Here's the thing about my pictures lately. I don't edit (usually) and I use my iphone (usually) and so these pictures aren't the greatest...but that's okay.
This moment. I don't even remember it, but how can I not want to preserve the moment when my eight year old son brushes my three year old's hair and that six year old cuteness in the silky owl pajamas supervises. I just can't forget this.
I don't know how it is in your local second grade, but at Grovecrest, you don't even wear a stinkin' coat. Don't even need it...not when you've got a hoodie and gloves. That those boys are wearing these days, especially if they play soccer at recess. We are so in on the coolness.
We zipped home from California (got up at four a.m.!) so we could make it to Ellery's gymnastics recital. The performance had a Wizard of Oz theme and Ellery was one of the Lullaby Leaves, not to be confused with the Lullaby League. We were assured many times there is no such league. She did great and was so excited about the performance.
Okay, now this moment. This is just the best. Ellery and her friend Maddie were dancing to Frozen music, of course, and Ellery was directing the choreography. She kept saying, "Maddie, sashay around me," and Maddie shashayed around and around and around her. I love this Frozen mania.
You know, now that I am describing all of these poor-quality photos, I am just feeling grateful that I have them. I am so grateful that I have a camera in my pocket nearly all of the time so that I can take a late-night picture of my son trying so hard to rollerblade. This craze- this rollerblading obsession- came on strong and fast. Eto "showed" him how to do it, and then once we came home from the Allred's, the blades came back on and he practiced until I made him come in. Then in the morning Brian and I realized that the blades were very poor and not working properly. This is when the negotiations and then begging for a trip to the store to buy rollerblades started. It was his favorite sport! He was SOOOO into it. He just had to have his own blades that worked. Luckily, Grandma had a pair of purple blades that were only a few sizes too big that he could borrow. He practiced for hours and all was right in the world for awhile.
The blades were put on a few times at home and he even tried to get some friends to join in.
Then just this week, after over a week with not a word about rollerblading, he told me it was over. The end of rollerblading came hard and fast. And now I have a fantastic real-life lesson about not rushing out and spending money on a whim- like he was begging and begging to do, promising it wasn't a phase and that it was truly his new passion in life- but to save your "fun" money for something you really want and know you will use. He's had his eye on a florescent pink soccer ball for about six months now and that I can support. Six months is a long time for a kid to hold on to a "I just gotta have that" thing.
We enjoyed the Olympics- especially Brian, of course. McKay would beg every night to stay up and watch with Brian. Sometimes we would let him. It was kind of a bummer that they started at seven- the girls are usually (hopefully) getting in to be at that time. They must have seen enough though, because they were inspired to create an ice skating rink for Elsa.
Its been many, many weeks of waiting for this child to be picked as Student of the Week. It finally came and she was so thrilled! She thoughtfully picked a share item to bring for each day of the week to show her class, and had to make a poster all about her. That poster. That poster, that poster, that poster. We had gone to the cabin over the weekend, which left little preparation for the big Ellery poster. I at least had pictures printed, washi tape to decorate and cut her name out in cute paper. We got to work on it on Sunday afternoon- it was due on Monday.
She picked all the pictures, told me where they should go and I glued them onto the poster. We both placed tape around the photos, and it looked cute. She was super excited to "decorate" it with markers, and since I had done most of the glueing and taping, I was super supportive of her adding her own flare to the poster. Her poster.
When she grabbed, without thought, a red and a blue marker, I didn't say anything. (You see, those were not the colors we had gone with). I didn't say anything when she started doing...um...swirly lines in all of the blank spaces. I didn't even say anything when the swirly lines looked like what can only be described (even by the artist herself) as scribbles. If she was happy with the scribbles, so would I be.
Well, after she had put the lid back on that blue marker, she looked down at the poster and frowned. "It doesn't look good," she said. "It looks like I scribbled all over it." She had a point.
This is when I got a bit...frustrated. Okay, maybe a lot. Why hadn't I said something? Why did I just let her go with absolutely zero direction? Why did she chose blue and red and swirly lines?! I was fine if she was fine- but she wasn't. She was embarrassed of the poster we had just spent nearly an hour working on. "What if Mrs. McAllister says, 'Ellery, why did you scribble all over your poster?!" This was her concern.
I had to go outside to get away from it for a minute, and told Brian what had happened. He and Mack were outside playing catch. He came back inside, looked at the poster and at Ellery and decided we could use the back. I'm glad he was patient with her and willing to help a super annoyed mom make the situation better.
We spent another 15 minutes ripping off all the pictures and doing it all over again on the other side. The next morning, I asked her if she wanted to do some stars on her poster- I know she can do some great stars! We picked markers together, and she thoughtfully put starts in certain places on her poster.
It turned out just right. It's hard- I wanted her to be proud of it. I didn't want to do the whole thing myself, but letting her do it on her own wouldn't have worked either. I learned that maybe guided creative license is the way to go in some cases- like this one. Is that even a thing? I don't know, but it was a learning experience for us both, I think.
Here's my poster. Hehe. That same week was teacher appreciation week and I was in charge of decorating Mrs. Herman's door. I was proud of this door and spent way too many hours putting it together. The great thing is that it gave me a reason to use my new paper cutting machine and I learned a lot about that. It did, however, take way more of my time than it should have.
The reason I am so proud of this door is not because I think it's super great, but because it was 100% my own idea. I didn't use pinterest, which I would usually in a case like this. The kids in McKay's class loved it and were so excited to see Olaf.
Did I mention Frozen mania? Yeah.
I was also in charge of having Mack's class write thank you notes to their teacher and stay in the class while she went to breakfast. I used my machine again, and had the kids put together little cupcake die-cuts and glue them on a card for her. They also wrote their names on the shells of the door poster. Layla had to come with (not ideal) and she was pretty good. McKay had to step in and help me with her for a few minutes. After we were done with the cards, we played Heads Up Seven Up and they all seemed to love that.
I like spending time in the classroom. It's a great way to just step into the world that they are in for so many hours of their day. I like getting to know the kids and getting a feel for the dynamic of the classroom. I teach a craft to McKay's class about every month, so I know his class pretty well. But I have only gone into Ellery's class once for her Valentine's party. Hopefully next year I can do more in her class.
Elle is doing great in kindergarten. Her reading is really taking off and she's doing awesome. This is a story she wrote in school. I was sad I couldn't give her a hot dog for lunch, like she had hoped. She's such a good girl.
Layla and I were outside playing one morning. She was showing me how she rides her bike so I popped open the back of the car to sit and watch. Well, that is much more exciting than riding a bike, so of course she hopped in the back with me. Zeek was across the street looking over at us, so we decided to invite him to join us. It turns out that sitting in the back of the car is pretty exciting for dogs too, because he was eager to jump (and it took him some effort) in with us. We sat there for awhile and Layla rubbed Zeek all over with a tissue- you know, cleaning him. Not a bad way to spend the morning. We like our neighborhood buddy- such a sweet dog.
I think that this girl looks really cute in her BYU shirt. That's all. Oh, and the morning this picture was taken, she screamed at me while I was curling her hair. She hated curling her hair and I was a terribly mean mother for making her do so. Then Brian, that smart man, complimented her when he got home from work. He said, "Oh Ellery, I love your hair today. That is my favorite way that you do your hair- it looks so beautiful like that."
The next morning, when it was time to do her hair, guess what she requested? You know she wanted those curls again! Nicely played dad. Nicely played.
Our friends the Smiths (Ian, Buffy, Riley, Peyton) came up to visit from Texas. These girls have the cutest little Texan accents. Our kids were friends when Riley and Mack were just two and the girls were newborns. Now, six year later, they had a two-day play date and it was so fun.
We went to breakfast at Kneaders (as much as I love that place, I had never had their french toast until this day! Mmmmm.) We played at our house for awhile, then went to BYU to outfit the Smith in some BYU apparel.
After that we went ice skating. My kids were a little nervous to do something new with new people, but they ended up having a lot of fun. Well, all except for Layla. She kind of had fun and kind of was over it at the same time.
It had been about ten or twelve years since I had been skating and I re-learned that it is not my favorite thing to do. It's especially hard when you need to help and three or six year old skate- so, so exhausting! McKay was awesome though- reminiscent of his rollerblading days, he had a similar form- a stick-man on blades. He worked really hard and I loved hearing him say after we'd been there for about half an hour, "I made it around once without falling!" Super proud of himself for that. And he just kept skating- wouldn't use the blue walker, wouldn't' hold hands. By the time we left he was doing jumps- half of the time landing them even! It was cute, he and Riley skated together quite a bit.
Elle mostly had help by either the walker or me or Brian. She did awesome too, and we all were even more impressed with those Olympic ice skaters.
We had the Smiths over for Sunday dinner the next day and after while of not really knowing how to play together, they bonded over a game of steal the flag (who knows how that really went down) and the grown ups got to talk and laugh and it's like we hadn't even spent six years apart. I love friends like that.
1 comments:
Thanks for sharing. I loved it all!
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