The first day of the rest of her life....

No, not Morgan's (this is a slight detour from Morgan)... This is about Grandma... 

Grandma, as of Sept. 30th at 5 p.m. is officially a retired woman - YAY x 1,000,000.... 

I know she is beyond happy and we are equally as happy for her.  After 35 + years a rest is well-deserved. 

CONGRATULATIONS Mom / Grandma / Lady with a whole lot more free time now... :-)  

BINGO with a Chance of Meatballs...

The new library program for Fall is based on the BINGO game. Each child signs up and gets a BINGO card with different activities to complete (based on age range). After you get a BINGO you can show the card and get a new book, but you can also keep playing and for every BINGO you get  you are entered to win a bigger prize. 

Sunday allowed us to have some serious progress on the BINGO board. We were able to cross off: 

* Go to a different library location than you normally visit 

* Attend a library program 

The location we picked was offering a dinosaur based theme - they read a couple of books, showed pictures of some fossils and then let the kids make their own fossils.  

* Read a Caldecott Award Book 

* Read Goodnight Moon

and then... 

*Watch a movie based on a book 

Perfect timing because Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs just came out...I of course had to make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner afterward.... 

Before the movie there was a preview reminder of Where the Wild Things Are coming out in October and I am super excited about this movie.  a) because it looks to be done well and b) I just can't help but like a movie right out of the gate that plays one of my ALL TIME favorite songs.. Wake Up by Arcade Fire - love love love this song.

Gallery Post - Working 9 to 3

Miley and Me...

After months of waiting the Miley Cyrus concert finally arrived. It was a long day and a long drive but worth every minute.

Highlights of the trip:

Getting out of school early (nothing makes a kid feel more special) 

Putting together a fabulous concert outfit...

Seeing  the inside of her first concert arena...

Glorious kid-friendly concert food in the comfort of the club level...

Sporting a brand new (I will be the only one at school with one) concert T-shirt...

Checking out the great view of the stage... 

And of course the biggest moment - MILEY CYRUS LIVE AND IN PERSON!!!

Facing MY Fears....

Ok - so as a parent I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be the one that always sets your children's fears at ease... However, the zoo trip caused this scenario to be reversed - yep I admit it fully - it's very sad and I'm a big old chicken - like a massive one!!!! 

When we arrived at the zoo Morgan saw the Sky Ride and was instantly impressed and sure that we should go on it later.  Because it's toward the front of the park we pretty much stayed clear of the thing until we circled back around later in the afternoon. I will say when I first saw the sky ride it did not instantly send me into I want to vomit mode - but when I stood in front of it later - faced with all of it's high from the groundness and not as protective as they should be seats hanging from a wire - A WIRE.... well, hello vomit mode. :-)   

I tried so hard to hype myself up - it'll be fine.... look at all the happy calm people.. etc.. etc... even bought the tickets (but was more than willing to let $5 leave my wallet and have nothing to show for it), however insert parent mode and a 5-year-old little girl who wanted to go on the sky ride more than anything. She even offered to hold my hand  - because yes, I had copped to my not loving the sky ride - but told her how very brave she was and it was great that she liked these types of rides. 

Standing on the paddock to load into the seats I wanted nothing more than to bolt toward the exit BUT I got on the sky ride. AND... it sucked, it sucked so bad. I have to laugh about my ridiculous self a little - but seriously people the SKY RIDE SUCKS!!!!  I kept calculating the distance to the ground thinking - ok if we fall we won't die - we'll just have some broken bones (sick I know) - and cursing the very very very slow pace of the sky ride (it took like 10 minutes to get through the thing).  

I did make it through - I had no choice... Morgan did hold my hand for part of the ride... and she had a great time. She thought it was the best thing ever and was not scared one bit (thank goodness fears are not hereditary). I asked her later if I was brave for going on the ride but was told no - because I was scared. OK well fine then.. but I still give myself a couple of brave points for getting on the thing. :-) 

Biggest lessons learned:

A) I do in fact have a fear of heights. 

B) I do in fact hate relinquishing control when personal safety is involved.

C) I should probably investigate anti-anxiety drugs for future outings.. ha ha

D) I will put my fears aside for my little girl and do most anything for her*.

 *although, uncle John has been pre-recruited for the big roller coaster stuff :-).

Saturday at the Zoo...

Saturday after the concert we went to visit the Oakland Zoo...  I had heard it was smaller (and it is) but somehow we managed to spend a good 6 hours there...  

We spent some time with snakes and "pet" a boa constrictor (she said the boa felt dry and soft).

Hopped on Lily pads and explored the ears of rabbits (also had an outfit change once the heat increased)... 

Saw many different animals, birds, zebras, elephants, giraffes, and even bats... 

Took a couple of rides in the sky and went for a spin... 

And... pretty much closed the place down with 15 minutes of open gate time left as we exited the zoo!

The Other Cyrus...

Yes - this last Friday night was the MILEY CYRUS concert!!! I did not realize that Miley Cyrus had an older brother but found out before the concert that the opening band - Metrostation - was headed by the eldest Cyrus (or at least I think he's the oldest). 

As you can see below - there is a distinct difference in style between Miley and her brother (at least for now)... 

Morgan was none to  impressed with Mr. Trace Cyrus. She liked dancing and such, but was ready for them to exit the stage so that Miley could come out. She also asked about his look often - she kept saying "why does he look so weird".  At first I thought she was just really perplexed by the shag haired skinny jean style, but later realized she was thinking of Miley's brother from TV (who is an actor on the Hannah Montana show)... so yes, compared to Jason Earles, Trace does look quite "weird". 

He also went for the skimp factor on their last song and took his shirt off.  This probably made some of the 14-15 year old girls happy - but the little ones not so much. She immediately said - why did he take his shirt off???  Sorry Trace, but her overall impression can pretty much be summed up in one word - WHY??? 

(more to come on the Miley show)... 

TiE DyE TuEsDaY...

This weekend we embarked on project Tie Dye. I have wanted to do this for a little while but we kept running into issues with our materials. I purchased a dress for Morgan to dye, but it was way too big - so we had to return and wait for the replacement... (this process was made longer by my procrastination I will admit). 

The second dress was a perfect fit and so on Friday night we commenced with our project. 24 hours later I rinsed out the dress and unfortunately I wrapped it a little too tightly and there was too much white space (professional tie-dyer I am not). Sunday we made our way back to the craft store for box #2 of dye and repeated the process. I was not at all sure how this would work - I figured it could not hurt much - tie dye is supposed to be random patterns and color variations. 

The end result: 

I think she enjoyed the tie dye project and making a dress that only she will have.  She was happy with the results and received quite a few compliments on her way into class this morning. 

I will say tie dye can test the nerves a little bit - each time we started to dye she suddenly had an itchy face. I am so surprised we made it out without her having a blue nose or ear. :-) 

Side note: I bought all my clothing from Dharma trading - I HIGHLY recommend this company if you ever need anything of this sort - they were super great with the return process and every delivery came pretty quickly.

Day two...

Ready for day two of kindergarten.... (and so happy to be wearing her Wizards of Waverly Place T-shirt).

She came home with two stars on her star chart. They can get up to two each day for completing their homework and good behavior / participation during the day. I was proud to see her two stars for the day. Eight more and she gets to pick a prize from the prize box. 

One of her favorite things of the day: "playing war" and "doing the table reading" - they play war with playing cards to teach the concepts of which numbers are higher or lower than others. She also likes that she is at "turquoise table" because turquoise is a cool color.

She completed her second homework assignment tonight. It was a welcomed assignment given that coloring was a large part of the task.      :-)

Then came pick up time and....

...she was still smiling at the end of the day.  She showed me her supply box that she decorated and her new homework / notes folder in her backpack.  I also received a tour of the reading area - she was very happy about the new book bins they have available. 

She had a great day and thinks Kindergarten is awesome - and that her teacher is super nice. We came home and completed her very first homework assignment. She got through it with no problems. So far, so good - it's looking like it's going to be a great first school year.

The BIG Day...

Today was the BIG day... Kindergarten started this morning at 9 a.m. 

Morgan was very excited to be starting "Real" school and had her new backpack and lunch box in hand.... and of course, a brand new outfit to start the year.... 

We also brought some first day cupcakes for the class... I had grand visions of the design for these, but ran into some technical difficulties - so these are plan C design... (I had thought about doing the whole alphabet (plan B) - but only had 24 cupcakes)...  This project has also solidified that I NEED to purchase those handy cupcake carrying containers - traveling with and storing decorated cupcakes is just too much a gamble otherwise.

There Seems To Be An Ocean Theme.

Morgan transitioned from a FireShark to an Orca last night. She had her first of many practices to come and in true Morgan style it was a bumpy start. She was happy to know that her team this round was all girls and one boy (how they configure these teams I will never know) however, her coaches are also BOYS. This made her less than pleased but she is coming around to the idea of it and luckily I had the neighboring park to entice her with.

About half way through practice she decided to join in (thank goodness) and participated the rest of the time. On the playground afterward she was able to talk to / play with a couple of girls from her team - which also helped her feel even better about her new team and washed away most of the "nervousness" she had when we got there. Here's to the season ahead...