Thursday! Woo-Hoo!

During the summer my Thursday's are like Friday's during the rest of the year since the work week is only 4 days. I love it that way too!

This is the post where I intend to catch up on what I have been missing in the past several weeks with the highlights.

Kids had there last day of school on the 14th of June. Roo had his kindergarten graduation on the 11th. It was very cute and they all did a bang up job! The entire skit was based on "what will I be when I grow up"? All the kids were dressed in various costumes of what they thought they may want to be when they grow up. Roo had chosen firefighter, so he was on stage with the appropriate firefighter gear. For quite a bit of the show he was up there fiddling with the buckles on his jacket though. It was comical. I had made a slide show for the program on my computer and this was shown before the program began. This gave the audience something to do while waiting for the program to start. It turned out pretty darn well and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

The day following graduation both Lydia's class and Roo's class had field trips. I went with Roo's class to Santa Barbara to Alameda Park for the day. It is a great park with a huge castle structure and stuff for the kids to climb and basically just run around being nutty. Right across the street is the beautiful Alice Keck Memorial Garden Park. The kids enjoy the gardens just as much as the adults. The highlight for them there is the huge pond which is laden with beautiful water lillies, koi, and turtles which were absolutely everywhere this year. The day was glorious and pizza was purchased for lunch. Now, I have to give the kindergartners credit. This was my second bus ride trip for a field trip this year. The first was with Lyd's class of first graders. Hands down, the kindergartners were better behaved and quieter than the first graders.
Mark went with Lyd's class on their field trip which was just a walk to a local park for the day. They had a grand time and Lyd enjoyed her dad going with her on this trip. They were both worn out from their day at the park. During their trip to the park one of Lyd's classmates had a stuffed Hello Kitty and Lyd adored it. Lyd of course had to have one and her friend told her she got it in San Jose at Build a Bear. Lydia came home beaming because she knew we were going to San Jose soon and her dad told her she could get one while we were up there.

The last day of school was the awards assembly at the school. I attended that just in case my kids received awards. I went last year as well and really enjoyed cheering all the children on for a job well done. The kindergarten classes were first to receive their awards. I had been informed by the teachers that there would not be as many awards this year as last because the teachers were instructed to only give out one award per subject and such. The time did go over last year, so I am guessing that is the reason why, though I am not entirely sure for the change. Roo received two awards. His first was for being on the Merit Roll for two quarters (all A's and B's in all subject including penmanship, conduct, and work habits), and for being on Honor Roll for two quarters which was having A's across the board. He was very excited about that. He also received an award for being the outstanding math student in his class. All the kids worked hard and it was great to see them all achieve so much. During the first grader award presentation Lyd was getting a little agitated because she hadn't been called up for an award. I had cautioned her that she may not get one because not everyone will get an award and this year, unlike last, they were including the penmanship in the GPA and she earned solid C's in that all year long, and had gotten A's and B's in all other areas. She seemed reasonable accepting of this until her friends and such were called up there to receive awards. While she was sitting there feeling a bit left out the teacher started to give another award saying that this student showed outstanding understanding and enthusiastic interest in history when they did their trip around the world during the history portion of the class. I thought to myself that if she got an award, it would be for this because she did excel in this and just came home beaming and reliving everything they were learning in their historical trip of the world. In their trip, they had pretended they were actually traveling around the world and had a new destination each day and stayed in historic hotels and such on their pretend journey. It was really quite fun and appealed to Lyd's sense of adventure and imagination. Sure enough, her name was called out as the recipient for this award and she happily took her place on stage with the biggest of grins on her face. I was really quite happy for her.

The day after the last day of school the kids and I left for San Jose to the birthday party for for the daughter of a good friend of mine. We had a great time but we were all ready to come home when the weekend was over. The trip did include several visits to a huge mall, which for some reason I actually enjoyed. Lyd chose a trip the Build-a-Bear workshop and made a hello kitty. She waited patiently in the long line and while I was getting her kitty registered and such, she and Roo went shopping for accessories for Hello Kitty. I told her she could get an outfit for the kitty. I had just finished registering the kitty when she and Andrew come to me with their arms full of accessories! The pile them on the bench and this is what they had selected. 1 pair of HK panties, pajamas, day clothes, FIVE pairs of shoes, a cell phone, a purse, a package of different bows for kitty, and a diary! My friend and I about fell over laughing. I kindly told her Kitty cannot have all these things today. She could have one outfit, 1 pair of shoes, and one accessory. She took this all in good measure and made her selection appropriately and when putting the shoes back she was quite indignant that Roo had chosen a hideous pair of purple shoes for kitty! It was so funny. In the end HK was dressed in her panties, pajamas, a pair of pink sketchers, and had a cell phone. Roo chose not to make a bear at build a bear. Instead, he opted for a visit around the corner from Build a Bear, to the Lego shop! It is a shop consisting of only legos and lego products. He has been very into his Legos for quite a while now and he was in his element. He finally chose the police paddy wagon he had been wanting as well as three small batman figures. His choice was clearly a much easier task than his sister's around the corner. He did take his time and look at everything but I suspect his mind was made up before he even entered the shop.

I have been busy re-reading, or shall I say, listening to HP # 6 so my mind is refreshed before book 7 comes out in a few weeks. There are an awful lot of things that need to be answered and tied up in book 7. I don't doubt that she will get it done, but it should make for a page turner! I am eagerly awaiting the movie as well. I should rent the fourth movie and refresh my husband's memory. I clearly recall what happened in that book and movie. I can't wait to see how Delores Umbridge is played and directed in the film. I don't know much about the actress Imelda Staunton playing the part she looks as if she will do a good job. I, myself, had been envisioning Judi Dench for the role, but perhaps she was too old for the part.

I am in the process of trying to get my side yard into some sort of order. I had planted bulbs last year, and they did reasonably well, but I didn't plant the entire area, and the plants were much smaller than I had anticipated. I hadn't given it much thought, but perhaps small bulbs equal small plants. This is in an area that is 24 feet long by almost five feet wide. Last year I did not plant the entire area. So, this year, I am going to dig out some gravel that is in a large section there, amend the soil with some additive and roto-till that in there, place river rocks all around perimeter and plant quite a few different plants of varying heights to give it a more three dimensional appearance. I will add a drip irrigation system, add a few larger boulders, and then either cover the surface around the plants with river rock of smaller size, or use the redwood bark. A few plants I will definitely be planting are a Star Jasmine in front of the fire place bricking with a trellis so it can grow up that. I love the smell of the star Jasmine. A Potato Bush which will add some dimension, some lower plants and some "grassier" looking sort of plants. I have the thing totally envisioned in my head, but haven't selected all the plants yet. I took a nice visit to Ron's Nursery in Grover Beach. I did not have as much time I would have liked to stroll around and peruse all the plants, but I did get my self a hanging plant for the front porch. I got a Fuchsia. I have wanted one forever, and all their plants were so healthy looking. I will be working on some of this tomorrow. Lots of digging foreseen here. Not my favorite thing, but it needs to be done. I should thoroughly water the area tonight for ease of digging tomorrow.

The kids went over to a friends (Hamilton) house yesterday to play all day. They had a great time and I picked them up at 4:00. They had been swimming and each a little bit of a sunburn, but not too bad. I don't know what I was thinking when getting their swim stuff out? I never even thought about sun screen for some dumb reason. Poor kids! I did gel them up with some after sun gel and gave them some Tylenol to ease the pain a bit. They both slept very hard after a hard day of playing. Tomorrow, Hamilton comes to our house and plays for a while! I will work in the garden while they are outside running rampant on the new swing-set, jungle gym we built for them. This has proven to be a wise investment thus far. They adore the swing set and it keeps them busy in the yard whereas before they would get somewhat bored in the backyard.