Day three - student of the week

Day three is book day. The student of the week gets to pick a book to bring in and get read. What to pick? Educational? Fairy book? Fancy Nancy? Well, Kiira chose "Make Way for Ducklings". It is a really sweet story about a family of ducks that settles in the Public Garden in Boston. I think it actually gave her an excuse to talk about her beloved cousins, Caleb, Johah and Isaac who live in Boston. Also a good time of year though since little ducklings remind me of spring.

Day two - student of the week

The day started out a bit rough. Today is "show and tell" for the student of the week. Kiira's show and tell is Rainbow Sunny, our fish. Now, most of you who follow my blog know that I am not good with fish so needless to say I was a little nervous about changing ANY part of this fish's routine such that it could end up belly up.

However, the bowl that Rainbow Sunny lives in at home was going to be too heavy for Kiira to carry so I changed her out into a smaller bowl. I put some saran wrap over the top (with an airhole) so as to prevent two catastrophies. #1 - bowl spilling and Rainbow Sunny ending up in the Tiburon sewer system and more importantly, #2 - Rainbow Sunny jumping to her death (yes, this has happened to me). I was nervous on the ride to school but I parked and walked Kiira to the classroom to make sure everyone got in safely. There were many ooo's and ahhhh's as Kiira brought her fish in and her little chest puffed up so proud to be the center of attention. And points for mom, despite feeling nervous about letting her carry her the whole way, I let go and just gave Kiira the fish. This was her moment to shine and she wanted to show her friends how grown up she was without a hovering mom. As I thought about the pros and cons of letting go I realized that I needed to put things in perspective. This is just a fish. She is 6 yrs old. This is the easy time for me. It will be when she is a teenager and faced with much more difficult decisions that I should be agonizing over how much to let go. So for now, today, I let go of my little 6 year old and let her shine. And shine she did. Rainbow Sunny made it back home just fine.

Mom - well that was a different story. I realized as I was about to go meet a client at 3 pm that I had been wearing my shirt inside out all day. Hmmm....go figure. I guess it was a blessing that I made a quick stop for coffee.

Student of the week

Today is the day Kiira has been waiting for the ENTIRE school year. She is student of the week. What does this mean you ask? Well, day one - she has a poster that she has filled out and will share with the class. On it are her favorite things to eat (broccoli), what she wishes she could do (play with a fairy), what she is good at (riding horses) and what she wants to be when she grows up (a ballerina). These are all answers that she has done herself. I chuckled at a few of them and scratched my head at some - not knowing that she truly felt she was GOOD at riding horses. That of course warmed my heart. She has also put a few pictures on her poster. One of the family and one of her riding Robin Hood. Although you hope your child holds some of the things that are important to you, also important to them, she couldn't have hit the nail on the head any closer. My two greatest pleasures in life are my family and my horses.

Quality time

This weekend Kiira and I went to see the San Francisco Symphony. We have tickets in a series that is geared towards kids. We carpooled with our friend June and her dad Gideon. I thought it was spectacular although the topic of each of the pieces centered around death. Specifically, "The Composer is Dead" based on a book by Lemony Snickett. The last piece was actually narrated by the author himself. He was quite animated if I may say so! We ended the day with a family meal at Askew with the Bernsteins - kids eat free through April! Yahoo! Considering we had more kids than adults at this meal.....

Back in the saddle

Alan and Evan came out to root us on!



Kiira and "Kisses"



Heidi and Rhett

Not that we ever left the saddle....but we had a horse show at our barn this past weekend. For living in California, I have to say, I expect a certain amount of warmness. I will say however - I DID NOT FIND IT THIS WEEKEND. I felt like I was on the flippin east coast! Good lord.

Weather aside - we all did well. Kiira did a leadline class on "Kisses" this time. The judge couldn't decide who did the best and all 6 kids got ribbons. Kiira was thrilled. Alan and Evan came to root us on. We put Kiira's warm vest on Evan it was so cold - he looked like a little pink puffball with all his coats.

Rhett and I had two of our best jumping rounds yet and won both classes. We did one hunter class (judged on Rhett) and one equitation class (judged on me). Both ever fences. It is such a feeling of accomplishment to come out of the class and feel like your hard work has paid off and you just nailed it. That's how I felt for our second class. Man, he's an AWESOME horse. I say over and over, I am so lucky!

Facebook

I finally made the plunge to facebook not long ago and hit the ground running. I reconnected with a good portion of my high school class. It has been a blast reminiscing and looking at photos of us in our hay day.

One of my friends from high school, Susie Angerer, was out in San Francisco this past weekend and Jenny and I got together with her while she was here. I can't believe it's been 20 years. Well, there ya go. We had alot of fun laughing and catching up. Here's to the next reunion class of '87! I'll make it this time.

That boy

Just when we think we are over the hurdle health wise.....Evan got the bad cold and he seems to have woken up with pink eye today. Conjunctiv-itis what's your function? (sung to the tune of "conjuction, junction what's your function?" (You 60's/70's babies out there will remember this.)