School Emergency Kit

Today was Pajama Day at Daniel’s school.

All the Pre-K’ers could wear their pajamas to class and there was a special story time with the Principal.  The morning snack was a special treat: Donut holes and juice boxes!  Daniel was on cloud nine!  When we walked into the classroom this morning, we admired some of the other pajama choices. As I gave Daniel a hug goodbye, I saw a little girl wander in behind him wearing her school uniform.

“Uh oh,” I thought.  ”Someone’s parent forgot it was Pajama Day.”

Now, I’m not judging them.  It could happen to anyone.  It could happen to ME.  That is always my small fear. That I forget it’s Pajama Day and Daniel or Annabel give me that sad, disappointed face like I’m the worst Mama in the world.  Or I forget the snack. Or I forget that it’s show-and-tell! So that made me think, I need to create some sort of ‘School Emergency Kit” for the trunk of my car.  I drop my children off at private school every day so this could work well for me.   (I basically live in my car.)

My “School Emergency Kit” would contain:

-  A pair of pajamas (see above.)

- A set of “street clothes” in the school colors for “Non-Uniform” days.

- An extra school uniform (if I think Pajama Day/Non-Uniform Day is on the WRONG day. Whoops!)

- An extra snack.  This should be something that won’t spoil (ie: raisins, fruit chews, something with a long shelf life.) Gross? Maybe.  Smart? YES.

- Some item that has every letter of the alphabet for the show-and-tell days.  This can be an alphabet puzzle or a baggie of alphabet magnets so, if stuck in a pinch, my kid can AT LEAST show an “A” puzzle piece or an “A” magnet.  Again, not ideal, but fulfilling the need.  Note:  The alphabet items should also be a variety of colors so they can also be used for the “bring in something X color” days.

- Check book.  This should probably be in my purse, not a kit in the back of the car, but I can’t tell you how many times I needed a check  for some school photo order or fundraiser and I curse that darn check book sitting in the front drawer of my desk at home.

- Cash. Because then there are the days when the student government or the safety patrols sell sweet treats in the school lobby and I’ve had to say “No” to my kid because I didn’t have a dollar bill on me.

- 4×6 photos of every member of the family including grandparents.  You know what I’m talking about.

- A generic gift in a small gift bag.  Perhaps a picture frame or coffee mug.  This would be for when I forget it’s the teacher’s/teacher’s assistant’s/front desk receptionist’s/etc. birthday (Do people really have these dates on their calendar?)

- A couple of books for when I forget I’m the class “secret reader.”  Note: This could also work for show-and-tell and those “bring a book to share” days.

- A new toy.  This is for the “bring a toy to share” days.  But this can also work if there’s something I forgot that’s not in the kit and I can bribe my child to forgive me with the new toy.  Win-win!

What would be in YOUR kit?  I’m SURE I’m forgetting SOMETHING.

Bye Training Wheels

We took the training wheels off Daniel’s bike this past weekend.

And, of course, captured the moment he rode on two wheels for the very first time.

“Look, Mama.  No hands!”  Well, that was my husband.  You go, Bean.

Hi.

Hi. I’m back.

I took a mini break because of personal reasons.  The personal reasons were all mine.  I needed to clear my head.  I needed to miss typing my thoughts and feelings on my keyboard each week.  I needed to miss it, so when I came back (and I’m back!), I wouldn’t go away again.

The big downer about it all is that I lost two months of diary entries.  And a bunch of stuff happened in those two months.  Forgive me as I will be recapping some older moments over the next few weeks.  The entire point of this website is that it becomes a memory vault for my kids.  And when I stopped writing about my kids for 60 days, I realized how big each “little” moment was.   Because aside from the standard carving of the Thanksgiving turkey or opening gifts on Christmas morning, there was Daniel running around the baseball field for the first time and Annabel as an angel in her very first school play.  And I need to capture those moments.  I HAVE to.  For them.  And for me.  And, you know, hopefully for you too.  You who reads this blog everyday or once a week or once a month or even once every couple of months.  Thank you.  Thank you for letting me share all these moments with you. I encourage you to capture your own moments.  Whether in a blog like this one, or in a word document on your computer.  Or in a scrapbook or  journal.  Use words or use photos.  But capture the moments.   You’ll be glad you did.  Happy New Year, everyone.

Happy New Year

Collide

When I had my children 18 months apart, I knew there would be days (weeks, months!) that would be tough. It’s inevitable when you have two little ones so close in age.  The first months were difficult because I had a brand new walker and a newborn.  Then, there was an awesome period when Daniel was 3 and Annabel was 2. They could finally play together and it felt like I had twins.  It still feels like that sometimes.

But now I’m going through another difficult period.  Daniel has reentered his school worry stage.  And Annabel has started an “I don’t like school anymore” phase.  And let me tell you…Whoa.  Just WHOA.  This morning was an example of the worst of it.

I put Daniel in ASC (After School Care) two days a week on the recommendation of his teacher.  Because Daniel is repeating his Pre- Kindergarten year, he is now one of the older children in his class.  There are a handful of 5-year-olds (like Daniel) and the rest are 4-year-olds.  The teacher is wonderful and has managed to teach to the different skill levels and needs of the kids.  Daniel is starting early reading while other children are in learning centers.   She works with him on his speech which is improving dramatically.  He is doing awesome. She also said we should start extending his day at least a couple times a week so he can start getting used to the longer hours when he starts Kindergarten in the fall.  Also, it would be great for him socially and I know he needs to continue to work that “muscle.”

Well, Daniel does not like change.  He’s very sensitive, like his Mama, and he gets a little nervous.  But he’s been doing the ASC for two weeks now and I thought it was finally just a part of  his new school routine.  No.  I basically have to prepare myself for a torturous morning of  anxiety each day he has ASC.  He over thinks it. He tries to be brave but his sad face makes me feel horrible, like I’m sending him off to some mean place. And it’s just a few extra hours of playtime and eating lunch with his friends.

Annabel might be feeding off Daniel, but she has begun her “I don’t like school anymore” phase.  After I drop Daniel off at his school, we have a 45 minute wait before Annabel goes to her preschool.  It used to be fine. We would pack her lunchbox and backpack, go for a walk, read some books, and then off we went.  She would smile and run into class.  She loved school. But the last two times have been a horrible watching-the-clock wait while she complains and whines about how much she doesn’t want to go. This morning I had to drop her off kicking and screaming.  It was awful. I know it’s another “phase,” but I wonder if something happened.  She won’t give me answers and her lovely teacher says she is a joy.  But the same thing happened with her dance class.  She no longer goes to dance because after three weeks of sitting and crying on the sidelines, it just wasn’t worth it.  I’m not going to force her to do a 30 minute dance class that she is supposed to love!  I was super disappointed because she was my little ballerina girl.  But I’ve moved on.  I didn’t want to make a big deal about it because she’s allowed to change her mind.  She’s allowed to CHANGE.  But she was always my “easy” one.  She was the one who ran in and didn’t look back.  Well, the universe is laughing at me now. Big time.

I’m emotionally exhausted. It’s just hard that these two challenging milestone moments are happening at the exact same time.  You’d think they planned it. Hmmm…anything’s possible with these two.

 

Daniel’s First Ball Game ’11

I was going to write “T” Ball game, but it felt more like a big boy baseball game.  The kids can try and hit a pitched ball.  If they miss after two tries, they move to a tee.  Daniel played soccer last spring, but he was never this excited.  T-ball seems like his game.  He didn’t love all the running in soccer and baseball is much slower.  There is a lot of sitting and waiting and watching.  He was fine with that.  My boy’s an analytical thinker so he loves to figure out how to hit a moving target and how the rules of the game apply. Plus, he looks really cute in the outfit, doesn’t he?

Oh, and the highlight of Daniel’s first ever T-ball game?  He hit a PITCHED ball.  My husband’s reaction says it all.

Five

Today my baby boy is five years old.  And to use one of my son’s favorite phrases, “I can’t believe it.”

Five? That’s an entire hand.

The cliche is true.  Time goes so fast.  I can clearly remember bringing him home from the hospital and holding him in my arms.  He made me a Mama.

Now he’s going to a big kid school.  He does math in his head.  He writes his name.  He draws elaborate pictures of cities. He eats salad plates for lunch.  He is a master of puzzles and Legos that are above his age group. He loves to build blocks and race cars. He rides his bike and doesn’t look back.

He loves his family.  He enjoys the comfort of close friends and familiar situations.  He is in a constant state of learning which means a million questions.  There is always a “Why?” or a “How?”  He is silly and goofy and he always gets the punchline.  I often find him telling elaborate stories to no one in particular about his day or his dreams.  He wants to be a truck driver.  He wants to build bridges.  He wants to explore the world.  He wants to live in the house right next door to Mama and Daddy.

There are times when I look at him and see a mature, grown up little dude.  There are times when I look at him and still see the baby who spent his days at home with me playing on the floor and singing lullabies.  But, mostly, I see this amazing boy who makes my heart soar.

Happy Birthday, Daniel.  I love you.

Goody Goody

I wrote about Daniel’s “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” birthday celebration HERE, but I needed a new entry to talk about one of the most important party elements: The goody bag!

It’s so funny because I do not remember the goody bag being a critical part of any of my birthday parties growing up.  Now it is a staple. My kiddies know that they will get some sort of treat at the end of a party.  It’s now expected.  So rather than wonder about it and think it’s ridiculous, I decided to embrace it and have fun with it.

Since it’s back-to-school time, I included a small bag of “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” themed school supplies:

I bought the cellophane treat bags with ties at Hobby Lobby.  The transportation notepads are from Dollar Tree.  The cool transportation erasers are from Amazon.  The pencils and pencil sharpeners are from Oriental Trading.  The pencils were personalized with “Daniel’s 5th Birthday” and they are really inexpensive.

I also included a Truck Pez Dispenser, a transportation puffy sticker sheet, and a Matchbox car.

I bought brown paper gift bags and transportation “Thank You” tags from Etsy’s Stitches by Susan.  I traced each child’s initial on colorful wrapping paper and glued it on the front of each bag.  I stuffed each bag with the same style tissue paper and Voila!

Now I have six months to plan my daughter’s birthday party.  I think I have set the bar a bit high.  Uh oh.

 

“Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” Birthday Celebration

Once we decided on the theme for Daniel’s 5th birthday party, Annabel would walk around talking about Daniel’s “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go Birthday Celebration!”   It was the “celebration” part that always cracked me up.  And she was right.  It was a CELEBRATION.

This was the first time we had a kids party at our house.  Daniel’s August birthday in Florida will always be a challenge.  It’s so hot and it’s (usually!) hurricane season.  (I’m sorry friends and family up north!) Last year we did the Pump it Up gym, so this year we wanted to try something new.  I know five year old boys want to run and play and be outside, so we decided to take our chances and have an outdoor party.  We ordered the bounce house, tent, tables, and chairs and I even found a cool mist fan.  I also planned activities for our enclosed patio and the food stations were inside the house.

The fun for me is always the theme and the details.  I love to plan the decorations, crafts, food, cake, and goody bags. Daniel is obsessed with his cars and trucks, so we knew that was to be incorporated.  He is also obsessed with Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go book.  We were going to do a Richard Scarry theme, but it was easier to make it the generic “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go.”  The colors would be primary.  Red, yellow, green (for a traffic light), and blue (Daniel’s favorite color.)

I found these super cute “Birthday Traffic” invitations on Tiny Prints.  Once the invites were out, it was time to plan the fun!

I found this city directional sign on Oriental Trading.  It was for their camp VBS program, but it worked out great as our front door welcome sign. Hubbie found the glitter letters at Michaels.

I made this birthday wreath with a foam base that I wrapped with colored ribbon and decorated with painted wood cars that I also found at Michaels.

Okay, let me say here that I love coming up with the party ideas more than I love the actual execution.  I got the idea for the door wreath HERE and I loved it because it seemed so simple.  And it WAS simple until the ribbon started unraveling and the wood pieces started falling off five minutes after I hung it on the front door.  It’s my fault because I used double sided tape instead of glue. It looked great as a finished product on the table, but once it hit the hot door and the Florida wind, forget it.  I managed to keep it together with pins for 20 minutes, but once all the guests arrived, I brought it inside.  The same thing happened with the directional sign.  Every five minutes, another glitter letter fell off.  I should have used super glue to adhere the letters instead of relying on the stickers alone.

The rest of the decorations remained intact.  Thank goodness.  Etsy is my new favorite website for party ideas and party orders.   Here is the snack table.  The banner is from Etsy’s Keekers Crafts.  She used our party colors and some really cute cars and truck printed paper.

There were cups of popcorn and pretzels to make it easy for the guests to grab and go.  The red tins were filled with red apples.  I found transportation lollipops from Oriental Trading and the #5 car cookies were from Etsy’s Andrea’s Goodies.

Hubbie is AMAZINGLY creative so he helped me with the displays.  For the lollipops we used small green tin pails, plant foam, and green gift filler from Hobby Lobby.

We stayed with the theme for the dinner buffet.

There were “Peanut Butter and ‘Traffic’ Jam Sandwiches” which I made with white and wheat bread and a car shaped cookie cutter.

Next, some “Vroom! Vroom! Veggies.”

The “Truckin’ Chicken Nuggets” were from Chick-fil-A and displayed in two plastic sand trucks found in Target’s summer clearance aisle.

Here’s the “Stop Light Fruit” and I should have snapped the photo the other way so it actually looks like a stop light.  Ha.  We had red strawberries, yellow pineapple, and green grapes.  The large white pasta bowls are from Target and we used black felt to mimic a stop light.

We had green salad and potato chips to fill in the rest of the main table and on the side island was “Zoom! Zoom! Ziti” which we ordered from our local Italian restaurant.  It was super yummy and a great way to fill up some bellies.

I had three craft stations set up in our enclosed patio area which I decorated with red pennant flags from Amazon and transportation vehicle cut-outs from the Michaels clearance bin.

1. Design-A-Ride. The kids pick out their favorite wooden truck and decorate with markers and stickers. The trucks were, again, 0n-sale at Michaels.

2. Bike License Plate.  The kids pick their favorite plate color.  They personalize with their name using foam letters and decorate with foam stickers.  Everything was from Dollar Tree.  I made the plates with foam rectangles and pipe cleaners.

3. Car Photo Frame.  The kids decorate a car cut-out photo frame.  I found the frames at Dollar Tree.   I was only planning on two crafts, but then I saw these frames and could not resist including them in the party.

We ordered a tent for outside with tables and chairs.  We also ordered a cool mist fan.  It really only cooled down half the tent, so I’m not sure it was worth the money.  I decorated the tables with balloons attached to construction cones (which I found in the Target dollar bin.)

We already had the outdoor play set that we knew all the kids would enjoy and Daniel really wanted a bounce house.  I was concerned that the inside of the bounce house would feel like an oven, but we parked it in a shady spot and it was not bad at all.

We threw every play car and truck we own on the grass and, at the last minute, decided to fill two large metal bins with sand so the kids could play with car and truck sand toys.  It was HUGE hit.

The crafts, however, were not a big hit.  Some of the girls enjoyed them, but the boys just wanted to bounce and play outside.  We were blessed with no rain so the party fun was outdoors.  The kids would just stop for water and a little relief from the mist fan and then it was right back to playing outside.  I was just happy everyone had a good time.

Daniel does not like cake so I found a great idea on-line for a donut “wheel cake.”  We ordered four dozen chocolate donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts and Hubbie created this masterpiece.

Tomorrow I’ll post about the goody bags and everything I learned about hosting my very first kids party at home.  And MAYBE  I’ll tell you how the bounce house deflated halfway through the party or how our lawn sprinklers went on unexpectedly toward the end. But that’s for another day. I’m EXHAUSTED.

Daniel’s First Day of School ’11

“Hi, Mama!  I can’t believe I’m in a big kid school now, Mama!”

“It’s the best school EVER, Mama.”

“And guess what, Mama?  I made TWO new friends today.”

“I love my new school.”

(EXHALE.)

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