Our playgroup keeps chugging along. We had another drop out so I’m not sure how much longer we can keep it together. One of the moms organized a week-long summer craft camp. Due to our Tahoe vacation and all the Jacob/Nicholas playdates, we only made it to one of the camp days.
This was the hike and drawing day.
The boys drawing what they saw in nature. Peter drew a castle he said he saw in the clouds. One of other boys told him there was no castle in the clouds. Peter responded: “Only I can see it because I have special eyes.”
I was surprised how much the boys really got into drawing:
Craft time at the bottom of the hill:
The kids made paper boats:
The kids then played around the pond and tried launching their boats - to disappointment when they collapsed almost immediately. Oh well!
It’s been a very busy few weeks. I had volunteered a lot for Peter’s preschool. I took the graduate/undergraduate/group pictures, created the yearly slideshow, and designed/burned a photo CD for each student. The single shots of all the kids were difficult enough just getting them to look at the camera and smile. The group shot of all 25 kids was a nightmare. I definitely will not volunteer for something like that again.
Of course, Peter wasn’t looking at the camera in his picture:
The graduation ceremony was last week. It went really well. And I made it through without getting teary eyed. Mike’s mom came down so she could attend as well:
Best friends: Jacob, Peter, and Nicholas
Watching the slideshow:
Video: (Peter is 3rd during walking; 3rd from the right during the singing)
This closes the preschool chapter of Peter’s life…
Peter did amazing at his 6 month check-up. We were all so surprised since we usually have to hold him down in the chair for his cleaning. He cooperated so well with all the procedures. I think it was all because of the dental assistant. She was really patient with him and explained everything. We’ll be requesting her from now on.
I think Mario game playing between procedures helped keep him calm as well:
That was easy!
He did have 1 cavity though, which sucks. The dentist thinks he’ll do fine getting it fixed with a regular shot of novocaine. We’ll find out next month at that appointment. The dentist also got mad at us for giving him gummy vitamins since they stick to teeth. So we’ve stopped giving them. I tried using the non-gummy vitamins but Peter hates the taste. So no more vitamins until we can find a solution.
We’ve been hanging out a lot with Peter’s preschool friends, Jacob and Nicholas. I wish we had started this earlier in the year since preschool ends in just 2 weeks.
Our visit to Happy Hollow park & zoo in San Jose:
Roller coaster:
The very cool play structure:
Playtime at Chuck E Cheese:
Playing mini-golf in Jacob’s backyard:
At a park:
Even Peter’s neighbor friend, Hunter, showed up so Peter was among all his bestest friends:
We recently attended a parents and kids orientation at Peter’s soon-to-be Elementary school. They broke up the event by last name so we couldn’t attend with the neighbor twins. Peter was very nervous to go because he knew he wouldn’t know any of the kids. I knew they would be separating the parents from the kids so I was a little worried Peter would become super shy. Well while waiting for it to begin we ran into a boy, Dylan, that we knew from a mutual friend. We’ve only seen him yearly at our mutual friend’s birthday party but luckily Peter still remembered him. The boys got to play on the playground together until the bell sounded for them to line up. Peter easily walked away from us to go into the classroom with Dylan and all the other kids.
The parents were then led into the cafeteria for a 45min presentation. They first showed us a slideshow of school pictures with the “We’re Going To Be Friends” song playing in the background. They just had to pick THAT song. I’m blaming THAT song because about half-way through the slideshow, a rush of emotion ran over me and I could feel myself start to tear up. I had to quickly focus on a speck of dirt on the floor to keep my emotions in check. I felt so silly for getting emotional.
So anyway the rest of the presentation was fine, boring really. But there was one thing that really annoyed me. The speakers kept telling us to “bring your checkbooks on the first day and be prepared to write a lot of checks.” The money is for the various school funds, committees, and organziations. It sounds like it will total about $300, which isn’t bad compared to preschool costs but I just found it kinda rude how they were mentioning it over and over again.
I found out one reason for the money is that our State doesn’t cover a lot of things - one being pencils. It’s ridiculous that our public schools don’t get funds to cover something so basic and I would think a necessity. The other things they don’t cover: Music, Art (including all supplies), library (they don’t pay for the librarian, we do), and Physical Education. Maybe that is one reason why we have an obesity epidemic. Just knowing all this makes me not want to attend public schools. I really feel sorry for the low-income areas where parents don’t have $300 to put toward their kid’s education.
I also found out that even though most of the schools in our district have extended Kindergarten to 5hrs/day (from 3hrs). Our school decided not to do that, instead offering the normal AM/PM classes. In order to offer more time for lessons, our school has limited recess/snack time to only 15mins. Only 15mins, why bother at all.
Although I sound annoyed with our school already, I’m actually very excited that Peter at least knows a few kids so hopefully that will make it a smooth transition. And after the orientation, Peter excitedly told us that there was a Jacob AND a Nicholas in the class. I wonder if they can live up to his expectations.
We had another playdate at Jacob’s house. Most of the preschool class showed up as well. It was pouring outside so all the kids were stuck inside. It was 2hrs of chaos sans a few minutes when all the boys played trains together. You could hear a pin drop, they were so engrossed: (this is Jacob’s bedroom - it’s bigger than our living room)
Peter and his best friend from Preschool, Nicholas:
After we got home, I unwound by watching a squirrel try to get into the bird feeders. Unfortunately for the birds, he was successful:
I know I’m a little late but I hope all the moms (to kids and/or pets alike) had a nice day yesterday!
Mike’s mom was visiting this weekend so it didn’t really feel much like a special day for me but oh well. Mike did surprise me with something I’ve been wanting…
A Nintendo DS XL. I love the larger screen (than regular DS). I think it’s the best handheld game machine (especially since it has Mario Brothers). It also has Internet access through Wi-Fi and a camera. If only it was a phone as well - it would be perfect. Mike hogs our Wii and Xbox so this is a way I can get some gaming in as well…I mean practice my hand-eye coordination.
Mike’s mom playing with Peter in the backyard over the weekend:
I finally got around to making a Shutterfly photo book. At first, I found all the options like backgrounds, fonts and border styles a bit overwhelming, so it took me a little longer than anticipated to finalize my choices. I did love how easy it was to manipulate my photos - like cropping and shrinking. So overall I was very pleased with my book when it arrived in the mail.
I never got into scrapbooking but I think these photo books could totally replace them if they just add a few more options like sticker-looking images you could drag anywhere on the page. They may even replace my Flash slideshows…since I can share my book online. This book was a birthday gift for my mom (aka Nana).
