Zoo Trip

The kids and I took a perhaps somewhat ill-advised zoo trip toward the end of summer. The forecast told me that the high would be in the 80's but it was wrong - and we left later in the day than I'd planned - and it was VERY WARM at the zoo. 

We packed a picnic and ate ice cream and rode the train and saw the lions rolling around like cats, though!

The kids enjoyed the new play structure with the monkey house - that was the only part of the zoo that was crowded at all. We didn't have to wait for the train, and we were the only folks in the sea lion tunnel. Like I said, it was a VERY WARM weekday. 

We got to see all kinds of neat stuff, like the giant tortoises enjoying their salad. And those are all the pictures I took. 

First Day of School!

 It seems so late! 

First day of 7th grade for Amelie, first day of 4th grade/unit B for James, and very first day of Kindergarten for Leah!

James and Amelie declined individual photos but Leah was very excited!

Drop off at the middle school went surprisingly quickly so we were very early to Ridgeway, where we watched the kids on the playground. James found a friend and Leah ran around zigzag to every piece of equipment. Then the bell rang and all the Unit A kids lined up in the gym! Hoping for a good first day for everyone!

UPDATE: They also declined an after-school first-day photo. But it sounds like they had a good day! Leah said her favorite part was having 4 recesses (?) and also getting ice cream after lunch. James said the fire drill (??) followed by the ice cream bar. Amelie said getting to sit with her friends Hattie & Indigo at lunch. 

The bus ran super duper late & apparently some kid squirted James in the eye with hand sanitizer (???) BUT it didn't appear to sour his whole first day. Success! Cross your fingers that they'll be as enthusiastic to wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. 

UPDATE 2: I can’t believe I forgot to put this, but I got a call from the school nurse after lunch that Leah had tripped and fell. She needed an ice pack but then wanted to go right back to class! I wonder how many calls from the school nurse I am going to get this year.

Everyone got up early to be ready for school! Unfortunately, I got a call from Sam at 7:08 AM that they were headed back home to get Amelie’s clarinet (she wasn’t supposed to bring it yesterday). 

Amelie's favorite activities this summer were:

1) MUUSA

2) Camp Wakonda

James said:

1) The AJR Concert

2) Big Surf 

Belated Bootheel photos

 

 

Leah & Levi on the porch swing. Second cousins! 

 

We got to watch cousin Levi play ball - it was very warm! Leah watched a few at-bats and then played on the playground. James & Amelie played baseball when they were this age, but I never signed Leah up. She's requested soccer in the fall instead. 

1000 Books before Kindergarten

There's a program at the library to get kids to read 1,000 books before Kindergarten. They pass out trackers similar to the summer reading program, and each time you share a book, you color in an icon (cookies, rainbows, hearts, stars, books, suns, etc.) on the chart. 

Here's the very last chart! And just in time, too, since Kindergarten starts Tuesday!

I drug my feet a little signing up, thinking that I'd take her into the library and we'd make a big deal about it, but I never got around to it! We'd gotten out of the habit of  regular library trips - mostly I just check things out for the kids & take them home. 

Finally I printed out the first tracker (in October, I think) and we just got started at home & then when she finished that first 100, it was a good excuse to make a trip in! She got a sticker, and a picture, and was able to pick out a book to take home & keep. 

Nana Jana ended up taking her several times on Mondays when she was watching her. 

So proud!

The 400 book milestone is mysteriously missing. I thought about doing a dramatic re-enactment but decided against it 😅 All of the trackers have different shapes. This one was cookies, and Leah wanted to color them all brown, which on fairness, is the realistic color for chocolate chip cookies. 

At the 500 mark, she got a beanie baby (a "reading buddy") as well - of course she picked an orange dragon. 

I only just now realized that she was wearing the same top in the 500 and 600 photos. The weather had warmed up, though, and she switched over to shorts. (Still not looking at the camera, though.) 

700 books! 

800 books is a lot of books! 

900! (We made the library trip for this milestone on July 30)

1,000 books! That's SO MANY books! 

Amelie and James and Leah and I all came into the library on Friday. The big kids turned in their summer reading logs (just slightly past the deadline) and Leah turned in her final chart! They made a satisfying fuss over them at the desk (& for James & Amelie finishing summer reading, too). Everyone got to pick a book for a finishing prize.  Leah got a whole big package of school things - earphones and pencils and erasers and scissors and a dictionary and some other stuff. She was quite proud! Then she played on the computer & talked me into riding the elevator up to the 3rd floor. 

Swim Lessons

 The kids finished up swim lessons today - all passed*

The whole first week was kind of cold, overcast, and sometimes rainy - but they had lessons outside anyway! 

Here's Leah - The second week it was very sunny. 

The kids in her class were VERY hesitant to jump in. Here she is, raring up to go: 

She loves this ORANGE, CHEETA print swimsuit, since that's both her favorite animal AND her favorite color. Posing: 

The water was up so high from the rain that it covered the island. 

One of the kids kept looking back at his mom. He was quite affronted that lessons were continuing in the cold/drizzle. 

Practicing kicks: 

I took fewer pictures of the big kids!

There were just 3 kids in the "big kid" class & Amelie & James were 2/3. They were tossing rings in for the others to find. James sent his out FAR. 

He also won by getting back to the edge first. Maybe this was helped along by how far out he tossed the other ring. You can see the other two are still out looking in the photo: 

The first week while James was at camp, Amelie was the only kid in her class! One night Indigo spent the night & we asked if she could tag along to swim the next morning & the instructor said it would be easier with two kids in the class anyway. 

And here are those certificates - Dolphin, Stingray, & Starfish. 

*Leah was demoted about 1/2 way through from the next level up back down to starfish - which she'd passed last summer. I agreed with their assessment, though - I think she'd regressed some. It's too bad I couldn't get them in lessons earlier in the summer - everything filled up really fast. 

** James passed, too, despite missing Week 1 since he was at Camp Wakonda. 

*** Here's the link to last year!

(Second) Cousins

 Sam’s cousin Pam & her daughter Lucy (the kids’ second cousin, see chart!) came to visit. 

Someone talked Pam into racing around the pond.

There is video evidence: 

Just look at this fun-loving bunch!

Except, where’s Ben?

There he is!

I just stole all these pics from Pam’s Facebook, and then posted them a month late. (Things are really slipping around here, aren’t they?!)

Big chop!

I came across this photo of James with his cool, long hair & wanted to update the post for a better contrast.

James got all of his hair chopped off yesterday! Now he has cool short hair :)

I think he likes the way it looks long, but he is very tender headed and not willing to let me brush it or wash it enough for it to be long and not get all knotted up.

I tried to get him to wait it out for a couple more months so it would be long enough to donate for a wig, but he had reached the breaking point with regard to grooming. This will be easier for sure!

The hairstylist was more broken up about it than either of us (& absolutely horrified when I joked that Leah was next.)

It’s about 7 inches long, which Wigs for Kids will accept (for sale to help out with the cost of making the the wigs with longer hair).

And then I tried to get him and Leah to pose for me, but the sun was in their eyes.

Also, they are goofy.