiver. Since I showed them her immunization card, it is obvious that my religion does not prohibit shots. I was given the "don't waste our time" look in triplicate, so I left.  Again, not registered for kindergarten.

That was all last April, or maybe it was May. 

Now it is the end of July. I think I have enough paperwork for them, lets hope so anyway.  I have a folder full of stuff to take them, and they can take whatever fits in their file.

I took Gracie to get her shots too. She's all caught up! I checked on the California Dept of Education website to see what shots are required for kindergarten entry, and sure enough, she doesn't need six stinking shots! She only needed three and three is all she got. I printed that page and put it in her kindergarten paperwork packet just in case the school does not agree. I also found out that I can sign a "Personal Choice" waiver instead of a "Religious Beliefs" waiver for the shots if they want her to have more shots than required. Cool. I am all for getting the shots, but not all at once!

Kindergarten starts August 11th. I'm hoping to get her registered before then, but we'll see. The office might be closed until closer to the start date, but I will swing by the school and check next week. I am really hoping to get her in our neighborhood school before it fills up and they start turning students away. Private kindergarten costs over five grand! I'm not so sure I'm up for home schooling. Overcrowded public school sounds so much better! And I'm shooting for the afternoon class. What are the odds that I can last-minute register my daughter and get my first pick time slot?