Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Friday, June 25, 2010

What to do, what to do?

I asked the girls to make me lists of what they'd like to do this summer.  The Bean is a born list maker; she even color-coded it, until she forgot to. 
[Bean]'s 25 and more Things to do in the Summer

List key:  sentence color = gray, activity color = red

B   1.  Go to the arcade
      2.  Go out for ice cream
E   3.  Have a playdate
     4.  Play outside
     5.  Pack up for our Big Trip
H  6.  Go to a playground
      7.  Eat outside
A   8.  Catch bugs in bugnets
      9.  Play in the sandbox
P   10.  Make strawberry rhubarb ice cream and pie
     11.  Go in the sprinkler
P   12.  Go to the pond
     13.  Play dressup
Y   14.  Pick vegetables
     15.  Go hiking in the woods
!    16.  Go on a scavenger hunt
     17.  Go crazy
     18.  Decorate bycicles
     19.  Ride bycidles
     20.  Be an artist
     21.  Go to the library
     22. Go to the movies
     23.  Camp at the beach
     24.  Go to state park
     25.  Make a Haunted House
     26.  Be wierd
     27.  Be a summerethemist

Peanut doesn't let little things like spelling hold her up. Read hers phonetically.

[Peanut]'s list of this samr ativades

1. spriklr
2. pond
3. ce krem
4. look for ranbows
5. tret from bin [we keep a "treat bin" of all the candy they get here and there]
6. see vokano
7. pik pees
8. eet berries
9. bisikls
10. hav fun!

Oddly, neither of them mentioned doing laundry or mowing the lawn.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Here's how short my wait, what?

So I open a tab in Firefox and start Pandora, then switch back to a previous tab and look at something else, and when the music starts I jump out of my skin because in the three seconds it takes Pandora to load, I've forgotten that I turned it on.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Missing: One month. Reward for safe return, no questions asked.

What the heck happened to June?!

There's always a mad rush of things to do at the end of the school year.  End-of-year concerts, recitals, plays.  Summer activities to be registered for and scheduled.  Teacher gifts and birthday presents to be bought or contributed to.

It does seem to be birthday season.  Two of the Bean's friends had slumber parties.  The first was smallish, just four girls invited.  They started around 4:00, had games, dinner, cake, presents, a movie, and went to bed around 10:00 - late for the Bean, but pretty good by slumber party standards.  Next day, they had breakfast and a late morning pick-up, at which the Bean was happy and tired.  It was a great first sleepover experience.  The second one, this past weekend, was for a classmate who invited all the girls in their class and a few more besides.  This was a pool party *and* sleepover, starting at noon, going till 8:30 the next day.  The Bean had a piano recital that afternoon, so had to join the festivities after the pool part was done (she was disappointed, but I was frankly relieved.  She can't swim yet - gah!! - and I don't feel I can leave her at a pool.).  Then it was arts and crafts time, then presents, dinner and cake, a movie that started around 9:30 PM, and who knows what else, but nobody was asleep until "between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning," the Bean reports.  At pick up the next day, her eyes were open but her demeanor trancelike.  Good times.  It's taking a couple days for her to get her sleeping groove back, but she definitely had fun.  I'm proud of her.  She's a bit younger than her classmates, and a classic introvert as well - despite loving her friends, I think sometimes she has to psych herself up for these things.

Ah, slumber parties.  A staple of girlhood I guess, though I don't remember any, myself.  I do remember having a friend sleep over in third or fourth grade, and that she freaked out and went home in the middle of the night. Sigh. 

The Peanut's social calendar has been densely filled as well.  There have been Disney character-themed parties, pinatas, face painting, bouncy houses, minor accidents, and birthday girl meltdowns galore (honestly, I think it's just too much for them sometimes).  Her favorite?  Being the only girl at a backyard Star Wars birthday party.  She's not seen the movies yet, but you'd never know it.  When I arrived to pick her up, she was executing some mad Jedi moves with an inflatable light saber.  Two little boys were "fighting" her, and she was whirling around between, keeping them both at bay.  The force is strong with that one.

And now here we are, already... tomorrow's the last day of school!  The Bean wants to go immediately from school to our awesome public library to sign up for their "go green"-themed Summer Reading program.  You know, to beat the rush.  Hee!  The force is strong with that one, too.