Just A Little Franny Boogie

First Day Of Kindergarten

Big day for Hanky. It went well from what we can tell, though he doesn't really want to talk about it in much detail. It started out a little frazzled for me because we ended up running a little late. I didn't allow enough time for Henry to brush his teeth, forgetting how much he can dilly dally in the bathroom. I still thought we were OK on time until we hit the traffic lineup to get into school. My car showing that it was completely out of gas did not help my state of mind. It took forever to get in, and we walked into his classroom a few minutes late, which was no big deal, but I felt stupid. All the frazzledness kind of prevented me from getting too emotional about it all. I was nervous about stupid little procedural things, like if I was supposed to walk him all the way to his room or not, and how picking him up would work exactly. I'd gotten a little wistful about it the night before, so maybe I got it out of my system. I was mostly just nervous for him, hoping it would go fine and that the Spanish immersion thing doesn't throw him for a loop too much at the beginning.

His school day is only 2.5 hours long, so after Franny and I went to Target and watched Sesame Street, it was pretty much already time to pick him up. He told me had a good day and that he didn't use any of his school supplies. Trying to piece together his day, I know that the first thing he did was color this:

Then his teacher, Senorita Morsch, did a lesson that involved a calendar (perhaps going through the names of the days of the week), and drew a one on the board and said, "uno." Then they lined up, washed their hands, and played on the playground. I think a playground assistant went through the rules with them, because he said there are a lot of rules on the playground. And he can't remember what he did between the playground and me coming to get him. I asked if he had fun, and he said, "I wouldn't exactly call it fun, but it was OK."

He had a bit of homework in which he had to reflect on his first day by filling in some blanks. Here are his answers, in bold:

Today was my first day of school. I felt great. I wore gray pants and a colorful, plaid button-up. My dad brought me to school. My teachers name is Srta Morsch. My friend _____ is in my class (he doesn't know anybody in his class yet). The first thing we did was color. Then we watched a screen. The part of the day I liked the best was when we played on the playground but I did not like standing up. Tomorrow I hope we will play on the playground again.

August Vacations

Sunday August 18: All four of us drove up to Big Sandy Lake to a townhouse Dean & Val rented for them, Renae's fam, Phil & Emily, and us. While Laura & Renae prepared dinner, the rest of us headed down to the beach for some swimming, wading, and fun in the sand.

After the kids were in bed, the adults played card games.

Monday, August 19: For Dean's birthday, Phil, Laura, and I took him golfing in the morning, where we had a great time. Laura even got her first birdie! Most of the adults then checked out a winery, then it was time for some fishing on the dock.

After dinner and bedtime for the kids, it was time for more games for the adults.

Tuesday, August 20: Laura, Dean, and Benjamin rented a boat and spent a long morning on the lake fishing. Renae, Malcolm, Ruby, Franny, Henry, and me headed to the beach for some more swimming. After the fishers got back, Dean took Benjamin, Malcolm, Henry, and me for a quick spin on the boat. After a lazy afternoon, we took a stroll around the Lodge, had some dinner, and played some more card games.

Wednesday, August 21: Our family had a 5:00 AM wake-up in order to hit the road and get Henry and me to the airport for our flight to Kansas City where for part two of our vacation. After saying goodbye to the ladies, we had an easy flight, and were greeted by Grammy and Great-Granddaddy at the airport. We went out to lunch in Liberty, then visited Uncle Tom at his house before heading to Grammy's house.

Thursday, August 22: This was our day to spend with Jenny and her girls before their family headed out of town on a vacation of their own. We played at the playground for a bit before going to the Lakewood beach, where the kids had a blast.

 We hung out at Grammy's during the afternoon before Poppy and Rob joined us for dinner.

Friday, August 23: We headed to our old KC house so I could mow the yard in the morning while H and Grammy played at Holmes Park. Then we headed to our favorite coffee shop in the world, The Roasterie, which I say has the best coffee in the world and H says has the best Italian sodas. Then we met Poppy for lunch. In the afternoon we tried and failed to find Henry some new rollerblades.

Saturday, August 24: Poppy and Henry had a fun morning at the Paradise Park arcade. I headed to Oklahoma Joe's to pick up a delicious lunch for us all. Grammy and Henry headed back to the beach for more swimming, then we all headed to Kauffman Stadium to watch the Royals lose. At least they looked good in their Monarchs throwback uniforms. Henry loved the outfield play area as usual, but was also happy to sit in his seat longer than he ever had been before.

Sunday, August 25: We checked out the new(ish) aquarium at Crown Center and took a stroll over to Union Station. That evening friends Dan and Flo Rosenfield came over for dinner and to deliver the DVD of my Jackie Robinson presentation that Dan had kindly prepared. 

Monday, August 26: We enjoyed a morning at Deanna Rose with John, Sarah, and kids before picking up a U-Haul and not enjoy loading up the remaining junk from our KC house in some wicked heat.

Tuesday, August 27: Hanky and I had an uneventful drive home, where we very happy to see Franny & Laura after a week apart. See how excited he was?