I am so proud of Jaden. There is a program at his school called Mighty Milers. It encourages children to be active and builds their self-esteem. They run miles at school. Nobody is on any of the kids saying “you need to run”. It’s completely up to them. They get rewarded with different things based on how many miles they run during recess. You know, that time where other kids are playing on the monkey bars? Jaden, along with a bunch of other kids, forgo their normal recess activities to run during one of the recess periods. They can stop running whenever they want. According to Jaden, it’s so much fun!
He’s been talking about wanting to earn his Tshirt and medal for a few weeks now, and folks, HE DID IT! You should have seen his face when he showed me. I honestly about cried right in front of all his classmates and other parents. This is something he did. On his own. No one else helped. It’s completely his, and I couldn’t be more proud.
I love you, buddy. You are my hero.
There’s this great place around the corner called Butter Lane Cupcakes…
They have kids classes where you MAKE the frosting and decorate cupcakes with other kids! So of course we HAD to sign up!
It was Halloween theme; hence the costumes and “blood red” frosting chock full of candy. So fun….
Yes, folks, that’s the Green Lantern and his amazing cupcake
Sweet Success!! (and a hairnet. Woot!)
This past weekend was quite the whirlwind. Subways, costumes, walking and more walking, carved pumpkins and a lighted Pumpkin Parade and Sail in Central Park!
I, probably like a lot of moms, had this special evening played out perfectly in my head, because as well all know, it always goes according to plan. LOL! Our pumpkins were carved and ready the day before, so we just needed to get our costumes on, walk down to the subway, hop on and we would be there. Then we would do all the crafts with pumpkin carving, sports, and all the other great Halloween projects in store for us, but alas, that is not how it played out.
We ended up running late with kids wanting this and not that and sibling bickering. You know how it goes. So we ran all the way to the farthest subway station possible WITH our THANKFULLY smaller soccer ball size pumpkins, enjoyed a nice quiet moment on the subway, and then rushed off to Central Park where all the fun festivities were taking place.
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We have a routine every morning. I wake up. Wake my kids up and do all the things every parent does to get their kids ready for school ON TIME in the morning. Feed them, remind them to get dressed, remind them to brush their teeth, remind them to put their shoes on, etc., and when I say “remind” I mean nag. Then we walk to school. First my oldest to his 2nd grade class and them my kindergartner to his class.
Well today was different. Today we get to school and J (my oldest) runs into 3 of his classmates and starts walking with them to his class. UPSTAIRS. WITHOUT ME. He was walking shoulder to shoulder and they were all sounding like little chipmunks chatting back and forth and they were so cute. And he was walking away from me. GULP. I swear for a split moment, as I watched him, those busy halls with people bumping their way through other people and trying to get to their classes in time, were no more. Time literally stood still. All I could do was watch my baby grow up from infancy and walk away all grown up.
OK, so great. Now I’m about to cry.
So I called out his name and waved goodbye and told him I loved him, trying not to embarrass him, but he flashed me his huge smile and nodded and said “love you too, mom”.
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With our family consisting of myself, my husband, and our 5 1/2 and ALMOST 8 yr old sons, our house can get a bit loud and rowdy at times with them playing half the time and bickering the other half, it seems. Typical, right? But what I realized in greater depth is the importance of some ORGANIZED chaos. It really helps calm the house down and prevents a lot of quarreling. I’d like to think we are a fun fairly well behaved family ;p
Hindsight is 20/20, right? Well, here are a few things I’ve learned about what to do and what NOT to do during summer. Namely, for us, keeping a LOOSE schedule. What do I mean by that? I mean having some idea of the flow of the day and keeping it consistent for the kids. I don’t necessarily mean having the whole day rigidly structured. After all, what fun would that be? It’s summer! But I’ve learned some tricks that are helping us.
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