Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Back to School| First Grade

Avinash started First Grade this week.  (And graduating from high school in another blink.)

We were prepped.  A school tour in the spring to see the chicken coop and classrooms (in that order). New clothes were bought on sale (at Tea Collection!) earlier in the summer. We bought new shoes weeks ago from H&M.  A tiffin lunchbox from the Indian store, hoping to cut down on plastic bags and tupperware to pack food in.  A muffin breakfast the week before to meet the teacher.  A new haircut and new Star Wars backpack purchased the weekend before.   

We planned to take pictures and I set up the chalkboard the night before, but we ended up barely getting ready to make it to school before the second bell rang.


 I walked him in to the cafeteria.  His friend had saved him a seat, but he was so nervous about sitting down.  Unsure if he was in the right place or not even though I stayed right beside him.  I'm glad we live in the age we do because there were several other moms there who wouldn't put their cameras down either.

I walked with them the whole back to his classroom.  His teacher very graciously invited me inside to stay as long as I wanted.

First thing, he very proudly told his teacher about how much he the glitter she gave him helped him sleep the night before.  The second was opening a new pack of crayons.  


Fresh pencils are the best thing.

 I had to get at least one picture with him!

After school I brought some poppers with me for a surprise because confetti makes everything awesome.

 Had a lot more time in the afternoon to set up some photos by the front door.


We continued the poppers at home.  Lakshman loves them just as much as they do, especially those little bundled ones that you throw on the ground.


Avinash came bursting out of school with a big grin and on the lookout for his friends in other classes.  He eagerly told me all about the friends he had so far (four), his lunch (cheese ravioli with a cookie and chocolate milk) and his favorite class (art).   I made a little video too because it is so easy to forget these little details. 



On the second day everything was back to normal, ha! 
  • Avinash wore the same pants and I didn't say anything.   (I totally didn't realize until the afternoon.)
  • There was no mention of breakfast, let alone fried eggs.   
  • At pickup, instead of getting out of the car, I used the carpool lane which was suddenly empty.  Good thing too because I had house only sweats on.  
  • No pictures and no confetti, but he was still excited to tell me about his day (as long as I wouldn't make him talk too long so he could go back to listening to Harry Potter on tape.)



Next week the younger two start pre-school.  Lakshman for the first time!  We are so excited.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Week in the Life| Saturday & Sunday

The end of the week is here.  And this project.  And the end of my incessant blogging.

I took different amounts of pictures each day, with the most being on Monday.   But, for the most every day the number of pictures I chose to import and edit was 33.  I guess I always found 33 moments interesting and unique from each other every day.

The project starts now.  I didn't do my album during the actual week for the first time this year.  I know that to get it done, I need to start soon.  Having all my journaling typed out will be a big help.  Looking back at my completed album from last year and realizing I want more space this year.  Probably 9x12, it's just easier than having to trim things down for a 8.5x11 or 6x8 album.

Most of my photos were about my children.   I did try to stop and photograph a few details of life, usually waking up or food.  Looking back I see a lot of repetition over the week, but that's part of the rhythm of life.  The little differences between days are very interesting. Every once in while a moment of beauty stopped me and I captured it too.  Plants, animals or interesting lines around me.

I'm thankful for all the memories I have recorded.  Lakshman is at such a precious age.  It was nice to focus on recording his cute behavior instead of doing another calorie count.  After I posted the photo of him talking to his cookie monster "Elwo" a friend prompted me to take a video.  His voice is just so adorable and I am glad I took the time to record it.

Avinash starts elementary school in the morning.  The time we have to connect with him are so limited now.  He is so smart, I still remember how he learned his ABCs before turning two.  I was scrolling through my blog and I found the video clip of him being sarcastic, trying to be funny by saying the wrong letters on purpose. He's actually not very sarcastic anymore, just straight forward and sweet.  Love that.

Saturday

 Early morning bath because her teacher is coming over for a visit.


 I'm so lucky to have this big garden.  So thankful to whoever planted all these flowering vines.


After hiding behind a pillow for a while, she showed her teacher the sunflowers she planted out back. 


 And the playroom.  I like anyone who appreciates my chai.

Look at our little sensory kid running in the grass!

Everywhere is an adventure with this guy. Was amazed to see him voluntarily walking on the grass in bare feet. Bear feet?

He's been carrying his sister's princess magazine around all day, until he ripped off a piece of the back and now he's holding that. The clipping has a little picture of an Elmo magazine on it.

The rain brought down a lot of flowers.  The best confetti.

I needed a picture of the house.  We are one of the few houses on our block with flowers out front.  The lantana comes back every year on it's own.

Getting a birthday present ready.  Lakshman learned a lot about dinosaurs at the Field Museum in Chicago.  He immediately saw this and roared.  So clever.

Doing Legos together.  They have gotten pretty good at taking turns and making things fair.


All five of us on the way to brunch.




Olive oil pancakes and french press.


Whenever her hair air dries, it looks amazing.  It is way longer than her waist and it makes these amazing ringlets.  I've been thinking about getting layers cut in, but she really doesn't want it cut at all yet.  She loves having curly hair.

Half drop off birthday party.  We let him play with his friends for a few hours.  The parents were invited over after for dinner + drinks together.  We have found such a nice community here.  And, what a good birthday idea?

His therapist wants him to practice with juice boxes more.

S'more cupcakes with a graham cracker bottom.  What??


Finishing up the penultimate bag in the Ewok Village set together.  I got sick after this.  Not sure why but I'm better now.  Luckily I always have bounced back pretty quickly from throwing up.  



Sunday 
 The lines above my bed.  I need to add some fabric to it, but I already love it as is.


First day of Hindi lessons.  His third favorite class of the day apparently behind Gods and Goddesses and Vedic Math.  He did blow us away later with some mental division about equitable marshmallow distribution after dinner.

 Lovely patterns everywhere here.  I love how the colors contrast my skirt.
These guys are usually hiding from the holiday crowds, but they were around today.  Avinash and I were talking about patronuses later.  I told him mine would be a tiger and he said, "that's good, not quite as majestic as a peacock would be, but still good." HA!


 Little baby peacocks.


 Laskhman was enthralled. He drank a full cup of mango lassi which was awesome.  It's not exactly dairy free but it's made of yogurt which I'm hoping is better?  I don't know.  It happened.


 Reading Amar Chitra Katha comics we just bought.  I think Ryan was mostly using Lakshman as an excuse to learn about Tulsidas himself.   The illustrations just blow me away with their artistry.

Avi took this photo and I think he did an awesome job.  All the kids have noticed that increased photo taking around the house and have been surprisingly happy about it.

Another great Avi shot.  It's hard to get this close to them.

He likes to assert his dominance over each of us at least once a day.  Avinash was laying down and he seized the opportunity. 

 Post- Bal Vihar Limca cool down.  It just hits the spot.


I think I got the last of the lychees for the season.  They were even better than last week. I'm going to miss them.  It's amazing how I used to only get this stuff in India and now the Indian Grocery Store is no farther than Whole Foods is.  


 Lakshman wouldn't take a nap, so I did solo.  Sorry Ryan.

 The man made dinner too.  I woke to the smell of pasta sauce cooking.





We don't have too many major back to school traditions other than morning photos, so we roasted marshmallows as a special treat.  Yay for having a gas stove.  We actually have a big fireplace in the backyard but not really experienced with using it. 


His teacher sent home a special night before poem for the kids to read with a packet of glitter.  I sprinkled the glitter under his pillow and read him the poem.  Afterwards he raced to bed to find his special surprise and very solemnly annointed his head with some of the glitter.  He asked if he could sleep with glitter every night this year.  Then we said some prayers and he went to bed.


Finally, my view right now.  Laundry, most of which we all sorted together and put away.  There is always another load or two to do that ends us hanging around.  

Thanks for reading along and sharing our week with us.  Will hopefully share my pages soon. 


My previous week in the life posts are here. See my completed Week in the Life album from 2014 and 2013 here.


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