Your Favorite Passion

Hello, everyone! Hello, everyone! Ha! Ha! Happy Repeat Day! Happy Repeat Day! LOL Ok, I KNOW I'm silly. But you still love me, right!? And it really is Repeat Day. Promise. Anyway, I hope you all are having a great week. Mine's been pretty good so far. This is the last week of school for Big R before summer vacation. His last week as a 1st grader. Then he'll be on to 2nd and my "baby" will be on to kindergarten. Yesterday I took MoMo to her school for a kindergarten screening. They just want to see what the kids know and they'll make up the classes and all. She was very excited to go to her "new school." Our appointment wasn't until 1:30pm and ALL morning long she kept telling me to "C'mon, get your shoes on so we can GO!" On the way there she chatted nonstop about her "old school." When we were in SD (and she was 2 0r 3) she went to a toddler class at the park and rec center. She still remembers all the details! How they had play doh and a water table and got snacks and apple juice. I was pretty amazed at all the detail she remembers. Anyway, they took the kids back individually yesterday for the screening and parents waited in the cafeteria. As soon as she came back she had the biggest grin on her face and immediately she told me, " I did SOOOOOOOO good!" And she really did. Before we left they went over the results with me. WARNING: BLATANT MOMMY BRAGGING AHEAD! Feel free to skip on ahead if you wish to avoid it. LOL Keep in mind that she's not 5 yet. She'll turn 5 the day before the cutoff date so she'll be the youngest in her class. They test different areas like how well she can copy a figure (triangle, plus sign, etc) with a pencil, the teacher built different towers of blocks for her to copy ( 3 blocks on the bottom level, 2 blocks on the next, one on the top, forming a pyramid, etc) and problem solving (the teacher would say something like, "If you were thirsty, what would you do?" She would have to reply something to the effect of, "get a drink.") She tested at or above the age 5 level for all of them except for letters where she still tested right at the age 4 level. On a few of them, like the block building, she tested at like an age 7-8 level. So, she's all ready and excited to start kindergarten. Of course, we have summer first which will be packed with all sorts of things this year. It will be a busy summer for us. Camping in June. Grandma Camp in July. Possibly the reunion in July as well. Visiting the other grandma and grandpa in August. Hopefully SeaWorld in August and I'm trying to talk DH into Disneyland, too. This might be the last year we can get discounts for those since it looks like DH probably will be getting a new job soon. More on that later when things are more concrete. Whew! Like I said, a busy summer.
Oh, and I got my first coupon for a FREE Mars candy bar yesterday in the mail! If you haven't heard on Fridays through September, I believe, Mars is giving away 250,000 free candy bars. Go to www.realchocolate.com/ on Friday to get yours. And if you've got a Sonic near you TONIGHT from 8pm till midnight you can go and get a FREE rootbeer float! I love free stuff!
So, today I'm feeling very grateful that we have food to feed our kids. Yesterday a couple of girls that live down the street were over to play. It was getting to be dinnertime and I began to make dinner. DH asked one of the girls what sorts of things they ate for dinner and the girl said they don't have dinner because there wasn't enough money left after bills to buy food. I guess maybe they eat breakfast and lunch through the school's free lunch program. Anyway, we were a bit shocked to hear that and we immediately invited the girls to stay for dinner. Not that it was the fanciest meal (SOS/hamburger gravy with mashed potatoes) but it was food. I just can't imagine not being able to feed my kids dinner. I'm so grateful that we have the means to buy food to eat. We're not rich but I am able to be a stay at home mom and raise our kids and we still have enough (plenty and then some) to eat. This has been weighing on my mind since yesterday. I'm all too aware of how fortunate we are and I'm just so grateful.
Well, I didn't really mean to throw that last part in there when I began this post but there it is. Anyway, I guess that's about all for now. Don't forget your rootbeer float tonight!