The Bus

Because Jack and I will both be starting kindergarten on the same day this year (today!), I will miss the kids’ first day of school preparations.  I am going to have to trust Dave to see that the outfits I lay out get put on, that Maddie’s hair gets brushed, that no one forgets a shiny, new backpack, and that First Day of School Pictures are taken.  Mostly I am sad to be missing all of these things, all of the excitement and anticipation of the First Day.

But I am glad that I will not be there to see the kids get on the bus.

I don’t know what it is about The Bus that clenches me with anxiety, maybe it’s my own bad school bus experiences as a teen, maybe it’s knowing they are sitting mostly unsupervised with unknown kids learning interesting new words and topics I would not normally be sharing with them, and maybe it’s the symbolic ripping-my-child-from-my-arms-and-taking-them-into-the-deep-dark-world without me that gets to me.

When Maddie got on the bus in kindergarten, I held it together until I made it back to my house and then I sobbed for ten minutes. 

On Friday I took the kids to our school’s Open House where we met their teachers and inspected their classrooms, reunited with old friends and smiled at the new kids, and tried to mentally resign ourselves to the fact that summer was pretty much tiptoe-ing out the back door whereas school was sneaking up, ready to pounce on us, to drag us kicking and screaming into the chalk dust.

Just as we were about to leave we heard the announcement that a school bus was in the front driveway for anyone wishing to ride it.  Jack was excited.  Maddie was ambivalent.  Ben was annoyed.  And so we went.

It was easy to pick out the kindergartners.

And then there was Mr. Annoyed:

The bus ride, of course, is meant to calm any fears the kindergartners may have about riding the bus, but these kids didn’t seem to need any comforting.

 

The ride was too short for Jack.

It was over pretty quickly and we headed down those huge steps and went home.  I’m sure all the kindergartners on the bus left feeling excited about their new adventure.

I just wish it worked as well for moms.

Procrastination is a Good Thing!

Last night the children and I got kicked out of the house. 

My husband was hosting the annual Fantasy Football Draft Night or Whatever The Heck It’s Called and the house was going to be filled with a bunch of big, smelly dudes all vying  to build the best pretend football team ever, which meant that the language would occasionally get a tad…heated?  Frantically aflutter?  Of the emphatically shouted four letter variety?

So we really weren’t kicked out, it was completely by choice to escape the Fevered Football Madness and Cowboy Show going on down in our basement and go see a movie.

We all wanted to see Despicable Me, but we waited so long to see it (it came out back in early July) that it was only in a few theatres, and only for a few showings.  We paid our admission price ($29!, Dear God in Heaven, Why???) then headed down the hall to the Despicable Me sign.

We opened the door, and…we were the only people in the theatre!  We were excited to have such a choice of seats, and, quite frankly, I allowed myself the pleasure of a short daydream sequence in my head where I wasn’t continually asking Jack to “sit down!  sh!  other people are behind us! don’t kick the seat! sh! your seat is not a playground! sh!” but reality kicked back in and I told the kids that someone else would probably arrive soon and I pushed that little fantasy deep, deep down inside me.
 
But no one else ever arrived.

Ten minutes into the movie, Jack asked if he could try out the front row.  “Yes!” I said in a normal, non-hushed voice, “Go for it!”  This was repeated often during the movie by various children.

There were a couple of dance scenes in the movie (Boogie Robots) and we got up and danced!

We passed our smuggled-in candy (take that, Outrageously Expensive Theatre!) back and forth and didn’t worry about crinkling wrappers.

I took both Maddie and Jack out for separate bathroom breaks and felt secure leaving the remaining children alone in the theatre (the bathroom was across the hall---I could see if anyone entered our theatre).

Ben and Jack, at one point, wanted to run up to the screen, jump up, wave their arms, and see if their shadows appeared on the movie.  And I let them.

And when Jack repeated movie lines and asked questions and told me about his day in his very loud Jack voice, I listened, and it was awesome!

Okay, so, movie review:  Despicable Me was genuinely funny, well-written, convincingly-voiced, had lots of physical gags that made the kids roar, and had a little adult humor for me (The Bank of Evil—formerly known as Lehman Brothers---did  anyone else catch that?).  But the empty movie theatre is what made that movie for us. 

Then we went home and the smelly guys were still there fussing about their teams, but there was leftover pizza on the counter so we forgave them (though it is hard to eat pizza with your fingers stuck in your ears to block the fancy words floating up from the basement).

Day Trippin’ with Ducks

One of the things on our Summer To-Do list was to spend a day in the town of Lititz.  We usually go with a bunch of moms and an even bigger bunch of kids toward the end of summer but this year…I was offered a job teaching morning kindergarten in a local school district.  I found out last week, I have in-service all this week, and then school begins.  I had one day to squeeze in a trip and couldn’t find a single other person available on such short notice.  I was able to talk my friend Trudy into loaning me two of her boys for the day, so we weren’t completely alone!

First we fed the ducks in the park.  I had been saving up bread in the freezer all year for this!

The kids thought the duck on the rock below was the president of all the ducks.  He does look pretty important, doesn’t he?

Then we headed to the playground where the kids mostly played tag.

Next, we headed for the Sturgis Pretzel Factory, which is about a quarter mile walk along a quaint, sweetly picturesque street.

We made it!

Inside we tried samples of chocolate, cinnamon, and spicy cheese pretzels while we waited for the tour. 

Finally, we were allowed in the first room where we line up along the table to make our own pretzels.

Then Jack and Sammy got to help pretend to put the pretzels in the oven (we don’t get to keep and eat the ones we made).

And after the tour we each received a bag of these, just in time to give us energy for the walk to our next stop:

Next we headed for the Wilbur Chocolate Factory.  This is more of a store and less of a tour, though there is a small candy museum inside, but it’s always our last stop, every year.  Plus, who can resist free samples of Wilbur Buds (like Hershey Kisses, but creamier!)

Back to the park, where we enjoyed some of the candy we bought!

Then we headed to the car where we scraped the duck poop off of our shoes and collapsed into the air conditioning.  I’m so glad we got this day trip in.  It truly is one of our favorite summer traditions!

Formal Wear

Jack and Maddie are in my brother’s wedding next month.  I just can’t wait for the big day, partly because I really LOVE weddings, but mostly because I can’t wait to officially welcome the lovely Jamae into our family.

Maddie already has her junior bridesmaid’s dress, but you will have to wait until the big day to see those pictures.

However, last week, I took The Baby to be fitted for his sweet, little, itty bitty, adorably handsome tuxedo. 

Here he is with Aunt Jamae and her nephew Shaun:

But what I want you to notice in the picture above, is that

a) he is also trying on one shiny tuxedo shoe

b) we didn’t think to wear socks

c) luckily the store provided those little nylon-y sock-y things

d) Jack is wearing one on the foot that doesn’t need to try on a shoe.

He just thought they were awesome.  The guy initially gave him one little nylon-y sock-y thing and Jack asked for a second so he’d have a set.  Jack liked the fact that a box of them sat on the desk like samples at the grocery store for anyone to have.  What a bargain!

When it was time to go, I looked down and realized that…

…yes.  He  had decided to wear them home.

And when we got in the car he said, “Mama, look in your purse!”

I looked.

He had gotten a pair for me too.

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

Water balloon fight, that is.

We have a lot of beach traditions, but I think everyone would agree that the Yearly Water Balloon Fight is the best.  We fill up two large coolers of water balloons.

(Jack found that the water balloons went down the front of his bathing suit and were held nicely in place by the mesh lining until he was in position to fire.  Ew.)
There are 3 levels to the house and the pool deck.  Everyone chooses a location and the water balloons start flying. 

Unfortunately, it takes longer to fill and tie the water balloons than it does to throw them on unsuspecting family members.  The fight is usually over way too quickly and then we have to clean up all those broken balloons.

But it’s still our favorite.

Fuzzy Facebook Updates

I just love Facebook.  I enjoy checking in a few times a day and seeing what all of my real friends and pretend friends are up to.  I update my status every once and awhile, though not as much as I did initially.  Interesting things just don’t seem to happen to me.  I stopped frequent updating after I realized I had typed in “is staring at the computer screen trying to come up with a status” and decided I was too lame for words.

Wouldn’t it be awesome, though, if we could have a Facebook for pets?  Maybe in the future, when we have flying cars, and meals in a pill, and robot maids, and moving sidewalks, just like on The Jetsons,  pets would be outfitted with computer keyboards made just for them with special bark/meow/squeak to human translators, smell check, and maybe even a built in water bowl.   I think Fuzzbook or MyCage, or possibly LickedIn would go something like this…


Herbie is eating carrots.

Ginger Save some for me!
Deuce ew carrots dude u r disgusting.
Herbie lol well you are a dog Deuce go lick another dog butt already.
Ginger save some for me!
Tiny roflmao!

Herbie could use some new pine shavings in the cage already ppl!

Ginger omg I know what you mean what is with our owners?
Herbie I know!  Totally!
Ginger Like the other day I squeaked when they opened the fridge and…nothing!
Herbie if only I had thumbs I’d go open the fridge door myself.
Ginger if anyone could do it, u could, SweetCheeks.
Herbie aw I’m totally blushing under this hair now. U r the best Gingy.  BRB POS.

Herbie is heading to the vet today.  UGH.

Tiny ohhh, man, feel ur pain
Cooper will be praying 4 u
Ginger u cn do it, Herbie!  Call me.
Deuce just 8 all the chocolate out of the candy bowls.    C u there, dude.

~~~~~

It would be cool, you have to admit, but I mostly just want a flying car and maybe Jane Jetson’s sweet wardrobe.  Oooh!  And that elevator tube that shoots them up to their apartment and the push button meal maker!

But mostly just the flying car.

The Wild Life at the Outer Banks

Well, it certainly isn’t us having a wild life…

But there is plenty of wildlife here to enjoy.  Some up close, some from afar.  VERY afar.

First up we’ve got your Biting %*#@ing Fly.  These plagued us only one day, but the tiny little things really managed to clear the beach:

Next, we almost always find a frog, and this year Jack named him Frogger and carried him around for awhile.  In a bucket covered with Saran Wrap with holes poked in the top.  RIP Frogger.

We found a baby fish in the ocean (don’t worry, we didn’t eat him for supper, he’s now swimmin’ with the fishes… literally, not figuratively).

Then of course, there are your friendly seagulls…

…and pelicans…

…and lots of Sand Fleas (little crabs)…

…dolphins…

…and the dreaded jellyfish.  We were overrun by these this year, only two days were mostly jellyfish-free, and on one really awful day there were thousands of jellyfish carcasses washed up on the beach.  You had to watch every step you took!

But our most exciting find this year was quite a trophy.  We are just puffed up with pride over this one…

We didn’t like the jellyfish but are feeling grateful a school of these spiny, creepy, grumpy-looking pufferfish didn’t decide to invade the beach! 

Phases of the Moon

New…

Waxing…

Crescent…

Gibbous…

Full… 

Waning…