May - part 2

 This is how I felt May 31:

Let's pick up where I left off after Mother's Day. 
Casey's Girl Scout troop went to a Cincinnati Rollergirls Rollerderby game?, match? - whatever they call it.  I could not anticipate just how much she and other girls would love it.  We all had the opportunity to meet some of the players?, rollergirls? - whatever they call them.  And some serious hero worship began.  They each had a program and poured over the team pictures and the unique names of the competitors.  Then proceeded to track down each one and get their autograph.  It was a fun outing for Casey and me.

 

On the 18th Emily had her dance recital.  Her team performed the same dance they did at the dance competition in February but this time her partner, Taylor, did not stand right next to her.  Instead, Taylor knelt down in the front of the stage to give cues.  I told our family before there was about a 50-50 chance she would actually do the dance.  She knew the dance but once the curtain went up I wasn't sure her if attention and focus issues would get the better of her.  I tried to take some pictures and the video I accidentally deleted the video I took on my iphone. (Talk about some serious mommy guilt there..)  But I had too much adrenaline going and was far too nervous to get any really good shots of the actual dance.  But I'll testify - sister did her dance!  My parents, Tom's parents and my friend Mandy and her daughter Lucy came to watch.  With her first dance class behind her, I look forward to what the next one brings!

 

 

 

 

The day of Emily's recital was also Casey's half birthday, so I made 1/2 of a cake with half-ass effort :)

 

Casey had been really wanting a Lego set and we told her we were not going to give her the money - she had to earn it.  So one day she came up with the idea of creating a newspaper for our neighbors.  Casey tells me at least once a week she wants to be a "published author" one day, so she ran with this idea full speed ahead.  I did not want to tarnish her work by correcting any spelling for her, so this one was truly all Casey.  The finished product was pretty hilarious and true to her word, she hopped on her scooter and went door to door asking our neighbors to buy her San Mateo News.  She made 8 copies and sold all 8 making $5.75.  She only needed 4 more dollars to buy the Lego set she wanted so she was very excited!  I was proud of our little entrepreneur :)

 

 

Emily's last day of pre-school was the 23rd.  And with that, pre-school will forever be in the rear view mirror for our family.  Surprisingly, I was not very emotional about the whole idea.  Usually, I'm a teary mess at milestones like this.  Maybe it was because I didn't have the emotional attachment to the teachers this year or maybe it was because we were so busy with so many things, finishing pre-school was just another thing to get done.  But that doesn't sound very nice, so we'll just say that we squeezed everything we could out of pre-school and are ready for kindergarten :)

 

The 24th was second grade Safari.  Here is a description I stole from the school's website:  Adena Elementary's 2nd graders took a field trip to Africa – sort of. Teachers and parents worked together to host an in-school adventure in which the rooms were completely transformed into different regions of Africa. Students were introduced to desert animals from the Cincinnati Zoo, performed cave experiments, created a rainforest terrarium, listened to a presentation on what it's like to grow up in Ghana and participated in a West African music and movement workshop.
Tom took a vacation day to watch Emily so I could volunteer at the event and I'm so glad I did.  My job was to take a souvenir picture of each of the 125 kids and snap memories throughout the day.  Each class wore a different color tie-dyed shirt and everyone received safari hats to wear.  My job didn't require much set up, but other parents spent up to 40 hours that week transforming rooms to African regions.  Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took do the rooms' decor any justice, but I believe kids and parents alike will have some great memories of the event. 

 

 

Memorial Day weekend was visiting our friends, Ted and Melissa in Columbus, having friends over for a cookout and, once again, Casey's Girl Scout troop marched in the West Chester Memorial Day parade.  Unlike last year when it was a million degrees and 150% humidity, it was in the 60's and was gorgeous.  It was a busy, fun weekend.

 

In between all of that we had a couple of IEP meetings for Emily to go to kindergarten (all went well!), some 'meanish girl' stuff that was happening that was making Casey really dislike school (I requested that a particular girl not be placed in the same third grade class as Casey), the start of swim team practices for Casey (we signed her up against her will and she is loving it), and a doctor appointment for Emily that has resulted in some really positive changes for Emily (more to come on that in another post).

Oh, and the last day of second grade for Casey on the 31st!  It was a good year for Casey overall, but both she and I were ready to say sayonara to second grade by the end of May.  On the last day of school I picked up Casey and the other 2 girls I carpool, armed with cups of pink lemonade for each of them.  The school had large speakers set up outside the building's doors with the song 'Schools Out (for summer)' by Alice Cooper blaring on repeat for all the kids to hear when they left the building!!  And Miss Casey came home with a certificate that acknowledged her perfect attendance for the year!  She was so proud of herself and I am of her as well.  (Little known fact: Casey has never had a sick day yet.  The only days of school she missed in kindergarten or first grade is when we pulled her out to go on vacation.  Girlfriend has a rock star immune system!)  

 

That flop over the finish line of marathon May was with a trip to The Cone to get some ice cream to celebrate!  
June is going to be busy, too, but I'm hoping it resembles something like this: