First Day of School!

Jia is a big second grader now. She started yesterday. Boy, do we all love her school. She has the same teacher this year, and could not be more excited to return.  In fact, Jia told us summer vacation was too long and she was ready to get back to school. She missed her teacher and her friends. How wonderful.

Before she started school, we attended her open house. When we visited with the librarian, she told us that not only had Jia read more fairy tales than any other kid in the school last year (as was noted on her report card), she said that Jia read more fairy tales than any other kid EVER! She then told Jia that she had ordered a book especially for her. It was for the fairy tale section, and she told us she'd set it aside so Jia can check it out once school starts. How thoughtful is that!

On the morning of her first day, we had a special breakfast of cinnamon roll snails (got the idea here), sprinkle milk, mini quiches, and fruit. It was painfully early, but the smiles were worth it.

 

 

Jia is ready to go!

This is how she feels about returning to school!

Loving her new bag. Hand me downs rock!

At school:

After school, Jia said the day was great! She even had time to finish her entire lunch. (Students had an average of 12 minutes for lunch last year and the school system received many complaints about hungry kids and unfinished lunches.) They extended her lunch time by five minutes - yippee!

That night, we had one of her favorites for dinner (southwestern egg rolls) and Strawberry Shortcake for dessert (got the idea here)!

 

Congrats Jia on a great first day!

Up North

At the end of July, we spent a few days up north in Bemidji. Land of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

After we arrived, we swam in the lake.

And played in the sand.

We went out to dinner for my birthday.

 

The next day we went to Itasca State Park. Here the girls are learning about the topography of the Mississippi, which starts in the park.

 

Here they are walking across its headwaters!

Playing in the fresh and clean Mississippi was definitely the highlight of the trip.

The park was beautiful.

The following day we went hiking in Lake Bemidji State Park.

On our hike, we searched for, and were excited to find, carnivorous pitcher plants!

We spent more time swimming, of course.

We were also excited about the city's dragon boat festival!

We caught some practice runs during our picnic.

 

Overall, a great little getaway!

It's electric!

Thanks for the comments on Jia's party. We had a great time planning and executing it.

In in effort to catch up, I'll post some pictures from an earlier outing this summer. We visited the Bakken Museum with some friends. The museum is all about electricity and has terrific interactive displays.

Jia played Mindball with her friend, Katie. I played with Katie's mom, Susie. The winner is the one who can relax her mind the most (think zen), which moves the ball toward the other person. Jia and I both totally lost. Like mother like daughter.

Willa checks out her heart beats per minute:

Exploring the pretty gardens:

Hanging out with baby Adie in the library:

Making electronic waves with her hand:

Sticking magnets on the television - don't try this at home, kids!

Meeting Jimmy Neutron!

 

The favorite part of everyone's day was going to Ben Franklin's Electricity Party and working with circuits! They grabbed power sources, motors or bulbs, wire and...

Presto! Here Willa is making a light bulb glow.

Here they're making a fan blow!

A delicious end to the day:

Jia's Magical 7th Birthday!

Jia turned 7 (!) on the 11th. She received some family gifts before her party.

 

Her party was on her birthday. She wanted a Harry Potter party. We found a lot of great ideas on the internet, and came up with some of our own.

We sent out notices to the children indicating that they had been accepted at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were invited to attend a pre-term birthday celebration for the newest head girl, Jia.

 
The day of the party, Jia dressed as a Hogwarts student, and Willa was Hedwig the owl.

The students entered via Platform 9 3/4.

The event was led by Professor Snape (Joe) and Professor McGonagall (me). We explained that Snape's hair was blue because a dragon had sneezed on him, and that he wanted revenge.

 

We then did this mind-reading magic trick. It was especially fun because the kids could not figure out how it was done.

 After, we had a tour of Diagon Alley.

The kids enjoyed exploring, and one of the sticky eyeballs ended up on the ceiling. A Nimbus 2000 came to the rescue.

At Diagon Alley, we told Professor Snape not to touch the snake in the cauldron, but he did anyway. Then he was petrified! I had to take over his Potions class and we made a Mandrake Restorative Draught with mandrake root, dandelion root, blue phoenix tears and yellow dragon sweat.  It fizzed bright green when it was ready.

Mixing their potions:

  

 

Snape drank it (or pretended to) and then he was revived! The group then set out on a journey to find the dragon who turned his hair blue. They followed a set of clues which led them around the park.

But they only found this large egg. It was filled with gold Galleons and silver Sickles and indicated they should go shopping at Honeydukes!

The kids filled their bags with Dumbledore's Lemon Drops, Pirate Choppers, Giggles, Bewitched Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and Jelly Slugs.

Then it was time for a Quidditch match with a bewitched bludger! The kids took turns hitting it with a Nimbus 2000.

After the bludger pinata, it was time to eat. They sat in the Great Hall.

 

They also received their Magic Fortune Telling Drinks. The clear cups were filled with ice. When we poured in Sprite, their drinks changed to red, blue, green or yellow!

 

Jia's turned blue.

The kids did a toast with their colorful drinks:

Then Professor Trelawney (my sweet friend Jeremi) did palm reading. She predicted such things as many trips to the candy store, being lucky in love and meeting a famous person. She was fantastic and the kids excitedly told me their fortunes and then kept going back for more!

We had cake:

 

There was some loud cheering of "Happy Birthday!"

The kids received troll snot party favors to take home:

Overall, it was such a fun event. The kids had a great time and Jia was thrilled to be surrounded by her friends on her special day.