For Father's Day, Alexa's Montessori class had a pool party with the dads - complete with a canonball contest between all the dads! Here's Alexa with her BFF, Madeline.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Birthday Celebrations, Montessori Style
Alexa had her 5th birthday celebration at Sunset Hills a couple weeks back - and to prepare, I helped her make a posterboard of pictures of her from each year of her life. On the morning of the big celebration, Arturo and I went, and we even let Emma go late to school so that she could be there too.
I thought we would just sing Happy Birthday and then dig into the Sunset Hills Montessori approved snack. (More on that later) Instead, Alexa's teacher had her start at birth, and describe the pictures she had included. They talked a little about what she did when she was "0" years old. Then the teacher said, "Alexa, are you ready to turn one?" Alexa then held a little globe and had to walk around "the sun" while her friends sang a very mellow/earthy type song.
This went on for each year (that is, her circling the sun) until she got to be 5 years old. At which point, her teacher said something like, "And now this is the Alexa we have come to know this year in class. Would anyone like to share something about Alexa?" And many kids politely raised their hands. They said things like, "I like to play with her in the playground" and "I like to play with her doing recess." The ones that made me do a double take/laugh were the couple of kids that said, "Alexa is a very peaceful person." "'Alexa is very pretty" and "Alexa tickles me when we are doing our works."
After that, we sang Happy Birthday, and then all the kids got a pudding. So about "birthday treats." At the beginning of the school year, we were advised not to bring in snacks containing too much sugar - aka, cupcakes, donuts, etc... are not allowed. So kids will bring in "fruit" or "muffins" as their birthday treat. I guess once you are into June and everyone is celebrating the end of the school year, the influx of sugar is ok - because they told us we could bring in pudding or even, gasp, popsicles. So we brought in pudding. Alexa loved it.
This is Alexa circling the sun:
The Little Imp
Tessa is officially on the move. The child can go where she wants, and fast!
One of her favorite pasttimes is playing withe doorstops around the house:
Toy Sale
On a recent weekday, Emma and Alexa's neighbor and friend, Taryn, came over to play with the girls. They decided they were going to have a toy sale (like a lemonade stand) and earn money. So they went scavenging all around our house looking for toys to "sell" (aka junk). They then created price tags for every toy. And once they got their money box, they were all set to go.
The only problem was that once they set up shop in our driveway, they couldn't seem to find many customers. So Emma went in and made a big sign which she taped to her body. It said something like, "Toy Sale Today!" Every time a car would drive down the street, they would yell at the top of their lungs and try to get the passerby to stop, but I guess a toy sale is just not the next big money maker. Better stick with the Girl Scout Cookies next time.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Big Girls' First sleepover
Oh my. One day, you are trying to convince your child to pee and poop in a toilet bowl and the next day, you are sending them out for a sleepover. Where has the time gone?
According to Ginny, they never missed their Mama once and had a ball. The next day, when I came to pick them up, I believe they were asking to sleepover again!
Reston National
This picture is from Ginny's camera - taken of all of us - at Sydney's Birthday party!
Celebrating 35
I had such a nice birthday weekend! Arturo and the girls surprised me Sunday morning with breakfast in bed (besides letting me sleep in!). And while I was out to brunch with the Ladies, Tessa cooperated by taking a nice nap - and the big girls made and decorated a cake for me.
Note, the cake is half chocolate frosting and half vanilla frosting because Alexa loves chocolate and Emma does not like it. My Ying/Yang girls!
If you look at the picture below, you will notice two things:
1) I am wearing the birthday crown that Ginny made me (Thanks Ginny!)
2) Emma put the candles in for me. She cleverly made "35" out of the candles we had at hand.
SHMS Spring Concert
Last Saturday was Alexa's annual Spring Concert at school.
The flyer sent home stated the concert would begin at 3 pm, but that "doors would open" at 2:30 pm. Like the good, fanatical mom that I am, I arrived at school at 2:10 pm, ready to get in line and make a dash for the seats when they opened the doors. I wasn't even there first - I was probably the 5-6th family in line.
But my years of training with Ginny for Dani's Duds had prepared me well for this moment. Friendly, casual banter with fellow moms ceased about 5 minutes prior to said "door opening" time. We all had a tight, strained smile as we tried to focus on the task at hand. The doors opened, I warned Alexa to hold on tight; I was in the zone. I was in it to win it. And indeed, I brought it home. I remained cool and collected, yet secured front row seats for my family.
Ok, enough about me. This is about Alexa and her Spring concert.
I had to include the following shot, because it is one of many that I have of Alexa being the social butterfly that she is. She sures loves her friends at school and isn't shy there!
Tessa loved the show and her newly acquired clapping skills came in handy!
The Great (Grilled) Zucchini
I sure do love this little one....
Here she is enjoying some grilled zucchini.
Reston Fine Arts Festival
It's been so long since we headed out to Reston Town Center - it's changed a lot over the last year or so - but the kids still love that fountain!
Mmm, Queso...
Sometimes, I worry that Tessa will look back on all her baby pictures and wonder why we only seem to pull out the camera when she has food all over her face. Here she is eating a quesadilla, I think.
Strawberries by the Gallon
The strawberries were ready early this year - each year that we have gone, we have had the luck of choosing the hottiest, steamiest day of the year. We have memories of keeping little toddler Alexa in the shade so she wouldn't over heat and pouring bottles of water over her head. So when this year, we got the news that the strawberries were good to go - AND - that the weather would be a comforrtable 70ish, we buckled Tessa into the carseat and headed out into the country for some juicy yummyness.
The weather WAS perfect. The strawberries WERE delicious. And we were so glad to have dressed Alexa in red.
Which looks more delectable? Ripe juicy strawberry, or fat little baby feet? It's a tie in my book.
We've always known that Emma and Alexa's personalities are polar opposites. Their strategies for picking strawberries was proof of this. Emma, in her haste and exuberance, would pluck strawberries of varying degrees of ripeness and literally bring back bucketfuls to me every few minutes. I learned to carefully sift through her berries to find the truly good ones. Alexa, ever the calm and methodical child, probably picked total 1 bucket in our 45 minutes out in the fields. She carefully surveyed each one on the plant, made sure it met her quality standards before picking them. (Then again, maybe Alexa also spent more of her time consuming the berries a la "Blueberries for Sal!) So funny to observe these two children!
In the end, we picked 8+ pounds of strawberries, and actually ate them all within one week. YUM-O.
Sunset Hills Montessori - Mother's Day Party
Alexa's preschool class hosted a lovely Mother's Day party for us parents at a nearby park. The kids started off serenading us with a Van Morrisson song, "Crazy Love." In our year at SHMS, Alexa and her friends have learned to sing songs by Van Morrisson, The Beach Boys, and Jason Mraz. How can you go wrong with this school?
Alexa and one of her best friends, Madeline. Being silly together.
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