Back to school night andthe CA education crisis

Last night was "Back to school night" at Anthony's school. You know, you go and listen to the teacher talk about what they have planned for the school year, what the kids do each day, how the grading works, etc. The FFA (basically our PTA) and the principal also gaves talks on fundraising, the budget, and how things have changed drastically this year due to huge educational budget cuts.

As I sat there listening to them go through the list of things that had to be cut, things like recess and lunch time supervision (yes, the state seems to think that having our kids supervised during these times in unnecessary), a nurse, a vice principal, a guidance counselor, etc I was reminded of the amazing elementary education I recieved. We had a wonderful art department, I mean, a full art room with supplies and we did art each week, same for music and PE and things of the like. Now the teachers are told they HAVE to teach certain things but they have to provide the supplies and curriculum themselves.

So, needless to say they FFA has promised that many of the cut items will still be provided, but it requires monetary pledges from the parents in order to make it happen. Obviously this years' pledge drive is much higher due to the number of things that are needed.

Again, I am sad for my kids, sad that they will not have the same experiences I did. Luckily Anthony's school has an amazing FFA and set of teachers who go above and beyond, so he will still get PE each week, a science lab, computer time, and art as well. But this isn't the case with most schools in CA. We are lucky to live in an area where the parents care and also have the means to give to pledge drives such as our school is doing. Many schools aren't so lucky, in fact the vast majority of the ones in our district alone are in low income areas where the budget cuts have caused severe problems. High classroom numbers coupled with lack of materials and supplies means our kids are getting the raw end of an already bad deal.

I don't know who to blame, if there is anyone. Could be the high end educators who get 6 figure salaries and God forbid we should cut any of that! Could be that people just think education happens, supplies, well paid teachers, art programs or not.

I am so grateful for the amazing edcuation I was lucky enough to receive all those years ago and I can only pray that my children will get a chance to have even half of what I did. I know that I will have to pick up where the school system drops off and that is fine, I just wish it wasn't so.

I will say this, I absolutely love Anthony's teacher. She has been teaching Kindergarten for 20 some odd years and you can tell just by how she talks that she is still passionate about what she does. She doesn't decorate her room all cutesy, she didn't have photos of the kids hung up for last night, but what she did have was a heart for children and teaching them how to succeed throughout their schooling. She emphasised reading with your children, sitting them close to you and having that time. She spoke about how she worries about the kids when they have bad days and celebrates each milestone with them. She and the other two teachers in her section work together to add things to enrich the childrens' learning experience, things like performing arts (she teaches them dance and yoga), and extra science curriculum, all added to the already full curriculum they are teaching. But these are things they feel are vital to the children learning and developing on track. So I rest easy in that. Anthony is in good hands at the most important level of education, his teacher whom he spends each day with.

Superfriends to the rescue

This weekend was the big weekend, the big superhero party for Anthony and Dominic. Since we aren't going to be home for Halloween this year (the older two boys are in a wedding on Nov.1st and the rehearsal is on Halloween) we decided to let them have a superhero birthday party where they, and anyone else, could dress up. We had so much fun. Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Supergirl, and even The Flash showed up. We had cupcakes and a pinata and superhero pizza and juice boxes. The boys got so much attention at the beach where we had the party. I guess San Deigo doesn't get a lot of superhero visits. They wore their costumes all day and would have slept in them as well if we had let them. I think they will be wearing them from now until forever, even at the rehearsal dinner on Halloween (I asked the bride, she said that would be SO CUTE!). Here are just some of the highlights of the party and a few others thrown in for fun. (The hulk underoos are courtesy of Grandma Pat.)

Frist day of school, part I

I hesitated to even write. Today is Anthony's first day of kindergarten. It started out great. I thought he would be up with the sun, ready to go, since that has been the norm over the summer. No sleeping in, not for my kids. But for whatever reason he had to be woken up, but he woke up happy and ready to go. He got dressed and came down for breakfast. Auntie Erin sent a special first day of school prize for him to open (which he loved by the way, thanks Auntie!). Then we talked about what he might do today, we got his backpack and lunchbox all ready to go, said a prayer, and were out the door. We took two cars, which was our first mistake. Anthony and Dom wanted to ride with daddy, so they did. I knew parking would be nuts, especially on the first day, so we left with what I thought would be plenty of time for both of us to park and walk to Anthony's class, take some pics, give hugs, and be on our way. Well, I underestimated how many parents would be there and how many cars would need to carry those parents. Luckily Joe found a spot in front on school and was able to get Anthony to his class before the bell rang for school to start. I was not so lucky. I drive around for 10 minutes trying to find a spot and when I finally did I was bombarded by all the parents EXITING school because the bell had rung and school had started.

I didn't get a goodbye hug on his first day, I didn't get to say good luck, I didn't get to take pics as he went into his class. Anthony could have cared less, Joe said he just walked right in and had to be reminded to give Joe and hug goodbye. That part made me feel better. I knew it would go that way, but I guess deep down in my mommy's heart I had a secret wish that Anthony would be crushed if he didn't get to give me a hug goodbye. So, I was the only one shedding tears this morning, and it wasn't just because I was sending my little boy off into the world, it was because I didn't get to do it the way I had hoped. I will try again tomorrow and hopefully it wil go better.

School starts and so it begins...

Tomorrow is Anthony's first day of kindergarten. Wow, re-reading that makes me feel so many things; proud, scared, old, nervous, excited. It hasn't been the best labor day and I mostly blame myself and Joe for that. While most parents would have spent half a minute planning at least something to do, we chose to make it a slow day, one where the kids inevitably get to a breaking point of boredom and begin showing signs of cabin fever mixed with ADHD, mixed with a little spite just for fun. They begin hurting eachother, throwing toys, throwing fits and best of all, pretending that Joe and I aren't here and anything we say goes into some sort of toddler vaccuum. So, at about 2:30 pm we finally decided maybe we should take them somewhere, anywhere! As soon as we were in the car we knew it was a bad idea. Anthony was already crying for whatever reason, the baby was crying for another reason, and Dom, well, Dom was ok, at least at this point.

We went bowling, and everyone seemed excited when we arrived. There was hope for the day after all! Well, that soon ended when Anthony learned that in order to rent shoes you had to leave one of yours as collateral. Being tired mixed with being a little nervous about tomorrow and we had one grade A fit on our hands. He sat in time out his first three frames. Then it was Dom's turn to sit in time out for climbing on the ball return and not listening. Oh, and all the while Nicolas is screaming in the stroller but there was NO WAY we were letting him out only to chase him down the alley and who knows where else. So, we bowled one game, I broke a hundred, we left the bowling alley with no one crying. That soon ended as well. Again, you mix tired, nervous, and bored and you have one volatile mixture on your hands. It isn't a coctail you want very often, that is for sure.

So, now we are home, the baby is sleeping, the boys are playing with legos and being fairly good for a change, and I just managed to beat another song on Expert in Guitar Hero.

Back to school starting. Joe was planning on taking Anthony out for dinner tonight, and little man to man before starting school tomorrow. I am not sure if that is still happening as Joe is holed up in his office playing Medal of Honor to blow off some steam. I don't blame him. Now don't get me wrong, we love our kids, we really do, but days like this help put things in perspective. I hope they help Joe at least understand what I go through day to day, especially in the summer. I suppose I could try to be one of those mothers who has something planned for every day, activities to do at home or out and about, but let's be honest, I am not one of those mothers. I am lucky to get them all dressed on any given day rather than staying in their jammies. So, tomorrow is the first day of school and while I hate to admit that my child is anything but uber excited about starting this milestone, I must force myself to acknowledge that he may be a little, just a little, nervous and stressed about the upcoming change. It will sort itself out and it may be a rough couple weeks as we all adjust to the new schedule, but eventually it will become routine.

Now let's chat about MY nervousness. And Joe's as well. I mean, this is it, we are sending him off into the world for 5 hours WITHOUT US! Without our watchful eyes and ears to make sure he is being kind, to make sure others are being kind to him. He will hear things we don't want him to hear, he will learn things we don't want him to know. This scares us to death! This world is not what it used to be. But at the same time I have to have faith in our parenting abilities and trust that we have and will continue to prepare him for whatever he encounters. I don't want to shelter him from everything, I want him to be confident in his ability to face the world head on and be the person we have raised him to be without thinking twice. I realize kindergarten isn't going to be the toughest grade for him by far, and if his academic career in any way mirrors my own, he will have his fair share of being ostracized and ridiculed, but as Joe so wonderfully put it, it is all about confidence. If you seem confident, people notice, which makes you more confident, which makes more people notice. So, confidence in the key. As well as whole lot of prayer and stress on our part. But again, I think that is part of parenting. You teach them things, send them off, and then worry your brains out the rest of the time!

I will post more tomorrow, after the big day.

New Dolce Bambino items and some cute pics

Hi all. Just wanted to let you know that I have some new items in my shop now. Adult beanies, new booties, and coming soon, new purses and diaper clutches! Keep your eyes out later this week, most new items should be posted. Here is just a sample of what you will find:

Check it out, www.dolcebambino.etsy.com.

Grandparents are the best!

Tomorrow we leave to go back home. While it will be good to be home, see Joe, and get ready for Anthony to start kindergarten, we have had a really wonderful time here in MN. The two weeks have flown by and I feel like there is still so much I want to do, even though we have done even more than expected!!

I just wanted to share some sweet grandparent stories. There have been a lot, too many to mention here, so I will only share a few.

Nicolas, as many of you know, is a little wary of strange women. I think it stems from the fact that anytime we leave him either with a babysitter or in the church nursery we leave him with a woman. However, he LOVES men. So right away he was grandpa's (ba pa's) boy. He smiles his huge smile whenever my dad comes in the room, loves to give him big hugs and plays funny face games with him. He also took right to my brother, Grant. It got to the point so that wherever we were, if he saw someone that resembled Uncle Grant (shaved head and a gotee) he would walk up to them and smile his goofy smile. Very cute.

One of my favorite stories actually happened while I was out. Grant, Meghan, and I went out to a movie and left the kids with grandma and grandpa. This was so sweet of them #1 because it was all 4 kids and #2 because my mom wasn't feeling all that well. But, they managed to split up the duties in a way that worked really well. As I mentioned before my kids have had a little bit of a hard time falling asleep and so I have been staying in their room and reading stories and singing to them to settle them down. This particular night that duty fell upon grandpa Bernie. He started out with a story he used to tell me when I was little, the story of Farsworth the Fabulous Spaceman who was no bigger than your thumbnail and flew a spaceship that looked like a blueberry pancake. The boys weren't sure they would like a story that wasn't in a book, but grandpa said that it didn't take long for them to really get into the story. I jokingly asked my dad if he had to sing to them thinking of course he wouldn't, but it turns out, HE DID! It literally warms my heart to think of him singing songs to my boys to calm them down. At one point he ran out of songs but Dom was still awake so he asked Dom if he wanted grandpa to lay next to him in his bed and just talk for a while. Dom of course said yes and so that is what they did until Dom couldn't keep his eyes open. The picture in my mind is so sweet. I am sure the evening will stand out as a favorite in grandpa's mind for sure.

Here are a few more photos from the trip. With only one more day to go it is hard to think of cramming anything else in, but we do have some plans for later today, so I will hopefully post some pics of that later on. Love you all.

More from thje midwest

I apologize now for any and all typos in my latest blogs. I am usually writing while trying to keep Nicolasfrom getting into naughty things so I don't have time for spell check, or even time to ensure that what I am writing makes any type of sense.

Yesterday was a fun day. In the morning we went downtown to the modern art center where there is a museum and an outdoor sculpture garden (which I just learned my mother had never been to in all their 13 years of living here.) Every first Saturday of the summer months everything is free and they have music and food and special activities for the children. The kids got to build a sculpture from reeds and pine cones and leaves, they danced to the fun music, played in and among the huge sculptures, and came home and took long naps!

Last night grandpa, Grant, and I took the older 3 boys fishing. I will post pics after I get home as they are on my phone and I can't get to them without special software and cables. But I will say that I caught the first and biggest fish of the night, a bull catfish! I was a bit taken aback, I will admit, it was hard to reel in and I know they can "sting" when you try to get them off. All three boys caught small sunfish and they had a really good time.

On another note, at supper time we say grace but in is actually quite an undertaking. My brother and his family start it out with the sign of the cross (which Stellan has to get just right before continuing on to the prayer), then they say their family prayer, then we say the prayer I grew up saying, and then Dom usually says his own little prayer thanking Jesus for his family, the food, and something random like his green elephant cup or his corn on the cob. It is really sweet.

That is it for this post. More later. Oh, by the way, Joe is officially on his way to Austin, TX for his trade show. Say a prayer for him and his group that they will have a successful time. They all put so much work into it and want it to go well.

Love to you all.