Girl Scouts Tea Party

Lulu's Girl Scout troop participated in a Tea Party this weekend.  I think it was a "bridging" opportunity for some of the older girls who were "bridging" from Brownies into actual Girl Scouts by mentoring younger Daisies?  At least, that's my suspicion given the number of older Brownies who seemed to be "hosting" the tea and helping the younger Daisies do various crafts, etc.

The younger girls made newspaper hats with ribbon and fake flowers on the headbands--Lulu's was adorable!  And they made necklaces from multi-colored fruit loops cereal (but those didn't last long once the girls realized they were edible!) as well as little tea cups out of upside down ice cream cones and a cookie (that also didn't last long!).

Afterwards, they all got together in a circle and sang songs before leaving.  Once we were home, Lulu took her headband off the hat and turned it into a pretty cute headband.

Engineer in Training...

Lulu trying to build a tee-pee with the leftover bamboo gardening stakes:

I love this photo...the hand on her hip and the puzzled expression on her face about why her two-stake tee-pee isn't working is hilarious!  I would so not be surprised if she ends up in engineering when she grows up!

Easter Art and Egg Hunt.

Lulu arrived back home, safe and sound, on April 19th, the day before Easter.  In hindsight, it probably wasn't the smartest idea to have a child excited about Easter who was used to a time zone two hours ahead of you arrive home the afternoon before Easter...because our Easter started really, really early!

The night before, we did some Easter art, drawing circles and decorating them as Easter eggs.  We also traced our feet and painted our "nails".

Easter morning, we had hunted for eggs, sorted and counted our stash, and eaten breakfast by 8am.  No kidding!  The photos I took aren't the greatest because I wasn't fully awake yet but I think you get a sense of the frenetic energy that morning!

Lulu's "story"

Lulu wrote a "story" at school with three parts--primero, despues, y al final.  Enjoy!

Primero mi papa peos (picks) mi (me) up.

Despues, wi (we) plae (play) geam (game)

Al final mai (my) dad makx (makes) deno (dinner).

Lulu's first flight all by herself.

My parents offered to pay for Lulu's plane ticket to come see them during her Spring Break from school.  So, my baby is flying as an unaccompanied minor for the first time from Sacramento to Dallas-Ft Worth on a direct flight and I am a nervous wreck!

When my mother first proposed this idea, I hemmed and hawed a bit and said that I wanted a chance to talk it over with Lulu first, see how she would respond to the idea.  So, I asked Lulu if she would like to fly--alone--to see Umpapa and MauMau and Nanny in Texas for spring break and she enthusiastically answered, "Sure!"  I asked her, "Are you sure?  It will mean that you have to fly alone on the plane, all by yourself, without Mommy or Daddy" and she looked at me with a straight face said, "It's okay, Mama.  I can do this."  Well, alright then.  What do you say to that??

So, the big day arrived.  I had a faculty meeting that afternoon and had asked Gropius if he would take her to the airport, thinking her flight was taking off later than scheduled, but in the end, I couldn't stand the thought of not being there, so we both went.  The airline told us that only one of us would be allowed to escort Lulu through security to the gate, and Gropius told me to go with her.  So, we killed a bit of time, having snacks before she got on the plane, not really wanting to say goodbye.

The TSA folks in security were a pain in the ass because Sacramento clearly doesn't get many unaccompanied minors, I guess?  When I showed them my gate pass, the TSA didn't know what to do.  I swear, those people are little better than trained monkeys when presented with something outside of normal.  Makes you wonder what they'd actually do if there was a terrorist, huh??

Anyway, I did manage to get her to her gate and introduced to the flight personnel who would make sure she got to the right people in DFW without openly breaking down in tears.  But, man, did I sob like a baby when I watched her walk down that chute to the plane...and watched the plane back away from the gate...and watched the plane take-off into the air.

I tried to remind myself that Lulu has a great opportunity to make memories of her own with my grandmother (her only great-grandparent) and parents, but I think this week will feel awfully long without her. And I won't feel better until I get that call from my Mom at the airport in Dallas.

Who's officially the BEST mother ever??

I think I am a contender for the title with this Easter surprise!

Girl Scouts meeting

I don't remember what was going during these photos, but here's a couple of photos from one of Lulu's Girl Scouts meetings in April:

The Starfish Lost his Mama por Lulu

Lulu wrote a story while we were traveling back home from school today about how a little starfish lost his mommy and made friends with a fish who helped him find his mommy again.  It's very reductive of Finding Nemo, but I was impressed nonetheless.