First Day of School 2012-2013

She especially hopes you will notice the new high tops and backpack.

By the way, if you are looking for a really good school backpack, check the Pottery Barn Teen catalogs or website. I used to buy the kids each a cheapo backpack that would last a year if we were lucky, but then we bought Miss A a PBTeen backpack for the start of 4th grade and that thing lasted for 3 school years! Except for being tired-looking, it would still work for another year, probably, but she wanted something more girly (the old one was camo print). We just got this one, which should take her through 9th grade.

First day of school 2011-2012

Kieffer, entering his senior year in high school. Lil Miss A, entering 6th grade.

Barry Made the Dean's List (again)

Last Day of School

This morning, they left as a junior, an 8th grader and a 2nd grader, respectively - and poof! they came home a senior, a freshman, and a 3rd grader.

I thought I'd put their first-day-of-school photo next to it but I found I didn't take one. What on earth was wrong with me?

The Secret to Avoiding Caroling Burnout

Quite by accident, I discovered the key to avoiding that state of burnout where you are ready to go ballistic if you hear one more chirpy rendition of "Santa Baby."

The answer is a two-step process:
1. Don't go shopping after the 3rd Wednesday in November.
2. Attend your local school's winter concert.

It's that simple. Avoid the mall/WalMart/grocery so you don't hear any carols until the evening you take a seat on a metal folding chair in an echoing school gymnasium and listen to young voices, some of them cracking, some of them trying too hard to sound like pop stars, and all of them lacking in breath control, as they sing "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" and "Stille Nacht."

As tears come to your eyes, you will find your heart beats a little faster at the amazing miracle of God Made Man as retold in the voices of children. (I even welled up over "The Little Drummer Boy," which I normally absolutely loathe.)

The Most Wonderful Time... of the Year

I just dropped these three off after the obligatory Camera-Mad Mommy Back-to-School Picture on the Front Steps (I wasn't the only one, Jane Meyer had her kids lined up out in front of her house, too). Our school district did some major remodeling over the summer and the buildings smell so good. I love the smell of a school that's reopening after the summer anyway, and combine that expectant sort of smell (I think it's a combination of old wood and floor polish, with a little disinfectant mixed in) with the scent of new paint, new office furniture and fresh vinyl flooring, and MMMMmmmmmMMMmmmmm it's invigorating!

I know January 1st is really the new year, but for me, the year always begins with school.

Keehawks Shirt on CafePress.com

Lil Miss A designed a Keehawks logo one day last fall. I uploaded the design to CafePress and we just had a kids' hoodie sweatshirt made up with her drawing. It arrived today and it is so cute!



The shirt can be found here.

Last Day of School

Remember this?



Well, here they are today, several inches taller, it seems:

Brought to you by the letter P

It's P Week in Little Miss A's kindergarten classroom. She brought home a worksheet the other day covered with pictures of objects. She was supposed to cross off everything that did not begin with P, and color everything that did.

She had one marked wrong, and she wasn't happy about it. She hadn't crossed off a P picture, but she hadn't colored it, either.

"But Mom!" she said. "I couldn't color THAT. Penguins are black and white!"

Little Miss A and the Choir Concert

What a little angel. Could she possibly do anything naughty? Never!

Too Hot for School

It would be no big deal in Arizona, Florida or Texas. Here, it IS a big deal. This is October 4th. Northern Iowa, too. Two blocks from the Minnesota state line. And our school closed down early because the heat index was in the dangerous range!

Some years we have snow on the ground by this point.

First Day of School

It was a day of firsts for us: Miss B started high school, Master K. started middle school and Little Miss A. started kindergarten!

Here is Little Miss A. standing next to her brand new DESK.

And here she is with the beautiful, talented and all-knowing Ms. Lubahn and a classmate.


Things are off to a good start. And Mommy only cried a little on the walk back home alone from dropping Miss A. at kindergarten.

Ahem... Just what do they think I've been doing for 25 years?

Drug running? International trading, perhaps? Marrying Donald Trump?

I just got the invitation to our 25-year high school reunion in the mail. Get this: It's at the University Club at the U of M St. Paul campus, and they are serving hors d'oevres and there is a cash bar.

The ticket price is $35.

Per person. Not per couple.

Thirty-five bucks for... what? A few weenies on toothpicks?

That's it. I'm not going.

Frank B. Kellogg High School Class of 1980 Reunion

It's really gonna happen. August 20th is the date. Though our school is no more, we are going to gather to pretend we recognize old faces, lie about how great everybody looks and dive into the food that we have been denying ourselves for two months in a last-ditch effort to lose a few pounds.

Lots of folks are MIA, so if you know any of the people on the "Find Classmates" page, please point them there.

Oh no! The school burned down!

Not really. But there was a boiler fire this morning before school, and there is a lot of smoke. The children, deeply disappointed, slogged home early to endure a spring day out of doors in the sunshine with birdies singing, rather than having fun in a windowless classroom learning stuff. Poor dears. The gloom is palpable.

It's days like these that they beg to be homeschooled.

More ice

Great. School's canceled AGAIN. Dear son got up with his alarm clock anyway to play Halo 2. Why can't I get him up with his alarm clock when there is school?

Never mind, it was a rhetorical question.