While I was cleaning and organizing Ella's room, one of my children was having a temper tantrum. I won't post names but he got quite grumpy and whiny when asked to do certain things, like practice piano, make his bed, and bring me my duster that he left upstairs. Here he is grudgingly returning it to me:
It had rained last night and into the morning, so what better time to put on those rain boots, stomp around outside for a while and end up on the wet trampoline?
Since you can usually find all sorts of fun creepy crawlies after a rainstorm, Ella was the first to discover this little snail outside our wintergarden.
Then I was off to Ella's Kindergarten orientation. I didn't really know what to expect, I thought it would be like Colton's orientation where the principal talks for a while and we look around the school. Not so. The class lists were posted as I entered the school. I found Ella's name under Mrs. Francis Waldrup's name. Now to be perfectly honest, I was a little worried at first. I was being prejudiced and thought a name like Francis belonged with an 80 year old lady with support hose. I didn't envision a fun, energetic lady that could keep up with 22 five year olds with a name like Francis. Francis's were ladies who gardened and dyed their hair blue, not teach little kids fun songs about reading and math. I didn't recognize any other children in her class, but since Ella is not lacking in the social skills department, I wasn't worried that she would make friends quickly. The principal addressed all the parents, and then introduced us to the Kindergarten teachers. That was cool. I thought at least we get to match a name to a face. But then it got better. Each teacher took her students' parents with her back to the classroom to talk to us and show us around. (All 14 kindergarten teachers are female, FYI) Mrs. Waldrup looked super friendly and nice, and once she started talking to us, the reality set in: she rocks. She IS super friendly and nice. Not sooo nice that she is a push over, but nice enough to make each child feel special and loved. She talked for almost an hour and I REALLY like her. She has been teaching for over 20 years but really seems to still enjoy it and is excited for this upcoming year. I was completely relieved when I got a chance to meet her. I feel really confident that Ella is going to have a great year. After hearing Mrs. Waldrup talk about her plans for the year, it really makes me wish I was 5 again. Here is a picture of Mrs. Waldrup and the classroom:
After Ella's classroom, I went to the grocery store by myself. Heaven. Pure bliss. I was so fast without any little ones around that I think I was just a blur to the other shoppers. The kids were at home being supervised by the competent and capable duo: Jaxon and Spencer. I figured two 12 year olds were better than one to watch the kids. Since there are only two months til Halloween and it's still August, I should have been shocked to see tons of Halloween stuff already out in the BX and commissary, but I wasn't. There was Halloween hair spray for sale as soon as I walked into the commissary, and since one of my favorite books to read to the kids is Crazy Hair Day and involved Halloween Hair Spray, I had to buy a few cans for future, or not so future, use. I got a bunch of fun colors and as soon as I got home, I showed Ella. Big mistake, since one of the colors I bought was pink. Both she and Mason wanted me to spray their hair. Why not? It's good practice for the real deal. Ella's hair is a lot darker than Mason's, so it didn't show up as strongly on her hair as on his. But here they both are as my little punk rockers:
Remember all that Halloween stuff that I mentioned the commissary had? Well, I bought the Halloween cupcake and frosting set that I buy every year, and for every holiday. We make the pink ones for Valentine's Day and the red and green ones for Christmas, pretty much any excuse to bake, we are all over that. And since it had been almost a whole 48 hours since we had baked anything yummy, we HAD to make the cupcakes this afternoon. Here are Ella and Mason frosting and enjoying their masterpieces:
After dinner we went outside to ride bikes and write with sidewalk chalk. At this point Mason had been in Big Boy Pants for most of the day, accident free.
Mason told me he needed to pee, and the phone rang, so I didn't go right away with him to the bathroom like he asked me to, so OOPS! Accident #1 for the day. Not bad. He did really well the whole day, up until the very end. I'm getting kinda excited. Huggies may not be getting a good portion of my grocery money any more in the near future!
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am the luckiest mom in the world and do what I do. Not for the big bucks, the fame, glamour, success, riches and treasures untold. It is for big smooches like this one:
and big smiles like these:
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