Singing

Late last week, the kids had their Spring Sing at school...or more precisely, the kindergartners through third graders at their school had a concert at the local junior high school. It's a big deal...at least parking and finding a seat in the big auditorium is a big deal. This shindig is always standing room only. Usually, that's painful for us. Because we never get there early enough, despite being early. And, in the past, we always had a very impatient Mam to tend during the performance. But wait!...Where is Mam? Isn't that her, up there...singing??What do you know? That is her. We have a kindergartner and life just got a tad bit easier. Well, at least this concert got easier, even if there's just one year left of that easiness.

As is always the case when reviewing one's own child in a performance, it was adorable. The kindergartners and the second graders were the best and the show wasn't too long at all. Even Smunch was looking pretty happy up there... And, as is also always the case, you do not want to see videos of this event if you were not there. You know you don't. So, I'm not posting any, although I've got plenty. If you've really got to see one of my kids perform on stage, I'd be happy to send you a video or two. But then, please do visit your psychologist first. You may have a problem.

More Singing of Spring

Last Wednesday was Mam's very last Spring Sing at her preschool, where she's been for the last couple of years. Although the preschool director got all choked up when introducing our 4-year-olds, after seeing 8 "sings" in the course of the last three years, I wasn't as sentimental about this one as I'd expected. It's still unbearably cute. And, Mam is just luminous up there, waving to all her fans.And it is impressive to hear 100 4-year-olds sing 14 songs, even if they're largely the same songs I heard at the last two Spring Sings. Of course, when there are so many of them, any given one can forget the words and it doesn't really hurt the performance. And they have so many cute little hand motions and songs with sign language.Unfortunately, Mam's class was the last one on the stage and that meant they sat at the front. That's unfortunate mostly because her preschool is loaded with type-A parents who will wait an hour to get in and get a front row seat. I'm not one of them, so we generally have a back row seat instead. It was hard to see her through all the bodies in front of us.I think she knew we were there. At least she waved at someone after every song.

And when it was all over, we joined the kids for snack, where they used pretzels and blue frosting to "fish" for Goldfish crackers. Very cute.And so, it was over with very little fanfare. It was fun, it was cute, there are still a couple of months left. I guess I ought to enjoy them while she's still in preschool!

Sing, Sing a Song

I try not to blog a whole lot about all the school performances and such. After all, they aren't tremendously interesting to anyone except family. And honestly, they're not that interesting to family either. But Smunch's "Spring Sing" was on Thursday. It's a big deal where grades K through 3 each perform three songs in the multi-purpose room of the local junior high school. It's always packed with standing room only and parking is generally a nightmare, as is the traffic after the show.

The picture above is the entire first grade at Smunch's school. Only one person showed up without the pre-requisite shirt and that was easily taken care of. The most striking thing to me was that Smunch was singing! His mouth was moving, he was smiling, he knew all the hand and arm movements for everything. He's never shown that much interest before, so that alone made the show worthwhile for me.Unfortunately, there wasn't much at all that made the show worthwhile to a bored little Mam. A couple songs she recognized by the kindergartners and a wave to her brother - those were fun. But by the time the third graders got up on stage, she'd found two of her preschool friends and they were hopping across the back of the room together. Standing room only, remember? No room to hop, but that didn't stop them.She annoyed me mercilessly by continually kissing my shoulder, giggling, loudly playing "I Spy" with her friends and complaining she was hot. I'm relieved to know she won't be with us at this event next year.

Next year, she'll be up there too!

What's wrong with this picture?

This year, Smunch's Cub Scout pack went to sing Christmas carols at an old folks home nearby. Some little sisters like to be the center of attention ALWAYS. Some big brothers don't always appreciate that.Who can blame him, really?

School Things

It was the week before spring break, so naturally, there were "school things" last week.

First, there was Smunch's first display in the district-wide art show. They didn't pick anything all that exciting from his collection, but he was pleased to see it there and then go off to look for his friends' artwork.

Then we had the kindergarten open house. It was a really big deal for the kids. They each had a checklist of all the things to show their parents. I spend enough time in the classroom that I'd seen most of it before. So, I spent more time chasing after Mam as she visited this friend and that. The room looked great though. They do a much better job of showing of their artwork than they can do at showing off the more academic stuff, but face it amateur handwriting just isn't as pretty as a bunch of watercolor flowers on the wall.
The week was capped off by Mam's "Spring Sing" at preschool. It was as adorable as always. It never ceases to amaze me how they can get 100 preschoolers to sing a dozen songs with hand movements and everything.
And, as usual after these sing events, we all went back to the classroom for refreshments. The siblings who attended were invited to sit at the snack tables with the students. I'm not sure exactly how Mam felt about that. You?

Home for the Holidays

I'm a little out of order here. We went to Santa Cruz after the kids were done with school for the year. BUT, before kids can be done with school, there must be much celebrating at school. For Mam, that meant participating in the preschool's annual Holiday Sing. The school does four of these each year. One for kids who go to school Tuesday/Thursday mornings, one for kids on the same days, but in the afternoons, one for kids who go MWF mornings and a last one for kids going MWF afternoons. Mam's group represented the final group of about 100 kids, going on stage to perform.

Mam's class is the only class of 3-year-olds in the bunch. The rest are 4- and 5-year-olds. As usual, Mam loved being on stage and seeing Mommy, Daddy, Gram and Grandpa in the chairs below. Also, as usual, the crowd of type-A parents arrived ridiculously early, so even though Daddy arrived to save us seats about 20 minutes early (I was volunteering in Smuch's classroom 'til the last minute), we sat in the back row of the main section.

The kids were predictably adorable singing about a dozen holiday songs with hand motions and piano accompaniment. Afterwards, they got to have a cookie snack in their classroom while all the parents stood around and congratulated them on their performance. One of my favorite moments of the day was when Santa made a surprise visit to the classroom. Mam was visibly in awe...

Who knew Santa came to see kids at preschool and hand out presents too??

Not to be outdone (although he kinda was), Smunch also had a party at school, although no concert. His party consisted of decorating gingerbread/graham cracker houses. And his was the best! Well, no, it wasn't the best at all, but it had character...a character I suspect was influenced by Smunch's rather strong desire to eat his house. It was devoured fewer than 24 hours after it got home!

The highlight of that party was that I'd accidentally gotten myself appointed coordinator of the class gift. I was fine with that, but the presentation was another story. I have no self confidence when it comes to standing in front of a crowd, even if it's mostly just a crowd of kindergartners. So, you can imagine I felt just slightly proud of myself for getting all the kids to chime in and say "Thank you, Ms. Britton!" as we presented her gift. And to the aide as well. Phew!

One final hug for his teacher before he left and we were all home for the holidays...for two weeks...whatever will we do?? Stay tuned...

Boo!

I'm not sure when Halloween went from a one-day event to something more than a week long. It seemed like we had non-stop, festive activities. It's nice that the costumes get a good work out, but *phew*, I'm kinda glad it's over!

This year started off with a couple of Las Madres events...a party for Mam's group and our annual pumpkin patch visit and pizza feed for our friends from Gavin's group. I'd already bought a bunch of cheap pumpkins at Safeway, so I considered it a success that we made it out of the pumpkin patch with nothing more than our own photographs. And pizza was fun. Sometimes I forget how nice it is to get together with our "old friends".

We continued our week with Halloween itself, which included the Halloween parade at Smuch's school and the Halloween concert at Mam's preschool. Naturally, the two events overlapped. Daddy and I ran from the parade to the concert.














Gavin was a skeleton this year and Mam was a queen...or a princess...or a little girl with a velvety blue dress and a crown. Whatever. It was a cute costume, even if I bought it last year when I just couldn't decide which costume to buy for Mam and bought two! It was a little shorter than I'd anticipated.

The parade was cute and the concert was fun. Unlike her brother was in preschool, Mam was totally into performing on stage. She sang and did all the hand motions. It's a lot more fun when you see your kid enjoying herself! There are a lot more kids on the stage them you can see in this picture. There were about 100 kids singing. They have three of these concerts every year. Now I'm really looking forward to the holiday concert and the "Spring Sing".

The day ended with two of the cutest and most enthusiastic trick-or-treaters around, leaving all shyness at home and bolting out the door to every neighbor's house within reach. They had a great time...and came home with lots of candy. According to Scott the woman at the next-to-last house they visited told the kids they were cute and gave them each five pieces of candy. At the next house, Mam, failing to say trick-or-treat at all, was compelled to say:

"I'm cute! But my bag is heavy. Can I have just one piece please?"