Every year when the irises are in bloom I think that it would great to get some pictures of Dorothy with them since her middle name is Iris. I never learn, because it rarely goes well.
This stick was way more interesting than anything I wanted her to do, like look in my general direction.
Mooooooommmmmm...I couldn't keep her high-drama-ness in focus.
The queen of silly faces.
Some of the pictures would have been really cute if her hair hadn't been in the way/covering her face.
I swear I brushed her hair this morning before we left the house.
The one time she doesn't compulsively tuck her hair behind her ear.
I did manage a couple that aren't too bad. I thinking about getting one of the last two printed off to hang up. I have no idea where I would put it though because we are running out of room on our walls.
Both kids are now out of school for the entire summer! Yay? Malcolm's last day was a bit more emotional than Dorothy's was. She was sad about missing her friends (one or two in particular), but was mostly OK. When I picked Malcolm up from school, his first words were that he was going to miss his teacher. By the time we got home, he was in full sobs and, "just so sad!" He says that he wants more time with his teacher and class and that the school year wasn't long enough.
First day, Aug 14, 2014
Last day, more than 9 months later.
Waiting in line to go into the school one last time for first grade.
His school has a tradition of ringing a bell that is out front on the first and last day of school to signal the start and end of the school year.
He's in the shirt with wide stripes, waiting while the rest of the kids come out and have a seat.
Once all the big kids were out, I told Dorothy that she could sit behind them.
On the first day, they had a couple of kindergarteners help ring the bell, along with some the new staff members. On the last day, they had a few of the fifth graders (the school only goes up to fifth grade) ring the bell, along with two staff members who were retiring.
After school, we made a stop by the bell to take a quick picture.
Malcolm had a great year in first grade and seems to really like his school a lot. I have promised him that we will do our best to get together with some of his friends over the summer. I'm willing to bet that we will run into some kids he knows just at the local parks, the pool, and some of the community classes the kids are signed up for. It seems like he knows everyone and everyone knows him. We can hardly go anywhere without him knowing someone.
Today is Dorothy's last day of school. Here's a little photo comparison of first day/last day:
First day, on Sept 5th. She still has this outfit, but the pants are much shorter on her now.
Last day, about 8.5 months later. It's not a huge difference, but she is looking a bit more grown up.
First day; excited, but a little nervous.
Last day; ready to go play with friends. Having her own friends is one of the biggest changes in her this year. Until recently, all of her "friends" have really been Malcolm's friends who are nice to her and include her when they play. It is nice to see her forming her own relationships and playing her own games, separate from her brother.
When we walk to school, she loves to pick dandelions along the way. I have caught more than one driver giggling at her as they pass. She is pretty cute.
Playing ong the playground before school. They were so cute sitting there, but the other little girl looked down right as I took the picture. These two are together a lot.
Another school friends whom we hear about all the time at home. Dorothy is sad that they won't be in the same class next year.
This one just cracks me up. In case it isn't obvious, they are "playing unicorns." As far as I can tell, that involves a lot of running around and making a high pitched sound.
One more year of preschool for my big girl, who thinks she is ready to start first grade next year. Stop growing up so fast.
The last thing on Malcolm's birthday celebration wish list was to have afternoon tea, and he chose to go to The Drake in Chicago.
He seemed to really like it, and I think he felt pretty grown up having "real" afternoon tea. We sometimes do a similar thing for dinner which the kids like a lot, but it is more special at such a beautiful location.
Kevin and I were both very happy with how well both of the kids behaved. Even when they didn't care for something, they didn't make a big deal out of it, and just left it on their plate like we always tell them. Now if they would only do as well at home. The ladies that were sitting behind Malcolm came over on their way out to say how cute and well behaved the were.
Dorothy and I enjoyed the last of our drinks. I had the wild blackberry black tea which was fantastic. Kevin chose the house blend black tea, which I also tasted. It was good both black and with cream and sugar. Dorothy and Malcolm had hot chocolate instead of tea.
The flowers in the center of the fountain was huge and impressive. There were some tables for two right next to the fountain, and we were just beyond that. It was great to be able to enjoy the fountain, and we could hear the harpist well too.
Not the best lighting, but the lilies in the lobby were gorgeous.
While waiting for our car, the kids checked out these adorable mechanical circus toys. They had lots of moving parts and were incredibly detailed.
She's roaring like a dragon because of the dragon (or, I suppose, drake) light fixture.
We went to a more casual tea last summer at a little British food shop, and Malcolm said he preferred that one to the fancy one. The casual one served a delicious cheese sandwich and Nutella sandwiches for the kids. It's hard to compete with that.
And this finishes Malcolm's seventh birthday celebrations. He is one lucky kid.
A few weeks ago a friend posted a link where a four year old reviews a high end restaurant with her face. It immediately made me think of my own four year old who is somewhat well known for the variety of faces she makes and her strong opinions on food. It just so happened that we had reservations at The Drake for afternoon tea for Malcolm's birthday, so I had my camera on my phone ready to try and capture a few of Dorothy's reactions. I apologies in advance for the quality of my photos, which were taken quickly and are not quite in focus.
So, a 1:30 tea time when lunch is usually at noon and she is down for a nap between 1-1:30 might not have been the best idea. She had a bit of a rough start, but did settle down once she got a little something in her stomach. When we first sat down, she thought it was too loud. There were a lot of people talking and live harp music, so it was a bit loud in there. There were several groups around us celebrating, with a birthday just behind her and a bridal shower over her other shoulder.
Our food. The kids' included sandwiches of turkey & cheese, peanut butter and jelly, and cucumber tomato. Malcolm ate the peanut butter and the cucumber tomato. Dorothy could not be convinced that any of the sandwiches were remotely edible. Kevin and I ate the turkey and cheese that the kids refused and they were very good. We also had the cucumber tomato, a roast beef and cheese, and a seafood salad. All of them were good and I liked the roast beef and seafood salad the best.
Dorothy opted to begin with the cranberry scones and mini lemon poppy seed loaf. We had clotted cream, lemon curd, and strawberry jam to choose from as toppings and she wanted jam on her scone. She ate the lemon poppy seed loaf and had about 2-3 bites of the scone (both were very good, but I preferred the clotted cream to the jam).
Instead of tea, both kids opted for the hot chocolate that comes with the kids tea. Dorothy had much angst over the hot chocolate being "too hot" and she would not believe me that it had cooled to room temperature. She drank a bit from her spoon to test it out, and I added some cream to "cool it down" before she would attempt to drink it.
Once she was finally convinced to drink it, she liked it, however she did comment, "I wish this had marshmallows like real hot chocolate."
The chocolate chip cookie was a safe bet and a good palette cleanser before moving on to the more exotic offerings. Both kids were big fans of the cookie.
The chocolate cake pops were met with great enthusiasm, but neither kid finished them. Evidently, once cake is no longer on a stick, it ceases to taste good.
Kevin and I had more sweets than we could eat, so we offered to share with the kids. Here, she is sampling the passion fruit tart. Malcolm loved it and said it was delicious.
This was Dorothy's verdict.
She had been eyeing the two macaroons that were for the grown-ups, and was very happy when I offered her half of mine. Then she took a bite and hated it. The poor girl was betrayed twice in a row by desserts. It was a rough day.
The black forest cake got a much better reception.
Her plate of rejected food. She ate one wing of the vanilla cream puff swan and wouldn't touch the rest. I think she would have liked the cream if she had gotten a better taste of it.
Malcolm and I had the tiers of food between us, so I didn't get many pictures of the birthday boy. Kevin took a few, but I haven't seen his yet.
All of us, in front of the gorgeous fountain.
Overall, Malcolm enjoyed it more than Dorothy, but even she found a few things (mostly hot chocolate, cake, and cookies) she liked. Kevin and I enjoyed ourselves and it was a fun afternoon.
After a whopping five classes, Dorothy had her first baton twirling performance today. I had figured that since she had just started, she would not be included in the show, but her teacher wanted her to give it a try for fun, so she did it. Luckily, she did not have to remember her routine, since her teacher did it with her, just like in class. We weren't sure if Dorothy would twirl or just stand there, but she did a great job. It can't be easy to be so little and get up by yourself in front of a gym full of big kids and grown-ups, but she did. After the contest, one of the judges I know said how impressed she was that she got out there at all.
Kevin and I each took a video of her routine. Mine is closer, but shaky because I zoomed in so much, and because I was giggling because she was cute. It was impossible to hold the camera steady. Youtube steadied mine automatically, so it is much better than it was, so hopefully you won't get motion sick watching it. Kevin's is much more steady than mine was, but from farther away, so it's harder to see what she is doing. I'm posting both, so pick your poison.
In addition to the park district classes performing, this was an actual competition. Dorothy's class, and her teacher's other park district classes did their routines, but it was mostly for the kids who have been twirling for a long time and are getting ready for some important upcoming competitions, like Miss Majorette in a couple of weeks. We watched some X-struts, then got her changed into her costume. Once she was dressed, she wanted to "go practice" like the big kids.
I was impressed that she was actually doing some of her routine and was remembering it fairly well.
Her costume is one that I had leftover from when I was teaching twirling, and had picked up for almost nothing. I added a few black and pink sequins to the black parts on the sides to give it a little extra something, but I already had those too. I didn't have pink ribbon for her hair that matched, but I had black, so I added some pink sequins to the ribbons to make them stand out a little. For costing nothing, it turned out really cute.
Here's all the park district girls getting gathered up and ready. Look how tiny she is compared to everyone else.
Waiting while her teacher reviews with another class.
After they all did their routines, each class got to go up on the stage to get their award.
She was completely thrilled with her first place ribbon.
After the competition, when we were in the locker room changing out of her costume, she noticed the trophies an older advanced girl had and asked about them. I told her that those were the awards the big girls got for doing their routines by themselves that we had been watching and that if they had the most points, they earned a trophy. The older girl and her mom overheard us, and the girl offered one of her trophies to Dorothy. It was really, really sweet of her, but I declined it (and Dorothy hadn't noticed yet). She is happy with her ribbon, and the trophy can be something to work toward if she wants to try competing sometime.
I couldn't get her to look at me, but that's a pretty decent salute.
After she was done, she did not want to take off her costume and watched all the big kids do their solos. It was hard for her to sit still, but she also didn't want to miss anything. In addition to watching from the stands, she liked going to the practice area to "practice."
A lot of her practicing involved watching the other kids.
It did give me a chance to play around with the new fancy camera Kevin got me for my birthday. This was one of my favorite action shots, taken mid crazy-spin.
Two of the older girls that she watches after her class each week. The one in blue is "her friend" and Dorothy follows her everywhere she can. This was toward the end of the contest and they were starting to take down the results wall and she really wanted to help them, but wasn't quite big enough. I had her wait with me, and she was able to take the score sheets from the advanced twirl-off up to be tabulated, and she felt very important.
Even though she was done by noon, we stayed until the very end. I kept asking if she was ready to go, and she insisted that she wanted to stay. Once it was over, and they were announcing some of the awards, she asked if there was going to be any more twirling. When I said no, she immediately started to take off her costume. I stopped her and we went to the locker room instead of changing right next to the bleachers.
I think she had a really good day and she says she wants to do routines like the big kids. We'll see how that goes. I'll give it a few weeks, then maybe over the summer, if she's still interested, we can work on her basic strut (marching in a square) and a very simple solo.
