Saying Goodbye To Girl Scouts (For Now?)

This year, Girl Scouts has been a pleasant surprise for me and for Celeste. I have no real history with the organization, and I'm wary of some of the political ideologies espoused by some of the general Girl Scout leadership. But none of that mattered when it came time to choose an extracurricular activity for Celeste last fall. What mattered was: Would Celeste enjoy Girl Scouts? Would she have fun participating in those kinds of activities? What sorts of things would she learn while in Girl Scouts? Would this activity be a sufficient replacement for dance class for this year?

Most of these questions were answered satisfactorily for us over the course of the last school year. One of the main reasons I agreed to put Celeste in Girl Scouts was its cheapness; the initial registration fee was very low, and after the cookie sales in the winter were done, many of her activities came at no cost (unless you count all the boxes of cookies we bought and gobbled up).

Beyond that, however, there were several other fun, creative activities Celeste was able to participate in, and she was able to have fun with a sweet bunch of girls and kind, enthusiastic leaders. I truly feel that Celeste learned a lot and had fun with everyone there. The variety of all the activities was also quite impressive. Besides the cookie sales, Celeste was able to attend a fancy tea party and learn about etiquette; make care packages for homeless shelters; attend a Halloween party; watch a University of Arizona basketball game; make homemade ice cream; jump around at a trampoline gym; attend a movie as a group; participate in an Easter-egg hunt and Easter luncheon; and have a mother-daughter painting date, among other things. And this list is just what Celeste was able to attend; there were several other activities we couldn't even make it to, due to our busy family schedule.

So was Girl Scouts worth it, even for a full school year? I'd venture a "yes": even if the meeting times were somewhat inconvenient (Friday nights, ugh), it was time well spent by my enthusiastic girl.

As the school year wound down, Celeste's Girl Scout troop tried to put together a handful of early-summer activities, so that the troop could get some more things done before people started leaving on vacations. During the week of Memorial Day, the troop planned no less than three different activities, all on different days and all in different parts of Pima County. Here are the two we managed to attend:

1. Celeste got to build another bear at Build-A-Bear.

This activity was not as novel as it might otherwise have been, due to our family's trip to Build-A-Bear at the New Year.  But no matter! Celeste was going to get the opportunity to build another bear! Best yet (for cheapskate Mom, anyway)--Celeste had a credit balance at the store , thanks to her Girl Scout cookie sales! It was actually a larger sum than we had given the girls at our Christmas trip; this enabled Celeste to be a bit more flexible in her purchase.

I thought that Celeste would certainly pick out a licensed character to stuff (they had My Little Pony and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys available, as well as the Minions from Despicable Me). However, in the end, Celeste settled on another bear...and this bear was adorned with the Girl Scout logo, and had a Girl Scout cookie pattern on her paws!

I wa

s surprised at the choice; every girl got to pick their own style of stuffed animal. No one was "forced" to pick anything. I suspect Celeste chose the Girl Scout-themed bear to remind her of how she got to the activity in the first place. It was a thoughtful choice.

Since she had some credit left over afterwards, she was able to get her bear some beautiful clothes!

Behold..."Beary Scout"! (This was Celeste's name for her bear. We'll see if it sticks!)

After everyone had stuffed their animals, the whole troop posed outside the store:

It was a fun activity and I'm grateful to the Girl Scout troop for so kindly providing the funds!

2. The great Girl Scout "Bridging" ceremony.

In a nutshell, this was Girl Scout "graduation." Each Girl Scout present was given a small bag of prizes and a diploma, and was then instructed to walk underneath the "bridge" of balloons. This action officially "promoted" all the girls into the next Scouting level. This meant that Celeste officially finished her time as a Daisy, and became a Brownie!

She was very proud of her accomplishment, and so was I. She was very enthusiastic and willing to help everyone all year; she was truly a Daisy with a good heart. We spent the rest of that evening eating (there was a lot of good food at this celebration) and spending time with friends.

Now it remained to be seen whether Celeste will advance into the Brownie role next year. Celeste was torn between doing Girl Scouts again and rejoining the Sahuarita Dance Center.

Ultimately, I talked her into passing on Girl Scouts for next year, for a few reasons. The biggest reason was time;  our family was getting tired of the Friday night activities. Call me selfish, but I want my weekend evenings to myself! Perhaps in the future, we can join a troop that will let us hold activities on another night.

Another factor to consider is the larger number of exracurricular activities Celeste may be signing up for this fall. She wants a part in next year's school play (if those parts will be available for 2nd graders, which I have been told might be the case. She will also be doing Sahuarita Dance next fall, and I suspect those two activities combined might be somewhat difficult to balance. Last of all, Celeste will be turning eight at the end of the year (eek!), and will start attending Activity Days through our church. Activity Days will likely feature many activities similar to those at the Girl Scout troop meetings. In short, it may help feed that desire for interaction that Celeste has become accustomed to as a Girl Scout.

So, Girl Scouts will be put on the back-burner...for now. There may be a troop activity or two that Celeste will be able to participate in this summer, but when school starts, it will be time to say goodbye. However, I told Celeste to be patient, and perhaps she will be able to do it again eventually. One of the older Girl Scout girls at the bridging ceremony (an older teenager) said in her farewell speech that "it's never too old to start Girl Scouts." And it's true! Even though we may not be getting back to girl Scouts for a while, it's entirely possible Celeste will be able to rejoin a troop at some point in the future.

However, that knowledge that Celeste is done with Girl Scouts (for now) has made me more wistful than I thought I would be. Celeste really did enjoy Girl Scouts, and I hope she will have the opportunity to have experiences like it again soon in the future! It has been a good year, and both of us have had lots of fun. Hooray for Girl Scouts!

School's Out AND Daddy Had A Birthday!

One more school year has come and gone. First, Aurora (my baby!) graduated preschool. Then, a week later, Lorelai and Celeste celebrated their last day of school at their charter school, Great Expectations Academy.

This year, I wasn't able to volunteer in my kids' classes nearly as much as I wanted; I was able to manage one field trip with each girl, and that was about it. Lorelai's teacher said she didn't need any help in the classroom, and Celeste's teacher was either absent (which was a lot...she had a new baby in the fall, and it took up a lot of her time), or needed volunteers at a time when I couldn't make it. Oh well...the girls seemed to survive without me, at any rate! However, not being there most of the time made it more difficult to understand what my girls were going through on a daily basis. I'm hoping that next year, with all three girls in school, I'll be able to have a more consistent presence in their classes, or otherwise helping out at the school.

Look at these cuties!

There were some ups and downs this school year (some loneliness/"mean girl" issues for Lorelai, some difficult/disobedient children for Celeste), but overall I think both girls ended the year on a positive note. Celeste's grades stayed fairly consistent, and Lorelai got mostly strong but fluctuating grades. She would get all A's, and then one B or C in one subject. Finally, in the fourth quarter, Lorelai got straight A's! We were very proud of her for this achievement, and hope that will boost her confidence going into the fifth grade next year (yikes! That sounds very grown-up to me).

There weren't any assemblies on the last day of school; the students all celebrated in their classrooms. It was mostly low-key, but all the kids had fun. Best of all, it was a half-day of school, so I showed up early to help the kids clean out their desks and say their final goodbyes to their teachers. But their excitement at being free overwhelmed their nostalgia, so their goodbyes felt pretty perfunctory. They were also excited to go out to lunch, which has become our last-day-of-school tradition!

This year, we decided to go to Chili's for lunch, which was up in southern Tucson. The girls really love the food there, but they also loved being crazy and making lots of silly faces.

 

So many silly faces that I was compelled to join in as well...

 

 

After our lunch, we crashed pretty hard at home and savored our new-found freedom for the summer. But our weekend wasn't all laying about doing nothing; there was something else to celebrate...

Nathan's 38th birthday! It is both Nathan's blessing and curse that his birthday falls in late May. Blessing, in that he often gets to take four-day weekends for his birthday, since Memorial is so often right after his birthday. Curse, in that with school ending and a holiday imminent, Nathan's birthday celebrations often get a little rushed and overlooked. But I think things worked out pretty well this year.

Nathan started out the fun by going out to breakfast on the girls' last day of school. Aurora and I accompanied him (if you're keeping track, this means I went out to eat for both breakfast and lunch that day; I felt very overstuffed by the late afternoon!). The next day, we had a lazy morning but a fun afternoon. The girls stayed with Grandma for a couple of hours, helping her cook Nathan's favorite dinner (his mom's famous chicken enchiladas). In the meantime, Nathan and I went on our "date"...

...we golfed nine holes at the Country Club of Green Valley! Even though this was to celebrate Nathan's birthday, I have to point out the significance of this event. This day (Saturday, May 23rd, 2015) was the first time I've ever played any holes of golf. And I was pretty terrible, if I do say so myself!

Since I'm a lefty, we borrowed a friend's left-handed set of clubs. Even though we started at the closest tee-box for each hole, I still had to hit the ball like a dozen times on each hole, in order to get the ball to the green.

I am so glad we went late in the afternoon, so there weren't many people behind us! I was constantly afraid that some other golfers would catch up to us and sit there, impatiently tapping their feet, waiting for me to get my incompetent butt in gear. Thankfully, that never happened...but I was still going pretty slowly.

Nathan's golf game has improved significantly since he started playing regularly last fall. He has also learned all the terminology and phrasing, and he likes to go on about his swing and par and club types and other things that mean almost nothing to me. I am trying to learn about golf, but it's not a sport I'm really interested in, so I'd be lying if I said I always listened intently to everything golf-related that Nathan has said. I hope I was a good enough sport on this outing to not totally drive my beloved husband crazy! He says he's going to take me golfing again in the future, but I don't plan on encouraging him. At this point in my life, I still prefer to exercise by myself. Time will tell as to whether golf ever becomes one of my passions.

But it is always fun to ride around in the golf cart, especially with a studly man like Nathan as my chaperone! Plus, Nathan tells me I got a triple bogey on one of the holes, which is good for a first-timer...I guess? From here, I have nowhere to go but up.

After golfing, we sat down to an absolutely delicious dinner, courtesy of Grandma Barrett and her little helpers.

After dinner was done, we had dessert. Usually, Nathan likes me to make pies for his birthday. This year, however, he decided to break with tradition and requested angel-food cake and strawberries (his father's favorite dessert).

There was one more family activity to wrap up the day. The week before, our family took a short trip to a local BevMo to buy some botique/independently bottled sodas. We have been doing this activity every few months for a year or two now. It is great fun! Here are our selections from this trip...

This time, we got pretty lucky...most of the sodas were quite tasty! The exception was (as expected) the corn soda...ick! You definitely do not want to burp after drinking that one. My favorite ended up being the blueberry lemonade, with the huckleberry soda coming in as a close second. Our opinions were somewhat divergent, though...there were many different favorites among our family!

After a relatively quiet Sunday, we had a few friends over for a rib barbecue on Monday (Memorial Day). It was very enjoyable, but wouldn't you know it...I forgot to take pictures! Probably because the weekend wore me right out. At least I was worn out in a good cause...entertaining others and making new friends (one of our guests was a family that had recently moved into the ward). Everyone involved brought a lot of yummy food, the kids played well together, and everyone had a lot of fun visiting with one another.

I am so grateful for my family, and all the milestones they experienced at the end of May. I can't wait for a relaxing, fun summer with the girls, and I am so happy Nathan had a good birthday as well. I can't wait to spend more time with my loved ones this summer!

My Last Kid Graduates From Preschool (SOB)

Sometimes I feel like time is slipping by too fast. Even though it is summer break now for our family, it is almost surreal to realize that another school year (while stuffed) has passed me by, more quickly than I thought it would. And nothing brought this fact home harder than seeing my youngest child--my baby--graduate from preschool. In just under two months, my tiny princess will be entering kindergarten, aka The World Of The Big Kids. HOW can she be a "big kid"?? Where has the time gone?

For her part, Aurora has loved preschool this year. At the same time, though, she is clearly ready to take the next big step to kindergarten. She is by far the most sociable of my three girls, and sitting at home alone with Mom just wasn't cutting it for her this year. True, she managed to have lots of play dates with her friends, but even so, I could tell she yearned for more regular social interaction. Aurora loves groups of people, and she loves stimulating play. I couldn't always give her that when I was taking her to the grocery store, or (worse) sitting in front of our computer goofing off or paying bills. After Aurora turned five in January, she started asking me when she was going to start kindergarten, now that she was "old enough" to go. I told her she needed to finish the school year first, and to graduate from Ms. Nichole's preschool class.

When her graduation approached, Aurora turned from being excited into being a little melancholy. She finally realized that the end of preschool also meant the end of lessons, play-time, crafts, and fun with friends three times a week. Most of all, it meant the end of going over to Ms. Nichole's house! Just like Celeste before her, Aurora fell in love with Ms. Nichole. I love her too; she is such a sweet, friendly person who is always quick to smile, no matter what else was going on.

This was a tumultuous year for Nichole; she had her third baby (a cute little girl named Scout) in October; her husband was finishing medical school and looking for a job; and her mother became seriously ill in the winter, forcing Nichole to take an unscheduled, extended trip out of town. Through all the stress, she never failed to greet students and parents with a smile every day, and work very hard at giving her students the best experience possible. She was also good at getting substitute teachers, so that the class would proceed mostly uninterrupted. I was so impressed at her ability to keep everything held together so nicely.

 

But more important than my own feelings were Aurora's...and luckily, she adored Nichole and looked forward to every day of class. In fact, by the end of the school year, Aurora's career goals had changed. She no longer wanted to be a "policeman" (her choice at the beginning of the school year); now she wanted to become a teacher, just like Nichole, so she could help others to learn. It was very sweet and touching to see how much she looked up to her wonderful teacher.

Due to Nichole's schedule, there weren't a lot of field trips or extra parties this year for preschool. But that was fine with all of the parents, since the class itself was going so well. On the final day of class, the kids all lined up and sang several songs to their parents, to show off their newfound knowledge.

There was a "days of the week" song...

 The "months of the year" song...

And some sort of "cat sat on a hat" song! I'm afraid I didn't get the name of the last song, but it's still cute.

Then everyone sat down and waited to receive their diplomas.

We were all so excited to see the kids in their cute little caps and gowns! Everyone looked very official. I loved seeing Aurora sharing that moment with all her friends that she'd grown closer to throughout the year.

 

Our family has been so grateful for this preschool experience...and for Celeste's experience a couple of years ago, in the same preschool. We couldn't have asked for a better teacher in Ms. Nichole, and we loved the convenience of holding class at her house (she lived in the next neighborhood over, so more often than not, Aurora rode her bike to class!). We were very blessed to have so many things come together and make this arrangement work so well. I felt Celeste was almost "over-prepared" when she finally made it to kindergarten, and I suspect Aurora will be the same way. I'm so glad Nichole encouraged my girls to learn and grow.

When it was all over, Aurora and I headed home, and I couldn't stop staring at my little girl and thinking how much bigger she suddenly looked. We stared at each other, as if to ask, "Now what?" What, indeed? We have one more summer together, and then it's time to prepare her for the next big step in her life. It's a step that Aurora is much more ready for than I am! Our school does all-day kindergarten, and the thought of that much time every day by myself is still almost too much to contemplate. Some days I can't wait for all my kids to be in school, and some days I don't feel ready for that time to come. But it's coming very soon now, and I sure hope both Aurora and I are ready! In the meantime, we will do our best to enjoy the summertime together.

Some Musical End-Of-School Happenings

May was a very busy month for us, with stuff happening every day and every night, or so it seemed. Many of these activities (though not all of them) were school-related. With everything winding down for the year, the school days themselves may have been a bit dull (standardized testing was over, and now there was nothing for the kids to do!!), but there was a lot of extracurricular stuff that kept us hopping.

Several of these school's-end events involved music. Besides my own piano recital earlier in the month, there was a musical assembly at our charter school, performed by all the elementary-grad classes and directed by the school's music teacher. I have been a bit on the fence with my regard for the school's music teacher this year; sometimes, I have worried her musical qualifications were a bit lacking. Often, the kids would come home after music class and talk about "play-acting" or "dancing to Top 40 hits"...and nothing else. I worried that the kids weren't getting any education in music fundamentals, and as a music teacher that bothered me a bit. I had no personal issue with the teacher; however, there were times I wished the school would have just called her class a "dance/movement" class, not a music class!

My concerns were somewhat mollified, though, with the spring assembly. While the focus was still more on dancing, the overall theme of the assembly was more organized and ambitious than the school's other previous efforts, and each class acquitted themselves well in their performance! The theme was "musical styles from around the world," and each class performed a piece from a different musical genre. There was African choral music, big-band swing, country music, R&B, Latin pop, and more. It was fun to see how each performance differed from the others, and it all made for a nicely varied experience!

Celeste's class was assigned to perform "country music," and they really threw themselves into their square-dancing efforts!

Celeste is in the front on the left, in the salmon-colored shirt.

 

Lorelai's class had a slightly more exotic assignment: they performed an Indian-style dance (my apologies for forgetting the name of this style...possibly bhangra?). It was very similar to the Bollywood dance numbers that often occur at the end of so many Indian films. It involved a lot of large hand & arm gestures and some cool hip and foot movements. I didn't get a video of the actual dance, but I managed to snap some photos of some of the best bits:

 

 

I really love Indian music (although I'll freely confess that I don't know much about the genre), so this was a fun number for me to watch. The kids seemed to have a fun time performing it!

All in all, it was a good assembly, and parents and students alike went home satisfied. But that wasn't the last musical event the school had to offer this school year. The following week, our family convened in a nearby church to hear the Great Expectations Academy's two jazz bands perform.

Lorelai has been playing trombone in beginning band all year, and she has liked it most of the time. For a while in the middle of the year, half of her rehearsals were cancelled due to a variety of factors (many of which involved scheduling conflicts with the advanced band's travel plans). However, towards the end of the year, Lorelai started getting really excited about band again. She loved the songs that were picked, and she had a lot of fun performing.

 

For a few of the songs, advanced band was able to play with beginning band (probably to boost the sound somewhat; neither band is especially big!). I was very proud when Mr. Mark, the director, recognized each band member. Lorelai is always so shy when she's being introduced, but she doesn't let it keep her from performing well!

This was Lorelai's favorite song that beginning band performed this year (it's the main theme from "Peter Gunn," an older TV show):

 And here's our little virtuoso celebrating after the show!

 We will definitely do band for at least one more year, then we'll see how Lorelai is feeling about it. I would love for her to have the multi-instrument experience that I never fully had growing up; but if she wants to throw her lot in with one instrument over another, I will do my best to be supportive of that. Time will tell! In the meantime, let's see if I can get her to practice her trombone a bit over the summer...

A Colorful, Cool Day For A 5K

Hey, I've done two 5Ks in the last six months! I'll admit...my exercise regimen hasn't been very consistent or successful since I sprained my ankle in February, but hey...at least I can say I've done two 5Ks in the last six months! That's something, right?

Anyway, way back in late January, some friends of mine posted a link on Facebook for a "Color Obstacle Rush 5K" that would be happening on May 16th. I did one other color run last September, but it was a very different format; it was at night, it was a run-only event (no obstacles), and the "color" involved was glow-in-the-dark water, which was periodically sprayed on you as you ran. The upcoming Color Obstacle Rush was a daytime event; it contained several obstacles; and the color was applied to you in powder form (my friends tell me it's cornstarch).

I was excited to sign up for this run with a bunch of friends; because it was in May, though, I encouraged everyone to sign up for the earliest possible start time. I reasoned it would be very hot already, and we would get tired out quickly if we waited too long to get running. So we signed up for a 9:00 start time.

Then, as often happens, life got in the way, and a few of the ladies who originally planned on running weren't able to make it. Other commitments, health issues, you name it. In the end, my running group consisted of four ladies: myself and my friends Rita, Miranda, and Taryn. We were all very excited; not all of us had done this before! We did see several other familiar faces throughout the morning, but this was our "core group."

And as for that weather? It was cloudy, breezy, and delightfully cool...perfect running weather! As I've mentioned before, this spring has been the most pleasant of our almost twelve years here in Arizona. We've barely needed the air-conditioner; we've kept our windows open late into the month of May; it's been unseasonably rainy and chilly. I've had to wear pants in the middle of May! And luckily for us, the beautiful weather held up for us on the day of the run. We were almost shivering before the race started!

Anyway, I left my camera behind for the actual race, so sadly I have no pictures of the action. But the race was a lot of fun. I hadn't done an obstacle-course race since the "zombie run" two years ago. This race was obviously much more "whimsical" than running away from zombies; most of the obstacles were inflatable tunnels/climbing walls/giant balls. We also ran through a foam fountain; the foam clung to our skin for several minutes and made us look even more interesting than we already did!

A couple of the obstacles actually had a little rainwater from the previous night collected on them. Luckily, it didn't disrupt our run, although it did make us a little muddier than we might otherwise have been. The most exhausting obstacle by far was the long, long line of concrete barriers we had to leap over, one by one like hurdles. This felt like it went on for approximately twenty minutes. I had intended to be a "completist" with all the obstacles for this race, but I ultimately gave up and skipped the last two or three barriers. I'm such a wimp.

And of course, we kept getting sprayed with brightly colored powder by smiling race staff the whole way! Here's how we looked at race's end:

We even got another pack of powder after crossing the finish line, which we quickly proceeded to blast each other with. We were quite a sight, but we loved it.

It was fun to check each other out afterwards and see who was the most "colorful." However, we did have to change some of our clothes before crawling into Miranda's car afterwards; it wouldn't do to bathe her interior with neon-colored, vaguely radioactive-looking powder!

I am so glad for the chance to hang out for a while with these cool ladies. They are awesome athletes who make me want to be better, and they are also awesome ladies who inspire me in many other, non-fitness-related ways. We celebrated our big run with a little ice cream and some deserved R&R. Then it was back to reality (and our families) for the rest of the day. With the end of school approaching, and Nathan's birthday along with it, there would be plenty for me to do! I was glad for this short burst of "me-time" in the midst of all the craziness. I hope I can get in another couple of runs before the end of the year. We'll see!