Schools out!

Jared was not that excited for school to be out. I am excited to have a break from packing school lunches and to be able to eat breakfast whenever we want. Swim team is going to get us going pretty early in the morning, it starts at 7:30 but Jared can eat something small before that.  We started the last day of school festivities with donuts for breakfast. I did this last year and plan to do it every year, making the number of the school year they just finished.  This time I could do it for Lydia too. The last day of school was a half day so to celebrate we had friends over for a picnic and ice cream sundaes.  We started the ice cream sundaes idea last year and I plan to do it year after year! I love a good tradition.  We are lucky to attend a good school and have great friends.

Preschool: Check! 

1st grade: Check! 

2nd Graders! 

Fingers crossed Jared and Tyler can be in the same class next year.  

Lydia loves Sam so much!  

She has toned it down over the last few months but he is still one of her top favorites. 

He is so kind and patient with her. 

We loved getting together with these awesome families after school when we could and I am grateful for the things they teach me by their strong examples.  I'm lucky there are a few more awesome ladies I could say this about too.

Jared had a good year of school.  It took him a long time to develop friends in his class, but once he did he loved them. This is a pattern for him so when I filled out the parent request sheet I mentioned that and put down a few names he would do well with in his 2nd grade class. His good buddies in his class were Jayleen, Marcus, Luke, Ava, and Haleigh. He loved having Mrs. Geer and she was a good fit for him. For awhile he was coming home and being discouraged about recess because he wanted to play soccer or basketball and felt kids didn't pick fair teams but he was able to end the year feeling good about friends and his time at school. He loved Kid Town and was so sad when it was over.  His first crush happened this year, that was Ava and the year ended with him liking Jayleen. I enjoyed volunteering in his class and am glad I could go and help.  He was always so excited to see me which felt great and I am so glad I could help his teacher.  I checked his report card and he is doing great. As I've said before, I care and worry the most about "social skills" and am happy he was given all 3's for those standards.  Things like: cooperating with others, demonstrating self control, shows respect for authority, respecting feelings, rights and property of others, attempts to resolve conflicts appropriately and such.  I am not too worried about his academics at this point, he is fine but I do want him to be respectful and kind. One Friday when I came into volunteer he had a substitute. I intruded myself and said I was Jared's Mom and she smiled and said what a nice kid he was. I commented on being glad to hear that and she mentioned how he was one of the kids that she as a substitute knew she could ask questions and get answers and rely on him to always be good and helpful.  Made me so happy.  It was a good year, next up 2nd grade! I think I will be more stressed when he enters upper elementary.  3rd - 5th grade just doesn't seem as fun to me.  I guess the "fun" just looks different since they are older.

I feel like I was at Baker Butler a good amount the last 2 - 3 weeks.  I went to the grade 1 musical, Kid Town and then helped out at Field Day all within like 3 weeks or so. For Field Day I was in charge of the duck scoop and was so grateful I was there in the morning.  It was in the bus parking lot and would have been yucky in the afternoon.  Jared had a fun time. The PTO had inflatables this year which were well received. One even had water in it which was a new thing to me.  I also went to school for his class "Author Study."  Each student read 2 poems they had written and then read a digital book about animals they had made on the iPad.  The students read the poems and then the parents walked around and listened to the students read their stories to us and then enjoyed refreshments with the class. I actually helped with the animal research stories so had read most of them but it was fun for the students to present them.

Field Day: Ashlynn, Jayleen, Jared, Rachel. 

Author Study

 I am grateful he had a good year and that he likes school enough to be sad when its out for the year.

It was a really busy day for us all.  I had forgotten that Mark planned on taking his car in for an oil change so I would therefore need to take Jared to school. They normally leave around 7:40 and at 7:40 Jared was just finishing his thank you letter for Mrs. Geer. We just made it to school on time. While Jared was at school Lydia and I went for a quick, cold swim with friends.  Then we celebrated with friends until just before we had to leave for swim team.  We rushed home from swim team to eat a quick dinner before Julie picked Jared and Lydia up for the Cub Scout River Regatta.  I had to work  and Mark had to be at his school for 8th grade graduation and then to chaperone the 8th grade dance. Julie was kind enough to take Jared and Lydia to the regatta and then stay here and put them to bed until Mark got home.  They had a great time at the River Regatta.  Julie offered to let them use the boats the Shaw's made last year and Lydia actually won the Race Grand Regatta.  I felt sort of bad because she doesn't technically have a sibling in Cub Scouts but oh well.  Julie and Chris are amazing! I don't know how we could ever repay them for all the times they help us out.  I am so grateful Tyler and Jared became good friends so quick so I could get to know Julie.  Thanks Baker Butler for putting them in the same Kindergarten class!

Lose tooth and last week of just the girls.

Lydia lost her first tooth today! I was again really surprised.  At her last dental appointment the hygienist mentioned a loose tooth. This was months ago. I thought nothing of it because when I brushed her teeth it didn't seem to move at all but occasionally Lydia would bring it up, wondering when her loose tooth would fall out. In my mind I wasn't expecting it for almost another year.  She was just over 12 months when she got her first tooth and Jared didn't lose his first tooth until 2 months after his 6th birthday. This morning she asked Mark to check her tooth and to my surprise it was super wiggly. Like ready to come out in the next 24 hours.  All day today she talked about her tooth and wanted to show people how wiggly it was.  Mark had tutoring after school but when he walked in (at 6:45) she went to show him and he offered to pull it out and she was all for it!  So he gently pulled and out it popped.  She said it didn't hurt very much at all, less then she thought it would. She is so excited for the tooth fairy to come!  

**UPDATE: June 07 Lydia lost another tooth!  After she lost her first tooth she said that the tooth next to if felt loose as well. I figured it would take about the same time as this first tooth but it did not.  Just under 24 hours later that tooth fell out too.  We had chicken noodle soup for dinner served with sliced baguette.  She really wanted the tooth to come out but Mark thought it wasn't quite ready. I suggested biting into the crust of the bread and just like that her tooth came out.  She was ecstatic. It still seems really young to me but her teeth had different plans.

Last week Lydia and I made a plan to use this week to do all the things she liked to do when the boys were in school, and it was just the two of us. A sort of last hurrah for the girls before she starts Kindergarten.  Yesterday we went over to Taco Bell to play on the play structure.  Today we went to Wendy's to get a frosty and then over to a park for a picnic and to play and use the splash park. Tomorrow we have story time at the library, Thursday we are meeting a friend at the play place in the mall and Friday we are going swimming with friends. The frosty was pretty random to me.  We got one last year when Mark and Jared went on the father son campout but I don't think we have gotten one since then!  All the other things are outings we would regularly do well not swimming but the others.  We met two preschool friends at the park today and she commented on how she wishes she could still go to preschool.  I often wished for more time to do the things I needed to do but know that when she is gone all day I will miss her.  Sigh. They are both just getting older and older and that is fun but its also sad.  Look at this sweet girl.  

 

Summer fun list

The other week for FHE we wrote down our summer fun list.  Last night I finally had some time to go on pinterest and look up fun things to do this summer.  Having this list helps me get excited for summer. Whenever we want something to do we can look at the list and pick something.  I try to make sure I have everything on hand before school is out and then we can do whatever we like whenever.  We have a few reading challenges we will do and I will do some learning time too.  I am not going to have Jared and Lydia pick themes like last year.  It felt a little limiting and took a lot of prep work! I plan to have enough learning games and activities pinned that I can adapt it as needed to what they might be interested in.  We will read every day and do the same reading log as last year.  Once they get 10 pieces added to their log (Jared wants money, Lydia wants ice cream scoops I think?) they can pick a piece that has an activity on it.  It was fun last year and worked great.  The library has some fun activities in June and there were a few places to eat at that I have wanted to try.  I also think I will try to look up the list of "national" days.  For example, Friday is "national donut day" so we are absolutely getting donuts! I hope it will be a fun summer with just enough structure to not drive me crazy, a plan for learning and quality time together, and lots of free time to do what they want.

After our busy weekend I was ready to have some lazy days this week (which is very unlike me), especially since the end of the week was going to be full.  On Tuesday the first day of no preschool Lydia and I took a 20 minute nap at 10:00 in the morning.  20 minutes was not enough for me so I added 15 and it was lovely.  I enjoyed it so much that I did it again on Wednesday!  That day Lydia played quietly on the floor by my bed.  Not the most productive use of time but I needed it. It has been a busy school year!  I stayed up way later for most of the school year than I did previously with work and preschool planning. I am looking forward to hopefully getting to bed a little earlier this Summer and Fall.  In super exciting news, a family came to tour preschool Friday and they are going to come to my school. Now I have 5 students!!  So awesome.  She asked me a tough question though. She wanted to know what my plan was in case there was an attempted kidnapping.  I have been asked a lot of questions but never anything like that.  It made me all kinds of paranoid as I read articles and even called the police station to ask their advice.  It also made me wonder what was going on in their family that she felt the need to ask... but we have talked more and they seem like a nice family and I am excited to get to know them. I also got an email from the chiropractic office.  They had contacted me a few weeks ago about applying for a job there and this week asked me to come in for a first interview with a group of other candidates.  At first I couldn't go as it was scheduled for next Thursday and we already have plans (first Sunset Series at Carter Mountain, yay!) but they ended up needing to reschedule so now its Monday and I am going to go.  I am thinking it is really not the season in my life for this kind of job but am excited to go and hear more about it.

It's hard to believe that next week is my last week of one on one time with sweet Lydia. Then the boys will be home and then after summer she will be in school.  I felt bad for being lazy and not fun Tuesday and Wednesday, so next week it is all about quality Lydia and Mom time.  I told her to start thinking of things she wanted to do, just her and me before the boys were home and I would too and next week we would party. I am expecting lots of ice cream trips and time playing at the mall.  It will be great. I am excited to see what she comes up with and enjoy this time with her.

Kid Town and Swim Team

Jared with his license and wallet. 

Made for the class by yours truly. 

At Jared's school the first grade classes host a Kid Town each year.  It's kind of a big deal.  I love how they use it to enhance things they are learning.  It tied in nicely with geography, math and writing. There are lots of different businesses, the kids can earn money to spend at the stores, take turns running the store and on the last day can walk around the other first grade classes "shopping." Lydia and I went to school today for the town meeting today.  Jared had hoped to get elected Mayor of his town but was beat out by Ava (his first real crush, he has moved on to a very nice girl named Jayleen).  Jared still loves money (although it has died down a little. It's still in his top 3 things I am sure but it is not as present in our daily lives) so this was right up his alley.

There were lots of business's  to visit such as: a grocery store, an art studio, a pizza parlor, fishing pond, library, a music store, a jewelry store, recycling center and movie theatre.

He was given the chance to be "Vice Mayor" (along with the 5 other kids who wanted to be Mayor. ) so we had him pose as if he were conducting a meeting. 

Fishing Pond.

 At the movie theater you could buy a bag of popcorn so that along with the fishing pond were his favorites.  Lydia loved the fishing pond, movie theatre, and jewelry store. Mrs. Geer kindly gave her some kid town money and she loved shopping too. 

At "work" he was in charge of the music store. 

Marcus and Jared.  

Marcus is a really nice kid, he and his family live around the corner from us. 

I hope we can meet up this summer. 

Both Jared and Lydia loved kid town. I know Lydia will be excited to do it when she is in first grade.  I love it when teachers take the time and make fun things like this. Lydia was hesitant to spend her money in the beginning.  She kept saying "they will give it back right?" No sweet girl, that is not how life works!  It was a fun activity.  

Earlier in the day Lyda and I met up with friends and went swimming at the South Forest Lakes Pool and had a picnic lunch. It was lovely.  She has been quite jealous of Jared swimming for swim team so she was thrilled to go.  I had her start with her life jacket as it's really early in the swim season but after awhile she asked if she could take it off and she did a good job swimming. She always swims better in a pool then the lake. It think because its deeper right away and clear so she can see the bottom? Anyway, she did great which makes me feel good for the summer season. 

Jared did not love his first day of swim team. The pool they practice at was delayed in repairs because its been so rainy so the first day he had land practice and it was not that enjoyable.  He handled it well but was much happier the next day when they met in the pool.  Another team in town is kindly letting Hollymead use their pool for practice.  We will be there tomorrow too and then hopefully the Hollymead pool will be ready for next week. Until school is out he has practice from 3:30 - 4:15 Monday - Friday.  Once school is out he will practice from 7:30 - 8:30 AM Monday - Friday. Its so early but at the same time, its nice to get it out of the way first thing so your day is open for other for other activities. He is not one to sleep in very often but he will not get a chance to for the next 8 weeks or so.  There are 3 other families that I know of in our ward who participate with this swim team. One of them has a daughter the same age as Jared and a daughter the same age as Lydia. I am glad they can both have a buddy.  They haven't had many opportunities to get to know these fun girls as their paths don't cross often. They are not in the same primary class and the girl the same age as Jared is in 2nd grade at Baker Butler. I am looking forward to getting to know them more.  Jared has loved the last 2 practices and is already gaining confidence. I am so glad he is enjoying at and hope he keeps feeling that way. Its very early on and a huge time commitment but already he is saying he loves it. I sadly will not be able to attend many meets because they are Wednesday nights and I work Wednesday nights but maybe I will change my schedule? We will see. 

Weekend fun

We had a surprisingly social weekend. Lydia and I met up with a friend at the park on Friday.  It turned out to be really beautiful morning and it was fun to meet up.  There was a nice wind when we left our house for the park so we decided to try flying a kite. It worked moderately well.  Lydia told me I was an amazing kite flyer so that was even more fun. Saturday morning we did some yard work (I got my first tick YUCK!!)  and then had some friends over for a cook out. The kids had a great time in the yard and we enjoyed visiting and eating hot dogs and smore's.  That afternoon we headed over to the lake to go kayaking.  Jared did a good job paddling. He wanted to go straight to the dock and Mark and I wanted to paddle more so we convinced him to paddle over to the dog park and return any of the tennis balls that floated out farther then the dogs wanted to go. It was nice to paddle more and do some "service." Lydia was happy to get towed as much as Mark was willing.  We are really liking our new kayak racks.  They are hard for me because you have to lift the kayak up really high to get it on but strapping them is easy and I love that we can take all of them in one car.

We started with this kite but it was too heavy. 

 We switched to the Cars one and were able to get it up in the air. 

I love these little chairs. It is getting a little small for Jared but the adult ones are a little awkward.  Maybe next year we will get an adult one for him but this was a cute line up. 

I'm loving my kayak! 

Sunday we had another family over for dinner.  Her husband is out of town for the next few weeks for training.  It's hard to cook dinner when it's just for you and young kids and it's nice to have a break when you are the only adult.  Monday we went over to the Forest Hills Splash park.  We arrived the same time as a family from the first ward who are moving soon so it was perfect timing.  They are a really nice couple, Mark served with the husband briefly in the YM presidency and she is the nicest girl.  It was great to see them before they left and fun that it just happened.  That evening we had some other friends over who are having their kitchen remodeled.  Speaking from experience, it's hard to feed your family when you don't have a kitchen.  We are always happy to hang out with them.  We are really fortunate that there are so many great people here in Charlottesville.  It's so different from Colorado Springs.  There were great people there too but our kids were just too little and I always wanted to keep to the schedule we set for them.  For other people it doesn't matter as much but for me it really did.  I am so happy we have chances to get to know more people and have fun with them. 

Also, the other day I felt super smart.  I had printed out a new recipe to try (enchiladas with homemade red sauce and Spanish rice) but didn't want it on the counter where it could get dirty so I had the great idea to hang it on the microwave above the stove with magnets.  I don't often print recipes but I did this time and felt so resourceful.  I loved it.  Made me feel like I should make a  pinterest pin for kitchen hacks! The fact that the recipe was well received by everyone was a fun surprise too.  I am the worst at picking new dinner meals, nobody looks forward to it.  When I do eventually get a good one, maybe every 15 recipes or so its kind of a big deal.