Fall Nature Fest at The Havenwoods

 I wanted to post this before we went to Ann Arbor last weekend, but ran out of time before we left. Hopefully I'll get around to a Michigan post tomorrow. Fall is in full swing around here with pretty colors everywhere, and lots of fun activities for the kids. A couple of weekends ago, we took the girls to The Havenwoods where there were a bunch of Fall crafts and and other fun stuff that kept the girls busy.


 The girls got to try out archery.


 




















There were sand tables set up and the sand was so cool. It was super fine and smooth, and it had a glittery quality to it. The girls loved it, and they had all these really neat sand toys that made shape impressions in the sand. The shapes came out perfectly every time, even with little fingers pushing them all over the place. You can click on the photo to see the sparkly sand and shapes better.


 Sunlight artwork. The girls placed leaves, flowers, and grass on these blue sheets of paper, we let it sit in the sunlight for several minutes, then when everything was taken off the paper, "shadows" of the objects remained.


 The girls made the woven art around their necks. They came out so cute, I look forward to finding a spot to hang them in the house. I ended up doing most of Rebekah's, she was more interested in painting than pulling fibers out of burlap cloth and weaving reeds or sticks through the open spaces.


 The weather was perfect, it was a beautiful Fall day.

Wild West Classic

The weekend of October 2nd and 3rd, Alyssa and Emma had their first gymnastics meet. It was hosted at our gym, and they did great! I didn't get good pictures. I was too much of a Nervous Nellie. It is so much fun watching the girls enjoy something that I loved doing when I was growing up. That being said, I had no idea how nervous I would feel for them. Most of the time when I competed, the nervous energy I experienced was the healthy kind of nervousness that I think actually helped my performance. Being in the gym as a mom, not a gymnast, was completely different than that. I could see they were feeling the huge pre-historic butterflies fluttering in their tummies, and it wasn't an easy thing to watch.
 Lining up for the March In. Watching this part of the meet brought back all kinds of gymnastics meet memories that I hadn't thought about in years!


 Bars was the girls first event, and it was rough. Rough for both of them. Alyssa is just like me, and bars is her most difficult event. She made the same mistake that I see her make at most practices, and then a fluke mistake. She was fine though, I think she was proud to make it through the routine.

Bars is typically Emma's best event, but she just didn't hit. She stared right at us throughout the entire routine. We will have to choose our seats more strategically at the next meet, we were a bit of a distraction! She was sooooo disappointed as she saluted the judges. I think she realized she hadn't done her best routine and the waterworks just flowed before she even got off the mats. I felt terrible and I think I even turned to Dave and told him I didn't think I could watch anymore. Fortunately, the rest of the meet was awesome and a huge confidence builder for both of them!!


 This is probably the best photo we got all day, I'll leave the gymnastics pictures to Dave from now on :-)

On Floor the girls both did the cleanest routines I have seen them do up to now and Vault was a solid event too. Beam was the best event for both girls, Alyssa scored 9.0 and Emma 9.2. Which if gymnastics scores don't mean a whole lot to you, those are very respectable scores, especially on beam and in a first meet. I was very proud of them, and when Alyssa saw the 9.0 get flashed, she just lit up! It was so cool.

Cute Pumpkins!!

We stopped at Trader Joe's on our way home from a Fall nature fest this afternoon. Right at the entrance to the store were all these cute pumpkins!
 I always knew I was partial to these kind of flatso shaped pumpkins, and after seeing them called by these sweet whimsical names today, I now know why. {I do love how those perfectly round ones look when they are carved though too}


  The girls loved them!


 


 I love Fall! And I've been loving this beautiful Indian Summer type weather that we've been having. I don't know what the exact definition of an Indian Summer is, but it's been so warm lately and perfect for enjoying everything outdoors. What a blessing!

Rebekah wants Daddy to take her here...

Little Kamele has an ear infection, so tonight we were relaxing together, reading books while the older girls were at gymnastics. While looking at this page in one of her most favorite books right now, Rebekah asked, Can Daddy get me that? (pointing to the Eiffel Tower)
 




















She quickly realized that might be an unreasonable request so she added: Maybe he can just take me there? I asked if I could go too, and she said, No, I want to go in Daddy's car, you can't come.


 I was a little taken back by her quick and very decisive exclusion of me in her plans, but the more I thought about it, the sweeter her comment got. She rarely goes anywhere in Dave's car. Once every couple of weekends Dave tries to take the girls individually for a "Special Day with Dad" and it occurred to me that those days are likely the only times she ever rides in his car. So she was simply making a connection between doing something fun {just her and Daddy} and his vehicle. Other than the fact that making it across the Atlantic would probably be very hard on his poor old Maxima, it made me happy to think about it that way. The time they spend together is special to her.

And much later in the evening when I had forgotten all about our conversation, she told me that the whole family could go. So it's all good now, no hard feelings :-)

Lots of Pictures from the 3rd Ward

So I had this idea very early one morning while I was still half sleeping that I needed to take nice back-to-school pictures of the girls this year. Immediately the 3rd Ward came to mind as being a really cool place to take them. It's just the right mix of being historic, with the old fire house and theatre, yet modern and urban at the same time with all the trendy shops and restaurants. I thought it was a super unique idea and I woke up with the inner photographer in me feeling inspired. A few days later when we got to the 3rd Ward, there were three other families doing the same exact thing. Foolish of me to think I was the only one who had come up with this brilliant idea :-)

You can look at this post here to see a little more about our misadventures in photography that day. Basically I had to take out a stack of books and wait very patiently while Rebekah read each one before she'd get in any photos. Despite the lack of them seeming at all like back-to-school pics (not many with apples, school supplies, and back packs in hand) I'm glad we took the time to get some special pictures:
 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Every morning we send them off, bright and early, back packs full.


 And every afternoon, they come running home, with smiling faces.

Link didn't work...

Dave let me know the link in my previous post did not work. Sorry about that. I think I fixed the problem...

Frau Savignac's project is here. Thank you so much for your votes!! The votes roll over from week to week, so hopefully we can keep adding them up :-)

Where's The Sink?!?

Please, help Rebekah's classroom get a new kitchen sink!

Yesterday, I got an email from Rebekah's teacher giving information about a grant that she has applied for through Sonic. First of all, I had no idea how charitable Sonic is and the incredible effort they put forth to improve schools around the country ~ Awesome!!

The play kitchen sink in Rebekah's classroom is broken and no longer part of the kitchen set up, and her teacher,
Frau S. (who Rebekah has called Frau Care-A-Lot) has called their play oven "unsafe." So the children need a new kitchen, and through Sonic's grant program she needs
OUR VOTES to make it happen!! If you read here, I would so much appreciate you taking a few minutes (and a few clicks) to put in a vote for her project titled, "Where's The Sink?" The Home Living area in their classroom is a very important "center activity" for them and one that they are missing out on a little bit right now.

You can find out more about the project set up by her teacher by clicking here. Once on that page I clicked "Find a Project" then searched by location, first selecting our state, then our city, then our girls' school (it is the only project for our school). If you need any of that info email me: djaesachs@yahoo.com. You can vote once a day, so please feel free to vote as often as you like!

Thanks so much!! I know all the kindergartners in Rebekah's class are looking forward to washing dishes in the kitchen again :-)
 

All things Art, a Little Bookworm, and a New Friend, Yellow Shirt

Since it's about a month into the school year, I figured I better post a few photos from the first day. This post has been drafted since about the second or third day of school, I just haven't had much time to return to it since then. Many of the girls activities have started up again and each school night has felt very full with homework, Open Houses, auditions and gymnastics. The relaxed pace of summer is long gone!

The first few weeks of school have flown by, and the girls are loving it. School started on a rather gloomy, drizzly morning. The rain made it really difficult to take pictures, which made me even more grateful that I took the time a few weeks back to get some photos. Those pics are coming soon, I promise it won't be another month until I post again :-)
On the first day:
 5th grade is a pretty special year for the students at our school and Alyssa is loving being the "Big Kid on Campus." She and her classmates have all kinds of school responsibilities that are entrusted to them, which is a fun privilege. The jobs are things like helping out the kindergartners at lunch time, collecting attendance forms throughout the building and bringing them to the office, bringing the recycling to the back door of the cafeteria etc. Right now her job is to collect all the bus slips and bring them to the office. She's very excited about it, and will rotate through all the different tasks throughout the year.

She has also given up one of her recess periods to be part of the Hand Chime Choir. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but it completely sounds like something she would love, and I'm not at all surprised that she joined.

Alyssa's teacher seems to be placing a great emphasis on art, which makes me very happy. Although last night she was up until 10:30 working on the art, and then this morning she woke up before 6:30 to finish it. She is very detailed orientated and everything had to be just right. One day last week I had the opportunity to help out with an art project in her class and I learned a couple of things, first of which being that my "talents" are most likely a lot better used doing the more behind the scenes tasks that have kept me busy at school over the last few years. Every peace dove I made was a complete disaster!!

Secondly, Alyssa displayed a tiny bit of maturity that surprised me a little and also made me proud. There is a boy in her class who I know has some behavior issues. During the craft, the teacher observed him wandering around the room and she asked him if he finished his peace dove. He shouted out, "NO! SO SUE ME!" My mouth about hit the floor, and most of the rest of the class, including the other parents in the room, burst out laughing.

Alyssa leaned into me and quietly gave me some "insight" on his behavior. What sent most of the room into fits of laughter she immediately saw as a need that wasn't being met. He had been rude and disrespectful, but she was able to respond, and wanted me to respond in a compassionate way to him. I get glimpses at times of the people I hope the girls will be someday, and that was one of those moments. He did eventually finish his dove :-)


 Thank you so much to Great Mommy and Great Daddy who sent a box of goodies to the girls right before school began. They have had all kind of yummy Hawaiian treats in their lunches everyday like these Candy Bead Cookies and Puffed Rice. So Ono!


 Here is Emma and one of her good friends, Jonathon. They have been in the same class three years running. Jonathon is a very nice boy and doesn't always look like he's about to bite :-)

Emma has been loving 2nd grade! She's one of those kids that if I ask her everyday how school was, everyday she'll tell me very enthusiastically: "Good!" But I won't get many more details. I usually have to wait until she wants to tell a story about something that happened before I hear much more than the one word responses that my questions elicit. So far there seems to be a lot of reading and writing involved in her classroom work, and that is by far her favorite kind of school work to do, so it's been great for her.

2nd grade is the first year that English reading is taught at our school, so while I have known for a long time that she can read English, much of our focus the last couple of years has been making sure she is learning to read in German. It sounds a little backwards, I know, but it works! It's been so nice lately to hear her reading lots in both English and German. I can actually understand at least half of what she's reading now, and we practically have to pry to books out of her hands. She'll walk around with her nose in a book, only half paying attention to what she's doing. It's also pretty common for us to arrive at a destination and she'll be in the back of the van still reading long after the rest of us have stepped out of the van. So I guess her enjoying reading so much is a good kind of problem to have.



Sweet and silly Rebekah on her first day. I think she's exaggerating a little bit about how "heavy" this back pack is. There's not a whole lot in there!
 Rebekah has gotten off to a good start in K4. She is learning all her colors and shapes in German, how to introduce herself, she can tell us where the "toileten" is, and she can count (which she already could before school). A few people have asked me what K4 is. Essentially it is like Pre-K, although our K4 teachers simply refer to it as kindergarten. Where we live, there are 2 years of Kindergarten. Five year old kindergarten is mandatory, four year old is not, but will be sometime in the next few years.


 

Here she is walking into school on her first day, doesn't she look tiny? Those pig tails only lasted about the first 5 minutes of the school day, and she has not let me do anything with her hair other than brush it since. Sometimes she'll cooperate with having one of the super thin headbands pull her hair back off her face. All this to say, she is totally the shaggy haired little girl in her class, and I will never again assume because I see a messy haired child that their mother doesn't care about their hair. I care quite a bit, unfortunately, Rebekah doesn't care enough for the both of us.

On her first day of school she was excited to tell us about a new friend she made and everything they had done together at school that day. Apparantly, they sat on the carpet together, they ate lunch together, I saw them running around the playground together, and when Rebekah needed help, her new friend helped her put her shoes back on and pack up her backpack to go home for the day. After hearing all about her new friend, I asked her, what's your friend's name? She looked at me with confusion and like she was asking me a question said, "Yellow Shirt?" The second day of school the little girl's name was "Black Shirt," and by the third day, we found out her name is Ariel. :-)

I will do better updating more frequently, for everyone who has so politely asked about my absense. Thanks so much for checking in!!

The National Park Sites We Visited

We visited several National Park sites on our trip, and I did my best to combine them into one short clip of photos. It was a challenge :-)



 Hopewell Furnace was one of the largest producers of iron, and specifically the iron face plates of furnaces in the late 1700s. It is a beautiful, farm-like place. There were also really neat old stone fire places, kind of like stone wall mazes that A and R were running through. It was cool and very quaint.


 This photo was taken at the Eisenhower Farm, near Gettysburg. The mat she's sitting on says First Lady. I had no idea how important this farm was during Eisenhower's presidency in terms of being a meeting place for world leaders and also being a place of refuge for Eisenhower during the Cold War. One of the meetings that took place at the farm was credited with the beginning of eased tensions between leaders during the Cold War. It's also the only National Park Historical Site where children who visit can earn a Jr. Secret Service badge. A very cool place.


 This picture was taken at Harpers Ferry where we walked across this bridge from West Virginia into Maryland. When Thomas Jefferson visited this spot in 1793 he said, "The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature." I think he was right.


 While doing her Jr. Ranger guide book at Harpers Ferry, Alyssa was so excited to discover a secret trap door in the floorboards of one of the buildings we stopped in...


 And this is her "doing that which I know I shouldn't" face.


 




















The Jr. Ranger program is probably our girls' favorite part about visiting National Park sites. In most National Parks there is a series of activities that range from worksheets to seeing living history demonstrations, to asking questions of the rangers {etc}, that the children are able to complete in order to earn a badge. Here at Harpers Ferry, there were 3 different levels to complete depending on the child's age and how much time you want to spend on it. Our girls were so excited when they earned all 3 badges, they thought they were only going to get one badge for the highest level completed, but when they were given all 3 (Rebekah only completed the first level and a good part of the second, so she only got 2 badges) they were so pleased. At the end of the slide show you can see how happy they were taking the "Jr. Ranger Oath."

I highly recommend any of the Jr. Ranger programs at any park in the country. We've done several and they have never disappointed. It's such a great way for the kids to experience the significance of the park/site. Many parks are currently redoing their programs and making them more specific, hence the 3 different levels at Harpers Ferry. All very fun and worthwhile family activities ~ I learn a lot myself every time we work on one of the booklets with the girls!

Crayola Factory

 




















The Crayola Factory at Two Rivers Landing in Easton, Pa was a lot of fun. Lots of cool crafts with the newest crayola products, the girls loved it! Upstairs from Crayola is the The National Canal Museum where the girls each got to float a barge down their mock river system to see how goods would have been delivered between cities long ago.






 This picture Dave took of Alyssa came out really neat. I'm not sure why, but at first I couldn't see her in there. She's posing in red, and the image swirls out in various colors.


 I loved her concerned expression as her artwork came out of the drying oven. Endless hours of fun with paints, model magic, melted crayons and more. I should have scanned in some of their artwork from the day, but I'm just thinking of that now, so maybe another time :-)

the back to school blahs

 
What Stan and Jan Berenstain failed to address in this cute little book was if their mothers were ready to send them :-)


I have been really bad about keeping up with posting the last couple of weeks. It's partly just about being busy, but mostly it's been that with each summer activity we check off our list {so to speak}, it's harder to avoid the fact that summer is very quickly coming to a close. And I just haven't felt like typing that sentence out quite yet.

Rebekah will be going to school, so it will be the first time since I was 20 that I haven't had a baby at home with me during the day. Maybe you need to back up and read that last part again...yes, that's right since I was 20 {since 5 days before turning 20 if we are being exactly exact}. I'm now pushing 31. So it will be different, and I'm sad to send them off to school. Even though I know they are wonderfully educated and taken care of there, not to mention the fact that I spend a lot of time in the classrooms myself, it's still sad. The secretaries have often offered me my own work space in their office, and that was when I still toted at least one little one around with me while I was helping out. So, I'm more excited and even more motivated to be there this year than ever before.

I remember bringing Alyssa to kindergarten, which really doesn't seem long ago at all! I watched the other families dropping off their kindergartners for the first time and many of the families were bringing their youngest child to school for the first time, as we are doing this year with Kamele. I saw two completely different emotions from most of the parents. Some were sad, others seemed relieved to have made it to this milestone with their kids. I remember thinking in that moment that I didn't want to be either family. I realized I was super content to forever stay in the "baby stage" with our family and I definitely didn't look forward to ever being that sad mom, and I couldn't at all relate to being the relieved mom. So now, fast forward five short years, and here we are, sending the baby who wasn't even born at that time to school. Blah!

I know whether I had four or five short years at home with the girls, or fifty years, it never would have been enough time. It wasn't one of those things that I was going to wake up one morning thinking, okay I've done enough of that, let's move on to something else. So the time had to come at some point, and for me that's this Wednesday at 9:10 am. The backpacks are packed, there's not much left to do.

The girls are for the most part very excited to go back. Emma has complained that they have to sit too much, so for that reason she's hoping to extend summer vacation as long as she can. Alyssa wanted her friend Molly to be in class with her, and they got split up, so that has put a damper on things for her, but overall I know they look forward to going. Rebekah is just happy to be able to pack up a lunch box and pretend to be a big kid. So I try to be super excited like they are, knowing how important their schooling is.

Something the girls weren't really excited about was my back to school photo shoot I did about a week or two ago. I wanted to get some really nice back to school pics to commemorate a big year, Alyssa's last year in elementary and Rebekah's first year ever. I discovered really quickly {and when I say really quickly, I mean the moment we stepped out of the car} last year that after 3rd grade, it is no longer a good idea to follow your child around at school, thinking you are going to capture any special first day moments. So I knew I needed to plan ahead. I think the photos came out cute, and I'll post them once the girls are back in school and I've had a better chance to look at them and choose my favorites. But I really had to work for them. I had visions of cute back pack poses and this is what I was getting...

 Little girls more interested in their shadow than the camera...


 Trying to decide if they wanted to laugh or cry.


 Hats covering faces.


 And just general, pout faces.


 It's okay, Rebekah, I feel the same way.

Franklin Institute and COSI

We went to 2 great science museums during our trip. Our membership at our local museum reciprocates with many other museums across the country, so both trips were completely free , and free is very good and lots of fun too!

The first was The Franklin Institute, we went here after dropping Dave's parents off at the airport the day they had to go home :-( . On a happier note, it was also the day Emma figured out she could walk on her cast without any help, so she thought she better get back to her rock climbing and surfing that you can see her doing in the slide show.
 




















The Franklin Institute was a really cool museum highlighting Benjamin Franklin's inventions and areas of study. We were able to explore his work in the medical field, electricity, air travel, and simple machines, and see how his work influenced future discoveries. The girls also made homemade paper which they thought was really cool.


 




















We loved the museum and the unique exhibits. With Dave's help the girls were able to build a structure that they later tested the strength of with a simulated earthquake. There was a booth for the girls to do mock weather reports {these turned out to be so funny, if I can ever dig out the video of them, I will post}, there were "lava tubes" to crawl through and explore the impact volcanoes have on the surrounding terrain, and they had this cool scale that instead of telling you your weight, it told how many cups of blood your body was holding. So Cool!








COSI, in Columbus Ohio was also a super cool science center. I believe it was Parents Magazine that rated them the best science discovery center in the country. They had the best water play area, it looked like a mermaid's grotto. We probably could have played just in that section for a good part of the day. The outdoor play yard was great too. They have a giant lever where using your body weight, you try to lift a car into the air. There was also a neat audio visual section that used lots of green screen technology to do cool stuff, and our girls have been talking about green screen ever since our visit. They will see an advertisement, or something on tv and they will all have to make a guess as to whether it was "green screened" or not.

Alyssa was able to participate in a study that the researchers at the museum were conducting to see if games such as Wii actually encourage children to be more active in their play. I have never checked on the end results of the study, but she ran almost 2 miles in 10 minutes as part of the exercise for their research.


And because the girls have decided where they don't want to go to school: