Preschool Mother's Day

This is very belated, but I finally uploaded some pictures off the camera. Jeremy's preschool put on a Mother's Day performance, which was simply touching. I joked with one of the fellow moms that I was going to cry, and sure enough, I did. I cried when they did sign language to one of the songs and when they sang "You Are My Sunshine." I used to sing that song to J when he was a baby to get him to sleep. Riley would lay on the floor while I would rock J, and she would sing that with me, along with "Baby Beluga" and "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles." Makes me teary just thinking about it.

 

Jeremy giving me my gift.

Giving my boy a kiss.

My guy.

Posing for a pic.

The kids also made wonderful Mother's Day presents, one of which I still had when Riley was in preschool. It's just an empty box, but it holds a hug in there. Phil was able to come and be the photographer/videographer, which worked out great since I was a blubbering mess. Jeremy also had asked me to wear a dress, and I obliged with a skirt. I figured that would've worked. It was a very special Mother's Day celebration. One I will never forget.
 

Flat Stanley

Riley's first grade class read a story about Flat Stanley, which is about a fictitious boy who gets flattened by a blackboard while at school. The upside is that now his parents can mail him all over the world to visit family and friends.

When Riley first received information about Flat Stanley, she knew immediately who to send it to: Uncle D and Casey. (and Casey updated her blog recently, if you haven't checked it out). After contacting Riley's teacher to make sure we'd have enough time to send Flat Stanley to Lebanon, we got the go-ahead and away Flat Stanley went.

A few weeks passed, and Riley came home one day from school just beaming that her Flat Stanley arrived. And what she loved even more was that out of all the kids in her class, her Flat Stanley went the furthest--about 6,100 miles! Other kids in her class sent their Flat Stanleys across the United States, to Mexico and to Germany. But I'm guessing that Riley is about the only kid who had a Flat Stanley go to Beirut. 

Apparently Flat Stanley had a great time visiting D and C. He watched Uncle D play hockey, enjoyed the view from their balcony, visited Pigeon Rock and almost fell out the window! We're so glad he didn't have a tragic end to his visit. Here are some pictures of his adventures.

Overlooking a soccer field near the Mediterranean.

Visiting Pigeon Rock.

Visiting a mosque.

Relaxing in C + D's flowers.

Checking out their garden.

No, Flat Stanley! Don't jump!!

Riley's Turn

I feel sometimes like I don't focus enough on Riley. She had her last day of first grade earlier this week, and Phil and I were both bad parents that day. She woke up extra early (even for her), and came into our room complaining that her head hurt. She didn't want to eat much breakfast, and at first we attributed it to her not wanting school to end. I took her temp, and it was 102. Oops. And like the bad parents that we were, we sent her to school. Only because it was the last day.

I took the traditional end-of-the-school-year picture on the front steps (I'm so behind on uploading pics off the camera), and the poor girl couldn't even smile. I waited all morning to receive the phone call from the nurse saying that we had to come get her, but it never happened. All three of us went to school to have lunch with Riley, and that's when I saw her walking to the nurse. Sure enough, she had a fever. I took her back to her classroom to tell her teacher and pack up all her stuff. She was so sad, and she sat at her desk crying.

Her teacher, who has been nothing but wonderful all year, was so sympathetic to Riley's situation. She wasn't able to have the kids sign her autograph book, so her teacher promised to have the kids do it and send it to her.

On the bright side, we received Riley's report card and rankings from the standardized testing. She is in the 99th percentile for both reading and math! Unreal. And she also received the national award for the physical fitness testing, which means that she was above 50% for all the tests. 

When we got her home, she basically slept the entire afternoon (while Jeremy and I went skating and then to the pool....), but yesterday she was back to normal, fighting with her brother. Ah, it's going to be a nice long summer.

But I do have to share this: in the car yesterday, I was talking with the kids about how one of our neighbors had to have surgery because she has cancer. I believe my exact statement was that she was "gonna have surgery," to which Riley immediately said, "Mom, it's not 'gonna.' It's going to." Nice. Corrected by my 7 year old. I couldn't be prouder. :)

Riley in April.