Back to School, take two!

After a successful send-off for Blue on Monday, and an uneventful first school bus ride home on Tuesday, it was my turn. Lots of syllabus reading and lab orientation, but a good start to the fall semester.  I've got my new backpack and lab-approved closed toed shoes, so I guess I'm good to go.  Now, all I have to do is wake up this old brain!

Blue goes to school!

Today is the first of three first days of school that our family will experience this week. First Blue, then Green, and finally Pink.  Not sure why Red isn't in school - guess someone has to earn the money!

We didn't get off to a very quick start, since they both collapsed on the floor after I woke them up for breakfast:

Nevertheless, after a little prodding, we managed to get everyone around the breakfast table.  As happened last year, Red's bacon omelets won out over my spell-your-name pancakes.  Protein is a good choice for a first day breakfast anyway, right?

Here's my baby boy, all ready for the big leagues.  I can't believe how quickly his little-boyhood is passing us by:

All things considered, it was a successful day:  no one cried, no one got lost, and the report at the end of the day is that kindergarten is "great".  

Prima Ballerina

Have you ever had the torture pleasure of attending a small person dance recital, and noticed that one little dancer who can't find her spot on the stage?  The one who looks ready to burst into tears (or worse)?  I am proud to announce that this year, that was our Pink.

Of course, what can you really expect from a ballerina so excited to perform that this is her on the drive to the theater:

 In her eyes - and certainly in her Daddy's - she is a prima ballerina


In the true spirit of family togetherness, Blue attended his sister's recital - and in the true spirit of little boy-ness, asked every 3.2 seconds if it was over yet.

Honestly, this was a lot of fun for her mom.  Seeing Pink so excited to do something that was all hers, and not just another thing she gets dragged to or included in because of her older brother, was priceless.  Her little ballerina friends were adorable, and since I had the pleasure of helping out in the dressing room before the recital started, I got to spend some quality time playing ring around the rosies with them.

Her studio closed its doors after the recital - I guess the economy has been hard on everyone.  We have the summer to figure out what to do next, but I'm not sure it will be ballet again - especially after Daddy took her to see Kung-Fu Panda (and may have told her that Kung-Fu was just like dancing, but with hitting).  We might be looking for karate lessons instead.

Like drinking from a firehose

A few years ago, I started talking about what my next career would be.  My first, as biochemist, didn't mesh so well with my second, as mom, so I started looking around for the third.

This past spring, after much deliberation, and the incredible luck of finding a like-minded friend, I decided to take the first steps toward a career in nursing.  I dusted off some very old college transcripts, re-learned the academic hoops necessary to pass the clep test in biology, and then enrolled in anatomy and physiology 1 during the accelerated 1/2 summer semester.

Why I thought this would be a good idea escapes me at the moment, but I enrolled, paid my tuition, and showed up for my first day of classes in a very long time. Despite the technological advances since the last time I was in a college classroom (really, the powerpoint slides are online?  why would I show up to class?), I still found it incredibly helpful to make notecards (see pyramid above) - lots of them - and memorize like crazy.

Compressing an entire semester of anatomy into just over a month was overwhelming and frustrating - a little like academic water-boarding -  but was also probably a good way to start. Kind of that "if you can live through this, everything else will seem like a breeze" way of thinking. My family has been ignored, my household chores have been neglected, and my dining room was turned into study central. The result - I passed, and I got an A.  One down, many many more to go.  

Sleepover?

We read a library book this week about sleepovers, and Pink and Blue thought that a sleepover sounded like a marvelous idea.  Of course, with no family nearby, and most preschool parents not so keen on the idea of their children sleeping away from them (yeah, okay, it's us), they were kind of out of luck.

Never easily deterred, Pink and Blue found a way around these problems.  Blue designed and manufactured an invitation for his sister (okay, it was a piece of paper with the word "bed" written on it), and invited her to a sleepover in his room.  Since her toddler bed is pretty light, we moved it in after bath time, and put them both to bed.  There was some giggling and getting up, but they managed to fall asleep and are happily snoozing away.

I'm just grateful they didn't decide that we all had to participate and started lobbying for the tent in the backyard - especially since it's still a delightful 93 degrees at midnight.

Enviable, indeed.

I know, I know, everyone is jealous...and really, who wouldn't be?  It's only May and we're already in the 90's temperature-wise, which means the first round of swimming lessons is already over.  We've had the chance to be taught by a cowgirl with an alligator in her hat...

...been forced to swim like a fish....

 ...worked on our freestyle swim stroke....

 ...been given unintelligible instructions like "hum your bubbles" and "pull your arms"....

 ...and been pushed helped off the diving board.

Yup, pretty enviable stuff.

When Dad pays up, he really pays up!

About a month ago, Pink accepted a challenge to stay in bed for 30 days in a row - with a reward of a night in a hotel if she could do it.  It turns out that given the appropriate motivation, anything is possible.  We had to sneak in a few "bonus points" to make it to Memorial Day weekend, but last Friday, Pink filled her sticker chart and was rewarded with a night and two days in this:

 The biggest indoor water park I have ever seen - and all of it connected to a hotel.  Fabulous!  We were able to use the water park starting early afternoon Friday, spend the night in the rustic-themed room (and start our day with pajamas, pop tarts, and cartoons)...

 ...and finish with a full day of water slides, lazy river, and wave pool on Saturday. Absolutely fun!

There was also an outdoor pool and more water slides (and yes, I managed to let every person get a sunburn).  Pink still refuses to take her wristband off, and keeps telling us she is going back to the hotel!