Our Grade One Ground Squirrel

 

Brookie’s grade 1-2 class performed their autumn production just yesterday. She was a ground squirrel. And of course, Sean, Rosie and I were there to watch one of the shows.

Brookie was excellent. Firstly, she actually dressed in brown (apparently her fellow ground squirrels missed that memo), and she had even practiced her lines ahead of time with some parental coaching on the concept of “projecting” your voice for optimal effect. She even added some squirrelly hand actions and inflection in her voice to make things a bit more interesting. We were very proud, in a biased parent kinda way.

But as a whole, this had to have been one of the lamest class plays I have ever seen. I mean boring with a capital BORING! The kids all stood, leaning against the wall, chalkboard, whatever and they never moved. Never changed position. They delivered their lines with no emotion or enthusiasm of any kind. Half of them mumbled so we couldn’t even hear them. It was painful. Finally at the end, they didn’t even get to take a bow! I mean seriously if the goal was to suck all the fun out of it, the teacher succeeded. A+. Fun had left the building.

Which just begs the question, why? Why can’t we have fun in school generally and while putting on a play specifically? Why can’t we teach the kids the basics of public speaking and of making things interesting for their audience while at the same time encouraging them to have fun acting, imagining, pretending? I don’t know. But it made me crazy. It made me scared. It made me sad.

At the end of the production, Sean and I cheered like lunatics – lots of woo hoos and clapping and whistling – mostly to wake everyone up. And I encouraged the students to bow, even overtop of the teacher’s instructions about where they all needed to put their ears. Later, when Brook got home, I let her take as many bows as she wanted.

~Mandy

Here Comes the Sun . . .

  This morning, the girls crept into our room while it was still dark and asked if they could go outside to watch the sun rise. Of course, I said. Just make sure you stay warm while you wait. When I came out to see them moments later, I found them huddled together on the deck, facing the sky and reading “Leo the Lop” as they patiently waited for the sun to make its first appearance of the day.

There are times as a mom when you feel overwhelmed with thanks that you have little people in your life to remind you of the truly important things; to creep quietly up to you while you sleep through life and whisper, “Look! Stop and look! Do you see that? Isn’t that incredible? You don’t want to miss it! Come see your gift.” And this morning was one of those times. The sun came up, we watched and then came in for some Rice Krispies. But I have to say that it really is amazing that the sun comes up every morning in all its brilliant splendour. And I am really glad I saw it. Thank you, Brookie and Rosie, for helping me see the gift. 

~Mandy

The Bunk Bed

I think this speaks for itself. The girls are finally in the same room with a bunk bed. They LOVE it. Really. I, on the other hand, think of it as a form of torture every morning when I attempt to make that top bunk while balancing precariously on the lower one, the whole time feeling as though I have been locked in a prison made of wooden slats. But the girls are blissfully unaware of that stuff.

As a side note, Sean and I pulled the classic, who-needs-to-actually-read-the-instructions? move when we were putting this contraption together. I mean it is just two exact replicas of the same bed and then we just put one on top of the other. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, as Rosie would say. We started in using our joint intuition and we were flying through, moving so smoothly like a fine tuned machine, a vision of perfect teamwork . . . until we realised that in fact the one bed was distinctly different than the other – it had railing on the sides which required pre-drilled holes. Oh . . . I see. This is why they include the instructions. Then we had lots of time to make our new plan of attack while we took the whole thing apart again.

Two English majors plus over-confidence minus instructions plus four beer plus 3 hours longer than estimated equals one awesome bunk bed and two extremely tired but excited little girls. 

~Mandy

Rosie’s First Day of Preschool (for the second time)

Our little Rosie started her second year of preschool on October 5th. She is a seasoned student now, who knows all the subtle intricacies of the preschool scene.

When I picked her up after her first day, I asked her about the new friends she had made. She informed me that one of her classmates is “aggravating”. When I asked why, she explained that this person, “talks too much.” Too funny. So let that be a lesson to you, with Rosie, get to your point and do it quickly.

~Mandy

One Last Glimpse of Summer

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It was the end of September. The girls and I decided it was such a perfect day that we needed to spend the afternoon in the park. I am so glad we did because it is the beginning of October now and I am looking out over a winter wonderland! Life is good when you are at the park, enjoying summery weather in September hanging out with your two beautiful daughters.

~Mandy