Daycare End of Year Program & Pullen Park Party

Simon's daycare's end of year presentation was on Thursday right at naptime. They do this every year and I just don't get it. But the good news is, Simon kept his eyes open and didn't have to be led off stage, so that was an improvement. He didn't look like he was singing, and later, his teachers told me that he had told them, "I'm only going to sing the songs I want to." They said the only song he wanted to sing was only the D-A-D-D-Y song, which was not part of the line-up today.  (In the picture below, Simon is in the blue shirt in the back row.)

Alice sat in the audience with me and did a fairly good job just sitting there watching the program. She had to get up once to give Ms. Georgiana and her teachers a hug during a break, though. I love how this daycare really feels like one big extended family. I mean, our kids are together for years and it's been the same teachers for years, too, so everybody knows everybody. The teachers always tear up when giving the certificates to the rising kindergartners and it is so heartwarming to see how much they really care about the kids.

After the program, we headed to Pullen Park for the after-party. Alice was quite popular since the kids that are only a year younger still remember her.  They all spent a lot of time playing the in the tree fort right next to the picnic shelter, while Zac took Simon off to ride the boats and train (Alice prefers the carousel, but Simon doesn't like it.)

At the end of the evening, a bunch of us grown-ups sat on the grassy knoll at the playground and visited while the kids played. It was delightful--and a sign of progress that both our kids were playing with friends without us needing to hover, and we didn't have to worry that they would randomly run off. Simon was playing on the slides with Donovan and Alice was playing in the sand with Zachary's older sister Zoey (Alice tends to get along great with 8-year old girls).

This is...ballet?

Simon goes a little bonkers before bed on some nights. Sometimes you just have to let him get it all out.

Kids at the Pool

I made a little video of the kids demonstrating what they can do at the pool. Alice is already quite the fish, and Simon is on his way.

Simon reads

Science Museum with Julia and Brantley

When we were at the end of school picnic for Alice's kindergarten, I found out that although her friend Brantley loved nature and science, his mom had no idea that there was a giant, free science museum in downtown Raleigh. So two weeks after Alice's birthday party I arranged for us to have a playdate there with Julia as well. It was great fun. The museum wasn't crowded so it wasn't too hard to keep track of the kids, and I had a lot of fun visiting with the moms.

Alice at Soccer Camp

This week, Alice had soccer camp from 9am to noon every morning. I had to sign up for camps back in February, and since this was all new to me, I didn't know what to expect from the camps or Alice. My goal was to give her some more exposure to things she might enjoy, since it's too chaotic during the school year to be taking her to soccer practice or ballet or gymnastics in the evenings.

 I dropped Alice off at the WakeMed Soccer Park every morning wearing cleats, shin guards, and sun block; equipped with a ball, snack, and water bottle. I picked her up three hours later and she's hot and sweaty and hungry. Since the camp was only three hours long, it wasn't really worth it for me to drive home and get stuff done there, so I usually took walks on the cross country trail that goes around the soccer fields and then read in the van until she was done.

This particular camp was pretty no-frills. From what I could see on my walks, the kids just did various drills and soccer activities, and ran around the whole time. Alice loved it. She made two friends on the first day that she kept all week. She was pretty worn out every day though and took long naps every afternoon after lunch.

In the videos below she is in the light purple. I took these from far away on the way back on one of my walks. I didn't want to be that weird mom lurking around, so I tried to do it surreptitiously.

Allowance

Now that Alice is a six-year-old, we've finally decided to institute an allowance. We were waiting for her to have enough sense of money and math and spending, and now seemed like the right time. Plus, when she kept asking for stuff at the gift shop at the science museum a few days ago, it seemed like rather than just being a broken record of "no", I could instead say, "If you really want that, you can buy it with your own money."

We're following the advice of this article and not linking the allowance to chores, specifically. The idea is that she has to do chores no matter what, as a member of this family and household. The money is her stipend so she can learn how to manage money and make choices now, with low risks, so that when she is older and the consequences of poor money management are more severe, she will have got the hang of it.

Following the advice of the article as well as the way I was taught to divide money as a kid, Alice will split her allowance into three envelopes: spending, giving, saving. She'll get three dollars a week, paid out on Fridays. Birthday money can go into spending only, since it is usually given in lieu of a gift.

Three days later, Alice and I were at Harris Teeter and I was going through the tedious task of picking out snack bars (carefully analyzing nutrition content for protein and sugar quantities). What was in that same aisle to attract the eyes of a bored little girl? The kids' toys. Alice wanted everything, so I tried out my new line: "If you really want it, you can buy it with your allowance. I'll pay for it here, and you'll pay me back when we get home." Since Alice got $6 in birthday money plus her $1 in allowance so far, she was a rich woman. I knew all the things were cheap plastic crap, but per the article's advice, I let Alice make her own choices. She would find out soon enough that she spent it on crap, and that is all part of the learning process. In the end, with a little help from me on the prices, she chose two jewelry packages, totaling $5.

She was so excited about this newfound freedom to buy stuff that she kept thanking me for letting her spend her money. As soon as we got home, she rushed upstairs to get the money to pay me back without my having to prompt her. Then she opened her plastic bling and got all dressed up.

Lego Plane

Zac really loves Legos. So for Father's day, I got him two sets: one for Alice and one for Simon. Father's Day itself was so packed with fun that we never had a chance to build them. So on Monday, the kids tried to follow the instructions and do it themselves. They did OK, but were happy when Zac came to help.

Father's Day

On Sunday morning, we celebrated Father's Day. The kids, as always, were a great help in opening the presents. We usually get each other a mix of stuff we need for the house plus toys or fun things to do with the kids.

I hadn't really made a plan for the day, but some of our friends texted and said they'd be at the pool, so we went there in the morning. Alice went off the diving board for the first time! (This video is not of her very first time....maybe her fifth time that morning.)

After lunch and naps, Zac took the kids down to the pond to fish.

After supper, we lit some of the little fireworks I'd gotten Zac for fathers day. Simon absolutely loved them!

Then, since we were already up late, I let the kids catch some fireflies before bedtime snack.

Here is what Simon told his teachers about his dad:

Zac's Garage Shelves

For the last couple of weeks, Zac has been working at night, after the kids are in bed, on building shelves in the garage. He finally finished this nice section! Next up: work tables.

Alice's crafts

Alice is really good at coming up with her own plans for crafty creations. The trick is just to have enough supplies laying around.

This is my favorite: she took clay from Kate and rolled it out into a thin snake, then made a circle, then stuck feathers in it, and wha-la, she had a feather crown!

Spinning wheels, spinning flowers

On Thursday I took Alice for a proper bike ride on her new bike. We took the greenway near our house over the highway to a new trail we'd never been on that connects through a neighborhood. Then we went to the park that's on the other side of the highway.

Organizing flies, picking peaches

For her birthday, at my urging, Kate got Alice a Box of Junk. Kate used to be a teacher and had a knack for accumulating interesting stuff, which she occasionally offloads on our kids. Here, using the "new" stuff from Kate, Alice is organizing some plastic flies on a piece of bumpy foam and is imagining they're having a fly race.

On her second day as a 6-year-old, I had to take Alice in to work with me for a few tasks: I needed to enter grades (the state-mandated exam scores always come in late for English) and bring all my plants home. Alice had been asking to see my school for a long time, since she was last there probably two or three years ago. It never works out to have her there on a school day, but luckily there were enough people there, even on the first week of summer break, that she got a fun tour and I got to introduce her to many of my coworkers. The most exciting part was that the principal told her to go pick peaches from the peach tree near the parking lot. Nothing could have made Alice happier.

(Update: The peaches were hard as a rock, but I ripened them in a paper bag and they were ready for the most delicious peach cobbler ever for Father's Day dessert.)

Alice's 6th Birthday Day

Alice's 6th birthday started with the traditional cake reveal. Alice told Zac the day before exactly what design she wanted on her cake.

The second birthday surprise was that I told Alice we were going to the Durham science museum.  She was last there three years ago, but remembers it fondly and has been asking to go ever since. I invited my friend Kate to go with us, since Zac and Simon would be going to school and work.

The last time we were here, we visited the butterfly house at the peak of Alice's butterfly phobia and she was miserable. She wasn't terrified this time.

What Alice probably remembered most from three years ago was the dinosaur that she was allowed to climb on.

Just like three years ago, Alice loved digging through the mine rubble for fossils.

Catching a "seed." 

And finally, the best place of all: the mist area.

After Alice was soaking wet, we went and had lunch, then went to a play area so she could dry off more before heading indoors.  There's this really cool tree house area, and Alice climbed all the way to the topmost tree house, but then was scared to come back down, so I had to go rescue her and coach her back down. She did a good job overcoming her fears.

Then more climbing around 

The indoor part of the museum is pretty cool too, with lots of interactive activities for the kids.

Around 4 we finally left. Alice promptly fell asleep in the van, which was good since the traffic was already bad and we took a while to get home.

Back at home, Alice was thrilled to blow up a balloon on her own for the first time ever. Six year olds must be powerful!

Once Zac and Simon got home, we revealed the next surprise: a new bike!

(You can see we opted for blue so Simon can inherit it.)

It came with a sticker pack, so Alice had fun decorating it.

She's a speed demon now!

Finally, supper was ready. Alice had requested chicken wings, corn on the cob, and couscous for her birthday dinner.

Supper was followed by her birthday cake.

Then she could open her presents! (She even let Simon help open some.)

Simon mostly had fun throwing the wrapping paper around.

Alice's face when she discovered her fidget spinner lights up, too!

When Simon had a turn, he put the fidget spinner on his head, like a propeller.

All in all, it was a great birthday. These last six years have been the shortest eternity, the longest blink of an eye.