First Day of Kindergarten and Faery Festival

I can't believe it. My little baby boy went to kindergarten. It was a bit of a crazy week for him to start, but he loved it and did wonderfully! We arrived home from Texas on Wednesday afternoon around lunch time - we were there for my amazing grandfather, Bill's, funeral. After having some lunch and dropping our bags off at home, Lennon had his first day of gymnastics. The next morning, bright and early, we had to wake the little guy up to have some breakfast and get ready for school. He had requested for breakfast, an "oatmeal buffet" and sausage. An oatmeal buffet is really just oatmeal with various toppings set out in bowls for him to add to his liking. At school, we realized that there were two of the sweet girls from his preschool class in his kindergarten class. He was very excited about that! His class is a half day class, so they go from 8:10 until 11:40. I think it is going to be harder for me than for him to adjust to being up and ready for the day at that early time. Each day parents are supposed to pack a snack and drink for their child. I packed him water and a banana and apparently, "all the other kids were the luckiest kids in the world." They had items like cookies, gummies, juice boxes etc. I conceded that Fridays could be juice box days, but that I wasn't going to be sending him in with sugar and junk food to fuel his brain.

 He seemed happy the next day, friday, with his juice box, sugar peas and grapes. He had art on Thursday and gym on Friday and seemed to really enjoy both. One of the biggest reasons I didn't want to send him yet was his lack of interest in writing. Well, today while Mia and I were away at a festival (I'll talk more about that later) he made us a very sweet sign for the door for our arrival home. Shelby said he didn't need any direction aside from spelling the words. I guess he may be ready after all. After dropping him for his first day, I took Mia out to a local coffee shop to get a special treat and have some girl time before her chiropractor appointment. She got a whip lash from some bungy trampoline thingy she did in NH last month. I talked to her all about dropping her off for her first day of kindergarten and then crying my eyes out over coffee with Shelby and little baby Lennon. I can't believe that was five years ago. She's so big and grown up now.

 Today, I went with Mia and our neighbor Holly to a Faery Festival at a nearby museum called The Wenham Museum. There were crafts, stories, dress up, very expensive pictures that we did not partake in, and a very cute little "tea" party. They served pink lemonade instead of tea. As we were walking back to the car we noticed The Wenham Tea Room. I told Mia we could not eat there as it wasn't in the budget, but we could go check it out for some future date. Well, once inside, I decided that she and I could share something and she would be thrilled. So, we had a little ladies brunch and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Mia was glowing!

 While we were doing our girly thing, Shelby and Lennon stayed home to work on Lennon's prototype game, World Disasters. They had it finished when we got home, so we played a round and worked out some kinks. He plans to make more and sell them at the home school craft fair this November. It was really pretty fun and everything worked pretty well. I think when we get some more polished products it will be pretty awesome.

Blurry, but the only shot I got of him with his eyes open having his beloved "oatmeal buffet"

Lennon with sweet girls Olivia and Keira from The Purpose School

There is construction going on at the middle school, so the parking lots are all blocked off which caused it to be super hectic getting everyone into school on the first day.  Up here, parents aren't allowed to walk in with their kids on the first day of school.  It makes me sad, but it's just the way it is.  The teachers say it's much better for the ones who tend to get upset.

Mia about to listen for instructions on how to make a flower pen

Mia and Holly sitting down for out tea party

The cute little table with goodies.

My favorite little Fairy!

Recital Pictures

Piano Recital 2012

Mia had another great piano recital today.  She learned two pieces, played one of her own and also played a duet with Mateus on violin this year.

Reference for Plymouth

In case you are curious about our trip to Plymouth, my post is coming at some point, I think.  In the meantime, just check out my sister in law, LeNan's post about the trip.  She took way better pictures than I did.  In fact, I don't think I even brought my camera now that I think about it.  Her blog is dustinfrancisfamily.blogspot.com 
More to come -

Getting Bigger Every Day

On bad days, I cannot wait until my kids are old enough to be reasonable with me.  Although, when I really ponder that one, I wonder how reasonable my parents really think I am.  On the good days though, which are many, it breaks my heart just knowing that each day my babies get older and bigger and more independent.

Mia is becoming so grown up.  I cannot believe she is just weeks away from being double digits - and all that goes along with entering that new era of childhood.  She is more and more aware of what she is wearing and has been spending an increasing amount of time gazing at herself in the full length mirror.  I feel very contented in our relationship lately.  She still seems perfectly comfortable talking with me about anything that is on her mind or what other kids are talking about without their parents ears to hear.  While it is certainly trying sometimes to face off with my confident, clever little girl.  It is also very rewarding that she isn't easily dissuaded from what she thinks is right and fair.  With the ever more difficult piano pieces her teacher assigns, there is always beautiful music flowing through the house.  

Lennon is becoming more aware of his skill at comedy.  He is such a little snuggler.  I especially appreciate it because he wasn't so fond of it when he was younger.  At bedtime, I usually lay down with him until he falls asleep.  That being said, he is usually fast sleep and breathing deeply within a 5 minute window.  Lately, he has been saying, "You can snuggle me as tight and as long as you want, Mommy!"  He still loves machines and science and baking and regularly creates his own recipes - some of which work better than others.  This week he made a gluten free strawberry oatmeal bar that actually turned out to be delicious!  We were playing with some fraction blocks that we had borrowed from our neighbor and I was explaining how two halves are equal to one whole.   He stopped me and said, "I know.  I understand math, I just want to play with these."  I'm always asking him to please not get any bigger and to promise never to leave me, just in a joking way.  Most recently, he decided he really needed to explain to me why that wasn't going to work out for me.  I really felt like he thought I was a pathetic little child who needed help understanding.  This is about how that conversation went:

Lennon: Mommy,  did your mom ever ask you to not grow up?

Me:  Probably.

Lennon: Did she or not?

Me:  I guess so.

Lennon:  Did she ever ask you to never leave?

Me:  Probably.

Lennon:  Yes or no, Mommy.

Me:  Yes, I guess.

Lennon:  Well, think back to that whole process of when you did leave her.  That's what I'm going to have to do.  That is what it will be like.

He certainly knows how to put one in ones place.

We are all soooo excited that Shelby is almost done with school.  As I type he is at class and after tonight he only has three more class meetings and will hopefully present his thesis project on Thursday barring any more emergency room visits.  We are all feeling a chaotic mixture of deep sadness and extreme excitement over our impending move further south.  I can't even really fathom how hard it is going to be, especially for me and the kids.  However, we are all looking forward to being able to spend more time with family.  The prospect of being able to own a home for less than $400k is also pretty cool, I must say.  

A couple of recent shots from a hike we went on 

Lennon in the Rockery at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary

Mia, with our new downstairs neighbor, Holly, feeding the chickadees out of their hands

Easter Eggs a New Way

We tried something new this year with Easter Egg dying. I read about a great idea and everyone was into it so we did it. We made two colors of dye, blue and red, using purple cabbage and yellow onion skins. We were all really surprised at how deep red the yellow onion skin dye came out.

First, we collected flowers and leaves from the backyard

Then we laid the flowers or leaves across the egg and stretched pantyhose over each egg, which we secured with a twisty tie. I thought this was going to be difficult for the kids, but it really wasn't that bad. Everyone had fun creating different designs.

This is the eggs after we pulled them out of the cabbage dye, before we peeled away the flowers and pantyhose.

The final product. They turned out really cool. Everyone has a different favorite. A few of them cracked, I'm guessing from over boiling. I think we'll try again before Easter because everyone had fun and it was so easy. I want to find ways to make other colors of natural dyes. I was thinking of trying to find a way to make a yellow dye.

Not So Complimentary

Today I rhetorically asked Lennon, "How do you keep getting cuter?" I was not quite expecting the answer he came up with. He said, "I don't know. Probably, I'll start getting less cute, when I get really old. Like you."