Backyard Hobbies

So our family is taking backyard hobbies to a new level.  First off, the birding.  I know I have talked about this before.  This has completely turned into Dave's thing.  They are his birds or should I say "friends."  A real, human friend of ours teases that one day the birds are going to come and claim Dave as their own.

He has really got quite the system out there, with multiple bird feeders, a squirrel baffle and now...A HEATED BIRD BATH!   Yep, you read that right.  It's a regular day spa out there for the birds.  He has also successfully deterred all the annoying black birds and grackels so we pretty regularly have gold finches, purple finches, house finches, cardinals, chickadees, woodpeckers, robins and red-breasted nut hatches.  In addition to these regular visitors we also have chipmunks and two big fat gray squirrels. 

I hate to say it but as annoying as those squirrels are, I personally get a kick out of watching them try to figure out how to get at the bird food.  You can just see them looking up at the feeders, thinking, judging how far they can jump, testing out if they can jump from the picnic table onto the feeder stand and all kinds of crazy stuff.  Do you know how funny it is to watch a squirrel over and over try to climb up a pole, hit the baffle and slide down.  Hilarious, especially if your threshold for hilarity is low.

We also have another "pet" that we are currently caring for.  A Venus Flytrap.  A friend gave one to Paige and right along with the birds she and Dave have started caring for it.  Dave did a bunch of research to teach Paige how to care for it and viola it is thriving.  It started off with two heads and now has like seven or eight.  The best part about this pet is that you can set it outside during the day and it catches it's own food.  Not sure what we will do in the winter, there aren't usually a lot of flies around, that's probably when this fun little plant will start getting on my nerves.  I'll be worried about feeding it, but definitely not interested in catching flies and other bugs for it.

Finally, there is my little backyard hobby--the garden.  Dry conditions made it a tough year for some of my veggies, but the tomatoes went gangbusters.  Too bad I'm too busy and unmotivated to do some canning. 

As you may have noticed, Ashley doesn't seem to have a backyard hobby.  I guess it's just really not her thing, which is okay because she often gets recruited to help with everyone else's projects and she is a pretty good sport about it.

It's Broken

One day while I was having lunch with a friend, I got a call from the nurse at Ashley's school.  She told me that Ashley hurt her finger in gym, it was pretty swollen, and might be broken.  The nurse also said that Ashley said she wasn't in much pain, so, it was up to me whether or not I wanted to come get her.

OKAY here it is: the classic parent dilemma: whatever decision you make is probably going to be the wrong one.

I decided since there was only about 2 hours left of school to just wait and take a look when Ashley got home from school.  Well, one hour later, I get another call from the nurse who says she looked at it again and it is still really swollen and I should come get her.  Dave and I take Ashley to an urgent care for an x-ray and yep, it's broken.  She tried to catch a football during PE and it bent her middle finger on her left hand back and cracked the bone on both sides of her middle knuckle.  Pretty mild, but she does have to wear a splint for about a month, sit out of PE and take a break from piano lessons.  More an incovenience than anything else.  Although the orthopedist did tell me that once you break a finger the swelling never really goes completely away.  So now she will always have a fat finger.

Ironically, I signed her up to play basketball for the first time ever this winter, but she should be healed in time to play.

On another note, when Dave made a joke to Ashley about breaking her middle finger and flipping the bird, she had no idea what he was talking about.  What a good and innocent child.  Love her.

Audition Day

Both my girls had auditions this weekend.  Paige has started taking dance classes.  She just loves to perform so much and wants to be in a recital so I decided to sign her up for dance classes.  She is currently taking a hip hop class.  The main reason for hip hop is because it was the only class offered at a time that worked with our schedule.  It is actually really fun to watch her learn all these moves.  She's a pretty cute little dancer gettin' her funk on.  I think she will keep taking classes and probably do Jazz next.

To Paige's delight, the studio she takes from does a huge Nutcracker show every year.  There are something like 200 cast members.  They hold auditions in September, rehearsals throught October and November and the 2 performances of the final show are in December.  It is a massive undertaking.  Paige really wanted to be on a stage and be in a show, so I let her audition.  Of course, nothing is free but if you are willing to pay, everyone who auditions gets a part.  Paige auditioned with her friend Riley and fortunately they were both cast together.  Paige has two parts: one is a mouse in the battle scene with the Mouse King and the other is rose petal with the Sugar Plum Fairy.  Her costumes are so adorable and she was the mouse selected to be shot during the battle - so she also gets a death scene, how awesome.

She has loved preparing for the show, and we are looking forward to seeing the final product.  I will say the only downside has been joining the "danceworld."  There is nothing wrong with this particular studio, in fact I am pretty happy with them.  It's the general "danceworld, dance mom" thing---It's not MY thing.  I just can't imagine devoting the time and money that some people do.  Plus all the costumes, dance gear, shoes, etc. that you need starts to add up quick.  I know a lot of this stuff is pretty standard dance experience, but I thought it was "crazy" when I got the information sheet for the costume and make-up requirements for photo day.  Besides needing different colored dance shoes for everything, I also had to purchase a list of very specific make-up and hair supplies.  As I stood in the drugstore buying make-up for my 9 year-old, I just had to shake off the bewilderment as I searched for "Loreal lipstick, coral #604".  Even sillier, I had to buy foundation and because Paige is so fair, she can't use what I use.  I had to buy her a shade called "Vanilla".  Vanilla-colored foundation? I just thought that was hilarious.  Anyway, I'll survive and keep doing it because Paige seems to really like it.

Ashley had a big audition day as well.  In Illinois every year schools hold these huge music education festivals, called Illinois Music Education Association or IMEA.  The state is divided into a bunch of different districts and kids can audition for band, orchestra, or choir.  It is very competitive and each festival district includes multiple school districts.  Ashley's choir teacher encouraged her to audition.  In preparation she had to attend a bunch of early morning practices and learn a few pieces of music.  She auditioned as a Soprano.  She sang a skills piece and then a Soprano selection.  You have to sing unaccompanied in front of judges.

On the day before the audition, Ashley stayed home from school sick.  She had a slight fever and overall just felt sick and achey.  Dave had felt the same way a few days before and his turned into a stuffy head cold and cough.  Our hope was that Ashley wouldn't have a cough and be unable to sing.  Fortunately, she was okay the morning of the audition but nerves had her pretty anxious and even a little teary.  Thank goodness seeing some friends once we got to the audition helped distract and calm her.  She walked out of her audition, saying, "I think I made it."  She was right.  Now she has a month to learn the music for the upcoming festival.

And one final audition note.  Ashley also auditioned for her school play and made it.  It's a comic book superhero play and Ashley was cast as one of the superheros.  She is "Blossom" who uses her magical flowers to put her enemies to sleep.  My favorite line (and I'm not kidding about this) is: "Hello there, want a whiff of my magical flowers?"  Should be a good show!

Fall Soccer

Well, it wouldn't be Fall without some soccer.  Ashley and Paige both played recreationally.  Ashley's team was really small and inexperienced.  She scored most of the goals for her team, but the ability level of her team was so bad that I don't really think it is worth playing again.  She didn't really learn anything and often the games were pretty frustrating to watch.  Hopefully, she will make her school team again this Fall and then she is in high school and who knows if she will keep playing.

As for Paige, I'm not exactly sure about the stats but Paige was probably the high scorer on her team too.  She scored in almost every game and in one game had a hat trick.  She sort of perfected the long range shot.  She realized that goalkeeping is not really good at this age and hard shot from far out can usually get by the goalie.  Paige has a lot potential in soccer, she is one of the best on her team, but again we face the same dilemma we did with Ashley.  Advancing to better leagues with training, requires playing on Sundays so we are just going to have let it go and do the best we can with the recreational leagues. 

Yep, I don't have any pictures.  Sorry haven't really been on my A-game this season.

Backyard Birthday Campout

So the first of September was pretty much a blur.  We were still adjusting to the new school schedule, had PTA activities at school, lots of church stuff going on and political conventions to watch.  I had asked Ashley to hold of on having a party on her birthday because it was the first week of school and it is just too hectic of a time for everyone.  We figured that sometime in the first part of September would be good, especially because she wanted an outdoor party and needed the weather to still be warm.

Of course, I'm not sure that September was any less busy than August, but we just decided to go for it.  Ashley wanted to have a sleepover campout in the backyard.  This was the first time we had ever allowed her to have a slumber party...and we made them sleep outside, but it was still exciting for them. 

She had about 8 nine friends over, but not all could spend the night which was fine because that left plenty of room in the tent.  It was a pretty simple party, we made home macaroni and cheese, put it into pie tins, added favorite toppings and then warmed them on the grill.  Then the girls played some outdoor games which included a bunch of "minute-to-win-it" type challenges.  After it got dark they played "ghost in the graveyard" and a bunch of other games with glow sticks, etc.  It's pretty nice that they entertain themselves.  The best part was that when it got late instead of having them run around the house all night, we sent them outside to hangout in the tent.  I slept downstairs so I could be nearby if needed.  I also figured that if I could hear them from inside my house then so could my neighbors.  If I couldn't hear them then there shouldn't be a problem.  The night went by pretty uneventfully, I never heard a sound and we didn't get any complaints from the neighbors, although we have such good neighbors they'd be pretty understanding.

In fact, the noise actually came from our neighbors when they let their dog out early in the morning.  He came running out right up to the fence near the tent and just went on a barking frenzy trying to figure out who was in that big tent in our yard.  Needless to say, the crew was up early and ready for breakfast.  You might think I made pancakes or some other hot cooked breakfast, but you'd be wrong.  We had a cereal buffett.  I bought a huge variety of sugar cereals and let the girls have whatever they wanted.  I think they thought it was pretty fun to be able to open a bunch of different boxes and eat cereals their responsible mothers don't buy!

A Teenager!

Well this says it all.  Ashley turned 13!  And she got to go school.  The first day of school and her birthday fell on the same day.  First time that's happened.

1. Time sure has gone by fast.  I remember my sweet little baby girl with her serious look and funny sayings.  Now she's 13.

Honestly, Ashley is pretty responsible so it's not hard for me to believe she is 13.  What's hard to believe is that I am old enough to have a 13 year old daughter.  I'm young!

Anyway, the start of school is a very busy time so we decided just to celebrate as a family on Ashley's actual birthday and she would have a friends party later.

So after a good day of school we went out to eat.  Ashley's choice and of course her choice was steak.  That girl is my meat-eater!  We went to Outback and ordered steak with dessert!

 

 

She got lots of gift cards and cash for her birthday, which was great for buying school clothes.  Paige bought her one of those mini cupcake makers.  It's actually pretty cool and works well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRETTY GIRL!

The Walking Fiasco

The beginning of the school year was pretty hectic this year.  It began with a major change: no more bus service for either of my girls. 

For some background, about 10-15 years ago our area was a rural farm community that basically exploded into suburbia during the housing bubble.  Subdivision after subdivision was built and a bunch of schools had to be built to accomodate all the kids in these new homes.  Many schools were built in underdeveloped and unincorprated areas without sidewalks or near rural highways, etc.  Hence many kids who may have lived within a mile of the school were bused because walking was deemed unsafe.  Since then the area has grown immensely and been developed, but the busing vs. walking issue was never revisted.  Basically, everyone just kept receiving bus service whether they still needed it or not.

Fast forward to present day and state and local budgets are tight.  The state isn't remimbursing school districts for transportation costs and our district realized they needed to try and save some money by reexamining the need for such extensive busing in our district.  The problem is that our school board always seems to act first and think later.  The district busing plan did need to be reevaluated and updated, the problem was that our board decided in May to just stop all bus service to anyone living within a mile of school.  They didn't look at the geography of each affected area, left no time for proper traffic studies, and didn't take anything else into consideration.  No examination on a case-by-case basis, just a blanket decision.  They basically just told the district transportation department to make it happen for the upcoming school year.

Now for our girls' situation, I wasn't opposed to walking.  We live about a 1/2 mile from the schools.  It is very close.  The concern many of the parents had was the safety and feasibility of walking.  Our elementary and junior high schools sit on the same property.  They are right next to each other on a big campus and share one large parking lot.  The campus is on unincorporated land with no sidewalks.  It is bordered by open fields, a US highway and a very busy 4 lane intersection.

The district's response to parent concerns was, "we will build a sidewalk, increase safety signage, and hire crossing guards; it will be safe for kids."  Parents said, "okay, but we really don't see how you are going to make it happen."

Well, all summer nothing happens.  Finally about two weeks before school starts they start building the sidewalk.  The sidewalk is completed a week before classes begin and due to the proximity of a water retention pond (another safety issue) there is barely any room to squeeze a narrow sidewalk in.  They ended up building a sidewalk that has no parkway as a buffer, the sidewalk runs right up to curb on the road.  Not good.

In the meantime our building principals are basically trying to figure out how to get everyone in and out every day.  Because there are no busses not only will there be lots of kids walking but there will also be lots of parents driving their kids.  There is only 20 minutes between release times at the elementary and junior high which means one is likely to run into the other and there is only one parking lot.  Two days before school starts they hold a parent meeting and pretty much everyone leaves thinking "this is not going to work."

Okay, so on the first day of school, I walk with Paige and her friends.  We get out of the subdivision and approach the intersection and surprise it's a disaster!  There are hundreds of people walking (each school has around 700 kids) so many that there isn't enough room for everyone to stand on the corners waiting for the lights to change.  The crossing guard is overwhelmed.  Once you make it across the intersection you then have to squeeze everyone onto the tiny sidewalk.  Of course everyone is terrified to have the kids walking so close to a road packed with cars that teachers from the school come out and form a human chain along the edge of the sidewalk and the road.

Pictures aren't great, but this chain of people is continuous clear up
 to the light and is just as crowded behind.

the dangerous sidewalk, with a teacher standing in the road

police directing traffic

 

The situation at the intersection is so dire that the district sends out two more crossing guards.  So now we are up to 3 crossing guards at the intersection.  The problem is that crossing guards cannot legally stop traffic, they can only work with the lights but there are so many people it's not working.  So a police officer has to come and direct traffic.  He basically stops cars to lets the hoardes of kids and parents cross through the intersection.  These relieves some of the walking congestion but it creates traffic problems.  The traffic starts backing up.  Add this to all the additional cars on the road of parents driving their kids to school and immediately the cars are backed up in all directions.  People can't get into the parking lot to drop off their kids.  And once they finally do get in, they can't get out because they have to stop for the walkers and the traffic from the intersection is so backed up there is no room to move anyway.

By the afternoon of the 1st day they have called in more police officers to help with traffic and have turned the traffic lights off and are directing traffic manually.  The school board president, the city Alderman, transportation officials, and traffic engineers are there.  All told there are 10 or more teachers outside directing walkers, 3 police officers and 3 crossing guards.  If you are driving your kid it is taking almost 2 hours to pick up your kids and get throught the parking lot.  I pretty much knew at this point the manpower needed to make this work was not feasible.  By the afternoon of the second day of school we got a message informing us that bus service would be resumed effective immediately. 

Yep, it was all pretty predictable and frustrating that so many district personnel and transportation "experts" couldn't have foreseen the issues.  So now we are back to normal busing.  It sure makes my life easier.  And as for the girls it was a few days of novelty.  Paige had fun walking with her friends.  On our last walk home, we all went to the pool for a swim day after school.  The kids were oblivious to all the drama but I guess that's a good thing.

Ashley and friends waiting to walk home