First Grade Jitters

I have the first grade jitters. I can't believe I am sending my twins to school ALL DAY LONG. I can't believe that I only had six short years to spend most of the day with them everyday. Now, I turn them over to the influence of others. I'm scared. I hope they will remember what I taught them. I hope they will be strong when they face challenges. I hope they will be the nice kids, not the mean kids. I hope so many things for them. I hope Parker and I will survive without them.
My sister sent me this article. I cried when I read it. It perfectly sums up how I am feeling.

First Day of First Grade
August 8, 2011
by Judy Zimmerman of "The Self-Righteous Housewife"

My youngest started first grade today and all week long everyone I run into says, “What will you do with your free time now?” A lot of people ask this in jest, knowing full well there isn’t much you can do with the few hours when all the kids are out of the house at once. Others ask in earnest knowing that a world of possibilities has just opened up.
I have some ideas. I’m going to start exercising again. I’m going to write more. I’m going to finish my novel. Some of my friends will go back to work with the help of sitters and nannies. Others will fill up the time doing more around the house, taking part-time jobs, or volunteering even more of their time to the schools. It is strange but as a stay-at-home mom if you do your job really well you are rewarded by having your job taken away from you little by little. Today I was demoted to part-time. It’s not a huge chunk of time; 9:00 to 2:30 due to staggered start times among my three children, but nevertheless it’s a much bigger chunk of time than I’ve had in eleven years.
It’s not a total shock of course. The free-time comes quite gradually really, from the crazed frenzied days of breast-feeding and diaper-changing to the slightly less frantic days of potty-training and pre-school schedules to the relative calm of kindergarten and early elementary days. But some parts of it are not so gradual. Like today, the first day of school. It’s a wrenching change in my life. My youngest is the best of my three children at expressing herself. This makes parenting her sometimes easier and sometimes much more challenging. Last night, she sat in my lap as I read “The Kissing Hand” and as I struggled to get through that tear-jerker she interrupted me to say, “Mama, I am not ready for first grade.” “What do you mean?” I asked prepared to give her a pep-talk, to remind her that her best friend is in her class, she has the same bus route as last year, and she can already read chapter books. “I’m not ready to be away from you for so many hours,” she said simply. This stopped me dead in my tracks because the truth is I’m not really ready to be away from her for so many hours either. I mean maybe more than the 2 ½ hours of a kindergarten day but I really don’t need her to be gone from me more than seven hours which is what it turns out to be with the bus ride to and from school. Can’t they have a four hour day in first grade while we all adjust? My eyes filled with tears but I turned my head so she could not see. I forced a cheerful answer, “But honey, you were gone that many hours just yesterday with Margaret when you went to her house and then to the movies and you didn’t mind that.” “But I can’t be away from you that many hours every day,” she countered.
Now I began to cry in earnest, thankful that children seldom look their moms in the eye and as I sat with her in my lap trying to compose myself and most unhelpfully I remembered a Dave Barry column in which he drives his son Rob to Kindergarten for the first time and as they sit in the car outside the school, saying goodbye, Rob asks, “Daddy, how long do I have to do this?” and he can’t bring himself to answer, but he thinks, “Forever and ever.” I remember crying when I read that column and I didn’t even have children then. I shook my head trying to get the image of Rob and Dave Barry out of my head and to distract myself I tried to figure out how old Rob must be now. He’s probably in college or older, and not nearly as close to his father as he was when he was five. That was no help so I lifted Lilly off my lap and told her I’d be right back. I went into the bathroom and closed the door and sobbed into a bathroom towel. I was thinking of all the other mothers in my town, in my state, and probably in the world doing the same thing; crying into a bathroom towel because who else can you cry to? If only we had some acceptable way to share our collective grief maybe it would help but parenthood demands we act cheerful and even relieved when our little ones begin to leave the nest. For the most part we are relieved. But we are grieving too.
So please remember that when you see us looking a little dazed at the bus stop in the morning or a little anxious for the bus in the afternoon. Do not be deceived by our breezy answers to your question, “What will you do with your day now that the kids are all in school?” Because we’re not really sure ourselves. Oh we have lots of ideas; but we are afraid that any them will pale in comparison to the wondrous job we are leaving behind, the privilege of caring for a little one 24/7.

Last Day of School

Parker loved his school year at Learning Dynamics. Here he is with his best friend A.J., and his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Burnett. She got such a kick out of Parker and his funny personality.
Here are cute Luke and Ellie on their last day of kindergarten. I can't believe they are starting first grade! When did they get so big! They loved their teacher, Mrs. Freestone and I think they both really grew a lot during this year.

BRING ON FIRST GRADE!!!!

Stair Sleeping

I'm just glad he didn't roll over!

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival 2011

Get Your Game Face On!

I love watching four year olds play (or not play) soccer!

Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day. I love it because it reminds me that even during my hardest parenting moments, I am still appreciated. I love it because it reminds me that my kids don't need me to buy them a lot of toys or take them to a lot of exciting places to feel loved. They love me for the simple things like making them food or tucking them in at night. I love it because I get to see them sing cute little songs to me at school and at church. I love being a mom. Look at these three darling kids!

Mother's Day plants!

Luke and Ellie singing a thank you song to me.

Parker at his Mother's Day preschool program.

A Very Late, Very Long London Post!

I can't believe it has taken me this long to do a post on my trip to London. Better late than never, right? Please forgive any grammatical and spelling errors as I am just trying to finally get this post done!

Let me start by telling you how this trip came to be. My dear friend Heidi is what you may say, a little obsessed with all things British. When she found out the date of the Royal Wedding, she was determined to find a way to go. Her very nice husband called me about a month before to tell me that he would be surprising Heidi with a trip to the wedding and wondered if I would like to go with her. I was a little hesitant at first, thinking there was no way I could pull this off! I told him I would think about it. In the mean time, he asked Heidi's mom if she would want to go. She said yes, which gave me the idea of asking my mom if she would want to go too. Amazingly, everything fell into place and we started making plans for our trip to London! Thanks to my great Dad, husband and mother-in-law, I was able to go and enjoy myself, worry free!

On April 27th, we boarded a plane in Salt Lake, London bound! We arrived in London at 8:25 a.m. the following morning. I cannot sleep on planes, so I was pretty tired. There was no rest for the weary, however, as we had much to see in only five short days! We checked into our hotel and set off on the town.

Our first stop was for lunch, of course. We went to a wonderful place called Cafe Diana. It was delicious! Look how fun and festive the cafe was decorated for the wedding!

Our next stop was the British Museum. There were a lot of amazing, historical artifacts there. I was so tired, I wish I could remember what some of them were! Ha! Ha! I guess I'll have to go back!
Here is a picture of Heidi standing outside of the museum.

Here we are looking like a bunch of nerdy tourists.....

That night, we ate a fabulous dinner at a little Italian place called Da Mario. Then, even though we were exhausted, we decided to head over to Westminster Abbey to look for a place to stand for the wedding. I have to say, London is a beautiful place at night.

Here is Big Ben, and the Abbey.

The next morning we woke up at 4 a.m. (yes, you read that right) and took a bus over to Westminster Abbey. It's a good thing we got there when we did. We ended up getting a really good spot. We were right across the street from the guest entrance. This first picture was taken around 6 a.m. and you can see how many people were already lining the streets.

Look how chipper we looked for being up so early!

The best purchase for the trip? The little three legged stool my mom brought! We took turns resting during the wait. It was a life saver!

Unfortunately, this trip made me realize how behind the times I am in terms of cameras. I have a standard digital camera so I didn't capture many pictures of the Royals driving by. I did see them however, and I swear Prince Harry waved at me! I also got this shot of the Beckhams going into the wedding. I have to give credit to Heidi for the other pictures of the procession. She got some great shots!
The Beckhams

The parents leaving the wedding
The Queen of England, people!
I loved her yellow hat.
The happy couple after the wedding.

There were some very interesting characters around. Look at this guy all decked out in his red, white and blue.

After the Royal procession went by, I was dying to catch a glimpse of all of Kate's dress. My mom and I walked to a nearby church that happened to be broadcasting the wedding. We were able to sit down for a much needed rest, after standing for nearly six hours.

I have to say, it was such an amazing thing to be a part of such a historical event! I know that so many people were so sick of hearing about the Royal Wedding. I found it so refreshing with all of the terrible things happening in the world to be a part of something so happy and exciting.

After the wedding, the streets emptied out. We stopped at a little cafe for some lunch. I almost fell asleep in my chair!
Look at us!
We headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap.

After our naps, we took a walk through Hyde Park. It is such a beautiful place. I wish we had parks like this in Utah!

Then, we went to dinner at a fun Asian restaurant called Wagamama.

I am so in love with British architecture. Look at this darling building!

That night, we headed back into the heart of London to go on the Eye. Sadly, it was closed. Instead, we picked up some funny wedding memorabilia, got a Mcflurry at McDonalds, then headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

Some more pictures of London at night. Love it!

The next day, we headed to Portobello Road for a morning of shopping. It is such a fun street just for browse on. There are little shops full of antiques, art, and many other little treasures.

There is also this little waffle shop with the best waffles ever. I got mine with fresh strawberries and chocolate on top. Yummy.

After Portobello, we headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. It is such a beautiful place. I'm embarassed to say, we spent most of our time here in the gift shop. I think it was the best one we encountered on the trip.

That night, we walked around the theater district forever looking for a place to eat. We finally settled on Noura, a Lebanese restaurant. I was so glad we did! The food was quite delicious! After that, we went to see a hilarious play called 39 Steps. It was a spoof on Alfred Hitchcock movies. The cast only has three people in it. They play all of the characters and do a great job.

I have to say, some of the funniest experiences of the trip were on the tube. First of all, for those of you who have never been to London, when you get on their subway, you feel like you are heading to the center of the earth. Here is one such example...

The tube is a great place to people watch. We saw some very colorful characters. One night, we saw a particularly interesting girl enter. Let's just say she looked like she was dressed to go walk the streets. Heidi and I were sitting across from our moms. We pretended not to know them as they tried to snap a picture of this girl. It was quite entertaining to watch!

Thank goodness for the tube or it would have taken us hours to get anywhere!

On day four of our trip, we visited the National Gallery. I must have had a lazy camera morning, because I didn't take a picture of it. It was amazing. So many beautiful, famous pieces of art. I loved the painting of Lady Jane Grey, who has become one of my favorite historical figures. (More on her later.)

After the Gallery, we went to Buckingham Palace. It is quite a sight to see.

After visiting the Palace we headed to Kensington Palace and the Orangery for tea. For me, this was one of the highlights of the trip. I really wanted to have tea in London. :) Mission accomplised.

Check out my fresh mint tea. It was to die for! As were all of the treats, especially the orange scone and clotted cream.

Our last day in London was one of my favorites. We visited the Tower of London. I find it such a fascinating place. It just looks ominous and scary. Don't you think?

Our tour guide (or Beefeater as they are known) was so great. He was trying to scare all of the kids in our group. It was so funny.

Here is the Bloody Tower. So sad.

Also, Traitor's Gate where all the prisoners were brought to the tower.

Funny picture with our Beefeater. I think I am laughing because he said something inappropriate. He ended up being a bit of a pervert.

Remember how I said earlier there would be more to come on the Lady Jane Grey? If you want to read a great book, read "Innocent Traitor" by Allison Weir. Lady Jane Grey held the title of Queen of England for nine days. Without going into too much detail, she was wrongly accused of high treason and was executed at the Tower of London at the age of seventeen. Read the book for more information. It is so good! I fell in love with her strength and integrity and she has become one of my heroes. While she waited for execution, she lived in this house at the tower with the blue door. Her young husband who was also executed, lived in the tower next to her.

This is a little monument they have built over the spot where it is believed many were executed.

The tower doesn't only hold history of execution. It houses the crowned jewels as well as a lot of the armor worn by many of the Kings of England. Fascinating stuff.

After a wonderful morning at the Tower, we took a boat up the river to Westminster Abbey. We were hoping to get in to see the spot where the Royal Wedding occured. Unfortunately for us, there was a two hour wait. We decided there was now way we wanted to stay. We went to the gift shop, where I am excited to say I bought a knock off of Diana's/Kate's engagement ring. It's kind of silly, but fun.

Here is Heidi standing in front of our spot for the wedding. Oh the memories!

That night, we headed to Jamie's Italian for dinner. (Jamie Oliver's restaurant. I love him and his food revolution!)

Then, finally, I got to see Billy Elliot. I have been wanting to see it for years! I'm glad I got to see it in London. It was so well done! I loved it.

The next morning, it was time to go home. We went to St. Martin in the Fields for breakfast. I didn't dare try the traditional English breakfast. I settled for a bagel, I think. Then, we went over to Bond Street. Next time I go to London, I will spend more time here. There were the cutest shops ever! After shopping, we went back to the hotel to gather our things together and headed to Paddington Station. I bought a Paddington Bear for Parker and some Paddington books. Then it was off to the airport for the long journey home.

This was the trip of a lifetime. I was so thankful to be able to share it with my mom and with one of my best friends. Heidi, I now see why you are so in love with London. It has become my favorite city I have ever been to. I can't wait to go back!