Solar Eclipse

 The solar eclipse was on August 21.  It was a Monday and the girls' school was going to watch it, however it was too far south to be in the path of totality.  We are serious about science, so obviously this was no bueno.  Of course we do not plan far enough in advance to get tickets to a viewing party somewhere, but this time our procrastination paid off.  Because we weren't tied to any particular place we were free to go anywhere!  Our plan was to go north, but when it was cloudy Monday morning we headed east instead.  We kept a close eye on the weather as we drove across the state.  Luckily the girls are good with road trips and adventures.  Most KC people we knew stopped in Sedalia or even Jeff City, but Steve was too worried about the clouds.  We ended up in Portland, MO right on the Katy Trail and the Missouri River.

We brought along our bikes to ride while we were waiting for the eclipse...and Olive learned to ride without training wheels!  By "learned" I mean "decided to do it."  Because she just got on and started riding!  She had tried a few times over the summer and declared it too hard and refused to try anymore.  So we didn't push it.  If Olive wants to do something she will, if she doesn't...she won't.

Olive's bike looks tiny because we lowered the seat to make it easier to put her feet down.  We've raised it back up now that she can bike.

Olive always makes sure to dress for the occasion.  Of course she needed to wear a space shirt today.  She explained the skirt was yellow for the corona we would see during the eclipse.  We watched a lot of youtube videos to prepare so she knew all about it!

We had 2 1/2 minutes of totality when we could take our glasses off.

This was the river in totality.  When it got dark the cicadas started making lots of noise.

Then we went on our first family bike ride with everyone biking!  It was also the first time for Hannah on the Katy Trail.  The girls are looking at the turkey and chickens on the side of the trail.  The rooster started crowing when the sun came out.

Eclipse shadows on the trail.

Although we ended up driving more than halfway across the state, it was worth it.  Olive was super excited to learn how to ride her bike on such a special day.  And weeks later when I asked both girls about their favorite summer memory, the both said eclipse day.

First Day of School

August 11 was the first day of school.  It was a half-day on a Friday again.  For the life of me I don't understand why our district does it that way.  It was the first time both girls started school on the same day.

third grade

first grade

Hannah has been looking forward to 3rd grade for awhile because they get to take their ipads home instead of leaving them at school!  She also has flexible seating and she can sit wherever she wants each day.  The bad news is she has only one recess and because of construction it will take place in the parking lot. :(  She has 7 girls and 11 boys in her room.  Two of the girls were in her class last year (one is her best friend) and the other girls have never been in class with her before.

Olive's teacher was Hannah's first grade teacher!  She also has 7 girls and 11 boys in her class, and only 1 girl that was in her kindergarten class with her (also her best friend).

After the first day Hannah said, "It felt good to be back at school and be with my friends!"  Olive was super excited and talked non-stop about everything that went on that day.  I love that they love school!

Random Summer Pictures

After a very busy spring, it was nice to have an lazy and unscheduled summer.  Hannah took tennis lessons.  Both girls took swimming lessons.  And we took our longest family vacation to date to the Black Hills.  Other than that, we had nothing planned.  It is very relaxing to not be tied to a schedule!  In our free time we did "homeschool" that was the same country curriculum I taught my 2nd graders.  We read over a hundred books about Brazil, USA, and China this summer!  I taught my students about Canada, but the girls opted for USA instead and we did that around the 4th of July so it worked out perfectly.  We'll probably take a break on the homeschool now that they are back in real school.  Here are some of the other random things we did this summer.

Prairie Village Art Fair

3D movie on national parks to get us excited about our vacation

We went to our usual kid events in June.  This year we saw a puppet show and live bird show.

Hannah is finally tall enough to ride the tandem bike with Steve!  She has been waiting years for this.  They have taken a few bike rides together.  The longest was 1.5 hours!

Hannah went ice skating for the first time at a friend's birthday party!  She has been looking forward to this for years, too.

fun at a new park

building huge block cities

Our board game of the summer was Carcasonne.  It is so much fun now that the girls are old enough to play real games with us!  When Steve worked from home he could play with us after lunch.

We cleaned their rooms (a major undertaking!) and reorganized closets to hang their shirts instead of fold them.  This is Hannah's.

A Friday night concert in Franklin Park was even more awesome with balloons.  A pink sword for Hannah and a purple tiger for Olive.

science experiments

In July it was too hot to do anything but swim.  So we did.

We went to this park at the beginning of the summer and Olive only climbed about 2 feet off the ground before she wanted to come down.  At the end of summer she climbed up here with no fear!

And Olive got freckles this summer!

Zoo

Our last adventure of the summer was a trip to the KC Zoo.

Olive is tall enough to ride without an adult!  These two thought it was super cool to ride without mom.  Wasn't it just a minute ago I was riding holding a baby on my lap and a toddler on my side?

Swimming Lessons

Although we didn't make much progress in swimming lessons last year, the girls really wanted to go back to the same pool.  So we gave it one more shot.  And it was much better!  Although we did the same session as last year, it was a little less crowded.  Only 6 lessons going at once instead of 8.  Olive had the maximum class size of 6, but there were only 3 kids in Hannah's class.  

So this was the first year Olive was in real swimming lessons.  The past years she was in the preschool class because...she wasn't in school.  They did things like blow bubbles, put their ears in the water to "listen to fish," use kickboards, and float with the teacher holding them.  That was all in her comfort zone.  But this year she aged out of preschool and she had to take "first wave," which is jumping in deep water, swimming with your head underwater, treading, and back floating.  She did NOT want to do these things.  And when Olive doesn't want to do something...watch out!  She spent the first lesson screaming, crying, and refusing to do anything her teacher asked her to do.  So we went home and had a long conversation about being scared, trying new things, emotions vs. behaviors, and what good behavior in lessons looks like.  And we talked through some strategies she could try when she feels scared (deep breaths, saying "I can do this!)  I knew how Olive felt because I was always scared to put my head underwater...and consequently never learned.  I didn't want that for her.  But more importantly than learning to swim, I wanted her to learn some life lessons about trying new things, controlling her behavior, etc.  And the next day she did it!  She apologized to her teacher for her behavior and then she used her strategies to calm herself down and at least TRY new things in the pool.  It wasn't perfect, but she TRIED.  And she was so proud of herself, I've never seen her smile so big!  I cried watching her because it is pretty amazing to watch your kid push through her fear be so proud.  It was a transformative experience for her.  Swimming lessons were worth it just for that....but she also learned to swim!  She went from refusing to even let me hold her in a backfloat position, to backfloating across the pool by herself in deep water!  She learned to tread.  Not just for 30 seconds to pass her level, but for 1 minute!  She put her head underwater for the first time without holding her nose!  She became a swimmer!

And great things happened for Hannah, too.  Her class was so small they went through all the requirements for third wave...and fourth wave, too!  She passed two swimming levels in one session!  She was already a swimmer, but she learned the breaststroke, sidestroke, and flip turns.  She swam laps across the pool for the first time!  

Hannah is with her class in the front and Olive is in the deep water in the back.

The last day they get free time to do slides or diving boards.

Olive's first time going down the slide by herself!

Two proud girls.  Olive passed first wave and Hannah passed fourth wave.  (They have candy in their mouths.)