Family Reunion

What a busy summer we have been having -- I have been completely absorbed in planning a big, 3-day reunion for my husband's side of the family.  I have been planning and organizing, and he has been (basically) doing my bidding -- poor guy!  He has informed me that he is not doing another landscaping or painting project for the rest of the summer!  He has painted the fence, stained the deck, worked on landscaping in the front and the back yard -- you name it!  I have shopped and cleaned and decorated and crafted and informed (family members with updates on Facebook and on e-mail) and scheduled, and on and on... 

This side of the family gets together for a big reunion every four years -- we volunteered to do this four years ago -- naturally, we pretty much waited until this spring to start doing projects to prepare for it...  Way to go, us!  ;)  We had close to 60 people attend, traveling mostly from Long Island, but we also had family come in from Connecticut, South Carolina and California.  We are fairly close to Niagara Falls, so a large group went to see the Falls last Thursday and then on Friday, we had 21 people that met up to go to our local zoo -- that was a lot of fun!  Later in the afternoon, a group of people went to a local golf course and played 18 holes of golf, and in the evening, everyone met up at our house and we had dinner catered from a great Italian restaurant -- the food was a big hit!  For dessert we served make-your-own ice cream sundaes -- that was my mother-in-law's idea.  By the time I had finished planning this, that and the other thing, I hit a wall and could not come up with another idea!  The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool and the adults enjoyed visiting with relatives they had not seen in quite some time.


On Saturday, we headed down to the beach for the day -- we had rented the upstairs room in the beach's bathhouse, which was a fantastic location!  For $500 it came with tables and chairs, a kitchen, 2 bathrooms, an elevator which was wonderful for bringing everything in and out, and it has a huge, covered balcony that overlooks the beach and the lake.  We lucked out with a gorgeous day -- clear, blue skies, the water was open for swimming, cool breeze off the water, and the beach was not crowded!  For lunch we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, had a pasta salad, chips, and watermelon.  Lots of people hung out on the beach, swam, some played beach volleyball, some sat on the balcony and looked through photo albums and chatted with relatives.  We bought tickets for the kids to ride the beautiful 1905 Dentzel carousel - I think they each rode at least three times!  (I even went on once!)  In the evening, we had dinner catered again, this time by a local BBQ place -- another big hit!  (Good thing -- by this time we had accumulated SO many leftovers...)  We had a dj who played music and offered karaoke.  I also talked him into taking a picture from the balcony of the whole crowd of us standing down on the beach -- he took one shot on my camera and it turned out great -- everyone is visible, everyone is smiling -- amazing!  (I'm a photographer's daughter, so I'm all about the photo opps!  Couldn't miss the opportunity to have a picture with everyone in it!)

One special highlight of the evening was our showing a dvd that our 11-year-old daughter made.  She is becoming the Steven Spielberg of "Windows Movie Maker" -- she makes videos ALL the time, and they are really great!  This one was 3 songs long -- "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts, "Everybody" by Ingrid Michaelson, and "Theme from New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra which is our family's theme song!  We begged, borrowed and stole (off of Facebook...) pictures of everyone in the family and she set them to music.  We played the video at the party on Saturday night (borrowed my dad's laptop, LCD projector, and movie screen -- thanks, Dad!!) and as a "lovely parting gift" we handed out a copy of the dvd to each family attending the reunion.  Everyone loved it -- my sister-in-law, Jenny, was sobbing because she was so touched by it, and she went up to our girl (who rarely ever cries) and told her how proud she was of her -- our girl burst out into uncontrollable sobs!  (Happy, I'm sure!)  At the end of the night we finished up with our family tradition -- everyone joining in a big circle to do a kick-line to "New York, New York!"  Talk about your big finishes!  ;)

On Sunday morning, a bunch of the family (in addition to the 15 staying at our house!) came over for breakfast and fond farewells before traveling home.  Those staying with us stayed until Monday, and we spent Sunday floating in the pool and trying to unwind from the whirlwind weekend!  It was a short work-week for me (Weds and Thurs), but I'm still trying to recuperate from all of the work we've done over the past weeks (months...).  The family seemed to have a good time -- my mother-in-law seemed to have a wonderful time, and in spite of all of the work and stress, our girls had the opportunity to connect with different generations of their family and participate in some long-standing family traditions.  That makes it all worthwhile!  (And I can say that honestly, now that my feet have finally stopped hurting...)  ;)  

Happy 6th Birthday!

Happy 6th birthday to my sweet, beautiful, funny girl!  Mommy and Daddy and Sissy love you so much!  We can't even remember what life was like before you came along! 

Chasing Away Your Child's Nightmares

Over the past week my little one started having nightmares - four nights in a row, which is unusual for her!  A week ago Friday, there was a fire near our house, which we saw on our way home.  We were never in any danger, which I explained to her, and the firefighters did a wonderful job of putting it out before it got too out of control, but I think it was weighing on her mind.  On the third night, she woke up and climbed into bed with my husband and me, and on the fourth night when I heard her crying, I woke up and went in to sleep with her.  On Day Five, when it was bedtime, I tried something new - in addition to telling her that she was safe and sound in her cozy house, and that Mommy, Daddy and her big sister were all there with her - I told her that I was going to throw away all of her her bad dreams.  She was lying in bed, and I leaned over her and picked at the air around her head - seemingly grabbing her bad dreams and tossing them over my shoulder.  She loved it and giggled, but I was very serious in my task, and you know what?  No nightmares that night!  So, I did it again the next night - again, no nightmares!! 

My elder daughter went through a period of time where she seemed to be having quite a few nightmares and Grandpa and Gramby gave her a dream-catcher that she has had hanging on her bed for years.  She believes that it helps her, and it certainly seems to be doing it's job - she rarely ever has nightmares!  I was talking about this at work recently with some friends who are moms.  One of them said that her daughter went on the internet and found a Bible quote about God watching over her, which she posted near her bed.  She had been having nightmares and it has really helped her.

Whatever the method, in my experience, if you can reinforce to your child that they are safe from harm - whether through a strong power of suggestion or a strong sense of faith - the "monsters" will vanish and sleep will be restored to the kingdom!  

Chalkboard Reminders

How cute is this??  It's actually a chalkboard cheese tray that my  friend Jeanine thoughtfully brought me when she came to a party at our house.  I absolutely love it, and will use it when I entertain, but we really don't entertain as often as we used to -- so I came up with an alternative every day use for it!  I had an extra plate holder (about $4 from Hobby Lobby) and I have it on the kitchen counter near the sink.  It is GREAT for writing notes on -- like yesterday's, "Last lesson!  Don't forget your clarinet!"  And things like that...  It will also come in handy to leave notes for my dad when he's watching the girls -- I'm always looking for paper and a pen to leave him reminders.  And when I want to use it for a party, I can wash it and it will be all ready!

I LOVE things like this -- multi-purpose, and super stylish!

Reaching Our Goals for Kindergarten

This time last year, my husband and I were agonizing over whether to follow our gut instinct and send our youngest onto kindergarten as planned, or to follow the advice of her preschool teacher and have her repeat the 4’s class and start kindergarten a year late. After talking to everyone from our family doctor, to an eye doctor (we discovered she needed glasses, which may have been a big factor in her ability to learn at the pace of the other preschoolers), to fellow parents, to the principal at the elementary school – we decided to push ahead and send her to kindergarten. Her preschool teacher had told us that she was great socially, but her big concern was our daughter’s academic abilities particularly reading, writing, and her artwork, and she warned us that we would likely regret sending her to kindergarten (“the best gift you can give her is to give her more time”). She also told us that (at least in our district) you cannot repeat kindergarten, so if she did not do well, she could not repeat the grade – she said we’d either have to take her out of school and move her to a Catholic school for another year of kindergarten, and then move her back to public school for 1^stgrade, or just keep moving her along and she would likely struggle to keep up. We had no problem in supporting our girl whichever way we decided to go, but we faced our own struggle to make the decision that would be right for her.

 

After speaking with the principal at the elementary school, we felt confident about sending her on to kindergarten. We were fortunate that our eldest daughter had been through the school (K – 3) and we were comfortable with the staff and the school. We were upfront with the principal and the kindergarten teacher about the preschool teacher’s concerns. Right from the beginning of the year (early October) we were in touch with the kindergarten teacher to make sure that our girl was getting the help that she needed. Within a couple of months, we had a parent / teacher conference and we were told that our daughter qualified for extra reading help, which we were thrilled about! We have kept up with the homework packets that come home each month, my husband takes the girls to the library on his days off, we take turns reading to my youngest, and my eldest daughter loves to try and play school with her younger sister. She has shown a lot of growth this year in her reading and writing, in spite of having her original kindergarten teacher leave and getting a new teacher, mid-year (who fortunately is fantastic!).

This past Sunday, at my end of the year Daisy Girl Scout picnic, I was talking to one of the mothers whose daughter was in preschool and is now in kindergarten with my little one. She told me that she helps with the kindergarten reading groups each week and she said my daughter is doing great in her reading group! There are four kids and she said out of the four of them, my daughter is always the first one with the answer, does great with rhyming words, and she is very focused on getting her work done. She said she is just doing so well!  She also said basically that she knows what we went through this time last year and she could just cry at the thought of what a waste it would have been for our daughter if we had decided to keep her back a year.  It was so great to hear!  I was almost in tears when she told me – what a struggle that was last year!!  

It can be overwhelming sometimes to make decisions that will potentially have a big effect on your child’s life. We struggled with the thought of her repeating the 4’s class and doing all of the same projects and field trips a second year in a row (our eldest went there, so we knew it would be the same!) – what if she was so bored that she was miserable in school? We didn’t want to put her into that mindset. How would she feel when she was a year older than the other kids in her class (and a foot taller!)? How would she feel to be the same age as her cousins and a year behind them in school? She may not have noticed some of these things now, but they may present problems for her down the road. And deciding to send her to kindergarten was tough too – what if the preschool teacher was right and it was a struggle for her? We were prepared to do whatever was necessary – switching to a private school for a second year of kindergarten, a summer session with a tutor to get her caught up for 1^st grade, etc.  Our goal was to make sure she had the tools she needed to make it through kindergarten and to be prepared for first grade -- whether that meant one or two years of kindergarten!

The best advice I can give any parent in a similar situation is to have confidence in your child, advocate for what they need to be successful, be prepared to give them the support that they need, do your research and trust your instincts. And forgive yourself if you find out down the road that maybe what you decided wasn’t the right choice – we can’t predict the future, there are so many factors in a decision like this and you do the best that you can and support your child along the way. 

One of her new kindergarten teacher's class assignments back in January, was to ask the students to write their goal for the school year and to draw a picture.  Our sweet girl wrote (phonetically) that she wanted to swing by herself and she drew a picture of a swing set and herself on a swing.  

Turns out we all accomplished our goals for kindergarten this year!!   We could not be more proud of our girl!