Can I go as a harried mom for Halloween?

The costume is pretty easy, apparently. It's been consistent madness around here, which is why it's been more than a month since our last update. Caroline went on her first-ever field trip with school, to a local nature center and a pumpkin patch. I think she was more excited about riding on the school bus actually; as we rounded the corner of the driveway to see the huge yellow bus sitting by the side of the building, Caroline let out a squeal usually reserved for meeting a major deity. On top of that I helped orchestrate the kindergarten "Harvest Party" with two other moms - administering a room full of excited kindergarteners on a sugar buzz is like trying to shove an angry octopus into a mesh bag! So of course that means we're also responsible for the Thanksgiving party about a month away....

But, we're also accomplishing lots of other things. We're about to go on our fourth family trip to Disney so have been busy packing and preparing. Caroline's birthday party is scheduled for December 8th at the paint-your-own pottery studio in town. I just bought her beautiful Christmas dress, and scheduled her yearly pictures for after we come back from vacation, so be sure to keep an eye out for the "beautifulest dress ever!" in your Christmas cards this year.

We still have to offload the Harvest Party pictures, so for now you'll have to be content with some pictures from a recent park visit.

Caroline's first experience with marshmellow fluff; it's like kindergartener CRACK! In this 8 oz. mug, she literally had three heaping spoons of Fluff.

At a new park about two blocks from our house.

Hanging WAAAAAAAAAAAY back on the swing.

Let's try out the rock wall too!

The REALLY missing tooth....

Caroline lost her first tooth a while ago, and continued to wiggle the remaining lower front tooth that was also loose. That one came out during lunch at school yesterday - which means she likely SWALLOWED it with her raviolis or chocolate chip cookies. When I picked her up from school she was completely inconsolable. Floods of tears. "But how will the Tooth Fairy know that it really happened?" After a quick call to the pediatrician to confirm that there would be no harm done by the tooth taking the wrong path (Dr. L suggested I could prove my parenting mettle by searching for it - no thanks!), we decided to write a note to the Tooth Fairy to explain what happened.

Caroline's note said: "Dear Tooth Fairy - My loose tooth came out yesterday but it's gone because I ate it by mistake. Sorry! Love Caroline"

Tooth Fairy wrote her back in fairy-pink sparkly scrapbooking pen - "Dear Caroline - no problem. Accidents happen! But I'll be back for the next one. Love, T.F."

I just love that our communicative Tooth Fairy is so understanding....

The Big Milestones Continue...

Caroline had her first visit to the beach at the end of August. After an orientation event at her school, I told her that we were going for an adventure. We were literally crossing the bridge into Ocean City when she said "Wait a minute, are we going to the beach?" And as we pulled up in front of the hotel she said "That guy looks like Pop" - because it was!

Her feet in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time (yes, she got a haircut - she couldn't stand it anymore and told Ms. Venus to cut it to her chin!)

After getting a swimsuit on, she was wave-jumping with Aunt Cathy.

Out on the beach, we had to measure how deep someone's sand hole was.

Riding the rides at Trimper's one evening; an awesome picture because it looks like an Evel Kenievel move!

All the exciting news

Modeling her school uniforms (although this blouse is only supposed to go under the jumpers, there is a knit shirt with embroidered school logo to go with skirts/pants)

Her blood donation shirt from Pop - it's an adult XL size, so the sleeves come to her wrists and the hem comes almost to her ankles!

The missing tooth! Came out Wednesday night after hanging on for about three weeks.

No training wheels! We haven't practiced in a while, but one day she said she wanted to try again, and as soon as I let go she took off pedaling. She also knows how to brake slowly to a stop and to turn, now we just have to practice getting started on her own.

A Major Milestone Reached.....

Caroline's first tooth is finally out! The bottom center left tooth been progressively looser and looser for a solid three weeks (that first Sunday C said in a panic "Mom, COME HERE - something is really wrong with my tooth!") Today it was just barely hanging on, and she could push it almost horizontal with her tongue. I gave her both taffy and bubble gum this afternoon trying to help her out, to no avail. But while she was getting ready for bed with James, she came screaming downstairs with the tooth in her hand. Stay tuned for some gap-toothed pictures soon!

Caroline-Speak

I have lots of pictures and stories to share, but being as it's almost bedtime I will drop off two short tidbits of entertaining things Caroline has said lately -

Coversation #1 - you have to understand that Caroline has the same lunch nearly every day; peanut butter and jelly sandwich, fruit, and some type of chip/pretzel/etc. She's long been a fan of cheeseballs, but decided to try something new, so this took place at the grocery store.

Caroline: Mom, I want those things like cheeseballs, but long.
Mom: Okay, you mean Cheetos?
C: No, the long puffy ones. Gram has them at her house.
M: Oh, cheese curls. But did you know when I was little Gram and I used to call them something else?
C: Yeah, Gram told me it - they're cheese noodles!

hahahahahahaha (okay, maybe this is only funny to me and my mom....)


Conversation #2 - tonight Caroline was playing a game on the computer, and part of it involved answering some "general knowledge" type trivia questions. She was working on the geography portion.

Computer Question: What is more than 200 miles long and over 6000 feet deep in some places?
Caroline clicks away - "The Grand Crayon? What the heck is that?"

hahahahahahaha James and I nearly hurt ourselves laughing!

More summer activities....

I won't even bother to apologize for the length of time since my last post because, well, most of you faithful readers have had little kids before, and if it not you've at least read enough about Caroline and the things she does to know that Mommy doesn't have a bunch of time sitting around the computer to leap through the hoops Blogger requires to make a new post. You'll see lots more of us once school starts

Caroline's favorite activity is her weekly gymnastics class, which might be the best $80 we've spent. EVER. She is also taking dance class at the same place for a summer session, which is six weeks. She is particularly thrilled that Miss Laurie was willing to run a tap class for JUST Caroline so "it's just me and Miss Laurie and nobody else!"

Earlier this week we went to the Reese carnival. Unlike some areas, the counties here don't hold individual fairs, but the various town volunteer fire departments host carnivals throughout the summer, and then there is the State Fair at the end of August. But our evening consisted of lots of rides, a big fat funnel cake with powdered sugar, trying our darndest to win a fish, getting beaten and bruised on the Scrambler that is Caroline's new favorite ride, and more rides until we were ridiculously late getting home. Caroline slept until 9:30am the next day!

We've also been involved in getting ready for Caroline's debut at "big girl school". She is very excited to go and regularly checks her calendar to see how many weeks are left until school starts. It's nice that she has this enthusiasm now, because I know in a few years it will be checking the calendar to stretch out whatever remaining time is left. hahahaha She picked out her first "real" backpack, we've visited the school a few times to drop of various forms and checks, and all we really have left to do is buy school supplies and her uniforms. Being as this will be her first year of all-day school, I am giddy at the idea of all the free time I will have!

Strawberry picking at Baugher's - while Caroline loved the idea, she HATED digging around in the bushes and would only pick the berries in plain sight right along the edges.

Garage monkey - helping Daddy sweep out and neaten the garage

My new favorite picture. Does anyone else see the 17-year old heading out for a date here?

One day we were feeling creative and made "burgers" out of Peppermint Patties, Nilla Wafers and colored icing. Caroline thought I was Martha Stewart arrived on Bancroft Street when I explained this idea to her!

Her first day of gymnastics class. She said "I don't know what they're going to teach us Mom, but I just want to learn to do a handstand."

Long Time, No Update....

and that's because the madness that is summer vacation has been sucking up all the blog-time. We've been swimming, we've been playing with friends, we've had birthday parties out the wazoo.

But at least I can finally arrive with some pictures from Caroline's ballet/tap recital from early June! (although I have to apologize for the quality - with how dark the auditorium was and the stage was so brightly lit, the pictures are pretty dim) The recital hit at just the right time, I think all the girls were suffering some burn out from dance classes for so long and then that last week was all rehearsals and pictures and more rehearsals and costume fittings, etc.

She had a little attack of nerves when we first arrived, but calmed down when her friend Paige arrived and held her hand and got her to come watch a movie. Caroline went on to dance like a champ and said that she loves dance class and wants to do it forever!

Caroline in the center - everyone struggling to remember what to do!

Caroline on the left; skippedy-skippedy-skip!

Right in the center of the final pose

Tap dance "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" - all the parents were so annoyed at these black boxes. They didn't look like a train at all, and with the black background curtain made it nearly impossible to see them.

The final curtain call

Eat your heart out, Donald Trump...

because Caroline has better media coverage! At the ripe old age of 5 1/2, she's already been on television and now she's been in the newspaper. A few weeks ago we visited the Towson Town Festival, a local street-fair type of thing with lots of crafts and plants for sale, free samples, etc. They had a nice area set up for kids with pony rides, moon bounce, obstacle course - and a woman from the Towson newspaper took Caroline's picture on the giant slide and asked for her name and age. Since we have connections "on the inside" (Cathy works for the Sunpaper, who owns that Towson newspaper), we got a bunch of copies of "Caroline May, 5, of Taneytown, enjoying the inflatable slide"

Another highlight of the day was "crazy hair" - they had a booth with a hairdresser who would do your up into a quick style, and then spray it whatever color you wanted. Caroline got hers done, and literally HUNDREDS of people commented on how cool it looked. Thankfully they were honest when they said the color would come out with shampoo, but the 2.7 cans of hairspray they used for the style made it rather knotty to comb out.

First they started out with an undercoat of white, so that her own haircolor didn't show through.

Here she is, Rocker Girl!

Showing all the colors - pink, green, orange, purple on the bun on top, all covered with glitter

The biggest number

Caroline came home from school yesterday and said "Mommy, I learned the biggest number you could possibly count to!"

Mommy: "Okay, what is it?"
C: "If you counted forever, it would be infidiby!"

To infidiby and beyond! heeheeheehee