The kids are mostly having a good school year. There are some wild children who make Ellie's class a little unruly, and nothing bothers her like being punished because the rest of the class was acting up. Adam meanwhile, will get frustrated when something is anything other than totally easy for him (see: scissors work) and the other day I got a report that he'd crawled under a desk and refused to talk to the parent volunteer while they were trying to cut out squares and make a little math hat. So we've had discussions about doing our best, thinking of school work as exercise practice to make our brains stronger (like soccer practice!) and trying to go with the flow. But, they are kind friends, smart kids, and we'll help them deal with being perfectionists.
Soccer continues to be funny. Ellie is all out in practice, strolls casually during the game and might kick the ball if it comes her way, ready to do a cartwheel whenever. Adam is all out in practice (though sometimes all out crying) and then puts about half power into the game. Either way, they're both having a good time and like their teams - Adam in particular has a lot of kinder classmates from school on his team.
On Tuesdays when Adam is at piano, if Auntie Sara isn't at our house, Ellie and I go and get a coffee and a cookie and do her homework.
On Friday she officially turned eight, which seems unbelievable. It's also interesting to me because this is the first year where it doesn't feel like a total seismic shift. A one year old is totally different than a newborn. A three year old is a different creature than their two year old self. But while yes, she's grown and matured a lot over the year, it's not as though she's completely unrecognizable compared to when she turned seven.
At eight, she still loves math, but is getting to be a better reader. She still loves Nerdy Nummies and baking, and while she doesn't seem on fire for soccer, she LOVES gymnastics and busting out her moves where ever possible. Everything else is Harry Potter all the time - she's a few pages away from finding out that Dumbledore dies, and I dread the tears to come. She's delightfully exuberant and radiates attitude and sass, which has it's minuses when you're her mom and have to deal with the back sass, but I love her strength and hope she takes it forward with her forever.
For her birthday, we had a fun day at school, followed by the usual running around between gymnastics and soccer. Mimi and Poppy came to watch her play, and we made cookies for the team. Then back to our house for pizza and a lemon cake that she decorated with Harry Potter symbols (she wanted me to frost Hermoine's face onto the cake, but I steered her away from that.) Lexi and Judd came too, adding to the fun of family birthday party.
For her friend party, she wanted to go to the indoor gym to pretend to be the American Ninja Warrior. I personally find the place to be a suburban hellscape, so I decided we could go with a couple of kids for 90 minutes, but we'd do dinner and the party back at our house. We've been having a really fun time this year with a bunch of her second grade girlfriends who live in the neighborhood and also have a younger sibling (two in Adam's kindergarten class!) I mean, isn't that the suburban dream, a bunch of great kids the same age as your kids who live within walking distance and also have fun parents? Truly, they are very sweet girls, and I love how funny they are hanging out for a little bit on the play ground after school pick up (while us moms catch up about how the day is going, what's new at school, etc.)
Tim was able to leave the party 15 minutes early and pick up catering from the Mexican place we love, and so when the tired and wild animals arrived at home, we were ready to feed them all. I invited all of the parents and siblings to come back to the party at our house. We ate, we drank, we had Costco cake and ice cream, and then ended with another dance party.
Tomorrow Ellie is star student for her class, and she got to take the pet (stuffed animal) crocodile home for the weekend and will return the journal with updates of their activities. She also got to spend last weekend having a special time with Mimi and Poppy, going up to the American Girl Store for their wonderful traditional lunch and shopping for Bitty and Sammy. She's a lucky bunny to have such great friends and family to love on her, and I'm the luckiest that I get to be her mom.
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