Strange Conversations

It is hard not to be somewhat stunned by some of the conversations I have with the kids. Sometimes, it is truly because they are actually impressive. Ree has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor that is just entertaining, and Leon has a monstrous vocabulary, and we have absolutely no idea where it came from. But then there are the moments that leave us scratching our heads. Like when Michael, who taught himself to read before his third birthday, asks the most basic of questions like, "Mom, what's a mom?" Or these recent conversations...

Leon was playing "hockey" in the house by hitting a ball with a broom. (Yes, he declared it hockey and not broomball.) He tells me his team is up 10-0. I told him that was great and asked how they scored so many goals. His reply was, "We got it because Tiger Woods had 13 at bats." Okay, so he loves sports but can't quite keep them straight.

Then there was the other night at bedtime with Natalia. She has always been the last to go to bed, and she closely observes her siblings' bedtime routines. In an effort to stall just a little more, the boys have started getting back rubs at bedtime, and this has apparently not gone unnoticed. One night, stalling herself, Natalia demanded a back rub. She was laying on her back, and I asked her to roll over. As I started to rub her back, she batted my hand away and said, "NO! Do it myself!" And so I just stood there, while she rubbed her own back. When she was done, she dismissed me and went to sleep.

Monkey Toes

I am quite lucky in that I am generally able to escape from work to attend school events for the kids. Over the past few weeks, I have taken full advantage of this and have made it to several different events for Ree and the boys.

For Ree, I first went to her class's end-of-year party. The room moms had planned to hold it at the park directly behind the school. However, surprise! We got a (very minor) tropical storm the first week of June, and it messed with the plans. So the party was moved indoors, and the kids still had a fabulous time.

Among other activities, the kids had a contest to see who could pick up the most pennies with their toes. I am quite proud to say my monkey-toed daughter was the big winner in her group. (She didn't have the highest score for the whole class though. There are some truly talented kids out there!)

They briefly got to play outside, and they rotated between stations where they hula hooped, blew bubbles, and drew with sidewalk chalk.

They also had an informal award celebration, and the teacher gave out awards to all of the kids. The teacher read the description of each award, and then she had the kids guess who the award was for. Rebecca seemed to have her named called out for nearly every award. I'm not quite sure what that meant (The kids liked her? They thought she was a good student?), but we went with it. And I am happy to say that she was one of two students to get an award for being a great reader. (Although clearly not nearly as proud as I am of her penny-grabbing prowess.)

This week I got to go back to school for part of the school's fun day, which was basically a field day where the kids participated in about 15 events. Ree is clearly my child, and not nearly competitive enough (or big enough) to excel in sports, but she had a great time. Everyone in the class even wore matching shirts. Their teacher loves the Wizard of Oz, and so they all had Dorothy and Toto on their shirts. The girls even had little red bows on Dorothy's hair. (I hear the teacher was still hot glueing bows as the kids were coming into school that morning. I like how she works. I am pretty sure there are few things in this world that can't be assembled with hot glue or duct tape, and it's good to know I'm not the only one assembling at the last minute.)

Her shirt was a little big, but you have to love the head band. She was a serious athlete!

She loves sack races.

Not quite dominating in hockey.

And the very fun looking water relay. (I wanted to participate!)

And now, after all the fun, we have a first grader.

Home Stretch

We are in the home stretch of the school year. Although most of the schools around here got out for summer last Thursday, with Ree in year-round school, we have one more week of getting her out the door bright and early. But the end is very much in sight!

We've certainly been celebrating the end of the year for awhile with all kinds of events. It started with the boys' preschool graduation on the Friday before Memorial Day. (Leon and Mike have a year to go, but all the kids graduate every year. I like that. Maybe we should do that at work too. Instead of getting an annual evaluation we could all celebrate having made it another year. And maybe there would even be cake involved...)

The weather for their graduation was absolutely perfect - mid-70s with clear skies and a breeze. The park where it was held was nice and shady. It was really nice. The kids got to play at the park for awhile then we gathered to hear them sing. Leon not only kept his clothes on this time (and his hands mostly out of his pants), he sang. Loudly. And danced. Lots. He was quite entertaining. Michael did a great job with all of the songs too and even remembered the choreography to the song in sign language.

(It turns out I don't have any graduation photos without the faces of other kiddos in 'em, but here's a recent pic of the boys making themselves comfortable on the floor at Barnes and Noble during a Mommy-Boys date. Some day they will find out you can actually PURCHASE the toys there, and I will be in serious trouble.)

Then it was on to Ree's dance recital last weekend. She performed a tap routine to the song "Popular" from Wicked and for ballet, they did the bluebird dance from Sleeping Beauty. Her class is teensy and has just four girls. They did great job with the tap number and even managed to stay with the music fairly well. (It was funny, though. For the little ones, you could hear the teachers calling out the steps from where they stood off stage.) Ree ran into a slight wardrobe malfunction during ballet - she got tangled in her bluebird wings. Thankfully, after a brief, failed attempt to untangle herself, she finished the dance. For kindergarten, I'd say that was pretty good. And overall, she said she had fun and she's spent her spare time this week teaching me her tap dance. She is very excited to get the DVD of the recital so we can practice it to the music. She clearly doesn't want me to get bored.

Waiting to go on stage for tap dressed as "Glenda" from Wicked. Ree is the little one on the right.

Where Have We Been?

So I didn't mean to go into hiding for a month. Some things that happened while I was away:

Leon and Michael went to a farm on the first ever field trip.

The kids had play dates at home...

...and at the beach.

And, yes, we finally made it to the beach in warm weather.