Block Party

Yesterday we attended the 2009 Block Party for our neighborhood. It was a lot of fun, especially with live music. We didn't realized there were so many kids in the neighborhood, especially teenagers. Mostly Shara stayed around us, not wanting to go play with the bigger kids, which was understandable. She liked being around the all though. The other kindergartener from our street was there too and she spent much of her time the same way Shara did - riding the ride-on vehicles, making art projects, getting face painted, eating, etc. It got dark fast and then so cold! Good thing we lived close - Alan went back home to gather provisions like jackets, wipes and wine. Very important things to have around! We'll be posting pictures to a community site for all to share.

Today we'll be driving to have a short visit with Bubbe & Papa, and Aunt Jill & Uncle Andy, so we can pick up pig and go to shul for a bit. Shara's quite excited to see our family!

Pictures - Apple picking!

May you have a fruit new year - a photographic exploration | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California

May you have a fruit new year - a photographic exploration | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California

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School update

I picked Shara up from Tina's yesterday and asked how her day was. She replied, "it was GREAT!" She's having a much better time now, but still hasn't played with any kids on the playground. She did talk me into taking some time on the way home to stop at the neighbors and say, "hi" to the kids, climb up the rock wall and go down the slide. We then went back over after dinner, since the parents were out too, and socialized more. Tomorrow we'll see how dance goes. Alan's taking her because I'll be working. Last week she only wanted to observe her dance. New teacher, fewer kids, different enough to not just pick up from last year. She knows if she wants a sticker she has to participate. I think she will.

Neighborhood Kids

The highlight of Shara's day is playing at Tina's. Yesterday she didn't stop talking about how they played kickball with real bases! When I got home, she started bouncing up and down yelling, "mommy, mommy, mommy!" and gave me a big hug. Alan was ordering Chinese for supper and I took Shara out for a walk. She wanted to go to Tina's and I was wary since I didn't want to bother her, but we did anyway and we rang the doorbell and no one answered so we went across the street to see the dog that Anna & her brother were playing with. They took off in the back with Madeline and then Shara wanted to go too so we did and ended up in Brian's backyard. The kids were playing some game on the climber and Anna was riding a dump truck and Shara asked to try out the dump truck and they played a bit. Then it was pretty much time to go so I told Shara we needed to go home for supper and she said, "we have to walk all the way around" or something like that, and I told her to look up. She did and was shocked to see our house right there, since we ended up going to our neighbor's backyard through the other backyards. It finally dawned on her where we really were and it was such an exciting thing. So we went though our backyard and up the back stairs and daddy opened the door to let us in and we got ready and had a tasty dinner.

During dinner we heard the Bee Gees on the radio and we started chair dancing. Of course I had to find some Saturday Night Fever video on YouTube to show Shara. She was impressed by the "Night Fever" line dance and went crazy doing her own moves to the big solo John Travolta dance. Too bad YouTube removed the original music. We watched one version with another song dubbed in, which was ok, but hardly the best!

At nightime we talked about the playground again, and I was told I wasn't supposed to be asking anymore questions, but she did say she saw Brian and Jack and they said, "hi shara". I asked what they were doing and she said running. I asked if they were just running around by themselves or if they were playing with other kids and she said, "mommy!" and that was the end of that conversation!

Great weekend

We seem to be coming out of the funk we've been in - had to follow through on a big threat (if you don't go to bed now, and stop playing games, we're not going to Oma & Jidor's tomorrow) and poof - now we're all happy again. Saturday I took Shara to her dance friend's birthday party and she got to see another dance friend who was a former school friend. She enjoyed that, but the most fun was on Sunday when we went to the Tougas Family Farm in Northboro for apple/peach/nectarine picking. We went there last year and had a blast. We fed the goats, played on the playground, had a cider donut, and picked a peck of peaches.

Monday morning Shara and I cleaned the peaches - she was a great help. I blanched them and she peeled while I got out the pits. We then made another batch of Nana's Southern Pickled Peaches. After peach making we took a quick bike ride to the bus stop and then off to the crowds at Wrentham! We went through Gap Kids and found some nice pants. This was Shara's first time in a dressing room and good thing because she's small! All the pants that should have fit her were too big but we found some that fit very nicely. It was fun but tiring and by the time we were done at the Gap, Shara was ready for lunch. We went and got pizza at the food court and had a lovely lunch together. I convinced her to just go into Carter's for a quick look around, but she was done with shopping so we went up an exit to the Spruce Pond Creamery and got Chocolate Peanut butter Oreo frozen yogurt (Laurie) and lemon sorbet (Shara). We liked both very much but the yogurt was the winner. It was the best shopping day ever!

Shara's second day of school sounded like it was fun. The best part of the day she said was going to Tina's after. All the kids sat on the porch and had water (Shara got an orange cup) and cheez-its. We didn't hear much about her school day, but I did learn that she's going to have to eat much quicker - she wasn't able to finish her lunch, but, "mommy, it's fine. I'm okay." So she's fine and I'm not going to worry. I like Alan's idea of putting on a Shara-cam because I'm dying to see what's happening with her all day!

First Day of Kindergarten

Well she's officially a big girl now. Shara had her first day of kindergarten and did great. We got ready on time, got to the bus stop in plenty of time, though we weren't the first ones there. We met up with a 1st grader and her mom asked Shara if it would be ok for Anna to sit with her on the bus because Anna remembered how scared she was on her first day and thought it would be nice. Shara gave a big smile and nodded her head yes. At the bus stop we reintroduced ourselves to the other kindergartener who lives just a couple of houses away from us. She's going 1/2 days and not in the same class, but we'll need to get together to play sometime. So the bus finally came and Shara followed Anna on. I finally saw her at the window and she smiled and waved goodbye. We turned around, shed some tears for being proud and happy and went off to work.

Alan picked Shara up from the bus when it finally got there around 4:10 PM. They'll get their schedule down soon - it's supposed to come about 3:30. I didn't get home until around 5 and Alan didn't ask too many questions but either way, she wasn't talking much. We did get out of her that duckie & giraffe stayed in her backpack the whole day. I was supposed to send her with her KED folder, she had plenty of food (she hardly ate anything), snack for KED was provided (I totally forgot), the teachers in the lunch room helped her with her PIN & milk money, they had different flavors - regular, strawberry, and (wait for it) chocolate! Which did Shara get? Recess wasn't so good - the swings were all taken, the kids stayed on them a long time. She did draw a great picture from memory of the playground - the yellow slide, the monkey bars that no one's supposed to go on, the climber.

She was very tired from the day and a real bear. Alan & Shara made a great pizza and after dinner we were going to go for a bikeride and there were a couple of times before that she just lost it. We did go on the ride but the evening wasn't too much fun for any of us. While I was laying with her at bedtime she started talking more about her day and the bad things came out; she was scared to go on the climber because kids were running around so fast all over, she didn't talk to anyone, all the kids from KED already knew everyone and she was too shy to talk to others, she really wanted duckie and giraffe all day, she was bored on the playground, she missed her friends from her old school. I tried to tell her that she was at her old school her whole life, thousands of days, and at her new school only one. That it would take a little time to get to know the kids and she should start getting to know the KED kids first because that's who she will be playing with the most. I know she'll be fine. I'm also going to remind her that she didn't have her old friends right away. It took time to become friends with them. She also has dance to look forward to as well as a birthday party and playdate.

She's fine today. No signs that she had any trauma and we did get to start a great project from KED. They have to talk about how they got their names, so we told her how we came up with her name and she found that interesting and wants to have us read her a Pern book. I'll have to see if there are any for littler kids. They have the YA series, but I don't know if they have any younger.

Kindergarten!

Today's the first day of Kindergarten. Shara's very excited, but also a little scared, as am I, but for different reasons. We talked about being scared and we're going to find her a buddy at the bus stop to sit next to on the bus. She's all set with more food than she probably needs, shoes to change into if she still wants, her new princess thermos, backpack, and lunch box.

Yesterday we went to the open house and she got to meet her teachers again, do a scavenger hunt to learn her kindergarten room and some of the school. She's all set!

Bowling Trip

Sunday we needed to get out of the house and like good New Englanders, went candlepin bowling. It was Shara's second time, my first and Alan's first since he was a kid. Lots of fun. We all ended up with pretty much the same scores! After playing, we went down the street to Peaceful Meadows, where all weekend activities should end. In the barn they had a cute calf. Mommy got licked, Shara laughed, but didn't want to get licked herself. I can't really blame her!

Tomorrow we'll get school supplies and the backpack together for our first day at school on Thursday. We're going to do a dry-run as well and pretend school starts tomorrow so we can get our routine down. Don't want to miss the bus! We'll also go down and see the big kids get on the bus. How exciting!