Jens says goodbye to First Grade

An Interview:
How do you feel about finishing first grade?

Good.  I want to be in second.

What are some of your favorite things about first grade?

I really liked the math.  I liked that I had the same teacher [as last year].  I like doing Lexia there.  I liked having two recesses.

What did you do during recess most of the time?

Look at spiders.  I liked catching jumping bugs on the wall.  I usually play with Jamen and Colby, sometimes Nathanael.  I like doing the monkey bars.

Tell me about your favorite first grade friends.  

Jamen: I really like to play with him and he's fun to play with because he is silly, but not during class.
Colby:  He is nice and he likes Nathanael, and so do I.
Nothing really about Nathanael.  He doesn't really do much with me at school [because they were in different classes].

Tell me about the best day of PE.

The day that we do frisbee and bowling because frisbee's fun and bowling's fun.

Tell me about lunchtime. 

It isn't fun.

Why not?

All you have to do is eat.

What was your favorite thing to eat at school?

Fortune cookies when you buy lunch.  Peanut butter sandwiches you and Dad made.

What was the most exciting day this year?

Wacky tacky day, because you dress up goofy.  Can we be done?  I want to do Lexia.

Fine.  We are done, but I can't believe my little boy is going to be a second grader.  

A few cute things

I have been trying to write down the cute things the kids say, so here are a few from May 2012:

“Crickers and thorns!” S

“Should we put the sunbrella down?” J

Sylvie, listening to ‘Where O Where has my Little Dog Gone’: "This is a sad song.  I hope her dog comes back soon."

During dinner, S has 5 small pieces of asparagus on her plate.  We tell her to eat them up.  She squeezes her eyes shut and says “But I don’t see any asparagus!”

Jens, busily coloring on his spider book with a friend: “It’s like we’re in the olden days when they only had grey and black and white to color.”

My favorite recurring conversation with Sylvie: “Mom, did you notice how much I love you?” 

Me: “I love you, too.” 

Sylv: “I love you most!”

May 20th

I have decided I should embrace my slackerliness and stop apologizing for not posting more often.  Life continues to flow by at our house, and sometimes I don't have time to document everything, and sometimes the behavior around here is so poor I don't care to document it (Pee in the kitchen trashcan?  Doll in the toilet?  No one needs to hear the gory details).  If I don't write any of the yucky stuff down, in 20 years I'll only remember the sweet things, right?

Speaking of sweet:
Jens wrote this very charming note to Mrs. Cann for teacher appreciation week.  In the past I have had to help him a lot with knowing what to write, but this year he came up with his own note.  It must be a growing skill for him, because he also wrote me a very sweet mother's day card in which he told me he likes it when I am happy, not when I am mad and that he loves me as much as roses.




In other Jens news, we finally finished the much reviled jackrabbit report and diorama.   The report was pure agony to write, while the diorama took several days of small tasks to get completed.  Once he had the vision of it, he was excited, but man was it a lot of work.  It was displayed on his desk during the school open house night and it looked very realistic.  Jens has had Mrs. Cann for the past two years and has enjoyed her.  I have liked being a volunteer in her class, as well.  It will be strange to move on to a different teacher next year.  I can't believe Jens will be in second grade.  He also informs me that he has 7 loose teeth right now, so just picture how that would look.  I think he might be overly generous with the term "loose," though, so hopefully I won't have a completely toothless 6 year old any time soon.


  

In Sylvie news,  we finished up Music Makers for the spring.  She will be very sad not to have her friends over every Wednesday to sing and dance, but hopefully park days will fill the hole.

We also had a little play group field trip to the Folsom Zoo and train.  The girls were very cute little bears.

Unfortunately, we picked a very busy day and the zoo was over run with school groups, but they didn't seem to mind.  The squirrels in the deer feed buckets seemed to garner the most excitement and praise.  The train was a big hit.  At first Sylvie was not interested, but she changed her mind and enjoyed the ride whole-heartedly.


Sylvie continues to embrace a unique aesthetic when it comes to hair dos.  She is very resourceful and can be found using a variety of accoutrements in her hair, from panties to shirts to skirts, pants, balloons, headbands, and various hair clips.  I have determined that Sundays are my day to do hair the way I want, so she does look decent at least one day of the week.

In family news, Mike has been working a lot.  We are thankful for his good job and the good job he does taking care of us, but we sure miss him when he is working crazy hours!  One night for family night while he was gone, we had a lesson on keeping the house cool for the summer (covering such gems as "Close the door when you go in or come out" and "Turn off the lights.") and for our activity we made ice cream in a bag.  We used the trampoline to shake our ice cream, which the kids found very fun.  Sylvie's was made with coconut milk, which was so SO good, but she didn't care for it.  It was easy and the kids loved making it, though.  We will have to try it again when Mike is home to enjoy it. 

I have been working on another project.  I will give you a photo clue:

This project still has a really, REALLY long way to go, though, so don't expect after pictures for a while. 

The Saturday before Mother's Day the kids did a fun run.  I was going to sign up for the 10k but wimped out.  I ran my own version the week after, and my course was much nicer than the one they used for the race.  Anyway, the kids ran really fast and had a good time.  Jens opted to run by himself, taking off as soon as the announcer said go. He's an old pro with races now. 

Sylvie was a little less sure of herself and wanted to hold hands the whole way.  She ran very fast and the entire time, without any breaks.  She picked her running outfit herself--no running shorts for this girl!  The race went into the Folsom Zoo, which was fun.  The animals were all very excited by the activity, so they were out running around and making noise.  The tigers were especially interested in all the cute little kids running past!  Sylvie was very pleased with the cheering crowds at the finish.  

 Both kids enjoyed the booths and gift bags afterwords.  Nothing like Gatorade, jolly rancher candy, and rice crispy treats for breakfast!

 Mother's Day was a lovely event this year.  Sylvie sent me some beautiful pink roses, which I am still enjoying, Jens made me a peppermint sugar scrub (at school.  It unfortunately re-awakened his desires to cook and create--he emptied several bottles of spices in an attempt to create "a scent," in his words.) Mike gave me beautiful and delicious chocolate strawberries.  Church was very nice--nothing offensive :) and Jens and Mike made me a delicious waffle dinner. (Menu created by Jens).  I love my nice family, and I am glad to be the mom!

Is it just me or does Jens look shockingly old in this picture?

This weekend was full of more fun.  A "girl party" for Sylvie and me while Jens and Mike went on the Fathers and Sons campout (In spite of being at home, Sylvie managed to stay up until 10:00, pretending to be a mermaid and doing somersaults in her bed, perhaps a reflection of the wonderful time she had at a birthday/swim party that morning).  According to reports, Jens liked throwing things in the fire, toasting marshmallows, and sharpening sticks.  He also remarked with excitement during his post-campout shower "My hair still smells like campfire!"  Mike reported that Jens ate lots of sugar, stayed up obscenely late, and practically stood in the fire.  He is decidedly grouchy today, perhaps the result of the late night and sugar highs.  

We spent the rest of our Saturday at the Intel family carnival (horse rides, petting zoo, carnival games, bounce house!) The 45 minutes we were there was completely sufficient and also fun, and going for a family swim.  Sylvie "put her face in the water" (aka, I dunked her) twice, which she didn't like, but other than that, a fun time was had.  

So there is our May update.  School is winding down, summer is warming up, and we are ready for a change of pace.  We are already looking forward to Florida, Utah, and the Sea Ranch.  I will try to post more often, but I won't feel guilty if I don't.  Happy May, everyone.  And Happy Graduation, Loren!  We are so proud. 

PS--still having trouble formatting with the new blogger.  Anyone else finding it annoying?

Project Microwave

I know you are all waiting with baited breath to see if my project turned out. Well, it did.  And I am finishing it today. Last time I showed off these beauties:

 

So a little background info is in order.  We have made some aesthetic changes in our kitchen and put in a new microwave, but one of the biggest, irritating problems has been our very low, not to code microwave. 

Seriously, what were the builders thinking?  You can hardly reach the back burners.  The clearance was really bad.  When I painted the cabinets, we tried to think of solutions--removing the doors, cutting them, putting in shelves, but never could come up with a real solution that might actually look okay and work.  Fast forward to now.  Our neighbors are redoing their kitchen, a total gut job.  So we got some of their cast off cabinetry for the garage, and I asked for the doors from over their fridge, which are short.  But they are also much too wide for over the microwave.  So I asked for their over microwave doors, too.  I took the doors apart and pieced them back together using a lot of glue and staples.  I even got to break out the dremel to fix the corners that didn't match up perfectly, which was fun. 

Once I finished and the doors turned out pretty decently, 

I painted them and went to work on the scary part. 

Removing the old

and putting in the new. I think Mike secretly had a few heart attacks during this phase, because who knows if it will go back together?  I am not a cabinet builder, nor do I have fancy tools.  

But it actually turned out really, really well.  Much better than I ever would have guessed.  I use my stove top for baking a lot because it is the only smooth surface in the kitchen, and I couldn't believe how easy it was and how I didn't keep bumping my face on the microwave.  It looks like it has always been this way!

May 3

Today Jens told me how to make tic tacs:

"First you crush up mints, then you stick it together with eating glue."

Now we all know.