Union Red

I took a picture of myself after work the other day. 

And then I noticed James was also wearing a red shirt, so with some cajoling I got him to be in the selfie with me. 

While I was wrangling James, Leah -- who was NOT wearing red -- took matters into her own hands, as she is wont to do, and ran upstairs and changed so that she could ALSO be in the photo. 

She chose Amelie's old flower girl dress & part of one of James's old Halloween costumes. 

Perfect!

Camp Wakonda

Amelie just got back from her first week at sleepaway camp! Here's her cabin - Eagle's Nest - on the last day: 

 

The camp posted LOTS of photos to their facebook page, and I stalked through them each night looking for Amelie.

She looks hot! 

One of her clinics was "outdoor cooking." I think they mostly made desserts, though. 

And then this one is a little bit like where's Waldo, but I spotted her: 

Between me, Sam, Nana Jana, Grandma Mary, & Papaw, we sent several letters and emails - they printed out the emails to give to them each day. One of my physical letters didn't make it there in time, so we'll see how long it takes to make it back to us return-to-sender. 

Here's what Amelie wrote to us: 

To Dad and Mom

My first day and a half have been fine. I think I can remember and know my cabin mates (Zoe is now writing this for me) My camp had a very action packed day. We got 2nd place in the blue rock hunt. It's been hard for me to get all my stuff when we go places. I went swimming three times today! My clinics were high ropes, swimming, and outdoor cooking. You might receive this after I get home. But I'm still going to write :) I miss you even if you (??) my sleeping meds and didn't give them to me for camp. I have been able to sleep thankfully. About my cabin mates, our counselor charity is very competitive. Zoe is energetic and a new friend. Zohan is friendly and the best burper. I get along with the rest of my cabin. Tonight we had a really big surprise, I saw a copperhead. Thankfully I didn't die. The camp directors killed it. Tomorrow we're going to sleep at the hammock village outside. Overall I am enjoying camp 

And then here are the photos Sam took. They ate in Buffalo, MO but didn't take a picture by the sign. 

He did take a picture of the camp sign, however. 

Drop off at the cabin: 

And pick up: 

She had a good time! James will go in a couple of weeks. 

Apiary Class

I signed Amelie up for beekeeping class on Wednesday  with the Columbia STEM alliance - they put out mini courses in the summer. Last year, she’d done the stream testing and clean up at Flat Branch Park and James has done the stop-motion lifecycle of a butterfly, both big hits. 

I was afraid it would be too hot to have fun, but it really wasn’t that bad in the morning, in the shade, out in the country. They had a great time and weren’t even too sweaty. I was comfortable reading my book for 3 hours. 

I’d last-minute (after the kids had gone to bed the night before) signed James up even though it was suggested for grades 6-8 since he was home from summer school. The teacher said it was OK and then another kid from his class was there, too.

They made beeswax candles, too. James is the one who ran over to get me so that I could see him all fixed up in his suit:

They made the Trib! 

 

AJR Concert

 This is Sam. I took the big kids to see AJR in concert in St Louis. We also stayed the night at a Holiday Inn that was an easy walk from the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater.

James was also excited about the opener (“Boy With Uke”)

James was a little skeptical about me taking pictures.

They sold all 7,000 reserved seats, and there were about 2,000 lawn tickets purchased.

Such a sweet picture of Amelie as AJR played!

We were mostly watching the jumbo screens, but we could at least catch a glimpse of the band from our seats.

James was very happy during the concert, and he clapped very loudly throughout.

Amelie drinking a water that looks deceptively like an adult beverage.

Our view of Jack (the “J” in AJR) on the jumbo screen.

Maplewood Barn Theater

Our old neighbor Anne stopped by to give Amelie a birthday present & see the new house & we all decided to check out the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at the Maplewood Barn Theater the next night. Except then we thought it might be too late for Leah, so just the big kids and I went. They had a ball! But it was very cold! I brought blankets. 

Lucy really knocked it out of the park. It was super fun!

There were cutouts of the Peanuts characters, but it was too dark at intermission to take a photo. They also did prize drawings at intermission and we won tickets to another show. 

First Day of Summer School!

The bus comes at the seemingly somewhat more reasonable hour of 7:10 for summer school this year, so James said he wanted to ride it (it was 6:50 during the regular school year so Sam would drop them off at school on his way into work). They were up and excited and ate breakfast this AM! Hopefully that continues!  

The stop is a kind of far from the house, though, and then the bus drives right by our front door! I'm going to call (er, fill out the online form) and see if they'll pick them up at the closer cross-street or the door if they continue to be the only kids at the stop. 

This is Leah's first time riding the big yellow bus & her first day at regular, full-day, big kid school! 

Edited to add 2 updates: I did remember to take a picture of them at the end of the first day - they're only slightly frazzled! Eating a snack & reading books on the couch: 

And also - James had a terrible attitude about summer school & we let him drop out after the first 3 days. There were 28 kids in his class! Many promises were made about the number of chores & activities he'd do at home instead. Leah's continuing on & having a good time, though. She informed me today that she had Trix cereal for "morning lunch" at school & so I deduced that she's been eating breakfast at home & then again when she gets to school - it's free still (due to COVID?) so I guess they don't ask too many questions & she somehow wound up in the cafeteria. 

Crazy Hair Day

(This post is pretty belated! From spirit week? or kindness week? sometime during the school year.)

I think James envisioned something like Stanley's hair for Crazy Hair Day at his elementary school this year:

But unfortunately, I was unable to make his vision come to life at 6:45am. Eventually after some argument, he settled on this style:

And then Sam snapped these pictures of what it looked like by the time he came home at the end of the day: 

LOL

Tween Birthday Interview

Birthday Interview

 Amelie is 12!

I forgot all about this until the day after her party. I told her to go upstairs and try to take a nap or get some rest since tomorrow is a school day and they were up so late at the sleepover & we also have plans tonight (to go see You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at the Maplewood Barn with our old neighbor Ann). 

So I'll use this time to get the questions ready & maybe work on a post about the party!

She was slightly grumpy when she wandered back down from her nap right before supper, but she eventually got through the rest of the questions. 

1. How old are you? 12
2. What is your favorite color? Teal
3. What's your favorite possession? Probably my shade backpack buddy. That you made? Yeah. 
4. What is your favorite game or video game?  Hollow Night
5. What is your favorite song? What Else Can I Do? (We had bit of a "who's on first" moment here when I didn't realize "What else can I do?" was the title of a song.) 
6. Do you  have a favorite animal? An axolotl 
   
   
   
   
   
7. What is your favorite book? (this proved to be a very difficult question) What is the best book you've read recently? Flames of Hope. But like most books, it got me really mad at some points. It's also way sadder than other Wings of Fire books I feel like. 
8. What is your favorite movie? (same thing as with books - favorite of all time was too hard so I asked, what's the best movie that you've seen recently?) Encanto
9. What is your favorite TV show? Probably Steven Universe 
10. What is your favorite thing to eat? Dutch Baby Pancake 
    She made this video as part of an assignment for English class where they had to investigate a significant recipe.
    (We had to take brief interlude here so James could investigate how to do the Charlie Brown dance on Youtube)
11. Where is your favorite place to go? Or if you could go anywhere, where would you like to go? China
12. Who is your best friend? Kaitlin 
13. What is something you learned last year in the 6th grade? about the Indus River Valley civilization 
14. What is something you'll learn now that you're 12 (or next year in 7th grade)? I don't know
15. What is your favorite subject at school? Science
16. Who is your favorite teacher this year? Ms. Huggins (skills for success) & Ms. Schmidt (science) 
17. What is hard for you to do? Explaining things
18. What is your favorite thing to do? Reading 
19. What is your favorite thing to do with friends? Talk and be crazy
20. What do you like about Me (Mom)? You're probably the sensible one of the house
21. What do you like about Dad? He lets me do way more than Mom 
22. What do you like about James? I enjoy our talks
23. What do you like about Leah? She's cute when she's not asking me to play with her 
24. What do you like about yourself?  I know everything about Hollow Night
25. What do you want to be when you grow up? Something in the animal rescue to veterinarian area
26. Bonus: What was your favorite part of the party last night? The ice cream sundaes because it was just crazy hyper sugar

Here's the link to last year: 

https://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2021/05/amelies-birthday-interview.html

Cool Dude

 I wanted to take a picture of the outfit James picked the other Sunday. 

But he wanted to play basketball. 

He made this structure in church: 

Band Concert

 Amelie had her spring band concert, and I know this happens every year, but it was still kind of amazing how much the group had improved since first concert of the year! They did so well

Amelie plays the clarinet in the 6th grade band: 

It's possible she wanted me to stop taking photos here. Leah and I sat on the front row and Sam and James came in later and sat farther back. James had won the fun day teacher raffle, and the snacks and movie were scheduled after school on the same day as the concert. 

My phone ran out of space for videos during this one - and the songs got progressively more impressive after I was out of space!

Birthday Party

I never posted these! Better late than never! Leah had many mini birthday celebrations. We continued the tradition of candles in every meal for Leah's 5th birthday. Here are her chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast

Her friend from next door wanted to come over and give her a present. He brought all kinds of sweet things! Including a realistic-looking plastic succulent, which I'd felt even & still gave directions to Leah about how it just needed a little bit of water before I realized that night that it was plastic! 

They had eyed with great interest the package of hostess cupcakes we'd bought for her class -- and then school ended up being cancelled due to snow so they could eat them! 

Next we went to Schnuck's for her 1st COVID shot. I had her change into short sleeves so it would be easier. The pharmacist got a kick out of her coming in on her birthday and then she got to pick out a treat for dessert - after much deliberation she chose three packs of multi-colored marshmallow peeps. 

The 15-minute observation period was a little boring. She texted with Nana Jana. 

She really wanted to have a birthday party and invite her classmates. She also really wanted to have rootbeer floats - and none of us could figure out where she got that idea, she'd never had one & probably hadn't had rootbeer before that either. 

So we bought booked the same party that we'd had at Authority Gymnastics when James turned 9 and when Amelie turned 5. 

They burned off some energy first. 

Here's all the kids on the parachute (plus Amelie)

Here's a video of us singing happy birthday to her (plastic succulent & multi-colored peeps visible) where she has a little trouble blowing out that last candle & gets just a little too close!

Grandma Mary & Papaw brought over a pile of clothes & presents & then Nana Jana and Steve came over with even more presents the next day.