Owen and Fiona are touching and smiling and NOT fighting. (Photo taken in Philly before the Nutcracker ballet. More to follow later.)
From the category archives:
Fiona
The big-deal Halloween parade at Germantown Academy was today. Everyone looked wonderful. The whole school, from pre-K to seniors comes out to the quad and parades around.
The PK teachers were famous GA athletes from the past, the 3rd grade teachers were Phillies “fans,” and the 5th grade teachers were bats in the belfry.
More photos are here.
… The Ghost Boy from Disney’s Haunted Mansion and Princess Amidala, Queen of Naboo.
Get those treats ready!
(You’ll have to wait until the Germantown Halloween parade on Friday to see Jack dressed up as Miley Cyrus.)
Fiona is on her first real team!! She’s playing kindergarten soccer at the Solebury Soccer Club.
(We were very hesitant about her being involved in the program after Jack was treated with a complete lack of integrity, but hopefully, those coaches won’t taint the kindergarten program. So far, so good.)
She’s very much enjoying each game. They play [click to continue…]
It is worth every penny we pay in tuition if Fiona goes to sleep before 8:00 PM the rest of the year!!
BTW, everyone had a great first day. Fiona said that “lots of different teachers came to our room and told us stuff.” She said one or two kids cried but she didn’t. She also said that “nappy wasn’t long enough. I wanted to sleep more.”
Jack immediately gave me the recess playground football report and Owen was quite happy about lunch.
Everything is back to normal!!
YEAH! School started today.
Everyone got up, ate breakfast and got ready with a minimum of fuss.
Jack was worried the whole time that he was going to be late — we weren’t. (There’s a very narrow window between 7:45 and 7:50 AM that is “acceptable” to Jack to arrive. Really, they don’t need to be there until 8:00, but he likes to be early.)
Owen was pretty blase about the whole thing and Fiona was so excited.
I tried to get them to cooperate for photos, but I wasn’t very successful (either in the quality of the photos, or getting them to pose.) Jack was cold and panicked about getting on the road, Owen was giving me his goofy smile and Fiona was vogue-ing for the camera. (I think her skirt might need to be hemmed, it looks too long for her.)
Once we all finally loaded into the car, Fiona watched a DVD movie and Jack & Owen listened to a new book on tape.
Jack was out of the car and up the stairs before I’d hardly stopped. Owen announced he was nervous, but as he got out of the car, one of his friends immediately started talking to him, so they ran off together into the building.
Fiona said she didn’t want me to walk her to her room. She said she could go by herself like the brothers. She jumped out of the car, put her backpack on (“just one strap on, Mom, because that’s how it looks cool”), opened the door to the building and went straight into her classroom.
A few more photos are here.
We made a big strategic error in August — very few scheduled events. After being so busy in June and July, I thought it would be nice to have a long stretch of down time in August.
WRONG.
We’re all climbing the walls, everyone is grumpy and bored. We’ve played video games, board games, did cooking projects and art projects, gone swimming, taught the puppy tricks, etc., etc., and at this point we’re all fed up.
The last few days have been the worst. As Fiona was crying about something utterly irrelevant last night (she cries instantly when something isn’t to her liking), I asked her, “Why do you cry about everything all the time?”
She immediately stopped crying, looked at me and said, “It’s how I get what I want.”
We’re gonna have to work on that.
Fiona had a great week at soccer camp. I think she really enjoyed playing. She hopped right out of bed everyday to get ready to go.
She really liked picking out which soccer jersey she would wear each day. Coach Mike called her that player’s name all day and it made her giggle every time.
A real highlight was when she got her medal. She was SOOO excited and kept saying over and over again, “It’s my first medal!!”
She was thrilled when I told her that when she plays on her fall soccer “team” (Solebury Soccer kindergarten soccer) that she will probably get a trophy.
Although she had a great time at soccer camp, the state of Solebury Soccer is really a shame. We’ve been doing this camp since Jack was five. Most years, there have been well over a hundred players, close to 150 a couple of years. This year, I counted 46 players. I don’t know if this reflects: general disinterest in soccer, loss of players to football and cheerleading, competition from other soccer training organizations or all of the above.
(Reflecting on Jack’s treatment by the Solebury Soccer Club and the U12 Solebury Storm coach, this really makes me feel like it’s a shame that Solebury Soccer Club is pushing away talented athletes when there are so few demonstrating [click to continue…]
Fiona has her first session of soccer camp today, and she did great.
The numbers at camp seem to be way down (I counted about 45 kids all together), so they did the first half hour or so in a group.
It was tough for Fiona, because she really hasn’t been taught yet even how to dribble and they had them doing running and passing drills, but she hung in there.
A quick selection of photos are here.
We had a wonderful time. Fiona rode absolutely every ride possible (she wasn’t tall enough for Rockin’ Rollercoaster!). We especially loved the Tower of Terror!
The princess breakfast was a big success…Fiona got to talk to five different princesses and Jack and Owen successfully managed to speak to none.
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