wrapping up 5th grade

it's so hard to believe, but the school year is winding down to an end again and it seems like it absolutely flew by.  i mean...didn't we JUST have christmas??

for their end of the year bash, the 5th graders go to boomers, a local amusement park where they get the run of the place for a few hours.  there's all sorts of stuff - mini golf, go karts, carnival-style rides, a rock wall...you get the picture.  the teachers had already approached me a few months ago asking if i could do shirts for everyone to wear that day, something simple with lots of room for the kids to sign each other's backs.  i had them poll the students to come up with a slogan or something for me to put on the shirts, and this is what they came up with:

i told the bean privately that it was a little lame and cheesy and then she informed me that it was her suggestion that won the most votes.  muahahahahahahaha. 

along with the last couple of weeks of school comes the annual uniform donation/exchange.  you turn in whatever uniform pieces you want and then you can "shop" from the items turned in for next year.  anything not claimed gets donated to charity, and then your kid gets free dress for the rest of the school year.  it's always the kids' favorite time of year.

while the bean loves free dress, she doesn't really care much about what she wears.  yet.  and she still loves wearing pieces i make for her.  so i busted out a couple of new things for her to wear, and the first day she wore this dress i made using the leftover fabric from the top i made my mom for mother's day.

and this fabric i've been hoarding for a few years.  she said her friends had fun identifying all of the disney doggies from the design.

the annual choir and band spring concert was last week too, and while she's terrible about practicing on that trombone she held her own during the performance.

also last week, she got the haircut she'd been asking for.  i was a little hesitant because her hair has changed so much with the onset of pre-puberty - her hair used to be so straight and easy, but over the last year or so it's become really wavy and curly.  it's beautiful, but i don't know how to manage curly hair!  and she loves to brush it, which makes it really big and poofy.  i have to break her of that habit so that she doesn't end up with a bush on her head. 

and i can't take her to the kids' salons anymore because they always do a really shitty job of cutting.  or, i should say, they just do a basic snip and go.  so i took her to one of the local big girl salons, where she was super excited to sit back and have her hair washed before the cut:

here's the before:

and the point of no return:

before the drying and styling:

and the end result.

man, she looks so different with her hair straightened like that.  and older!  yikes. 

of course, after she washed it and then slept on it, it went back to big and poofy.  i told her that if she wanted to maintain that perfect 'do she was going to have to learn how to dry and straighten it - knowing the entire time that there's no way she'll want to do that.  at least, not yet. 

and now it's the last week of school.  they've been having a blast signing yearbooks, cleaning out lockers, soaking in the last few days of being together.  with the transition to junior high, a handful of her longtime buddies are going in different directions and it's going to be interesting to see what the class looks like once the new school year starts.

ch-ch-ch-changes.  they're a-comin'.

low-key halloween for 2017

having halloween on a tuesday kind of sucks because it's a school night, and who wants to have to rush through things to get to bed on time?  the only saving grace we had was that tuesdays are the only weekday that the bean doesn't have a scheduled extracurricular activity besides her after school math tutoring.

her school doesn't celebrate halloween, but the kids were allowed to break from their uniform for the day and wear an orange shirt if they had one.  of course, she decided to spring this on me that very morning, and after going through both of our closets and coming up with nothing, she managed to borrow a denver broncos tee from her sister to wear.

with that crisis averted and her happily dropped off at school, i headed off to barre in one of my old running costumes to participate in the costume contest.  there were only two of us in attendance for that class, and we realized that it was likely due to parents staying at school for the morning halloween costume parades.  and since the other lady didn't wear a costume, i won the prize by default, heh.

although i'd been under the impression that the bean's class wasn't really doing much aside from an art project followed by a little treat and watching a movie, a few texts with the other room parent brought me back to school to help out.  there were a few other parents there as well, so i wasn't really needed, but being the "official" room parent i kind of felt obligated to make an appearance.  the bean was happy to see me anyway, and so it was all good.

they were using milk bones in several different sizes dipped in white paint and stamped onto black construction paper to create a skeleton, which was their current focus in science class.

when that was done, the kids headed off to recess while we stayed behind to clear off the desks and distribute the treats - a cookie, a juice pouch and a little bag of candy.

the other moms and i headed over into the room next door to take a peek at the pumpkin decorating contest that the 5th graders were having.  "get some ideas for next year!" the teacher told us as she opened the door.

there were some really fantastic, super creative pumpkins displayed.  here's just a few of my favorites:

by the time we were done checking them out, recess was over and the kids filed back into the room, excited to see the treats waiting for them on their desks and spend the rest of the school day hanging out and watching "it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown."

later that evening, we met up with my co-leader and her family to do a little trick-or-treating in downtown glendora.  we'd not been there before, and finally got to check out the famous "pirate house" on the main drag.

 a local church sponsors "halloween block parties" held at some of the homes of their members throughout the area, and we stopped to check one out.  there were free hot dogs, games, a bouncer, and they even had the dodger game on, which attracted quite a few parents.

 a lot of homes were all decked out for the holiday, and some were cute while others were pretty creepy.

 when we were all done, we got a group photo of the kids (yep, the old lady included):

 and the parents, too.

on our way back to the car, a friendly reminder from one of the bazillion churches on every corner:

happy halloween, everybody!

starting thanksgiving early

okay, so i didn't blog yesterday.  i know, i know.  i totally heard about it from a couple of folks, which kind of makes me happy because that means people are still reading this crap after all these years, ha!  but the bean is on break, which means that i didn't have to get up at any particular time.  and i sure didn't.  i don't think i even got out of bed till after 9.  that's quite a rarity, you guys!  but i did feel like a slug, and now i remember why i don't do that very often.

last week, a couple of days after the awards ceremony, we celebrated thanksgiving with the bean's class.  although we're finding that as they get older, there are less and less class parties.  we used to have these big, elaborate gatherings with fancy clothes and full-on thanksgiving spreads.  and now that she's in the third grade, it's limited to the last 45 minutes of the school day and involves just a craft and a snack.  i guess that's not terrible - it gives the teachers more instructional time and blah blah blah, but it's kind of a bummer.  anyway, my fellow room mom and i threw together an idea for a craft at the last minute and the old lady helped me do some assembly the night before.

when we got to school the kids were at recess, which gave us some time to get things set up.  the desks were pushed together and covered with a thanksgiving-themed table cover that had fun games printed on it.  and then we had a little time to look around the room and check out the kids' artwork that was up on the bulletin boards.  i cracked up when i came across this (they're in that part of the year where they're studying native american history):

because i was the one who had assembled and put together a sample of our craft, i ended up being the one to stand up in front of the class to explain how to do it.  i haaaaaaate talking in front of people...yes, even a bunch of 9 year olds.  i'm so awkward and i get all hot and sweaty, and i'm definitely not meant to be a teacher.  but i tried to pretend like it was just my little group of girl scouts and got through it as fast as i could.  and while they all worked on their little activity, we went out into the hall to get portraits of the kids one by one.  and then if their parent(s) were present, we took photos of them, too.  you know, something like this:

and of course, we room moms had to get a shot together too.

this was the bean's finished craft, and i smirked as i saw the order of her priorities.  sushi before mom.  cool.

a few hours later, it was time to celebrate thanksgiving with our brownie troop.  we'd asked everyone to come dressed in their best, and each girl brought something to share with the group.

poppin' bottles.

after everyone had been served, we made plates for ourselves and dug in.

and of course, a group picture before we cleaned up and left.

ah, thanksgiving.  such a fun time to celebrate with all of our circles of friends.  the girls and i went out and did all of our grocery shopping yesterday and managed to pick up everything on our list.  we're hosting friendsgiving at our house this year, and it'll be fun to cook a big holiday meal again.  i can't wait!