buck·eye - noun, \ˈbək-ˌī\
1: any of various shrubs or trees (genus Aesculus) of the horse-chestnut family; also : the large nutlike seed of such a shrub or tree
2: capitalized : a native or resident of Ohio — used as a nickname
One of the things that I fell in love with when Matt and I toured the kid's school was their assembly space. It's a big, beautiful bright room that they keep decorated with wonderful art projects made by the students. I remember walking into that space last year and just being awe struck by the beauty of it.
They use the space to hold an assembly each week with the lower school or the middle school. They call out the kids celebrating birthdays. They discuss current fundraising projects or service projects. They discuss areas of character development. They pray, say the pledge of allegiance, the school creed and always end the assembly singing some songs, including Let There Be Peace on Earth. Additionally, all the different grade levels take turns performing.
On the very last Friday of school, at the very last assembly of the year, it was FINALLY the first graders' turn.
Boy was I happy to have a little bit of time in my day and be able to sneak away for a few minutes to attend.
They had recently updated the art in the room so that students work from THIS school year was displayed. Peter's art would finally be included. Out in the hall near the library their was a nice display of their ceramic bird project.
He tells me it is a "Golden Finch" which I suppose is his way of saying goldfinch and show that perhaps there is a little too much Harry Potter floating around this house. Ha.
Regardless, I have no idea about birds one way or the other so if that's what he says than I suppose it must be. I wonder if they were given a bunch of bird types to choose from or how that worked. It seems like there must have been quite a bi of research put into the project, or in the very least some sort of lectures as he is frequently spotting random local birds out the car window when I drive and telling me what kind they are.
That's one of the trouble with 1st graders actually. You never really know what it is they are doing at school even when you ask them directly because they can never remember. But then later all this random knowledge comes spilling out of them and you wonder if it's accurate and in what context they learned about that anyway?
I just googled a goldfinch by the way and this is what I got.
Not too far off....
Anyway, the First Graders also had snow people pictures on display. Well, pictures of people in the snow, that is, NOT like, people made of snow or whatever. There were People sledding and Painting and throwing snowballs and things.
Here is Peter's.
So that was nice.
It was also nice when the first graders did their little performance. They sang and did kind of a little presentation on gratitude.
Here they are. Peter is in the front row on the far right in the red shirt.
So in May everything was kind of all go, go, go until then suddenly, it kind of just wasn't anymore.
For 3 solid weeks Peter brought home all regular amounts of school works, charging a head finishing up one more book for his Guided Reading and squeezing in a unit of telling time and another on counting money right along with some other topics I'm forgetting, probably introductory quadratic equations or something at the rate his school moves, until one day they were just done. Suddenly he just didn't have much or any homework anymore. It was the last full week in May, and the last full week of classes. He was spend vast amounts of his school day in the Performing Arts Center preparing for the Spring Concert and as I'd already realized back at Christmas just how truly AMAZING his music teacher is, I was pretty excited to see what she had planned.
I will also say that while it has been rough at times to deal with the grind of this school schedule, it was nice for them to finish up early. They didn't start until the very end of August and finished just a a couple of days into June. Their school day is longer, starting before 8 and not releasing until 3:15 for the 1-3 graders and later for the older students, allowing for more academic time as well as more specials (Art, Music, Library, PE, Computers, etc) and they limit the random days off. My kids dutifully went to school on Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, Martin Luther and even Memorial Day. While rough, that cut's an entire week off the end of the year and still allows them to give a whole week off for Thanksgiving, a normal Christmas Break, a Winter "Ski Week" break in February and Holy Thursday and Good Friday off plus the whole week after Easter.
It took some getting used to, but it also seems like for kids who thrive on regularity of schedule, the limited number of "short" weeks helped in the long run, even if my lay but really didn't want to drive them to school on those random holidays.
Although when the last full week of May turned out to be the last full week as school, well, it all became worth it.
And then, not entirely, but kind of, the kids in grades 1-8 spent the vast majority of that week practicing for the spring music concert. Nothing quite seems to say school is almost out than "I don't have any homework today Mom because we spent the all day in the PAC practicing for the concert on Thursday.
Well, alrighty then.
I'm sure that's not 100% true.
In any case, by the third day of proclamations such as these I decided Peter needed a new pair of pants and in the very least a new pair of dress shoes as his had been looking sorry since before the year had begun. He got a new dress shirt too, with pin stripes, but you can't really tell in the photos.
Sure does clean up nicely doesn't he?
It was a very sweet little show. I feel like I should have been taking notes because the music teacher really is THAT good. She picks nice music and they do fun arrangements with movements and class room instruments and it's honestly just lovely.
Here are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students. Peter is in the middle-ish of the second row
leaning way too close to the boy on his left for some strange reason.
Here they are again, this time he's looking to his right even though every single other person is looking to the left.
Not sure what's that all about.
One more. Here they are joined by older kids, 4th graders maybe on the classroom instruments playing the 80's classic, Africa. Ha.
Here's a video of the whole Lower and Middle School singing one of their last songs. Peter is hard to see, sitting on the floor to the right of the music teacher some place where he can't really be seen. But you get the general idea.
With May, along with the ends of Baseball and dance comp season, along with track and work and school carnivals and everything else that is always going on and making me tired, came Mother's Day.
I didn't honestly have any grand expectations. Something sweet made by my children is really the only gift I hope for because already it seems Peter is nearing too old for such treasured creations.
In any case, the first event for the occasion was Mommy Lunch at Lucy's school. To be honest, I didn't think I could go. I had a morning and afternoon class sessions at work I was supposed to cover, keeping me busy from 10 am until basically 3 pm. But that morning when I dropped Lucy off I saw the little decorations they had set out and a pang of worry and sadness hit me. What if I didn't come and I was the only one?
How sad would she be?
I begged a coworker to cover me from about 11:50 until just after 12:30. The lunch was supposed last only 30 minutes and I was thankful her school is so close to our house.
I hadn't known if I'd be able to come, so I had't mentioned anything to Lucy about coming back mid-day. She popped up on the edge of the playground almost as soon as I came in, happy and surprised to see me.
I really wasn't worried at all about the actual lunch part. I just wanted to make sure Lucy didn't feel left out. That mommy-guilt you know. It's never ending and it's relentless when it's your youngest and you put them in day care even when they are thriving there.
The lunch they fed us was a nice salad, ham and cheese sandwiches and some pretzels or something like that. I filled a plate for myself but Lucy ate most of mine and ignored the food in her own lunch box. Some of the other moms chatted, but I din't see anybody I knew, because, well, other than a few parents I spoke briefly with at that birthday party a month or so earlier, I didn't know anybody. It didn't matter. I spent the time feeding Lucy and hugging her and enjoying seeing her more than usual.
The gave out some raffle tickets and then awarded a few prizes but I didn't win any. It didn't matter. The whole time I watched a girl i recognized from the party who'd played with Lucy. Her mommy wasn't there. She wasn't eating a thing. The teachers kept trying to encourage her but she just wasn't. I wondered if she was sad not to have her Mommy there or if she was kind of like Lucy and unlikely to eat in any case.
This hand print butterfly card also came home with her early in the week. Perfection. And also, the first real thing she ever made for me. Everything else that's come home so far has just been random coloring or painting projects.
The weekend was kind of insane as Saturday was Peter's first track meet and baseball game while I took A.J. to her last dance comp of the year.
Sunday morning, I slept in until whatever time Matt couldn't contain them anymore and they came bursting in to say good morning. I was presented with an overflowing basket filled with brightly colored pens and post-it notes along with a lovely bouquet of flowers.
You know you're a teacher mom when....
Peter had come home Friday with a picture he'd made of his hand prints as flowers and a card but A.J.'s Mother's Day stuff wasn't until the following week on Thursday. Not sure if I find that scheduling odd or a welcome relief because it allowed her event not to conflict with any of the other stuff the week before.
So, for A.J. and the other Pre K students, the Mommies were invited to an afternoon tea. Don't get me started on the scheduling of an event for Moms at mid-day while the Dad's event was in the evening since apparently Moms don't actually work, or something, because the whole thing really was lovely. I had to do quite big of deal making to ensure my own availability and I already worry about such events for her next year when I do not have the flexibility of working at home. Also, when I have to beg, bargain and steal to free up time in the middle of the day I'd rather not still be hungry afterward but maybe that sort of thinking explains why I have gained so much weight this year. Noon is a very hungry time for me I guess.
Whatever. It was a cool and cloudy day but we all bundled up and met up in the little rose garden courtyard of the school original hacienda building. (Long ago the property was a ranch and many of the original buildings are still in use. The Pre-K and Kinder rooms, for example still show evidence in their design of their original buildings use as some sort of stables.
So anyway, we Mommies gathered and looked over the table decorations and find our seats while we waited for the children to come over. It wasn't long before the teachers appeared in the door and asked us to take our seats. We'd been asked to send in a bouquet of silk flowers and some ribbon a few weeks earlier and I, for one, was eager to see what they'd made for us.
The kids came out one by one, each holding a paper hat they'd decorated with the flowers.
A.J was the 4th or 5 child. She appeared in the door way looking serious while she waited for the student ahead of her to go ahead.
The teacher made sure each child knew where their mom was sitting before they were set off. A little smirk appeared on her face as A.J. tried to walk to me as quickly as she cold and show me what she'd made.
The hats were formed out of several large sheets of plain old newsprint paper. I wondered how they formed them and was later told the one teacher saturated the paper and then laid it out over an old plastic helmet of some sort to set the head. Then she trimmed the edges to make a circle and helped the kids by gluing the flowers down as the children desired.
Being the person I am, having grown up the way I did, I fond it too beautiful to touch. I just wanted to stare at it and enjoy but as the other mommies put their hats on I felt that I must over come my desire to save it and put the hat.
Have I mentioned lately how A.J. has a really really big head? And how she also tends to have really big hair to boot? Yeah, well, apparently she gets that from me. My hat barely fi on my head and I was afraid of destroying it if I pushed at all so I just sort of balanced it there over my increasingly out of control curls. I was happy I'd not worn my hair up (for once) but wished desperately for me gel to flatten that mess down again.
Trying not to move my head, lest my beautiful treasure fall off and get mushed, A.J directed my attention to the cards and gifts she'd made for me on the table. Inside the card was one of those surveys. I've gotten them before, but for some reason these answers came out less funny and more sweet and then I started to cry a bit.
Clearly this is the best one of those surveys ever. Check out that last answer!!!
A.J. was looking at me so deeply wanting me to be pleased. Everything was so lovely. She was so sweet and lovely. What was she so worried about? Am I that hard to please at home? Was she really do worried I wouldn't be proud? Everything was amazing and I kept right on crying a bit and hugging her. I was over come a bit, and I think that's a little bit odd for me.
Oh, but then again, since we were running the risk of things getting to sappy here, I'd like to direct your attention to the picture she'd drawn of me for my place mat.
Well, okay.
Most of the other mommies seem to be dawn in brightly colored dresses and high heels. Admittedly a few looked more like oddly shaped hedge hogs than their parents. But A.J.'s was so hilariously accurate. I mean, she nailed the crazy dark hair. Thank goodness she gave me a smiling face. She put me in purple shirt, probably a t-shirt which is pretty accurate. A hooded sweatshirt might have been more accurate, but I'd been making and effort to dress nicer lately. She had me in jeans and green tennis shoes. Scary accurate although my pereferred pair of sneakers have pink and grey colors along with the green. My favorite part is that I'm holding my red purse. I do love my red purse. Ihad a much beloved red purse years ago when we lived in Japan that I adored until one day the zipper broke and I was devastated. I'd had a slew of other purses since but had carried around a brightly patterned diaper bag for the better part of the previous two years. It had only been about a couple months earlier that I'd finally retired that diaper bag backpack once and for all when I'd bough that just large enough to not be obnoxious and still hold all my kids snacks and wipes and a spare diaper, bight red purse. :)
My least favorite part, is of course, the wildly too short shirt. I definitely do not go around baring my mid drift these days. No not at all. I already mentioned the issues with weight gain I've discovered in these past few months. That would just NOT be a good way to go. But.... oh if she'd known me back then. It was SO the style of course, but I rocked the heck out of it. I practically own that look back when. It's so odd to me that she drew me that way now is all.
Although I'm sure I'm reading way too much into it though, and she just had trouble with the proportions.
It also could be seen as a nice little dig that we won't letter he show her stomach at dance. Hahah.
Anyway... There was a little board with baby pics of the kids next to baby pics of the moms. I didn't do a good job matching the photos because this is the only baby pic I have of myself, but she really does look just like me with lighter hair (or in the case of her picture.... no hair.)
Here's another selfie we took. She looks the same but I think I look less scary.
The school posted a bunch of pics afterward online. I found these few of us.
Me getting overly emotional.
The kids went to get our food and serve us.
Yes another selfie. I suppose now matter how gorgeous it is, I am just not a hat person. I look silly in every one.
The kids sang a few songs for us and ended their performance with a kiss for us.
Here's a video of one of the songs.
It was nice. I love our school. It was such nice way to wrap up Mother's Day stuff.
One of the big events that we'd been looking for since deciding to send our kids to their fabulous school this year was the Spring Carnival. As incoming students were invited last year, but obviously we were still down in San Diego. Matt actually did intend to make a special Daddy and daughter trip up with A.J. to attend last year. We were supposed to have had out stuff boxed up on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the week before the Carnival, while it was going to be loaded the following Monday. Peter had baseball so we were going to let A.J. skip dance for a change and get out of the boxed up mayhem to visit with her Dad.
Except then the mover cut the pack-up days back and showed up really late and worked way, way late into Friday so that Matt couldn't actually leave with her on Friday in time to get up for the event. Instead he took her the movies or something.
But so now they were all still wondering all about the big, exciting carnival that they'd heard so much about for another year.
When Carnival weekend came up on us again, they were THRILLED.
To begin with, it was a free dress day at school. This school is super stingy with free dress (and I love it.) They got Halloween dress in costumes, and Free Dress in Compas House colors for the 3 pep rallies and this day for the Carnival and that is literally all for the entire year. Did I mention I love it? The wonderful ease of dressing themselves in the exact same uniform every day makes my mornings so much less stressful.
Although to be fair, they can afford to be so stingy with the free dress days because they award them out as a reward for participation in fundraising efforts and community service projects. Man was I so happy when Peter's class never won. Ha.
Anyway, so in the carnival ran something like 11 am to 4 pm. Peter had his track meet that morning which I went to for a short time before I had to go leave and volunteer at booth from 11-noon. Peter's track meet finished up about 12:30 so we all headed over to the school right about 1:00. I also had a teen from the dance center meet us there to help with the kids. She was fundraising for her summer dance programs, so I thought having her help me out with the kids that afternoon for a few hours would be a nice way for her to earn some money for her dance (without me looking like I was playing favorites and contributing to her and not others) and also allow us to enjoy the carnival better without the stress of us chasing all the kids.
We grabbed lunch and then set the kids off to have fun.
The petting zoo was an absolute favorite.
It was honestly a bit hard to keep track of them. Peter was running wildly and she had the girls so we just kind of went back and forth checking in on them.
There is a lot to do. There's a cake walk, 3 or 4 game booths, a couple bouncy houses, this wipe out style inflatable where you jump across the big red bouncy balls, water balloon wars, the petting zoo, a photo booth, face painting, some jumpy trampoline things and probably more.... but the main attraction running all the way across the fields over everybody's head is the zipline.
A.J. who is generally the more hesitant one is also apparently a thrill seeker and wanted to do the zip-line and she wanted to go with me.
Peter who generally is fearless, probably because he doesn't think things over too clearly, has had a few goes on a roller coaster and made it to the top of a zipline staircase before wanted no part (until the very end when it was too late anyway.) He's fearless but not a thrill seeker. I don't think he appreciates heights all that much.
So I went with A.J., wondering all the while we waited in the line if she would chicken out.
I should really know better.
Funny thing is, the staircase got longer and higher as we climbed. I'm in no way afraid of heights, but it was kind of a spiral stair and it just kept going longer than I expected. I guess I only noticed it because I was wondering about A.J.
She was fine.
We got to the top. The guy hooked our harnesses to the line. I guess I expected him to say something but he didn't. Probably didn't enjoy working the rich kid's private school carnival and thought we were all snobby brats or something. In any case once he clipped us on, he just opened the doors. And then, silly me I expected him to count down or A.J. need some convincing or something but NO.
Before I even really noticed the doors were open she'd already jumped out.
So then I just jumped out after her.
She was smiling and laughing.
And I am of course, a lot heavier and so while she kind of glided delicately to the bottom I came down with a lot bouncing on the wire and went zooming past her and all the way to the end, bouncing waaaaay into the brake pad at the end and then back again as she came and kind of nudged the break area and spun in a circle.
She was giggling and smiling and so so happy. A bit crazy actually. Like one of those full on belly gut laughs with her head flying back and her face turning pink like she needed more air than she was getting.
The guys came and unhooked us.
So that happened.
Never underestimate that child is all.
I don't know why I don't actually know any better yet.
Peter had stood still exactly long enough to watch me and A.J. zipline. Lucy was with the sitter in the petting zoo and Peter kept disappearing over near the middle school kids on the dunking booth and the water balloon cannon wars. I'm so thankful for the caliber of children at this school. Even the middle school kids were kindly putting up with the crazy excited first grader who never had the partner he was supposed to have and who kept trying to take more than the 3 balloons her was allotted per turn.
Face painting before water balloons may have been a silly choice.
A.J. has a go on the trampolines even though she wasn't really big enough to take advantage of the harnesses bungees to flip.
Lucy and the sitter really did keep winding up in the petting zoo. They weren't the only ones. It's hard t argue with baby bunnies and goats, chickens and a pot bellied pig.
Peter was all over the place. Literally. A few of his friends asked me where he was but I didn't know what to tell them. I think he was more interested in doing what HE wanted to do then doing anything that anybody else wanted to do. He says he doesn't have many good friends here, and I'm working on helping him to understand that sometimes, if you want to make better friend ships he's not always going to be able to exactly what he wants to do.
There was another big inflatable obstacle course thing. I suppose it was supposed to be for the older children, but as the afternoon wore on they kind of took it over. It was entertaining watching one of the middle school teachers remind the middle school boys not to be too rough when the younger kids were around and he kept making them wait. Haha. Life lessons.
Lucy did go through a time or too as well, but somebody had to basically lift her over the climbing wall at the beginning so after a few trips Matt made her take a break.
The photo booth was fun too. :)
Just to prove that he was still, and clean at least once during that afternoon.
