May 10, 2017

May!

Drawing fish was an important thing for awhile.  These were courtesy of Benjamin.

As I mentioned earlier, we had to miss Charlotte and Claire's birthday party.  We visited Claire after the fact to bring her birthday gift to her.  These pictures are backwards, but this girl knows what to do with a Duplo cupcake!


She is super cute, right?


Hopefully the out-of-order pictures help you to use your imagination.  Sigh!

Mohawks were also a very important thing in May.  And a team effort.  These kids cracked me up!


She just needed to pose like this.  And my mom made her this skirt out of a curtain.  Really!

The fire department visited the kindergarten, and another mom sent me this picture.  So fun!

So, this was the main part of May for me.  One evening, when I was sitting at swim practice with Jonathan - he had finished his hour and the youngers were swimming for their hour - I noticed some specks in Jonathan's hair.  Upon looking more closely, I found what you already suspect:  head lice.  I was APPALLED.  I made some calls/text to teachers from both schools and found out whether the kids would need to miss school after I treated them.  (They wouldn't.)  Of course, I found the head lice in the evening, and of course, Jeff was out of town.  I found them on Benjamin (although less on him than on Jonathan) and none on Grace, but of course, I had to treat everyone - all of us - as if we had lice.  We stopped by the drug store on the way home to get what you see in the photo above, and also my teacher friend, Kim, share what she had with us.  We spent a late evening treating all four of us.  If you've ever read about the life cycles of lice, you know that I had to treat and retreat and retreat for the rest of the month, whether I found more evidence of critters or not, because the chemicals do not kill the eggs.  It was just awful.  I was super careful about making sure that we wouldn't be re-infected by bedding, pillows, etc.  And although I'm confident I eradicated the disgusting lice, my head itches to this day (and I am blogging this in October.)  I should note that Jonathan had been scratching his head for weeks before this, and I kept looking for a cause but couldn't find it...until that fateful night at swim practice.  It's hard for me to express what a level of stress this added to an already stressful month.  I'm so thankful it's over, but I still have what seems to be PTSD because I still itch.  And I can't find any reason for it.

On to happier news...
We had decided a year or two ago to get a new entertainment center, and we had set the money aside to do it...so we finally did it.  Our armoire that we got out of the newspaper want ads had served us well for something like 15+ years and is now in a happy home elsewhere.  Here's how the new piece looked as it was delivered.  Note the couches that have sheets over them to prevent possible spread of disgusting lice.  I was extra cautious.


Time to hook things up!

He was just making a suggestion.

And here he is drawing the fish from the beginning of the post!

May 6, 2017

Field Trip Day

Sometimes, all the things happen at the same time, and this seemed to be the case for a lot of May!  These pictures are from a day when Jonathan and Benjamin both had field trips.  Thankfully, I could go with Benjamin, and Jeff could go with Jonathan.  The pictures from the trips will be all mixed together.

I found out that these kindergarten mamas also graduated from high school the same year that I did.  It was a fun discovery since I figured I was the oldest kindergarten mom.  I wasn't quite right - all three of us were the oldest!

Grace was the only one at school on this day.

Here is Jonathan's class on its field trip.





I loved that Jeff and Jonathan had this time together.

Jonathan's teacher was about to retire, and I think it was special that they took this one last trip together.

Jeff was very thirsty.

And here they are getting ready to go on the trip.  Thank you, Blogger, for re-ordering my pictures.


Benjamin and I went on a fun trip to a little amusement park with the entire kindergarten.


The kids had a really fun time!


And I loved being there.  Again, I was only in charge of two boys, so it was an easy day.




Benjamin and I made a quick stop at IKEA on the way home and still got to school in time to get Grace!  We were pretty proud of ourselves, and we had a great day.

May 1, 2017

A Few Last Pics of April

My girl did a hero report on Gabby Douglas and wanted to dress as Gabby.  Of course, I had *just* donated her long-sleeved leotard because Grace said it was uncomfortable, and Grace "needed" a long-sleeved leotard to be Gabby.  My mom came to the rescue!

This day really struck me.


I can't remember why he needed to wear my giant hat, but he always adds laughter to my days!

I haven't posted "sleeping baby" pics in a long time, so here are a couple...


because the oldest baby was not asleep yet!

Here we are on a special day...the kindergarten field trip to the zoo!

This crew had to consult the map and make plans!


Chaperoning was a breeze with only two boys in my "group."

The day wore Benjamin out.  He rode there on the bus, which was exciting, but he rode home from the zoo with me.  A great arrangement.

Although I wasn't ready for it, Benjamin assured me that it was time to let another family enjoy our beloved play kitchen and amazing collection of food and kitchenware.  We were sad to see it go, but very happy about the family that provided its new home.  Benjamin kept the pancake set a little longer than the play kitchen because he wanted to play with it fora little longer.

My super hero gave himself a mohawk.