Field Trip... Two Years Later

In March of 2009 I accompanied Stella and her Pre-K class on a field trip to the Brooklyn Museum. Fast forward two years and now I'm doing the exact same thing with daughter Marni.

How.

Time.

Flies.

Same teachers. Same destination. Even the same museum volunteer to guide us.

This time we had plenty of teachers and parents to assist with the trip. Nine parents and teachers for seventeen kids! Not even a two-to-one ratio.

The night before the trip Marni was a bit apprehensive. The kids had been warned that there were guards in the museum to protect the paintings. I think this scared her a bit and she was worried about being arrested or even shot if she touched something she shouldn't.

One of her classmates was also nervous the night before. They had been warned not to talk to or go anywhere with strangers. And now her classmate was afraid of being kidnapped.

But all nervousness disappeared when they got on the bus. Marni sat herself in the back (a sign of trouble to come in future years) and waited for me to join her. The ride was quick and soon we were standing in the museum, ready to begin. In addition to Marni, I was in charge of Mia.

The kids were well behaved as we walked from location to location. Marni raised her hand and participated with everyone else.

Interestingly, this visit to the museum took a path through a room filled with paintings and sculptures of naked people, just as Stella's had two years earlier.

There were some smirks and titters... from the kids.

By 11:15 it was all over and we got back on the bus for the ride home.

And just like two years ago, the adventure ended with a crying daughter who didn't want their daddy to go off to work.

PS... A little bonus to my morning at P.S. 39 was getting to see Stella playing on the newly created "play street". She was also happy to see dad (and no tears!).

Marni and Astrid discuss art.

Ready to board the bus back to school.

Bonus sighting. Stella playing outside (back to camera in green).

More photos and video here.

Overheard #35

So I asked a group of people at Stella's BBQ, "You know what was the best present that we ever got for Stella?" To which Marni replied... "Marni!".

Stella's 7th Birthday

There were actually at least 4 separate celebrations for Stella's birthday. One in her 1st grade class. One for her after school Beansprouts group. One at our house for a select group of classmates. And one at our house for family and adult friends.

I'm sure that 4 celebrations seemed like a bare minimum to Stella, but for Lisa it may have been enough to send her to the loony bin.

But lets back it up a bit...

Preparation started months ago as we tried to keep up with Stella's ever-changing desires for party theme and guest list. Eventually she settled on a tea party theme and about 3500 guests. We pared the guest list down a bit.

Meanwhile, Stella began to experiment with online shopping. She would put key words and phrases into a web browser in order to find things to buy.

One evening she stumbled across a beautiful, white confirmation dress on Amazon. She printed out the page and brought it and her wallet to me so that I could help her buy the dress. I tried to explain to her that the dress cost over $90, while her wallet contained about $60. I also tried to explain that websites don't take cash. It was touch and go for a while, but I eventually convinced her to abandon her purchasing attempt and let me look into finding an alternate dress as a birthday present.

Now, as Lisa toiled to prepare the 4 birthday celebrations, I needed to find a cheaper white wedding dress.

The perfect dress was finally located at the wonderful Burlington Coat Factory store in Brooklyn.

Stella woke rather slowly on her birthday morning. But as soon as she comprehended that this was her special day she leapt out of bed and ran for the living room.

After tearing through some other presents, she spied an envelope on the table with the number "1" written on it. She opened it and read a little note that instructed her to look in the freezer. A scavenger hunt!

Note number 2 (in the freezer) told her to look in daddy's closet. So off she rocketed, up the stairs, with Marni in tow. She flung the closet door open and there it was... a beautiful, white confirmation wedding dress.

And Marni burst into tears.

But Stella was ecstatic.

She wore the dress all morning and placed it carefully aside, after getting ready for school, so that she could put it on again for her after-school tea party.

Stella's 1st grade celebration went off without a hitch as Lisa dropped by with Popsicles for the class (and teachers). And, again, Marni burst into tears when she was invited into the 1st grade class to help celebrate, but was too afraid to attend.

Then, Lisa brought 45 cupcakes over to Beansprouts for the next celebration.

Finally, I picked up Stella, Marni, and 7 other children from school and brought them back for the grand tea party.

That's where we lost control.

All told, there were about 13 girls and 3 boys at the party. Everyone started running around. The girls quickly formed a "girls club" which the boys, just as quickly, wanted to crash. Tempers flared, feelings were hurt, a couple of eyes were punched.

And that was just me!

We calmed things down and regained control.

Everyone enjoyed the "frost your ice cream cone cupcake" project and the "make your own notebook" project. We stuck a candle in an ice cream cone cupcake, sang Happy Birthday to Stella, and then everyone was off to run around in our parking lot with squirt guns and bubbles.

Finally it was 5:30 and parents came by to pick up their kids. They may have been shell-shocked, but they were all still alive... and Stella had a good time.

Event number 4 was yesterday... a friendly little BBQ with family and friends. My parents and sister came down and we were also joined by the Stefanoff/Imhoff clan, Nana Audrey, and the NJ Hoffmans. Sherri also dropped by later. The festivities culminated with the opening of some fantastic gifts.

So now we bring down the curtain on Stella's 7th birthday extravaganza. No doubt that in a few months discussions will begin on the 8th birthday celebration. It'll be a smaller kid party next year. But as long as Stellie is happy, that works for us.

Home Made... Tooth Number 4

This morning Stella broke from tradition and ejected her 4th tooth at home. A home birth, if you will. None of this "bit into an apple at Beansprouts and this is what happened" nonsense.

She went to sleep last night fretting about her very wobbly and slightly bleeding tooth. Then, precisely at 6 am, she awoke and proclaimed... "My tooth is out!".

Luckily, she didn't swallow it.

Now it awaits placement under her pillow tonight and daddy needs to find some dollar coins. Maybe I should stock up. There's a lot of wobbling going on in that mouth.

Table Dancing

As if I wasn't already worried enough about Stella's desire to wear her bikini everywhere (see here), I now have to deal with Marni's desire to table-dance.

And damn if she's not good at it!



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Scooter Cousins

Mother's Day weekend in Albany gave the cousins plenty of opportunity to practice their scootering skills. The weather was so warm that Stella decided to do her scootering in her bikini. I'm a little worried.



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Ode to Mom

Stella was caught practicing a little ditty meant to be performed for Lisa (and Nanas) on Mother's Day. She came down with an extreme case of shyness on Mother's Day, so this recording of the practice session will just have to do.



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