December 2013 Moments Not to Be Forgotten

I got my first smartphone in November 2013. While I sometimes felt like the last person to finally get one, I really knew that I wasn't. I'm typing this in February 2015 and Damon is still a hold-out.

Anyway, once you always have a camera on hand, the photos multiply. It's so easy to quickly snap a photo of those cute and funny things your kids are doing. It's so easy to make a record of so much. It's a treasure and a great resource for remembering the past--a gift to a tardy blogger like myself, but it can also be a little overwhelming. How does one create a post, a story, for each one of these adorable, silly, creative, fun moments? Answer: One doesn't. One just lumps them all together in a post that can capture a dozen individual (or small group) moments.

Holly as Hello Kitty, as rendered by big sister Maggie:

We finally said goodbye to our trusty red wagon, a hand-me-down gift from our White Salmon neighbors the Andersons. It was warped and troubled after too many times being out in the rain and too many trips loaded full of kids, blankets, rocks, dirt, patio pavers, or rummage sale donations,

Three cute kids all dressed up for church. (Not sure where that 4th cute kid was.)

 You've heard of a jack-in-the-box? How about sisters-in-a-box?

If I remember correctly, she fell asleep in the car and then transferred to the Jo-Ann's shopping cart.

I made these baby Jesus crafts with Holly's preschool friends:

And these paper plate Santa masks:

Silly Holly, all wrapped up in our Christmas blanket:

In early December, we visited the annual Christmas Creche exhibit. It's a display of hundreds of Nativity scenes donated to the event by people in the greater Silicon Valley area. It is hosted by the Menlo Park Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in partnership with some of the neighboring stakes, including ours here in Sunnyvale. We were not permitted to photograph the many wooden, ceramic, glass, metal, and other scenes. It is an impressive collection set up in several beautifully decorated rooms throughout a church building. Small musical performances are on-going in one room and there are concerts by local choirs and musical groups in the chapel each evening.

We were allowed to photograph in the children's room, where a marvelous tent was set up with dress-up clothes, I believe with the intent to recreate characters from the Nativity, or at least from Bible times. My children loved it, especially Adah. She didn't want to leave, and when we returned in 2014, she made a beeline for the dress-ups.

 

Can you dig it?

Gunnar invited several friends to come over for a construction-themed birthday party. We got to liberally use his favorite color, orange, and I enjoyed designing lots of road-sign & DIY-themed decorations.

 

All of the party-goers were given a hard hat and work apron and then got to select a small construction vehicle. 

Here's the birthday boy ready to go in the "party zone." I didn't get a picture of it, but on the table in front of Gunnar I placed some 9x13 pans full of corn meal and rice for the children to dig and drive around in with their construction vehicles. This is a favorite playtime activity of Gunnar's.

By far the biggest hit (literally) at the party, though, was this hammering station. Here the kids used play hammers to pound golf tee "nails" into styrofoam blocks that we covered in paper that looked like wood.

If I'd known how much they would like doing this I would have had more hammers and more blocks. Still, they managed to take turns and no one got their fingers smashed. (They were using plastic hammers after all.)

All the construction workers took a turn "driving" our dump truck.

 

Adah really wanted to look like she was sitting in the driver's seat.

 

Maggie really got into the festive construction spirit. Her shirt says, "Caution Big Sister," and she made a hair bow out of caution tape. This girl knows how to accessorize.

I loved making Gunnar's birthday cake. It's what I consider a "traditional" birthday cake--3 layers of chocolate cake with my mom's killer chocolate frosting--with a backhoe and bulldozer digging into it. It was easy to make and tasted delicious.

And it made for a happy birthday boy and mom.

 

 

Now We Are Six

Gunnar-man turned 6 on October 3rd!  This little guy is growing up so much and we're so happy he's in our family. His boy-ness adds a definite twist to all the femininity in the air at our house.

Although there was a birthday party scheduled after school, Gunnar got to open family presents in the morning.

Nana and Gumpin (my parents) sent him two National Geographic Kids books about animals. Gunnar LOVES them. This kid just soaks up any and every animal fact he hears, so he just loves the photos and facts in these books.

We gave him some Legos.

We also gave him a skateboard and gave him one-time special permission to try it out in the hallway. Not bad for a first try.

 

Gunnar is having a great start to kindergarten. He's a model student--sitting still, keeping his hands to himself, raising his hand to talk, following directions quickly, completing his work, and just generally following the rules. He's progressing in his reading and improving his handwriting. I've always known Gunnar was a good boy, but he can be a bit wild and crazy at times, so seeing him adapt to the rules and routines of a classroom has been a source of great pride for me.

When we moved to California last year, Gunnar could have enrolled in kindergarten because the birthday deadline was different from what it is in Washington. However, I didn't feel that he was ready. This issue became a point of disagreement between the school district in Milpitas and us, and was one of the main reasons that we moved to a new city and school district this summer. Seeing Gunnar be so successful in school so far has just reinforced to me that we made the right decision in not sending him to kindergarten last year. He knew his ABCs, numbers, and tons of animal facts last year, but I don't think he was quite so ready to keep his spot on the rug and wait for recess to run and jump. Now that he's six, school is super!

Gunnar continues to be enthralled with tigers, dinosaurs, and prehistoric animals. He's a great bike-rider and has also been learning to roller blade. He's making friends at school and is a fun friend to his sisters at home. We sure love him.

Picnic Time for Teddy Bears

If you go down in the woods today,
You better go in disguise.
If you go down in the woods today,
You're in for a big surprise.
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic!

Apparently it's a kindergarten tradition in Gunnar's school to have a teddy bear picnic in September. I don't know what the lead-up is, but all the kids got to bring a teddy bear to school that day and then in the afternoon they came out in these adorable hats for a little picnic. They had crackers and carrots and cookies and other goodies.

I'm really not sure if there was any educational value in the whole thing, but it was a fun little event for the kids to look forward to, and it's always a big deal to be able to bring a stuffed animal to school.

And really, how cute are these hats?

  

A Superstar Start to School

After last year's crazy school year, we are totally thrilled to have all of our children at the SAME SCHOOL. There was some question about whether or not Gunnar would make it into kindergarten at our local school (he was number 7 in line when we enrolled him in May), but enough other kids moved to other schools that he made it in!

I was sure it would happen. Last year was so difficult for me juggling two schools, and then everything with our move to Sunnyvale fell into place that I just knew the school situation had to work out. I chose to have faith that I would receive this blessing. I really do look on it as a blessing. I used to take it for granted that all my children would be able to attend our neighborhood school, but after our experience in Milpitas I know that isn't always the case. This summer I just believed Gunnar would get into our local school. I never even bothered to find out where the next closest school was. I knew I wouldn't have to know.

Now, enough of that.  Onto the first day of school & the obligatory front porch pictures.

Here's Adah, off to fifth grade with Mr. Murphy.

Maggie is in third grade, but is in a class of 3rd and 4th graders with TWO teachers: Ms. Arcoleo and Mrs. Shumaker.

Gunnar is in kindergarten with Mrs. Riley. For his first 3 weeks of school he got out at 11:51, but now he stays until 2:10. It's considered all-day kindergarten. The girls stay until 2:50, so it's not quite as all-day as them.

And here's Holly, never one to miss out on a photo-op.

Here's the gang setting off from our driveway. Damon always joins us on the first day of school.

Down the street and around the corner from our house is a park. The school is just through those trees on the other side of the park. I like that half of our route to school is on paths with no automobile traffic. And it's nice and shady in the afternoon heat.

Here's Gunnar standing outside of his classroom, having found his name.

And here he is settled in at his table for coloring. His spot on the carpet behind him is in the orange row. Orange is his favorite color. How did Mrs. Riley know?

Adah and the other 5th graders got right down to business with instructions on the screen.

Maggie was the last one to get dropped off. We made it there just after the bell rang because none of the classrooms opened until the first bell rang at 8:20. The second bell rings at 8:30, and that's when school starts, so she got right in her desk and ready to go!

At this school they don't even want anyone on campus until 8:20. At Whitson in White Salmon the kids could play on the playground for up to 30 minutes before school started! We're getting used to it. I've just learned that there's really no benefit to getting ready early. If we leave early we just have to wait at the edge of campus anyway. We aim to arrive at 8:20, but I know we always have that 10-minute cushion if we're running late. It takes us about 10 minutes to walk, but we can do it in less time if we hustle (or ride scooters or bikes, which we just started doing last week).

Gunnar had a great morning--his first day was extra-short--but had a sad little moment right at the end. The teacher and her helper were handing out these "I just loved my first day of kindergarten" necklaces and they overlooked Gunnar. When I met him at the back of his classroom he crumpled into my lap and almost couldn't talk for nearly crying. He was sad and upset but had held it together until that moment. As soon as I figured out the problem we were able to get him his necklace and assure him that they hadn't meant to forget him.

Then he was all smiles and ready to show me his stuff on the monkey bars. The kindergarteners have their own playground, and fortunately we can play there after school while waiting for older siblings to get out.

Holly was clearly worn out by the first day of school. She actually was there as long as Gunnar was because there was a parent meeting with the principal in the cafeteria. I expected it to last 30 minutes, but she kept us there until just after 10:00 (90 minutes)! That's when the kindergarteners got out and she had promised the teachers to keep us occupied so we wouldn't be peering in the windows and distracting our kids. : ) 

At the end of the big kids' day we returned to the school to pick them up & I took a photo of the new students by the school sign. We hadn't passed by there in the morning since by entering through the park we come at the school from the side rather than the front entrance. These California schools are all open-air hallways, so there's no real front door anyway.

They are the Superstars at their school (and I'm not just talking about my kids, here). It's the mascot, which seems like kind of a silly mascot to me. Yet, it's been a pretty super year so far, so I guess I can't argue. The children all really like their teachers and are making friends in their classes. I'm making friends among the other moms in the schoolyard. It's such a difference from last year for me especially; it's pretty much impossible to meet anyone in the drop-off lane & so easy when you can walk your kids to school. I'm so grateful for these blessings.