The Bona Fide First Grader

I can hardly believe it myself. Miss Doodle started first grade last week. The proof is in the pudding photos*:

If you are thinking that the entryway looks different from last year's first day photo, then you would be correct. I made a difficult decision. One which, at the moment, I'm not so sure was the right choice. I switched her to a closer school. This saves forty minutes of driving each day.** Which is great for me since I don't like driving. And I know it will be especially nice once the snow starts flying, but the adjustment hasn't been the easiest. I had hoped for the best, but it isn't going exactly the way I had expected. It turns out the curriculum at the new school is slightly different and there are different characters that she needs to learn. So we've been working hard to try and get her caught up.

I've got my fingers crossed (yet again) that she'll be able to, not only catch up, but also thrive at this new school. And the sooner the better, because the Regime is upset. I think he might want me to put her back in the other school, or worse, to quit Chinese immersion all together.

*And our tired eyes. We aren't morning people over here. It's seriously gonna take some time to get adjusted to our new routine.

**I love our house and neighborhood. But sometimes I wonder if we rushed that decision. Maybe we should have rented a place near the previous school until we could find a house in our price range out that way. Ugh. Too late for that now.

Our Summer Whirlwind

I'm still in disbelief that our summer vacation is over. We had a wonderfully fun and relaxing summer. I loved every day of it and I was very sad when it had to come to an end. I love spending time with my girls and doing fun activities with them, so adjusting to the school routine, and Miss Doodle's absence has been hard.

The following is a quick photo recap of our summer.*

We made it to the MN Zoo. It's fun to act like animals there.

We made some wonderful new friends over the summer. We met at the splash pad and hit it off right from the start. We stayed in touch and made a habit of going to Library Storytime with them. Here's Miss Doodle with the Big Bad Wolf:

The pictures below are from the end of season T-Ball picnic. They all got trophies, a pink flamingo statue (their mascot), and necklaces with their team number and name engraved on them.

We got to take a trip, with good friends, to Como Zoo. We've known these friends for five years. So they have grown up together. We have lots of happy play date memories from years past. And it's fun to stay connected. (Thanks again, Lisa & Shannon!)

We visited my dear friend, Mary Jane, at her workplace. She made us some delicious drinks. Hot chocolates for the girls, and a Caramel Macchiato for me. Yum, yum. She's the best barista ever, in my opinion. (Thanks again, Mary Jane!)

It's also nice to have friends who live in a condo with a pool. Especially when they invite you over to go swimming! (Thanks again, Danielle!)

This sunglasses shot was taken after we went swimming at Elm Creek Swimming Pond. Also known as the "fake lake." We didn't get up there as much as I had hoped, but the two times we went were lots of fun.

We helped one of Bug's friends celebrate her third birthday by going with them to the MN Children's Museum. We all had a blast. (Thanks for inviting us along, Anne!)

There were many bike trips up to our local playground. I'm glad I finally remembered to bring the camera along.

Bug mastered sliding down the pole this summer.

Miss Doodle took a swimming camp at Foss. Her swimming skills improved dramatically. I was very impressed. Here she is learning to float:

The Regime took Monday, August 29th off so that we could enjoy a day at the MN State Fair. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for the fair. We made sure to stick to our traditions. Visiting the barns, riding rides at the Kidway, the Giant Slide, Little Farm Hands, visiting the Art Building, a little shopping at the International Bazaar (the girls bought fans, again), and the Space Tower. And, yes, of course, we enjoyed lots of delicious food along the way.

The following pictures were taken on August 31, 2011. It was our Big City Adventure day. We started at the Sculpture Garden, and then crossed the bridge to play at Loring Park, but we didn't stop there. Nope. We walked to Nicollet Mall and explored all along the way there and back. It was unforgettable. I felt like a tourist in the city next door. (Thanks again, Dawn!)

Miss Doodle took lots of pictures along the way. Including this one, which I love:

*And that was just a small sampling of our summer fun. There were many times when I forgot to get the camera out. Like when we visited the local Aquatic Center, and splash pads. Or when we went to a drive-in movie, visited our old neighbor Helen, had fun at the Penny Carnival, went to a parade, saw fireworks, rode rides at Nickelodeon Universe, picked raspberries, saw Bill the Juggler at the library, played with friends at Adventure Peak, saw a play at Stages, enjoyed an outdoor concert, went to a T-ball pool party, and visited Grandma & Grandpa. Phew! (No wonder the time flew by.) We also slept in. A lot. It was awesome. Some of the best days of my life and I'll never forget them.

Summer Road Trip, Last Leg

We had been so busy enjoying our time at the beach that I didn't make our hotel arrangements, for the trip home, before we left OBX. The other reason this task hadn't been accomplished was due to my holding out hope that we might be able to stay at my grandfather's house, free of charge, one more night. Going to his house would've simply changed our route slightly, but only added about fifteen minutes to the travel time. (In reality, probably, not really. We got stuck in traffic around D.C.) Too bad my holding out didn't work. The Regime was dead set on trying to get further down the road on that Friday, June 24, 2011.

I didn't really expect it to be a problem. They have lots of hotels along the Pennsylvania turnpike, right? So I thought this was just a little, and easily fixable oops. Sadly, I was wrong. It turned out to be a bigger problem than I had imagined.

My first clue to the severity of having no reservations was discovered, when we found a place with free Wi-Fi, after we got back into Virginia. The kids needed food, so they had some pizza at this stop, while I tried Priceline. Previously I had used Priceline to negotiate very cheap hotel rates. (And because it was so easy before I just assumed it would continue to be easy.) Regrettably, I tried and tried for an hour. And even when I tried bidding higher and higher I still had no luck, so we had no choice but to give up. We had already wasted an hour of precious daylight driving time.

By the time we got to the area where The Regime wanted to stop it was very late at night. Actually it had turned into very early Saturday morning. I got a travel brochure from one of the pit stops and tried calling all of the hotels in the area. There were no vacancies, at all. Turns out there aren't a lot of hotels along the Pennsylvania turnpike. And it was a Friday night during the busy summer traveling season. (On our way down we needed hotel stays on less busy Sunday and Monday nights. And previously we were staying in metropolitan areas, which have many hotel options, both times. But you know I didn't think of any of that until after the fact.)

Finally, around 2 am (with our eyes barely staying open) we decided that our only option was to pull off at one of the stops and sleep in the car. Which really was no problem for me and my husband, we are seasoned road trippers, but with the kids it was slightly more difficult.

I had Bug cuddled up on my lap so that I could lay my chair back. And Miss Doodle was actually the luckiest of the bunch. We were able to make a little bed for her on top of the suitcases and cooler that were filling up the side of the van. So we were able to get somewhat comfortable and fall into a deep sleep.

Unfortunately the sleep didn't last very long. I was awakened by, what felt like, a real life nightmare, the sound of retching around 4 a.m. I jumped up out of my sleep and took Miss Doodle into the bathroom, where she got sick some more. I washed her off at the sink the best I could. And I found her some clean clothes to change into. (Later the Regime admitted that he was totally out of it during this fiasco. He was amazed by my quick acting reflexes. I think being a mom gives you this skill.)

Then I went back to the car to clean up. I had to throw away a pillow. The rest of the stuff was bagged up in an effort to contain the grossness until we could get home to wash it all. I felt very lucky (and grateful) that the man in the convenience store was kind enough to give me a large, thick plastic bag, from under their counter, because they didn't sell any there.

After that we decided to continue on the road. I was groggy and feeling very nauseous so my husband drove until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. Lucky me, I got to take the wheel right before we entered the Chicago area's Saturday afternoon traffic madness. Despite being very tired and just plain ready to get out of the stinky car, I got us safely through to the north west suburbs. This is where we stopped for an early dinner and found another free internet connection so I could make a hotel reservation. We felt very fortunate to get a room at a deluxe Hyatt for only $50.

Here's Miss Doodle conked out as we drove through Chicago (I think this picture is a good representation of how we all felt at this point):

We had driven long enough so that we'd be able to check-into the hotel. It was heavenly to get in there and get Miss Doodle into the shower. The beds were also wonderful. After sleeping in the car they felt like the most comfortable beds on the planet. Of course the girls had been sleeping in the car on and off all night and day so they had plenty more energy than me and the Regime. Yet we still went to sleep very early, the Regime was out like a light way before the rest of us. And I dozed off while the girls watched a game show on tv before finally hitting the hay.

In the morning, before checking out, me and the girls loved relaxing in the hot tub and swimming in the pool. After that we packed up and headed back out on to the road. Wisconsin feels like it lasts forever,* but we eventually made it home. We unpacked and got the puked on stuff into the washing machine. Dorothy is right, "there's no place like home."

*Stopping for some delicious Dunkin' Donuts one last time, was the highlight there. Too bad they don't have any shops in Minnesota.

Summer Road Trip, Part Two

When I found out that we would be taking a summer trip to the East Coast for my sister's wedding, I automatically hoped we would also make it to the beach. In Minnesota, everyone seems to go to the cabin on the lake, up north, for their family summer vacations. Where I'm from everyone goes to the beach! So I grew up taking summer trips to places like Virginia Beach and Myrtle Beach. And even after I moved to Minnesota I was still lucky enough to go every summer up until I was eighteen.* So every year that I don't get to the beach I know I'm missing out. Of course, I no longer take these trips for granted, as I once did. I soak up every minute, wishing the vacation would never end, whenever I am at the beach.

We hadn't taken a beach vacation (or any real vacation, for that matter) for three years.** You might remember our last vacation at the beach was when Bug was just a baby. So I think going to Kill Devil Hills in OBX was very well deserved.

Fortunately, my brother and his family, my sister and her two youngest children, my mom, and my youngest sister were all able to join us in North Carolina. I was so glad my kids got to spend some time with their cousins, aunts, uncle, and grammy. Too bad it can't happen more often!

One of the (many) things we really loved to do was walk on the beach as the sun was setting. As it gets darker, it's fun to try and spot all of the sand crabs running around on the beach. (We even saw people with nets and flashlights grabbing them up.) We did our best to walk around all of the sea jellies that had washed up onto the shore. Most importantly these times were great for talking and finding seashells.

The following pictures were taken during our enjoyable evening strolls:












My youngest niece did a great job modeling her beautiful smile for the camera. We got a couple of new camera lenses before we left. (Our original lens was broken, and I wanted another fun one to play with.) So I started learning how to use the 50 mm lens with her as my subject. I think I got some really fun shots with it.





And this next one (below) is my favorite. If you look at it closely you can see just how clear it is. (And I didn't do any editing. The lighting was just that good.) Doesn't she have beautiful eyes?!



I didn't get as many photos on the beach during the day because it's hard to bring the camera to the beach when you are going swimming and digging in the sand. I was worried about damaging the camera or new lenses with sand or salt water. So I only brought it on our last day at the beach, but as you can see from the pictures below, we had a lot of fun in the sun! Every day of our vacation was spent at the beach swimming, collecting shells, building sand castles, and riding the waves.


If you look closely at this picture of Miss Doodle you will notice something missing from her smile. It was pretty exciting for her to lose her first tooth while we were at the beach.:






Before we headed out on our long, arduous journey home, we had to take a few more family shots:




So we left the beach, sad to say goodbye, but happy as clams knowing that we'd had such a wonderful trip, with no hiccups. I was very anxious that something awful would happen on our trip. After all when you aren't in your safety zone, everything feels too risky. Car accidents, sunburns, drownings, shark attacks, bed bugs, getting sick, all of these feel like they could be one misstep away. Little did I know, the hiccup was yet to come. Dun, dun, duuuun!

To be continued....



*My dad still had custody rights, so my brother and I would go home to visit him for a few weeks each summer. And he always took us to the beach during our visits.

**I did go, by myself with Bug, to visit Maryland, when my brother and his wife had their first child. And I went to Virginia two years ago, by myself with the girls in tow, when my grandpa passed away. But neither of those really count as a vacation, in my opinion.