2nd and 5th!

We survived the first week of school, but just barely.  

Dude. 

Dylan spent all of last week at the Outer Banks with his best friend and his family.  They spent hours everyday tubing behind their boat, and swimming in their pool and at the beach.  He arrived back this past Monday.  I missed him so much!  We spent the whole Labor Day weekend at neighborhood BBQ's and at our pool, but it was just so strange only having Logan and not Dylan.  Dylan got back Monday afternoon and said he had a great time, and that his ear hurt a little bit.  Uh oh.   I had some swimmers ear drops on hand, so treated him with drops and sent him for the first day.

Well, by the 2nd day of school it was really hurting him quite a bit.  Took him to the doc the morning before the 3rd day of school only to find out double ear infection.  He stayed home that day (yesterday) since he couldn't even hear out of the left side.  I kept a heating pad on it, and he rested.  Last night, at midnight, he projectile vomited all over his bedroom ... FRUIT PUNCH.  Have you ever tried to shampoo splattered fruit punch vomit out of carpet in the middle of the night?  TWO HOURS later we all attempted to go back to sleep, but needless to say, Dylan missed another day of school today.  So he went two out of four days.  Ugh.

Regardless, the boys were both very excited to begin school.  Logan is attending a special classroom at a  nearby elementary school with a smaller classroom focused on teaching behavioral strategies.  He has made a new friend already, and is excited to be part of a brand new beautiful school. And this will be Dylan's final year in elementary school.   The workload will be a lot.. they really expect the kids to do quite a bit to be ready for middle school.  But he can handle it, and  he has such a great group of friends!

Here they are on their first day...

  2nd and 5th grades!!

Meet Me At the Sock Hop!

We look foward to our schools' spring dance every year. The kids run around like crazy, and we get to see a lot of our friends.  Its a win-win for everyone!

The teachers get way into it, too.  This is a 4th grade teacher dressed as Elvis!

 

Dylan's homeroom teacher, she is so wonderful!

 

Dylan and his friend S.  Dylan danced for three straight hours, he was so sweaty!

YMCA!

 

 

Logan goofing off with his friend N.

 

Dylan and his friend R

 

The guy in the "52" Ravens jersey is our incredible PE teacher, Mr. C.  Every year, he DJ's the event and hosts a dance off challenge between him and some students who sign up to show off their moves.  Its hysterical!

 

 

Such a great school, and a fun event!

Logan - Star of the Week

We finished off this busy week with another special occasion at school.  Each first grader is assigned a special week where they are Star of the Week.  It so happened this was Logan's week.  We spent last weekend making a special poster that showed all of Logan's favorites, and photos of his family and interests, and he got to take that to school this past Monday to hang up front of his class all week.

Today, we were invited to come and help Logan present his poster, read a story to his class, and help him present three clues to his classmates for his mystery item (his teddy bear).  Then Mom and I stayed to have lunch in the (extremely loud!!) cafeteria!

 

Its been a fun, crazy busy week and boy, am I looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday next week. Five days to sleep in!  We'll be heading to Grandma Bobbies and Grandpa Joes for part of the break and meeting up with Uncle Chris, Aunt Jessica and Josh and Maya.

The Virginia Fair

In 4th grade, much of the curriculum focuses on the state of Virginia.  Dylan has been learning the regions of Virginia, the history of Colonial VA, and famous people from Virginia. About a month ago, he selected a topic to research and focus on, knowing he'd have to do some projects surrounding his topic.  He chose Thomas Jefferson.

It all came to a crescendo this week during American Education Week, as the kids finished their projects for display and participated in the Virginia Fair.  The VA Fair at our school is both an exhibit and a show. And in Dylan's case, he made a video with the iPad as well.

Last night was the big show, and he dressed as Thomas Jefferson, tooted his recorder, danced some Colonial dances and sang songs with all of the 4th grade.  He's been very excited, and it went off without a hitch.  Great job, 4th grade.  Way to go Dylan!

One of the projects was to make a collage in the shape of Virginia with all things Thomas Jefferson. Dylan's teacher liked his so much she's keeping it for a sample for next years' 4th graders.

 



 

Grandma is checking out his movie..

Dylan and his teacher, Miss Dardine

 



 

 

 

 

 

AEW in 1st grade!

This week is American Education Week and most schools all over have lots and lots of stuff going on.  Our school is no different, they really whoop it up and everyday a different grade is featured, inviting parents to come in the fun. They also have a book fair all week long, for parents to do some early holiday shopping.  Every day the kids are supposed to wear a different school color as well, so today was 'red' day.

Today we got to go and enjoy seeing Logan in his class.  We spent an hour making Thanksgiving arts and crafts, then watched a slideshow and then we surprised him by bring Subway to eat with him in the cafeteria. We finished off the special day with a walk thru the book fair where he picked a couple new books out.

Dylan's big day for AEW is Thursday. The 4th grade has been preparing all year for the Virginia Fair where all the kids dress in Colonial costumes and give a performace.  His character is Thomas Jefferson, so we made a TJ collage in the shape of the state of VA, and he made a TJ movie on the iPad at school we'll get to see Thursday.  We'll also get to stay and have lunch with him that day, and he's requested we bring Thai food.

Finally on Friday, we're invited to school one more time to be in Logan's class since he is also Star of the Week.  We made a big poster this weekend about his life and all his favorites.  Friday we'll get to read a story to his class, and he'll get to present his poster and have his classmates guess what his "mystery item" is (which we still haven't chosen at home...gotta get on that).

Busy week, but so great to see how much the kids are learning at school and see them in action!  I truly love our school.  Its such a friendly, warm, inviting place to be.

 

 

 

 

this, that and the other

So it seems the bloggie keeps falling to the bottom of the list each week and I'm not keeping up very well.  So many balls, so little time. The thing is, there's no such thing as a quick blog post.  Its just impossible to keep up with it all between volunteering, working, exercising, parenting, running a household, a flooding basement, yada, yada. But I do love to be able to post photos here, and be able to talk about what's going on in our little circus.

So, it might not be as frequent but when I do post I promise to try and make it nice and meaty.

Last weekend, we enjoyed a glorious kid-free weekend vineyard celebration for a dear friend's 40th birthday celebration.   We drove about an hour west of here, and visited Valerie Hill Vineyard for an afternoon picnic.  Perfect weather, nice music, great company.   And then it was onto the gorgeous Inn at Vaucluse Spring nearby for a few rounds of bocce and a fancy pants dinner celebration.  Exceptional day/evening!

The birthday girl..

And our other dear friends from Jersey Baby...

 

Ahhh, nothing like spending hours and hours of uninterrupted time with some of your besties!

 

School continues to go very well for the boys, one month in.  I'm proud of how well they've adjusted to the fall routine and all the homework that keeps building.  We had a few challenging days, but I made a homework chart and a prize basket.  Logan has a special prize basket at school and he gets to choose little trinkets on good days when he gets work done, and keeps his hands to himself.  I figured if this could motivate him at school, it would motivate him at home to get homework done. So far, so good!   Here is the chartand he has to earn a sticker in each column each day to then be able to choose a prize from the prize basket.  It might seem like 1st grade homework would take five minutes, but its spelling, math and reading every day after already being at school for 7 hours and being exhausted.  It takes some junk to keep him motivated!

 

 

 

He does get extra help at school with handwriting (OT) and speech therapy, and he also is able to leave the class with the assistant teacher for testing and other times of the day when being in a smaller group helps him focus better. He also has a special "break pass" he can raise when he feels he needs a break from doing work, and the assistant teacher gives him time to read a book, or play an iPad for a few minutes until he's ready to re-join. I already have a nice dialogue going with his teachers, and feel so fortunate his teachers seem to 'get' him and are willing to do so many extra things to make his days successful. Here is a chart Logan brought home today that shows what a great week he had...

 

Logan also saw his sleep doctor this week. We've been continuing to monitor his ferritin levels, which I've talked about here, here, and here.  All summer we visited several specialists, including a hematologist and a geneticist at Children's National Medical Center to try and help us determine why, despite being on iron supplements, his ferritin continues to be so low. No one has been able to find any reason, and we continue to hear him toss and turn every night.  Poor guy.  We've had four blood draws since May and his ferritin is very slowly rising, so it just might take a while to get to the ideal 80 - 120 range the doctor says will stop his PLMD.  His ferritin was 19, then 21, then 24, then 32 and now most recently this week, 34.  So we're heading in the right direction, at least. I feel so strongly his restless sleep is closely related to the behavioral and attention issues he has. As he gets older, some things have improved with maturity and yet, I still feel we have a ways to go.

 

He's my little monkey man, with a smile that lights up a whole room.

 

 

Dylan is just having a stellar year so far, and his teacher is outstanding as well.  The big project of 4th grade is the Virginia Fair.  The kids study the complete history of Virginia all year, and it all culminates in a big performance during American Education Week in November.  Each child has chosen a topic (Dylan's topic is either Thomas Jefferson, or a blacksmith or silversmith..we'll find out next week), and they have to dress the part for the big performance.  Its quite the affair at our school, and by the time its all over he'll be able to tell us everything we wanted to know about Virginia.  I'm secretly hoping he lands the Thomas Jefferson topic, since we bought a dandy George Washington costume for the 3rd grade Wax Museum last spring.  It would be perfect!

 

He's been enjoying his new Scout troop as a Webelo, with several of this buddies from school.  I wish I had a photo of how handsome he looks in his uniform. Next time. What I do know is that he and Andrew and leaving for their first Scout camping trip in two hours, for the next two days.  They'll spend tomorrow doing archery, first aid, shooting bb guns, skits, fire building, cooking, and doing all the stuff boys love.

 

His other love right now, a video game called Minecraft.  He got way into it over the summer and its one of those things where you build your own universe, so its never-ending.  Its not violent.  But its totally capable of sucking the hours out of young boys' days all over America.

 

 



 

 

 



Happy New Year!

This past Monday, a whole new year began.  I always feel like the beginning of school is truly the start of a New Year, not January 1st.   Its a whole new routine, lots of new things starting at once, and tons of schedule changes. 

Its the beginning of for the first time in 10 years, having 7 hours of house to myself.  Wow, has that been a wonderful, wonderful thing.  I've started exercising again, volunteering at school, meeting with my business partner to plan our pursuit of new clients, meeting friends for lunch, going on day dates with Andrew, reading, and the usual errands/cooking/cleaning and managing of our family social calendar.  Its a glorious 7 hours of quiet time to think, relax, and get sh*t done around this joint.  Calling doctors back and having uninterrupted conversations, cleaning out some closets, planting flowers...  the type of stuff that just can't get done during summer months with two kids in the house 24/7.

The boys get home at 2:45 daily and then I switch to mom-mode.  Homework, after school activities, play dates and such.   Between taekwondo (Logan) and Webelos (Dylan), we have plenty on our calendar right now and I'm glad I didn't sign the boys up for any other fall sports.  Logan wants to join the track/running program after school twice a week so we may add that in.  If he does it, there will be a 5K fun run in early December to end the season and I plan to participate with him (!!).

I have to say, the first week of school went exceptionally smoothly.  No one had a melt down, the boys love their teachers and have plenty of friends on the bus, in their classes, at lunch and at recess.   Homework has been very minimal so far. I'm sure once that hits full force I'll be breaking out the wine.  But so far, so good!

Here are my handsome boys the morning of the first day of school - August 27th 2012, Dylan age 9 1/2 and Logan age 6.

brand new year

The boys went to our school open house today and met their teachers for 1st and 4th grade.  Amazing to me, we have kids this "old".  Having them both in school full day this year will be a whole new world... getting everyone on the bus by 7:25 am and having a full 7 hours with no kids.  I can't even imagine what that's going to feel like. 

I have big plans .... exercise, marketing work, housework, volunteering at school, various appointments, errands, meeting friends for lunch.  I'm sure the 7 hours will go by more quickly than I realize.

The first couple of weeks, as we all ease back into the daily grind will be an adjustment, but I think we're all ready for the structured routine fall brings. Did I mention 7 hours of peaceful, kid-free time?  Five days a week? 

Come 2:45 pm each day, I'll be switching back to 'mom' mode for homework (Dylan's teacher joked today and told him has 'only' has two hours of homework a night in 4th grade, ha!), and extracurricular activity mode.   Logan will continue to do taekwondo two evenings a week, and Dylan will continue with Scouts.  I think later in the fall we might add after school golf for Logan, and then basketball in the winter.    I may need an ice coffee everyday around 2:30 to get me thru the busy evenings.

Logan will be enjoying recess on the 'big kids' playground this year, and going to school all day means adding lots of specials like art, P.E. three times a week, music twice a week, library time and of course, eating lunch at school.  He will have most subjects in his 'homeroom' and then switch out for two hours each morning for Language Arts with another phenomenal teacher, Mrs. M.  I know he's going to be exhausted the first few weeks, which is why we didn't heavy up on new fall sports for him.  We need to ease into it all...

Dylan already knows at least half of the kids in his class, and its a very nice group of boys and girls.  I'm so excited he has these kids in his class, and in 4th grade they switch out for social studies and sometimes for reading.  His favorite subject is science. And one of his very best friends, Nathanial, is in his class this year and is such a nice boy.  I'm thrilled they're together.  He'll be joining a new Scout troop this year, along with his two best friends Nathanial and Jack.  And they all know several of the boys in the troop who are also in 4th grade at their school.  Lots of fun fall scouting activities to anticipate including a camping weekend in late September.

I'm so excited for all a new school year brings - all the boys will learn, friends, school events, the change of the seasons....  Its going to be a great year!

Logan, 1st grade, Mrs. D and Ms. H

 

Dylan, 4th grade, Ms. D

 

 

first day/last day

Well, today Dylan got on the bus for the last time as a third grader. In a little bit, Logan will step onto the bus for his last journey to kindergarten.  How did the year fly by so fast?  And yet it seems like SO much happened in this last school year.  I get sentimental as these milestones come upon us.

The things they've learned this year, wow!  All the friends they've made, books they've read, field trips, life lessons, and all the fun.  I try to make sure I remind the boys often how lucky they are to live here and be a part of such a friendly, loving and supportive school.

Today I'll have a few more hours of peace and quiet, and then summer vacation will officially arrive with all its splishy splashy sticky promises.  Popsicles, swim team, movies, playdates, Slip-n-Slides, ice cream, visits with Grandma and Grampa, picnics at the pool, trips to the beach, putt putt golf, books to read, games to play, camps, parties, and sometimes in August, we'll print off the list of school supplies and get them ready for school again.

Here is Dylan on the first day of third grade last fall:

And here he is yesterday at his end of  year party (same shirt, ha!!) with his lovely teacher Ms. W:

 

Logan on the first day:

And yesterday at his end of year party with his wonderful teacher Mrs. H.:

Both boys are already excited for fall, going into 4th and 1st grade.  It will a big transition for Logan, going from half day kindergarten to full day first grade.  I so enjoyed the teachers they both had this year, and being at school to help when I could.  I'm thankful for all the new friends we all made this year, and I'm so proud of all my kids accomplished.

And now I'm ready to make the most of the summer together, so when fall approaches we'll know we did all we wanted to do, and then some!

my little plant is growing

The cutest ever kindergarten show last night!  Logan has been keeping the songs a secret and all the kids have been working really hard to memorize songs about gardening, planting and growing.   A fitting theme for the final month of their kindergarten journey.

Its just so amazing to watch your childs' journey as they develop and grow.   I'm so proud of you, buddy!

Thanks for coming to my special show last night, Grandma and Grandpa!  It was even better with you guys there!