We found a prom dress!!! The whole thing wasn’t as painful as I anticipated. It took us under an hour to be in and out of the store, the dress was on the clearance rack so it was under $150, the cut, color, and fit is perfect, and it’s modest, but still super pretty on her. It was also the only one in that color so likely no one else will have that dress. The most stressful part was that I let her drive in rush hour traffic on the beltway and it was pouring down rain. Not my best decision to date haha
Toddler boy started swimming lessons. He immediately graduated to a higher class after the first lesson, and is doing so well, they said he will likely be bumped up to the next class within a couple weeks. He is going twice a week right now, and I may add a third day in to speed up the progress even more. I also have some moms to talk to during the class, which is nice because I don’t know anyone who has small kids anymore. It’s also a pretty open environment so it gives Baby Boy free range to roam around and explore and I can still keep an eye on the lessons.
We found an affordable option for Pre-K for next year that I am hoping pans out. The private, church-based programs around me are very costly and hard to get into, and the public ones are income based and I don’t meet the criteria. I was thinking I was going to have to homeschool for pre-K (which I still might have to) but my friend with quads suggested looking into the local highschools because they have programs that the teens run which is where she sent her kids. Our high school does, so we applied, and it’s basically first come-first serve, but you don’t know anything until the fall. It’s a shame that pre-K isn’t publicly available, seeing as how the kids are older in K now and they expect them to know more than when I was young.
I ordered Strawberries from a school fundraiser, which coincided with us running out of strawberry jam (I make my own) so I made 2 large batches, which should last until strawberry season starts here and we pick our own. Making homemade jam isn’t as hard as it sounds (I didn’t try it for the longest time because I thought the same thing!) and I will write up a post with a recipe soon. I had my teen take a jar in for her Ag teacher (she’s taking Floral design as an elective this semester) who ran the fundraiser, and it made his day.
Toddler boy has been seeing pictures of German Shepherds and calls them all Karma and talks about missing her. He saw one of those “dog-shaming” pictures off a tear-away calendar and carried that around all weekend saying it was Karma, and he also found another one the other day and talked about how Karma looked sad and was lost and missing. Gah! It broke my heart. I miss my giant fur-baby, too. And no, we are not getting another dog. We still have two, and honestly my heart can’t take getting attached to another dog anytime soon.
My new favorite thing Toddler Boy does is that he comes up to me and says “Mom, I love your butt so much!” And then dissolves into a fit a giggles. I don’t know where he got this except for maybe hearing the older kids say “I love your face” and he changes it to butt because butt is a funny word to him, but it always makes me laugh and smile, and I always answer with “And I love YOU so much!” Sometimes he will even be silly and rub my butt, especially if we are laying on the floor playing. I have to say, it makes me feel marginally better about my super cushion-y rear end!
This is such a fun update. I love that Toddler Boy praises your butt, that is just hilarious. Nice work on the prom dress, too! Stressful driving sucks. We have been dumped on by record amounts of snow this winter and it makes driving so stressful. Although arguably I have been forced to become a braver person than I used to be.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea to have preschools run by high school students. I'm curious to learn more about this program and how it works. Is there anything you can link to? I've never heard of such a thing but it sounds brilliant for both providing a service and helping young people get job skills.
Hi! So our particular high school doesn’t have a webpage to link to regarding this program. What I can tell you is that the highschools in my particular county (I can’t speak for other counties cause I have no idea what they do) have Votech “Completer” programs where your course selections lead up to a certain track, so that when you graduate you actually graduate with basic skills and often a certificate in a specific field. Our school offers everything from electrical, plumbing, and auto maintenance to healthcare related fields and seemingly everything in between. My best guess is that the students who provide the instruction to the Pre-K students are working towards a career in early childhood education. Running these programs will go in their resumes as experience, and sometimes often can go toward the Service Learning (Community Service) hours that are required by every student to graduate. There is a nominal fee to have your pre-Knchild enrolled, and that goes toward snacks and supplies. The waitlist is in order of application, but priority is given to faculty children, and any child who is more at risk (birth defects, multiples, etc). They have a playground on the grounds of the high school. The school runs yearlong, but you can op for 1/2 a year as well, 4 days a week for 2.5 hours a day. It is for 4 years olds. There is a teacher who is in charge of the program and works with the students, but the basic instruction and care is given from the high schoolers. My daughter’s friend is one of the students who runs the pre-K so I got most of my info from her. My friend with quads used the program at a different school for her kids and was very pleased with it. I think it will be good for my son because he is used to being around and looking up to his older siblings and does very well with them and learning from them, so I trying j it would be a natural for for him. If this pans out and as I learn more, I will be sure to post it.
DeleteI didn't realize you were in the same boat I was with Pre-K! It makes me so mad that there are states with no public pre-k. The county I work in has some but they are mostly in unsavory areas and you can't attend if you aren't zoned for the school. Our current governor awarded more money for grants for pre-k programs this year. Alabama ranks #1 in pre-k, but I've been saying its because there aren't many public pre-k's, so those who can't afford them don't send their kids! They say pre-k is so very important in a childs development. FX that in a year our school will have a pre-k program and will be awarded grant money. It would be such a blessing to not pay daycare fees for Roxanna! After school care is so much cheaper than daycare!
ReplyDeleteAwesome about the prom dress! I wish my dress shopping was that quick LOL