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Adlani’s First Field Trip

I’m officially a grown-up! I was recently allowed to chaperone Adlani’s preschool class’ first field trip to go apple-picking at Honey Pot Hill. Have any of you ridden on a school bus lately?! It’s like a roller coaster! There have been some important safety advancements – color-coded seatbelts, padded seat backs instead of the exposed metal framing that my old school bus had, although they still have the exact same windows that are hard to open and end up crooked and jammed. Adlani loved the bus and sat quietly for the whole trip. His teachers have obviously gotten to know him pretty well because he was the only kid that I was assigned to (there were about 150 kids on the trip). After arriving and waiting fairly patiently for our tractor and wagon to arrive, we piled on and I clandestinely told the driver to make it fast and bumpy…the hayride, that is. He had us out in the orchard in record time, where we had a short lesson on apple pollination and proper picking technique. Each kid and chaperone was allowed to fill a 1/4-peck bag, and eat as many as we could stuff in our mouths before the tractor came back. The apples were delicious! After a slightly more leisurely ride back to the parking lot we went to visit the farm animals and the pumpkin patch, and then reluctantly sat down for a picnic lunch. Adlani passed out about 10 minutes after boarding the bus to go home. Aliya will be going on the same field trip tomorrow but I’m all chaperoned-out.
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Ready for the Prom?

She may be ready…I’m not!!! Aliya went to her friend Reece’s birthday party at Snip-Its last weekend. For some reason she looked much more grown up this year than she did when she and Victoria both had their parties there last year. The bottom half of the bright pink hoochie-mama ensemble she chose for both parties last year was missing, so she went with the navy velvet prom gown. I guess that’s better than going bottomless. She has become quite adept at “the pose”, and chastised me because I took this picture before she had her toe pointed. So sorry.

One of the party attendees seemed a little tall for a 6-year-old but the girls welcomed her with open arms. Her performance during the fashion show drew rave reviews, although I think the girls are still trying to figure out what “Future Occupation: Pole Dancer” means.

Happy Birthday Reecey!!

Legoland

The two smallest Fonsecas came over last night for the first monthly Kid-Swap Date Night. Karen and Nelson went out for dinner while we hung with the kiddies, and in October it will be our turn. We feasted on Papa Gino’s and then spent quite a while with the Legos. The girls were trying to build an animal hospital complete with barfing horses (with sound effects) while the boys had their own (unknown) agendas. The end result looked nothing like an animal hospital but it kept them occupied until it was time for hide-n-seek. I was the champion hider, since it took at least 10 minutes for them to find me and in the end Ben had to look too. For some reason (Ben), the girls thought that when they found me I was supposed to pay them. I don’t remember any game of hide-n-seek ending with a cash payout but since Ben made the deal, he paid them $1 each. I guess they play a little different in Morocco.

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On deck for today…over the range microwave replacement, Reece’s birthday party at Snip-Its, 2 pecan pies, and breakfast at Driss’ house.

Mr. Clean

When I met Karen 5 years ago, she told me that she would sometimes go to the Stop & Shop parking lot to drink coffee. Since I only had one kid at the time I thought that was a little odd, but I loved her despite her weird habits. A few days ago I ended up in my car with Adlani sleeping in his car seat and 20 extra minutes before Aliya’s bus arrived. I joyfully drove at a high rate of speed to the Dairy Queen drive-thru, sped on to the bus stop, and sat there for 15 blissful minutes – just me and my strawberry Blizzard. At some point I realized that I have become the strange lady who sits in the parking lot just to be alone.

A few days later I was headed to the mall for Norah’s 1-year photo shoot. Norah fell asleep while I was doing an errand, so it was just me and the wild man, Adlani. It was too early to go to Portrait Simple so I drove home, ran inside while the kids were strapped into their seats with the doors locked (bad Mommy), and grabbed my cereal so I could sit in the car in the driveway and eat breakfast. A few minutes later Norah started to wake up so I quickly threw the car in gear and drove to the mall. Once there, I realized that there were at least 50 construction workers to entertain Adlani, so I pulled into an empty spot and continued with my breakfast.

As I sat there scraping the last of my cereal from the 2-cup measuring cup I had chosen for my cereal bowl (it’s actually very handy – a handle, a place for your spoon to rest, and it’s big enough to avoid spills), I realized that a security guard who looked quite a bit like Mr. Clean was standing outside my window (apparently my good fortune at finding an empty space had to do with the construction-vehicle-only parking signs). As the window slid down he said, “Hi…What can I do for you?” Me: “Well, my floors just don’t have the same shine and fresh scent since you’ve stopped coming around.”

OK…I didn’t really say that but as I sat there in my junk-filled car, wearing yesterday’s clothes and hair, no makeup, eating cereal out of a measuring cup, and facing Mr. Clean, it was either say something funny or just throw my pitiful self on his mercy. Since my brain is shot and I’m not as quick as I once was, I chose the latter. Me: “I’m letting my kid watch the construction guys while I eat my cereal. Can I have 5 minutes?” Mr. Clean: “No problem (you poor pathetic loser).”