As another summer fades all too quickly from our minds, the school year begins anew. Jada's back in Kindergarten at the same school she was at last year. Ellen has started her first year of Kindergarten at the same school, but in the classroom next door. Phoebe has started back in pre-school 3 days a week. Dave's been out on the his bike somewhere in Oregon. Plus, the orchard is open again for business. It's been a busy beginning to fall.
Ellen's first month of Kindergarten has gone very well. Beaverton is still doing half day kindergarten, so Ellen attends the afternoon session in the class next to Jada's. They drive to school together, and Ellen helps out in the classroom before school. After school, she helps out again or just reads while Jada finishes up her work. If Jada is going to have a meeting, Grandma comes to pick her up after school to take her home. During school, Ellen has enjoyed recess and making new friends. She gets to write in her journal. Since her teacher knows that she can write her own words and read, Ellen can't get away with pretending that she can't. Ellen also likes to do the sharing parts of the class. She got to be the first person to be the class star where she brought home a kite and decorated it with things that had to do with she and her family. Then she got to share it with the class as an introduction. The teacher also sends home a bear that the kids get to take with them everywhere, and then write a journal about what Mr. Bear and they did. Ellen took Mr. Bear to the orchard with us. She also really enjoys doing homework. Even though she isn't required to do it and bring it back in, she still likes to work on it at home after school and turn it back in for a sticker the next day. Her new favorite thing at the end of the month was library day because she got to go to the library to pick out her own book. We know her teacher from last year when Jada taught with her and when Dave volunteered in her classroom for National Engineer and Technician's Month. However, this year, we got to sit in on her classroom introductions and curriculum night where she walked the parents through how she teaches her class and meets the needs of the students in her class. We're very excited to have her as Ellen's teacher. We get to do Parent/Teacher conferences next month. It's so weird being on this side of things now that I'm older.
But that's not all. We've managed to over schedule Ellen a little bit this fall which we'll have to do a better job at this winter...there were just so many things that she wanted to do this fall. She started soccer. It's your basic munchkin soccer league. The kids play 3 on 3 on tiny fields, and everyone clusters right around the ball no matter where it is on the field while the coaches futilely try to explain the concept of being open for the pass and spreading the field. There's always the kids that are a year older that handle the ball really well and can score, but they don't keep score. Ellen just really enjoys being out on the field, running around, doing cheers with her teammates on the sidelines (Go, Buffalos!), and playing defense. Like her daddy, she's a defender. If the ball's on her end of the field, she's trying the guard the goal. One of her plays in the last week of the month, she chased down a little boy running toward the goal and poked the ball away. Otherwise, she doesn't really want to kick the ball much, or she's scared of kicking too hard and hurting someone. But she's having fun, and that's the important thing. Those games are twice a week after work, and then once a week, she has 2 dance classes while Phoebe's in her pre-school class in the mornings. Jada found back to back ballet and tap classes for Ellen. Unfortunately, there weren't any of the same for Phoebe, but it worked out well. As you know from reading previous journals, Ellen really loves to dance, and she's quite graceful...not that I'm biased or anything.
Phoebe isn't sitting still during any of this, of course. She is attending her pre-school class 3 mornings a week so Jada can drop Phoebe off, and grandma can get some 1 on 1 Phoebe time while Ellen is in school. Phoebe is enjoying her school. I haven't been able to do anything with her class since they don't really do curriculum nights or open houses. But she has the same teacher that she had last year, but the assistant teacher is new. They all love Phoebe...and can you blame them really? You've seen her. She's adorable. Again, not that I'm biased or anything. She gets to bring home some projects too which she likes since Ellen does homework too. We helped her make a paper girl that looked like her. I supplied the outline of the clothes to her specifications (Capris, Short-sleeve button-down shirt with vertical stripes, and her school shoes), Jada used yarn for her hair, and Phoebe filled in the rest of the color and detail.
While Ellen plays her soccer games, Phoebe likes to kick the ball around herself. She's quite good at dribbling. Sometimes she'll even let me play with her. Phoebe also gets to have a dance class on one of the mornings that she isn't in pre-school. It's the ballet/tap combined class like the one that she took in the summer. Phoebe really enjoys ballet more so than tap. She's pretty graceful herself. She really likes dancing around the house in her ballerina tutu that Nana made for her. She also likes dressing her stuffed birthday bear in it.
Of course, the girls aren't all sunshine and buttercups. There are quite a few dustups at the old homestead still. Ellen has a very strong sense of entitlement for some reason. Anytime Phoebe tries to play with Ellen, Ellen always has to call all the shots, and if Phoebe is playing by herself, Ellen always has to come up and start playing with the same thing and take over. Luckily, Phoebe fights back most of the time. Sometimes in screams or yells, "N-O, No!". One time with a slap which cost her the 5 minute penalty for fighting (yes, we use hockey rules to settle disputes in our house. Doesn't everyone?) Ellen tends to rack up the game misconduct penalties that send her to her room quite a bit. But then there are the times when they are nice to each other where Ellen reads a book to Phoebe or something. So, you can see that the rewards are in there somewhere, but it's just a bit of a struggle to pull them off with great frequency. They're still great kids, but man, do they have their moments.
The last weekend of the month, Jada got the girls baking. I took Ellen to the orchard for some apples while Jada used the time to spend with Phoebe for some rare 1 on 1 time. They made tweety bird pies from a recipe they found in a library book that we had picked up one time. When Ellen and I came home, Jada and Phoebe were just finishing up their baking. After cleaning up, Ellen got to help make Jada's famous apple crisp. Jada still takes both the girls to story time at the Beaverton Library once a week. They always have fun, and they get to see grandma Janet.
During the second week of school this year, I got to do Cycle Oregon XIX in the north east corner of the state. We started and ended in Umatilla along the Columbia River making a counter-clockwise route across the farm and ranch lands and into the Blue Mountains where we rode through an area that had literally just opened (the forest service fire fighters had just contained the fire the day before) after a forest fire, and had to re-route 2 days later due to snow over the original pass we were going to take. It was a wild one. If you're interested, you can read the official literature about the ride at the Cycle Oregon web site link as well as my personal travelogue on my experience on the ride this year. Spoiler alert - I lived to tell the tale...and boy, did I in detail. Spoiler alert off.
We got the carpets cleaned this month. We are basically doing our spring cleaning in the fall. We sent the girls over to a friend's house, and Jada and I worked outside and in the garage. I found no less than 8 bike saddles amongst my old bicycle things. So if anyone wants to try out a saddle, I've got a whole bunch of different brands and styles that didn't quite work for me, but may work for you. We also finally took down the gates in the house, so the main hallway that is supposed to be a hallway is a hallway again rather than the extra storage space we had been using it for.
That's all for now. The NBA season is around the corner, apple season is in full swing, and October is already shaping up to a busy month.
Journal entry: October 6, 2006