A STUDY IN BLUES AND GREENS

Over the past couple of years the kids have painted a number of canvases with oil paints. They clearly have a preference for the cool palette.


"Frog" by Madigan and "Dinosaur in Water" by Levi




"Tall Tree" by Levi.



"Foggy Beach" by Madigan.



And lastly we have "View From the Deck" by G (top), Madigan (middle), and Levi (bottom).

2 DOWN, 178 TO GO

Day one and two have been very good. Hot, new, different and good.

Levi's teacher called tonight to let us know that he is a joy to have in her class. I'm pretty sure she called everybody, but I think she meant it with him.

Madigan is making friends. Her homework tonight was to cover her fancy new social studies book. New book and easy homework. So Mrs. Billingsley can't be all bad.

Tomorrow Pop will pick up the kids so we can go to back to school night. We'll have the dirt on the teachers then.

I'll keep you posted!

I CRIED MORE THAN THEY DID

This morning was considerably more morose than last night. Quiet concern bordering on mild freakout for the 5th grader. Verbal complaints all morning from the 1st grader.

When we got to the school we checked to see if their teachers were around (they weren't), and then we wandered a bid. I observed a couple of 5th grade girls spot Maddy and turn to one another and whisper "That's her." So did Maddy. Ouch. So she crossed her arms and we walked some more.

We ended up walking to Maddy's classroom where her teacher, Mrs. Billingsley, was was now standing. She told us that there were a couple of other new kids in 5th grade. She took us to the spot where her class will line up and there Maddy met Elle. Another new student. Very cool! So they sat and chatted. And we broke away to go see Levi off at Mrs. Babcock's class.

Levi did great. He got in line with the crowd. He took off his hat and put it into his backpack (hats are not allowed in class). And then she took them in to their new class and off on a tour of the school. He was fine the last time I saw him. He'll be fine in an hour and a half when we pick him up. They will both be fine.

I cried. Out of site of the kids, but there were more tears than I could handle without tissues on a hand-full of occasions. I'm ridiculous.

But I'm going to be fine, too.

SUPER SAD CHILDREN : CANCELED

Well, after all the anxiety over the past few days I have to say, I really thought it would be harder tonight. The night before new school. Turns out my kids think school and friends and music and PE and learning cool new things and field trips are pretty OK. So they are not, in fact, sad.


And so, we were hanging out in Maddy's room listening to music (HSM1) and writing and chatting.


Not a ton of snuggles and soothing words. Cause nobody needed them. Just hanging out and chatting. And photos.


Oh, yeah! And Maddy showed off the shirt that she will be wearing on the first day of school! Cool. And cute. Picture it with a low belt. Perfection.

Oh, as it turns out I do have a sad display! Here is the school supplies list for Levi's class this year:

First Grade (Do not label with name)
2 pencil grips
2 boxes unscented baby wipes
1 small bottle of Elmers glue
Crayons (unleaded), small 16
1 watercolor set (8 colors)
6 pink erasers
12 small glue sticks
Water color marker sets (fine and wide)
1 set colored pencils (12)
2 rolls paper towels
24 pencils - Papermate American #2
Scissors - Prefer Fiskars-type

Utterly ridiculous!

I laughed too, Maddy, until I saw yours:

Fifth Grade
Pink erasers - 12 each
Black & white hard cover composition book
1-1/2 inch binder, no zipper (max. 10-1/2" wide)
Pocket dividers (pkg of 5) with tabs
Zipper bag for binder supplies
6 - Glue Sticks
Scissors - preferable Fiskars type
2 sets colored pencils (12 colors)
Ruler, plastic or wood (inch/cm combined)
White 1/4" graph paper
12 Ultra-fine black sharpie pens
12 Fine point black sharpie pens
Highlighters -2 sets -yellow, blue, green, pink
Protractor
Binder paper (wide ruled)
Unleaded pencils -16 #2
Post It Notes- 3"x3"
(2) 100 ct, college ruled spiral notebooks
2 containers of disinfecting wipes
Adult pocket Dictionary

Sakes Alive. If every student is bringing all this stuff, we could run a side business as a mountain office supply store.

Actually, it doesn't really matter. They are asleep now. Both of them.

And really, we could reschedule the sad if necessary. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

THIS BOY'S LIFE

Let me take a moment to tell you a little bit about my boy. Levi is 6. The monkey around his neck is Bob. On Monday he starts first grade at his new school. Tonight we are going to the Root Beer Float Social to meet some classmates and see his class assignment. Good stuff.

This is his Stuffed Menagerie. In this picture you will see Bob (monkey), Scotch (German shepherd puppy), American (eagle), Clover (goat), Nuzzle (squishy brown dog), Clifford (tiny Big Red Dog), Boo (bat), Larry (turtle), and a number of others whose names I cannot recall at this time. Levi has always had stuffed sleeping companions. Long ago he graduated from a "Lovie" to Scotch. From there his stuffed animal zoo has grown at, what I consider, an alarming rate. We have instituted a moratorium on new stuffed friends. Let's focus on making human friends at the new school, shall we?

Here is his super fun fort bed. You can see how the top mattress is bowing from the weight of all those animals.

Here is Levi's play table. You'll see Legos and Lego instructions, a snap bracelet, a back scratcher, a shell necklace from Hawaii, and a dump truck. This is a great representation of his daily in-room play.

And this is the sign on his bedroom door. We made this for his Lego themed 5th birthday to help people to find our house.

So there you have it. A snapshot. A look into the life of a mountain boy's space. The summer has been filled with such amazing fun and changes for my boy. I just wanted to save this precious moment in time. Because in a flash it will be gone. Replaced by soccer practice and play dates and new, bigger boy adventures. And I will miss this time. Cause this time is great.

WHAT HAPPENED????

Madigan got in a fight with an elliptical machine, and apparently the elliptical machine has been in a few more scraps than Maddy, because after it was all said and done the machine was fine. Not so much with Maddy. She has a fractured wrist.

When my work got wind of her situation they sent her this beautiful bouquet in a happy face mug. With balloons.

So while she rocks the blue and pink striped cast - the one that she can shower in, mind you - she'll see and smell some beautiful well wishes. (Whatever happened to white? And wrapping your torso in a plastic bag to take a bath - cause there was no shower! Kids these days have it so easy!)

Thanks for all of your kind thoughts sweet words. Maddy is great.

PICTURE THIS!

Our family vacation was apparently just one big series of photo opportunities. And who am I to deny the world these amazing photos? It might just be a sin. On that subject, this first image is at the Mission Santa Barbara. (I'm a master of the segue.)

Here it looks like the Zamora Kids are praying. (Praying for more crayons is more like it.)

The Whale's Tail restaurant has a big whale in the front. I'm pretty sure we are the first ones to take a picture with it, though. We like originality in a vacation picture. And spontanaity.
Maddy and the bay. Or estuary. Or whatever.
Big shoes at the shoe store. Again, I'm pretty sure we're the first to snap a pic of a small person standing in those. We're clever. And Levi is cute.
We hiked to the top of a little mountain above a golf course. The view was amazing. A full 360 degrees of the valley and the rock and the estuary. But we don't have pictures of all of that.
What we took are pictures of our children. Clearly we made the right choice.
At the perfect little beach in Santa Barbara we buried our children. The way they beg us to.
And these are seaweed mustaches. I've seen worse mustaches. Seriously.

Oh yes.
That's right.
Any day. Any time.
We will stick our heads in plywood cutouts of characters. And we will take photographic evidence of said event.
I have to say, I really did like the soup. Cause pea soup is delightful. So that kinda makes this picture more valid, I think.

That is our trip in a nutshell. Our picture-taking fingers are worn out. And we are now living with piles of laundry from all of our adventures.

Life is good.

OUT TO LUNCH

And breakfast and dinner...

We are on our vacation and will be back soon...

Love you, miss you!

HOT FUN IN THE SUMMER TIME

This week Maddy is attending the Legally Blond camp at The Dance Affair. She is dancing and singing and acting and will be displaying all of these talents at a Friday evening performance at the studio. We are all very excited! On the heels of her big Garlic Festival win, we are all looking forward to seeing her mad skills again.

Levi, on the other hand, is at Pop and G camp. So far has attended Bonfante Gardens (now called Gilroy Gardens) and has upped his catch record with Pop from 5 catches in a row to 8 catches in a row. He's the man. And I love him a lot.

Next week we are taking a family vacation. We will be traveling to Santa Barbara. We are referring to web articles from Sunset Magazine and Family Fun Magazine to plan the perfect amount of lolly-gagging with just the right amount of scheduled fun. We'll let you know how that whole thing works out.

LAUGHING SONG

By William Blake

When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;

When the meadows laugh with lively green,
And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene,
When Mary and Susan and Emily
With their sweet round mouths sing "Ha, ha he!"

When the painted birds laugh in the shade,
Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread:
Come live, and be merry, and join with me,
To sing the sweet chorus of "Ha, ha, he!"