Beginner's Night

It's official; Amelia will be off to kindergarten in the fall!  The school had Beginner's Night, where the kids got assigned to classrooms to play in, and the parents went to an informational meeting in the gym.  Amelia was thrilled that Hannah was assigned to the same room.  They have all their fingers and toes crossed that they will be together in the fall, but I think there are eight kindergarten classes or something like that.  Class of 2026!

The Wizard of Oz ballet

After Amelia had a big nap (and Seth honestly could have used a nap, but he had some quiet time reading), we went to uptown, got a quick bite to eat, and saw the Charlotte Youth Ballet perform the Wizard of Oz.  It wasn't as good as Peter Pan, but the performers were very talented.  It was pretty long.  Amelia liked it, but Seth was not impressed that it was all dance, no dialogue.

while the sister's away...

...the big brother will thoroughly enjoy having BOTH parents to himself for 24 hours.  We went out to dinner at a classic car-themed burger joint, and then we went bowling.  We bowled four games in under two hours.  Here is Seth's best game (and coincidently the only time I beat Nathan!):

The boys played some Wii, and at 9 Seth headed to bed, but after I read to him, he decided he wasn't sleepy, and next thing you know, he'd crawled into our bed to watch basketball.  That never happens.  At 10 he was ready for bed. 

 Once every five years or so, a boy just needs to have his parents to himself.  :)

Amelia's getaway

With about 36 hours' notice, Amelia was invited to go to Great Wolf Lodge with her BFF.  I was hesitant because she is so fearless, but Nathan said to send her with a disclaimer that she will claim to swim better than she can.  They had a great time, and a tired little girl came home the next day, ready to see her family and to take a big nap. Here are pictures we received while she was gone:

Flat Stanley

(You can read Lisa's version, and see more pictures here.)

 

The second grade read Flat Stanley, and then each student created a Flat Stanley and mailed it to someone.  (Sorry, Lisa, I know one of Seth's classmates sent his to Japan, so you weren't the farthest away.)  Seth's first choice was Lisa, and she agreed to play along.  She let us know he was there by sending us a picture of him standing in the snow (see her first picture).  On day two, Seth left her a voicemail wondering what Flat Stanley was up to.  I asked her if she could go above and beyond the call of duty, and send him a picture every once in a while.  Every couple days she would send Seth updates with a couple of pictures.  Here are some of the pictures I saved that she hasn't already posted on her blog.

 

Flat Stanley's snowman: 

 Ten miles to Canada!  (And three hours to Target!)

 Can you read that?  MINUS 18.  DEGREES.  Not counting windchill.  BRR.

 Snowmobiling:

 At the hockey rink!

I think Lisa and Michael MAY have had a little fun with this project.  As you can see, Flat Stanley got a couple new outfits while he was up there.  Lisa mailed the outfits back to us, and Seth has taken them in to school, so he can show off Flat Stanley's wardrobe when he presents to the class. 

Thank you, Lisa and Michael, for adding a little fun to the end of the third quarter! (And for reminding us that as cold as we were here, you were a lot colder!)

ballet sneak peak

Amelia decided to continue with ballet after her two month trial.  Seth loves going to kid care during it, and I either exercise or sit in the lobby and read a book.  (I prefer to exercise, because otherwise I sit thinking of what I could be doing at home.)  A couple weeks ago, the parents were allowed to sit in during practice.  There is a recital in June, and they have learned about two thirds of their routine.  Here are some of her warm up exercises (pink skirt? wacky hair?  That's her.):

 

science lady, take 2

Amelia's class had their second field trip to the science lady.  This time I drove Amelia and her BFF to/from the field trip.  This time they learn about the five senses.  Here they are doing touch...I think this is the one that was full of cooked noodles: 

 For taste, they sampled pretzels, sugar, and lemons:

 I'm really impressed with the Science Lady, and so glad Amelia has been able to do this this year!

 

St Patrick's Day

We had leprechauns on our minds for three days around here.  Amelia's preschool celebrated Friday morning.  I couldn't resist buying this pink and green shirt made by one of Nathan's high school friends.

The darn leprechaun made a big mess of her classroom, and she loved every minute of it!  I don't know if the leprechaun didn't make it to Seth's school, but he definitely didn't make it to his class.  Saturday night Amelia made this trap:

The leprechaun made a road of blankets upstairs and left a couple shamrocks on the trap.  The kids were not impressed.

Sunday afternoon, Nathan and I went to see Wicked.  It was actually one of my Christmas presents.

It was good, but didn't follow the book at all.  We both like live theater, and hey, it was a date, so we had a good time!

consignment, take 2

I blinked twice and half of March was gone and it was time for the consignment sale at Amelia's preschool.  Last fall I had mainly focused on clothes.  This time there was plenty of clothes, but I also went through the books, toys, and outdoor stuff.  You can't really tell by the picture, but the entire back of the van was full.  

I worked the Friday morning shift again, and I was assigned the drop off desk, which made the four hours go FAST.  I took the kids to the presale on Friday with a short list of things to look for.  Seth and I found some books, Seth got a like-new windbreaker and a chess set, and Amelia got several dresses and a CD player.  A ton of stuff for what I paid.  Late Saturday afternoon I went back for pick-up, and was thrilled all how little I left!  Everything fit in these two bags! 

My check comes next week, and it covers the last month of preschool tuition with play money to spare.  Yippee!

Boosterthon!!!!

We were thrilled when we found out that this school also participates in Boosterthon.  The week before the Fun Run the Boosterthon staff were in the car rider line making the teachers do the Cupid Shuffle.  That in itself was priceless.  This guys (and gals) come to the school and have a big pep rally to get the kids excited to participate, and then over the next week they pop into classrooms to teach core values about real-life people.  And when they're not doing that?  They run errands for the teachers, making copies, picking up lunch...they are just great.  Because Seth's school is so big, there were four fun runs scheduled. Parents are invited to watch the run, so I parked at Amelia's school and walked over to avoid the crowd.  It was freezing!  For the K/1st run, I volunteered to mark laps on the kids' shirts.  There is something very scary about 100 little people running towards you, ready to do as many laps as they can!  There was about a 40 minute break before Seth's group, so I made copies for the second grade teachers and warmed up in the workroom.  I did not "work" Seth's race, instead I was being a mom.  Seth likes being able to talk to me each lap.  But when I got home, I realized I wasn't just his mom.  Only two other parents from his class were there, so I was cheering on every kid I knew on their way around.  And don't let the clear skies fool you, it was freezing that day.  My phone said it was 40 degrees, felt like 31 degrees at the start of Seth's race.  I know that's not cold for some of you, but that's absolutely insane for south Charlotte in the middle of March.   Seth had to work through a stitch this time, but ran 40 laps in the allotted time. 

 Here are the Cheetahs post race!
 
Immediately after Seth's run, it was time for the 4th grade run.  I stayed and marked shirts during that run, then walked back to preschool to pick up Amelia.  The next day I couldn't figure out why my obliques hurt.  Duh!  It was so much fun to listen to all that party music all morning and to see the kids and teachers having so much fun.  My favorite part by far was watching the school's police officer walk laps with every grade the entire time of each run.  I joked with him that he was going to walk over six miles that day, and he said, "Now I don't have to go home and do cardio!"  I have gotten a little more involved at the school, and I've been helping to count the Boosterthon money as it comes in, and the kids raised way more money than the school anticipated.  I'm very excited to see all that money put to good use! 

early spring?

The first couple weekends of March, we thought the groundhog had gotten it right.  This picture was taken Sunday, March 10th.  The kids basked in the sun while we laid pine straw, cleaned gutters, and tore up the flowerbed right behind them.

The next two pictures were taken Saturday, March 16th.  This time Nathan and I were doing stuff in the back yard while the kids enjoyed the nice weather:

meet Chickee

Amelia was the first person in her class to bring home Chickee (the preschool version of Flat Stanley...more on that guy soon...), and she had a very busy weekend when she visited us.  She went to the library, the grocery store, and the park.  On Saturday, she had a big adventure in uptown with us!  Through Nathan's work, we bought discounted tickets to the NC Dance Theater's Peter Pan.  It was fantastic! It wasn't classic ballet, and there was a lot of humor added (without a word being spoken!)  When the Tick Tock Croc was featured, he did the moonwalk and the worm, and during his encore, he danced Gangham style!  We LOVED it.

 

striking a pose

(photography by Amelia)

fish art

(Turn your head sideways. I can't get the picture to rotate.)  This is the only substantial thing Seth has brought home from art this year.  He talked about it for a long time.  Even his Art by Me project was only a pencil sketch of a snowman. 

bulletin board

I was asked to be on the PTO's nominating committee in March, and I'm glad I've agreed to do it, because I have FINALLY met a couple moms my age that are a lot like me.  Boosterthon was getting ready to come into town, and I volunteered to come help decorate the halls.  I was handed the die-cut letters, some stickers, and sent on my merry way.  This is what I came up with:

I haven't done any sort of school wall decorating like this since spirit week in high school, but I think it turned out okay.

Family Fun Night

Amelia's preschool had a family fun night the first Tuesday of April.  It had about two dozen raffle items, two bounce houses, popcorn, and snow cones, all available for one ticket.  Ahead of time, we were able to buy tickets and order pizza.  Amelia had a blast running around with her friends, and Nathan finally got to meet Amelia's teachers.  Also Mr. Music was there DJ-ing, so the kids were rockin' out to great music.  This is the only picture I took all night...Amelia and her "boyfriend", Will.

I left my wallet on the kitchen table and Nathan didn't have any cash, so we weren't strong supporters of the event.  The money raised is used every year to refurbish the playground over the summer.

Cub Scout Zoo trip

The Cub Scout Supertrip was to the Riverbanks Zoo this year.  At last minute I took Nathan's place on the trip, because he hadn't been feeling well.  We woke up to snow that morning...exciting, but not exactly what you want to see when you're about to get on a charter bus OR headed to a zoo!

It stopped snowing just as we got out of Charlotte, and it was definitely cold, but not too cold to enjoy the zoo.  We did not see the koala bears or the Galapagos turtles, but other than that, we saw all the animals in our two days there.

 

The highlight of the trip was the lorikeet exhibit.  You buy a cup of nectar for $2, and the birds aren't shy about coming over for a drink. I even had some land on me, and I didn't have any nectar!

 Here are the boys in the walkthrough kangaroo/wallaby exhibit:

 Riding the tram to the botanical gardens, the driver had just gunned it so we could make it up a hill!

 When the zoo closed, we got on the bus and went out to dinner, and then went back to the zoo around 7pm.  The auditorium became our home base, and the boys were split first into two groups, where they had meet-and-greet with some smaller animals (a frilled lizard, a hissing cockroach, and a box turtle for Seth's group).  Then we split into four groups, and that is where the adventure really began.  We got to go on behind-the-scenes tours of four parts of the zoo.  First, we went to the aquarium.  We learned all about the tank, and got to see it from a birds' eye view:

Then, we went to the elephant barn.  Oh my goodness.  There was a line on the floor that we couldn't cross, so we were just a little more than a trunk's length away from the elephants.  So cool.

 After a quick popcorn and lemonade snack, we went in the tiger barn.  Again, there was a line on the floor that we weren't allowed to cross, but we were THISCLOSE to the tigers (this picture is not zoomed in):

 Our last encounter was in the snake section, so sorry I didn't take any pictures, and thankfully they didn't get any snakes out for the boys to touch.  Then it was back to the auditorium to get ready for bed.  We were supposed to go on a night hike at the zoo, but luckily, it started raining, because the boys (and the parents) were tired.  Here is our luxurious set-up.  Seth earned the distinction of being the first person asleep:

They turned out the lights at 11:15, and there was not one word out of the boys after that.  It was amazing.  Some of the parents started moving around at about 6:50, but again the boys didn't start waking up until the lights turned on at 7:05.  It wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever had, but it wasn't terrible, either. The zoo provided sleep mats that made it a little more comfortable.  Here is the mole rat exhibit Seth loved looking at during down time:

After a light breakfast, we were able to go through a guided tour of the zoo before it opened, to make up for the hike we missed the night before.  This was way better.  We got to see the animals as they were let out of their night enclosures.  We learned all about these vultures building their nest, and then later, we found out that shortly after we had walked by, an egg had been found in the nest!  Pretty cool!  It was replaced with a wooden egg, and the real egg placed in an incubator.

Then we loaded up in the bus and went to a large park that had a playground and hiking trails.  We had a picnic lunch of Subway and then headed home.  Despite the cold, and the snakes (really, who needs THAT many snakes at a zoo?), I'm so glad I was able to go.  I love going to zoos, spending time with Seth, and it stimulated the nerdy side of my brain that's not getting used a lot right now.