Subscribe to Our Feed!
Aug 312010
I feel like a petulant teenager on the night before school.
I don’t want summer to be over. I don’t want summer to be over. I don’t want summer to be over.
Granted, it’s still seasonally summer, and the temperatures agree. 93 degrees is no fall-like day. Despite what the mercury says, our summer ends tonight. Tomorrow both boys go back to school.
BigBrother will head downstairs to the Big Kids Class, an air of confidence about him that comes from having two years of preschool already under his belt and the knowledge that he is almost five. Five is apparently a magical number and being said age in preschool is like being a senior in high school. He is Big News.
LittleBrother will head upstairs for the first time, a bit more tentatively than his older brother. This will be the first time that LittleBrother does anything more than hang out with mommy and daddy without his brother’s presence. I have no reason to believe that he won’t be okay, though he did admit that he was scared the other day before we made our way to his classroom for orientation. I think once he saw the toys, including two classic Buzz Lightyears, he forgot to be afraid. I wish it was that easy for me.
After I drop the boys off at school, I’ll likely meet my friends for coffee — a weekly treat during the school year — instead of packing away our summer. I still need to wash the bathing suits from vacation. They’ve already been washed once, but they dried on the deck railing of our beach house and they smell like sunshine and ocean breeze. I keep thinking that if I never wash out that smell, I’ll feel less forlorn during those long winter months where sunshine and warmth are at a premium.
We have enjoyed ourselves so much this summer, from bubbles to water guns to camp to the beach to geocaching to relaxing. FireDad and I got to fully enjoy the deck that we built last summer. I am bummed that it is over for us. We are no longer free to travel as we have all summer long. We are tied down by schedules that are not our own. When I think that next summer will be even shorter thanks to the realities of kindergarten, well, I get even more upset. So I won’t think that way.
I will instead work on our annual beach trip photo book when I’m not working. And reminisce about the happy times. But not too much. Something tells me that the next season of our lives will bring some fun, too.
How could it not?
_
[Tomorrow we'll be in a rush. Tell me what you do during the Breakfast Squeeze for a chance at $100.]
Jul 222010
As I mentioned yesterday, LittleBrother has been experiencing his first-ever “class” scenario. It’s an hour and a half of songs, stories and crafts. And other kids.
The latter being the kicker.
LittleBrother is a social dude. His “awkward-hide-behind-Mommy’s-skirt” phase pales in comparison to how BigBrother refused to socialize at the same age. He likes other people, especially other kids. But his interaction with large numbers of other children are limited to an hour at the YMCA (er, “The Y”) child care (seven kids max). Even our church’s child care is limited in numbers right now. So while LittleBrother loves kids, he’s never really been in a setting where there were lots and lots of kids. (At the beginning of the week, one class featured 12 boys and 6 girls. Numbers have continued to rise as the week has gone on.)
Things have gone extremely well for both boys. Until yesterday.
Due to the size of the class, they have separated the kids by age when it comes time for crafts. The younger kids need more help and sit at one table, while the older kids who need less help sit at another table. This means that BigBrother and LittleBrother are, woe, separated. Of course, they’ll be separated by classrooms this fall in preschool, so it had to happen at some point. I’m not overly concerned, but I didn’t know how LittleBrother might respond. His brother has always been there, for better or worse. Back to craft time yesterday…
Someone spilled water on LittleBrother’s Toy Story sandals. Despite my repeated explanations that water doesn’t hurt, LittleBrother freaks out about spilled water. Especially on him. And apparently especially on his beloved sandals. So, he cried.
Now, remember, I’m not in class, too. The following happened organically.
BigBrother walked over to LittleBrother, took his cheeks in his hands (which we call “cheeky-cheeks”), gave him a hug and kiss and told him that it would be okay. And LittleBrother stopped crying.
Pardon me while I melt. And then pardon me while I attempt to figure out why they can’t act like that at home.
I am so, so, so, so glad they have each other. (And yes, I will remind them of this story forever.)
May 202010
Yesterday’s last day of school extravaganza went well. Despite my Mommy Nostalgia that my oldest boy grew so much in one school year, we really had a nice day.
The crafts for BigBrother’s teachers were finished and wrapped in time to be taken to school in the morning. I originally found the craft idea at Living Locurto which linked me to a post at Testosterone Times Three. I got the square shadowbox frames at Walmart ($8) and already had one pack of new crayons so I just grabbed one more pack of 24 count Crayola crayons ($1.31) and a bottle of craft glue ($1.30). I did all of the cutting myself with my big butcher knife. BigBrother helped me with some gluing after I figured out the template. I let them dry overnight. His teachers loved them and they are hanging them in the classroom. I’ll show them again because this Non-Crafty Mom feels pretty darn proud of herself.
When BigBrother got home from school, he got to open his presents. I normally do a puzzle and a book but had been wanting to do a game this year as they’re big into board games and the like this year. They’ve been playing Connect 4 at my mother-in-law’s house for the past few months and so I thought I’d grab it for our house seeing as how they love it. My last minute procrastination paid off as when I stopped to pick it up they had the Toy Story 3 version! Now, two weeks ago, they didn’t have that version in the store as I had price checked the game that week. If we had already owned Connect 4, I wouldn’t be buying a new favorite-movie themed one but seeing as how I was buying it anyway, I couldn’t resist! It was a big, big hit. His favorite game and Toy Story? Mommy win.
The book that he got was also of the Toy Story variety and I’ll have a rant about that tomorrow.
We also had rainbow tie-dye cupcakes to celebrate a year of fantastic learning and growth and a kick off to our Super Summer! Instead of making my normal rainbow cake, I decided to make some rainbow cupcakes. I also decided to go with pre-packaged cake mix again due to the last minute nature of everything. I separated the mix into five bowls and LittleBrother helped me color each bowl a different color: red, blue, yellow, green and violet. I put a spoonful of each color in the cupcake wrapper, leaving them uneven and kind of “messy” for my taste. Topped off with red, we put them in the oven. As per usual, I used Wilton icing dye to get the bright colors. Out of the oven they looked perfect.
And the boys loved them.
And I sacrificed not one but two in the name of art again.
Basically, it was a great day for us. In fact, the boys had such a lovely day, despite the rain, that they went straight to sleep and started off our Super Summer on a fabulous note and slept clear until 7:40 this morning. I think that deserves celebration with another cupcake, don’t you agree?
_
Don’t forget to enter my Shirts That Go giveaway! It ends Tuesday!
