Back to School - 5 lessons from the first 4 weeks

As they say - the days are long, but the years are short.....

Seriously, I don't even know what happened to summer and we are already 4 weeks into the new school year.  

Our key lessons to date:


#1  Public schools are a serious 'all hands on deck' affair

I am used to silly long school supply lists...

But a pre-opening 'prep the school day' is a new one...

We painted....

Vacuumed...

And steam cleaned away...

Zoe opted for marker testing...

(smart girl)

#2  Outfits matter
I am a firm believer in new first day of school outfits that the kids pick & are excited about

My mom set a high bar hand making our rockin' 70s outfits

It's a bit sad to see what we've traded flaired out jumpers for....

But the kids all seemed happy

(OK, moderately happy - well at least not full-on in a funk anyhow)

#3  It takes more than a little dog to get a big kid vertical
We had the pleasure to babysit Xavier's teacher's dog - Olive - when she went away.  

She is hilarious and gassy...

And taught me that if 2 dogs playing - literally - on top of a kid can't wake him, I shouldn't take it personally when I need to go beyond full volume to get people up

Only 4 weeks in & we've had some serious cases of morning inertia.  

Not many photos as 'belligerent mom' seems to be trumping 'capture the moment mom'

Yesterday was another rough one - the kids missed several buses & I ended up driving them with a less than "Family Circle" setting along the way.

I had to recover with some retail-therapy.

The silver lining?... 

Lucky is now ready for Halloween...

#4  Ice cream is a solid incentive
We (ok me) decided we better take advantage of our environment and set a regular day to bike to school.  The idea was met with mixed excitement...

But given the ~4 mile takes us past several ice cream stores, what started as a 1-time perk has turned into a required incentive

Clearly there could be worse outcomes

(Zoe braved her first solo ride home!) 

#5  Substitute teachers are screwed
The first week of school, Xavier's teacher went out of town for 3 days.  His notoriously 'energetic' 5th grade class gave the subs (yes subs) a serious run for their money - they had to bring in a new one each of the 3 days.

At the following week's 'Community Meeting' his class put on a skit about making bad choices with a sub & chanted about choosing to be in control

If that proves effective, I fully expect you'll start to hear a LOT of chanting coming from our house in the mornings


Here's to all our teachers, aiming for zen & if all else fails - chant it out

Working on our Californian & Payback's a Bitch

About 1 1/2 years here, we're getting past the point where we can say we're 'new to town'.  As such, we figure we better start working on our 'Californian'.


Our efforts to 'Californian-ize' in the past few weeks:

A wedding in the wine country.....

A FOGGY picnic at the Beach...

And since California is home to 8 of the country's 58 National Parks, we figured we better get crackin' - planned a Labor Day trip to Yosemite. 

The kid's reaction to these plans?
     Total 1982 deja vu

Mirrored my response almost exactly to what felt like 300 trips / year to Arizona's Grand Canyon   (move from Chicago to Arizona  =  lots of visitors  =  a LOT of trips to the Grand Canyon)  

Some choice quotes:

• "I DON'T want to go to Yosemite"
• "It's just another park - we live 2 blocks from a park"
• "It's going to be STUPID"

And one that showcases the inclusive & collaborative world they are growing up in:

• "But we didn't all agree on this - I think we should all get to decide where we go"

Needless to say, I was expecting very little from this (forced) adventure.
What did we discover?

A cool hotel can do wonders...
The Tenaya Lodge rocked - literally (hahahaha)

with loads of activities...

 

fab pools...

(even a 'dive in movie'!)

And dog friendly

Once we pulled ourselves away, we found Yosemite is also a pretty fab place
Lots of cool rock formations.....

and plenty of flat land to bike on....

(The flat enabled Zoe to learn to ride solo - the tag along is now officially redundant!)

While it wasn't exactly a "gee, you guys were right", we did hear multiple "this place is COOL" - I'll take it!

(Author's side note:

Dear Mom & Dad, I am sorry for whining and generally being an ingrate for pretty much all of the 1980s.  
I appreciate your expense and effort to expose us to culture, nature and all the other cool stuff I complained about.  

In hindsight, I'm sure it was all fab.  Love, Merilee)

So....while we are getting there with 'Californian', 
I am still struggling with some aspects of this fine state....

(Seriously?!)

Here's to 'lovin' the one your with' & ignoring the noise of nay-sayers along the way