school

Kids Sleep Anywhere: The Field Day Edition

May 18, 2012 By Lisa Leave a Comment

My seven-year-old, Super M, had his school’s “field day” yesterday. Thankfully, with all the military moves we’ve endured, and the school changes and differences in school curriculums, no matter where we’ve moved to, every school our kids have attended have held a “field” or “fun” day in which the kids get a day to be KIDS, and HAVE FUN. Some schools have water activities, some schools do olympic-type events with medals and ribbons, some have bouncy houses, while some have a combination. But no matter what they do, it’s always a blast for both the teachers and the students to have a “fun” day off.

At this elementary school, they not only offered water fun, but a chance to get a special school shirt and water bottle for the event (nice quality, too). He went to school in his new shirt and bathing suit, proudly strutting into school with his change of clothes for afterward. After their water activities, there were booths where they could win prizes, enjoy snacks, and meander to and fro with their friends. To say he had a blast is an understatement; he came home THRILLED with his self-proclaimed best.school.day.ever.

Also, apparently, he came home a little tired, too.

HOW IS THIS COMFORTABLE!?!

I’m still not sure why this blanket box is so enticing. Baby Sis has enjoyed napping in it, too.

Crazy, right? Ah, well. He earned that nap.

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(If you haven’t noticed, my kids have a knack for this sleeping anywhere business. Check out more hilarious photos by browsing my kids sleep anywhere series!)

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Decorating a San Antonio Fiesta Shoebox Parade Float

April 20, 2012 By Lisa Leave a Comment

This is our first year in San Antonio and our first year experiencing Fiesta, which began yesterday. I am excited to experience this celebration over the next week, and even more excited to witness how the schools get the kids involved, too.

On the agenda at the elementary schools around the city today was what’s called the “Fiesta Shoebox Parade.” The kids get to dress up in Fiesta-ish attire and bring in a decorated shoebox representing a small “float” to pull on a string through the halls of school. Fun!

Never having experienced this before, and not knowing what the “norm” is for these floats, my seven-year-old son decided to go with what he knows – Power Rangers.

We used Gorilla Tape to keep his Power Rangers stuck to the box without gluing. We used Super Glue to attach three Matchbox cars to the bottom of his box so that it rolled down the hall, and we used a shoestring to pull it through the halls.

We used alphabet stickers, feathers and construction paper cut-out

I always have construction paper, crayons and crinkle scissors on hand for craft time. I also was lucky enough to have my craft box that made this a lot easier to complete, too. Add to that a little Elmer’s School Glue, and we’re in business, baby!

We added some foam letters and sparkly shapes with glue

To make the fringe on the bottom, you cut slits using scissors. This helps hide the wheels at the bottom (the way real floats do).

You can use crinkle scissors to cut out a sign and glue it to a larger, contrasting paper with another cut-out design, such as we did above in yellow and blue.

You can get creative on how to mask the tape you use to affix your action figures, Barbies or dolls to the top. I just happened to have this paper “grass” substance from a package I was sent.

We used this hay-like paper filler from a package to mask the Gorilla Tape

I saw many children use tissue paper twisted into flowers and stapled as ruffles to symbolize the “flowers” on the float. I saw pipe-cleaners used, stickers, balls taped to boxes with stickers. There really is no wrong way to do it. one little girl had a tiny toy shopping cart she pushed that was decorated. Another little girl had her barbies on her brother’s skateboard. Some floats had balloons, some used dyed coffee filters to make flowers instead of tissue paper – the choice is completely yours. Have fun with it!

Don’t live in San Antonio to participate? Why not make a little shoebox parade at home with your kids? My little ones made one together, so they could participate, too. (And Baby Dude borrowed his older brothers, too.)

Crappy cell phone pic FTW!

I am looking forward to experiencing our first Fiesta here. I love moving and traveling to different cities with my military family and experiencing things like this. Have you ever experienced something like this before?

The Morning Surprise (aka Ways to Jolt Your Pregnant Mother into Hyper-Mode)

January 20, 2012 By Lisa Leave a Comment

This “What the Heck!?” moment is brought to you today by the letters W- T- F, and the number 7 (for my seven-year-old).

It never fails. The day my husband absolutely has to be at work super-ridiculously early for a PT Test, I get the ~~best~~ ~~worst~~ most-effective wake-up call first thing in the morning. My sleepy-eyed second-grader rolls over when I waken him, eyes opening much easier this morning than others, usually. “Mommy? I have to be at school early today.”

“Early? Huh? Why?” (Monosyllabic, singular responses, because it’s early and mom is only capable of caveman-esque grunts.)

“Because I have to do the announcements this morning.”

“Say WHAT!?” (She has awoken. Two words strung together, now. Pitch heightened.)

“I have to..”

“What TIME do you have to be there?” (REDCON 1 awake. That’s a full sentence on a couple sips of coffee, folks.)

“I don’t know…”

Hard to imagine this 33-week pregnant butt springing into action, but that’s exactly what happened. My oldest son calls out to align the troops, “Guys! We have to put it in hyper-gear this morning! Super M has to be at school early for the announcements!”

And, just like that, the blur and eye crust hadn’t even been removed from my eyes yet, and my children were moving as if on fast-forward. Hurried shuffling of bowls and milk and jingle-jangling silverware and pans and whisking eggs while I snag backpacks to sign folders, make drinks, toss out medicine and vitamins like bird feed while taking moments to slurp on huge gulps of coffee trying to make sense of the frenetic morning.

We succeeded.

My oldest stayed in the car with the two very sleepy-headed littles while I accompanied him into the school. “Hi, my son has to do the announcements this morning? Where does he need to go?”

“Oh! Well, usually, they just get called from their class.”

My son chimes in, “Yeah, I have to go to my teacher. They’ll call me down.”

Inside my head, I’m screaming, WHY DID I WALK YOU IN WITH MY CAMERA, THEN!? Outside, I’m smiling, jovial, gritting my teeth as I joke about how I thought I might be able to snap a pre-picture of him since I can’t stay. And before I could even ask him to make his way over there for me, he was gone.

HE WENT TO CLASS!

No, “Goodbye, mom.”
No, “I love you.”
No, “Thanks for rushing your tired pregnant ass so fast for me this morning, I appreciate you. You’re the best mom in the world!”
(Ha! Yeah right! Wishful thinking..)

Instead, I saw the dust cloud he left in his wake, this full-bellied child scurrying off, with wetted hair to rejuvenate his curls flattened by sleep, his Transformers backpack slung across his back, a mere blur moving in the distance.

I pointed to him, silently implying his audaciousness with a single, wounded-yet-evil-mom-eyes type-of look to the secretary, who just laughed.

“I love you. Have a good day..” I whispered to myself as I walked out, crestfallen I missed out on the opportunity to commemorate the day, and without my goodbye hug, but so grateful for my children, who truly pulled together a home-run in the ninth inning when our family needed one.

Goodbye hug or not, I am proud. Proud of him, proud of us, proud of the tired I feel right now, in the aftermath, where the adrenaline has worn off, and the rest of my day is ahead of me.

I think I shall celebrate with a well-deserved nap. And an extra hug from him to make-up for the one I missed out on.

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