Happy Picture Day!

Today is picture day at Elias' school! We devoted portions of the past week to getting his hair cut, shopping for a new button-down shirt, and practicing his "natural smile." To be fair, last year's picture wasn't half bad. You can't go wrong with a crisp button-down shirt and a buzz cut. But his smile does look forced (especially compared to the more candid shots his preschool's photographer captured the year before). Combine that with some seriously disheveled locks and I suppose that's enough to send a decent percentage of the school's parents into a tizzy, emailing recommendations for new photographers for next year and just generally commiserating with one another over awkward results. I wonder how many of those parents were more satisfied with their retakes a couple of months later? As it was, I figured Elias' first try was probably about as good as it was gonna get. I look back on it now and I think, yeah, that's a pretty fair representation of a 5 year old just weeks into his first year of "real school." At least he still had all his teeth.

And apparently not enough parents felt riled up enough to do anything about it beyond virtually voicing their dissatisfaction because when information came home about picture day this year, the same company was listed as last year. I'm pretty sure it's the same photographers who took our pictures in the 70s and 80s! Anyway, I fret over a lot of parenting stuff, don't get me wrong, but Picture Day is pretty low on the list of things that keeps me up at night. That said, when I learned this morning that my weekly volunteer time today would overlap with the classroom's slot, I'll admit I was a little relieved (fortunate to be able to fulfill my duties as SAHM to 20 month old Daphne and spend about 45 minutes in the classroom each Friday ... so, no, I'm not exactly crazy mom).

Great, I thought, I'll be able to make sure his shirt collar's not flipped up and smooth down any rogue strands of bedhead. After all, Friday mornings begin with an hour of P.E. Then they have recess. And then they have snack. I mean, seriously, can you imagine hitting the gym, then, I don't know, whatever the adult equivalent of playing with friends for 20 minutes is, then eating, before going directly into a photo session?! Whatever your kid looked like at drop-off, I can guarantee you that's not how they're going to look after all that, over 2 hours later! So I did my best to fuss with all the kids, straightening out shirt collars, suggesting the removal of outerwear like jackets with clashing animal patterns, handing out combs to brush bangs to one side or another, and distributing wipes to remove any lingering crumbs from fake smiles.


Even so, the one-minute walk to the auditorium, the several minutes of waiting and fidgeting in line, not to mention the few seconds the photographer had his back turned after carefully positioning each kid was enough to turn the freshly coiffed 1st grader into a disheveled ragamuffin! It was kind of incredible, actually, and adorably hilarious, like Lord Business trying to position Ma and Pa during the bad cop kragle scene. "All I'm asking for is total perfection!" Basically. I mean, really, what kid stands with their feet in first position, their hands casually in their pockets, and their chin pointed ever so slightly downward? I witnessed this poor photographer trying valiantly to get my kid to hold this position for 30 seconds! That's it! But each time he turned away - the second he turned his back! - Elias straightened up, looked at the lights and umbrellas instead of at the camera lens, chin up, and even from the side I could tell he was sporting the same fake smile as last year.

Sigh.

I don't know what the moral to this story is. I'm sure my son's school could find a better photographer, one a little more successful, perhaps, in capturing kids' adorableness in a more natural setting. But in a public school situation where picture day is a factory operation, I think the results aren't half bad! I purchased the biggest package for a little over $50 - with a coupon, but still. You can certainly opt out and hire a private photographer, right? This is a little like moms spending hundreds of dollars to cut and color their own hair then balking at the $20 the kids' haircut place charges. We've taken few professional photos, but I'm guessing they're pretty pricey. For fifty bucks tops, messy hair and a fake smile may just be as good as it gets. After all, sane parenting is all about managing expectations, right?

the 1st week of 1st grade

Now that I've finally caught this blog up on all things Kindergarten, I'm going to try to keep up the momentum, skip over "Wacky Wednesdays" and summer shenanigans for now, not to mention the gazillion ways little sister has changed over the past 8 months, and get right into 1st grade.

Neal had to travel for work during that entire first week of school, which just happened to be an entire week of minimum days, meaning I had to pick up Elias at 1:20 each day instead of 3 p.m. Thankfully Daphne was still in part-time daycare, but that week was her last regular week. So it was kinda crazy.

Thank goodness for this moment of zen. Of the three 1st grade teachers, Elias got the most sort of strict, "old-school" one. She's grown on me considerably over the past six weeks and a couple of his best buddies from last year are in his class again this year, so that helps.

1st grade so far is really different from Kindergarten. Kindergarten seemed like a natural next step from preschool, especially after two years of preschool! But 1st grade is a huge leap, in my opinion, from Kindergarten. The classroom focus seems to be all reading, writing, and math. Which is fine - obviously, I'm excited for Elias to improve his reading & writing skills this year (math seems to be less challenging for him at this stage) - but thank goodness for the enrichment classes (art, library, garden, science, and PE) that break up the week and recess, of course, to break up the day. Not to mention trying to work off all that energy between 3 and 5ish each afternoon!

Spying.

Walking down the hill to the car at the end of that first week of school (mama very ready for daddy to come home!). Such preciousness makes the endless exhaustion totally worthwhile, doesn't it?

holidays and field trips and cupcakes, oh my!

Well, we're now several weeks into first grade. So much for catching up on Kindergarten posts before school started. And more about first grade very soon. But first, let's finish up this first year of "real" school, shall we?

Like other holidays, turns out I blogged about Valentine's Day over on my other blog, if you're interested in the valentines we made for school buddies this past year. Good way to use up old, broken crayons!

The kids celebrated other holidays with more craft projects, like hats and beards for St. Patrick's Day.

And there were a few more field trips. 

He's posing here with one of his best buddies, Finn (who also happens to be in his class this year).

Daphne tagged along on this one to Fairyland.

Easter was celebrated with an egg hunt in the school's garden and a party back in the classroom.

Toward the end of the school year, with Daphne in part-time daycare, I was able to finally volunteer at school, some weeks with the Kindergarten-only motor skills class. A very blurry Elias is on the red ball on the right. I'm kind of bummed this is only during Kindergarten - it was a bit old-school but at least it got the kids moving every week (unlike PE, which they only had once a week, every other week!).

That's the cruel irony (or is it a paradox? I don't know...) of being an essentially stay-at-home parent. Unless all your kids are in school (in which case, score!), it's tough to take advantage of all that time you have on your hands with an infant or toddler in tow. So I tried to volunteer once a week once Daphne was in part-time daycare. Of course, now that she's no longer in daycare (more about that in a bit), I'm trying to volunteer once a week with her tagging along. We'll see how it goes...

Classroom science project. I really appreciated that the lower grades did classroom projects since we didn't get too far on the one we started at home. I kept the project-in-progress, though, so maybe this year?

Sitting next to his buddy Kingston at the Dads' Club sponsored annual pancake breakfast, showing off the latest gap in his smile. He's lost 6 teeth so far, the latest one just this week!

A field trip to the Chabot Space & Science Center while Daphne was at daycare. Even so, I was still exhausted by the end of this one!

This was also the location of our first field trip this school year and Elias seems pretty into space these days. In fact, just a day or two ago he told me he wants to be an astronaut when he grows up, but "the kind that studies space from Earth."

Okay, I know this is getting really long and rambling, but ... chicks! There were chicks!

So cute! I think this is another thing only Kindergarteners get to enjoy - learning about the incubation process and life cycle of the chicken and all that - but we'll see this spring if there are chicks to be had in the first grade classroom. I'm guessing, however, that this is one of the many ways 1st grade is different than Kindergarten.

Comparing water bottles before the school's walk-a-thon, one of many fundraisers.

We celebrated summer birthdays (including Elias') during the second to last week of school. Journie, the gal sitting next to Elias, is also a summer birthday and is in his class again this year.

The class performed a short play with their 3rd grade "buddies." Elias' part was King Lion.

Elias is in the center of this picture, waiting for the play to begin. I believe his first grade buddy, Nick, is standing to the left of him (his right). 3rd graders are so much bigger than Kindergarteners!

And finally, graduation!

We got to take home some projects the kids had worked on all year.

All the students received a certificate and I was sort of shocked to learn, given the number of stomach bugs Elias had last winter, that he had perfect attendance, earning him a second certificate!

There were cupcakes, of course.

Seems like just yesterday ... I'm going to get started on my first 1st grade post right away!