There’s No Business

This past year, Nathan was on the stage crew at the middle school and absolutely loved it. When an opportunity arose for him to be on the stage crew for our community’s summer show, he jumped at the chance. The middle school drama teacher was heading up the crew and there were other kids from the school involved as well, so it was a chance for him to hang out with some friends as well. There was some drama (on as well as off the stage), a lot of late nights and a generous amount of stress, but overall I think it was a good experience for him. He learned a lot about how a director can cause unity or dissention in a cast and crew, how to work with people who are not terribly reliable, and how to do some super cool things with sets.

The show was “The Little Mermaid,” so Malia thought the whole thing was pretty darn cool. She even got to meet the cast. Malia was so impressed by the whole thing that she has changed her Halloween Costume 5 Year Plan (something she has never done before) and decided she would push Belle’s yellow dress to next year and do Ariel’s pink dress this year.

See the Nathan Photo Bomb?

Nathan will be glad when the whole thing is over. He is a morning person by nature and all the late (late, late) nights are starting to get to him.

It Was Sort of Gouda

So fake cheese is actually a thing. I’ve known about it for about 10 years now and although I’ve seen a number of different varieties in the stores, we have never eaten them because they always have either small amounts of milk (these cater to the vegan crowd rather than the food allergy one) or pea protein (these are for the food allergy community as peas are often used as a replacement for soy). Since Matthew is allergic to both milk and peas, fake cheese has never been an option for him. But last week I happened to spot a brand I hadn’t seen before and wonder of all wonders, it is Matthew friendly. He was super-duper excited and today was the very first ever in his whole entire life grilled (faux) cheese sandwich. I was surprised to see that the fake cheddar actually melted. I honestly did not expect that. But it did. It looked like real cheese. And it didn’t taste too bad either which is amazing in and of itself.

Matthew liked the crispy, meltiness of the sandwich, but after a couple of bites he cracked it open and added some ham. The cheese-like-substance was not to his liking by itself, but he thought it was okay with other flavors. So we tried. He didn’t love it. But it was something new, something that had been completely off his menu in the past. And anything new that is safe is always worth a try.

Recreational Education

Matthew just finished up 4th grade and unlike Daniel and Nathan (and all the 4th graders I taught many years ago), he was not required to do a county report. I think he was okay about not actually having the assignment, but he remembers Daniel and Nathan taking a day trip to visit their assigned counties and seeing some pretty cool stuff and he was kind of bummed that he didn’t get to do that. Luckily for him, there was absolutely no reason not to get him out to see some of the neat stuff that our state has to offer so today Kevin took Matthew (and Daniel and Malia) to the Golden Spike National Monument at Promontory Point. (Nathan was doing stage crew for the community summer theater production and wouldn’t have made his call time and summer heat=migraine for me, so the two of us stayed home.) Unfortunately, there was damage to the train tracks so the trains weren’t being used in the re-enactment, but because they weren’t actually running the trains, they were able to climb into the trains so that was a good trade off. That had a good time.

Messy Science is the Best Because…

…playing with this Non-Newtonian liquid (a.k.a. cornstarch + water) that is sometimes chunky and sometimes drippy is super fun!

O Say Can You See...

…some rockin’ homemade 4th of July shirts.

…a perfectly executed patriotic beverage (Matthew was totally proud of himself).

 

…a pair of giant chopsticks utilized to pick up hot fireworks and dunk them into the water bucket.

…sparklers.

 

…a dork…

…or two.

…fireworks.

…four young patriots (in whom I hope I have been able to instill some understanding of and depth of feeling for this particular holiday).

A Through Z and a Trophy!

Another school year has come and gone. Though it is hard for me to believe, Malia has finished kindergarten. Her teacher had a super fun way for the kids to count down to the end of school. At 26 school days before the end of the year, they started an “ABC Countdown.” Each day they had an activity of some kind that started with the letter of the day. For example, A was “animal day” and each kid was able to bring a small stuffed animal to school. G was “game day,” one of Malia’s favorites. They also had ice cream day, juice day, and the previously mentioned Kaleidoscope day.  The very last day was “zoom out of school” day. Each child made a cardboard box car at home and yesterday they took their cars to school and watched a drive-in movie. Once again, I surprised by how many cars were clearly parent work rather than the child’s work. I definitely helped Malia with hers, but she did the bulk of the job and she was enormously proud of how it turned out.

Today was the last day of school for grades 1-6. I went to the school an hour before it ended to pick up Matthew and Malia’s meds from the office and Malia happened to see a few gold trophies on the counter in the school office. She asked what they were for and of course, I had no idea. But a few minutes later the head secretary came over and congratulated Malia. We were flummoxed so she told us that the awards assembly had been earlier that morning and Malia had won an award for having perfect attendance. And guess what? The trophies were for the perfect attendance winners! Since the kindergarteners had already finished the school year, Matthew claimed Malia’s trophy for her which meant she had to wait a while hour and a half before he got home and she could see her trophy! But it was worth the wait!

So kindergarten ended with a vroom and an award. Malia has had a very successful year. She has learned a lot. She has made some friends. She has gained confidence and independence. She has loved school and her teacher. She has learned to read and is very prepared for the next big adventure: 1st grade!

Dental Drama

Malia has started losing her baby teeth. This is perfectly normal, of course, but for some reason it is totally traumatic for her. We don’t get all crazy and pull them or anything, she just gets upset about the whole thing. Her latest loose tooth has been just barely hanging in there for about a week already and she has not been looking forward to having it fall out. On the way home from my parents’ house this evening, the thing finally decided to let go and it fell out. Not surprisingly, she was not happy about it.

I must be a terrible mother, because her hangdog expression had me laughing my head off. Once she recovered enough to stop crying, she solemnly declared, “I guess it really happens-people lose teeth on Sundays.”😄

I’d Happily Keep This One

My sisters and I decided a few years back that we would make a quilt for each of the nieces and nephews when they graduated from high school. We take turns but we make sure we don’t make a quilt for our own children because then it is just from Mom and not from the aunties. This year it was my turn to make a quilt for my nephew Josh. I absolutely loved the way it turned out. It is one of those quilts that comes together so perfectly that I wouldn’t change a thing. I told Josh that if we didn’t like it, I would keep it. He graciously declined my offer. 😊