First Day

Well, today was the first day of school for Nina, and she did awesome.  I was really proud of her.  She kept up with the adjusted routine this morning (that included lunch starting at 10:40 am), and we were all set a little early today so I could take some pictures and be ready to meet the bus at 11:18.  After going back and forth about what to do about walking Nina in on the first day or letting her ride the bus, we settled on letting her ride the bus.  Since she said she wanted to, we thought it would be easier to make the break there at the bus stop versus outside the classroom.  Since her bus only has a few kindergarteners on it, she’ll ride the bus to school each day, and Lyla and I will pick her up at school each afternoon.  I thought it might be a little hard today when her friends, twin sisters who live two houses down, came out to the bus stop also, but they were getting on the bus to go to the neighborhood school, and Nina was getting on a different bus to go to the overflow school.  However, she was very brave, did great, and I was super proud of her.  Lyla did cry some big tears and was very sad to see Nina drive off in the bus, but she was very excited when it came time to go pick up Nina at the end of the day.

Nina gave a good report on her first day.  She does like her teacher and said today was a little boring, and there are too many boys in her class (as far as I know, there are only four girls in her class), but other than that, things were good.  She wore a special bracelet today to help her when she felt nervous or scared to remember that God is with her and we are thinking of her all day. When I asked if she had to look at her bracelet much today, she told me only a few times on the bus ride.  She gets out of school at 2:35, so we got home and had lots of time to play outside with friends, so it ended up being a very good day.  We’ll continue to get used to our new schedule and to Nina’s new school, but I’m really glad that the first day went well.

		Nina's First Day of School VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

A little interview with Nina before her first day.

Kindergarten

One of the “lessons” Mark and I felt like we tried to learn in our journey this year was to not get too worked up over little disappointments.  During our seven months of trying to figure out where we were going to go, and what we were going to do, many things came our way that got us excited then made us disappointed.  While not trying do pretend that little disappointments aren’t real – they are – we came to the realization that some disappointments just weren’t getting that jazzed up about. 

One disappointment that came out of our changing plans was that Nina can’t go to the elementary school in our neighborhood that we are zoned for.  In Loudoun County, when an elementary school meets capacity, they have chosen to send the “overflow” students to another school instead of putting pods or trailers on school property.  When kindergarten registration came around in the summer, we were nearly certain we’d be moving.  When plans changed and we decided to stay here, I went right over to the school to enroll Nina, but the school had already reached capacity, and I was told she would be going to an overflow school.

Last night I went to Back to School night for our overflow school, and I came home disappointed.  It’s not at all like the school in our neighborhood.  I came home sad and feeling a little confused about what we should do.  We are on a list to get back into our elementary school (it sounds like getting into a frat party instead of getting into your local public school), and if I homeschool her for the year, she’ll be removed from the list, and we’ll be in the same situation next year. 

I tell myself that thankfully it’s just 3 hours a day.  It’s just kindergarten.  We may even get the call to come back to our school sometime during the school year, and her teacher seems really nice, so maybe she’ll really like her school.  In the big picture, this will be a little disappointment – but, this is our first kid heading off to her first year of school, so it kind of feels like a big deal to us right now.

Today, Nina got to check out her new school, meet her teacher, and take a ride on the school bus.  She was pretty nervous about going today.  I was a lot more sad than I expected too.  I think it will be harder for me than I thought.  It will be hard for Lyla too.  She was upset today about Nina leaving us to go with her class.  But, we hope for a great year for Nina as she starts off her school career, and it will be good for Lyla and I to have some time together too. School starts on Monday…hard to believe.

Here are a few pictures of Nina at her orientation – meeting her teacher (on the left) and the teacher assistant, riding the bus for the first time, and sitting out in front of her school.

            

Smore Fun

After dinner yesterday, we wheeled the fire pit into the front driveway, set up some chairs, invited some neighbors down, and had some good old smore fun.  Now that some evenings are crisp and coolish, they’re great night for letting the kids run and play together while the adults hang out around the fire.  As always, the smore part of the evening was a blast for the kids.

After getting their fill of smores, the kids decorated our driveway in chalk, then took off to the backyard for some serious tag/chase/hide and seek time.  With the kids happily occupied, we adults enjoyed the time to hang out and talk.  We all decided that smore fun night needs to be a regular event this fall – for sure!

   

Strange, but Interesting

Early in the week (last week), my friend, Erin, shot me an email to say that she went to our local Cox Farms website - the location of our favorite fall festival - and saw Nina, Lyla, and Mark on the Fall Festival homepage.  I clicked on the link to the fall festival and saw THIS.   That's when I did a double take and said, "Wait a minute. That's my picture!!"  You may remember it from last year's post when we went to Cox Farms.  Mark hadn't left for work yet that morning, so I called him over and showed him.  That prompted him to call Cox Farms.  We weren't mad about the picture being there, it's great to see the Simpson fam. on the website, but we were wondering how/why they used my picture without telling me. 

Anyway, long story short, because I did a Picasa Web Album for the pictures, and Picasa is a Google program, when the website person did a Google Image search for Cox Farms Photos, my picture came up in the selections.  He chose it for their site, and never clicked the properties to see the origin of the picture (to get permission to use it). 

When they realized what happened, they were very apologetic and offered to take the picture down.  No need we said.  We love Cox Farms.  We go there every year in the fall.  Our kids have a blast at the Fall Festival.  They threw four free passes to the farm our way (for the Fall Festival) and gave me credit for the photo.  Sounds good to us!  You'll see a post from us this fall when we head to the festival, but from now until the end of fall, everyone will be seeing Mark, Nina, and Lyla having a great time on the website! 

Follow That Truck!

I think I’ve glimpsed my future, and it looks something like this.  Forget all the years of work and study to earn a master’s degree in education, forget all those poor kids who need to learn English, forget trying to improve the world one kid at a time…I’m going to drive an ice cream truck.  Yesterday at the pool, we heard the happy, beachy tunes approaching long before we even saw it.  It was as if on cue, all the kids’ heads perk up, the screaming and squealing in the water almost stops (as if just to be sure they really hear what they think they hear), and then all eyes dart to the adult they came with in almost a panic of, “I hope Mom brought money and lets me use it for ice cream” then the minute the truck pulls into the pool parking lot, the kids empty the pool, grab their money, and literally go running in a pack to get the ice cream. 

The only kid left in the pool (I’m not kidding) was Nina.  She’s still in the pool because she probably knows there’s no chance her mom brings money to the pool like all the other moms (she’s right), and Lyla looks over at me and said, “Nina looks so lonely.  She’s the only one in the water.”

This leads me to think, there is an undeniable mystique about the ice cream truck. It’s the pied piper on wheels.  The selection may be so-so, and everything is over priced, but kids will run the distance just to catch the ice cream truck.  I remember as a kid, Shen and I running down the street in front of my great-grandmother’s house in Southern Maryland, barefoot, stubbing our toes as we ran, frantically trying to catch the ice cream truck just to get a little Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bar or occasionally a Choco Taco.

So, back to the scene at the pool.  The lifeguard calls break, and we’re getting ready to go home anyway, so we get out of the water and dried off to head home.  All the kids are coming back into the pool with their ice cream, and Nina and Lyla ask if they can have some.  I tell them that I didn’t bring any money with me, but feel the tiniest twinge of guilt because I know there’s just “something” about the ice cream truck that makes it special and fun.  So, as we’re walking out to the car, the truck is still there with it’s happy music playing, and Nina asks if we can drive home and get her allowance money then come back to the truck for ice cream, and I say yes.  We live a minute from the pool, so there’s a good chance it will still be there when we come back.

I get to the house, go in and get their money, then get back in the car, and Lyla shouts, “Follow That Truck!”  We put all the windows down in the car, listening for the music.  I figured we’d have some fun trying to track it down by listening for the happy music, and Nina remembers the direction she saw it take as it pulled out of the pool parking lot, so I follow her directions and play along.  I know the truck is probably long gone, but it’s not actually the ice cream that matters so much as the pursuit of the ice cream.  We never find it, but we do stumble upon a little lemonade stand and get out of the car (still in our bathing suits) and buy some lemonade from two little girls.  As with the ice cream truck, the lemonade isn’t what really gets anyone excited, it’s the fun of seeing the stand, standing out on the sidewalk and drinking warm lemonade, talking with other little girls, paying $.50 a cup, and getting back in the car to head home.  We never found the ice cream truck, but we tried. 

But don’t feel too bad for Nina and Lyla, they got to partake in some whoppie pies instead.  I made them for when my dad came over for dinner on Tuesday, and I happen to think they’re much better than ice cream anyway. 

Great and Great

Yesterday, the girls and I went along with Meg, Joshua, and Isaac to Great Country Farm for their weekly visit.  They’re members of the CSA there, so when they went to pick up their box of veggies, we went with and had a great time.  We brought lunch, and the kids played in the corn, swung on the ropes, went down the slides, saw the animals (including a goat with no ears – weird), and jumped on the bouncy pillow.  Here are some shots of the kids from the day.

Date Night

Mark owed Nina a date night from July, and she wasn’t going to let him forget it!  She was really excited to head out with her dad for a date tonight.  They went to Chick Fil-A for dinner then went putt putt golfing.  When they got home, they were telling me about the date.  Evidently, there was a group of boys golfing behind them, and a little someone was quite distracted watching the boys.  We had to joke with her about making sure to pay attention to the boy she’s actually on a date with!  After they got home, I took a picture of them with a little picture Nina drew for Mark about them golfing on their date night.  I like how tall she is in comparison to Mark! 

Bees by the River

One of the cute things about Lyla is that she loves to sing.  She used to only do it when no one was looking.  If we ever smiled at her while she was dancing or singing, she’d get shy and stop.  Recently, she has been singing all the time and not minding if we hear.  She has “her songs” where she gets up, beebops back and forth and sings.  One of her favorites is a kids’ version of Peace Like a River.  I was listening to her the other day and figured out what she sings, and it goes, “I’ve got bees by the river, I’ve got bees by the river, I’ve got bees by the river in my soul…”  Too cute.  

A Milestone to Celebrate

On Friday evening we threw a 40th anniversary party for my parents. We ended up with a great evening for a party!  The weather was so unlike the typical hot and humid August evenings we’re used to – it was actually quite enjoyable outside.  We enjoyed some great food and drink, a nice time with their friends, and a chance to toast their 40 years together.

 

Here’s a video we showed at the party of some favorite pictures of my parents through the years.

As the “kids” we feel very fortunate to have two parents who are still good friends, who have always made family a priority, and who still love each other a lot. 

Cupcakes For A Cause

Today was our first bake sale.  Nina has been asking to do one for awhile, and so I committed to today, and despite nearly missing the bake sale with an emergency trip to the pediatrician this afternoon (Lyla pushed a small bead deep inside her ear), everything ended up great.  All the money we made is going to Love 146, and we were pleased to sell out of all our baked goods and make $96 to donate in addition to passing out some informational postcards about a great organization.  Nina had a really great time with everything – she was so animated and excited when the bake sale got really busy, and I was glad that she really got the concept that we were doing this so that the money we raised could help other kids.   Even though the evening was hot and muggy, we enjoyed the combination of connecting with people we live near while bringing awareness to a great cause all encompassed in the “fun” of a bake sale.  I think we’ll definitely make this an annual event!