The Rest of October 2023

At the park across the park from Miss Amber's house, the girls did some more high climbing after piano lessons.

Tiny gave me a sweet birthday present. I tried to reject her money, but she made me take it. She's so sweet and generous. Front:

Back:

Wrenzy also gave me a beautiful card and candy. 

Ever had to take pictures of her assignments and e-mail them to her teachers before turning them in the next day. I did not understand this ridiculous requirement, but it means I have photographic evidence of the fancy way she insisted on doing every assignment. Note the title "Homework" in block letters with cursive over it, and then the fancy shading of "Notes" and "Work" in this first specimen. I could not convince her to stop spending time making her work pretty. So much extra time.

Tiny got a medal for being nominated by her coach (Dad) as a soccer all-star. (So did Wren, but I don't have a picture of her.)

Wrenzy's classmate, Fiora, had a birthday party at Sky Zone Glow, followed by Legally Blonde (totally inappropriate for nine-year-olds) and a slumber party. I took Wren to Fiora's house for the latter part of the pre-Sky Zone festivities; we were late because Wren had to go straight from her all-star thing. When we pulled up outside Fiora's house, the girls ran out screaming "Wren!" and hugged her and were so excited. It was really nice. 

Because I am mean (slash the only mom around who has any clue or concern about the sort of entertainment my children ingest) and would not allow Wren to watch Legally Blonde or sleep over, I picked her up from Sky Zone at 9:00. She seemed OK to be missing the rest of the party. (Also those girls were going to be up all night long.)

I took pictures of the girls for their skiing season passes.

Tiny arranged her clean undies and jammies on drawer handles during her bath. 

Then she got an armful of bubble. I don't know how. One huge bubble film.

I found a list of goals by Bear. What an aspirational third-grader. 

Tiny went on a campout with her Girl Scout troop. I took her straight from all-star soccer tryouts. (They do all-star recognition day, which is when everyone who is nominated tries out for all-stars and gets a medal. That was the day of Fiora's birthday party. Then they do this "pool play" thing, when all the all-stars play so the coaches can figure out how to arrange the teams. Tiny had to go very late to the campout, straight from the pool play.) So Tiny was not clean upon arrival, but she was sweet and happy. 

The next day, they did crafts and spent some time by the river. 

Girl Scouts has not been ideal for Tiny because she goes to a different school and doesn't know any of the girls, and they haven't done a great job of integrating her. But after this campout, she told me she made a friend, whose name she didn't know. I was happy to see these pictures of the two of them together. I have since learned that the girl's name is Madison, and she seems to be a big Tiny fan. Who wouldn't be? 

I stumbled upon original song lyrics (I think?) by Bear.

I chaperoned Bear's class on a field trip to the gallery by the Dove Library in Carlsbad.

Bear, James, and Fiora

Mrs. Shimizu always has us kill the rest of a field trip day at the park; she seems to have some aversion to going back to school and doing any schoolwork after an outing. So we spent a really long time at the park lunching and playing and waiting for it to be late enough that we could go back to school for pickup time. It was incredibly cold, and I was so sad to be wearing slippers. My feet were freezing for hours. One of the moms made all of us plus Mrs. Shimizu pose for a photo.

We did a Friday Sky Zone play date with Tiny, Maya, and Kaia (and Kaia's big sister Stella.) I thoroughly enjoy Courtney Johnson, Kaia's mom, so it's always a pleasure to chat while the girls play. (Melissa, Maya's mom, works on Fridays.) Before we left, Courtney suggested a picture. 

Stella Johnson, Tiny, Maya Phillips, and Kaia Johnson

Ever got a special invitation to participate in the Rondos' extended-family Halloween gathering. She and Ella made very pretty cats (courtesy of Kristi, who made them up).

We carved pumpkins a couple days before Halloween. The girls added fun leaf-and-flower wreaths to their jack-o'-lanterns.

I am the least festive mother, and I have rubbed off on my children. No effort goes into costumes. This year they were all witches, using costumes we already had. Dreamy for me. I took a bunch of pictures before we left for trick-or-treating, but I didn't get a single one where they were all looking at the camera with a normal expression. Tiny, in particular, likes to be a real weirdy in pictures.

We collected the Cikaneks and headed out. 

I got an e-mail from Ever about her student-led conference. Those conferences sound like a good idea in theory, but they are a total waste of time. This irks me extra because we live so far from the school, so extra trips down there are not my fave. Anyway, I enjoyed Ever's personalized addendum.

Ever says "I love you" more than any child in the history of the planet, I bet. This may be jumping ahead because I am writing this in February 2025, and I know how Ever is now and has been in recent months but don't totally remember October 2023. But she never leaves the house or gets off the phone with me without saying, "Love you." I was in the shower recently, and she came into the bathroom to ask me something. I answered the question, and then instead of saying, "K, thanks," she said, "K, love you" and left. We probably say we love each other 100 times a day. It's very sweet.