Kindergarten!! (Take 2)

Because of her January birthday, Megan is not old enough for first grade so she is getting another year of Kindergarten, this time at our local public school instead of at Little Red School House.

The year started with an Open House and an Ice Cream Social. We sat in the corner of the gym with our ice cream and managed to be completely asocial! The next day was assessment day.

At the assessment Megan was asked about shapes (nailed them, duh), and asked to count to 30 (she stopped at 200). She had a bit of trouble counting the number of words in a sentence (she only got to listen to the sentence) but because I know my daughter is brilliant, I deduced this was a dumb activity and not really a weakness in my child. ;) Then the teacher wanted to see if the kids could recognize their own names, so she placed a name placard in front of Megan.

"Do you know what this says?" the Teacher asked.

"Stella Pucket*" Megan responded.

"Good," complimented the Teacher. "Now can you point to your first name?"

Megan just sat there with a bizarre look on her face. Mac panicked - he couldn't figure out what the Teacher was getting at and this was supposed to be a Kindergarten test!!

When Megan didn't comply, the Teacher tried again. "Can you point to the first letter of your first name?"

Megan just sat there with the same quizzical look on her face. And Mac was equally perplexed. Finally, Mr. Garcia, the student teacher came to the rescue. "Umm, that's not Stella Pucket. That is Megan Smith."

"But she knew the name!" the Teacher replied.

"Yeah, Megan can read." Mac filled the Teacher in, which earned Megan a second assessment, this time for reading with the principal.

And just to make sure the school was really impressed with the Smith family, our ailing car battery went completely dead so we weren't able to leave the assessment until we got the principal to loan us her car and her jumper cables so that we could leave the premises.

School finally started and it has been great for Megan. They don't seem to be doing much for her academically, but she is enjoying all the new activities like music and group games. And she ate up the "guidance" lesson they got on responsibility.

After the first two days, I asked Megan if she had made any new friends (the entire group is new to her this year).

"Only one," she told me. "Stella Pucket."



*normally, I'd change a kid's name to protect their identity, but Stella Pucket sounds like it is straight out of kiddie lit; it just didn't seem right to change it, you know, for the integrity of the story and all.

Happy Labor Day!

Everyone was working hard around here on the long weekend.

(To be fair, this was Sunday, and on Monday I got all of the blackberries tied up for next year, something I always feel really good about...once it is DONE!)

One More Summer Trip

We finished our summer with a nine day trip to Southern California. The main purpose of the trip was to do the Angeles Crest 100 mile Endurance Run, my third 100 miler in a year. But that didn't go very well. Seems I bit off more than I could chew this time around and had a real blow-up, resulting in a DNF at mile 49. You win some and you lose some. I thought most of the course was great (at least the first half!) and plan to get back there sometime to finish what I started, though it won't be next year.

Enjoy the photo of me at the start, because there isn't one of me at the finish!

Though my left knee gave me some issues during the race, it was pretty much back to normal three days later, confirming that the main issue was in my head! But we still made the most of the vacation.

We spent lots of time with Cousin Holden, who isn't so little any more. He may out weigh Liam before he turns one! (that might not be saying much, Liam is a pretty meatless kid who just cracked the 20th weight percentile this year!). And there was lots of swimming. But best of all was a trip to Disneyland! I was kind of regretting our decision to go the Friday before Labor Day, but it didn't get crowded until after dinner. I couldn't believe how empty it was.

I am not sure why, but I think I like Disneyland more as an adult than I did as a kid. And it was great to see my kids so excited, too. Good thing we had so much fun, because that $79 admission price sure stings!

Now why isn't it okay if I put my kids in a cage at home??

Blast off!

We had to separate the kids on nearly every ride so that they could each drive.

Such concentration!

Mr. Hand-sy just had to touch Mickey.

Rocket lady really wanted to pose with us, so we cut Liam out of the photo to include this stranger.

The kids totally rallied until about 8:15, when Liam had a major meltdown and then fell asleep in his stroller before the fireworks show. By that time it was packed and we were pretty much ready to leave. Like Megan, Liam was fine with all the speedy rides, but couldn't handle the scary stuff like the Abominable snowman on the Matterhorn or the witch in Snow White. Liam didn't seem to have a problem with the monsters as long as he had a gun in his hand, which is why we ended up on Buzz Lightyear three times! Megan still covered her eyes at some of these same scary things (Liam, one the other hand, always covered his ears - See No Evil, Hear No Evil...??), but three orbits through Space Mountain now that she is above the height limit.

Saturday it was back to Oregon and time to get ready for Back to School.

Swimming!

Megan is swimming! Liam still has a ways to go before he'll be independent in the water, but he still enjoys it (as long as the water isn't cold, that is!)

Fun Family Times In Okoboji, IA

Last week, we went to a family reunion in Okoboji, IA. The main purpose of the trip was to reunite my Grandma (who passed away in November) with my Grandpa (who passed away when I was a freshman in college). Family from all over the midwest would be attending the ceremony, so the family made a week of it. In addition to attending the service, we:

Caught our First Fish

We spent about an hour fishing "3-year-old-style." Dropping a line off the dock and watching the fish swarm around the worm. Both kids caught several of these tiny fish; sometimes they didn't even need the bait! It was great fun to see the kids so excited about catching these tiny fish. Needless to say, we threw them all back.

Hung out with cousins, new and old

Megan and Liam had a great time hanging out with their cousins, Jared, Holden, Jacob, and Lucy.

Exercised and took a few naps

While I didn't watch what I ate (AT ALL) I did manage to get in two medium length runs and do P90X twice also.

Spent some quality time with the family

Even though there were a lot of people to visit with and catch up with, we did manage to eek out a few moments for just the four of us. Treasure Village was a great place to take the kids to see a short musical version of Cinderella and a backdrop of corn is actually a really good place for a family photo.

Had a great time being a kid

I love these pictures of the two older cousins on the trampoline at Arnold's Park on the lake in Okoboji, IA. They really do capture the essence of what being a kid is all about. I had a great time in Iowa. Who would have thought that we'd spend a week there for two consecutive summers.

Oh yeah, and I remembered a few things about fitness and vacations too!

I See Dead People

The main reason for our trip to Iowa was to reunite Grandma Smith with Grandpa Smith in the family plot. On Friday the 13th, we congregated at the cemetery for a short graveside service. Liam was obsessed with the graves, dying, and what happened to Grandma Smith's bones?

While at the cemetery, we walked around and found the grave of Mac's great grandparents, William and Mabel Ketchen. I covered up the first three letters of William's name and asked Liam if he could say the rest of the letters.

He dutifully read them off,"L-I-A-M."

"Yeah! And what does that spell?" I encouraged.

Liam was quick with his answer: "Dead people."

Liam and Mamaw