Inconsistency, Thy Name Is Libby

My poor, poor little Libby is completely terrified of all insect life.  Even a random housefly spotted buzzing across the room will cause her to tremble all over in terror and cry with no sound.  It's pitiful.  And spiders...an imaginary "spider sighting" in her room in the wee hours can cause all of us to lose a good night's sleep.  She just suffers, and it's awful to witness.

However...

My girl with the extreme insect/arachno-phobia thinks nothing of scooping up one of these:

mole crab: the cockroach of the ocean

Yeah, I don't get it, either.

Another Kindergarten Graduate

Well, Adam has officially made it through kindergarten!  I have to admit that we headed into this year with some trepidation:  Our little Hedgehog has something of a reputation for being unpredictable.  But Adam positively amazed us in kindergarten.  This was his year to blossom!  He couldn't read at all on the first day of school; now he is reading fluently.  He had several little buddies in his class and did well socially.  His math skills are crazy.  (That certainly comes from his dad, not me!)  He came home singing phonics songs every day.  (Sometime ask him to sing the song about the sheep in the jeep.  It's my favorite.)

We went to his graduation ceremony on Wednesday.  Here are a few of my favorite moments from the day:

Standing up and reading a sentence about what he learned in kindergarten.  (It was "In kindergarten I learned to snap my fingers.")  Notice he held his paper upside down.  Classic Adam.  This makes me grin.

                                           

Holding hands and singing.  Adam's face conveys his thoughts about this.

Still reluctant...

Giving the closing words of the ceremony

Adam and Mrs. Nance, the teacher's assistant

Adam and his teacher, Ms. Norcross.  She thought Adam was a star.  I love you for loving my boy, Ms. Norcross!

Congratulations to Adam, our newest kindergarten graduate!

Libby is Four!

Well, Libby, after much anticipation and some completely understandable confusion what with a preschool birthday celebration at the end of May, a family celebration on Memorial Day weekend, and a friends celebration two days ago, today you are actually four years old!

All you wanted this year was a tea party for your birthday, and I had decided that this was the year I would farm out your party.  There were two cute little tea shops in our area, either of which would have been a perfect venue for tea for you and a few little friends.  We would walk in the door, everything would be set up, we would have a delightful tea and open a few presents, and we would leave.  I wouldn't so much as wash a single dish.  However, I discovered that both establishments had gone out of business right in the months before your birthday.  Naturellement.  And you were dead set on having that tea party.  Mais bien sur. So it was on to Plan B...a tea party at home.

And I have to say, I had a ball planning it for you!  We decorated hats, wore fancy gloves, put on "lipstick" (chapstick, but whatever) and jewelry, ate fancy sandwiches, and had a good time.  You and your little friends were such lovely little ladies.  It was all. so. girly. {swoon}

Party favors

Annual "waiting for the party guests" shot

Decorating fancy hats

All the sophisticated ladies going to tea

The birthday girl

I forgot. There was one other thing you wanted demanded for your birthday.

You may not realize it now, but one day you will know my feelings about gift wrapping (it's akin to a religious experience) and items featuring licensed characters (they should all be burned). So when we were out shopping one day last week, you glommed onto this awful, cheesy Barbie (I don't even think it's real Barbie -- more like a Barbie knockoff!) wrapping paper. You were enamored of it and begged me to wrap your presents in it. It was the wrapping paper of a four-year-old's dreams. Honestly, it was exactly what I would have wanted my mom to wrap my presents in when I was four. (My mom would have refused. With good reason.) I tried diplomatically to talk you out of it, but you were resolute. And, thus, THIS:

Hideous

Proof of my great, great love for our Barbie-loving, tea-drinking, bow-wearing, roughhousing, Lego-building, big-slide-at-the-pool-riding, brother-following, Mario-Kart-playing, scooter-riding, Mommy-hugging, precious FOUR YEAR OLD Libby.

Mother's Day

The kids and Steve engineered yet another great Mother's Day for 2012.  The kids had all been working on little gifts at school during the week.  Adam just couldn't keep his little handprinted tile to himself and gave it to me on Wednesday, but Andrew and Libby managed to wait until the big day to give me a potted petunia and heart-shaped birdseed bird feeder.

Of course, Mother's Day couldn't pass without the kids making their annual trip to the grocery store to decorate a beautiful cake for Mom!

Here is the masterpiece:

As always, the kids were so excited to show me their handiwork.

As always, I was amazed!

If you look carefully, you will see a certain little stinker trying to give me bunny ears for Mother's Day.

I believe the day came to a perfect end during dinner (a dinner that I did not cook) at Salsarita's.  You may know that Libby is on a mission to christen every potty in the tri-county area, which means I have spent the last two years in potty purgatory.  We don't go anywhere without a visit (or two or three or four) to the "oval office."  So tonight, when Libby made her inevitable announcement in the middle of dinner, Steve took doody duty.  And that, folks, was the best Mother's Day present I could really ask for.

Adam, In a Nutshell

Note from Adam's kindergarten teacher in today's agenda:

...just when I thought I'd stopped being surprised by this guy.

In Which We Race from Baseball to Tee Ball to Ballet

Today was a pretty crazy Saturday. We had an 8:00 am baseball game followed by a 10:00 am tee ball game followed by a 2:00 pm ballet recital.

Andrew's baseball game was first.  (These are actually pictures from last week's game.)  The team did a great job and won the game!

Up next was Adam's tee ball game.  Adam's in the blue jersey.

As you can see, we take our tee ball very seriously.

Very, very seriously.

Finally it was ballet recital time.  The cuteness was out of control.

Here is a little video clip of the adorability.  For your own sanity, I would suggest you watch with the sound muted.  (Why anyone would allow an alternately moaning and screaming toddler to stay in an auditorium during any kind of stage event and completely ruin everyone's experience and videos is beyond me.  Not that I'm bitter.)

 

All in all, a busy but fun Saturday!

What a Character

Andrew's school is known for its focus on eight character traits:  responsibility, initiative, compassion, adaptability, trustworthiness, respect, optimism, and perseverance.  Each month they highlight one trait.  Every class elects a child who best exemplifies that trait, and they hold a school-wide assembly to honor those students.  It's really fun!  It's all a big secret, and the winners don't know they've won until their names are announced at the assembly.

Last week we got a phone call telling us that Andrew had won the award in his classroom for trustworthiness.  We were to keep it a secret from Andrew and show up to surprise him at the assembly on Friday.  The timing couldn't have been better:  Poppa and Gangee were in town and were able to come as well.

The school has had to become very sneaky about keeping the parents hidden before the ceremony begins because the kids are NOSY.  We were all hidden in a back hallway behind a curtain until our children's names were called.



Andrew high-fiving his classmates after his name was called

This is where it got fun...they played the theme from "Rocky," put a "medal" around the kids' necks, gave them a fake torch, and put them up on a pedestal while everyone cheered.  Let me just say they did it up big.  So there I was, all choked up with happiness for Andrew and fighting hysterical laughter all at the same time.  Most of the kids really hammed it up when their names were called, but there were a couple who were overcome with emotion and crying.  Sweet little things.

It's too bad Andrew is so shy...

The "champ" and his proud family

We are so thankful for our little Andrew the Trustworthy and for a fabulous school that encourages and recognizes children in the pursuit of worthy character traits.