First Day of School 2011

Well this was it!  The long anticipated first day of school.  Not only Amerah's first day of school, but her first day as a fifth grader... her last year in elementary school! 

 Since I'm relatively new to the whole Mom thing, I try to gather ideas from other, more seasoned, parenting veterans.  I didn't have much for the first day of school besides make a special breakfast and take a photo.  Thank goodness some of my friends sent their kids back to school before me so I was able to see some fantastic things that they did and put my own twist on them. 

 

 

 

  After seeing a post from a friend of mine, who lives in Germany, I was excited to incorporate the German tradition of giving your children a schultuete (a cone filled with treats, school supplies, etc) into our family traditions.  According to google sources, the cones were originally just given to kids first starting out in school but it has become more common to give them to all children on the first day of school.

Amerah LOVED it!  She thought that it looked like a giant ice cream cone :-).  I filled it with very little candy (a couple airheads, tictacs and a couple packs of sugar free gum), a slim jim (which she loves), some hair do dads, cute mechanical pencils, erasers, glue sticks, a ruler, and a few other odds and ends.

I planned a fabulously bad-for-you breakfast of Monkey Bread... which was a total flop!  For the first time I decided to try to put it together the night before and then pop it in the oven in the morning.  FAIL.  It didn't work the way it usually does.  It looked okay on the outside...

But the inside was all dough and it stuck to the pan so I couldn't even get it out.  My husband and daughter sure are troopers though!  They picked out the pieces that were done and ate them.  I think we'll just do fruit and yogurt tomorrow morning!

We then proceeded to take the usual First Day of School photos... remind me to thank Dave for including my pot of what-was-supposed-to-be-flowers-but-ended-up-being-weeds in the photos.

 

 

 

Daddy got home from work in time to participate in the morning fun...  He wanted to go to school with her :-) ...

 

The poor kid had spent so much time anticipating her first day as a fifth grader that it was inevitable.  Standing at the door, ready to go, she turned to me and told me that her stomach hurt.  I suggested that maybe she was a little nervous or a little excited.  She agreed that she was both.  I think that the following picture says it all.  You can see it in her face.

Thank heavens she was all smiles when she came home!

I love these days.  I love having a fifth grader.  I love that she came home, perched on the arm of my chair and spent at least half an hour regaling me with everything she had seen, heard, and done at school that day.  I cherish these moments when she wants to tell me "everything."  I hope that she will still do this when she is a teenager.

Happy first day as a fifth grader baby.  You are loved.  Monkey bread aside, I am calling this day a success.

My little tomboy

Yesterday was Labor Day and Dave and Amerah really wanted to go to the annual church Labor Day picnic at Heritage Park in Canton.  I thought that it would be a good opportunity to get out of the house since Dave was there to drive so I wouldn't be likely to get stuck somewhere again.  This time I was smart and took my walker (even though I loathe having to use it).  We stayed for a couple hours, until Dave had to get back to work, and all in all had a really nice day.  I didn't hurt too much afterward, which made me happy, but I hurt A LOT today, which I'm not sure is connected.  Ahh well...

So, I didn't take many pics but thought I'd share a few.

While all the other little girls were getting their faces painted with hearts and flowers... MY child comes back with this...

Yep... we don't want no stinkin' lovey dovey stuff here...

 

yup, Dave was there too...

And I'm adding a photo of my friend Lucy Mericle, not only because she has a great last name... but because she looked like autumn personified and it made me happy.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Dear September:

Dear September,

You have failed me.  Two days in a row of scorching hot weather is not how I envisioned our relationship.  You were supposed to bring cool, crisp, autumn days, cozy blankets to cuddle in, hot apple cider... well I think you get the picture...

Instead we did THIS today....

Or... well... Amerah did this.  I sat outside at the picnic table until I couldn't stand the heat anymore. Altogether not so enjoyable for me.

 

 

 

Lily was very jealous and desperately wanted to go swimming too - even though she's never been so she has no idea what it it like...

Amerah won that battle...

Lily gave up and went to lie in the shade... I haven't been outside much due to my injury... I'm thinking that the grass needs to be mowed since my photos of Lily look like she's in a jungle somewhere!

 

Since Dave was working, Amerah and I had somewhat of a Girl's Night... although I didn't do her craft with her...  She came up with this idea for a tin can on her own haha...

 

Since Dave wasn't here to complain, and Shawn was sleeping, Amerah and I had a crazy dinner.  Dinner was comprised of whatever sounded good at the time :-)  So we had broccoli with cheese, raw almonds, cottage cheese, croissants with ham and cheese baked in them, olives, and blueberry muffins... yeah I know... but there WAS broccoli there!

We ended the night by reading from the Adventures of Frog and Toad and Amerah and Lily cuddled and loved on each other.

 

All in all not too bad a day.

On a side note... the bunny is getting big!

 

Sweet dreams all, it is past my bedtime...

This and that...

So it's been about a week since I wrote anything... see folks, I TOLD you that the novelty would wear off eventually! 

This week has not been very eventful, unless you count the nasty case of cabin fever I came down with in the last few days!  Amerah starts school on September 6th and her birthday is September 11th, so I have been making plans for both as best I can from my comfy seat in the Lazy Boy. 

Lily turned the couch into her own personal Lazy Boy...

I had my first appointment with physical therapy on Monday.  It went well, I didn't feel too sore afterward so I talked Dave into taking me grocery shopping at Walmart for the first time since I fell, thinking that I'd be okay just riding around in one of those old lady carts.  Not the brightest idea I've ever had.  I was able to get some things that I needed to buy for Amerah, and Dave learned that grocery lists are meant to be read BETWEEN the lines :-) ... but BOY DID I HURT!  I came home and spent the rest of the day hurting.  Dang it.

As for the rest of the week...

Amerah and I played with playdough...

She made a Rubik's Cube for Shawn:

and Ice cream that she pretended to eat...

I made a girl that Amerah insists looks EXACTLY like her :-)

I finished my supermom project: making a "Back to School" banner to hang on the mantle... and I must say that it looks super cute ON the mantle... too bad it doesn't show up well in photos.

So here are some close ups...

In preparation for the start of a new school year, I've also been working on getting both Amerah and I to bed earlier and up earlier.  That's been going fairly well until tonight :-(  It's even worked for Dave (I'm sure that his willingness to go to bed early had nothing at all to do with the fact that he's had early morning report times for work lol).  So, it is currently 1:27 AM.  Dave is snoring away in our bedroom.  Amerah is sprawled out, sound asleep in her bed.  I am wide awake and writing a blog.  Sigh. 

Perhaps it is the insane amount of crap that is racing around inside my brain.  I am getting frustrated with my limitations.  I hate being cooped up in the house all the time.  I hate hurting all the time.  I hate not being able to do half the things I used to do.  I'm worried about Amerah's birthday party and everything I need to do for that.  I'm worried about Dave's blood pressure which is way too high right now (I have to call the doctor in the morning).  I'm worried about Flopsy and the fact that she is at least 5 weeks old now and showing absolutely no signs of wanting to be weaned (even though she is eating grass like crazy and drinking water).  I'm worried about releasing her, even though I know that it's best for her, I worry that she won't acclimate right away and that she will be terrified out on her own.

Like I said.  Too much on the brain right now.  I guess I'd better try to sleep again.  Physical therapy again in the morning.  Good night moon.