Field Trip to the Aquarium

BFFs with matching shoes!

Violet's Pre-K class took a trip to the Georgia Aquarium this week. She got to buddy up with her pal Emma and Emma's mom was sweet enough to send me these pictures of the big trip. Everyone had a blast. I thought about trying to go, but with a parent for every two kids, I think they had plenty of help! I'll try to go next year if kindergarten makes it one of their field trips.

Violet reported that she got to touch a starfish and see the giant beluga whales. And her favorite part was the penguins. Emma and Violet have been friends from the infant room at daycare, and this will be their last year together. (Sniff sniff!) We've been lucky to have such great friends for so long!

The wonder!

Storytime with Violet

Do you think she'll be a teacher when she grows up?

Chalk It Up to Spring

When you're an artist, all the world is your canvas!

Violet decided to celebrate the first weekend of spring by waking up before 6 a.m. and insisting we go outside for chalk art as soon as sanity allowed. But since it was such a beautiful morning, and I was up anyway, I complied. Everyone ended up getting in on the action. Also, side note, the arrival of spring attire (read: shorts) has shown us that Annie is not quite as steady on her feet as we might have thought. Girlfriend had two scraped knees on the very first day of shorts-weather!

Things took a turn when Violet decided a chalk body outline was in order. The driveway suddenly looked like a CSI crime scene investigation!

Outlining the body.

Our victim. Code name Daddy.

It's clear from the victim's expression, this was a surprise attack.

Or perhaps he was just a victim of fashion.

Finished product! Violet wrote "DAD" at the top. Backwards (she was sitting above the drawing). Should I be impressed, or concerned?!

Zoo Day

It's been rough lately. I can't seem to bounce back from the time change. I'm tired all. the. time. Report cards are due this week. I had seven parent-teacher conferences Friday, with more to come this week. Conferences always make me feel like a terrible teacher. "Oh hey, your child is struggling... but since I'm supposed to be teaching them, I guess it's my fault?" Or "yeah, here are these problems and I don't really know how to fix them or I would have tried already so, see ya later!" They don't really go that way, and the parents are all super appreciative, but that's how I come away feeling. Plus we've entered the wild ride that is fourth quarter. Soccer has started up again. Every weekend between now and Jesus coming back has been booked. And now my throat hurts and there's greenish gunk coming out my nose and my right ear is killing me.

So, all that to whine about say, it was lovely to get away from it all on this beautiful afternoon and meet all the grandparents at the zoo after church. Both Grandma and Mimi have birthdays coming up this spring and they decided they wanted to celebrate by hanging out at the zoo. They even brought a whole picnic for us to enjoy. Best idea ever. The weather could not have been better (oh flipflops I've missed you!) and the girls were both really good. Annie seemed a little overwhelmed by her first visit to the zoo and all the crowds, but she liked pointing out all the animals and loved the playground. She's so funny; she could care less where I am. She has no fear and insisted on tackling the "big" slide in the playground, despite all the big kids in her way. Violet, on the other hand, must know where I am at all moments of the day. So different, these two. But the trip was a success and we will definitely have to come back again soon.

Soccer, Take Two

Back on the ball.

It's soccer season again! And wow, what a different having some experience makes. When we first started soccer, Violet was nervous to go onto the field by herself. Often Matt or I would have to join her in the practice to get her to participate. This time, even though it's a new team and new coach, she ran right out there. Of course, it helps that half the team is made up of kids from her class (yeah, we really worked the system on that one!) But even so, I think her comfort level is definitely helping.


I was relieved to see Violet has such a great first practice, because things were a little dicey when teams were announced. When we signed up for our second season, I listed the names of some of her friends she wanted to be with, and also the name of last season's coach, whom we loved and had a great experience with. So I was thrilled when she called to say we were on her team again. But I quickly grew concerned when none of the parents from school had gotten a similar call. And then I grew extra nervous when I realized it was because Coach Angie was now coaching a U7 team.

Age-wise, U7 is appropriate for my five-year-old. But skill-wise? Maturity-wise? I wasn't so sure. U7 has positions. Goalies. They keep score. My child... well, have I mentioned that Violet's favorite part of soccer is snack time? In fact, the only question she asked when I had her decide if she wanted to play again was, "Will there be a party with cupcakes at the end?" So yeah, we've got different priorities.

Violet is one of the oldest in her class, so when all the requests for Coach Angie came in, we made the cut and everyone else stayed in U5 (no score-keeping, more "run around and have fun" attitude). I immediately started expressing my reservations to Angie, who to her credit did a great job calming my fears and promising the best snacks at halftime, just for Violet. Have I mentioned how much I like Coach Angie? I agonized over it. Should we try to switch? Should we stick it out? Would a hard season ruin the sport for Violet forever? Could it all be okay like Angie said? We decided to go for it. I talked to Violet and explained why her friends weren't going to be on her team, we picked out snacks, bought new soccer gear, got ready to go.

Huddling up with Coach Jeremy.

Then out of the blue, I got a call from a "Coach Jeremy". I didn't know any Coach Jeremy, but he'd gotten our name from one of Violet's classmates. He was going to be coaching all her friends on the U5 team and as fate would have it, he had one extra slot open on his team. He'd heard we might be interested in switching to U5 and he was prepared to write her name in on the spot. Did I want in?

Talk about being put on the spot. But it felt God-given. I hadn't asked the other mom to pass along our name and number. I hadn't run to the league demanding to be switched back to U5. It really felt dropped in our laps. So I took it. I felt awful when I emailed Coach Angie to tell her. But Coach Jeremy seems great, Violet was so excited to see her four friends from school, and somehow I got roped into being Team Mom despite my best feet-dragging. Hopefully it all adds up to the start of a really great season!

Cool Cat

Cool cat! 

Violet's classroom has a mascot called "Cool Cat." Cool Cat got to come home with each child for the weekend. But once all the kids had their turn, the teacher decided to make Cool Cat a reward for whoever earned the most silly bands (earned for good behavior).

Well, guess who was the very first winner? That's right, MY cool cat! Apparently her face, when the teacher announced the winner at Friday's circle time, was priceless. Cool Cat has been everywhere with us this weekend, and I'm proud of Violet for doing such a great job in class to earn him. 

As a parent, you wonder what your child is like in public, when you're not around. I've had plenty of parent-teacher conferences where the parents mention a specific behavior and are both shocked and pleasantly relieved to find out their child isn't the same little holy terror at school as he is at home. And I get it. We save our worst selves for the people who have to love us no matter what. So it's good to know that whatever we're struggling with at home, she's got her best foot forward out there.

Saturday morning breakfast.

Picnic time!

Another thing making this weekend awesome? The weather! Finally we're seeing a hint of spring after the "snow" we've had lately. I'm hoping we've finally turned a corner on Old Man Winter now. Violet had this Sunday afternoon picnic planned before we even left for church. She couldn't wait to get her PBJ and blanket and set up in the backyard. And of course, Annie was all "anything you can do, I can do" about it. She had her two favorite things - her big sister and snacks. Good to go!

That Time it "Snowed"

It accumulated. Sort of.

One day, we'll look back of this period and say, "Remember the time we were out of school for six days because it snowed?" And then we'll laugh and laugh. One day.

But today. Today is not that day. Today is the day we wanted to lock our children out of the house due to insufferable whining. Today is the day we want to throw our laptops across the room because we're frustrated by all this "online learning" we're being forced to post, moderate, check, recheck, and respond to. Today is the day we would pay huge amounts of money if a) the forecast had been correct and there was six inches of fluffy white to justify another snow day or b) we could have just gone to school.

Yep, today is the day I decided I would prefer just to have had school all along, as opposed to the fiasco the last two weeks have been. And note, I'm not blaming anyone. Not the weather forecasters, who do the best they can with the information they are given. Not our superintendent, who is actually a decent, humorous guy who is trying to make the best call in a county that seems to sit in two entirely different weather zones.

I might be blaming the groundhog. Stupid groundhog and your predictions of early spring! I'm definitely blaming it on the rain (sing it with me now!). Did everyone overreact a little bit? In hindsight, perhaps. But again, who can predict?

At least it was pretty!

In the last two weeks, our students have gone to school two days. Last Friday and this Monday. We're crossing our collective fingers we can go back to school tomorrow. I'm luckier than most, because my kids are still young enough to daycare, and said daycare has been open a majority of these days. Which is a good thing, because I've had school to do.

After we used up our two scheduled weather days, our county moved into "Online Learning" days. Teachers post assignments, students log on to get assignments, crash website, try again, submit assignments. We have to log on, check work, grade it, ask students to resubmit if it's incorrect, field questions/comments/complaints from parents, and keep track of who has done what so we can turn in a roster of students who completed each day's work and are therefore considered "present" in attendance for the missed day.

Complicated? Yes. But it beats having make-up days into June! And anyone who doesn't like it can move to Gwinnett County, where they never cancel school. Seriously, Jesus himself could come back on a cloud of fire and they would still have a regular school day.

If you don't look too closely, it's starting to seem legit!

Unimpressed.

Anyway, we've survived the best we can. Last week wasn't so bad - the girls spent most of the days in daycare and I ran around and had lunch with friends, did some shopping, read three books, took it easy. This week has been a little different, with school to do, patience wearing thin, stir-craziness setting in. Now that we're faced with the loss of two instructional weeks, panic sets in a little.

Ah well, this too shall pass. In the meantime, we'll continue making mini treats in the Easy Bake Oven while we wait for spring. It's supposed to hit 70 next week!

Busting out the Easy Bake Oven!