First day of school - Kindergarten and 2nd grade

We kicked off the school year this year with a big day for both Sarah Jane and Anna.  We've been approaching the first day of school with some trepidation from both girls.  Sarah Jane was worried about not being in Sophie's class, I was anxious about who their teachers would be and Anna was just plan anxious.

We drove to Cragmont Tuesday night to get our class assignments.  Sarah Jane has Ms. Dutton (I'm happy!) but is not in class with best friend Sophie.  I was really worried SJ would be crushed and she was, for about 10 seconds, and then she moved on.  Wonders never cease.

Kindergarten at Cragmont kicks off with a four day sorority-esque Rush.  The kids are assigned to a group (Anna is green) and then rotate through the four kindergartens switching teachers each day.  The teachers then put their heads together and distribute the classes and next Tuesday we'll get the big news for Anna.  The girls are no longer anxious; my anxiety continues.

Anna had a hard morning.  There was some fussing and a lot of hand holding and the annual picture torture was a bit tough.

Sarah Jane managed her anxiety until we hit the playground.  But then she found good friend Sirine (in her class this year) and all was well.

Once we found Sirine, I left SJ with Aunt Whitney (who thank goodness was there!) and I headed over to the Kindergarten area with Anna who immediately perked up when she found friend Sienna from pre-school.  Here they are peaking in to Ms. Johnson's room before the bell rang.

We filed in and found her name tag on her desk.  More nerves...

 But then I got a smile!

At pick up, Anna immediately announced that "Mom, school is FUN!" followed by "AND I didn't get sent to the principal's office!!!" Nothing like a low bar for success.

We ended the day with a walk to Grandma's, hanging out with Sophie and Chloe and Odin, cheese and crackers and lots of giggles.  All is well.

These guys are up next!

Sarah Jane is 7

Self Portrait

I cannot get my head around having a seven year old.  For the record, I LOVED six.  Six was sweet and kind and good to her siblings, rational, happy with friends and school, helpful AND still held my hand.  I'm pretty sure the hand holding is going away this year and I'm looking for the pause button.  I'm going to miss six.  BUT, onto 7!

We celebrated SJ's birthday at Tahoe.  She was very particular about her food orders, not just for her but also thinking through what the grownups would eat.  For breakfast she wanted croissants and her favorite cheese (Dubliner from CostCo.)  Grownups could have eggs if they wished.  For lunch, she requested that we layout a sandwich spread and everyone could make their own sandwich. She wanted salami and butter on English muffin.  Her birthday was on a Friday so for dinner she wanted pizza since we always have pizza on Friday's.  We made the pizzas from scratch.  She requested chocolate cake which heretofore has been verboten as Chocolate:MyKids as Cocaine:EveryoneElse.  Feeling up to the challenge we went with the Chocolate (thanks Aunt Whitney!) and the kids handled it with aplomb.  We might be lifting the chocolate at dinner restriction going forward (still to be decided.)

At seven, Sarah Jane is calm, rationale and kind.  She is an excellent conflict moderator and an loving big sister.  She is an observer and more often than not, waits for the world to come to her as opposed to going out to the world.  It takes a bit to warm her up but once you are in the circle of trust she is can be silly and goofy and fun.  She has plenty of authority on the home front and doesn't seem to need to push things with her friends.  She can get mad at her siblings (well, one sibling) but after an initial burst of pique, she more often than not takes the highroad and shares whatever precious toy is under dispute.  Sarah Jane is 100% sure about what she likes and what what she doesn't like, and she is NOT influenced by what others (her mother in particular) thinks she SHOULD like.  She does not appreciate others making up her mind for her but given the opportunity to decide for herself she can occasionally be open to new experiences.

At seven, Sarah Jane loves:

Water sports: This year she figured out swimming quickly moving up two levels in lessons and making it into the deep pool.  She also LOVES paddle boarding and spent most of the summer ferrying her father up and down the beach at Tahoe.  She's brave and confident on the water and pretty fast too!

French toast, pancakes and cheese: Sarah Jane is essentially a camel, filling up on french toast and pancakes on the weekend (man-sized portions) and melted cheese on crackers at Grandma's house on Wednesdays after school.  Other than that she subsists on air and water.

Directing "shows": Sarah Jane likes to direct shows for the other kids to perform in.  Everybody gets dressed up in elaborate costumes.  Then Roby says "LADIEEEEES AND GENELMEN!!!!" and we all clap and then Sarah Jane whispers instructions and Anna and Eli do something and then we call clap again.  Hours of entertainment.

Calendar & Whiteboarding: Ms. Rosen who was SJ's amazing first grade teacher did a great deal of math using the calendar. If, for instance, it was the 22nd day of the month, the class did a lot of math problems to figure out different ways to get to 22.  They did this every day at the start of the class and a lucky kid would put the day card into the calendar and use Ms. Rosen's wooden spoon to point.  Sarah Jane LOVES the calendar, loves writing on the whiteboard and she loves math.  I LOVE that she loves math.  On this we are 100% aligned.

Books: SJ is our early riser and most mornings after 6 find her cozy in bed with a pile of books.  Reading aloud to her siblings is her preference rather than reading to herself.  Favorite books are Geronimo Stilten (graphic novels about a mouse) and Berenstein Bears.

Music: Sarah Jane got a cd player for her birthday last year and it might be the best present I've ever gifted outside of the kegerator.  SJ DJs every morning and we have a never ending happy dance party.  We're still mainly on kid music but she's slowly starting to be interested in pop.  Her younger siblings are way ahead of her on that front as they seem to know all the lyrics on the Top 100 radio they listen to with Elizabeth but Sarah Jane has preferred to hold on to her youth.

Rhianna in the headphones

Checking her email: Sarah Jane loves borrowing my phone and checking her gmail account.  While she's there she peruses the weather (reporting every city that has thunderstorms) and instagram (another favorite.)  For those of you who have corresponded with SJ, you know that writing back isn't her priority (you get something like: a;lkjdsfasdkjfwer hahaha) but reading her emails has helped a lot with her reading this year.

More favorites... Ms. Rosen (first grade teacher) and Chris and Kris (Uncle Eric's sister and to-be-brother-in-law)

Ms. Rosen for first grade

Chris and Kris

Sarah Jane dislikes:

Unknown Media: Sarah Jane will agree to watch Berenstein Bears, Caillou, Dinosaour Train and Dora on TV.  She also enjoys Football and Baseball.  She categorically refuses to watch anything else although we've broken her into Frozen and now that's on the accepted list too.  Un-vetted movies are NOT ok.

Meat: Outside of salami, we have an emerging vegetarian.  I'm not sure she knows salami is meat.  I'm ok with that.

Homework: Sarah Jane is NOT a fan of homework.  Kindergarten was brutal.  I decided that for 1st grade, completing homework would be up to her and that was a better approach.  It still required a great deal of attention from me which SJ's siblings did not either appreciate nor enable.  Hopefully 2nd grade will be more self-sufficient!

Thunderstorms: We had a lot of these this summer and SJ is NOT a fan.  I think she might choose a bear over lightening.

Huddling with Zeke during a thunderstorm

And flashback to 7 years ago...

Anna turns 5

Anna turned five on Tuesday.  I realize I've been neglecting the blog in favor of documenting our every move on Instagram, but just in case I missed anything (and at the risk of repeating myself) here's Anna at 5...

First, we celebrated Anna's birthday at Tahoe.  She kicked off birthday week with GREEN pancakes from dad, a huge pile of presents and a full day of party hat wearing.  She made a vanilla cake with Aunt Whitney and we all enjoyed steak and rainbow sorbet (see favorite foods below.)  She received lots of clothes, shoes (Aunt Whitney), a backpack (Grandma), lunchbox, purse from Thailand with five dollars (Aunt Ellie and Uncle Eric) a Berenstein Bear game (SJ) and paints and a coloring book (Eli & Roby.)

Anna is still ALL CAPS and FULL of personality.  She goes head first into everything, whether it's being lovely and fun or driving her parents and her siblings crazy.

Here is what Anna loves:

Frozen: Anna is a HUGE fan of the movie Frozen and despite only being allowed to watch it on airplanes, in the car on the way to Tahoe or on very special occasions when Mom and Dad are at the end of their ropes, she has managed to memorize every word.  Apparently we know the end of our ropes well.  She attended Frozen Camp this summer and was cast as a Fairy and the Bishop (who performs the wedding ceremony.)

Weddings: This goes for all the kids, they were inspired by their role in the Flower Fleet for Aunt Ellie & Uncle Eric's wedding.  The new favorite game is to play wedding.  Sarah Jane usually gets to be the bride and Anna cheerfully agrees to play the groom.  The boys are either the parents or the flower kids.

Dessert and meat: Anna is our only child who eats with gusto.  Her favorite food seems to be ice cream and meat. (I don't have a picture of her eating with gusto so here she is sliding with gusto.)

Reading: Anna is learning to read!  She is (in my totally unbiased opinion) absolutely amazing in this department.  She reads Biscuit and Mittens and other "just right" books with minimal help from me.  She sight reads worlds like "Biscuit" and "Mittens" and "meow" and "woof-woof" and uses the pictures, sound clues and her memory to figure out the rest.  She skipped learning letters and sounds and went straight to words.  Will be interesting to see how that goes over in K.

Her siblings: Despite some hiccups (see below), Anna is generally a lovely big and little sister.  The best times are in the morning, playing elaborate "Flort" (forts on the floor) games, snuggling in bed with all four kids and a pile of books or running around in the backyard.

Here's what Anna does NOT like:

Clothes that do not fit: We seem to be coming out of this phase but there was a good three months where NOTHING FELT RIGHT.  And I mean nothing.  From shoes to underwear, it was ALL wrong.  And then meant it was whipped off as soon as it was put on along with hysterical, end of the world-esque wailing.  See: "End of rope"

Not getting undivided attention: Again, another phase (we hope) but Anna would prefer to have all the attention of her parents and is quite ingenious at securing said attention.  When attention is threatened, she uses her feet, knees, fists and elbows (and occasionally a head butt) to express her displeasure, displeasure that is generally directed at whichever little brother is closest.  We're working on this...

Thinking about Kindergarten: Anna is quite nervous about starting school and does not like to discuss it.  My guess is that some of the issues above stem from the impending doom of Cragmont.  At least I hope they do as that would indicate a light at the end of the tunnel.

Highlights of this summer* included:
Graduating from pre-school, dinner at a fire station, a staring role in the Flower Fleet, a self-haircut by friend Eliza followed by the most expensive haircut I've ever paid for to fix the self-haircut, a first go at tennis (a week of tennis camp), nearly mastering swimming, learning to kayak AND paddle board.

Preschool graduation

Drivers seat of the fire engine

Haircut...

Kayaking

*Please note that I tried to write "highlights of this year" but my brain is too fried to remember anything earlier than June.
 Amazing that just five years ago we were here...