It's In the Can

For the first time in a couple of years, there will be NO Disney princess running around our house for Halloween. That's because Dev chose a "Bat Witch" as her costume!  She seems thrilled with it & I'm glad we have a "warm" costume...I think we're going to need it next week.

We had a great report card and conference from her 1st months at school.  Apparently, someone has blossomed into quite the social butterfly.  Our only concern is that she's getting enough work done in the mornings.  Her teacher says she's very content to chat, write stories and color....flitting about the room with all her friends.  Although I'm glad to hear she's coming out of her shell a bit, we're refocusing her efforts in the morning towards more meaningful school work.


 

They say there's a first time for everything and this week was my first time canning.  I read Pioneer Woman's Advice and called my Mother-In-Law to see what she thought.  Turns out Pioneer Woman uses the basic "Ball" recipe, as does my MIL.  It took me about a week to gather everything I needed and I waited for the first cold, rainy day.  Turns out that day was yesterday!

See.  I was ready!!!



Overall, it was very easy and a lot of fun to make.  I most enjoy baking because of its' science-like qualities and canning is very similar.  At the last second, I read in the "Ball Bible" that it's important to measure the dry ingredients (sugar) exactly.  Sure enough, I had almost a 1/2 cup too much.

I think mashing up the strawberries was my favorite part.  I'm going to make another batch this weekend with Devin home, so she can see how much fun it is.




All fires burning!  The cold day made it nice to stand by the stove all morning.


Finished product!  I made 8 jars and had some extra for the fridge.  It tastes AMAZING!  There's no comparison to this and say, Smuckers.  This morning, I checked all the lids and they are concave and not popping or moving.  SUCCESS!  I did forget one step, to scrape off the jelly "scum" after boiling.  I guess I didn't see much of it, so I forgot.



So, I'm off to Costco ASAP to get more strawberries and hopefully some peaches.  These little jars will be perfect for our school Bake and Craft Sale in November.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

The only way to describe the past few weeks is pure joy. Everyone is healthy and thriving & we spend most of our weekends outside. Someone FINALLY lost the other front tooth, which was a big deal. The Tooth Fairy made another visit and even left a note:)

Last weekend, we walked up and down Bardstown Road.   Devin enjoyed going into all the little shops, always looking for new earrings.  We'll be able to change her pierced earrings by the end of the week.  There's been no trouble with the starter set and her ears healed perfectly.  

I was shocked a few weeks ago, when I found one of her stuffed Golden Retrievers covered with "make up."  At 6.5 years, I figured we were past this stage.

Dev is growing up fast.  Her school experience has been amazing.  We couldn't ask for a better start to 1st Grade.  This weekend, we helped at an Open House for prospective families.  When I told her it was time to go, I heard an amazing sound...a whine of "awwwwww."  She said, "I wish it was a regular school day, so I could stay."  

The older children in class continue to be a source of inspiration and (sometimes) frustration.  She gets SO mad at herself if something she does isn't perfect in her eyes.  We're trying to help her manage expectations and value "mistakes."  I explained how I play certain tennis matches, knowing I will most likely lose.  But, it's the experience I enjoy...the exercise, the competition and learning from mistakes.  

Here's the happy girl, practicing her hand stands.  It's a borderline obsession at the moment.

A Few Firsts

It was a week of firsts around here.

She's been "ready" to ride a bike for awhile.  But, she needed a bigger bike and we decided to wait until the Fall to buy one.  I figured the heat of the summer was best spent at the pool vs. running behind a bike and listening to her scream and cry.

After many frustrating attempts at teaching her to ride, I Googled "How to teach a child to ride a bike." They had a GREAT You Tube video about the subject and it held a miracle secret for us...take off the pedals!  Once we did that, she started instantly coasting and balancing.  All she had to worry about was coasting and steering.  Which is a lot, actually.  After a week of coasting up and down the sidewalk, I put the pedals back on and she was riding in 5 minutes.  No falls, no screaming, no tears.

Thank you Google.

After many tears,


crashes,

and skinned knees and elbows,
 


she finally
 

 figured out,

how to ride her bike:




We are spending lots of time outside in the glorious weather.
:



 I spotted this huge Praying Mantis in the garden:



At school this year, they are ALL getting violin lessons.  Can you imagine the sounds??  She showed a lot of interest and excitement so we decided to rent her a violin and split a private lesson with one of her friends.  The music teacher offers private lessons during regular school hours, so it's NOT another after school thing.  Chess on Mondays, violin on Tuesday and tennis on Thursdays is more than enough.  But, she seems happy and rested throughout the week.  I've observed at school how students can really take a breather when they need to...read a book, get a snack, work on the computer.  It's their choice during the day:)

She brought her first violin home. You might want to turn down the volume before hitting play:

6 Weeks In

Somehow, 6 weeks has already passed since school started. I didn't think time could go any faster than it did this summer, but I was wrong. Devin is continuing to "love" school and has adjusted to the elementary program nicely. We're certainly seeing more traditional "work" coming home...spelling lists, math problems and science research. We still see some sewing work and she tells me about doing geography puzzles and working on "stories" with some of the older children. I think the influence of the older kids has been good for Dev. She's currently obsessed with cursive handwriting and doing handstands, both something her favorite 3rd grader in class can do.  She wrote this anagram for her friend, I love that the "a's" both equal "outstanding."

(d=delightful, i=I love her, n=Birthday in November)


Dev is still very connected to her "old" friends, who make up the 10 1st graders in class.  She wrote this "story" for them last night.




This week brought the first Field Trip for Dev's class.  Of course, I was happy to chaperone so I could take lots of pictures get an official tour of Huber's Farm.

I think she was most excited about the long bus ride.


I loved seeing the older children, take care of the younger ones.


There were white pumpkins.

We saw how they make Apple Cider.


Apples

Our school's apple!
 


Each student could pick 5 apples from the orchard.  Devin and her good friend "C" were the first done!



Then, it was time for Pumpkin picking!  They each could choose a small pumpkin to take home.


Picking pumpkins was tough!


And, this Bamboo Maze was even tougher.  I think Devin was lost in there for 30 minutes.


This was not a small course to pedal around.  By the end of the field trip, the kids were happy and exhausted.  We had a great day!

iPads and Piercings

Just a few weeks ago, we had our school's big back-to-school PTO picnic.  It's been awhile since I made my famous (or infamous Rainbow Cake).  It's SO much fun to make and even more fun to watch children discover what's inside that big, plain white cake.  Sure, it's full of sugar/chemicals/dyes and everything else we shouldn't eat.  But, it's RAINBOWS!  What's healthier than a good dose of rainbow?

   

The PTO picnic was a great success, especially for the local flies and bugs.  But, we shooed them off and ate anyway.  Dev thoroughly enjoyed running around the park with her friends from last year and a few new friends.  (I have lots of great pictures, but I do not post pictures of other children on the blog unless I have their parent's permission...and I'm too lazy/busy to bother right now)

 

Dev started group tennis lessons with some of her friends from school...this is one of her closest friends and they like to do everything together!  We're so glad we found this class available, with one of my favorite pros at the club, James.

  

Everyone was asking how I grew such amazing Eggplant.  Seriously, I completely ignored the plant.  It  was rarely watered, never fertilized and grew amongst plenty of weeds.  So, that's the secret to perfect Eggplants...

 

I scored twice with this thing.  One, it's a great new way to take my lunch places.  Two, I have a new Scrabble word to play, "Tiffin."  They are native to India and I had noticed many children with these at Devin's school.  Matt found one on Amazon for me:)

 


For our 16th wedding Anniversary, Matt bought me an iPad!  We've had so much fun playing around with it and learning the features.   

We let Devin play with it for a few minutes before bed and found these self-portraits the next morning.  Interesting view of the top bunk and her sleeping bonnet.  Yes, a bonnet.  She feels it helps her hair in the morning.  (Like Little House on the Prairie)



So, Devin has been asking to get her ears pierced for about a year now.  We said absolutely not, until she was able to help care for them and understand our "rules" about earrings.  Late in the summer, we thought it might be a good motivational tool for the start of school.  I HATE dangling rewards and/or punishments out there in order to control behavior, but we thought having something to look forward to might help with the return to school transition.  Well, that was a sucker bet.  She's 100% happy at school and comes home saying, "I love school."  So, it was earring time.  She talked about it for WEEKS.  She counted down to days, like it was Christmas morning.  Finally, the big afternoon arrived and she was....much less excited.

 

The piercer was SO good and explained every step to Devin.  After the first ear, she said "OUCH!"  The lady held up the mirror and Devin's smile was absolutely priceless.  The second ear was easy and we were on our way.

  

Back To School 1.0

On the last day of school, way back in May, I remember looking at my calendar for the summer. As I flipped through the pages, I wondered how we would ever fill that much time. Now as August comes to a close, I really can't believe I felt that way! I realize Dev won't remember specifics from our early summers together, but I hope she has as sense of the fun we had. I thoroughly enjoyed our relaxed mornings in pajamas, swimming in the afternoons and exploring our city. We took another trip to Holiday World, and somehow had even MORE fun than the first trip. Devin's love for water spans into water slides and wave pools. She rode every ride they had to offer...even Pilgrim's Plunge! 



We spent lots of time in my garden.  I really can't cut these sunflowers for bouquets, they're too tall!  For never watering, record heat and drought...the sunflowers, Zinnia and tomatoes are happy.
 

My favorite cleaning task: STEAM CLEANING CARPETS!!!  Now I can share the black water of death with the whole world!




When it wasn't 100 degrees or more, we went on lots of nature walks.

 Back to School Dinner

Devin's choice!  We were surprised she didn't go with her usual...Corbett's.





We enjoyed our dinner at the top of the building.  Devin ate 3 oz of filet mignon, caesar salad, fries and chocolate ice cream, I had the lobster!



So, then it was finally time to head back to school.  Except this time, Devin is a "big kid."  She is upstairs, in the school's elementary program.  We had one or two tears upon separation the first day.  But, I could already hear her giggling up the stairs when she saw her friends.  At car line that afternoon, she hopped in the car and said, "MOM!  Upstairs is wwwaaaaayyyyy funner than downstairs!!"

We are beyond thrilled with her first few days as an elementary student.  She seems calm, happy and centered.  Compared with last year, it's about a zillion times better.  At home, she talks pretty much NON-STOP about things that happened during the day.  In just 2 days we've heard:

     -Miss Marcia taught me to write my name in cursive!
     -Did you know there's going to be an election and we have TWO choices?
     -Two girls had their ear's pierced this summer at a derm-a-tol-a-gist.  Not the mall!

We're continuing with chess club this year, starting violin and she starts formal tennis lessons today.  Several of her friends from school are in a class at our club, so that is perfect.  She's always wanted to be in a group tennis class, but wanted some friends there too.  So, this should be perfect.