Hamilton...according to Adelie

 My kids have all been interested in the hit musical "Hamilton" for the past several years, and with the recent release of it on Disney + that interest has turned into more of an obsession.  I have the soundtrack in the van and we have listened to it over and over and over again.  My kids know all their favorite tracks and sing along with all their favorite songs.  Because there are inappropriate words and some adult themes in the musical, I skip over parts of songs or full songs if they contain inappropriate material for my young kids.  The other day we were driving in the car and we had this conversation:

Adelie:  "We can't listen to some songs in Hamilton because they have bad words."

Me:  "That's true.  I skip the songs that have inappropriate things."

Adelie:  "I think I know what the bad words are.  Probably the D-word and the S-word."

Me:  (feeling a little shocked that my 7 year old knows what these words are) "Can you tell me what the D-word and the S-word are?"

Adelie:  "You know what they are.  Dumb and stupid."

I love childhood innocence and want to preserve this in my children for as long as possible.

With the current Hamilton obsession in our house, the kids have been singing Hamilton songs, making Hamilton characters out of perler beads, and drawing pictures and writing stories about Hamilton.  The other day, Adelie wrote a book about the Schuyler sisters, using princess stickers to illustrate her book.  I loved her pretty accurate depiction of this portion of the story and will share it here (with Adelie's phonetic spelling and grammar).

"The Skiler (Schuyler) Sisters by Adelie Cate"

im alasu (Eliza) w'er dancing in a ball then aliksander walcs in.  anjeluka (Angelica) likes Alegsander but he likes me we get marryd.  aledsander has to go to a meeting.  He likes a nother girl I'm sad I bern his love letters he rote me.  He comes home and ses sorry!  the End

Back to School

 It has been 5 months since the kids have been in school.  Two months of e-learning followed by 3 months of summer is a long time to be away from the classroom.  And although I had some anxiety and reservations about the return to school, my kids were so excited and ready to be back with friends and teachers.  

Staley was very ready to return to school.  Fourth grade has so much going for it--drama club, safety patrol, news team, the living museum.  Staley has been looking forward to 4th grade since she started at Davenport.  She was excited to have Mrs. Mickna as her teacher as we have heard really good things about her.  Mrs. Mickna always does a science fair each year with her class which Staley is very excited about.  Like last year, Staley experienced some disappointment when none of her closest friends were in her same class.  This was amplified when her 3 very best friends all ended up in one class together without Staley.  There were some tears, but Staley is confident and adaptable.  I reminded her that each year of school has brought her a new good friend from her class that she hadn't known before.  She was still excited for the school year and was pleased on the first day when she had one friend that she had hoped might be in her class.  Here's hoping for a new good friend and a great school year!

Mrs. Mickna and Staley at Meet the Teacher Night

Not only did Staley have to pick out her first day of school outfit and earrings...

...she also had to pick out her first day of school mask.

Adelie thrives on being with others, so she was most looking forward to getting to spend time with friends.  She had hoped to have Staley's second grade teacher (Mrs. King), but was excited about Mrs. Khattar when she found out a few of her good friends would be in her class with her.

Adelie and Mrs. Khattar

And of course she chose a mermaid shirt for her first day.

Shockingly, instead of her Ariel mask, she went with Moana for the first day of school.

Briggs starting Kindergarten was the most stressful for me during these uncertain times, but he couldn't have been more excited.  And when he found out that he got Mrs. Doty for his teacher, he was THRILLED.  Since both girls also had her, Briggs is very familiar with Mrs. doty, her classroom, and her classroom pets.  That familiarity was so nice for him, as well as for me.  He also has a large number of kids from his preschool in his class, including a couple of his good friends.  I signed him up to start the year doing half-day Kindergarten, but with his enthusiasm, we might have to switch to full days sooner rather than later.

Briggs and Mrs. Doty

My big Kindergartener, ready for his first day of school.

Although Dava is not in his class this year, Keiko is.

This school year may look a little different.  There are masks and social distancing and assigned seats in the cafeteria.  There is earlier dismissal time and closed drinking fountains and new birthday treat rules.  There are smaller class sizes and increased e-learning preparation.  But there are many things that are still the same.  There are great teachers who are excited about the year and ready to love and teach my kids.  There are old friends to see again and new friends to make.  There is an excitement about learning (especially for my big and little), and the anticipation of fun things throughout the school year.  We are so blessed by our school district, and I'm so hopeful that we will have a safe, healthy, and in-person school year.

Haircuts

 As we approach the return to school next week, it was time for our annual school haircut trip.  Adelie decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to donate the hair that she had worked so hard to grow long.  She never wavered, so her hair appointment was extra special as she had 10" cut off to donate.

Before...

...and after, holding the locks of hair she is sending off.

Staley's hair had gotten long too.  She determined that she wanted short hair again for 4th grade, but she'll grow it long for middle school.  (Always my girl with a plan.)  So for her 4th grade haircut, Staley left about 4-5" of hair on the salon floor as well.

Both girls have fresh new hair-dos for a fresh new school year.  Love these cute cuts and these sweet girls!!

Show Stoppers

Most summer activities were cancelled, but my girls were so pleased that Stage Kids was still able to meet.  The girls spent the summer working on a production called 'Show Stoppers', which was a collection of scenes and songs from a variety of different Broadway musicals, ranging from 'Oklahoma' to 'Hamilton.'  The Eureka cast combined with Bloomington and Washington casts to put on this show.

The girls enjoyed spending time with the small group of 14 kids in the Eureka cast all summer, but had a great time meeting new friends when all three casts came together for the final production.

The ticket sales were extremely limited due to decreased capacity in the theater, but the girls were excited that their grandparents could come see them perform.  Both girls were in the ensemble for lots of songs including songs from Hairspray, Oklahoma, Matilda, Hair, Wizard of Oz, Newsies, and High School Musical.

They were most excited about their individual songs.  Staley sang a solo as Baby June from Gypsy called "Let Me Entertain You" and then Adelie and Staley performed a duet from Gypsy called "If Mama was Married."  They both did great and loved their moment(s) in the spotlight.

With so many things cancelled this summer, I loved that my girls had their opportunity to spend time with friends doing something they love.

I sure do love my show stoppers!!

Michigan... Again

Back in January we signed Staley up to go to Miracle Camp with a few of her friends from church.  When COVID hit and things began getting cancelled, we were sure that sleep-away camp would be one of those things.  It wasn't!  Although they had to make some changes to how they operated, camp was still on.  Miracle Camp is in Michigan, and I had reservations about dropping off Staley and then being 4 hours away from her during her first camp experience.  Since Zach is still working from home, we decided to just take Staley to camp and then spend a few days as a family at the beach so we could be near to camp...and enjoy a few more beach days this summer.

All 4 girls were so excited about heading off to camp.  These are some of Staley's closest friends and they are the 4 girls in Sunday School together at church.

Since we were going to be staying in Michigan, we offered to drive the girls up and back from camp.  They were an easy, agreeable group and the ride went by quickly.

We got them dropped off and settled in with their sweet counselors before driving the 40 minutes away to our Airbnb.

The 4 girls got to be in a cabin with 3 other girls and 2 counselors.  They got one room of the cabin while the 3 other girls were in another room.  Due to social distancing, they just spent all their days and did all their activities as a cabin without interacting with the other cabins.  Staley loved that she got to do everything with her friends, and she loved her counselors. 

While Staley was staying in a cabin enjoying time we friends, we were staying in this cute little Airbnb and enjoying time as a family (minus one).

Our house had a big backyard with this little decorative pond.  Adelie and Briggs spent literally hours watching the little frogs that lived in the pond.  It was their favorite past time.

While Staley was having fun playing games and going rock climbing and going into the woods for team building adventures...

...we were chasing sea gulls and playing in a (shockingly pleasant) Lake Michigan...

...and watching Michigan sunsets.

While Staley was going to chapel and growing in her relationship with God...

...we were enjoying God's creation...

...and taking advantage of some beautiful beach days that He gave us.

While Staley was swimming and eating and having fun with friends...

...we were working...

...and eating...

...and having fun with each other.

We had a wonderful little get-away with some relaxation, some beach time, and a chance to spend some much-needed time away from home.

Hooray for camp!  Hooray for a new summer experience where Staley could meet new people, try new things, and grow in her independence and her faith.  And hooray for camp giving us an excuse to escape for awhile too.

Good-bye, July!

Our summer of COVID has remained slightly different from previous summers.  Instead of going on fun outings and filling our days with trips to the zoo, library, parks, playgrounds, and our other summer stomping grounds, we've primarily stayed home.  We've limited our activities.  We've enjoyed some outdoor play dates with friends, but have more often just filled our days enjoying each other.  I continue to feel so blessed that my kids truly enjoy playing together since playing together has filled most of our summer days.

Although Staley does enjoy playing outside, doing crafts, and playing with her siblings, reading has filled many of her at-home summer hours.

And while Staley has been busy reading, Adelie and Briggs spend hours (and hours and hours) making things out of paper and tape and objects they find in our recycling bins.  Clothes for dolls?  Check.  Paper swimming pools?  Check.  Stuffed animals and pillows?  Check.  Complete box houses full of furniture for the peas that they rescued from the garden?  Check.  These were the empty tape rolls I found in the art drawer of the playroom the other day.  And let's not even talk about the amount of computer paper that finds it way into the recycling bin at the end of each day.

All three kids got to take swimming lessons at Miss Lisa's house again this summer.  Briggs and Staley both did one week of lessons while Adelie did two.  (Here Briggs is working on some of his Kindergarten worksheets while he waits for Adelie to be done with her lesson.)  Staley was in the advanced class, working on her endurance and improving her freestyle and breast stroke.  Adelie mastered her freestyle, swimming the length of the pool without stopping by the end of week 2.  And Briggs is now able to do his front float and back float.  With all the pools closed, they all enjoyed getting a chance to spend time in the pool with Miss Lisa.

We have enjoyed other opportunities for water fun.  We have gone swimming in Aunt Bonnie's above ground pool a few times, enjoyed a friend's pond a few times, and, of course, spent time in our blow up pool on the deck.  Briggs got to meet up with a few of his preschool friends at the pond one day.

Adelie is a little fish and loved pond swimming with friends.

Staley conquered her fears and jumped off the platform into the pond two times.  Staley always impresses me with her perseverance in doing things even when they scare her.

We have had a few outdoor play dates with friends.

Even though my kids are quite content just playing at home together, it has been nice for them to resume opportunities to be with their friends as well.

We really enjoyed having my friend, Christie, and her girls home from Maryland for a few weeks.  We got together for multiple play dates, including this outdoor movie theater set up for a viewing of the DVD of the girls' Moana play.

Most of the play dates involved the kids practicing, costuming, and performing original plays.  I love that our kids have gotten to be such good friends, even only seeing each other a few times each year.  And I love that their imaginations rule the day when they are together.

Our summer has been different than most other summers.  We've stayed home more.  We've gotten together with friends less.  We've had less activities to attend and less outings to go on.  And although there are some feelings of loss, we have also embraced our family time and been grateful for those things we have done.  Walking to Uncle Bob's for ice cream, family movie nights, reading together, playing games, harvesting in the garden...it may not be like every other summer, but it is still a summer.  We are healthy.  We are together.  And we are grateful.