Miss Eve goes to camp

Posted on June 26, 2016 by Tessa

We dropped Eve off at Girl Scout Camp today. She is there with two friends from school. She was so excited!!

All packed and ready to go!

Her friends came over to our house this afternoon and we caravanned up together. It was great to have her friends and MY friends there for support! :)

She was so excited! She rolled down her window and said hello to every councelor that gave us parking directions along the way. Look at that smile! <3

Three eager girls heading to check-in!

Her GIANT Valentine’s Day puppy went to camp too! :)

We parked and headed to the check-in lines. Fortunately all three ended up in the same camp sight (there are multiple sites with many cabins/tents/treehouses each). We had a little scare with them being in different groups, but when faced with a few panicked mothers the nice councelor fixed the problem asap! LOL!

Head checks for all the girls. Of course, I checked her this morning! I DID NOT want to be the parent bringing her girl home with head lice before camp even started! :)

This way to Tall Timbers!

Eve’s cabin. It is small and HOT!

Eve got the top bunk because her buddy wanted the bottom bunk. Her other friend is in the other bunk in the cabin, with one other girl who they don’t know. They promised to be nice and inclusive with her! :)

Her shelves, fully stocked.

It was great having the other families and all the siblings there. The moms helped the girls set up and make beds while the dads/boyfriends/friends chatted with councelors and played with siblings. The girls made name tags, met their councelors (at least two of them, one named Pickles and the other named Hatter — both camp names, I’m assuming!), found the water fountain and bathrooms, and generally settled in. The mom’s laughed, exchanged advice and support, and everyone parted in good spirits.

Saying goodbye to brother. Neither of them seemed too upset. I’m curious how they will feel later in the week.

I have been texting with the other two moms and that has been fun. I’m very glad to have their support. One’s daughter has gone to visit family for weeks at a time and the other girl goes to visit dad on a regular basis, so I’m the only one with separation anxiety, but they are nice and supportive and giving me gentle loving grief.

Eve will either have the time of her life, which is what she’s expecting, or it will be miserable. The temps will be pushing 90° all week with rain in the forecast for two of the days, though not a cooling rain. I hope she has a great time!

Now we are watching The Martian, a movie that’s not appropriate for her, and staying up late. Lex has karate camp this week so I will have a few mornings to myself again! Hello naps! LOL!

PS. Since this is the digital age, camp now has an email system. You can send an email and they will print it and deliver it with the daily mail call. If you would like to email Eve, let me know and I’ll send you instructions.

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Moving on up!

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Tessa

Today was the last day of school for this kiddos and the last day of elementary school for Lex!! They had their end of year ceremony and 5th grade graduation. It was so sweet. He has such a wonderful class! It makes me sad that they’ll be separated into different teams in the middle school.

5th graders enter the gym to great applause. Everyone else (all the classes, plus 5th grade parents and families) were already seated.

There were a lot of awards to sit through. Fortunately everything moved along pretty quickly.

Lex won an award for “Most Improved Musician.”

As he walked back to his seat, his classmates all called his name and put out their hands for high-fives. It was soooo sweet! I didn’t see them do that for anyone else. They all knew about his musical challenges and I think they were proud to see him rewarded for his success. I love his class.

Where there are words, Lex will read them. :)

When I asked Lex later if he was surprised to win a prize and he said, “Not really.” I laughed at his honest, then he clarified, “I was surprised that it was a music award though.” I love his confidence!

These two teachers are retiring after 25 and 30 years in the district. They got many standing ovations. Mrs. Torrey, in the white sweater, is Lex’s teacher this year, and Mrs. Shattie , in the blue dress, was his teacher in 3rd grade. Both are excellent, caring teachers and will be missed by many in the district!

Each kid got a little “diploma” saying they successfully completed 5th grade.

Good bye elementary school!! I’ll have to dig up his “first day of school” photo and compare them. Later.

When Lex said, “Mom, will you take a picture of us?” I said, “Oh yes, of course!!” :)

Oh yeah, this little lady moved up to 4th grade today. She is exited. The 4th grade works on an “open-classroom, co-teaching” model in which two fourth grade teachers (in years past they were in individual classrooms) co-teach, sharing the class and work-load. One is an accomplished math teacher and the other a recognized ELA teacher, and they have very compatible personalities. We attended an open house last week to learn more about the model and how well it works for them last year, their first year co-teaching. Eve is pretty excited that all of her friends will be in her class.

She wanted to make sure Daisy was in the picture with her. :)

Eve got very excited that Daisy looked at the camera too. :)

Welcome to Middle School!

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Tessa

I love these two sillies!

We had open house at the middle school last night. We learned what team Lex is on an who else is on his team too. It was so fun. Lex was a rock star! He was so confident and so happy to be there. When we walked into the classroom a boy who was on the FLL team with him for the past few years, said hi to Lex and Lex said hi back and I think he felt super cool and happy that an 8th grader he’s friendly with was there to greet him. He spoke in the group, played the game with the team (and although parents were invited to join in, Lex told me not too!), and so was happy. After the team meeting we hung out in the school for awhile, saying hi to people and checking things out. He showed us the gym and cafeteria, and the band room. I mentioned buying a lock for his locker and he told me no one uses locks anyway. Like a cool middle-schooler! :)

They gave out team t-shirts and he put his right on! He has some growing to do still! He even wore it to bed last night. :) I think he’s excited!

I really think that extra trip to HMMS helped and, even if he won’t admit it, I think it gave him a lot more confidence tonight. There were definitely nervous looking kids there, but he was not one of them! He was even walking though the halls and jumping up to slap door frames! Like a cool middle-schooler. :)

Today is 5th grade graduation. Break out the tissues!

Spring Concert

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Tessa

It was a big night at school with the final concert of the year, and Lex’s final concert in elementary school! This year they split it into two concerts, K-2 last week and 3-5 this week. It made it much easier to find a seat and see your kid! Eve was ready to go in her black striped “jazzy” dress, and Lex even made his debut on the concert risers! I am so proud of them both!

The 3rd graders all made their own instruments from recycled containers.

Lex was excited for his band songs. Percussion is fun because you get to play so many different instruments and sometimes you get to switch instruments in the middle of a song. Lex really enjoys the team aspect of percussion as well. Everyone is working together in that back row!

Lex having a little fun with the symbols. He tells me about the various instrument all the time and some of them I have trouble picturing from his description (not the symbols, of course, I know what those are!) so he told me he would hold up each instrument in the concert so I could see it. :)

This concert, for the first time ever, Lex even stood up and sang with his class! There have been many emails in the past few months between his music teacher, his team, and his parents, all trying to help him feel comfortable and prepared for this concert. We had plans and plans for plans. Lex agreed to stand with his group, and *maybe* mouth the words since he “accidentally learned all the words.” This afternoon he said he might do small hand motions. This evening he totally go into it and had a blast!!!

Lex (in green) signing with the 5th graders. :)

Wearing shades for the final song (I totally forgot what it’s called and the kids are asleep and can’t remind me).

What a fun night! Mema and Grandpa Tom got to come share in the fun. Lex got so many compliments. I think he counted twelve comments, plus “Mom’s counts twice because she kissed me in public,” he told the school councelor. We all had a good laugh!

Plus, on the personal note, I got so many congratulations from the teachers on my new job. I’m so excited that everyone is excited to have me on board! They like me, they like me! Eeee! But enough about me, the kids did awesome, the music teacher is amazing, and I love our school!

Meet our new friend!

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Tessa

I picked up our new doggie today! The kids have a half day today so I picked him up early to give him a chance to settle and explore before they get here.

He wasn’t very happy to leave his other doggie friends behind. Actually, Rosie really wanted to come along. She was a big help getting him in the car, but then we had a hard time getting her back out! She tried to hide on the floor boards in the front seat. :)

We almost had two dogs — exactly what Eve was hoping for!

This guy is a very nervous traveler! And very drooly in the car!

Look at him shake! He did that for the whole half hour trip home! Poor pup.

I took him for a short walk at their house before putting him in the car, but he didn’t not want to go too far from the house without his puppy friends with him. When we got home I took him for a walk up and down the street a few times (had to go back with a plastic bag!) He sniffed everything and peed on a few mailboxes. Checking out his new world.

When we came in Daisy was already inside and quite surprised by this new thing in her house. I kept him on the leash so he couldn’t chase her, but she immediately established herself as the alpha! She hissed and swiped at him. He shirked. Poor pup. I thought she would run away, but nope, she stuck right near by and kept a close eye on him.

We know who has the claws around here!

Hehe… they sent his puppy bed with him, but I think he’s a little big for it. :) I stuck it in his crate to help him feel at home.

Daisy kept a close eye on this new thing. Whenever he got too close, the hiss and claws came out! He gave her a wide berth!

For some reason he really wants this bully stick to be on the bed. I keep moving it and he keeps bringing it back.

Can you see her on the chair? I don’t know what the technical term is, but basically he is submitting to the cat. Clearly she is alpha. :)

Even when I put him in the crate, she kept watch. I eventually sent her outside to give him a break. :)

Nuoska got his payback by eating all the food in her bowl. :) I think we’re going to have to move her bowls up high.

I got up to get a drink and returned to find him in my cozy spot on the couch.

I took him off the couch, but he found somewhere better. :)

When I went back to the couch (to finish this blog post!) he followed me and hopped up onto the other couch where he is sleeping peacefully now. He seems pretty happy here so far. We’ll see what happens when the very excited children come home!

Oh, one other thing, we still need to agree on a name for him. Everyone agrees that Nuoska is a girl’s name (it’s Finnish for something…) but no one can agree on a better name. It might stay Nuoska for awhile. :)

The Big 4-0!

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Tessa

Oh, what a weekend it’s been! For starters, a big Happy Birthday to Alan, or HBD as he likes to put it! We celebrated in style! At least for one evening. Friday night… well, I forgot what Friday night was, it was too long ago. Saturday came and he took the kids to karate and himself to his favorite diner. The usual Saturday morning routine. Then I took the kids roller skating and he stayed home watched a movie he’s been dying to see that is 100% not kid appropriate! :)

Lex and his buddy ROCKED the inline skates! He’s better on them than he is on roller skates. (They practice in gym class.)

Eve did pretty well as well. It’s great to see them gaining confidence on wheels. Grandpa Tom, of course, was our inspiration!

Then the party began. Lex went with his friend for a Minecraft lateover, Eve went to her friend’s house for her first ever sleepover, and I went home to join Alan at his surprise party already in progress!

Yep, I managed a surprise party for Alan and he actually liked it!! :) I coordinated with five of his best buds to come over at 5pm. He was watching the last ten minutes, the most exciting ten minutes, of his movie and didn’t even hear them come in the house! Well, I guess he heard but thought it was me and the kids. His friends were walking around, talking, and even began throwing clementines at him before he noticed their presence! I picked up Indian food for everyone on my way home (plus wine and mac&cheese from the Co-op for me!) and got home to find everyone enjoying their chips and drinks and elbow deep in a game of Cards Against Humanity. A game of which I had heard, but had not yet had the pleasure of playing. Oh, my, what a game!

There were tears of laughter all night long!

During the game a mishap occurred, a wine glass was broken (my glass, but not my fault!), and wine splashed down, right onto my phone!! There was a collective gasp and three people lunged for it! I laughed, afterwards, at how everyone reacted because they were all Alan’s co-workers and had heard the ongoing saga of my broken phone just a few weeks ago! Alan took it apart and dried it immediately and FORTUNATELY, it works just fine! He wanted to leave it apart for the night, but I had one kid at a lateover and one kid at a lice sleepover, and I was not ready to be without texting for the evening! :)

I should have taken a picture of the whole crowd. That would have been fun. Oh well. Here’s the tidied-up aftermath though.

We played Cards Against Humanity until Lex came home, then switched to poker. Meanwhile, I start getting texts from Eve’s friend’s mom saying she found a lice nit on her daughter’s head and did I want to leave Eve there or come pick her up. They all wanted her to stay and I REALLY did not want to deal with head lice that night, so I carried on with our carefree evening and left the parental worries for another day.

Sunday. When I picked Eve up she was scratching her head like crazy and I saw a whole village living among her little hair follicles. UGH! I checked Lex and he had them too. I can’t even blame it on her friend. In fact, her friend can probably blame it on Eve. Ugh! So we began the process, again, of delousing the kids and the house. (I just tried to find a post from the last time we did this and apparently I didn’t write one. It was back in November 2015. I guess I was up to my eyeballs in lice shampoo and cranky family — no time for blogging!) Eve was grumpy, but sat patiently for the whole process. Lex practically hyperventilated at the thought of bugs on his head and had the worst ten minutes ever waiting for the shampoo to do it’s job. No fun for anyone! We have a very clean house now though! So, that’s good at least!

He complained, but I was the one doing all the work! No fun for anyone! I gave him the option of shaving it off, thereby eliminating the the need for tedious delousing. He quieted right down! :)

Alan and Grandpa Tom also got a chance to attend a community solar event today and they both came back feeling the Vermont solar love!

What saw us through the weekend — Birthday Cookies!! Delicious enough to make everything better! I’d like to say I froze a bunch for later, but truthfully I made a double batch and we finished them in a weekend! :)

Happy Birthday Alan!

I realize as I come to the end of this post that I have no pictures of the birthday boy himself! Oops! I promise he’s here and as handsome as ever! Like a fine wine, he only improves with age!

Missing Eve

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Tessa

Miss Eve is at her first ever sleep over tonight. I just went up to check on the kids, like I do every night, and she’s not in her bed. That makes my mommy heart sad. I’m sure she is having fun, hopefully sound asleep by now, but I want to snuggle her and kiss her sweet face. Growing up is hard, for mom!

Random milestone

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Tessa

We always document the first steps and first teeth, but what about the other firsts? Lex had a big one tonight. A yucky but important one! He threw up tonight, a lot, but he made it to the bathroom! Not quite the toilet, and the splatter was spectacular, but the bathroom is much better then the carpet! I’ll take cleaning bathroom walls over bedroom carpets any day! He took awhile going back to sleep because he was so worried about throwing up again, but with lots of mommy love and patience I got him settled and he’s sleeping now. Let’s hope it was just too much movie theater food and not really sick.

The 2015 Holiday Concert

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Tessa

We had another lovely holiday concert tonight. I’m so glad our school does this. The kids are adorable and it’s nice to see all the parents I don’t see very often.

We were five rows back and could barely see! This is a zoomed in picture I took by holding my phone way above my head.

Eve’s class sang Oh, Hanukkah, and did a song with the boomwhackers (plastic tubes the use to make music).

We had a very special guest at this year’s concert. Listen closely to the bells and see if you can spot him.

That’s right, Lex was in the concert this year!! He wasn’t even very nervous! He told me last night that he knew all the songs (they played four) and was pretty sure it would be ok. It was!! It was absolutely perfect, and when they pulled out those hats for the final song (in this video), and he didn’t put one on, that made it even more perfect. He’s still Lex. :)

I haven’t been in school lately and it was nice to get a chance to see all the holiday decorations they have up. I took pictures of just a few things, but the whole lobby looked amazing!

The gingerbread neighborhood. Each class makes one and then they are all donated to the Gingerbread Festitival, a local fundraiser that happens each year.

Lex’s class made these. He was telling me about them the other day. The used tin and hammers to punch out the designs. I think the display looked beautiful, but I can’t wait for his to come home.

They also punched out designs on tin can lids to hang on the tree. I’m not sure who made the pictures on the wall, but they are beautiful too.

Happy holidays!

Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa!

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Tessa

Grandpa turned 90 this weekend! To celebrate we had a big family gathering with all four of his children there, plus spouses, some grandchildren, and even great grandchildren! From all corners of the country people came to celebrate. It was so fun and, as always, I wish it could last a lot longer.

Just hanging out, enjoying the beautiful fall day, and waiting for the West Coast crowd to arrive.

As soon as everyone was in one place we organized for a family photo. (For a quick stroll down memory lane, check out the family picture from 10yrs ago, this sweet picture, or this incomplete but funny Christmas picture)

Greg suggested we all line up single file and then put our heads out on either side! I wish we had managed that picture! :)

Almost there…

What a good looking family!

Can’t be a Steuer/Collier/Johnson picture without a bit of silly at the end!

After we managed a lovely family photo Rosy headed home (she’d had enough already!! Just kidding, really she had to work) and the rest of us hung out, chatted, cooked, set tables, slide down stairs, checked out Minecraft sites, drank wine, and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.

There are a lot of tall guys in this family! Greg was trying to get Eve to do a silly thing that we used to love doing as kids, but Eve was plenty silly all on her own!

Getting dinner set up.

The BEST photo bomb!

Like father, like daughter. Silliness definitely runs in this family!

Time for presents! Eve made Popcube a puzzle for his birthday present. Earlier in the week she was thinking about presents and asked me what kinds of things he liked doing. One of the things I said was puzzles, but I told her that at 90 years old it’s hard for him to do puzzles with tiny pieces like he used to. She thought about it and decided to make him a puzzle with large pieces that he could do easily.

Popcube opening Eve’s present.

After presents and cards we all headed downstairs for dinner. We had two kinds of lasagne, three kinds of bread, salad, and desserts. We worked hard on that meal and everyone enjoyed.

Sitting down for dinner.

I like taking pictures of people taking pictures. :) It looks like there was a serious discussion going on in the foreground!

Oh Greg! (What you can’t see here is Eve, on the other side of Alan, making the exact same face!)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!! We decided to go easy on him and only give him one candle instead of ninety.

I like this picture, despite the blurry. He was just so happy all day.

A birthday pie by Mema. I suggested she put “90” on there, and she took it to a whole other Grandpa-inspired level. (So many blurry photos. :( )

Lex started a new dining trend.

It caught on quickly.

Uh oh! Someone gave Greg a weapon! Take it outside boys, take it outside. (and they did, and they had a blast!)

Goodbye hugs, still silly. Greg finally talked her into putting her arms like that so he could lift her and fly her around. I tried to get a picture of that, but it was all too blurry!

In celebration of Grandpa’s 90th, the moon decided to put on a show! It was a full moon, a harvest moon, a blood moon, and a lunar eclipse. I feel like I’m forgetting something too. Apparently only happens every 18 years or so. We decided to stay up late and watch it. Everyone was excited (except tired me) and we bundled up and brought out the lawn chairs. I enjoyed it too. Shhh, don’t tell. At 10:11pm the moon was fully covered and turning red. We loudly discussed astronomy and displayed our complete ignorance of moon cycles and such things for the whole neighborhood to hear. :) I think we all need to go back to school!

My camera clearly is not up to snuff for night photography!

Super harvest blood moon lunar eclipse! Google it for much better photos. :)

A blurry, blurry close up.

We were too tired to stick around for the un-eclipsing of the moon so we headed in for bed. I thought the shadow would keep moving right across the moon, but I kept checking as I was getting the kids into bed and getting myself ready for bed, and that red moon stayed steady for a long time. (Lots of good information about it here…. I should read it myself some day!)

The next day was a school day so the kids went to school and I had errands to do. Most everyone else went to lunch at Mickey’s and hung out for the day. Someone else will have to share photos of that. Mom sent me this picture of Grandpa with his new puzzle. :) I love it!

Popcube completed Eve’s puzzle. A drawing of him, wearing his red Scrabble sweatshirt, and holding a green airplane.

I hope we have many, many more happy occasions to celebrate as a big extended family. I’m chomping at the bit to get out West again myself. I’m hoping I can make that happen next summer. Maybe I’ll started a GoFundMe campaign. ;)

Calm and Chaos: Life with kids

Tag Archives: Milestones