Good-bye First Grade

Today was Chloe's last day of first grade. She was pretty excited to head out today.

Well, basically she was just pretty excited to be feeling better, but the last day of school had her excited too. The end of the year has let her bring home a lot of her favorite projects to share. Here are some of the highlights from her year:

The creation of this farm while studying area and perimeter in math was very exciting for her. She could not wait to head out each day and add new animals.

The art portfolio came home yesterday.

It contained lots of cool things. One of my personal favorites is this print.

I may have to get a frame for that one.

A lot of great writing came home. This report on penguins seems to capture the years interest though.

Especially this page on the Little Blue Penguins which have Chloe trying to plan a family vacation to New Zealand.

Her biggest prize to bring home today (along with a great report card) was her cat bowl. They went on field trip to a pottery studio downtown last week and this was Chloe's creation.

She says it is so she can pick me flowers this summer and put in it. What a sweet kid.

One of Those days

Today went a little something like this:

1. Arrive at work
2. Get call that child is sick
3. Leave work to go get child
4. In work parking lot notice rear tire on car is nearly flat
5. Go pick up child #2
6. Stop to inflate tire
7. Air machine out of order
8. Arrive to pick up child #1 at school
9. Stop and successfully inflate tire
10. Get child to doctor's
11. Another bladder infection
12. Go to pharmacy
13. Pharmacy out of medicine
14. Go to another pharmacy
15. Get home and give child medicine
16. While helping child number one with medicine and comfort...
17. Second child draws I love Mommy "tattoos" on her leg with marker
18. Child #2 dumps Elmers Glue all over floor
19. And tries to "mop it up" with water and paper towels
20. Child #2 then waters plants in the office and half of office floor while mommy is cleaning up glue mess

Mondays. Sheesh.

Conversations with Alexa

Daisy to Brownie

Today was Chloe's last day of Girl Scouts. Next year she will be in second grade. This means she will move on from being a Daisy Scout to being a Brownie. Today her industrious leaders created a crossing over ceremony for the girls moving on. They chose a blue sheet to be the water and some foam lily pads for each girl to choose her route to the other side.

I should also mention that Chloe's school is having a spirit week this week and today's theme was mismatch day. A task which Chloe went about with much enthusiasm.

I was taking pictures for the leaders with their camera so these pictures were taken by Alexa.

Alexa was allowed to participate today in the art activity. As you can see she was pretty excited to be included!

So, now, who wants to put their order in for Girl Scout cookies? Apparently as Brownies it will be expected of us.

Princess Wear

Did you ever have one of those long days at work or school? The kind where you feel like you must have done something very bad earlier in life and are now being punished for it severely? Having a little trouble putting the whole thing behind you? Why not put on some princess finery and dance about the living room?

Or maybe practice a little magic trick you are thinking up.

 It does the trick around here.

Flying a Kite in the Rain

Chloe had a friend over today. It was pouring all day. I think they were getting a little stir crazy because they wanted to go outside and play. I decided it wouldn't hurt them and sent them out in their rain coats and boots. They decide to try to fly kites. It was windy enough, but I think the driving rain kind of beat them down. They were having fun though.

Well, all except Alexa. Who was feeling a little left out. It is hard when your big sister, who is usually your playmate, brings over a another person to play. She came inside a little sad. It got better when she got to be my special taste tester for the chocolate Rice Krispie treats I made.

Amazing how a little special attention and chocolate can make it all better.

Watching Grass Grow

It has been a rather rainy week around these parts. That is a good thing for the lawn. I planted some grass seed a few weeks ago. Up until this week it has just been kind of sitting there. No matter how much I watered it. Which admittedly isn't much because quite frankly, I am a distracted gardener. I find yard work to be rather repetitive. I love to plant things, but the day to day up keep gets to be a bit of a drag. I mean, didn't I just pull weeds out of that garden last week? And those bushes, I know I pruned off all those branches. How fast do those things grow back? My neighbor Marty likes to tell me, "We just need to keep up with it a little each day." Now, I love Marty. Truly. I mean she takes care of my child three mornings a week, but when she tells me that. Well, I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes. Who has time to keep reweeding the same garden? And I am expected to do this EVERY DAY. Well, that just isn't going to happen. But I do my best and sometimes well look...

grass grew. There were these bare spots around the yard. One was from the kids old play set that I finally got rid of, another was from the painters last year who piled equipment in one place, and another is from my dog who hates the cold weather and spends all winter peeing in the same spot about a foot from the deck steps. Now, I am no lawn perfectionist. If it is green, I'll mow it. Clover, weeds, whatever. It is all the same to me. The dirt patches are not very nice to look at though. So while I was at Lowe's a few weeks ago I picked up some grass seed. Let me just take a minute to say there are a lot of grass seed options out there. I mean a whole wall of choices. I was a little over whelmed. I picked one up and tossed it in the cart remarking to the man next to me, "Who knew there were this many options in grass seed."

He replied, "I know, I just can't remember what kind I used last."

"Well, they are all green!" was my answer. At this point I became aware that some people are much more invested in their lawn than me. I also was reminded that some people do not appreciate my sense of humor. Oops. At any rate I planted it, and it grew with a few weeds in there for good measure. Of course all this rain means it has to be mowed. Another repetitive yard related task.

At least someone appreciates my efforts.