Party Girls

Last Saturday the Shepards attended Aunt Toots' birthday bash at a restaurant outside of Boston. Lots of friends. Lots of food. Lots of fun.

Three particularly cute things happened at the party.

First, Stella gleefully tap danced for Toots right in the middle of the festivities. A lot of guts for a shy girl. Maybe we have some progress here.

Second, Stella decided that that everyone at the party needed to Purell their hands. She took Lisa's little bottle of Purell and went around to every single person at the party (about 20) and asked if they wanted to clean their hands. And every person did! Then, before I could stop her, she went to three tables that weren't part of our party and did the same thing. Every person smiled and then complied.

Finally, at about 8:30 the kids began to get tired. Lisa created "beds" by putting two chairs together for each of them to stretch out on. By 9 pm they were sound asleep in a corner of the party room. They slept through everything except the cheers after Karen's birthday song. At which point Marni got startled and had a heart attack.

A Crummy Thing To Do

Thanks to Uncle Glenn the girls have now shown up on their fourth professional website. Check out the "Celebrations" page at crumbs.com. Celebration #546 is pretty cute.

Can you guess the other 3 websites?

Overheard #22

Stella, Marni and I upon opening a package of gummy candy:

Daddy to Stella: Make sure you share with your sister.

Stella to Daddy: Only if my brain says.

Marni to Stella: Your brain says!

Stella to Marni: You don't know what my brain says!

This is Serious

Tonight I activated Stella's account on a thing called ARIS. It's an online service provided by the NYC Department of Education that allows parents to track their child's academic progress.

Ok. She's 5!

There's not much there except for her attendance at this point. But looking at this site and working with Stella on her homework earlier this evening really had me thinking. Things are going to start getting a little more serious in the not-so-distant future.

Up until now it's been all fun and games. Coloring books and dolls. Now, the world is expecting Little Miss Stella to step up and apply herself. She doesn't realize this, but I do.

As I helped Stellie with her homework tonight I was struck by how, maybe for the first time, she really had to put her mind to work. Not that she didn't do great. She's a wiz at detecting patterns. And she completed her whole week's worth of homework in one day.

What does this all mean? I'm not sure. But I'm getting the feeling that a little bit of carefree innocence has been lost. Just a tiny bit.

Homework

Did we have homework in kindergarten when we were young? Anyone? Hello?

Well now we do.

Stella came home today with her first homework assignment. And yes, it did confuse me. But we put on our thinking caps and thought our way through two pages of exercises.

When we were through, Marni complained that it was now her turn to do homework. Soon enough Marni. Soon enough.

And Now... Tap

It's time for a new season of dance lessons at Sherri's Creative Arts Studio. This year, Stella is in "Taps & Tutus". Get it?

Marni is in a completely different class, "Creative Movement 1".

Two kids, two different classes.

Would they do it? You bet!

Marni danced up a storm (with teacher Storme Sundberg). And Stella tapped like her new favorite movie star, Jimmy Cagney.

Later in the evening, Stella gave me a recap of what she learned.

Overheard #21

Here is a wrap-up of interesting words and phrases that have come out of the mouths of our babes:

• "Humongous", both
  
• "Awesome dude", Marni
  
• "What the heck!", Stella
• "Super" (as in "super, super heavy" or "super fast"), both
• "I'm only" (which actually means "I'm lonely"), Marni
  

So You Think You Can Dance

This is what I came home to last night. Two very cute girls doing their interpretive dance to The Little Mermaid soundtrack. Nothing much more to say. Just watch the videos and enjoy.

Kindergarten

Today was Stella's first day of Kindergarten. After a rocky start, we are cautiously optimistic that Miss Stella is going to do just fine.

Lisa, Marni and I all accompanied Stellie to P.S. 39 where we met up with all of her former Pre-K buddies in the playground. A lot of clinging and shyness, but ok.

We moved into room 106 with Ms. Diaz and settled in. Actually, Marni settled in better than anyone, but that's just Marni. Pre-K friends Lucy, Adam, Sean, Zachary and Henry all joined Stella in the class.

Her favorite Pre-K teachers Ms. Cassens and Ms. Henry came by to say hello. Big smiles for that!

As it became time to leave, the waterworks began. After several minutes, Stella was pried off of Lisa and sat down with Ms. Diaz. Lisa, Marni and I went outside and a few minutes later Ms. Henry came out to tell us Stella was just fine.

Day 1 was just a half day and Lisa and Marni headed back a few hours later to pick up our big girl. So what did Stella have to say about her first day?

Over dinner she told us she was getting used to it. She mentioned that she better get a lot of sleep tonight because the teacher said it was going to be a busy day tomorrow. She also was excited about eating in the cafeteria for the first time (where the big kids eat). She said she sat next to some new kids which was fun.

Tomorrow is another half day and I'm beginning to think that this Kindergarten thing won't be as hard on Stella (or me) as I thought it might be.

Stay tuned.

Beach Wrap-Up

When Stella gets hurt, she says "ouch". When Stella gets really hurt, she says "ouchie".

Well all I have to say is this... ouchie!

And, with that, I shall wrap up my usual end-of-summer gloom-fest. Closing up the cottage and not seeing the kids the last few days was torture as usual. But let's move on.

August 2009 was fantastic! Great weather, an extra week, and two amazing kids. Plus, I increased my OOB vacation time from one week to two.

In the past, I would always have to brace myself a bit in anticipation of day-after-day of kid time. But either they got easier or I calmed down (or both) because every minute with Stella and Marni was wonderful. They got right back into the OOB swing of things in no time.

Some of their highlights:

• Stella and Marni sleeping in a big bed together. They loved it and so did we.
• The girls bonding with cousin Janet.
• The girls bonding with cousin Rachel.
• Finding and loving the outside shower.
• Losing their fear of the water.

And this year's guest book at The Cottage B&B:

• Nana Bev and Papa Art
  
• The Rapps
• Nana Audrey
• The Hoffmans of NJ
• Lisa Stefanoff
• Laurie and Ricardo

And special thanks to Lisa, who makes it all run smoothly.

Only about 262 days left until we start it all over again.