This year, Carolyn is moving up a level to a 1.5 hour class that includes tap, ballet & jazz, and Anna is starting dance with an hour long ballet & tap (and learning how to listen) class. So we moved “dance night” to Wednesdays so they could have classes at (mostly) the same time.
This means…I get to sit in the lobby with my knitting and my kindle for a whole entire hour *all by myself*. (Oh, wait, that’s probably not what I’m supposed to be excited about here, is it?)
Also, how cute is this?!?
Anna was so very ready to start school that she was beside herself with excitement this morning!
After we put Carolyn on the bus and I managed to drink a little coffee, we headed down to the school and waited for them to open up the doors.
Anna showed her teachers the little treasures she brought with her in her backpack, then made a beeline for the Mr. Potato Head set they had out. She barely looked up when I said “bye”.
Her favorite parts were apparently snack and the playroom. Is it just my two girls that think lunch/snack & recess are the best parts of school?
I feel like I should be able to write something worth reading about today. But I can’t. I still feel much the same way I felt 10 years ago.
I was surprised to discover that Carolyn learned a bit about what happened 10 years ago today in school this past week. I’ve never brought it up with her, with either girl, because although I know it can’t last forever, I want to protect them from all the evils in the world for as long as I can. I’m glad I didn’t have to start the discussion though, and even more glad that she didn’t feel the need to continue it just now.
So, we watched football. We watched the patriotic commercials. Anna was excited to see the flag at the beginnings of the games. Mostly, today, I just remembered.
Anna got to go to her preschool today and meet her teachers!
She was a tiny bit shy at first, but then warmed up pretty quickly.
She apparently thought she needed to show off every bit of knowledge she’s already stored up, as she walked around the room pointing out various things that had her name on them (her star for circle time, her nametag for her seat, her coat hook, etc.) and counting aloud all the numbers she saw. Then, instead of building a tower out of the alphabet blocks as she was instructed to, she lined them up in alphabetical order.
I really hope her teachers didn’t think I coached her to do all that…
Carolyn was going to buy for her first day. But when I mentioned that I would make her “back to school” bento the second day, then, she changed her mind.
I’m out of practice, a bit, so I packed this one the night before. (All but the cookies – I added those in first thing in the morning so they wouldn’t get soggy in the fridge.) Her lunch time this year isn’t until 1PM, so nearly every bit of this was eaten, and for the first time since she started all day school she didn’t eat everything that wasn’t nailed down the second she walked in the door!
New year, new teacher, new ‘do:
Carolyn wanted to wear a million little braids to school, so we settled on a slightly smaller number (*only* 18) and got up early to do it this morning.
It was a tad bit chilly waiting for the bus!
But she is definitely all smiles and ready to meet new friends and face new challenges!
Anna, on the other hand…when the bus left, she grabbed my hand and started pulling me to the car, saying “OK, now it’s time to drive me to preschool!” She was so crestfallen when she realized she doesn’t get to start until next Tuesday…poor girl!
It didn’t take her too long to cheer up, though, and by the time we were waiting for the afternoon bus she was dancing around with her pigtails flying!
Today we had an apple tasting, made homemade applesauce, and painted…or tried to…with cut up apples.
First, I dug the various varieties of apples out of our fridge:
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of summer gold, and based on how incredibly tart they were I suspect the man at the farmer’s market just picked ginger gold apples waaaay too early! The girls definitely likd the pink lady apple the best, but also enjoyed the other two, despite the fact that they weren’t so sweet.
Then I peeled and chopped the apples while the girls snuck apple peels to munch on. We added a couple more ginger gold apples and wound up with about 7 cups of chopped apples. To this we added a tablespoon of sugar (since the apples were mostly tart), a few drops of lemon juice (to prevent it from browning so much), about 1/2 cup of water, and several shakes of cinnamon.
While that was cooking (for about 10 minutes?) we sliced an apple around it’s middle and found a star shape made by the seeds!
So I got out some paint and paper. However, the apples didn’t really cooperate so much…they just made a paint-y mess.
So then we resorted to finger painting (the templates from our stained glass apples).
Finally, the apples were cooked and mushy. So, after lots and lots of hand-washing, we got out the potato-masher and smashed them…
…and ate the resulting delicious applesauce warm. Mmmm.
It’s September 1st! How did that happen?!? Just a few short days until school starts, and I’ll have to decide whether to continue doing themed projects during the school year – I have two enthusiastic votes for “yes”, but I’m not sure, realistically, how much time we’ll have once the big girl is in school all day…
Today’s project was inspired by a couple of different ideas I found on the internet…which I didn’t bookmark. :(
First, I cut strips of red and green cardstock, about 1/2″ x 4 1/4″. Then we curled those strips around a pencil to create little curls of paper. (Carolyn was very good at this part, Anna was more interested in uncurling the curls.)
Then we drew tree trunks on brown construction paper – Carolyn drew her own and I drew one for Anna – then cut them out and glued them onto a light blue background.
Finally, we glued the curls of paper onto the trees to make leaves and apples. I think the original project ideas I found had you gluing the edges to the paper, but both girls preferred the look of the curls glued on their sides.
Of course, this way they don’t stay especially well-curled, but they’re cute anyway!
We glued some green strips to the bottom of the paper for grass, and I have no idea where they were going with the little yellow bits they cut out…?
So. Not quite apples. But Jenny posted pictures from a nearby sunflower field, and since I was feeling pretty guilty about not planting sunflowers for the girls this year we decided to take a drive to go find them.
Note that Anna spotted them first, and said “Look, I see the sunflowers!” but Carolyn and I only saw cornfields and dandelions. Twenty minutes later, after driving all over the area and wondering how on earth we could be missing a giant field of sunflowers, we came back along that stretch of road from the other direction and spotted them. Right where Anna had said they were.
Next time I’ll listen to the observant preschooler in the backseat!
It was a bright, sunny afternoon, which made for challenging lighting conditions – I mostly had to decide whether to underexpose the flowers or overexpose the sky – but I think I got a couple of great shots!
(At least we bought apples at the farmer’s market this afternoon. Maybe we’ll try our hand at making apple butter tomorrow while we’re stuck in the house for a 4 hour window waiting for the guy to come clean & inspect the furnace.)
