Ever used to have violent fits. It was really awful. She'd get mad at me and scream and get out of control and scary. She pretty much stopped that madness a long time ago, but in early September, she briefly reverted to her old ways. For posterity, here's some of the screaming that occurred after I finally got her to her room.
This was probably the girls' final swim in Leela and Rafi's pool last summer:
We met the Rondos and Gavin and Shawna McEwan at the beach after Jim got home from work one Friday. It was so late by the time we got down there that the sun set as we walked down the beach to where everybody was. Jim took Ever and then Wren out to surf, but they only had about half an hour before it was really late and getting dark.
Ella went out to surf with Ever. It was frigid, and why she did not bring a wetsuit is a real mystery. She didn't last very long.
Ever on the left, Ella on the right. Nearly holding hands on this long ride.
Wrenzy stood up for the first time that day and had a long ride. It was really exciting, and she was so cute out there.
Leela came over for a little while, and she and Ever used the time to make up a dance.
It was supposed to end with their touching their BFF heart necklaces together. They forgot that part during the video, so they posed for a picture of that.
Ever started piano lessons with Miss Violetta of California Music Studios.
We don't get Wren out on the bike much, so I fear she'll never learn how to ride. But once in a while, it happens (with training wheels).
Ever's Girl Scout troop did a little beach cleanup. It was supposed to take a few hours, but they ended up finishing after only a short time. Goose is in the tie-dye.
One of the library books they brought home was about a gigantic cake called a whopper cake. The back of the book contained the whopper cake recipe scaled down for everyday use, and Jim and the girls decided we had to make it.
They very much enjoyed it, although Ever is generally anti frosting and would have preferred it without.
Last year Ever didn't care about the Accelerated Reader (AR) program at school until the end of the year, when she decided to make a push to test on books and earn enough points to get her AR shirt. I didn't care if she didn't care because she was doing plenty of reading; she just wasn't testing on the books she read to get AR credit. This year she went nuts from the get-go. She started racking up points like crazy. She and a girl named Dylan were neck and neck for the top second-grade reader. Every day, Dylan and Ever would check in and see how many points the other had. Apparently Dylan has been the top reader every year. Dylan's teacher from last year was egging Ever on, telling her it was time for a new winner. Dylan (who is gigantic) and Ever earned enough points to get their AR shirts the same day in September. It was the first or second AR assembly of the year. Dylan's first-grade teacher came up to me at the assembly and confirmed that despite Dylan's being "hers," she was, indeed, encouraging Ever because she liked the rivalry.
(The postscript is that the rivalry continued for a couple months, and then Dylan fell further and further behind and then eventually seemed to give up. I think she got demoralized. I feel really bad about it, actually. There are still three fifth graders ahead of Ever, but that's it in the whole school.)
Outside of preschool, Bear Bear tried to fly by flapping her wings and getting some speed. Tiny was (rightly) afraid to follow her lead.
Anna found these adorable pictures on the Cadence website.
I pulled a couple of pictures off Miss Paula's Little Bugs blog
