Tales from the Fourth Grade

It seems like my life has been revolving around fractions and topic sentences lately -  largely in part to the copious amounts of 4th grade homework I've been doing.  I thought I'd said good riddance to that ghastly grade back in 1990.  Seriously, it's the worst.  Luke and I do so much homework that we've worn grooves into the kitchen table where our elbows touch while we hold our heads in our hands.   Think you're a patient person?  I challenge you to work on equivalent fraction word problems with a 9 year old.  Or better yet, help that same 9 year old write a persuasion paragraph. For the love of God; why do schools do this to parents? And I have to say that at least I can follow the common core (crap) way of teaching these things and many parents can't.  We are holding on tight for a roller coaster year for now.  And I suppose I'll be attending the 4th grade two more times  - aaaaahhhhh!!!!!!

Wild and Three

My baby belle is three - that's wild!  And wild she is.  She is highly opinionated and highly affectionate - a truly passionate being. These days she's into all things girly and glittery, spin dresses, books and just about anything her sister is doing.   She has a penchant for chocolate and gummy bears.  Wait a second, this is sounding awfully and personally familiar...suddenly unsure if I'm describing her or myself.

Three lifetimes with Coco wouldn't be enough for me.  For this birthday, Coco chose Altitude Trampoline Park as her treat of choice - and the choice embodies all that she is. So we did a little family jump sesh and then came home for pizza, Dora cake and presents.  Life with a threenager is sure to be exciting.

Swim meets are exhausting for parents

Well, here we are back into swim season.  Oh wait, it's year round with a random 3 week break so I guess we never really left it to get back into it. Anyway, that 3 week break actually made a huge difference for Luke.  He was able to make it out of the "Lane 1 " practice group which is normally composed of the newbies, the clowns, and the space cadets of the team.  He made it all the way to "Lane 3" which are the kids who pretend to know what they are doing, generally have at least one minute attention spans, and have some degree of future potential beyond drowning.  He seems to be enjoying more of practice than just setting up the lane lines and hanging out in the locker room like he did last season.  He's even been acknowledging his coaches' attempts to correct his form - woohoo!  

The first swim meet of this season was this past weekend.  Luke swam 5 events and managed to only forget his goggles for one of them.  Who does that? It's akin to trying to win the Kentucky Derby without a saddle on your horse.  I mean, I'm sure he was focusing his attention on what to get next from concession stand than when his next event was, but hey, who needs to see where that concrete wall is?

For their part, Adrienne and Coco solely kept the concession stand in business.  They must have made 17 trips each - back and forth and up and down the bleachers of death.  Adrienne was cheering Luke on at one point, too bad he wasn't in the actual heat she was cheering for.  The girls and I had to make a hasty exit to schlep off to our next activity but it was good timing because Coco's meltdowns were just starting.  She was mad that I wouldn't let her use the award podium (that was inside the section of the pool closed off to spectators) for a climbing structure.     

It's hard to see but Luke is the swimmer in the lane where the official is standing:

Back to School

And just like that we are back to school.  Back to the routine of bedtimes, outfit selections, lunch making, and a jammed packed schedule of activities.  This year, I think back to school came at the perfect time - we had such an incredible summer that I think we were all exhausted from having that much fun.  It appears that both big kids got really great teachers this year: Ade with Mrs. Bambury and Luke with Mr. Ranney.  We've been able to cut back one day per week at the JCC's after school program, Gesher so Luke and Ade will just go twice per week.  We did a better job at planning out our schedule this year so it looks like this:

Mondays: Luke and Ade attend Gesher and then have piano lessons
Tuesdays: NOTHING
Wednesdays: Luke has swim team practice
Thursdays: Luke and Adrienne attend Gesher; Ade has swim lessons and Luke has swim team practice
Fridays: NOTHING
Saturdays: Luke and Ade have gymnastics, Luke's lacrosse starts in November
Sunday: Adrienne has lacrosse practice

We'll add in swim meets as the season progresses and at some point, we'll sign Coco back up for gymnastics.

Along with piano, Luke has the opportunity to do music lessons through school this year.  So far he's wanted to play the tuba, trombone, string bass, drums, clarinet and his favorite: saxophone.  I think he'll end up with the saxophone.

Amidst this crazy schedule, we have a whole list of house projects to do and Penn State football games to watch on TV and attend in person.

Pictures from the first days and weeks of school:

Meet and Greet

checking our her new desk

Excited for first grade!

trying to get a picture with all front teeth still in place

First day of school

Coco wants to go to school, too!

Fourth grade, here I come!

a hug for dad before she gets on the bus

walking Luke to his bus stop down the street

Dewey Beach 2016

Another successful beach trip is in the books and hopefully in the memories, too.  This year we ventured to a new house and I think the consensus is that everyone liked the old house better but the location of this one was better.  It was nice to be able to just walk out the door, over a dune and be right in the action.  We had perfect, if not a little hot, weather and more sunshine than we could take.   Of course, we did quite amount of relaxing on the beach with beverage in hand and many "planet ices" to take the edge off the heat.

As usual, the kids found many friends to play with at the beach.  They made friends with the kids of the professional lifeguards...this allowed them to use the huge rescue boards at paddle boards and had special access to the "life guard" house.  Luke made a friend whose parents even took him to the boardwalk for an extra visit.  Adrienne made friends with a few little girls who were collecting jelly fish.  I'm confident that Luke was the better judge of character on this trip.  For her part, Coco enjoyed the beach in small amounts but also enjoyed watching Dora and Diego in the comforts of air conditioning back at the house.  Violet also enjoyed the beach, particularly playing in the transport sled turned baby pool and eating sand.

We took our normal excursions to places like Dogfishhead and Jungle Jim's water park.  We took a few different turns at Dogfishhead so that no one had to take their kids :-)  Coco really loved the water park and keeps asking to go back.  "Shall we go back to the water park today?"  I think we went to the boardwalk twice.  I know that Fun Land is every kid's dream but I just really don't enjoy it!  Luke is now into the phase where he likes to ride to most ridiculously scary rides and I hold my breath while he's on them, hoping his body doesn't go flying out of the contraption.  Adrienne, thank God, isn't quite tall enough for the crazy rides but she already wants to do them.

As for other activities, the weather was so nice that it prevented us from taking too many trips to the outlets but Luke and Ade made out as usual with some school shopping with Gma and Gpa.  The kids got to learn the fun of a shopping spree!  We also had family craft night this year with a tie dye project.  We now all have coordinating Dewey Beach t-shirts thanks to Mimi.

The week always goes too quickly but the memories made last forever.