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!

A Day in the Park

Aunt Susan graciously planned a day at Krape Park in Freeport. Part of this is her amazing hostessing abilities. Part of it is their annual excuse to pick up Kentucky Fried Chicken. Of course, the KFC is never enough. Susan also made potato salad and cake and brought watermelon. It was chilly out when we got there, but it was still a magnificent feast. And the park is really lovely, with a carousel...paddle boats...which have to be experienced with all possible adults doing the work... and a great playground.It looks like I spent a lot of time there taking photos, but I spent a ridiculous amount of time off looking for the six letterboxes that are resident in that park. It was a mistake. I would have had a much better time just hanging out with everyone else. I need to remember this stuff when I need to control my letterboxing compulsions. Still, it looked like everyone was having a good time, particularly Mam...

I looked the other way and then...

My college roommate came to visit last weekend with her family, including her three little girls. I don't know where the time goes, but we hadn't gotten together in two years. Thankfully, the time doesn't seem to make a big difference...except the kids change an awful lot...
Her youngest isn't in either of these photos. She was still a little larva when the first was taken and she just wasn't in the tree house for the second. Too bad the kids didn't see fit to stick their heads out in the same order as they'd done a couple of years earlier, but it's still fun to compare.

I'm thrilled at just how well all the kids got along. They spent a day and a half together. No fights, very little crying (if any) and a whole lot of giggling and running around. It was one of those long weekends that felt just exactly like a long weekend should be. Lots of playing in the yard, a pleasant dinner at an uncrowded restaurant, a nice time chatting after all the kids were asleep, a leisurely stroll around the farmer's market, some pastries at the bakery. And obligatory introduction to letterboxing for my friends' family, followed by a nice trip to Ardenwood Farm for a picnic, feeding animals and a wee bit more letterboxing, of course! We really need to do things like that more often...which might just require seeing the Cowles family more often!

Mother's Day

Rarely has a Mother's Day been quite so full for me. This one was really kind of nuts. And I didn't bring the camera along, so I'm afraid there isn't much in the way of photos to be had. Maybe I'll see if I can scrounge some online, just for color.

The day started nicely enough. I got out of bed and was promptly shoo-ed back into bed by Daddy. Moments later, the kids came tumbling in with presents, insisting that they should help me open them. So, I unwrapped the necklace I bought myself for the occasion, a silver bracelet from Smunch, some cool lotion soaps from Daddy and a wonderful new tabletop pancake griddle, ostensibly from Mam.

And Daddy had whipped up some pancake batter too. So we all had pancakes for breakfast...except for Daddy, who learned the hard way why I hate making pancakes. There are never enough! And when I spent all my time over at the stove shoveling pancakes for everyone else, that was really annoying. I'd finally figured out that I have to make a double batch. Unfortunately, I apparently forgot to pass this wisdom on. But seriously, who knew it'd ever be useful to him?

After some leisurely lolling around the table and the house, Daddy took the kids out to get food for a picnic lunch with my parents while I went to get flowers for my own mom. Apparently, I also forgot to pass along the wisdom that every activity takes at least twice as long when the kids are with you. We got to the park half an hour late for our lunch date. But it was O.K., everyone still had fun. The kids got to play with Daddy and Grandpa while my mom and I sat in the sun. We had lunch. We checked on a letterbox we planted at the park last month. Grandpa served his own homemade chocolate chip cookies...his specialty.

Then we were supposed to head to a benefit concert for the daughter of a friend of mine who died suddenly several months ago. We're not big fans of the guy who was performing...having been spoiled by our love of Andy Z...but I felt like it was important to go and support her family. We stopped at a $4M+ open house on the way and that made Smunch very grumpy, even though he seemed to enjoy looking around.

But when we finally parked to walk to the concert venue, Smunch did something naughty (I'm not even sure what) and Daddy took his privileges, resulting in a complete and total meltdown like I'm not sure I've ever really seen from him...uh, Smunch, that is. Daddy held his composure quite well, under the circumstances. I'm sure we got plenty of strange looks as we walked, but I cleverly hid my nose in the map, pretending I heard nothing.

I went into the concert and made the donation I'd been planning to make while Daddy stayed outside with the screaming Smunch. Mam stayed with Daddy, so I went back out and retrieved her. At least one of my kids was going to see a little bit of the concert! Smunch was still screaming and crying outside. We watched some of the concert, but we've seen this guy's show before and I'm not sure it bears watching more than once. We probably stayed for about 10 minutes, then went back outside...where Smunch was still screaming and crying next to Daddy. Poor Daddy.

We walked back to the mommymobile...with Smunch trailing behind, screaming and crying. I picked up the all-important clue and backpack, so we could go hunt down a letterbox in the area. Smunch screamed and cried the whole way. It let up just about the time I made Mam back off and forced Smunch to get the letterbox out of its hidey hole.

After that, Smunch cheered up and then insisted he wanted to go see the Native American drumming and dancing going on nearby. Of course, he didn't necessarily want to walk...and neither did Mam. A couple of times, I caught Daddy carrying both of them at once. We made it to the Pow Wow and wandered around for a little bit. Got to see lots of Native Americans in ceremonial garb. Got to see some dancing, heard some music, perused some jewelry and other artwork and finally headed back to the car again.

It was late. We went out for a cheap dinner, which fortunately featured margaritas, then zoomed home for bath and bedtime. Thank goodness.

It's great being a mom. I wouldn't trade it for anything...but sometimes, this time of night is the best part of the whole day!