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.

Magic: The Gathering in Disneyland... of our Family... Together

Every year we take a summer vacation. On odd years, Chris and I go alone and my parents, the saints that they are, take on the kids. 2014 is not an odd year, so that means the kids got to choose where we went. That means Disneyland. We are not one of those families who try to take our kids on educational trips. The vacation fund is limited and childhood is short.

Here are some of our favorite magical memories from this vacation:

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn "across the street" from Disneyland the first night in order to go a little easier on the ol' vacation fund. It turns out that "across the street" actually means that it was about 3/4 of a mile from our "real" hotel. The magical part is that our kids hauled (for the most part) their own luggage during this great migration. Jane made it a good quarter mile with her bag.

Note the stroller Chris is hauling? Although we haven't used it for years, we brought it along in anticipation of Jane's short little legs getting tired on our trip. We didn't want a perfectly good trip to be ruined by whining. We hauled that stroller through two airports and three hotel rooms and back through two airports. We never even unlatched it. Jane walked an average of 8 miles a day. That is magical in my book. 

Here we are, just completing our long journey to the Grand Californian. 

Right after we entered Disneyland, a custodian walked up to us and asked us if we liked Peter Pan. Of course we do but the dumb line is half an hour long. Totally inappropriate for a first ride. He told us he wanted to give us a magical moment and let us on Peter Pan without having to go through the line. That was pretty awesome. He wasn't to know that Jane had forfeited her right to ride Peter Pan two years ago after she peed on Chris while in line. So Jane finally got to ride Peter Pan. In so doing she discovered that Peter Pan is the kind of ride worth holding your bladder for. 

She also had the patience to stand in line for Dumbo. She talked about that 2 minute ride for the rest of the trip. We are in the pink elephant. It's hard to get a good photo on Dumbo. 

As usual, we had some good old BBQ at Big Thunder Ranch. Emily and I have a tradition that started 4 years ago at the Big Thunder Ranch. Emily noticed a certain peaceful culture wishing peace in all their pictures. She too wanted a peaceful picture. And it became a tradition. 

Emily at 4:

Emily at 6:

Emily at 8:

Peace.

Emily chose Elsa at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I wanted her to be unique instead of one of the ten thousand Elsas in the park. But I also let her make her own choices, as evidenced by this interesting hair do. She redeemed herself by accessorizing the Elsa dress with a Merida bow and arrow. 

Jane lost her BBB privilege, and cancelling her appointment was so hard on me that I actually made Chris do it. It broke my heart. But I would like to say to future Jane: You lost it fair and square despite more second chances than I can count on one hand. And if you ever again doubt that we mean business, please note the lonely Elsa in this photo. 

But we did purchase the Elsa dress of Jane's dreams and are giving her a chance to earn the dress with good behavior. If she fails to earn it, the dress is actually worth double what we paid for it on the Frozen black market, which is substantial. Either way, we win. 

Jane was really looking forward to driving her own Autopia car this time. She is a terrible driver but she looks adorable when she is concentrating. 

Real magic comes in the form of Dole Whips in the Tiki Room. If you doubt me, you've never experienced this wonder. 

In a similar vein, there is a Ghiradelli shop in California Adventures. We visited no fewer than 4 times and I ate no fewer than 3 ice cream creations from this shop. It is heaven in a box.     

Observe the wonder. 

Of all the amazing things we did on our vacation none was more so than Chris and Rachael's Date in Disneyland. Yes, it happened. We dropped the kids off at Pinocchio's Workshop where they colored and made s'mores and had a grand time while we did this:

A real, adult dinner at a place where they do not serve corn dogs or "mickey shaped" anything. 

A ride on California Screamin' with the love of my life 

and more Ghiradelli ice cream. Because it was there. And that's enough of an excuse. 

After that the girls got ready for bed and we watched fireworks by the fountain outside our hotel and let them eat popcorn in their pajamas. 

Which left us just enough time to get a good night's sleep before Storyteller Cafe character breakfast. I think this guy is from Brother Bear. Or something.

We limit the girls to one stand in line meet-and-greet. Half an hour in line buys you a picture with exactly two fairies. It's pretty magical that we would actually submit to something like that. 

One of the most magical moments of the trip was when we realized Jane was beginning to act like a Human. Here's how it happened:

I got 4 fast passes for Tower of Terror, thinking Emily could go once with me and once with Chris while Jane went on Monsters Inc for the millionth time and waved at Boo. But when our time came, Jane insisted that she wanted to go to Tower of Terror. We tried to talk her out of it but she was determined. So she went. 

Yes, she was a bit scared but afterward she was all smiles. 

She still has her incomprehensible list of rides she doesn't like, such as Radiator Springs Racers (!?)

but she went on those anyway and always liked them after the fact. This, combined with her indefatigable little legs mean that Jane is quickly exiting the Baby phase and entering the Fun Kid phase. I like the Fun Kid phase. The Baby phase was exhausting.

The perks of being a Human include riding Indiana Jones, which Jane, true to her random form, loved. 

Emily continued to love Disneyland like most people love air. We had some great moments that included riding the Matterhorn one night while the fireworks were going off, taking several trips down Splash Mountain, and riding California Screamin' together (She finally hit the magical 48''!). I love sharing new experiences with Emily because she loves new experiences. 

Our last night we had a totally Disney experience: dinner at the Carnation Cafe while watching the parade. 

Jane loved the parade so much she could barely be bothered to take more than a couple bites of her $8.00 make-your-own PB&J. Oh the magic of Disney. 

And then, the moment that Emily had been looking forward to the entire trip - making her own light saber. 

She defended her bunk bed with style. 

The last day was made super magical by these babies:

The hotel screwed up. They expected us to just take their crap, but Chris complained. And got these babies in return. Two fast passes for ANY attraction. Not just the ones that take fast passes. And the ride operators kept returning them to us so we had them almost all day long. With our golden tickets we rode Matterhorn, Peter Pan, Indiana Jones and Grizzly River Run. All with no line. 

So... that was Disneyland. We will remember this stuff forever. So, while we would love a bigger house and a new car and, well... cable, those things are all temporary and kind of dumb in the grand scheme of things. We choose to give our kids a little bit of magic instead. I'm certain we will never regret that choice.