We took the girls ice skating again. Jim and I have not passed on great ice skating genes, but there is desire. Jim, who has been frustrated by not being able to ice skate, wanted to take them a bunch so they'd be good and confident for future ice skating experiences in college and beyond.
Ever and I went to Scholarship Prep in preparation for the new school year at the new school. I had researched charter schools in the area (Oceanside, San Marcos, and Encinitas). I talked to parents of kids at all the schools. JCS Mountain Oaks in Encinitas uses the GATE (gifted and talented education) standards for all students and touts its academic rigor. It's a drive from us, though, and I got varied reports from parents, from "it's not rigorous enough" to "the middle school assigns an insane amount of work, everyone knows it's a problem, and my seventh grader had to pull an all-nighter." I couldn't get comfortable enough to commit to the commute and decided Scholarship Prep in Oceanside felt like a safer choice. Its mission is to close the achievement gap and help socioeconomically disadvantaged kids find a path to college - admirable, but not what we need. But I liked the principal and vice principal and was assured that they have kids at very different levels in each class and are able to accommodate and challenge them all. So Scholarship Prep it was.
The girls went to a pool party at the Karners' (I think it was Alina's birthday), and Susan made yummy shaved ice to be enjoyed before the cake.
Wrenzy gave herself a funky 'do.
Susan spearheaded an adorable back-to-school party. She said she was going to keep things simple, but then she made plates that look like apples, paper rulers to wrap around the napkins, framed quotes to provide the inspiration for the school year, etc.
School started on Monday, August 16, 2021. Scholarship Prep does uniforms, which looked quite cute but quickly turned out to be the bane of Tiny's (and hence my) existence. Tiny, kindergarten:
Wren, first grade:
Ever, fourth grade:
I had no idea what traffic at the school would be like. Apparently they added hundreds of students that school year, so first-day traffic was even worse than it had been in previous years. It took me about an hour and a half to drop them off - that's pulling around the school and letting them out. They were crazy late, but so was everyone else. It was TERRIBLE, and I was highly concerned about drop-off and pickup going forward. I started parking in the Mission parking lot next door. On Wednesday, Jim had a half day and came with me to pick up the girls. Jim with Tiny and her giant backpack:
Then we learned that we weren't allowed to park in that lot. I filled out a form to allow the biggers to walk home from school. With that, they were able to walk to the kindergarten area at the back of campus, and I could swing through the much shorter kindergarten area and pick everyone up there. I also let everyone out with Tiny in the kinder area in the mornings. Without a system like that, drop-off and pickup would have been ridiculous. Luc and Amelie Oddou came to Scholarship Prep that year, too, based, I think, solely on what I told Susan about my research. We started carpooling home with them in the afternoons - mainly to help Paul and Susan because of their work schedules. I mostly drove on the afternoons that I had to take Ever to Cadence for dance classes so that I could drop Ever at dance and then take Luc and Amelie home or vice versa.
Wrenzy's first-day self-portrait:
Ever earned a trip to iFly (indoor skydiving) as a reward for selling a lot of Girl Scout cookies. She got three one-minute flights. I opted out of paying $40 or something to upgrade to a "high flight." As I watched her, I realized that the regular low flights looked super boring, so I got her a high flight for her last one.
We went back to Big Bear to work on the renovation. Just a glimpse at the littles when they're being BFFs:
Tiny gave herself a cool little loin cloth.
We discovered that the contractor had oriented the tree house the wrong way, so one of the skylights looked at the house and the big bay window had a very unattractive view of the back of the house next door and surrounding area. The bay window was supposed to look out across the gulch, and the skylights were supposed to see more sky. We got our contact from the construction company, Omar, to come over to discuss. He said he had called Jim to ask if they could put the door on the fire pit side, and Jim had said yes. Probably true, but Jim didn't realize that would change the orientation of the tree house and destroy the view. We decided to pay $3,000 to have Omar bring out a bunch of guys and rotate the whole tree house and to put in more decking to the new location of the door. It was devastating. Although we obviously wish the miscommunication had never happened, it was critical that the tree house face the right way, and we definitely did the right thing by fixing the error. This is the tree house in its incorrect orientation:
Back at home, Tiny and Wrenzy baked, with Tiny in the apron Ever had given her for her birthday.
We went to the beach.
Bear got scary.
I think I took a picture of this because I liked the "pupie."
More painting at the cabin.
Jim also replaced the ceiling fans.
We chose rock for the Big Bear fireplace and were bewildered when we picked it up, as it came in a mess of individual, irregularly shaped rocks. We thought it was going to be a disaster. Jim cut the sides of every single rock to make it easier to install, and then install he did. It was a painstaking process, but it turned out great.
Jim tasked the girls with collecting and carrying up to the driveway all of the pieces of stone he cut off.
Berry started gymnastics at Coastal Gymnastics Academy (after a long time on the wait list) and looked adorable in Ever's old leotard.
She also tied one of our changing-table covers on her head to become Little Bo Peep.
Tiny built with our wooden castle building set that has never gotten used, partly because it's impossible to put into its box.
Ever was recognized for her super cookie selling (assisted by her uncredited sisters).
Tiny's bizarre sensory issue with clothes made mornings on school days a complete nightmare. At first she would only wear the polo shirt and a dress. Then she refused to wear the dresses and would only wear the skirts, except the shirts and the skirts were painfully uncomfortable for her and brought on tantrums such as the world had never seen. I couldn't make her get dressed. She would pull at her clothes and tear off anything that made it onto her. She was insane. She was hangry upon waking, but if I let her eat breakfast before getting dressed, she'd spend all the time we had eating and then refuse to get dressed, making a timely departure impossible. To avoid that, I tried to make her get dressed before breakfast, but that didn't work either. The girl couldn't function when hungry. I've never witnessed hanger like that. Jim can't watch these videos, but I think it's important to document the terrible times.
We have neglected Wrenzy on the bike front, but she got so she could ride a bit (downhill).
We made homemade doughnuts on a Sunday night.
I couldn't get the littles back in the car after a Cadence (dance class) drop-off because they were finding all sorts of beads in the parking lot. Oh, the things they collect.
