Endings (and new beginnings)

This was a big week for our kids, who respectively finished kindergarten and second grade with flying colors. More or less.

Both kids were blessed with terrific teachers (Evelyn's teacher also happens to be my visiting teacher . . . ), and Andrew's teacher, Mrs. Haight, actually wept when she said good-bye to the kids. She put so much energy into their class over the course of the year that I'm not surprised it was hard for her to see them go. I'm going to miss her as well--she really got Andrew fired up and excited about school and he has done great things this year: he's written at least a dozen stories, read hundreds of books (and thousands of minutes), worked hard at math and even improved his penmanship (when he remembers to slow down). And of course, there was the science fair and spelling bee. She told Dan and I that this year's class was an unusual one: there were several bright kids (including Andrew) who got into a positive competition with each other, motivating all of them to try a little harder. Normally, she has a handful of kids who complete their 1000s book (writing the numbers 1-1000 by ones, fives, tens, twenty-five, and one hundred). This year, she had two poster boards full of pictures. I think Andrew was working on his ten thousands book at the end of the year (in previous years, the  most anyone has gotten to is two thousand). Andrew is definitely my child.

And Evelyn has done terrific as well. She's made lots of friends (her teacher says she's a delight to have in class), and her reading has come a long way. For a girl who used to say she hates reading, she's now reading slightly above grade level.

The kindergartners had their program the last week of school. However, because Evelyn missed last week due to our Disneyland trip, she apparently also missed a bunch of practices--and it shows. She's still cute as can be, but she clearly is a little lost in some of the songs. Like this one:

Or this one, where Evelyn preens before the camera but ignores the lyrics to the actual song.

These two were a bit better. (Bubby, the second one is for you!)

In other news for the week, Oliver has croup. Again. I thought croup was only a winter thing, but evidently not. Apparently he belongs to the lucky few who, according to my pediatric book, get croup any time they have a respiratory infection. Luckily, he started showing symptoms Thursday after his nap and I was able to get him to the doctor before closing to get the steroid treatment he needed. 
  
And in curiously apt timing (a tender mercy, I think)--a month or two ago, I asked Oliver's doctor if we could get a prescription for some medicine to have on hand when he gets croup (since it usually manifests late at night when only the ER is open, and by now we know exactly what it sounds like). She gave it to me, but when I went to fill it, I balked at the price. Dan and I finally decided that $200 for medicine was still cheaper than an ER visit if he gets bad, so I went back to pick it up on Wednesday--just the day before he started showing symptoms. And this time, the insurance had kicked in a little so it wasn't so exorbitantly expensive. 

He's doing better, as witnessed by these shots from this morning's ablutions (though he did stay home from church).

He definitely keeps things interesting around here.

Evelyn's Dance recital

This past year, Evelyn has been in a sort of musical theater dance class, where they've been learning songs and choreography in addition to the typical dance stuff. Last Saturday was their final performance, and it was so much fun to watch.

Here are a few highlights. (I should note that the pictures and videos* are all from the rehearsal rather than the show).

Surprisingly, though, E. informs me that she'd rather play soccer this fall. I say surprising only because it's obvious in the video how much she's enjoying herself.

*Apparently my videos are all too big, so I'll have to see if I can figure out how to edit them down first . . . Stay tuned.

The Happiest [Hottest] Place on Earth

Yup, we did it.

We took the kids to the happiest hottest place on earth (at least it felt like it): Disneyland. When we planned the trip several months ago, May seemed like an ideal time to go. Not too hot, not too cold, and most schools are still in session so not as crowded.

Or not. As the week grew nearer, I grew more frantic because the projected highs were for the 100s most of the days we were there. I hoped the forecast was wrong (it wasn't).

But surprisingly enough, we had fun anyway.

Mother's Day, for us, started out like this (this photo is actually from the end of our street):


Six inches of snow at 7 a.m. and a driveway full of tree trunks. Our neighbor helped Dan and I pull the branches to the street before we could even leave town.

Then we drove from six inches of snow to 80+ degrees. And got caught in traffic, so the 7 hour drive took more like 11 hours.

Well, and we stopped a lot. We had lunch at a lovely park in Vegas and let the kids run around for a while.

By the time we finally arrived, it was too late to do anything but put the kids to bed (or try to). The mini-suite we'd ordered turned out to be less than I'd expected: instead of two adjoining rooms, it was actually two queen beds with a pull-out couch, and the couch was separated from the beds by a teeny, tiny wall. (I guess that counts as a suite?) And somehow, I didn't realize until we arrived that the park didn't open until 10 a.m. When you have kids who get up at 6, this is a long time to try and keep them entertained. Between this and the room and the heat forecast I was heartsick, worrying that I'd dragged my family and my parents on an expensive family vacation that we were all going to hate.

The hardest thing about vacations (and holidays) for me is letting to of my expectations and enjoying the reality. but once I started to do that (if you know me, you know I struggle to let go completely), I started enjoying things more.

And the truth is, despite the heat and the crazy schedules, I think we did have fun. Dan was also trying to attend meetings at the International Science Fair in Los Angeles (hence why I talked my parents into coming with us), so he was only with us some of the days.

Despite the heat--and despite the crowds (I was honestly surprised how many people were there, though locals in line behind me on Wednesday said the crowds were nothing compared to peak season)--we still managed to go on a lot of rides.

 

Oliver spent a lot of time with my dad, as my dad wasn't interested in jerky rides, and Oliver wasn't tall enough for some of the rides. I think Oliver's favorite parts were the Disney Jr. performance we went to (where he saw Jake and the Neverland Pirate puppets on stage), the Jungle Cruise ride (judging by his constant "oh! ooh!" reactions to the mechanical animals), and getting out of the stroller. He spent an hour or more happily playing with a giant marble ball resting on some of water base (Dan could explain the physics of it better, I'm sure).

 

His other favorite thing was the Animation Studio--in particular, the moving lights in the foyer. Toddlers are easily pleased sometimes.

Evelyn underwent a transformation this week. A week ago Saturday, she had a big frozen party. But by Wednesday, she'd informed me that she "no longer likes princesses." (This was in reference to whether or not she wanted to wait in line to meet the princesses).

Further evidence, however, bears out her claim. For months, she's been drawing princesses, ice castles, and sparkly snowflakes. Her newest drawings look like this:

If you could tell that this is the Death Star surrounded by TIE Fighters, you'd be correct. Evelyn's newest obsession is all things Star Wars. She went on the Star Tours ride about eight times. And her very favorite thing at Disneyland was the Jedi training. Both she and Andrew wore their Jedi robes to the training and got picked to participate. (She also liked Soarin' over California, but that was a very different beast).

We've never done Jedi Training at Disneyland, but it was awesome. The trainers do a great job presenting Jedi craft, and when Darth Vader appears, it's pretty thrilling. The best part, though, was watching the kids--including one little girl who, when confronted by Lord Vader and told to "come over to the Dark side," promptly handed him her light saber . . .

First, the kids practiced their light saber skills.

Then Andrew got to face off against Darth Maul (generally, they had the bigger kids fighting him, and the smaller kids faced Vader--maybe because Darth Maul is more fearsome looking? In any case, the actors deserve serious props for fighting in those heavy costumes and with all that makeup).

And Evelyn faced Lord Vader.

After giving back her lightsaber and Jedi cloak, Evelyn walked across the courtyard toward us with her eyes closed. "I'm practicing the force," she told me. I told her next time she should do it with her eyes open.


While Andrew seemed to enjoy the Jedi training, his special love was reserved for the very fastest rides. Space Mountain was his favorite, followed by Thunder Mountain Railroad and the California Screamer. As my mom pointed out, I would not have survived Disneyland without their help--Evelyn wasn't interested in Andrew's favorite rides, and Oliver was too short to go on them. Because Dan wasn't always with us, this also meant that my mom and I rode more roller coasters than we would otherwise want to . . . I am not a fan of major drops on roller coasters, so I dreaded the big plume drop on Splash Mountain, but I went because I love my son. He loved it, I endured it (I'm pretty sure I held my breath and closed my eyes the entire drop. Yes, I'm a wimp). But I did enjoy the rest of the ride, and Thunder Mountain was fun. The California Screamer he rode only when his dad was around.

We also met a few characters, but not nearly as many as last time--probably because we didn't spend as much time in the actual park and also it was too hot to stand in line for too long (or too often).

Did I mention it was hot? Most days, we went back to our hotel after lunch. Oliver napped and the oldest two went swimming at my parents' hotel (which had a nicer pool). But I think the breaks were key to keeping our sanity intact and not wearing out the two smallest--and Grandpa.

Frozen party

Since seeing Frozen for the first time back in November/December, Evelyn's been dreaming of a Frozen party. So, of course, that's what she got.

I spent several hours working on the cake yesterday. I'm pretty pleased with it, seeing as how the decorations are all buttercream and I put the design together myself. The snowflakes are Wilton candy melts, done freehand with a frosting bag.

Evelyn had five friends come over for her party. We made and decorated crowns, colored Frozen pictures,  put the carrot nose on Olaf, painted finger nails (while watching Frozen), and played freeze dance.

Do you want to build a snowman?

The girls also built (ate?) snowmen out of various sized marshmallows, toothpicks, and edible markers. The giant campfire marshmallows were a favorite.

 And of course, the girls ate lots of snacks--though oddly the most popular thing was *not* the cake, or the fancy hand-dipped pretzels, but the Doritos . . .

Last were the presents.

 

 One of the girls' father runs a small home business making balloon animals, so she brought Evelyn a balloon wolf.

All in all, she was a very happy little girl.

Second Grade Music Program

It's that time of year again . . . when the gradeschool kids demonstrate their know-how (or something like that). Dan was actually able to go to Andrew's program this time, which was nice, as it meant that at least one of us got to sit and listen to the program. I listened to the program, mostly while chasing Oliver around the back of the room and in the hallway.

I mean, just look at this face. He's trouble, right?

May the Fourth

Last week was pretty much a blur--probably because Dan and I were both bogged down in end-of-semester grading and other deadlines. But I'm happy to announce that our grades are all in, which means that we are free! (Well, at least temporarily). My big plans for the summer? To write in my evening down time. (When I told this to my class at their final exam they all looked at me weird. I must hang around with too many writers because this seemed like a perfectly normal thing to get excited about). Dan's big plans? Also to write, but his writing will probably be much less fun than mine. Also, he has to teach a class. But before you feel too sorry for him, he also gets to go to conferences in cool places like Chicago.



The kids are still in school for another few weeks, which means we've entered into the disjointed part of the year where our semester is done but theirs isn't--which might explain why I nearly forgot to drop Evelyn off on Wednesday for early day.

This is  Oliver's new trick. Evelyn has trained him to respond to the prompt, "do a squinty face!" Ergo, squinty face. Good thing he's cute no matter what he does. He's started saying, "peas, peas" whenever he wants something which is so dang cute he ends up getting most things (within reason). And then he says, "tanks," in this  high little voice that just about sends you into cuteness shock.

Thursday we had back-to-back soccer games for the kids, which is always tricky. Oliver doesn't ever want to stay put for that long, and the field where they hold the games must be the windiest place in town. It's funny to me to contrast my children's playing styles.

A typical game for Evelyn looks something like this: the other team has the ball, a few of Evelyn's teammates go streaking after the ball, Evelyn rather leisurely lopes after them. She's also been known to skip toward the ball, which--if you were wondering--is not nearly as effective or fast as running. I think she's much more into the social aspect of the game than the game itself.

And then there's Andrew, who's always at the forefront of his team's offense (unless he's assigned defense, in which case he spends the whole time taut and alert, waiting for the ball to come his way). He cares desperately about the game, though he's also come a long way since his first year playing. He no longer cries every time his team loses--or every time the other team scores a goal (yes, there was a time when these were both regular occurrences).

Evelyn is currently counting down the days until her birthday (six, for the curious). This picture is from her much-dreaded dance photos last week. And yes, the dress really is that bright.

Today we've pretty much let our geek flag fly. Most of you know that today is also Star Wars day ("may the fourth be with you . . . " get it?) I know, the pun is obnoxious, but it was a fun excuse to pull out our Star Wars cookie cutters and take some cookies to the neighbors. Dan watched part of episode IV with the kids, they arranged their own Jedi training, and then I took the kids around the neighborhood while Dan worked on dinner (meatloaf, at Evelyn's request, since Bubby and Poppy won't be around to celebrate on her actual birthday.)