Who Need Matching?

Today was "Mismatch Day" at school. The kids were allowed to be out of uniform in whatever mismatched way they could imagine. Some wore pajamas and dressy clothes together. Some wore clothes from two different seasons together. Some mixed opposite patterns and colors. Some wore their clothes completelyb inside out. And when they all came marching in at 8am, some teachers wore sunglasses!

It was a fun day (they had a great magic show in the morning and then a school-wide dance party with freeze dance competitions in the afternoon.

You can see one of our priests there in the back in a purple and white Cat In the Hat hat. He's a big favorite of the the kids' and served as the Announcer for the event.

Where there's a will there's a way!

Wednesday is the day that the 8th grade at school sells ice cream as a fundraiser. I was eating my lunch in the faculty room when the music teacher and one of Molly's classroom teachers came in laughing like crazy.

They said the kindergarten didn't get their ice cream until last and by then the lunch period was nearly over. Lunch ends with a prayer and the kids know that they are to fold their hands and say the prayer - no fidgeting with lunchboxes or walking around. Well it seems they both happened to be looking at Molly as she uwrapped her ice cream sandwich at the exact moment prayer was called. My little imp glaced right, glanced left and turned the ice cream bar vertically to fit between her palms as she folded them to pray. Then the prayer started . . .
"We give You thanks (lick) Almighty God, (lick) for all your benefits (lick) . . ."
At each pause in the prayer, she was sneaking a taste!!

That's my girl, always looking to satisfy herself before anything. She is a crazy little gal. Lord knows what I have in store with her!

It's Christmas!

Or at least it felt like Christmas on Saturday. We were able to sneak an extra celebration into our Boston trip since our wonderful family planned the Coleman Family Christmas for a time when some of us "away" cousins were able to attend.

Just some of the gazillion Coleman Great-grandchildren

What is there to say when these groups represent just a portion of the whole family? Brenna and Molly spent the afternoon eating, playing games and seeing Santa with about 50 of their extended cousins (and I was able to see all 13 of my first cousins and their children. It's been several years since we were all together like that!)

The "cousins" - with the odd spouse here and there!

I can't thank my aunts and uncles (well, some of them are cousins and great aunts and such but who can get technical when your family overlaps generations and has numbers like this!) for putting the party together and making it all happen for us. Beautiful memories . . .

The "aunts and uncles"

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the cutest bunch of Kindergarten Native Americans I've ever seen! (Molly's second row 3rd from right) There was much feasting and general funniness from this group. They are so adorable and I love sneaking into their classroom. (Okay you can't see it in the picture but their Indian names are on their headbands - Warrior Rabbit? Yup, beware the fierce bunnies! Lazy Camel? Sure, you know - the camels that are indiginous to North America. Molly herself is Quiet Fuzzy Bear. "Fuzzy" is a common word in nearly all native languages evidently. Her best buddy is Sparkle Moon Princess. Again, time-worn naming traditions being honored! Oh and don't forget the little boy who glued the front of his vest together and colored a row of buttons on it. Didn't you know that Native American peoples wore suits?)

We left school and schlepped ourselves to Boston -arriving at 1:30 am. Ugh! But we are all assembed now and ready for the BIG feast tomorrow with all the family. What's a 10 hour ride when you have that to look forward to!

Happy Turkey Day to all!!

Father Daughter Dance

Our school's Fathers' Club held their first annual Father Daughter Dance tonight. I was lucky enough to get roped into taking photos so I got to infiltrate the event. A great time was had by all and there were nearly 150 dolled-up little ladies enjoying the night with their daddies.

Of course I was a bit partial to 2 of them! They had so much fun dressing up and dancing the night away (mostly with their friends!!)

Report Cards and Conferences

You know things are going well when not one but two teachers tell you they would like to clone your daughter to create their class!

Molly has her teachers completely snowed into thinking she's an angel. Actually the teacher is completely on to her but loves her nonetheless. Miss Molly is doing well and there are no behavior issues or anything. Talk about a boring conference! :) We mostly laughed about what a mother hen she is. Molly can be a ring-leader one minute and a total follower the next. The teacher joked that if she ever wants to turn the class over, she could just let Molly teach. I think part of it is two of the boys have been with Molly for 3 years now and she's practically a wife to them. If they get in trouble, Molly will make eye contact with the teacher and roll her eyes as if to say "Can you believe they don't know better?" We've been assured she's no trouble at all though.

We met with Brenna's teacher later in the day and she pretty much shrugged as well. Brenna's report card grades were excellent, her conduct and effort scores were top-notch and her teacher couldn't think of anything we could suggest working on. She said she initially worried because Brenna started off very quiet and timid but quickly got her groove and now particpates well and isn't hesitant . This is when I'm so glad Brenna stays with the same group of kids each year. It's one more thing that is comfortable so, while she may start out shy with a new teacher, it quickly passes and she's ready to roll. Her teacher this year is a very young, fun-loving girl (I can call her that because I'm more than a dozen years older than she is!) and the kids just adore her. She's a great role-model for them and they relate well to her but still very much respect her position. It is Catholic school after all!

So overall just good reports all around for 1st quarter. Let's hope it continues!!

Visitor Day

God gave me little girls so I could spend my days in dance classes. It's so much fun to watch them dance!

My Girls

And a few reminders of years past . . .

Such talent!

One of Molly's teachers has been out for 2 days on a trip. Today she told me she was happy that Miss Gallagher was coming back tomorrow but she hoped her singing trip was fun. Now being in the school office makes me privy to a lot of information - one piece being the details of Miss Gallagher's trip - which does not involve singing at all. She's actually with her friends at a tv talk show taping. Hmmm . . . time to figure out what's going on in Molly's 5 year old brain . . .

Me: Why do you say Miss Gallagher is on a singing trip?
Molly: Because she told us that's what she was doing.
Me: What exactly did she tell you?
Molly: That she was going to sing opera. You know - sing -ing op-er-a! (she croons in her best opera-singing voice)
Me: (okay I didn't say anything because I was too busy laughing out loud!)

You see Miss Gallagher isn't away singing opera. She's away SEEING OPRAH!!!

Since Molly has no idea who Oprah is and obviously has never even heard her name, she heard the sentence "I'm going to see Oprah" as "I'm going to sing opera."

I just love this girl!!

Brenna's 8 year old pictures

I can't get over how big she is getting before my eyes!