Camping

NO. Not more of that kind of camping. Not yet anyway. After all, we just got back, didn't we? Well, not quite, but I'm definitely not ready to pack that much stuff in the mommymobile again. Getting two kids in there each morning in time to get to camp is enough for a couple of weeks.

This week's camps brought a startling realization. My kids are growing up!

Just a couple of years ago, they were clingy and cried on the first day of camp. In fact, Smunch memorably screamed his way through every day of the first several minutes of gymnastics camp a few years ago. This year was a stark contrast.

First thing Monday morning, I loaded the kids in the van and drove Smunch to his first full-day multi-sport camp. From 9am to 3pm every day, he'd be playing baseball, basketball and flag football.I had to wait around a long time while the camp director waited for other parents to arrive so she could make all of her announcements. In the meantime, the other coaches had gathered a group of kids out on the field and were starting a game. "Why don't you go out and join them?" I asked Smunch. He set his bag down and took off without a glance back at me.

The city somehow totally over-enrolled this camp, so they had 50 kids instead of 35. Smunch, at 7, was at the very bottom of the age range and he's still a small guy on top of that. Scoring in basketball is a major accomplishment for him with these hoops, but do you think it made any difference?Nope.

They were long days, but he had a great time and came home exhausted and somewhat grumpy. Ready to do nothing..aka watching baseball replays on the computer ad nauseum...for a couple of hours.My next stop each morning was at Mam's nature camp. I tried without success to get Smunch interested in doing this camp too. "No, Mom," he insisted. "I'm not interested in NATURE. I'm interested in SPORTS!" O.K., fine. At least I've got one kid who likes a well-balanced assortment of camps.She played games, made necklaces, painted rocks, met animals in the petting zoo, tie dyed a T-shirt and watched a wildlife presentation that included a golden eagle, a kestrel, a porcupine and some kind of large cat that I couldn't get a straight answer on. It had spots, I gather. She got to have all that fun in this pretty little spot that you'd never guess is just blocks from the local downtown.She was quite literally a happy camper. She didn't know a single other kid there, but it didn't matter. She ran to join her group the minute we got there and made another new best friend. These last couple of photos are from her performance in the last day's sing-a-long. We've got another busy camp week coming right up. I really need to make sure I don't schedule us for so much stuff next year. I hope they feel like they had a crazy fun summer and not just a crazy one!

Boom!

You would think that Christmas was on the 4th of July if you saw my children on the morning of Independence Day. This is really one of their very favorite holidays. I'm not sure they really care about the nation's birthday or our independence from British rule. It's all about the fireworks. It seems so unfair that they have to wait until dark, but then, it makes for a grand finale to the day.

This year was a little bit different because my cousin was visiting from Texas. After a nice breakfast of bagels, muffins and varieties of Starbucks, followed by a significant amount of lolling around my parents' house, we finally packed up some food and headed to a local winery for a picnic.Unfortunately, Daddy was feeling particularly ill, so I drove him home before we left on our adventures.The rest of us had a lovely, if slightly too warm, time at the winery. My cousin's husband treated us to a bottle of rosé and we took a short walk to "the pond". Mam was sporting her Independence Day best. And Smunch (pictured here with my cousin) was looking pretty festive too. At this time of year, the pond is little more than a few large puddles among the reeds. It turns out that the reeds were alive with tiny little frogs, each about the size of a thumbnail. I loved watching them jump around. They were fast and hard to photograph, so this is the best I did.And, like all good ponds, there were a couple of mother ducks overseeing a group of teenager-y ducklings. They looked so picturesque among the reeds and the pond weeds that were blooming with pink flowers.We also spotted this cool, red dragonfly.We walked back to the car and parted ways to get ready for the neighborhood block party on our street. Our block party is a really fun, yearly event where we all set up tables in the middle of the street, barbeque, make ice cream and supply potluck dishes to share. Both my parents and my cousins joined us for a mellow evening of food and company. I didn't bring my camera. Just as well. I could barely roll my own bloated body home, much less anything additional.

My cousin and her husband decided to forgo the fireworks, instead watching them on TV while the rest of the family headed to our oldest fireworks-viewing haunt to wait for the pyrotechnics to start.

Turns out, as the kids get older, this whole thing gets much easier and more tolerable. They happily played several hands of Uno with us, begging for another one as soon as the last one was done.As has been the case for the last couple of years, there were glowsticks, but we didn't use so many this year with all that card playing.I don't remember exactly what was going on when I took this picture. I just liked the backlighting on Mam's hair. It cracks me up though.Finally, the show started. I'd forgotten how rewarding it is to drag the kids out to the park. They have such a great time watching fireworks, commenting, squealing, exclaiming over their favorites. I annoyed people by trying to capture their reaction. This isn't a great photo, but I think it captured them rather well.We all had a really nice time, well worth the crabby Smunch we had this morning. I don't think I'll tell them they'll get to see plenty of fireworks at Disney World this summer. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they just start exploding overhead.

Soccer Girl

My daughter is a fiesty little girl. It's always irritated me that when it comes to sports she's...well, she's a bad sport. She took one soccer class a couple of years ago and loved it. But she was ready to be done and it quickly became something she only played with her brother. And, of course, playing with her brother is frustrating and tantrum inducing.

I signed Mam up for a week-long soccer camp with the idea that it would give me an idea whether to sign her up for AYSO soccer in the Fall. Of course, it turned out that I had to sign her up for AYSO back in April, so camp was useless in that regard. Fortunately, she loved it!She was happy to go every morning, she came home happy, fell asleep fast and slept long.

On the last day of camp, the kids had a World Cup tournament. Mam and her buddy from school were both members of Team Germany. Of course, she didn't bother to tell me that. Apparently, many of the kids didn't really inform their parents about the teams. During the "Parade of Nations" there was definitely an overrepresentation of American flags. During the games, she called for passes...bossily...she ran the field, she kicked the ball. She scored two goals for Team Germany...enough for them to win their game against Team USA. And she was a giant show-off about it. She took the soccer seriously, but not so seriously that she couldn't pose for a picture mid-game.This was probably the funniest moment of the tournament.That's almost the entirety of Team Germany standing in front of the goal. See anyone with the ball? Nope. The other team was at the other end of the field, fighting each other for the ball, with a single member of Team Germany playing offense. Turns out Mam has the same penchant for playing defense as her brother.

What floored me the most, however, was how much her brother enjoyed watching her and cheering her on. He's clearly her very biggest fan. After her second goal, he couldn't keep himself from running out on the field and giving her a big hug. It was very funny and very sweet. When the tournament was over there were more hugs even though Team Germany had hardly been dominant.I knew Smunch was a big sports fan, but what could be better than having your big brother as your biggest fan?

San Diego 2009

As soon as we packed up our camping gear on Tuesday morning, we headed further south, to San Diego. It's become a yearly tradition that we visit my sister and her family there. And the kids' new discovery of Harry Potter audio books, and a Giants game on the radio, made our trip fairly painless. We arrived in the mid-afternoon.

Since we've got a big Disney-themed trip coming up next month, we decided to forgo another trip to one of San Diego's big amusement/animal parks this year and keep our visit mellow. We started out with a visit to the water park that Mam and SPENCER! went to last year.
This time, Smunch got to join us too. Obviously, it was right up his alley.As was the case with much of this particular visit, Mam and SPENCER! ran around like crazy people while Smunch found some older boys to play water war with. It's interesting to see how well the two younger ones get along and how awkward Smunch seems to feel about that. He's often the odd kid out in this group, it seems. No matter, really. It meant that he and Daddy got to take a repeat visit to the USS Midway earlier that day. Smunch loved it and apparently had a great time talking to the docents on board. It also meant he got another trip to Petco Park to see the Padres play. Only this time, they were playing the Oakland A's. It's hard to know who to root for when one of them is your hometown team and the other is the hometown team. Smunch opted to root for the Padres...a decision he may have regretted since the A's did something unusual and won. Daddy says Smunch barely sat down for the entire game. There was a lot of bouncing and some dancing involved, I hear. I'm sure it wasn't Daddy doing the dancing. Here's a photo Daddy got of Smunch after the Padres scored a home run early in the game.Notice how the guy in the upper right corner is actually standing still?

In between those two big events, we decided to use some coupons I'd gotten through the PTA at Smunch's school and went to the relatively new Sea Life Aquarium, which is part of Legoland. You can't miss that it's part of Legoland because although the aquarium is reasonably priced, you still have to pay $12 to park.Well, that and all the aquarium decor is made out of Legos. That might also be a clue.

On the whole, it's a pretty nice place. It has all the newest cool things that aquariums have. For instance, these viewing 'bubbles' make for really funny pictures of your kids.Although it's hard to tell, these bubbles pop you up right in the middle of the water in the aquarium. They're really pretty cool.

It also has a lot of sharks. Here's Mam, inspecting a "mermaid's purse", also known as a shark egg. In real life, you could see a tiny baby shark squirming around in there. And perhaps the centerpiece of the aquarium is an enormous tank full of sharks and rays, with a glass tunnel under it that you can walk through while the fish swim around next to you and over your head. Still, it was mostly just an aquarium. Lots of neat fish, the obligatory jellyfish, some sea horses and funny miniature horseshoe crabs. We were done in less than two hours.

On the way in, we'd noticed some strawberry fields where you can pick your own strawberries, so we picked some berries before leaving Carlsbad. We also picked up a couple of letterboxes on the way back...one of which turned into a fast-paced trek down a hot, dusty trail for Daddy and me while everyone else waited in the van. It was an even faster trek back up the same hot dusty trail when we got a distress call from the van saying that Smunch had announced a potty emergency. Yikes.

Back at home, Karen and I put together dinner for everyone, including a yummy and predictable dessert... and Daddy relaxed with some of the small crowd.Our final day in San Diego had Daddy and Uncle David putting SPENCER!'s new swing set together, making everyone very happy and giving Mam some extra special connection to the Matrix...or something.Seemed to give SPENCER! some unique flying abilities too.The late afternoon was spent at the local pool before Daddy and Smunch headed to the Padres game. They got back super late, but Smunch was still awake and still bouncing, really.

The next morning, we made our annual trek to The Original House of Pancakes for a farewell breakfast, returned to pack all our camping gear back in the van and said our tearful goodbyes.Sometimes it feels like we've really stayed a day too long. This time seemed like at least a day too short. Still, they'll be coming to visit us in mid-August. Feels like that might be right around the corner!

Off We Go!

Just over two weeks into summer and I'm already two weeks behind on the blog. I'm going to say it must be because we're having so much fun. Although maybe it's because I was a scheduling fiend with this summer and we're so booked, it's just ridiculous.

Just four days after Smunch's last day of school, the mommymobile was packed to the gills for our first trip of this summer. First stop, camping at the beach in Santa Barbara.This was sort of a compromise camping trip. I really wanted to go camping this summer, but we have another big trip planned and we always go to San Diego to visit Aunt Karen and SPENCER! Three trips in one little summer sounded like an awful lot, so I decided to combine the camping trip with our road trip to San Diego instead. Yeah, I know. And you're right.

Summer in California has so far been kind of chilly this year and Santa Barbara was no exception. The day we arrived was lovely and since there's no keeping the kids out of the water, that was a good thing. And, compared to our trip to Burney Falls, the whole thing was really rather balmy. It certainly didn't snow and being outside wasn't unpleasant, even if it wasn't always sunny and beautiful.

As soon as we got our tent set up, we headed down to the beach and the kids had a blast in the water while I looked around for likely spots for tidepooling the next morning. There aren't really tidepools there like there are in Monterey or Carmel, but there were some rocky areas at least. After an hour or so at the beach, it was getting windy and we headed back up the hill for dinner.Fancy dinner with hotdogs, baked beans, salad and corn, followed by s'mores. Yummy. Then, the kids and I headed out to watch the sunset at the beach while Daddy tended the fire. Turns out, you can't really see the sunset from this beach at this time of year. It sets over the little peninsula to the north, but it was still pretty out there and we got to watch groups of pelicans diving for food in the twilight...at least when the kids weren't busy seeing how far they could throw rocks into the ocean.After breakfast the next morning, we did head out to the tidepools, such as they were. And even though there were no real "pools", there was plenty to see. I always consider it a successful tidepool trip if I see a starfish. There were plenty and they were big ones!There were both purplish ones and orange ones. I just didn't post any of my orange starfish photos. There were also plenty of beautiful anemones out there. The kids were thrilled to touch them and feel how their tentacles sucked their fingers. I, on the other hand, went to work trying to capture the beautiful color.On the way back to the campground, we discovered this cool, nasturtium-covered trail off through the trees.We took a quick trip into Goleta and did a little letterboxing around the historic Stow House there. There were some neat birds to see in the fields around the house and we were moderately successful in finding the three boxes. We went back to the campground for lunch and then back out to the now dreary-looking beach for the afternoon. Fortunately, kids don't seem to care what its like out there. They kept themselves busy digging trenches in the sand and watching the tide come in and fill them up.As my mom always said. The amount of dirt on a kid is proportional to the amount of fun they've had. I'd say Mam had a pretty darned good time.The highlight of the trip...well, sorta...actually happened the second night after the kids were all snug in their sleeping bags and Daddy and I were relaxing around the campfire. There was a rustle in the bushes up by the tent. I'd heard something similar the night before, but I'd been inside the tent and didn't get out in time to see what it was. This time, I was armed with a big Maglite and I flipped it on. Just as quickly, I flipped it right back off because I'd clearly seen the critter up there by the tent...at least I'd clearly seen the fabulous plume-like tail...magnificently fluffy and black, with white stripes.

I still can't imagine what we'd have done if a skunk had sprayed our tent. Of course, the skunk wasn't concerned in the least. In fact, it turned out that the skunks in this particular campground are pretty fearless around humans. I suspect it would take stepping on one to make it spray you. And I almost had that opportunity. Because, there wasn't just one skunk. There were several skunks. No sooner had that one ambled off, than two of them appeared on the other side of our campsite, scampering along together, zipping under our picnic table to see what we might have left them, then playfully heading toward our chairs. I froze. I looked at Scott. He wasn't even there. He was already 10 feet away. But I was frozen in my chair and a couple of rambunctious little skunks were having a playful wrestling match around my feet. Yikes.

Oddly, I don't have any photos of these events, so you'll just have to take my word for it. The best I could do was this cute little ground squirrel who posed so handsomely for me the next morning.Cute, huh? And not at all skunky looking.

All-in-all, it was a successful trip. We forgot the dishtowels, but there were plenty of beach towels. We temporarily lost the kids' toothbrushes, but eventually found them. We all slept well, despite the squirrely skunks and ate well, because well, I know that's one thing I can do to make Daddy feel a little less like he's being dragged out into nature with no amenities at all! We brought the kids' scooters, so when they were bored, we could have them take a lap or two...or three...of the campground. Fortunately, there were lots of other kids around too. Assuming they don't go and close our state parks, I think there's a good chance we'll be camping again in the not-too-distant future!

No More Pencils...

This was the look on Smunch's face as he walked out of school on his last day of first grade. This wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I brought the camera, but it's probably the look I deserved for trying to preserve his last minute as a first grader.

It was so much harder than I'd expected it to be. Maybe it's because I was the room mom this year. I got to know his teacher pretty well. I was in the classroom a lot. I talked to all the parents so I kinda knew everyone. I knew all the kids well enough to have opinions about all of them...and to have corrected my errant first impressions of some of them. Smunch made new friends and so did I.

But maybe it was how much Smunch grew this past school year. Naturally, I don't mean he's suddenly tall. That sort of growth isn't his strong suit. He just changed so much. It's hard to believe he was the kid who really, really didn't want to go to his second day of first grade after being completely overwhelmed on day one. Gosh, I still get teary re-reading that entry. That second day? That was the last day he said he didn't want to go to school.

He quickly made a best friend...something he'd never, ever had before. And his teacher wasn't so scary after all, even if this wasn't quite what Smunch had in mind when I asked if I could take a picture of him with her. He started off the year playing with a group of other first graders in the sand box, but by the end of the year he was playing "shoot out" with a group of 3rd graders every recess. (I don't know what that is, except that it's vaguely basketball-related.) They autographed his T-shirt before the last day of school. So much for the big, scary playground and lunch recess that was too long.

Despite having very obvious struggles to speak in class, when I was there and the teacher asked for volunteers, his hand always shot straight up along with those of all the other kids. And he didn't hesitate to speak, even if it was hard for him to get through whatever he wanted to say. And it changed him outside school as well. My kid who wouldn't dare go to a counter and ask for a cookie or ice cream, even when he had the money in his hand? He now brings his own money to swim class and goes and asks for his favorite cookie when he's done swimming. And at the bowling alley last week? When they didn't have the ball he needed, he not only went up to the counter to ask (they keep the light balls back there), but when the guy wasn't at the counter, he went and tracked him down!

He's getting so independent and has gained so much self-confidence. He's happy. He's looking forward to being a second grader, but psyched to have summer first...even though he doesn't know a single kid going to any of the camps he wanted to go to. They're mostly sports camps, so he's not going to care.

And then there's that. How many kids can sit through a baseball game? Sure you can make them, or at least tolerate the fidgeting, but how many of them are actually riveted to everything going on? That kid loves baseball in ways I can't quite begin to fathom. So, the NHL playoffs ended yesterday. He can tell you who won, but it's not a big deal. And the NBA playoffs are going on. He doesn't seem to care. Hey, Michael Phelps is swimming in a local swim meet. Couldn't care less. But he couldn't sleep tonight, not knowing the final score of the SF Giants game. He's going to drive some poor woman crazy someday.

Until then, he's seven and Mam is five and it's summer. What could be happier?

A New Family Moves In

For quite some time now, I've noticed there's a phoebe who likes to frequent our front yard. It likes to sit on the side of our garbage "corral", flicking it's tail as though it's a wee bit nervous. I'd noticed it, but hadn't paid it any particular attention. Phoebes are kind of neat little birds, so I was happy that it stuck around and it never really struck me that this might be the same bird, day after day.

That is, until we got home from Park Day on Monday. I don't remember now what made me look up at the peak of the roof over the garage. Maybe it was the telltale peeping coming from up there. But looking up, there was clearly a mud nest attached firmly to the house, under the overhanging peak of the roof.And from that nest, there was a faint peeping. I didn't have a clue what kind of nest phoebes make, necessitating an immediate trip to the ol' bird book. Yes, indeed, much like swallow, phoebes make nests out of mud. It didn't take much investigating to confirm that our phoebe...which is almost certainly twophoebe parents...has a brand new family living above our garage.

I feel honored. I also feel like I need to remember to pull the mommymobile into the garage from now on...knowing that the phoebes like to sit in the tree in the driveway when they're not out hunting for food. No wonder it was such a mess!

Another Day at the Park

Although Mam was done with school, there was just one little item of business left on Monday this week. Park Day. Our family has been at the same preschool for three years now and I think I've posted about Park Day each time. It's such a fun time for the kids, although I have to admit that after three years, some of the same old, same old is getting a little ho hum for me. Such as the giant, inflatable worm that eats and then poops children.Obviously, Mam is having a grand ol' time. I think she ran around in circles being eaten and then pooped at least a dozen times before she abandoned the worm for the bouncy house carousel.

I'm not complaining. Although I was slightly bored, it was fun to watch Mam run around enjoying all the different things. This is actually the first year she's gone all by herself. Smunch has always been there with us before...two years ago as the graduating preschooler and last year as an afternoon kindergartner who had a free morning to join us.

This year, the bubble station was of particular fascination. I think she went back several times, even though I urged her on to some of her other favorite activities.She had fun throwing rings around floating critters and getting to choose a prize for no real accomplishment in particular.She had a grand ol' time fishing with a magnetic and picking a prize for a fish successfully caught.She got a balloon animal. In typical Mam-girly fashion, she requested an orange snake. But, at the next station, where she had her face painted, she duly requested a pink unicorn on her cheek.She dug for buried treasure in buckets of sand and added a pile of trinkets to all the junk I was already trying to juggle. Too bad I won't be at this event again, or I'd write myself a big reminder to bring an empty bag with me...a bag for all the things I will surreptitiously try to sneak into the garbage can in the next month or so.

Mam also paid a visit to the "pocket lady" and picked out her favorite prize of all...She ate popcorn and Otter Pops. She visited with all the friends she ran into. In general, it was a very happy time. Of course, it's also a time for bittersweet goodbyes. Here she is with her favoritest teacher of all.Because Mam was enrolled in two preschool classes this year, Mam had six teachers and as far as I can tell, she loved them all. Looking at the sweet photos of her with them, I realize I loved them all too. I didn't full appreciate why some of my friends were having such a hard time with their youngest leaving preschool. Sure it's a little sad, but they're going to KINDERGARTEN! Maybe part of my excitement has to do with the days when I didn't think she'd ever make it to kindergarten. Or maybe my friends were just more sad because they'd had more years to absorb what a wonderful place this preschool really is. The director can be a little strident at times, but her love of children is unsurpassed and her ability to hire fantastic preschool teachers is really unbelievable. Not only have we never had a bad teacher there (and we've had 11 different ones in 3 years with the 4 classes the two kids have been in), but the teachers don't leave either. Although these are teachers who probably see 80 kids every week, they always knew who she was...including many of the ones who weren't her teachers. Even the office staff knew Mam by name...long before they knew my name, I might add. And they have a way of making you feel like you'll always be part of their family, no matter how old your kids are.

In so many ways, it's a magical place. I hope Mam looks back on it that way too.

Fun Without Kids

On the whole, my life is about my kids. So, it's hardly surprising that most of my blog posts are about them or something I'm doing in relation to them. The real surprise is that as soon as Smunch was done with Author's Breakfast and Mam had walked confidently out of preschool for the last time, Daddy and I dropped the kids off with my parents and left for the weekend for our very aforementioned anniversary.I understand that for some people, this wouldn't be a really big deal, but for us? This was HUGE! It's not that we're paranoid parents, afraid to leave our children for more than an evening. It's that we have no one to leave them with. In the seven years since Smunch was born, my parents, who are quite local, have never offered to take the kids for more than several hours. So, you can imagine we were eager to take them up on the first ever offer to keep them for a weekend. And after having to reschedule for the principal's rescheduled retirement celebration, I really couldn't wait to leave.We went to one of our favorite coastal destinations where we haven't been since having kids. For just a moment, we were able to kinda, sorta, almost forget we even had children and all the responsibility that comes with them. We may have also forgotten there is a limit on our credit card...which is particularly weird considering how cheap I normally am. It was sort of a weekend of throwing all those responsibilities to the wind. We had trendy cocktails, fantastic food, good wine and added to our collection of dinnerware. Romantic, huh? I was also treated to an addition to my jewelry collection. Much more romantic. The weather was incredible, so the views were awesome. We had a terrific view of the sunset from the big deck of our not-so-big room.I took about 500 photos, literally. That means I got some really beautiful ones. Including these ones from our hike on Saturday. If you can't get enough of those, there are lots and lots more available in our web gallery.

It was hard to want to check out of the hotel and head home on Sunday. We did a little more shopping (ouch!) and finally made it down to the beach for what I was hoping would be a nice stroll on the sand before going home. But we never got to the sand. I got captivated by the tidepools for a few minutes and then totally mesmerized by these guys (not a postcard, honest!): who were frolicking in the surf and trying unsuccessfully to wrap themselves in sea grass. Before we knew it, we were already late for getting home and had to call the parents to apologize for being distracted by sea otters. Fortunately, this is something they understand.

Going back to regular ol' life this week has been hard. It's amazing how a restful weekend can be drained right out of you within 24 hours. And, I've got to say that while I'm absolutely nuts about my kids, it was awfully nice to leave them behind for a a couple of days. I didn't really miss them, even though I loved seeing them again. Hope it we're not looking like this before we get another opportunity to go somewhere on our own for the weekend... although if we don't get that chance, I sure hope we're still that happy together.

And, She's Outta There!

Mam walks out the door on her last day of preschool (which she went to after listening to her brother read his story at the Authors' Breakfast). So much confidence as she walks out the door. It made me a little sad that she seemed to be in such a hurry, despite all my declarations about how much fun kindergarten is. But then, this has got to be just what they want in their preschool graduates, right? She's ready to get out there and see what the world has to offer.

An Author in our Midst

One of the most anticipated events of the year in first grade at Smunch's school is the Author's Breakfast. See, prior to this day, the kids work really hard to write a few stories. They outline, they write, they edit. When the story is approved by the teacher, it goes "to the publisher"...which is a really exciting way of saying that the teacher gives it to one of the moms to type up. Then it comes back from the publisher and needs to be illustrated and have a cover designed before the whole thing is bound.

Smunch wrote three "books". His first was called "How Martin Luther King, Jr. Changed America". Kinda serious stuff, that. He chose the topic himself. Huh. The second was called "Me and the Rocket Ship" (no accounting for grammar there) and the final story, which he chose to read during the Author's breakfast, was "The Little Boy and the Baseball Player".It was a short story, with an emphasis on short. But this was the first time he'd been asked to get up in front of an audience and read. It may not be that big a deal for a lot of kids, but for kids who stutter, it can be absolute torture. He did a great job! He started off nice and slowly, reading very clearly. Like most people who are a little nervous, he kind of rushed towards the end, but the stuttering was barely noticeable. We were such proud parents. The kids have to write a dedication page for each of their books. Smunch dedicated his book to his grandpa because he had helped coach his baseball team. So sweet. And my dad was even there to be appreciative. I was a little surprised that he came, so I was thrilled when he got sole billing in the dedication.

Smunch's time in the spotlight was short and he was first, we we still had to sit through the remaining 17 students' books. Turns out, the dedication surprises weren't over. It wasn't shocking to hear the girls dedicating their stories to all their friends "because they believe in fairies too" or whatever. And it wasn't unusual for a couple of kids to dedicate stories to their teacher or to to their siblings. But the boys generally didn't mention their friends. Only two of them did, including this one:and a second one from one of the more "popular" kids in class that said "This book is dedicated to my friend Gavin because he is nice to me." Geez. Who knew?

As much as I was proud of Smunch's reading job, I was thrilled to find out how well-liked he is. There are so, so many things about his personality that are really encouraging. Having seen how stuttering can make kids too scared to speak or turn them into social outcasts, I'm relieved and excited to see that he doesn't seem to be heading in that direction.

He may not be an angel at home, but apparently, we've actually managed to produce a nice kid!

First Grade Picnic

This year, the first grade at Smunch's school had the distinction of having the first end-of-year party. Traditionally, the kids all walk to a nearby park for food, fun and games and then walk back to school for popsicles. As one of the room parents this year, I had some responsibility for organizing this event. The other organizers must have recognized the dazed "overvolunteered" look on my face because the tasks that fell to me were...getting butcher paper from the work room and procuring some pens and crayons from the classroom. Despite the fact that these were ridiculously easy things to do, I still felt like maybe it was all too much for me to handle. Duh.

I ended up going to the park early to help set up. That meant I got to see the inordinately cute sight of a line of 80 first graders parading into the park with their teachers and chaperones. We were ready for them too. There were building materials, spin art, face painting, Wedgits, fishing, velcro darts, and, of course, drawing materials. Not to mention pizza, lemonade, fruit and Rice Krispie treats. There were also field games. Smunch participated in one or two of those before lunch, but seemed to prefer some of the other activities. After all, they saved the best for last! You might remember that last year, at the kindergarten picnic, they had this hilarious game of getting the kids to eat donuts hanging from strings, with their hands behind their backs. This year, that game was replaced with the Whipped Cream Relay.This game, which was clearly met with much enthusiasm, involved having the teacher sit at the far end of the field with a spray can of whipped cream...which she used to cover chocolate Hershey's Kisses on little plates. Each kid had to run down the field (see Smunch, above), dive into the plate with their hands behind their backs... (O.K., not quite behind his back, are they?) and eat through the whipped cream to get to the Kiss.I think Smunch took about four turns at this relay. Obviously, everyone won!

Just before leaving, the kids all played "Splash Ball"...getting as wet as they possibly could while soaking their classmates on the other side...or the parents running through the middle, whichever was available. Last, but not least...for me anyway...we made a presentation of the year-end gifts to Smunch's teacher. She was very pleased and loved the pot. After working my butt off to make sure everything was ready for giving the gift at the picnic, I realized just how ridiculous it had been for me to stick to that artificial date for gift giving. I think many of the classes waited until the last day of school rather than doing it at the picnic. And with the first grade picnic falling a whole week and a half before the last day of school, it was totally unnecessary to give the gifts there. But it was done and I was off the hook...at least until the Author's Breakfast at the end of the week!

Crafty Overload

In all the spare time I had during the cake planning and decorating process, I needed to put together a class gift for Smunch's first grade teacher. If I was better about delegating this sort of stuff...and if I'd really understood the convergence of all the activities at the end of the year...I might have tried to give this job to someone else. But I'm a little clueless about this stuff. I started soliciting donations from other class parents early on in the process, but didn't have much idea what I was going to do other than buy a gift card from a garden store.

I didn't do it at the holidays, but I wanted to try and get the kids to make something for their teacher. It would be a lot more personal (and cheap) than the gift card. But I didn't want to do anything that was too big a deal. After all, what would she want with this item in 5 years or 10 years when she barely remembers who these kids are? Here's what I came up with:This is a plain ol' $5 terra cotta pot. I borrowed some acrylic paints from a neighbor, painted a grassy background and some lettering, then had each of the kids pick what kind of bug they wanted to create. They did the fingerprints. I did the details...antennas, legs, eyes, etc. and wrote the name of each kid next to their creation.It took me showing up during lunch two days in a row to get most of the kids. The last one was conveniently a neighbor who could drop by for a minute. I sprayed the whole thing with a clear acrylic glaze and then went shopping for plants to put in it.While I was doing fingerprinting, I also had all the kids sign a card and make a few ink print bugs for decorations. Too bad I didn't take a picture of the inside of the card. It was really priceless!*Phew*! It was a cute little project, but more work than I was really up for with an impending school-wide event to coordinate.

Although I had some trouble finding enough volunteers to help out in the classroom during the year, the class parents are monetarily generous. I was able to get that gardening certificate, a gift card for a nice Italian dinner, a manicure/pedicure card, and a gift card for Borders. Then, of course, it was up to me to find some kind of ridiculous crafty way to present these cards. Why I have a problem with handing someone a gift card or even a pile of gift cards, I'm not sure. I decided it needed to be a folding card with pockets. And this is what I came up with...It was kinda cute and garden-y. I stitched the pages together with yarn and then designed the whole thing to be a brochure of suggestions for summer activities. Cute. Maybe too cute.I got all these things together in barely enough time to be presented at the 1st grade picnic on Monday. Yeah. That Monday after the Spring Celebration on Friday. Ugh. The picnic was great, but that'll save for another post...

Going Overboard on a Retirement Cake

It all started with a simple, but silly comment I made at a PTA board meeting. One of the other moms there mentioned ordering a bridge for our new teaching garden...right after my update on the "Spring Celebration", which was a low-key retirement party for our principal in addition to a garden dedication. I chirped up, "We could call it the Bridge to Retirement!" I was kinda kidding, but the PTA president loved the idea and so it happened.

Of course, being a cakey kind of person, I volunteered to make a cake for said Spring Celebration, which I was also co-chairing. Silly me. 'Cause you know what happened, right? Well, actually you probably couldn't imagine the insanity that occurred after that, which included having to reschedule the whole event because of the swine flu...rescheduling it to the weekend Daddy and I were supposed to go away without the children for the first time ever! For a minute, I was off the hook for the cake because suddenly no one was interested in eating home-baked goods. But that was when the swine flu panic was still going full force. If you didn't notice, it became a back-burner issue very quickly.

And then I made the mistake of suggesting that I make a replica of the Bridge to Retirement for the cake. Then I went and visited a bunch of aquarium stores hoping to make my job little easier. No simple aquarium bridges to be found. Turns out I should've gone this route to begin with:Not bad and not altogether difficult. It was a passable chocolate replica of the sturdy redwood bridge they'd installed.

Next, I needed to try and replicate the dry creek bed that runs under the bridge. A trip to my favorite cake supplies store provided not only some really killer cake mix for the 16" cake, but some fantastic "chocolate rocks" that were just what I needed.As soon as I got all the creekbed done, I knew I'd made a mistake frosting the whole thing white. It's a garden. It's dirt! Nothing a package of Oreos (stuffing removed) and a rolling pin couldn't handle!

I had a little bit of white fondant left over from Smunch's birthday cake and used that to fashion a green water pump. I also had some colored fondant I used to make more flowers to make everything more garden like.In a final act of decorating inspiration, I decided to try and make it look like water was coming out of the pump. To my astonishment, it worked...really well!I also used the green fondant for the stars on the side of the cake. I know they look kind of odd on this garden cake, but they are a take on the school logo and were actually more appropriate than you'd think.

The worst part of this cake was trying to write on top of Oreo crumbs. They're somewhat loose, so it's crazy difficult to pipe letters onto the top and make them look neat. In a way, that was good. It meant I couldn't get too creative with the message. It had to be short and simple. Now you have to imagine that I took this giant cake to a school-wide event. The kids were very impressed...so impressed that I ended up having to post Daddy as a sentry to make sure no fingers ended up in the frosting before it was presented to the honoree. He fielded a number of questions. Who made that? Are those real rocks? Is that real dirt? What did you use for the water? And he did it all with good humor...especially considering we'd had to reschedule our trip for this shindig.I'd say it was a grand success. Of course, it wasn't big enough for everyone. And the potluck portion of the event didn't go particularly well. We totally ran out of food. I hid the cake away until the end and those whole helped out or stuck around for a long time got to eat it. That seemed fair, considering. I sent the bridge and a big chunk of cake home with Mr. Celeste. It was yummy...which was fortunate since I never got any dinner!

Meeting the Panda

I'm a sucker. That's not true about everything, but when it comes to my son and his unfathomable, boundless love of baseball, I'm just a big pushover. And that is how our whole family ended up traveling to a nearby city one Thursday evening to meet the San Francisco Giant's star known affectionately as "Kung Fu Panda".In reality, his name is Pablo Sandoval. He's a 22-year-old switch hitting infielder (sometimes first base, sometimes third base, sometimes catcher) from Venezuela and he now has a new biggest fan. Because no matter how diminutive my son is, I'd dare any seven-year-old to be a bigger fan. It's just not possible. Smunch skipped his way down this street after this meeting. And we had some cake at one of my favorite bakeries. Smunch probably didn't even notice the cake. He ate the frosting. And the frosting was what topped off his newly autographed baseball. Who cares about cake when you've got the Panda's signature right there on the table?(Soccer shirt aside, of course!)