for the love of LEGO

In recent months, I have become obsessed with LEGO. And by obsessed, I mean I even sleep with a constructed LEGO set at night. so cuddly. 

When it came time to prepare for our trip to the northwest, I showed great initiative and packed everything I would need. And please note that I got far more use out of what I packed than anything else that was packed on my behalf. 

When I wasn't outside enjoying the lake or the ocean or the mountains or the park or the zoo or my new soccer ball, I could be found on someone's floor playing LEGO. I even acquired a few new sets during my trip. (Thanks Mike.)

Keeping LEGO sets sorted out can make one a bit neurotic but I have (mostly) done an excellent job of keeping it all in order. When I returned from my trip, the little boy who fed my cats / checked mail / watered plants had scattered thousands of LEGO pieces throughout the house . . . in no order. I have been struggling to deal with the aftermath.

We've also been trying to get ready for school. Just as we thought we had made it through the summer, we learned that my new campus won't be ready on time so the start of school is delayed but we can talk about that later since there might be another delay coming. Before my trip, I went to the doctor for my annual check up. I am still the healthiest child in the world! The only concern was my eyes. I failed a vision screening but they couldn't be sure if I really couldn't see the chart or if I was just misidentifying the objects; I called the crescent moon a worm and the circle looked like a dot. So I was sent to a pediatric eye doctor.

And I need glasses.

After enduring an hour of tests, my eyes were dilated for even more testing. And I seemed a bit impaired for the rest of the day. (Look closely at how huge my pupils are in the photo above. I had to wear sunglasses all day. It's a good thing I had my Mariners sunglasses with me when I went to my appointment!) I was well enough to collect my free cookie from the bakery next door and then request a trip to the LEGO store.

After much indecision, I finally chose the LEGO Friends first aid jungle bike. I know that there was a lot of uproar about the Friends collection when it first came out. This is my first set from that collection. As a LEGO expert, I can tell you that the "girl" LEGO is considerably harder than the "boy" LEGO.

The most annoying thing that happened though was that a LEGO store employee (what do they call them? block experts? something like that) tried to talk me out of my purchase. I was standing in line giddily clutching my LEGO Friends set and he approached me and tried to get me to buy a Star Wars set instead and gave me a full demonstration with guns and shooting effects. I wanted my Friends set because it had a monkey and a banana. A LEGO banana! What's better than that?

swim camp

Swim camp might be the best invention ever. I spent the entire week in the pool. dream come true.

At the end of each day when my mom would pick me up, I would grumble that "I want to stay in the water" or "I want to keep having fun" even though I was exhausted beyond imagine.

We did a lot of serious work but we also had fun. I made a dinosaur in the craft room (and I don't even usually like doing art!). One of my favorite parts about the week was having credit at the concession so I could buy my own treat. The first day I had a cinnamon roll. Then ring pop, ring pop, gummy candy, and I ended the week with a ring pop. If you wonder why I ate so much candy, it's only because the cinnamon roll on Monday spoiled my appetite for lunch and I didn't want to make that mistake twice.

In my group, the goal was to perfect freestyle and backstroke. At the demonstration for parents yesterday, I was able to show off the butterfly that I have started to learn. Yes, you read that correctly: I am five and I am learning butterfly. I had the incredible fortune of being assigned to the owner/headcoach of the camp.

Sadly, the facility where I did my swim camp is about to close forever. It opened 16 years ago and they have taught countless children to love swimming and diving, and they have trained a handful of award-winning coaches. Why, then, would they close if they are so successful? The facility sits on prime real estate and Westlake clearly needs an excess of multi-million dollar mansions much more than the world needs excellent swimmers.

So, if any of my loyal readers have an extra billion dollars or so and want to save a gem of a swimming facility, the developers haven't closed the deal just yet. You have until the end of August . . .

party of the century

I received a coveted invitation to join a small group of children to celebrate my dear friend's fifth birthday. We have been anticipating this party ever since the dad mentioned that his goal this summer is to master fusion cuisine. The party was yesterday afternoon (and it carried on well into the evening) and it was better than we could have ever imagined. There was a water slide and we all enjoyed it until a storm unexpectedly broke and we retreated indoors to play Lego and blocks and all things fun. And their house . . . it might just be our dream house . . . in our dream neighborhood.

The pinata was popular. One of the older girls broke it open after we all took many turns, spilling out balls, rubber stamps, lollipops, and helicopters.

And the cake. This beautiful cake was homemade by my friend's dad. It was constructed of three 9x13 cakes. The limbs, head, and tail were vanilla and the body was chocolate. It had the fluffiest frosting I've ever tasted. 

Although I haven't even told the story yet of my fun fifth birthday party, I am already looking ahead to next year. (All of the children are.) I want this exact party that my friend had!

let's talk about kindergarten

Since I am now five, people always ask me about kindergarten. ohhhh you must be about to start kindergarten. No, I am not. Since I attend Montessori, I have the privilege of being in a mixed-age primary classroom for three years so I have the opportunity to know my guides, my peers, and to master my work. Next school year, I will move into a leadership role and I am most excited about serving snacks to the little ones.  

Here is a photo of me bidding goodbye to my guide on the last day of school. I was so ready for a break from her - and school in general. 

This week, my school is moving from its crowded home of 23 years to a new 12-acre campus . . . with a top-notch outdoor education program. (Have I mentioned that before?) When I return to school, a mere two months from now, this is what my life will look like. And I have finally been invited to be a lunch child!

tornado weather

On Thursday when we went to bed the evening was still pleasant, if not miserably hot. And then came this to interrupt my mom's game of Words with Friends. Good thing she happened to be playing a game.

I was carted downstairs because the last place you want to be is upstairs during a tornado. I briefly woke up to ask what was going on. By then, the storm was fierce and loud and the winds were 80mph. All I knew was maybe a tornado. After an hour+ of being half awake but mostly asleep, the winds suddenly stopped but it was so eerie that it was impossible to know if the storm really had passed or if something worse was brewing. 

The next morning was beautiful and sunny. I was heartbroken to see that my grove of massive oak trees was mostly destroyed. The saddest part was seeing the tree with the crushed bird nest in it. In recent days, I have realized just how much shade those trees provided in the afternoon and they will really be missed this summer. 

We also lost part of our roof. Again. I had the honor of collecting the roof tiles that scattered across our yard. 

Our neighborhood suffered a lot of damage. A shed was blown into the middle of the road. (What?) Many yards lost fences. So many beautiful trees are torn apart.

My assessment: tornadoes are way too scary but interesting.
(And ours wasn't even a real tornado. Close enough though.)

five

On Tuesday, I celebrated my last day of being four with my first ever trip to Homeslice. (Clarification: Homeslice is closed on Tuesdays but thankfully their More Homeslice is open to peddle the best slices in the world.) I have long been addicted to Homeslice but have never had the privilege of going there. All I can say is wow. And it exceeded all expectations. 

Some fun plans were tentatively made for my birthday but everything fell by the wayside and I built Lego for 12 hours or so. (Best birthday ever.) I took a break only to go to Verdes for dinner and to play a bit of football on their back lawn which really isn't much of a lawn right now. It has become tradition to celebrate my birthday at Verdes with a nutritionally unbalanced meal of too much queso, glass after glass of lemonade, and a sundae that is bigger and more elaborate each year.

On our way out, I met a sweet older couple who immediately adored me as I began my story of how yesterday I was four but then I woke up and I was automatically five. I showed them my Lego monstertruck that I had brought along for the car ride to Verdes. I charmed them further (the woman raved about how much she loved loved loved my personality) and they regretted missing my birthday and not getting me a gift since it all just happened automatically. So my new friends gave me some money as long as I promised to go shopping for a birthday gift on behalf of them. I have no way to thank them.

birthday circle: a saga

Not only is this the last week of school but, tomorrow, it is finally my turn for a birthday circle. I am the last of the year. The birthday circles started out fairly lowkey and we would celebrate our friends with treats of fruit kebabs, juice popsicles, or popcorn but somewhere along the way, one-upmanship (amongst the children, not the parents) kicked in. I was going to bring the best treat ever: pink cakepops from Starbucks. This had been my plan for months. and months. and months. 

And then my best friend, the girl I am going to marry, ruined everything (by her mother's admission). They baked/brought giant, and I mean GIANT, cookies with chocolate chips and M&Ms. They were fantastic. We all loved them and we are still talking about it! Then the birthday circle rules were promptly and drastically rewritten. 

There went my cakepop plan. We then decided to order our cakepops from Whole Foods (made without refined sugar and, sadly, not pink) but they don't make them anymore. We visited three different Whole Foods stores and some other fancy bakeries trying to settle on a birthday treat. In the end, my mom made peanut butter cookies not rolled in sugar and with chocolate shavings instead of chips. They are precisely uniform in size with most of the chocolate intentionally hidden at the bottom of the cookie. 

And then there was the book. It is tradition to donate a book to my school in honor of your child's birthday. Combine the rigid guidelines about what reading materials are allowed in the Montessori classroom with my mom's fussiness about grammar, language, and punctuation and you will know that choosing the book was not an easy task. It took countless hours to select one about insects. It's not hardcover but I hope that will be fine. 

And then there were the photos. I have to show my friends photos from each of my years. This is what I chose.