Thursday I picked up the tree we ordered from the city. A heritage birch. I LOVE birch, and the orange peel-y bark of the heritage is so pretty. Rain was forecasted for Saturday. I wanted to be sure to get it in the ground before the good soak was due.
Both kids are excited to water it. Relia has decided it is the same age as her.
Here is what it should look like in a few years
This morning we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and went over to Minnehaha Falls. We dodged a thousand and 2 families with their photographers and hiked all the way to the river. It was wonderful. The kids are at a great age. Such enthusiasm!
Until the hike gets a tad too long, but even then, they can be perked up with the discovery of a wayward cicada
When We dragged them away from the sandstone caves for lunch, Relia countered, we're not hungry for lunch. We're hungry for SAND!
Later, Relia had a birthday party to attend and Felix was disappointed that he didn't get to go, so we took a bike ride down to see the rabbit. It is such a gift when I get to spend time with one of the kids by ourselves.
For many reasons, we put off Relia's birthday party until this weekend. After investigating all sorts of locations and activities, I decided we'd keep it simple. 2 hours, decorate 50-cent tote bags, eat cupcakes, run around screaming, go home. It went pretty much according to plan.
My favorite one:
Big thanks to pop pop and nana for helping to contain the chaos.
Now that is is over, I am feeling like I can totally do this year after year. For boys and girls. I just have to do it, it really doesn't have to be the big deal I make it out to be in my head. No clown, no magician, no bounce house, no games or treasure hunts, just flimsy bags, glitter glue and foam shapes. But when parents came to pick them up, no one wanted to leave. That is success in my book.
We are just now getting around to having a friend birthday party for miss Relia. I could say it is because I was too busy, with school starting and all, or that I wanted to wait until friendships were established in first grade, but the truth is I was afraid. Afraid that no one would come.
But they are going to come! They even said so. 5 girls and rain is predicted so I may not be able to shoo them outside. It will be wonderful and terrible and fleeting.
For how many years will I be afflicted with this projected pain? My daughter is outgoing. She likes people and people like her. There is no reason in the world to think kids wouldn't want to come to her party. In fact, we ran into another mom at open house and she told me how her daughter thinks my daughter was the best thing about kindergarten. None of my anxiety matches up with reality. It isn't even like I ever had a party where no one showed up. It is just one of those irrational fears.
Tell me there will come a day when I don't dread the thought of a birthday party for my child, not because of the work involved, but because I'm afraid no one will come. I will gain that through experience, right?
Then I think of parents who actually have to worry that if their child will want to invite friends to a party that might not come. Parents with kids with disabilities that prevent them from connecting the way other kids do. I am very lucky and am going to go off to count my blessings now.
Slowly, ever so slowly completing all of my plans for the kitchen.
This weekend I put up some shelves. So now the stack of cookbooks we had piled on the play kitchen have a proper home.
This summer I took an online course, and it was amazing.
One of the main topics (besides how math is, or should be, taught) was the idea of mindset. It boils down to -"if you think you can, you will. If you think you can't, you won't"
There is research that supports this idea. Just truly believing you can do something will improve your performance.
Another idea is that we learn the most through our mistakes. This makes so much sense if you think about it. But my kids are constantly trying to cover up their mistakes and make it look like they never happened. They have this idea that they are supposed to just know this stuff, without any mistakes. Who can do that? Especially as a child? Where did they get this idea?
Teachers reward this all the time without even thinking about it. I know I have.
But no more. At the beginning of this year, I started out by telling my students I expect them to make mistakes. I will be disappointed if they make mistakes and don't share them with me. I also didn't put a score on their pretests. Instead, I made a point of writing at least one question on every pretest I corrected. Then, when I handed them back, I made them write me an answer in their math notebook.
I kept positively pointing out when students made mistakes, because we could see what we needed to do differently.
Today, I handed back some homework that the whole class pretty much bombed on because it was story problems and they assumed they knew what the story was asking. They seem to think, "We've been working on multiplication, so they all must be multiplication problems." I didn't even bother to correct the pages.
I had them do one of the problems with smaller numbers so they could draw what was happening. I didn't even point out that it was from their homework. Few noticed. (yeah, they for sure just picked out the numbers and went to town) We went through a few students' new work, and all of a sudden a bunch of light bulbs when on.
Later I asked how many of you did the problem wrong?
Ten hands SHOT up.
My heart swelled.
How many of you know what you did wrong and want to fix it?
More hands.
Yes. This is the right thing to do.
Aurelia's picture of the book "Heidi"
Uncle Alm's house (Alm Uncle)
Peder and his goat
Heidi walking to her uncle's house
(love that house is spelled "haus")
With a cold. I think I have slept 26 out of the last 48 hours. For someone who generally sleeps an unhealthy 6 hours a night that is a clear indicator. I even sleep while the littler ones crawl all over me.
Felix asked when I would be done being sick. I wish I had an end date scheduled.
Relia seems to think I get to have all the fun, staying home from school and resting on the couch during dinner time.
I think I'm on the road to recovery. I don't sound quite as disgusting as I did yesterday. I really do hate missing school. Especially this early in the year.
Today was kind of a special day. For the first time this year, I had no meeting or stuff I officially had to do at the end of the work day. I cleaned a bunch of stuff out of my super cluttered office. Then I went home and joined FP and the boys to play in the backyard. I had a sneaking feeling I was forgetting something I had to do, but I shook it off. need to steal some tape measures from IKEA for school, so we decided to get some dinner too. We packed up the boys and met Relia at the bus stop and headed out.
About half way there, I suddenly remembered that the kids had dentist appointments! In 20 minutes! Eek! Sorry kids, instead of dinner at IKEA and a romp in the ball pit, you get to go to THE DENTIST!
At first Relia moaned an groaned, but we got a snack in her and she settled.
Felix charmed the pants off of everyone.
His teeth looked great.
He loved playing with the spit sucker.
How come they never let me play with that?
Relia was no cavity girl too!
Relia announced that she would no longer appreciate sandwiches in her lunches. Fine with me kid. They are a pain to make anyway. I saw somewhere, probably on pinterest, an idea for helping kids make their own lunches. Yes! my kid may not have any chores mastered so far, but there is a real reward to making her own lunch, right?
We devoted 1/6 of our fridge to this endeavor, and so far it has been going well.
Twas time for my parents' big neighborhood sale. It wasn't quite as dense as it has been in previous years, but still a good sale.
We had a couple of objectives, a bookshelf for Relia's room, Relia was determined to find a recorder or flute. FP, of course, was hunting for books. I wanted curtains for our room or Relia's room, and a bike. -Mine was stolen last November :(
We made out pretty well, FP got his books, Felix got some trucks -so cute handing over his dollar and later telling us that he only paid "one" for his truck. He still has 4 pennies in his pocket, so he must have gotten a good deal, right? Relia spent all her money on an umbrella stroller and a music box.
I got a dehumidifier for our basement, parts for a raised garden bed, some jammies for the kids, and a sewing machine. I don't need a sewing machine. I do want the table that came with it. But when we got home, I felt that I had to thread it up and see how well it works. First of all, I'm proud that I got it threaded before reading the instructions. Next, I was surprised to see these cute little shapes the machine makes. It is so fun, I may not give it up any time soon.
FP found this HotWheels set, and I couldn't rest until I figured out how to charge up the little cars and get them around the track.
But, no bicycle. So I decided to go ahead and get one I found on Craig's list. Essentially my old bike but in a women's style. The guy I bought it from is a bike mechanic, and the thing is in great shape. I just miss my basket, and my cute bell from Paris.
Built a wall
Learned to camp with our kids
Got our garage door fixed
Cleaned out the garage
A little bit of landscaping
Attended a CGI Conference (and hung out with some very cool math teachers)
Visited Fort Snelling
Ate at Cossetta's
Went to the SPAM museum
Attended the Austin, MN 4th of July Parade
Went to 3 (3?!!) professional baseball games at Target Field.
Got to take in the view from the top of the Foshay Tower
Watched a heck of a lot of "Monk"
Booked a week long vacay for next summer
Learned to repair a tent pole
Spent so much time with my kids, that for three days Felix asked me, "why were you gone so long?" when I came home.
Our first year where the kids outnumbered the adults.The weather was perfect! Mostly overcast, in the 70's, hugely crowded, even for a Sunday.
Ready for the Fair!
The giant slide was first. I convinced Relia to ride on her own this year, and she was so proud of herself. Felix rode with me, and he thought it was too fast.
On to the animal barns!
I asked Felix if he wanted to see the horses or the cows first. He answered "The pigs!" Okay.
Once we did make it to the swine barn, he wasn't satisfied with the piglets and the largest boar, he needed to go see ALL the pigs.
Then we went to the horse barn and... dug for horse bones?
Next, the annual photobooth portrait.
No trouble waiting for the pictures to come out, everyone was well occupied.
I love how Felix sits on his Harley, crotch rocket style.
Felix chose a Pronto Pup for lunch. That's my boy.
We did a few rides
Felix regretted his choice of the airplanes. He hid behind the dashboard with a scared look on his face the whole time :(
But Relia had a great time on the Pirate ship thingy (on the bridge, in pink)
He was much happier with the cars
and the tractors
I never think of myself as a history buff, but I love when I see these around town.
On the Sky Glider (Felix hid from the camera once again)
A bungee jump for Relia while Leo, Felix and I watched Flamenco dancers
Some Sweet Martha's and then it was time to go.
The kids were all amazing this time. They did a fantastic job listening, and sticking close enough to our wagon home base. I really didn't worry about them much. Leo had a hard time because he couldn't run free very much, but that is to be expected. I was so very proud of them today.
My two favorite of our additions to the fair experience this year:
-Leo's wagon seatbelt, cobbled together from remnants of expired car seats.
-Bringing a bunch of solo cups so we could share everything on the go. Totally doing that again.
I keep thinking there is something I'm forgetting... Oh yeah
UPDATE: Fair attendance was 236,197 yesterday (including our family). Single day record. So if there are about 5 million people in MN, that is about 5% of the state at the Fair on one day. 1 in 20! Wow!
He is determined to learn to buckle. Of course once he does get it clicked, he realizes he is stuck and begin to howl.
But not this time!
Aurelia turned 6! 6!!!!
Nana & grandpa gave Rellia a very special day.
She got to sleep over and then go to the State Fair!
Birthday dinner at home!
This is the first time she's actually used the directions to build with legos.
Felix was so good about listening to her and Relia was really good about letting him help.
Sunday we got to go and use Her American Girl gift card. We circled the store about 4 times (so many choices!) She read the boxes to find the right ones, and read the prices to decide if it was in her range. (so proud!). We finally landed on this fancy purple dress. As soon as we got home, Relia wanted to put on her own fancy purple dress.
