Play Date - finally

The last day of winter vacation and we were able to get a play date scheduled. Two of Shara's friends came over for a movie & dinner. They made their own pizzas and watched a movie. Pretty low key and they seemed more than fine to not have me around. She was a very nice hostess.

Cosmic Birthday

Fun (and easy) 9th birthday today. A local bowling alley does "Cosmic Bowling". It was a nice group of ten girls, most from Shara's class, who came. What a great age - they pretty much took care of themselves. Shara & Keira took the first kid to arrive, up to get shoes. Then as the other kids came, they keep adding the new girl to the pack up to the shoe counter. Alan helped get them set up with the lanes and learn how the scoring worked. After a game we took a break for some pizza, which was order and paid for online, and delivered right to the bowling lanes. Then more playing and two hours goes by really quickly - the one group who got started early finished their first before lunch and then started another after lunch. The other group, which ended up being a little bigger, didn't finish until right before cake. And cake was eaten while Shara opened presents because we had about 20 minutes left before the official end of the party!

The kids were really cute and had fun bowling (a lot of fun bowling), dancing, and really just hanging out with each other. It looked like a good chunk of the time was sitting around the ball return, rolling the balls back and forth to each other.

Good Connections

A terrific memento to remember the years working with my friend Ellen at First Parish. I'll miss working with you, but know our friendship will continue. - Laurie

Birthday - real & friends

Shara and I had a couple of fun days together. They were pretty relaxing, but also spent getting ready for her friend birthday party - a sleepover! So Thursday, her real birthday, we went to Trucchis to get the colored popcorn and other shopping for the party. We also took our time because it was so hot and couldn't really move too fast. After we got the shopping done, we had some lunch and went out to play in the pool. We were in it for a good couple of hours and it was fun. Shara also wanted to play on the Wii for her birthday but we didn't really have time because we didn't rush through everything. It was just a relaxing day spent together. For dinner, we went to her currently favorite sushi place and we got a boat - I think we all ate about the same amount! Then over to Best Buy to pick up the new blue-ray player, since we were going to have a movie sleepover and really needed a reliable player. The craft store didn't have what we were looking for but it was still fun to look around and we did end up getting a couple of things, including the goodie bags. On the way home we stopped at Flint Farms for ice cream, of course. Shara ate a few bites - too much sushi! I wish I had a dime for every time she said, "but I'm the birthday girl" or "it's my birthday, I don't have to..." Luckily she said it in good humor.

The next day was the day to prep for the party, since people were expected at 6 PM. What a big help Shara was. It was a good time for us to work together - Shara packed the popcorn and got the goodie bags together. The Amazon order with some of the treats came as the last of the girls left, but we did get some cute nail polish and pretty crazy, but disgusting tasting, popcorn. I frosted the cupcakes and got the toppings for the pizzas together and Shara cleaned her room, picked up all her things around the house, and put her clothes away. She also helped me put up the rainbow room decoration - that was cool - crepe paper streamer thing that hung to each corner of the room.

By the time the first kids arrived, the house was a balmy 90 F. The storms were also approaching, but it was all fine. After everyone got here they found seats at the table and made pita pizzas. I got a great tip from another site saying they wrote the kids' names in edible marker on the crust. I used it to write on the strip of parchment paper that lined the baking sheets and it worked out beautifully. Alan was a huge help as well, of course. There was a lot of running back and forth, getting toppings to everyone, drinks, etc. When I started thinking of it as a restaurant where we were the wait staff, it was easier.


When pizza time was done, they went downstairs and danced while we got everything set up for cake. They came back up, all in pajamas! After cake, I had an allergic reaction to something in the air and Alan had to supervise present opening while I found some allergy medicine and blew my nose, etc. When I came downstairs, there was Shara, with each kid 2" away from her in a circle, while she opened the presents. Crazy! Since I'm the mean one, I had them all sit back, give some space and let everyone see what was going on. She got very nice things - popular presents include anything Orbeez, a couple of nice games, makeup, a couple of gift certificates, and a mood ring! 

Then came the movie - Wizard of Oz. There was a bit of a disagreement between which version would be watched. Shara really wanted the original and a couple of others wanted the Muppets. The ones who didn't want to watch the original were free to go play a boardgame in the game room or Shara's room. It actually worked out fine and in the end, they all finished the movie together, eating yucky, too sweet popcorn. It was funny seeing how they all worked out sharing the bathroom for brushing teeth and washing hands (before & after eating). They had no problem with four girls sharing the sink and moving over while one had to spit. They also were just as silly as boys, as far as body noises, etc. That was a little surprising to me, but funny. What some had a hard time doing was getting comfortable. There were four who couldn't get to sleep - Shara being one of them. She ended up sleeping on the couch, me on the floor (good thing for mattress pads), another one on the futon, a third in Shara's bed, and the fourth went home. And everyone slept until about 7 AM, with the last one getting woken up by the rest at 8 AM.

We had a nice family breakfast of pancakes and different fruits. The girls enjoyed just talking about what they were eating and various conversations kids have - they also talked a bit about school next year and who had what teacher and at what school. It sounds like they're really mixing everyone up. No more than two or three kids from the same school in the same new classroom (it seems). They all got picked up and a couple (3 actually) had to make return trips to get what they forgot the first time around. The house is hardly a mess - but while I was laying on the floor, trying to go to sleep but not able to because they wouldn't stop talking or fussing, I vowed not to do this again. But then when everyone was sitting and being so cute during breakfast, I had to rethink all of that. We'll definitely do a movie night/sleepover again. Without combining the dinner, cake and presents, I think it will be much more manageable.

Around the neighborhood

Well it's finally happened. Shara didn't want to join me to pick up the farm order the other day because she was too busy playing with the neighborhood kids. How fun! She went over to her friends the other day and came traipsing home with several kids in tow. It looks like they played tag a bit, ran through the house to the front yard, back through the house to the basement, got some juice bags, back outside, then it was time for them all to go home!

Big Girl Party

Yesterday Shara went to a Rock Diva's bday party and I emailed the mom to see if it was a drop-off or not and it sounded like it was so I dropped Shara off and she went up with the birthday girl and joined right in. What's funny is I got there and the other moms had stayed the whole time! I would have liked to have stayed and talked to them and seen Shara get dolled up. It was a rock diva party. They said she did great getting her hair and makeup done, and watching her face when they did her hair was funny. She was wrinkling her nose as they pulled but she didn't make a peep. She also was a great model - they brought out a runway for them to strut! They took video & pics, so I'll be able to see. Shara also said if I had stayed she would have basically attached herself to me and wouldn't have had so much fun, so it was good I didn't. I told her she should be very proud of herself and it looked like she was.

Feels a lot like summer

Friday evening we went to our first professional baseball game. We saw the Brockton Rox with several others from Shara's school. It was fun. What was most enjoyable was just being silly with Shara and not needing to look at the clock or feel like there is something that needs doing. Since it was opening night, we also got to enjoy some fireworks. It's also fun that, though neither Alan or I are big sports fans, we do know most of the rules and were able to teach Shara what was going on.

Saturday Shara and I went shopping at Target and had a good time looking at the clothes and picking out squirt guns. After lunch, I weeded 1/2 the garden while Alan & Shara cleaned the pool a bit and had a squirt gun fight. We decided to relax that evening with dinner & a movie - sushi or Shara & Alan, shrimp & pasta for me, and Alice & Wonderland (Disney version) for all.

Sunday was busy. We went to church, then to work to change the backup, then home to have some lunch & get ready for Theresa's going away party. We're really are going to miss them. Hopefully the new people will be friendly, but it's rare to get neighbors like Matt, Theresa, Anna, and Johnny. The party was great. Fred & Sandy are wonderful hosts and the bbq was fired up 2x. It was so nice to see all the kids playing together and so nicely. They really are sweet with each other. Shara & Alan got their first swim of the season. We all danced the night away - Tina doing the hussle, all of us singing, Fred yelling and scaring the kids (he was telling the grown-ups a story and told the kids to go away, that this wasn't for kids, Jack & Shara came back over and he yelled at them to get out of here, and I never saw Shara run so fast! Of course he was laying it on thick, but they didn't know that!), and of course Sandy teaching them all bad words. Toward the end of the night Shara asked what those things were up there, the things that look like shooting stars swirling around. I asked if she meant the moths and she thought they looked so beautiful.

Today I got up and went to fix lunches at church and Shara & Alan fended for themselves. When I came home they were outside doing more pool work and playing with the squirt guns. I was able to get most of the garden planted by the time we needed to get ready for Shrek. What a surprise that movie was. Much darker than I realized, but Shara liked it. She did get sad enough to tear up but duckie & giraffe stayed in my purse and Shara stayed in her own seat. When we got home and ready for dinner, we had a new, but usual fit about sitting at the dining room table. We're trying to figure out what's going on with this. A few weeks ago, several meals a week Shara has a fit about sitting at the table. She says it's not straight and she freaks out about it. I'm not sure if she's uncomfortable because she can't adjust her chair while in it or what, but it's a real issue these days. I seem to remember this happening a while ago and allowed her to move her table into the dining room, and then it shortly went back to her eating at the table with no problem, so maybe that will be the case this time, but it's not fun having battles, especially when I think she's really upset and not playing a game. She was super tired today (though she slept until 8 AM), so maybe that was the real problem.

Fun Times

• The other night Shara read to us from Cat in the Hat. She did great!
• Her teeth are still there, though I ask her often if they still are or not.
• Did I mention she got her library card? I had been waiting to make it her big reward when she started reading, but just when that happened, they sent the application home from school so we filled it out and the librarian from the Ames Library came in and gave the kids who signed up, their cards. This weekend we'll make it over. The rain kept Shara in on Saturday and we were running all over on Sunday.
• We've been going to the First Parish UU church in Bridgewater. Shara claims she hates it, and yes, she feels that strongly about it, but when we're there, she has fun. She likes the social hour and the treats that are always there. And she likes running around and also likes Tom, the sexton who used to be a kindergarten teacher. Last week Alan & I forced her to go to the "religious education" session. They're just starting a new session on Native Americans. It was interesting. They're learning about the medicine wheel and the little kids went to their room to color butterflies and make a collage of a shield for their section of the wheel. She started participating near the end, but not socializing yet. That will come very quickly I'm guessing.
• Sunday we (Shara & I) also went to a Silpada jewelry party at Olivia's house. That was fun and we got to see her house and meet some more of her family, not to mention view a bit of her yarn collection!