I hope the new week is a big improvement over the one that just ended. Nothing terrible happened but a lot of little things added up. And it wasn't all bad:
Friday was the end of the marking period.
Doodle's language arts/social studies teacher seems to have woken up about a week ago and realized that she needed a number of ongoing projects to end so she could have something to grade. The result was a phenomenal amount of homework all week, including the front page of a newspaper about themselves that Doodle slaved over last weekend (her lead story was about getting an autograph at the
Mets vs. Nationals game; she even staged a photo of the autographed ball, carefully positioning a blue and orange background). Most of the week was taken over by the completion of a poetry anthology with 14 poems, reading homework (her reading group just finished Number the Stars, a great book), and a social studies assignment about the Declaration of Independence. I expect Doodle will ace the poetry assignment; her teacher thinks she should be a poet. Fortunately I won't be seeing this teacher anytime soon; if I did, I probably would feel compelled to suggest that she be more organized so everything isn't due at the same time. Plus, Doodle had two days of standardized testing last week. Only 1 more week until a well-earned spring break.
On Thursday I spent many hours trying to secure White House Easter Egg Roll tickets online. I failed even though I was able to select a time and number of tickets at least four times; each time I got booted from the system when I entered a verification code. Very frustrating. I took Doodle to the egg roll in 2001 (
pre 9-11), and I really want Tootle to have this experience. I'm haunted by an image of an adult Tootle looking at our many photo albums and wondering why there are no photos of her at the White House event. Doodle and I had planned to camp out to make sure that we got tickets this year (last year our household was down with the flu and the year before I discovered that arriving by 1 a.m. wasn't early enough) but someone had the perhaps better on paper than in reality idea of making tickets available online.
I spent Thursday evening caulking the bathtub after having water land on my head in the kitchen on Wednesday evening as Doodle took a shower. I raced up the steps to get Doodle to turn off the shower and managed to scare her a bit. During the hours I spent caulking, I realized how old the tile is looking, so I may be redoing a bathroom fairly soon.
I celebrated my 47
th birthday. Doodle made me a card to which she affixed a Dove chocolate. The text read: "We're solid like chocolate." That's my girl. Tootle made me a card with plain and 3-D shapes, something that she has been studying in math class. I guess she thinks I need a refresher course.
Doodle went camping with her Girl Scout troop this weekend. I couldn't believe the amount of gear for one night away. She had a great time. While Doodle was away, Tootle and I cleaned out our den/playroom. Tootle is a terrific helper and very willingly crawled under the daybed so we could discover what we had hidden there (she found our
Whac a Mole and Pretty, Pretty Princess games). This morning she woke up with a sore throat, which I suspected was post-nasal drip from exposure to dust. However, when she began to feel feverish this afternoon, my theory was blown away. Sigh. We may be going to the doctor in the morning since strep throat seems to be making the rounds.
Today brought sunshine and warmth back into our lives, and we celebrated with, or should I say the girls tolerated, a photo shoot under her neighbor's magnificant magnolia tree. After a few days of coddling, Tootle has recovered from her virus. Doodle came home triumphant today with scores of 100 on all her major projects that were turned in last week.
Tootle and the Hope Diamond
An exhibit on dirt and digging
Doodle met up with friends in the park after dinner for a run. The girls are participating in the Girls on the Run program, which encourages tween girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running. The program will end with a 5K run later this spring so Doodle and friends are getting serious about training. One of Doodle's GOTR coaches is the wife of her soccer coach so now she's being coached by both adults in this active/fitness-minded family. Tootle and I hung out on the playground while Doodle ran laps. I probably should dust off my running shoes and join the runners.
Meet Lego, the robot dog that Tootle created for a math project. Her class had to make a robot using various plane and three dimensional shapes. When Tootle indicated that she wanted to make a dog, on a lark I googled "robot dog craft" and found a tin can Martha Stewart project. We used the Martha project as a model but didn't drill nearly as many holes or use all the nuts and bolts that she called for (although the eyes are hex nuts filled with sparkly little pom poms). We also used the Martha-suggested extension spring for a tail but couldn't find caster wheels small enough to use for the legs/feet. Tootle decided to make the legs out of Legos, which eventually led to naming the robot in honor of the building blocks. The collar is a Tinker Toy and both the ears and tongue are made of pipe cleaners and felt.
