Leah's First Day of 2nd Grade

Today was the first day of 2nd grade for Leah.  (Aaron doesn't start kindergarten until next week.)  The excitement for Leah actually started last night, as she lost her first top tooth (and her third tooth in six weeks).

Leah shows her new gap.

The school day didn't start off on the best note as it POURED down rain this morning.  I was hoping to get a nice picture of Leah's first day outfit like I did last year on the steps during our walk, but no such luck.  I had to make due with an inside picture.

Leah modeling her new school dress.

Leah's teacher this year is Ms. Hatzenbuhler, or Ms. Hatz, as she tells the children they can call her.  Leah said she was nice.  After school there was a program at school where the families could meet all the specialists (guidance counselor, art teacher, music teacher, reading specialist, etc.). The PTO provided refreshments.  After that, there were scheduled times where the families could go to their child's classroom and meet the teacher.

Leah with her teacher, Ms. Hatz.

Ms. Hatz, to me, seemed to be very yin-yang.  What I mean by that is on one hand, she seemed very no-nonsense and strict with her classroom expectations.  Then on the other hand she is very flexible and easy-going with homework, etc.  It kind of reminds me of the transition from Leah's preschool experience to kindergarten, which was vastly different despite being at the same school.  It seems now Leah is transitioning from "fun" school to real school.  The classroom atmosphere is less decorations, toys, books, etc.  (I forgot to take a picture of that.)  There are no more birthday celebrations during class.  There is no morning snack time.  I hope Leah still likes school after a couple weeks.  (Ha, ha!)  One thing that is interesting is that Ms. Hatz has put a big emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and her whole afternoon schedule incorporates that.

There are 20 kids in Leah's class including about 7 from her class last year.  There is also another Leah in her class this year--a first for my Leah's school experience.  Leah was particularly happy her friend Richard is in her class this year. 

Richard and Leah

To celebrate Leah's first day at school, I made Leah's favorite dinner:  pancakes.  Scince this was a school-related celebration, I made alphabet pancakes.  The kids loved eating their names.

I even made chocolate chip cookie bars for dessert.

Here's hoping the 2013-14 school year is a success!

Lookin' Good, Mr. Kot-ter

Remember when I gave Aaron his summer cut at the end of May?

Well, I let him go all summer (three months) without a haircut.  Aaron likes his hair long on top but it was getting a little shaggy, especially around the ears.

And the duck tail in back had to go.

So he was my brave boy at the barber today and only once, when the barber was doing precision trimming around his ears (which Aaron really does not like), did another barber have to hold his head still.  The results look good.  My handsome boy is ready for school (although this picture does not do him justice).

Most importantly, the duck tail is gone!

Quote of the Month: August 2013

I saw a quote the other day that made me laugh.  There are other quotes I've seen in the past that were either inspiring or funny that I wanted to remember so I thought I would start a new feature:  the quote of the month.  I'll see how it goes.  If it becomes a struggle to find/remember to do the quote then I'll end this feature but for now, I'm going to give it a go. 

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
-Lucille Ball

How can you not love Lucy?

Julie's Happy Birthday

Last year goes on record as my worst birthday ever.  (I hope it is "ever" rather than "so far.")  This year I decided I had to plan my own day to make sure it would be fun.  Now considering Matt is currently deployed and my friends are over 7,000 miles away I did have to temper those expectations of fun.  I think I made the best of my situation and had a pretty good day.

My morning started out with some phone calls from friends and family.  I had also decided that since it was my birthday I was not going to deal with the daily fighting and whining that Leah and Aaron engage in so instead of having to listen to it or be a referee, every time they started argue, I just sent them to their rooms.  (It was kind of nice, actually.  And peaceful.)  I also got to watch the USMNT defeat Honduras 3-1 in the Gold Cup semi-final.

USA is #1!!

After the game and the phone calls I opened some cards and my gift from Matt.  He got me the running shoes I had asked for from Zappos. 

Next, we drove to the Main Base and had lunch at Chili's.  By this time it was about 1pm which is not only late for us to eat lunch, but late for most military people.  This coupled with the fact that a lot of families travel during the summer made us literally the only customers for part of our lunch.

We own this place!

You can't go to Chili's without the chips and salsa.

We were enjoying our quiet lunch when I heard a rhythmic clapping in the distance.  Suddenly, my worst fear came true.  It was the entire Chili's waitstaff (really, where else did they need to be) clapping and then singing the generic franchise restaurant upbeat clapping rendition of the birthday song.  Kind of embarrassing since no one else was there but at the same time, who cares, because no one else was there.  The kids thought it was cool.  I have to give props to our waitress because Leah told her when we first arrived that it was my birthday and she just ran with it.  (Yes, she got a good tip.)

The blondie(?) part wasn't good, but the
ice cream was tasty.

After lunch we went to Spare Time, the on-base bowling alley.  While there were people in their snack bar area we were once again the only customers in the bowling part.  I'm not particularly fond of bowling but I like it here because it is inexpensive (I paid $12 for the three of us to bowl one game and the shoe rental) and in addition to the bumpers, there are metal guides the kids can use to bowl.  It allows them to roll the ball rather than have to try and walk with it then throw it.  (Another bonus is I can put $5 in the jukebox and it will play enough songs to last for our bowling game.  The kids, especially Leah, like to jump around and dance when it is not their turn to bowl.)

Step 1:  Line up metal guide and
place ball in position.

Step 2:  Push down the handle and let it roll!

I don't know how much skill it takes to roll a ball down the guide but for some reason, Aaron always seems to do fairly well.  He's even beaten me in the past.  His mad bowling skills came through for him again as he had a monster tenth frame (scoring both a strike and a spare) which leapfrogged him over Leah and into second place.  This set Leah off into a tantrum.  I tried to calm her down, trying to remind her to be a good sport.  She told me she was upset because she didn't get a spare or a strike but I really think it was because she came in last.  Needless to say we went home after that.

For dinner we had make-your-own-pizzas.  Pizza is not my favorite food but it allowed me not to have to cook and be able to eat on paper plates and thus have only a handful of dishes to wash. 

Aaron and I had pizza...

...while Leah had her own special dinner.

For dessert we had--what else?--my mom's chocolate cake!  Delicious, as expected and we each enjoyed a piece.

I love that this picture Aaron took is
from his perspective.

After dinner and dessert, the day wasn't over and neither was our celebration.  I had promised the kids we would have a slumber party so we all put on our jammies and I set the kids' sleeping bags on the living room floor.  As the only adult, I had easy claim to the couch.  We watched Rise of the Guardians (my choice) and after the movie I introduced the kids to the game Jenga.  It was around 10pm when it was finally lights out and glow sticks snapped.

The actual sleeping out in the living room lasted for all of about 15 minutes as they started going all the way inside their sleeping bags and rolling around and on top of each other.  While I have fond memories of "steamrolling" my friends at slumber parties as a kid, I was older than 5 and 7 and I was on a floor with carpet.  I sent them to bed.  Aaron did not protest a bit and he was asleep within five minutes of lying down on his bed.  Leah, on the other hand, threw her second tantrum of the day.  Since there were still a couple hours of my birthday left I once again invoked the birthday privilege and just shut her bedroom door so I wouldn't have to deal with it.  It wasn't long before she was quiet too and my birthday came to an end.  It was no K & J B-Day Bash, but under the circumstances, it was a pretty good day.