Chorecharts.

So in an attempt to manage the craziness of the mornings and getting us out the door without me devolving into a screaming fit of barely contained rage, I decided to give using a chore chart a try before school started.  Ours is very simple and not very complicated.  It's basically a table with self-care chores that I expect Lulu to do in the morning and at night:  eat breakfast, brush her teeth, get dressed, put on her glasses, take a bath, etc.  Because she can't read yet, I found clip art images online of these various activities, shrunk them down to size, and have them out beside each of her "chores."

I have to say that the chore chart has made our mornings a LOT easier because once she's done eating breakfast, for example, I can ask her, "What's next on your chore chart?"  She goes over to it, makes an X next to the activity she just finished and moves on to the next one.

Genius, I say.  Genius.

Some mornings/evenings work better than others but so far I have been very pleased with how well she seems to be doing.

The best incentive though is that at the end of the week, if her chore chart is full, she gets to have a special treat.  So far, that special treat has been spending time with Mama.  This afternoon, she and I ate a little fro-yo before her soccer game.

And she was awfully excited to go play!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Lulu had her first day of kindergarten today.

To help prepare her for the shock of rising so early in the morning after a summer of sleeping in, I enrolled her in Vacation Bible School at church last week from 9am-12pm M-F and kept up the earlier schedule this week as well.  In spite of going to bed by 8:30pm last night, when I woke her up this morning, I think she was still pretty tired....

Daddy Snuggle Time

Lulu needed some morning snuggle time and Daddy got to do it while I fixed breakfast.  Once breakfast was ready, we worked our way through her chore chart:  eating breakfast, brushing teeth and hair, getting dressed, putting on shoes and glasses.  I think the chore chart and picking out clothes to wear in advance will be super helpful as the school year progresses....

Once she was ready to go, Walter and I brought out her special surprise--the Schultüte!  We took a few pictures with cameras (digital, cell, and film!) and then let her open it up in the living room.

She was mostly interested in the candy, of course.  But, we packed away her pencils and erasers in her pencil case and put that in her backpack for school.  Then, we loaded up in the car and headed out the door--only 20 minutes behind my intended schedule.....which is why we ran into this on our way into school:

through 2 lights and two city blocks no less!

We finally got parked and I walked her into her classroom a little after 8am (but they hadn't started yet--first day of school parking nightmares had been anticipated apparently).  We figured out where to hang her backpack, where to put her lunch, and where she was supposed to sit.  And then I helped her get started on her morning activity--a can of playdoh and a cookie cutter.  I was really proud of both of us--no tears!  But, I did make a quick exit so I wouldn't get teary just yet.  And I took one last photo before I headed out the door this morning.

Afterwards, I headed over to the Arden Manor Parks and Rec office to sign her up for full time afterschool care.  Maria will head over after school is out and walk the enrolled kindergartners over to the classroom for homework club until parents can come pick them up (before 6pm).  Starting in September, she will be doing art, cooking, and dance classes after school until we can come get her.  I told Maria that I would pick her up from school today and tomorrow, but she would start the afterschool program on Monday afternoon.  I figure this week will be about helping her get adjusted to a new schedule and we can introduce afterschool stuff next week.

Because today is a Thursday which is an early dismissal day at 1pm, I will be picking her up after lunch.  And to avoid a repeat of this morning, I will be getting there early!

Other Birthday Celebration(s)

Lulu is now old enough that she wants to celebrate her birthday with her friends which places me in a dilemma....some of the adults in Lulu's life who want to celebrate her birthday are not fond of other small children.  So, how do we give Lulu what she wants on her birthday while also letting the adults who love her (but not other children) the chance to celebrate with us?

This year, I solved the dilemma by holding two separate parties.  We had the little-girl-lapalooza on Saturday afternoon with cake and ice cream while on Sunday afternoon, we had an adults party with grilled hamburgers, cake, and presents (more like our typical birthday parties for her in years past).

Gropius and I prepared hamburgers, baked beans, and a green bean salad and had plenty of liquor on ice and then it was just a nice familiar gathering of friends and family.  Well, really friends who have become our local family and family.  A nice celebration!

You can find all the photos from both parties here.

And here are a few of my favorites from the Sunday afternoon shin-dig:

opening her present from Oma and Opa

excited by new clothes!

Daddy's tricky wrapping paper....

Oooooooo!  

look--real water comes out!

lemon cake per Lulu's request for the Sunday party

Happy Fifth Birthday, Lulu!

I can't believe my little girl is already 5 years old!  Where did the time go?  There is definitely truth in Gretchen Rubin's comment that the days are long, but the years are short....

Lulu decided that she wanted to have an Emily Erdbeer (aka Strawberry Shortcake) birthday cake this year.  So, I bought a cake pan on eBay and some strawberry cake mix, and we set about making her a Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake.  Mom and Hellen helped out a bit when my hand started to get tired and Hellen made the little dollops for the candles so Strawberry Shortcake didn't resemble Joan of Arc.  I think the end result turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Hellen working on the finishing touches under Nanny's watchful eye...

ta-da!

the Full Monty

This is the first year that Lulu's chosen a theme for her birthday party, so I went to a local party store and bought some Strawberry Shortcake-themed stuff for her goody bags like a charm bracelet, some red/green/pink bouncy balls, strawberry/cherry gummi candies, etc.  Mom and I put out the Strawberry Shortcake tablecloth, inflated red, green, and pink balloons and strung up red, pink, and green crepe paper from as many surfaces as we could think of.

excited birthday girl!

We have a strict rule around here that there are no more guests than the age of the guest of honor, so Lulu invited five friends.  Unfortunately, Max/Zorba Spartacus couldn't make it, so we had five little kids total:  Lulu, Baby J, Shaya, Scotland, and Talia (a friend from Merryhill).  We turned the usual birthday party on its head a bit and had the present-opening first so everyone could change into their bathing suits and play on the slip-n-slide that Walter set up in the backyard.  The present-opening is really only interesting if the person in question is opening your present anyway, so we got that part over with first.  I had the party from 2-4pm so there wasn't a question about whether we were serving lunch or dinner, just cake and ice cream.

presents to open

Lulu, Baby J and Pat-Pat (our neighbor's children)

Lulu, Talia (purple), and Shaya (pink/grey stripes)

her favorite present--a microphone that sings an annoying My Pretty Pony song
over and over and over and over....

That slip-n-slide was the hit of the party!  It was great, too, because it helped to contain all the youthful enthusiasm and energy out-of-doors and away from my house.  After everyone was tired out, we brought the cake outside and had cake and ice cream sandwiches (chocolate cookies and strawberry ice cream, of course!).  So, the messy cake and ice cream were also outside.  Win-win!

ready to run.....

Shaya's Dad (Kyle), new baby brother (Sparkle) and her "other mother" (Renee)

Lulu deciding which body part to eat first

 

Lulu had a great time and did a good job of playing with all of her friends who came to the party so that they felt welcomed.  And once everyone was gone, the adults cracked open a bottle (or two) of wine and kicked off our shoes....

Kindergarten Orientation

Walter and I attended the new student/kindergarten orientation at Lulu's elementary school last night.  All of the parents met in the cafeteria/multi-purpose room, for both English-only and Spanish-immersion programs.  The vice-principal went over various rules and procedures like pick-up and drop-off times, early dismissal Thursdays, etc.  And we picked up our school supply list.

She was speaking into a microphone and I have to say, it was almost impossible to hear her (esp with my notoriously bad hearing) because the parents kept talking while she was!  I told Walter afterwards that if that had been my college classroom, I would have laid down the law about talking while someone else is.  So rude!

We both found it interesting though that when the principal asked the Spanish-immersion parents to stay behind, that there was additional information for us, and the English-only parents left to go see their children's classroom(s), the cafeteria became a LOT quieter.  The folks who were left in the room were mostly Hispanic parents who lived in the area and a bunch of upper middle-class white folks--pretty much exactly the people who we had figured would enroll their children in a Spanish-immersion program!

school garden, ready for planting!

the nice, safe, American playground--Lulu will quickly find this boring, I'm sure...

another view of the garden with the kindergarten classrooms behind it

Afterwards, we were able to go see which teacher Lulu would have for kindergarten this year and look at her classroom.  It was Walter's first experience on campus, so I walked him around and showed him the stuff I remembered from my visits earlier this spring.  The kindergartners are segregated from the older kids and have their own playground.  There are five kindergarten classes--two English classrooms and three Spanish classrooms.

Lulu's table is the one in the middle of the room.

view of the front from the back corner
(her teacher is the woman in the red dress)

NOTE:  We didn't know if we were supposed to take Lulu with us or not last night--the flyer that we received in the mail didn't say it was for parents AND children, so we left her at home with my mother and grandmother to eat dinner and get ready for bed.  But, I did take lots of photos to show her!

Her teacher has already labelled everyone's things, including art spaces on the wall and cubbies, etc.  I think owls is the theme for this year?

Lulu's cubbies

We also mentioned to her that her nickname is Lulu since only Tante Hellen and my parents-in-law regularly call her Louisa.

On schooldays, we can park and sit in the cafeteria with our children starting at 7:30 until classes begin at 8am.  So, I think I will probably take advantage of that on Lulu's first day next week.  Kindergarten gets out at 2:25pm everyday except Thursday which is an early dismissal day at 1pm instead.

So, the next thing I need to do is get her enrolled in after school activities to keep her busy and occupied until after 5pm so Walter or I can pick her up....

Beauty Shop

Mom and Nanny went with me when I took Lulu to get her annual birthday portrait and I'm grateful they did because the picture place was bombarded with a family that I swear could've been polygamous Mormons or something.  We're talking 3-4 women with at least 3-4 children each!

Anyway, they overwhelmed the poor picture people, so the portrait session ended up taking longer than it normally does.  And Nanny and Lulu played "beauty shop" while we waited....

Looking gorgeous, Nan!

**All photos taken with my cell phone, so apologies for picture quality.