The Jones Girls

I just can’t stand unreliable babysitters.   Sabrina called me 2 hours before she was supposed to be here and CANCELLED.   She was supposed to babysit so I could take off to go to Savannah’s Kindy Back to School night.    I couldn’t bring any of the kids to this, it was parents only.   I tell you it is so hard to find a good and reliable babysitter.    Just a couple of weeks ago a babysitter cancelled on me 2 hours before I was supposed to be somewhere and I couldn’t bring any kids with me so I had to cancel the event.    That babysitter emailed telling me that I hurt her feelings and gave me a lame excse.  I emailed her back and just said…I am hurt too…Take Care.    Ugh…I am so disappointed in the new generation of kids growing up and how they handle responsibility.    Definitely is very concerning to me.

I couldn’t find anyone with such short notice.  So I called my very last resort, our next door neighbor Sid.  He said he would but that I needed to get back home right away.  Thank God for Sid!!

In the classroom I sat at Savannah’s desk.  She sits close to the front of class.  I check ed out her little name plate and what was inside her desk.  It was so fun to get acquainted with my litle girl’s school life!!   

On the Savannah’s desk I noticed someting…She had drawn me a portrait of herself and there was a little note that said the drawing was for me to keep as a keepsake of her fist Kindy self portrait drawing.  I teared up.   How precious…

I listened to her teacher, Mrs. Tarbell, go over the curriculum and expectations of her Kindy students and what we as parents can do to help our children do a successful job in school.

I wrote a little note and put it in Savannah’s pencil box so tomorrow morning when she opens it up she will see mommy’s special love note to her.  I drew a fish and wrote Love, Mommy and then wrote the word fish on the bottom of the fish.  It was done in orange crayon (her favorite color…like Nemo!!).

Afterwards I walked around and soaked in the whole classroom.   There are little stations for groups of kids to participate in.   A reading room which has a bunch of soft pillows, oversize stuffed animals comfy chairs – what a great little mini library for the kids.   There is a listening station with microphones and the children sit around a table and listen to the headphones and follow the reader with the books.  This will help the children learn to pace when reading.

I learned that the children will have library day every Wednesday and get to check out their own book.   Every Friday they have Music day and go to choir in the multi purpose room.

The goal that Savvy and her classmates have to reach by mid November is to count to 10 and know numbers up to 30, know upper and lower case letters by sight, sound, out of order and to be able to put the letters in order.  I have already been doing that with Savvy with flash cards so she is right on track – yay!!

The only negative that I don’t like about the school is drop off in the morning.  They want me to drop Savannah off and let her find her way to a line amongst 800 other kids and not get lost.  That scares the dickens out of her and me.  I walk her every morning to make sure she feels safe and to reassure myself she is not lost nor scared.

I planned and coordinated a tour for my La Habra Moms Club with the La Habra Heights Fire Station.

I made homemade spaghetti and meatballs for dinner for the fire station.  I also brought all of our baked goodies that we made last Friday.  The firemen were so excited!!

I took the girls and we met up everybody at 3:45pm today.    They had a really neat presentation of how they put on a firefighter uniform from the boots to the jacket to the air tank,etc.    We learned some facts about their outfits…like the jackets weigh over 20 pounds and with the total gear it is close to 50 pounds!!   They have rescue alarms that beep louder and louder if a fireman is in trouble and needs to be rescued in a fire.    Then all of the kdis got to try on the jackets and the hats.  They had a ball.

All of the kids got to tour the firetrucks and sit inside.    They got to flash the lights and the sirens.     My girls thought it was a blast.

The fireman gave each kid a goody back with crayons, coloring books, stickers and each kid got their own fireman’s hat.  So cool!!

I met a really nice girl at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in La Habra.   She goes to Biola University and does part time tutoring and babysitting.    

I interviewd her and we worked out a very reasonable rate that I can (barely) afford.  She comes Mon. 12pm-1pm and Wed. 12pm-1pm and she will be doing Preschool tutoring.   

So today was their first lesson with Britteny and it went really well.  Their attention span is about 15 minutes so they can sit at the table for 15 minutes and learn then they turn into squirmy wormies and they need to get up and play.  Then about 15 minutes later they are back at the table learning again.

It is a little chaotic and I help Britteny.    It is working out well for the triplets and for me.

Today at 9am we had a moment of silence which is really hard to do at my house…LOL!

Then I baked some cookies and a huge cookie the size of a pizza and made some homemade Reese’s Peanut butter squares for our local La Habra Heights Firemen.  We will be visiting the fire station and getting a full tour next Tuesday.

To our loved ones and fellow brothers and sisters who were fallen victims of 9/11/01.   Eight years ago it was Hell on Earth in the United States of America.  We shall never forget what happened to our homeland.  You are not forgotten and you are especially remembered by all of us today. 

With love, respect and courage….

This day will happen again in 100 years,,,when I am gone, dead and buried.   So I guess it makes the day of all 9’s pretty special.

The news mentioned today that thousands of Chinese couples got married today.  Apparently in the Chinese culture 9 is an extremely lucky number.

I get everyone up at 7am and breakfast is over at about 7:25am.  Then I make Savannah is dressed, I do her hair, she brushes her teeth and I have her snack all put together.    I quickly get the triplets dressed and we are out of the house by about 8:15am.

I have to pack all 4 girls into the minivan before taking my drive to Savannah’s school.     The drive is only about 5 minutes from our house.  What takes the longest is waiting in line with all of the other cars.  If you can try to envision hundreds of cars dropping off their kids in one spot and doing it in about 15 minutes.  It is complete crappy chaos.   

I think they need to bring the buses back.    But the school district says there is not enough money in the budget.  How in the world can they have buses one day a few years ago and no longer do it now?  Sounds like mismanagement of tax dollars by the school district…that is a whole other subject and topic that really pisses me off…

Savannah has no clue where she is supposed to go.  So I had to park the car at drop off, leave the triplets strapped in their car seats in the car, and walk Savannah into the school and help her in line.   I just felt I had no choice.  I didn’t want Savannah getting lost, or worse yet, scared.  

When I got back to the minivan, I got yelled at by the school secretary telling me I was in a no parking zone, load and unload only.  I was ready to pull my hair off.    It is times like this when I wish I had some extra help,,,grandma around or somebody to watch the triplets for a few minutes while I take Savannah to school.

It is HELL going to that school in the morning.  I HATE it.  It is enough to make we want to home school.    It sucks!!

Picking up was ok.   The teacher told me Savannah has to learn to raise her hand when she wants to talk and not talk over the teacher.    I have this same problem at home, which is typical 5 year old behavior that needs to be refined and worked on.

She wore the cutest little outfit for her first day of school.   It was a dress with an oxford white shirt with a pink vest and pleated plaid skirt.   She wore white tights with patent leather  Mary Jane shoes.      Call me biased, but she was the best dressed little girl in Kindergarten…LOL!!

We drove to school and got there at 8:15am.   Class starts at 8:30am, but I wanted to be a little early due to parking issues.    They do not offer the kids to ride buses in our school district so all of the parents drive their kids or walk their kids to school.    It was utter and complete chaos watching 800 kids on arrive at school driven in hundreds of cars.    I am so glad that I got there early, as we still had to park almost 2 blocks away from the school.

I took a lot of pictures of Savannah her first day.   She had her snack in the brown paper bag and we dropped off our $60+ worth of supplies in her classroom.

At 8:30am the class bell rang and the Kindy teacher announced that class was beginning and to scram!!    The principal invited us for a meet and greet coffee in the cafeteria so I decided to go.  I was so teary eyed as I watched my first born baby walk with confidence and reassurance and make her first big steps as a big girl into her Kindergarten Classroom.   I didn’t let Savannah see me cry.   I cried when the door shut.  Then the principal wrapped her arms around me and walked me to the cafeteria where we all visited and had an introduction from the Principal and the PTA.

I picked up Savannah at 11:50am and the triplets were in the car with me.   Picking up wasn’t so stressful as it was only about20 cars picking up our kids.

One day down, three hundred days to go….

Congratulations our sweet darling for starting Kindergarten.   Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you for starting a new huge and important chapter in your educational life.