Our Time

Looking at this face . . . so sweet, so innocent (yes I'm biased.) It's hard to imagine there is anything feisty inside this little person. Since school started Kate and I drop-off Sarah at around 8:00 then we either go to Starbucks or sit in the car and watch a movie before Kate's preschool starts. Our morning movie time has really been fun; neither of us really watches the movie, instead we talk about three year old things like Cinderella and Auora or coloring books or barbies. I've never really had much time alone with Kate; I'm usually working when Sarah is in school so Kate spent much of that time with her old nanny. This year, we have 45 minutes 3 days a week (plus more time in the afternoon) that is just ours. What a special gift!!

Guess Girls Rock!!

Katie G and I went the mall one day for a quick lunch and some shopping while Sarah was at school. After she visited with her friend Christian (one of the boys who works on the kids department at Dillards who she knows from the fashion show) she found this outfit. The shirt reads 'Guess Girls Born to Rock and Roll.' Perfect for a future rock star!! We went back a week later because big sister, just like Lolla-Lee-Lou (from Dr. Seuss's Gertrude McFuzz) was just going to "fall right down dead" the outfit was so cute. So here they are - our rocking girls.

Does Kate look a little like Bono in those glasses??

Sometimes the stars do align . . .

It doesn't happen very often but when it does you just have to stop and look around and say Thank You!!!

Today, we got up early and the whole family headed off to Kate's cheer class. Even Daddy came along to watch his little girl cheer. It was an unusually cool and humid day for August in AZ - the morning temp was only about 75. A far cry from the 108 we had the day before.

So we put on our parkas and took Kate to class, she cheered her little heart out while big sister played Barbies in the corner of the room. After class we took pictures of the girls in the gym and they both managed to stay still for a few decent shots. Then we headed outside with the idea of having a late breakfast. We fastened the girls in, and Jeff turned the key to start the car but it just clicked and clicked. This is a familiar sound to us as car batteries only last about 18 months in AZ - and my Sequoia is exactly 18 months old. Fortunately, there was enough power to put the windows down and there was a nice cool breeze.

At first I thought, geez, wouldn't you know it - this would happen the one day that Jeff comes to Cheer class - there's nobody at home to call. But then I remembered I joined AAA earlier this year (for a trip discount.) So we promptly called them. The very nice dispatcher said it would be about an hour but the tech would call 5 minutes before arrival.

We settled in for a long wait, letting both girls out of their seats. They had a blast playing Barbies in the back of the car; it has all kind of compartments just the right size for Barbie. Within ten minutes a HUGE truck pulled up. It was the AAA guy. He checked the battery - it was gone . . . he installed a new one and within 15 minutes we were on the road again.

I could hardly believe it. Batteries don't last long out here; and they're more likely to zonk out on a hot, dry day than a humid day. But we were blessed today - it could have gone out when the babysitter was out with the kids or when I was out with Kate, far from home and needing to get Sarah on time. But it didn't - it was a nice cool day and we had no pressing plans. Even still, it only took 10 minutes for the AAA guy to come - these things just don't happen very often.

We were on the road by 10:25 in time for an early lunch at Sarah's favorite place Souper Salad counting our blessings the whole way.

School Lunch

Let's talk about school lunch . . . The first few weeks of school I, supermom - seeker of perfection, lovingly packed nutritious and yummy lunches for my little schoolgirl. Her favorite roast beef and pepperoni sandwiches, carefully cut into butterfly, heart or flower shapes; fresh green beans, tomatoes and carrots with ranch for dipping.; yogurt, dried strawberries, blackberries, plums, grapes, 100% juice - juice boxes . . . all packed nicely in her little lunchbox with two napkins and a note she could read like You Rock Sarah! Or I Love You, xoxox Mommy.

By the end of the second week of school our future rock star was asking if she could bring lunchables like Sy and Alexia. Then Monday she came home raving about the school lunch. "Oh mom, they had Pizza Dippers . . . Beth shared some with me - they were so good . . . I also notice the Pizza they have every Friday . . . Mom, can I buy lunch on Friday . . . ? . . . Oh but Mom, you have to pack me a juice because they only have milk . . .!!!" Here we go, another milestone - buying lunch. The mommy panic set in - what if she has trouble carrying her tray. What if she trips and falls and spills her lunch. What if she forgets to bring her juice to the lunchroom? What if she doesn't like it???

One thing about Sarah is that she likes fresh food and red meat. She does not care much for normal kid food. She'll eat any kind of berry - black, blue, raz, straw. She loves Plums, Pomegranates, Apples, Peaches, Grapes, lightly steamed but still crunchy green beans, grape tomatoes - heck the kid will eat a whole tomato like an apple - celery, zucchini, carrots. She prefers fruit to cakes and cookies; so although she'll tell you she likes pizza, she really just likes to eat the cheese off the top.

After proper reflection on her question - being the supermom that I am, I welcomed the break. "Of course you can buy lunch!!" I said. Sarah and I checked out the lunch menu they sent home at orientation. Thursday's menu offered Pepperoni Pizza or Cheeseburgers. She was very excited, so Tuesday I sent a check to her teacher to buy some lunch tickets with a note that Sarah planned to BUY lunch on Thursday and Friday.

After much anticipation, Thursday finally came and Sarah was ready . . . I packed her a juice box and an extra big snack, just in case. I was first in line to pick her up at 2:45. She jumped in the car, took off her backpack, buckled her seat belt and put away her hand sanitizer. I was anxious to hear about lunch but I've learned that she tells me a lot more if it's her idea - so I waited. The first thing she says is "Mom, I'm really hungry . . . I need a snack." "You got it, I replied, what sounds good?" "Chicken nuggets from Wendy's; I like their nuggets. I could eat like 8 of them . . . they're so crunchy and delicious." Now this is funny to me. One because Sarah HATES Wendy's'. And two, I'm always encouraging the girls to order chicken if we go to fast food - Kate normally will, but Sarah is a cheeseburger girl. Her regular fast food order is Cheeseburger, Fries, Lemonade and a toy. (of which she eats the meat and about 7 fries) But today, she just wanted those nuggets. By this time it's 3:00 and I'm thinking eating a bunch of chicken nuggets would ruin her dinner. After some discussion I understand that she is indeed starving.

The pizza she said "was gross - it was like a rectangle, not a triangle like normal pizza - and the pepperoni was like little ugggy (a real word in our house) chunks. And Mrs. Bush was yelling at us (Sarah and Beth) saying we couldn't eat our bananas until we ate our pizza." What!?! Mrs. Bush is the same lady who put Ketchup on Sarah's sandwich the other day . . . I'm not sure what's up with her but in our house we don't put Ketchup on our sandwiches. Poor little Sarah, hungry, wasn't allowed to eat her banana until she choked down ugggy school pizza with chewy chunks of spiced meat. So we took a detour to Wendy's.

As she filled her little tummy with nuggets and some black berries she told her dad all about the ugggy pizza and pepperoni bits. We were both having flashbacks of elementary school. When she was done eating she said "Mom, can I be a packer tomorrow? I don't really want that pizza again . . . I don't think I really want to be a buyer any more - except maybe on sausage and waffle day . . . when is that one Mom???"

So we're back to packing - and supermom is back to spending 30 minutes every night making shaped sandwiches and steaming green beans. Oh well, it's worth it to know that my little princess will have a full tummy at school - except maybe on Waffle and Sausage day.

P.S. What happened to Sarah's extra big sack you might wonder; she shared it with some boys in her class. But that's an adventure for another day . . .

First Day of Preschool

Katie Grace attended the Farm School (Preschool at the Farm - a montesori-ish preschool) last year with her big sister. But this year, all of the big-kids have graduated and moved on to Kindergarten. So when Kate arrived for her first day of school, she found out that she is the big girl in class now. She went striaght for the dress up bin and found a cinderella dress to wear. Then she waved Jeff and I goodbye and embarked on her second wonderful year of preschool.

Down the Drain

For more than three of Sarah's brief five years of bathing she has had a serious fear of the the shower and being sucked down the drain. Just a few weeks ago she started talking about trying the shower - but only if we could cover the drain. On August 12, 2007 she finally did it. Using a green floppy jar opener we covered the drain (mostly) and Sarah took her first shower. She sang, she washed her own hair and after 20 minutes the mean old drain still had not sucked her down. Whew!

Sashay Chantay

Friday afternoon I received a call from one of the wonderful ladies in our Dillards children's department. They all know me because I bought all of Sarah's school clothes and then returned them for uniforms, some of which I then exchanged. Saturday is kids day and they're doing a fashion show - and our girls were invited to be in it. Oh my goodness, of all the kids in all the world can you think of anyone else who would be more excited to do a fashion show than Sarah and Kate?

We zipped over to Dillards Friday night so they could pick which outfits they would model. They had a blast. Both girls picked Roxy sportswear complete with bags and jackets and fancy dresses.

The show today was great!! They had cookies, lemonade, face painting, coloring, balloons - what else could a kid ask for? Then came the fashion show. Both girls knew exactly what to do. Sarah was the first girl (after all the babies.) She strut down the runway in her Roxy outfit and posed her little tail off. So much so that the whole audience clapped for her. Then came Kate with her pigtails in little Roxy jeans and a backpack as big as she is. She got lots of "aaaaahs." Then I wisked both girls back to the dressing room for a change into the next outfit. All the coordinators were congratulating Sarah. After changing into "evening wear" the girls lined up for round two. When Sarah's turn came, the announcer bent down to Sarah and said, remember to give us a spin in that dress. Sarah was up for the task. She stunned the audience again with her runway moves. The announcer said "And here's comes Sarah again, in a fun dress. Oh look at her spin. When Sarah grows up she wants to be a rockstar and she just finished her first week of kindergarten. . . " Then Sarah stopped in the middle of the runway on her way back and the announcer sent Kate down. They posed together. "Sarah and Kate are sisters" the announcer said. Everyone clapped. Kate gave a spin and walked back to me. Sarah gave us a few more spins and finally sashayed off the runway. Everyone clapped again!!!

Now you all know I am not one of those moms that attempts to always portray my kids as perfect. But I have to say, they were wonderful today!! Neither girl was shy or meek. They walked out there, strut their stuff and had fun with it. And, not to be bragadocious, but none of the other kids got applause or ooohs or ahhhhs.

After the show several people came up to me saying that Sarah needs to be on stage. We're still considering the whole being on stage at 5 thing, but both ladies really did have fun today!!

P.S. Jeff took pictures since I was helping the girls change. We actually have a video clip of Sarah and Kate in the fancy dresses. I will be happy to burn copies to CD for anyone who wants one. It is really funny.

Kindergarten-Week One

After surviving day one we were off to a great start. In fact, the whole week was great. The only complaints I heard from Sarah regarded the PE teacher Mrs. Geisler and Nimo (who must be completely nuts because everyone else adores Sarah.)

We know that Nimo HATES Sarah - for no apparent reason. But what's the deal with Mrs. Geisler? Doesn't she know that everyone loves Sarah - particularly teachers and boys? Evidently Mrs. Geisler is not a very warm lady (problem #1 in Sarah's book) and Sarah, it seems, is not on her list of favorite kids. Why, one might wonder - well, on the first day of school a little boy took a baton from Sarah, which she promptly took back. - Mrs. Geisler only saw Sarah take the baton back from the little boy. Mrs. Geisler then pulled the baton from Sarah's hand, gave it to the little boy and proceeded to fuss at Sarah about taking the baton and refused to listen to Sarah's side of the story. Oh boy!!

Later in the week I heard another story about Mrs. Geisler. #1, She talks rude. She said one of Sarah's classmates was sick in a "really rude way - you know, like Fallulah is sick today, awww." Okay, so she's missing the warm, fuzzy personality that Sarah prefers. #2, Sarah fell down and "it hurt everywhere." Then Mrs. Geisler "drug me to a table and made me sit there. And she didn't even say anything."

So here we go - we already have a teacher that doesn't adore my child. How dare she not think my little Sarah is PERFECT!!! I'm sure 95% of this perceived meanness is just because this poor lady has forty two brand new kindergartners to wrangle at one time. Can you imagine the patience this woman must have? I might be mean too, if I had 42 kindergarteners to manage. I tried to coach Sarah on how to cope with gruff personalities - fearing that she'll be ruined on PE for life. So far so good - on Thursday Coach Tidd helped out in PE and Sarah really liked him - yay! Of course in Sarah's book, Mrs. Geisler is still the meanest, worst lady on the planet - at least for now . . . .

Sarah Goes to Kindergarten

Warning: You might find this posting nauseatingly detailed. I know a real Supermom would create a lovely scrapbook spread for her daughter's first day of kindergarten. Not me, I'm going to print my blog page and throw it in the baby book. Hey, at least we have pictures . . .

Sarah awoke early on August 6, 2007 and waited anxiously in bed for her new Tinkerbell alarm clock to go off. Everyone was excited on this extraordinarily humid Monday morning. Little sister Kate was up and watching Little Bear in our bed, I was up getting dressed - and dad happened to be walking by Sarah's door when her alarm finally rang. He was granted entry into the princesses sanctuary and allowed to help her get dressed for her first day of kindergarten. Kate and I heard Sarah stirring and ran to her room - she shut the door and said "Please wait in the hall until I'm done getting dressed, so I can make my debut!" A few moments later our beautiful Sarah emerged in her navy jumper, white polo and matching white socks brainstorming on hair-do's for her big day. She ended up with a top-ponytail finished with blue and white butterflies. Before going downstairs, Sarah received a brand new charm for her charm bracelet, her first day of school goody, which has been our tradition for the last two years. Kate won't start school until next week but she received her charm bracelet and her first charm, a little monkey. Both girls also got rockstar guitar barrettes.

Then we all went downstairs and Sarah put on her new mary jane sneakers (because Monday is a PE day) and she was all set. She didn't really want to eat breakfast but she managed to get some berries down , play barbies with little sister and reluctantly take a few pictures. Dad had a meeting first thing so he had to leave, but Amanda came early so she, Kate and I all drove Sarah to her first day of school.

Sarah was not quite sure what to expect and was a bit preoccupied with the idea that Kate might change her Barbie's clothes while she was at school - but once she saw her teacher Miss Yeagley she got excited. We found the spot where she can stash her backpack and where she'll line up each morning. She ran around the playground for a few minutes jabbering about Kate playing with her things. Watching Sarah run around, Miss Yeagley said "Sarah has personality doesn't she??" I nodded. Then Sarah came running over to tell Miss Yeagley she'd lost her name tag. To which Miss Yeagley replied: "Don't worry Sarah, I won't forget you!!" Alright!!! I think to myself - her teacher likes her . . . I can go now.

I snapped a few pictures on playground - and slowly walked away. What a bittersweet moment. It's so wonderful to see my daughter happy and able to jump into a new situation with both feet as well as she did - but it sure was hard to let her go. What if she didn't follow the rules? What if she got tired and grumpy and snapped at another child or wouldn't share? What if she couldn't open her juicebox at lunch? Would she be confused and try to buy lunch? In preschool parents stayed the whole first day . . . part of me wanted to think the Sarah wasn't ready for all this - but in reality it was me, who wasn't ready to let her go.

That afternoon, Kate and I ventured back to Imagine West Gilbert to get our kindergartner. What a wonderful experience. They really have the system down - a teacher with a walkie talkie walks past all the cars and reads the signs in our car windows (with the teachers and child's names) a few minutes later, here come Miss Yeagley holding Sarah's hand. She puts her in the car, buckles her in - if necessary - and off we go. Miss Yeagley gave me a thumbs up and said "It was a great first day!" [Whew!!!]

On the way home Sarah told me little bits about her day. Everything was fine at lunch. But one girl - Nimo said she HATED Sarah. My heart sank but then Sarah said "I just told her that was a rude thing to say and I'm going to play with someone else now." Oh my gosh, she really had been listening all those times we talked about how to respond when other people are rude or mean. Go Sarah!! I heard about Sy - who got in trouble a few times, and Jesse who thought Sarah looked pretty. She was also really excited to have PE and lunch with her friend Erika who she knows from preschool.

Wow, we survived day one. It was a great day!!





P.S. I must confess that I failed to charge the camera for this morning. Why would I - geez, the battery lasts like four months. Well, go figure it was down to ZERO when I wanted to take pictures of Sarah making her debut from her room. Panic set in at the thought of missing these pictures. But as bad as it may be for the life of the battery, I managed to charge it for 15 minutes while Sarah had breakfast. It was enough to snap pictures all morning. Yay.

What is it with me and that camera???

Kate's First Play

It's a big day in Schultzville. Katherine Grace went to her first play (a huge milestone for a future rock star!) It was the Hans Christian Andersen version of The Little Mermaid, so Jeff and I spent much of the play explaining that Ursula would not be making an appearance. Being a traditional fairy tale there was also the looming threat that Arabelle (the starring mermaid) would DROP DEAD!!! Fortunately Kate missed that each time it was mentioned - whew, major freak out averted.
Both girls clapped and giggled and yelled at every opportunity. They got to dance on the ocean floor and take pictures in their tiaras and wands. To quote Sarah, Children's theater is "off the hook!" I'm not sure where she learned that . . . Sarah's favorite character was the villain, Willamina. Kate's was the pink mermaid - one of Arabelle's sisters. My favorite part was when the kids got to meet the actors. Our little Kate is so cuddly and sweet all the actors wanted to hug her. They were calling her over. It was like one of those credit card commercials: Theater Tickets: $12, Wands and Tiaras $16, Seeing your child through the eyes of The Little Mermaid Cast - Priceless!!!