Emily and Jane Let it Go

Halloween happened again this year.

With both kids in school, I thought maybe I should go to Jane's class party since Emily has had one of us there for the majority of parties for the last three years. 

Chris ended up agreeing to go to Emily's party nonetheless. 

And wound up with the assignment of decorations... which he excelled at. 

From what I hear there was some pumpkin volcano action. Pretty wild party...

I attended the Kindergarten party. Anything that involves 20 - 5 year olds is bound to be wild. In the background is Grandma Mimi. She has been class grandma to one of my girls for several years now. We love her. 

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins. We had an anti-Pinterest Halloween. Jane drew on her pumpkin...

and then I cut it out. After which she cleaned off the marker for about 15 minutes straight. That pumpkin was as clean as a whistle. 

Emily carved her own pumpkin...

splendidly.

One of our neighbors told me that she loved the pumpkins because you could tell our kids had done them themselves. Lovely compliment I think. 

My favorite part of simple pumpkin carving is that it only took about half an hour, leaving us plenty of time for Charlie Brown. 

And finally came the trick or treating. Yeah, they're both Elsa. Yeah, so was half the neighborhood. I like to let my girls be whatever it is they want. Even if it is the same thing everyone else is. 

I carried Emily's jacket. She didn't put it on all night long. 2.5 hours of trick or treating in 40° weather and no jacket. That is dedication. 

I wore a coat and switched off halfway through with Chris. At which point I got to answer the door. I love trick or treating because it's the only time you see some neighbors. Unless you're super social, which I am not. This leads to some interesting situations like:

There was one guy who came to our door. He had his daughter with him. He was all of thirty, wearing a full beard and... an Elsa costume complete with long blond wig. He held out a bucket. He told me the candy was for his infant son. Riiiight.... I hope that baby enjoys that peanut butter cup (mashed up with a little banana and a squirt of breastmilk) in two months... when he's allowed solids. I gave him candy anyway.

I also got to see the kids of a gal whom I didn't immediately recognize because she unfriended me on Facebook. Not that I minded giving them candy... but their mom also sent them up the driveway with a card for the beauty products line she peddles. I have no idea what I did to offend her but apparently she's willing to talk to me if I'm putting in an order for skin cream. Welcome to classy town...

Other than that it was mainly an adorable parade of kids. We went through 420 pieces of candy. (notice I did not say "handed out" - we love to share in the delights of the season). Just before 9, as the kids started to get really big, we ran out of candy and called it a night. 

The kids had a pretty good haul. That's a lot of candy. 

As a postscript to Halloween, I decided to wash my winter coat after I was done. It hadn't been washed since last spring and it was a bit stale. So I threw it in the wash... with my phone still in the pocket. That was the day that we found out phone insurance is worthless. We also found out you can get a perfectly decent phone on Amazon for $80. My phone has been buried in rice for 2 days and is finally to the point where it will turn on. But then the screen keeps flashing off and on every 2 seconds. Lessons learned: DON'T wash your phone. DON'T pay for phone insurance. You're welcome. 

Close Encounters of an Extracurricular Kind

We're pretty well into the swing of things and things are busy, but good.

Jane started dance class this fall which means that she gets to wear a sparkly pink leotard once a week. She is loving it. Chris is, of course, looking forward to being able to attend a dance recital again after last year's hiatus due to Emily's Taekwondo phase.

Speaking of Emily, she's chosen ice skating as her extracurricular du jour. She reports that she is learning how to do a snow plow stop. Stopping is very important when it comes to ice skating. 

Both kids are enjoying school. Their teachers are fabulous and they are both very engaged in school.

After a rough first day, Jane has really blossomed at school. I have come to realize that she was so ready for school. She was ready to be challenged and ready to be engaged and ready for the structure and constant activity that comes with school and although sometimes blankie rides to school with us in the morning, he never goes in the building. She worships her teacher and gets along with her classmates. School has been great for her.

Emily has a fantastic teacher this year who is amazing with both order in the classroom and imparting a passion for learning in her students. She has a goal to read a million words this year. I hope she makes it, but if she doesn't, I hope she keeps her love for reading.

Here's hoping that the pleasant but constant hum of the school year machinery continues without too many hitches.

Aaand We're Back

Today the kids went back to the educational system. Because it's necessary that they get some book learnin' so I'm not supporting them when they're forty. 

First things first. Before Jane could start Kindergarten, she had to have a last day of preschool. We all had mixed emotions about this. On one hand, she was excited to move on. On the other hand, preschool has been so great for her. Her teachers have been fantastic and she has learned and grown so much.  

There was a bit of a gap between the end of preschool/summer camp and the beginning of school.We did our best to fill the gap.

Their days with daddy included hiking, movies and a trip to the dinosaur museum at UW.

Mommy isn't as cool. We decorated cupcakes. Yes, that is canned frosting. Why? Because it's disgusting and I didn't want to be tempted by the cupcakes. Is that reason enough?

Also, their back to school prep included haircuts. Emily requested bangs. Thanks to youtube, she now has bangs. Jane said she wanted fangs too. 

This morning, they woke up early and were ready to go. Emily to third grade and Jane to Kindergarten. Jane said she wanted Moaning Myrtle pigtails. There was some debate over whether Moaning Myrtle has curled or straight fangs. 

You be the judge.

As soon as Emily got to school, she reconnected with her friends. I love that she invited Jane to hang out with her. 

But as soon as the bell rang, things got real. It wasn't pretty. It was almost as bad as Emily's first day of Kindergarten. Almost. 

I tried to get her to smile for a picture. When that didn't work, I decided to take an authentic picture anyway. 

But by the end of the day she was happy. She was also singing a song about a gummy bear. Over. And over. And over. 

Emily had a great day of third grade. At this point for her it is business as usual. That's going to change in four years in a big way, so we will enjoy elementary school for now, trying to forget that Junior High is looming in the distance. 

I hope tomorrow will go a little better now that Jane is convinced that school is fun. 

On a personal note, I was so glad that I didn't go home to an empty house after dropping the kids off. When I went back to work it was earlier than I had wanted and I went back kicking, screaming and miserable. Now I am grateful for my job because it gives me a chance to learn and grow while my kids are learning and growing. Also because I hate crafts and cleaning house and I have no self control when it comes to baked goods. Me being at work really is best for everyone at this point. 

Happy School Year!

Miles and Milestones

Summer is very quickly drawing do a close. I'm not thrilled about it, but there's nothing I can do to stop it, so I'm trying to let her gracefully go as I enjoy her last few days.

The end of summer means school supply shopping so last week we took Jane to grab her very first school supplies. She picked out a backpack, markers, pencils and then, somewhere around the sticky notes, age related milestones collided when Jane announced, "There's something wrong with my tooth". I looked at her tooth and touched it only to find that it was excessively wiggly. I told her she had her first loose tooth and that soon it would fall out and she would get a dollar. That's when she started to cry. She told me, "I've been worried about it all day".  Our school shopping trip fell into disarray amid questions and lamentations such as:

"Will it make me bleed?"

"Will it hurt when I twist it?"

"Will it just fall out into my hand if I cup my hand under my mouth and then the blood will fall out too?"

"Will the blood get on my shirt?"

"How can I eat without my tooth?"

The other customers at Target were not impressed. Finally the shopping trip ended and we were able to remove a sobbing and terrified Jane from the store. We tried to assure her that it wouldn't hurt much and that her friends would think it was cool and that she would get her very own dollar and some candy and that she could stick her tongue through the hole. She continued to fret.

Then, a week later, she was sitting on the couch after dinner and suddenly asked, "Mom, where's my tooth?". Apparently she had been so afraid of pulling it that it just fell out during dinner and was swallowed along with her meal. 

Then began the lamentations about still being able to get a dollar since the tooth was now on its way to her colon. It turns out she still did get a dollar and her friends did think it was cool and she can stick her tongue through the gap. Oh and also, it didn't hurt. Not one bit. Now she is less anxious about the tooth's next-door-neighbor, which is wiggly as well. 

Here she is with her gap. That's not food on her nose. She crashed on the playground last week at school. 

Another end of summer ritual is running Race for the Cure. For the last seven years we have run it for Chris' mom. Before that, we just ran it because cancer is bad in general. Boo cancer.

My time was 27:54 which isn't great with respect to real athletes, but I'm not a natural runner and I worked pretty hard for it. Also it was a personal best, so I'm recording it as a win because I need to stop comparing myself to others

such as Chris who ran it in 21 minutes and change. He won't give me an exact time because he is extremely self deprecating. If I could run that fast, I would get my time tattooed on my body. And not on my back where no one would see it. I would put it on my forehead.  

My dad hung with the kids while we ran. Here he is reading to Jane and cousin Lucy. I appreciate him doing this every year. We got to run with my mom, my sister and her husband thanks to my dad's help. 

In just two short weeks, kindergarten is coming. And then I will be a mom of two gradeschoolers. That is a crazy thought. At least Jane will have a great conversation starter, comparing tooth gaps with her classmates....

Summer Short Stack

Summer is short. And that sucks. So I thought I'd document a little of what we've been up to so I can look back next February and remember that life may be worth living after all.

Summer finally got hot this past week. Everyone keeps talking about global warming, but it took until mid-July for it to get hot enough to blow up our super classy inflatable pool.

Emily has been having a fantastic time at her summer camp program. She has been going to swim lessons, the children's garden, the movies, bowling, laser tag, a bison ranch, museums, and last week they participated in plenty of Frontier Days excitement. 

This has caused a bit of friction with her sister, who is too young for summer camp and is still participating in the preschool program. While Jane has lots of fun, it's hard to compete with the constant party of Emily's program. Next year Jane will get to do all that fun stuff, but we thought we would take a bit of time for some fun local activities during frontier days.

Somehow we thought that standing in line for 45 minutes for pancakes constituted fun. We've never participated in a CFD pancake breakfast before, so we thought we'd give it a go and hopped in line. 

There were 8,000 people in front of us. That's a real number, not an exaggeration for those of you who have never seen this phenomenon before. They occasionally announce the number that have been served and shortly after we got our grub, they said eight thousand and some odd had been pancaked. (Interestingly, spell checker believes pancaked is a real word, although I believe it is defining it as "squashed flat" and not "served a flapjack")

But eventually we made it to the front of the line. The pancakes are tossed into the air where they are caught by local boy scouts and other volunteers, which explains the pancake on the roof of the chuckwagon. The scale of the breakfast is due to the fact that it is a practice for disaster preparedness. When Yellowstone blows, this town won't starve. That is, if we're not all killed in the initial explosion, which is a very real possibility. 

Eventually the girls were rewarded with pancakes. And we were rewarded with their gleeful smiles. Because Chris and I are participating in a dietbet, wherein we both gambled money we can't afford to lose on the promise that we will both shed 4% of our respective body weights. So no pancakes for us. But we feasted on community spirit and were filled to the brim. Just kidding. We were starving. Next year maybe we will go to Ihop, where you do have to pay, but you don't have to stand in line for 45 minutes. 

After that, we tried to watch the Thunderbirds from a premium spot. When they were delayed an hour, we adjourned to our neighborhood park and the kids played while we caught a bit of the show. It was nice to have them back after budget cuts caused them to be disbanded last year. 

And then, sadly, I do not have any pictures of the best part of this week. My friend, Michelle, came for a visit and I got to spend an entire glorious afternoon chatting with her in the park while our kids played. It was heaven. 

We have one month left until school starts for both kiddos and I hope it won't pass by in a blur, but I am pretty sure it will. Next weekend we are shopping for school supplies. That's when Summer begins to pale and sicken and we all know the old gal will soon be gone for good. We'll try to make the most of it while she lasts. 

Happy Birthday America!

America had a birthday last week. And we had just enough energy for a minimal effort celebration.

Every holiday requires an outfit when you're a little girl. You can't argue with this truth.

Jane's amazing tan is courtesy of Chris' Slovenian roots. Sorry, Emily. You got your mama's skin.

Chris wanted to do something cool with his 4th of July s'mores. This is an old fashioned donut, cut in half and toasted, cradling toasted marshmallows and a peanut butter cup. Chris said it was amazing. He tried a second one with a Hershey's bar and said it was even better.

Emily decided to try one too. I had a bite of hers. It was... interesting... in a greasy sort of way. 

The rest of us had more traditional s'mores, some of which ended up in our mouths, some of which ended up near our mouths. 

The girls love sparklers. A lot. They have more love for sparklers than we have patience for them running around with sparklers. 

Eventually, it was time for the city fireworks display. We brought an enormous bucket of popcorn for our family and my folks, who celebrated with us. Jane and Emily polished it off in no time. 

The next day, we went to Kaylee's baptism. Emily and Kaylee were born three weeks apart and have loved each other since birth. Last year Kaylee moved away and we were devastated. They were thrilled to see each other and picked up right where they left off. 

I think they made all sorts of plans to meet at the halfway point between our houses. I'm not exactly sure what those plans are, but I'm sure I'll find out soon.