Miss Independent

It all started just prior to school starting.   She really, really, really wanted to ride the bus, and I really, really, really was not going to let her do it.   She was six years old, new to the area and school, and I was not about to let her climb aboard a huge, yellow, no seat belt bus with a bunch of strangers and leave me sobbing at the bus stop.  I am just not ready for that leap.  Don’t know that I ever will be.

When she finally accepted that I wasn’t going to waiver on this, she began the task of trying to convince me to drop her off in the car drop line. 

Nope.   Remember this kid?   He was (supposedly) dropped off and never seen again.   The walk into the school and out to the playground is open in the morning, and Doug and I have discussed many times how simple it would be for some strange adult to wonder out there and fall in line with other parents and kids and possibly convince our girl to go off the school grounds with them.

Not going to happen.  I will walk you  ALL the way out there.  Thank you very much.

Last week, it was our park hike.   She desperately wanted to hike further up the trail ahead of us, and I kept calling her back within sight distance. 

This frustrated her to no end.   My constant threats of making her come back and hold my hand the rest of the hike did not help her already moody behavior, so when she rolled her eyes and took off in a dead run (once again) ahead of us on the trail, I did not call her back this time.   I figured we were pretty much alone on the hike that day, and she wouldn’t go too far, and besides if she did, this would be a great opportunity to teach her a lesson.

The short story is, she DID go too far ahead, and took a fork to the right.  When we came to the same fork, we took a left.   She wasn’t completely lost.  It was really only a 5 minute separation, which I will admit DID feel like hours before we were reunited with our tear streaked girl on a loop in the trail about a quarter of a mile ahead.    When she heard my voice, she ran to me crying and clutched onto me with shaking hands.  

She didn’t stray more than a few feet from us the rest of the day.

 

She was really quiet the rest of the afternoon.  I could tell that “lost” incident had shaken her up.   She sat looking out over the water in silence like this for several minutes, and then finally she spoke.

Mom, I am sorry I didn’t listen to you.   I should stay with you guys to be safe.   I learned my lesson.

What?   For once one of my “I will teach her” moments worked?   I could not believe it.

Then she added,  You were right.  I am not ready to ride the bus.

Just like that, she said it.

On Monday morning, we pulled into the school as usual to park and start our walk out to the playground.   On this day, I took a right and headed for the car drop off lane.

Mom, what are you doing?  This is for drop-off kids, Kaelan gasped.

I know, I said.   You are ready for it.

She looked completely shocked and then smiled a knowing smile that told me she knew what I was up to.  I was rebuilding  confidence.  MY confidence in knowing the world is not all horrible missing and abducted kid stories.   HER confidence in her ability  to make the right choices in life. 

MY confidence in HER.

True, I cried as I watched her walk up the sidewalk and through the school doors without me, but I knew she would be okay.  I won’t drop her off like this all the time.  I am not ready for that.  In fact, she asked me to still walk her in on most days.  But I think we are taking baby steps together on this whole independence thing.  

Perhaps it will make college  easier for me or lessen the blow the second time around with The Boy.

Probably not.

Roctober

We rocked October.  

We had so much fun making our way through the month and ending with a big bang of a Halloween. 

Along with some of the other Rocking October events I mentioned before, here are a few more we enjoyed….(and I poorly documented with very poor quality photos).

Fright Fest at Frontier City

Kaelan grabbed a witch costume from the box and she also grabbed a few items and put a Harry Potter  get-up together for Seth.

We rode some great rides and the kids ended the night on a trick or treat trail where they handed out odd treats.  The kids got things like a six pack of Coke Zero and huge bags of chips.   We found out later that was the last day of the season for Frontier City, so they were emptying out there closets, I guess.   That would explain the package of dryer sheets they gave us.

 

Pumpkin Night

Every year, we have our family pumpkin night where we carve our pumpkins, enjoy a pumpkin treat of some sort and cuddle up to watch “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”.   This year, we had the extra bonus of enjoying our pumpkin night out by the fire pit.  We made a last minute decision to go ahead and carve our pumpkins out by the pit.  I worried this would end with  a visit to the ER, but dad played it safe with carving tools and drills in the dim light, and no one lost any appendages.   It was perfect marshmallow by fire weather, so we sat out until late that night just watching the fire and talking.   All went well, until I smelled something funny and realized I had knocked Seth’s poor Darth Vader pumpkin into the fire.   Luckily, he did not die that night.  Much like Vader’s life story, I was able to swap out his pumpkin “body” with another and remold his robot face and arms back to new.   Seth will never know about that little mishap, as he had already retired for the night.  Did you hear me?  SETH WILL NEVER KNOW ABOUT THAT LITTLE MISHAP.  RIGHT???

 

PUMPKIN SCAVENGER HUNT

Kaelan started a game where she would count all the pumpkins she saw in front of houses on the way home from school.  She had a goal to get to 100, but never quite reached that goal (could it be that we drove the SAME path each time?). 

This helped Dad and I to come up with a little pumpkin game for this kids.   After they were all bathed and ready for bed, we called them downstairs and explained that we were going on a pumpkin hunt.   The kids had to find at least 100 pumpkins on our route in order to win a pumpkin treat at the end.

Surprise!   They did it!  

Did you really think I was going to let that game end without me getting some pumpkin ice cream?

 

The kids did a great job tracking their count (which worked out super since we had just been discussing tally marks at home…uh-huh always a teacher).   Kaelan counted and marked and Seth pretty much shouted out “Forty-six!” for the entire drive.  Oddly enough, he loves that number and shouts it out all the time.  Weird.

As promised, we rewarded them greatly with yummy pumpkin ice cream served by a strange hand outside in the cold, to a warm child in the heated car.

Okay, maybe that was dad’s hand, but wouldn’t it be cool if the drive-through guy would just go ahead and feed your kid so you wouldn’t have to worry about climbing back there or him spilling it all over your car?  I’m gonna write my Congressman about that.

On a side note, I have to tell you that my girl has discovered the world of Pinterest, and feels the need to make/cook/sew/paint all things she sees.   I let her make these mummy hot dogs and apparently opened Pandora’s box.   When she saw the jack-o-lantern pizza for Halloween, she high fived me and said, “Yeah, mama!  Rocking the Pinterest!”  I did not have the heart to tell her it was Papa Murphy’s.  You won’t tell?  RIGHT?  RIGHT?

Roctober Ends:  Halloween, The Finale

And so you heard, in the weeks leading up to Halloween, Seth discovered the world of Star Wars.   His deep love for characters led him to his costume choice this year.  He actually was going to be Darth Vader, but at the very last moment, he made a change and pulled out the Yoda costume.  He then went on to demand that his father be Darth Vader.   Dad tried to resist, but the force is strong with this one….

My sweet little girl was a dragon.  Sighhhh.   Yes, my sweet girly wanted to be Dark Spyro from Skylanders.   When I agreed to get the costume, I must say the picture online looked like a cute flying dragon.   The demon-headed monster outfit we received frightened both me and her little brother.

We missed our old crew from the ‘hood, but we had a great evening making our way through our new neighborhood.  Some of the houses went all out with huge haunted house themes and set-ups.   By the time we made it home, we were all ready to crash, though, I had to pry the lightsaber from Yoda’s hands to slip him into his jammies.

The day after Halloween, I found this cute little rendition of Halloween that Kaelan  and Seth had put together.   Do you see Spyro (Kaelan) at the door of the little house?   So cute.  I wondered where Yoda (Seth) was, and later that day I found him wrapped in toilet paper in the bottom of the lego box.

Should I worry, or do you think he is just telling me he wants to be a mummy next year?  Weird.

I guess it could have been even more weird.  Yoda could have had the number “Forty-six!” carved on his head or something.

You know, I don’t think I even checked for that……

A Visit From the Dark Side

 

A (not so) long, long time ago, in a school (not so) far, far away……..

 

….there lived a little boy who had recently been introduced to the wonders of Star Wars.

The young boy’s father (much to his mother’s dismay) had acquainted him with things like the Dark Side and The Force via a viewing of the old school Star Wars 1st movie*.

* Which I totally know is really like episode IV or whatever.  In case you can’t tell, I am not the Star Wars nerd my husband is.

 

The boy was in awe of the marvels this new world presented.  He immediately requested his own light saber*.

*Yes, I know it is one word lightsaber, but spell check disagrees with George Lucas spelling.

One evening, The Boy’s older sister (not named Leia for the record) had a fall festival at her school, and in a room hidden away from the cake walk and pumpkin painting, he found his Jedi friends*.

*a.k.a.- a group of grown folks who still live in their parents’ basement and take this Star Wars stuff way too seriously.

The boy was thrilled to be among other other Jedis (or would the plural just be Jedi?) where he exchanged light saber tricks and tips on mind force.

All was well in the universe, until……

Dun, Dun, Dun, Dun-da-Dun, Dun-da-Dun

A storm trooper entered the room, immediately followed by The Dark Lord*.

a.k.a.- Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader (dang, I am good)

The boy refused to speak to Vader, and when the Dark Lord tried to use his evil powers against him, The Boy powered back with The Force*.

 

a.k.a- A high five

In the end, goodness prevailed and all was well in the universe.

 

 

And right here in this picture?   He is telling his sister,

"Oh, yeah.  I totally know what  I am going to be for Halloween.”

Crazy Hair Day

Crazy Hair Day at school.  

Who is the awesome lady who stayed up late the night before gluing googly eyes on pipe cleaners?

That’s right, mama.

   I was voted coolest hair, I mean SHE was voted coolest hair, but what was REALLY cool was the do that popped out that night after we took that mess out.

BAM!  Look at that hair!   She looks like someone who stepped out of Studio 54.

Later that night, we pulled out the disco ball and danced away to Donna Summer.

Orr Family Farm

This place rocks. 

   I love fall.  I probably told you that like 10,354 times, but I seriously love this time of year.  Having cooler weather and gorgeous auburn trees around  me this year has just added to my delight and affection for the season.

This was our first year to hit a big pumpkin patch without our crew, which was sad, but we really did have a wonderful day.   We actually went to several different pumpkin festivals/patches this year (as usual), but this joint was by far the best.

Orr Family Farm is more set up to be an amusement park than a pumpkin patch, but they really are a working farm and where as we normally spend a  few hours at a patch, we spent the entire day at this place.

Kaelan was out of school for the week on Fall Break, so we didn’t have to pull her out of school again. 

Which, let me just get on my soap box about that for a minute.   I am glad I have never had to face a principal or teacher that takes issue with me taking my kid out of school every once in a while to enjoy a family day or vacation.   We have been very fortunate to have great schools that see the value in this.   It could be that they know my kid is advanced enough that missing a day of school now and again will not hurt her grades.   I know that as a teacher I saw kids who were struggling academically who could have benefited from a family day.   That kind of attention may have actually helped turn things around for those struggling kids.   Not running for office or anything…..just saying.  

Off my box.

Right inside the gates of the farm was an old fashioned carousel.   My kids jumped right on.   If there is a big belt buckle for carousel riding, my boy has earned it.   He owns the carousel rodeo.

               

Most of the farm had a theme based around the book “Spookley the Square Pumpkin” which absolutely delighted Kaelan.   She loves this book, and we actually had a family night “drive-in” with this movie later that week, so even though I did not know this about the farm prior to coming, I came out looking like a hero!  Yes!

Hayride, train ride, games, a really fun playground, petting zoo, baby pumpkin hunt and we were ready for lunch.  Whew!

 

After a quick bite, we were off again.  My hope is that next year when we come, she will not have grown a bit.   I can hope, right?

Pony rides, and then BINGO!  Mom was  hero once again!   Kaelan is all about the rocks and mining stuff, so our next stop was an actual gold/rock/mineral mining area.

My girl LOVED this part of the day.  She listened intently as one of the employees explained how to sift and pan.   She used the little creek to wash out her treasures.  

Seth thoroughly enjoyed playing in the water and dumping sand in the sifter.  At one point, I (stupidly) took off my wedding ring so I could sift in the freezing water.  My boy decided that gem needed to be washed, so he threw my ring in the running creek.  Luckily I chased it down and caught it before it disappeared into the paddle wheel.   I can just imagine the look on the kid’s face fortunate enough to find  that precious stone a few days later.

Tall wall maze, paddle car racing, big bubble jumping and some of the most awesome tunnel slides later, and my boy was starting to doze off while standing.

 

Kaelan and I headed over to the zip line and corn maze while dad took Seth back to the car for a much needed nap.  For dad, not Seth.

After watching a bunch of middle aged screaming like maniac ladies do the zip line, Kaelan had  change of heart and decided to skip it this year.  I will admit, they kind of freaked me out, too.  Next year.  Next year we conquer the zip line.

The corn maze was awesome.  There were lots of interactive things to do along the trail.   I have to admit that there was one point in the maze where I got a little sweaty in the pits thinking we might not ever get out of there.   Thank goodness for iMaps.   Can I get an amen?   My kid doesn’t need to know about that little secret though, because getting us out of the maze was yet another bonus for hero mom!  Man, I am on a roll.

Why,  do you ask,  do  I  subject myself to these exhausting, jam-packed action activities when curling up on the couch in my jammies sounds so much more relaxing?

Easy. Two words:  

These Guys

The two guys in the front.  Not that little photo bombing turkey in the background who kept (purposely) jumping in my shots.

Every time we make the trek home after one of these great family adventure days, I look in the back seat to see two dirt smudged, sleepy-eyed boogers looking out the window and thinking over the day’s encounters.

This is my favorite part of day. 

Inevitably, they will grow between now and next year’s trip to Orr Family Farm, but regardless of what the pumpkin chart shows, I will still see those same little ones smiling and day dreaming from the back seat.