She said what?!?

Caroline has been telling us for a while that she doesn't really LEARN stuff at school, they just play. She said the only thing they have learned is how to handle things gently, because they might be someone else's favorite activity and we would feel bad if we broke it and our friend couldn't get to play with it anymore. But then last week while walking to storytime, Caroline gave a very well-thought-out (for a 4 year old) explanation of evaporation! She said "Mom, did you know that if you left an ice cube outside for a long time, like 82 minutes (her number for everything), it would melt and the water would disappear? That's called evaporation." So we talked about how if it was a super-hot day, it would evaporate even faster, and we talked about where the water goes, etc. It was REALLY impressive!

Then the following night Caroline was playing with a little clay turtle statue and she said "I'm pretending that this is a fossil and I dug it up in the back yard." James and I had one of those silent parental conversations that you have in your mind while you look at each other and I said "but what's a fossil? I haven't heard that word from you before." She said that a fossil is a stone with a picture of an animal or plant or something that lived a really "super-long" time ago on it. We were just blown away!

Another soccer practice

Practicing the goal - right after her feet landed from this kick, she fell flat on her BUTT and was so embarrassed!

"Dribbling" to learn the playing perimeters.

"Is it my turn to kick NOW?"

"Good job, Aidan" (Caroline on left giving a thumbs up to her friend)

She's a joiner!

I just can't believe it - with everything else we're involved in, Caroline tried out a TAP class last night! There was supposed to be a "Tap Ages 5-8" class last night immediately after Caroline's ballet class. Due to a misunderstanding, the mother of the one kid who showed up was told that class was going on, but the dance teacher was told that the class was cancelled because only one kid showed up. So Ms. Leslie asked the last few ballet girls who hadn't left yet (Caroline, Erin, Sarah and Alexandra) if they wanted to hang out and check out the class. Naturally, Caroline LOOOOOOOOOOVED it - she can't wait to get her hands on some "tappity shoes that make the cool noise!" They practiced shuffles and flaps and "flash tricks" and all sorts of things I know I wouldn't be able to manage. So now we're debating about too many activities (soccer, ballet, storytime, tap), if she could handle the amount of time necessary to do a morning of school, then more than an hour of dance class (45 minutes of ballet, immediately followed by 30 minutes of tap), etc. Who'da thunk this type of fun stuff would be so hard to deal with?

Ballet Class

I'm ready to go to ballet!

Caroline in the center posing for the "Fairy Dance". She was really bummed about not getting to keep the wand!

Lined up to do some "horse galloping" - Caroline is second in line.

L-R is Sarah, Caroline and Erin, all doing some stretching.

Tonight was the first night of ballet, and there is nothing cuter in the world than a roomful of pink ballerinas, especially when one of them is your own! Caroline was so proud of her outfit and was thrilled to be taking the class with her two best friends, Sarah and Erin. Luckily James even made it in time, so he got to watch too. They did some stretching, talking about proper form and proper "etiquette" of ballet class. Then they started practicing. Caroline and Erin got many compliments from the teacher on their good listening and "nice tall posture" for various things. At the end of the class they got stickers and when we told Caroline what a good job she did and how proud we were of her, she said "I just wanted to make you guys happy!" That's the kind of thing that makes up for the attitude and back-talk and feet-stamping lately!

First Days pictures...

Practicing keeping the ball straight.

Warming up with some jumping jacks - Caroline is on the right in the black shorts.

Blurry picture because the batteries were dying, but I LOVE how she puts her arms out to keep her balance!

Warming up with some running around and kicking to the goal.

Caroline's first day of school picture. Everyone has commented on how grown-up she looks with the longer hair; a friend said they could completely imagine her looking exactly like this on her first day of high school.

The first night of soccer was the funnest night in a long time. Caroline was sooooo excited to get there and just have the chance to run like mad (thanks to 3 or 4 days inside due to rain). She was so great at listening to the two coaches - who are the fathers of her two best friends, so she was immediately more comfortable with them and able to listen. They spent the first 30 minutes doing different drills, and then the last 30 minutes was a scrimmage with the other half of the team. She HATED wearing a scrimmage jersey ("I don't like it, it's all floppy and yucky!" ) but when I told her it wasn't her regular soccer shirt, she was willing to put up with it. She was surprisingly patient with the scrimmage even though she didn't get a lot of ball time thanks to Gavin the ball hog (both coaches AND his parents were yelling "Give someone else a turn with the ball!"), but even she said she had a great time and can't wait to go back. So we got home, tossed Caroline into a quick bath and straight into bed - for anyone who knows us, you know that it's a complete scientific anomaly for Caroline to be in bed anywhere before 8pm but she was in bed at 7:40 last night! She woke up once to go to the bathroom and told me "I'm almost too pooped to pee." hahaha

Back to school....

Like Meg Ryan says at the beginning of "You've Got Mail"....can't you just FEEL back to school in the air? It smells like a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils! Or words to that effect. :-)

Caroline, who still likes me to call her "my sweet baby", went back to school today, and for the first time in YEARS (years - like ever in her starting school!) went with nary a whimper, cry, cling, or backward glance. She gave me a kiss goodbye, the teacher came to get her out of the car, and she said "see you in a while, Mom!"

She later reported that she put away her extra clothes all by herself, they had circle time and talked about how this week is a little bit different (the returning students are only coming for an hour per day because the new students are coming first thing in the morning to get acclimated), read some books, and did a new work on "different planets and stuff" that she will finish tomorrow because they ran out of time.

Now I must go listen to tomorrow's weather on the news because Mademoiselle Fashionista will want to pick out the day's outfit as soon as she rolls out of bed!

More from the fair

Ridiculously fluffy and apparently blow-dried chicken that we laughed about every time we saw him!

Caroline intent on her ice cream made from milk given by the cows on exhibit. Better than my friend who lives in KS, who said that there are big advertisements around her state fair that said all the cows on exhibit would be "available for purchase" after the fair - at the grocery store in a more digestible form. Eeeeek!

Whipping around the corner - wheeee!

The Maryland State Fair in Timonium

On the kiddie rollercoaster - rode it probably 7 times in the course of the day!

No matter what I told her about the steering wheels being only for pretend, Caroline steered very carefully and paid close attention to where she was going!

She was very concerned that her flying bee didn't have antennae.

Ready to go!