It's official, I will be losing my mind this school year

Today was the first day of school for PB and Monster, and tomorrow Bug begins.  What you, dear reader, may not realize right away, is the fact that I will now have a child in all three levels of school.  I have a first grader, sixth grader, and 11th grader.  My supply list runs the gamut from crayons and glue sticks, to binders and dividers, all the way through a drivers permit!

Monster has been so excited about first grade.  Mostly because of his lunch box, which we purchased last year.  This morning, he asked me how long it was until lunch.  When I asked what his favorite part of the day was, his answer was lunch, then recess, then music class.  He definitely has his priorities set.  Tomorrow is Art.  That will blow his mind, I'm sure.  It's amazing to me to see his sense of style evolving as well.

Because my little Monster was so resistant to learning how to read last year, he has been placed in the Literacy First class this year.  I choose to see this as a blessing.  He is smart, and I know that once the right key is turned, reading will become a fun and exciting subject for him.  And this class has the potential to do this for him.  It is a smaller class (only around 16 students) and they focus more attention on reading, writing and such.  However, I am unhappy with how the school year began.  In years past, the day before school you could go and meet your child's teacher during lunch time. This year, state employees (this would be me as well) had our pay cut by 2.5%.  To soften the blow, the Legislator gave us all 5 paid furlough days.  In order to reduce the cost burden, teachers lost in-service days to cover these days.  This means that teachers only had the day before to arrange their rooms and prepare for the first day, unless they wanted to do it on their own time.  That morning was spent in meetings, leaving them only a few hours to set up their rooms.  When we were invited in to find classrooms at 4 pm, most teachers had already gone home.  While I understand why, it's still frustrating.  I don't try to use that time as more than a few minutes of introduction, but a few minutes of understanding what this classroom entails would have been very helpful.  Instead, I will be emailing his teacher tomorrow to ask some questions.  This means she has to find the time to answer me during the school day, instead of having a few minutes the day before.

I'm also upset as I don't feel that he was given the Speech Therapy that he required last year, and this year I will be fighting early for this.  He pronounces his leading L's as Y's, and it's impeding his spelling/reading abilities.

PB began Middle School.  Yesterday we did get our time to travel her schedule and work her locker (a bunch of times.)  She briefly met her teacher, ad her classes are grouped together well.  One of her best friends has all but one class with her, she's getting gym out of the way first semester and it's the last class of the day, and she's excited. Basically, that is pretty much all we can ask.  She asked her sister about her outfit yesterday a bunch of times.  Bug told her that it was a lot of patterns, but she could pull it off.  And I think she did.

Come back tomorrow for an exciting announcement :) (no, I'm not pregnant.)

Beaching it, Kindergarten version

Today was Monster's field trip to the beach. Yes, we took 85 Kindergarteners to the beach. Crazy? Yes, especially when the beach we went to didn't have a playground or anything near by. We had sand, the water that they were allowed to dip their toes in, and the pier they could bother the fisherman on. For 3 hours.

But I got to watch my son interact with his friends. And give him the occasional kiss or hug. This was my view, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Road Trip to Washington, Part II (Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn)

Our second trip to Washington, DC brought us to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. We were invited to meet Vice President and Dr. Biden before attending the Egg Roll on the White House Lawn.  For those who don't know, this is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building...

A big behomoth of a building that sits right next to the White House...see?

We had a chance to meet with the Vice President and his family.

I really like Dr. Biden.  She seems like a genuinely nice woman. And I admire that prior to her husband becoming Vice-President, she maintained her own professional life. 

The rest of our visit wasn't so pleasant, and didn't go exactly as planned.  But eventually, after standing in various lines for almost 2 more hours, we finally made it into the Egg Roll...

Unfortunately, in trying to create access for many, the whole thing was ruined for all.  There were too many people, and the lines were so long to do any of the activities.  There were at least 75 people in line just for the egg roll activity.  After spending so long just waiting to get in, and a morning that had to start at 7 am, we were all done.  So we took some pictures, got our posters, and headed out to the egg station.  The wooden souvenir eggs are cute.

Photo taken from the White House official Site.

Then we went to the US History Museum.  Another post of that part of the trip soon.

  

Road Trip to Washington, DC (Part 1)

We actually went to Washington, DC twice during my husbands two weeks leave. The first trip was literally the day after he came home. It was a bus trip arranged by the military 4H club to celebrate Month of the Military Child. It was Cherry Blossom Festival time, and we were dropped off just a block or so from the parade. Unfortunately, it took a little longer to get there than planned, and the parade was about to start, so the parade route was completely blocked by onlookers. We are nothing if not creative, and we quickly decided the steps of the FTC building would make a good vantage point.

See those people up on the high part? That's the rest of the family. It was so windy, and it was pretty high up, and the Monster refused to sit still, so the two of us climbed back down and went exploring on our own. DDS was able to take some nice shots of the parade, and maybe he'll upload them to Flickr at some point. But really, a parade is a parade, and unless I know people in it, I don't get excited. Monster apparently gets that from me, and we had a much better time searching for dandelions, climbing on statues, and just enjoying the day.

Finally, everyone was tired of the parade, and our group adventures began.

We wandered towards the Capital, since that was our next scheduled stop. We had to stop along the way and enjoy the Cherry Blossoms and some large rocks.

Then a visit to the Capital Building.

We gave Monster daddy's point and shoot camera to use while we were in DC and he took some nice photos. But my favorite was when he handed me the camera and asked me to take a picture of him.

After that, we had lunch in the Capital Cafeteria. Then we headed to the Air and Space Museum, since that was our bus pick up site. We explored a few of the rooms, did a few of the hands on activities,

then happily boarded the bus or home, exhausted.

Raindrops falling on our head

Today was the first day of camp for PB. I drove her down this morning, and less than 13 minutes after arriving, I was done with the sign in, and heading off without her. I miss her, but I'm sure she will be having a great time and making new friends this week. And there will be time for her to work with her feelings about her father leaving in less than 2 months.

Since he is leaving in less than 2 months, and Bug just returned home, we're trying to take advantage of the time we have before school starts. So, while I was driving down and delivering PB, DDS loaded up the jeep with all the crap we need to go to the beach. Seriously, small armys don't need this much stuff, but we've try going without some of it, and it just doesn't work. There's the sand toys, the boogie boards, the chairs, the umbrella, the cooler, the tackle box and fishing poles, the Monster's life vest, towels, dry clothes to ride home in, sunscreen...I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Luckily, we have a rack for the back of the jeep. This helps with space.

So, I called when I dropped PB off, and we agreed that we would meet and park the car, load all of us up into the jeep, and head off to the beach. I killed a little time, and we met up. We headed to the closest beach, about 3-4 miles away, and as we were heading along, we noticed the really dark cloud behind us. DDS checked the weather before he left home, and it simply had the 10-20% chance of rain that it always has in the summer. Apparently, today that was actually true. We pulled into the parking lot of the pier, quickly threw on the top just before the rain started. We sat in the jeep eating our lunch, and the heavens dumped. Not just rain and lightening, but hail the size of marbles. At one point it looked like someone had dumped several boxes of mothballs in the parking lot. We sat there for about 30 minutes, just amazed at the strength of this storm. It didn't seem to be slowing down, so we headed back to the car. Once we get the car, the sky clears up and the sun shines down. We take the car to park it closer to the beach, load into the jeep again, and head for the water. We pass a nice little family of deer, and I'm mad that I didn't have my camera close enough. I could almost reach out and touch them. Finally, we drive up on the beach, and it's almost empty. Of course, that might have been because of the weather...the fact that it was only about 75 degrees and a steady wind. Not a breeze, but a wind. We managed to deal with it for a couple of hours. Monster enjoyed the sand and the freedom to just run around whooping and hollering. DDS enjoyed the sun and fishing, and Bug and I got to read our books. It was good.

We headed home, stopping for dinner and managing to avoid the traffic. Now I'm tired and heading off to bed.

Following in the footsteps of vacation past

Last night, we took the kidlins to see the Minor League baseball team in our state. My employer was given free tickets, and we were lucky recipients of 4. It was a good night. The weather was beautiful...not too hot or muggy, the game moved at a good pace, and we ate dinner before we got there. (Have you seen the prices at these places? Geez!) The monster was much better behaved this year, as he actually watched some of the game this time. They had an amusing gentleman dressed up as a nerdy umpire do little skits between each inning. The players and managers even got involved with them, dancing with him. My favorite was the manager that did Dueling Signals with him, to the tune of Dueling Banjos. It was really cute. Our team won 5-2, with the winning three runs coming in the bottom of the 8th inning. I wasn't sure why, but the group has a person dressed as celery come out and run around home plate whenever they score. I had to google why celery, and it's simply a matter of the costume being left in their store room. The kids get a kick out of it though. After the game, FIREWORKS! They were really good, and were well enjoyed. Don't worry, we did buy a pretzel, 2 drinks and some of those nasty dippin dots in baseball caps for the kids.

Tomorrow we are going to Sesame Place. I'll have lots to post about on Tuesday I'm sure.

Feeling the breeze in my air

Tonight the hubs and I took the kids out on the boat. This boat has been sitting all summer, as we thought it was really broken and needed to go the shop. Hubby investigated a bit more earlier this week and found that it was fixable here instead, so we took it out for the first time this summer. This is important to know. We live near the ocean...sometimes we forget how close, but it's really just a few miles away. So off we went, heading out to drop some crab pots, let the kids throw out a line a few times, enjoy the exhilaration, etc. We launch the boat and head out, and the boat stalls. Monster, ever so optimistic, starts matter of factly discussing how we will be stuck out in the ocean forever, never to return. When we point out that we have oars and could begin rowing, and we're just a few yards away from the shore, he's not deterred. He does point out that his "yittle bitty arms" couldn't get us back there. Hubby worked diligitantly and finally the motor was working again. We went out a bit and dropped off the pots, and then headed back into the inlets to explore. We found a nice spot to drop anchor, and the kids threw out a few lines. It was just a few, cause the attention spans were waning. Then we went really fast a little further away, and then back again. We enjoyed spotting various wild life, the scenery, and just the relaxation of the whole evening. When we finally got home, ordered and ate dinner and showered, it was 10:30. Thank goodness we can sleep in some tomorrow.

Wherein I begin counting sheep, and it's not to go to sleep

Tonight was the second part of PB's sheep showing experiences. This is the part that is actually about the sheep. Since she only has one, she only has to go in once, but the rest of the group have lots of sheep that go in several times. There are lots of classes...spring ewe, spring ram, a pair of spring ram and ewe...on and on. The lady who takes care of the sheep regularly knows them all by name, and does a phenonomal job of sending the right ones in with the right people in the right group. I'm constantly amazed. I'm available for holding halters and moving them from the pens up to the show ring. Yup, I'm basically useless, but not completely.

PB didn't even enter the ring until after 8 pm tonight, so by the time we were done with the sheep, had our desert (fair junk food, yummmy) and got home, it was late. See what time I'm writing this?

I have some pics of the sheep. Perhaps I'll get them up on Flickr so you can all aww how cute their are.

And her sheep, it was last in it's group. But she didn't really care, because her ribbon matched her shirt. She has her priorities set right, doesn't she?

Baab

This morning we had to be back at the fairgrounds bright and early so that PB could show her sheep, Baab. Yes, you say it like the sound that sheep make. She's witty, that one.

This morning was the fitting and showmanship competition. This is the part of the contest that judges the kids and how they groom and show their sheep. (As a side note, why is sheep singular and plural? It sounds so wrong to say sheep for one.) PB's sheep is a Tunis breed. Friends of ours own the sheep, but they offered to let her start showing them for last year's fair, and they "give" her one each year. She goes down and works with them some before the fair each year, and spends a ton of time at the fair helping out with them. She really enjoys it, and I see it as such a great life experience. Since she hasn't been doing this long, and the sheep doesn't live with us, her time and experience in fitting and showmanship is very limited. We're truly happy if she just manages to beat someone else, and she was able to do that in both classes this year.

I spent the latter part of my childhood living in the middle of farm country and I grew up around farm animals, so being at the fair brings back great memories for me. Seeing my little mini-me doing some of the things I helped my friends do is so much fun. And when she gets all dudded up, I want to nibble on her cause she's so cute.

Tomorrow will be a late night, as she helps show the sheep and we're one of the last groups to go. I'm sure I'll have lots to share!