1st Days of School

Summer is coming to an end.  Time to pack the backpacks.  For Graham, it was the first day of his last year of school.

And then came Addy's turn, or Adelaide as she prefers to be called at school (who knew!).  All summer, she's been so looking forward to starting Kindergarten at Boulevard, finally getting to walk across the street to the big school where all the neighborhood kids go.  She was all set for the day of orientation.

But then the actual first day came.  Daddy chalked her way to school with good luck messages.  But what this picture doesn't show are her nerves and worries about actually making this jump to a new school, with new teachers, new friends, new expectations.  And when we finally got to the front steps, her nerves got the better of her.  The tears flowed.  But what got us all through that morning was the very kind and loving principal, Mrs. Longo, who saw Addy and came over to ask her to help take pictures with her camera to document the first day.  And with that, Addy let go of my hand and walked with Mrs. Longo.

And then came Cora's turn.  Preschool!  She was quick to make friends at the playground playdate.

And proud to have her turn to hold the first day of school sign.

She settled right in with her teachers, Ms. Cheryl and Ms. Joann.

Monkey Bars and Mom

Despite the fact that she had just broken her arm the night before, Addy desperately wanted to go the art show that her summer art and yoga class was putting on that afternoon.  We knew she'd been saving her art projects all summer so they could be in the show, so we went.  The teacher set up her backyard like an art gallery with pictures and pottery out for all to view.  The first picture of Addy's that we came upon was "Monkey Bars and Mom."  I was first struck by what a beautiful picture it was, amazed that Addy had drawn it.  But then I was overcome with emotion because there we were, looking at this picture the night after "Monkey Bars and Mom" had ended with a broken arm.  There was much hugging (well, as best as we could do with one arm in a sling).

The Broken Arm

Addy loves, loves, loves the monkey bars.  And she's a pro at them.  But one night, she slipped.  And landed funny on her arm, and well, we became one of those statistics.  Broken right arm.

We will be forever thankful for all the wonderful doctors and nurses at the hospital who took such great care of her.  And what luck it was for the attending to the mother of one of the kids in Addy's pre-K class.

The first 24 hours were rough.  The cast they put on at the emergency room was huge, and HEAVY, and there was swelling and itching and pain.  Not pretty.  But Addy managed it so well.

On Day 2, we tried to work on using her left arm.  Left arm science experiments did the trick!

And then on Day 3, she got her permanent cast.  This lightweight, waterproof, electric pink cast.  We went from the doctor's office to the craft store and bought Sharpie markers.

Three weeks later, it's off.

Addy broke her arm one week before the beginning of Kindergarten.  And her right arm, of course.  Looking back on that first week of school, it definitely compounded the anxiety she was feeling.  Addy talked about being worried about not being able to do everything the other kids were doing but simultaneously worried that she wouldn't know what was safe to do if Mom and Dad weren't around.  So I couldn't help but include this except of a note from Addy's kindergarten teacher:  We played on the playground today, and she's a little trooper; seemed to be doing everything! (Kindergarten children have a rule for no monkey bars until spring! Adelaide laughed at that one!).  

Rock Star

For her 3rd birthday, from Grandma Carol, Grandpa Russ, and Grandma Sherry, Cora got a new boombox.  This one complete with microphones.  Our little rock star loved it.

Cora's 3rd Birthday

Cora is 3!  And we celebrated in style.  Cora style, that is.  An animal adventure party.  

Her friends gathered at the playground across from our house and donned their Diego-inspired backpacks, ready for their animal rescue hunt.  Graham showed them the Dora-inspired map.  

The animal rescue mission was no less ridiculous than you would see on any Dora episode, but included some of Cora's favorite things.  First, you had to go to the baseball diamond and rescue three animals.  Then, because they're dirty from all that dust, you had to give them a bath (a nod to Cora's love of cleaning things!), and then you got to head to Candy Mountain for a dance party.

Kids working hard to clean their animals.  The adults were such good sports, too!

At Candy Mountain, we had a dance party with all Cora's favorite songs, of which she has about 50, and then a pull-string piñata.

Candy!

Lunch with friends

Cake!

I love her expression - she was so excited!

Nothing gets better than cupcakes and friends...

...Until they sing to you and you get to blow out your candle!

And just when we thought the party was wrapping up, a real animal adventure presented itself.  This giant, neon-green caterpillar became the most favored party guest.

All the kids were fascinated.

It was a good day!

Street Dancing

Street performers??? Music??? Dancing??? Yes, please.  These girls love a concert.  Here rockin' out at Shaker Square.

Car singing

We got a new minivan days before leaving for Cape Cod.  And we splurged, took it to Best Buy and had a ceiling-mounted DVD player installed - one that could work with wireless headphones.  This was a gift to both the girls and Mom & Dad!

Well, of course, it was a huge hit.  And definitely made the drive to Cape Cod go so smoothly.  What we didn't anticipate was the absolute hilarity that we would experience from Cora's car singing.  The car would be peaceful, maybe Graham and I would be chatting, and every once in a while you might hear a chuckle from the back seat.  Until that is, a song comes on.  In this particular instance, the girls were watching Madagascar 3, one of their favorites, and the characters in the movie put on a laser light circus extravaganza set to Katy Perry's Firework.  If you don't know the song, we used it as the background to our 4th of July video - http://lifewiththelanzes.blogspot.com/2013/07/4th-of-july.html.  Well, peace was interrupted by this...to say she belts out the song is an understatement.