Friday, June 19, 2009

Last Day of School (For L&O anyway)

I know it has been way to long since I did an update. So much wonderful has happened and I should have been blogging. In a nutshell: Birthday parties really stress me out so I convinced Laurel and Owen to have a family fun day instead. For Laurel we went to NYC, including the ToysRUs store in Times Square, M&M Store, Jekyll and Hyde and American Girl. For Owen we went to Hershey Park. Owen went on his first real roller coaster ride- the Comet with Grammy, Daddy, Mommy and Laurel.
I have to tell a funny Google search Laurel did last week. I sat down to use the computer and Laurel had just been there. This was her Google search: REALLY IMPORTANT THINGS I SHOULD KNOW FOR 3RD GRADE. It cracks me up that Laurel thought to sit down and use Google to find out how to prepare for third grade!
Now for a more serious entry: Owen has been very interested in taking care of planet earth. He has been reading and hearing a lot about global warming and the polar bears and the melting of glaciers. He often comes in at night and asks little questions here and there. Last night he said, “Mom- Are there enough helmets for all of us if we have to leave earth to get on a spaceship?” I told him no and that would not work because we need food and water and we can’t just leave earth. Then I went to say goodnight and he was sobbing in his room. I asked him what was wrong and he said he can’t stop thinking about Earth getting ruined. I tried to console him and told him the best thing he can do is to do his part to take car of earth by walking to the bus stop, turning out his light, not wasting food, etc. He asked me to get books about taking care of the earth. So today we started trying to read more. I realized many of these terms can be very confusing to a seven year old. It started off talking about the greenhouse effect. My little problem solver says, “Mom- Why don’t we just get rid of all the greenhouses?” Then chapter 2 was titled Carbon Footprints. Owen asked if we can just tiptoe. With that, I said, let’s come back to this tomorrow.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Can you give up your kids for lent?

Last week at dinner Laurel asked, “Mom, What is something you love to do other than read?”
I answered, “I love being with you and Owen.”
Then she thought a moment and said, “Well right now there’s this thing that Catholics do. I’m Jewish but I want to try doing it anyway.”
(Note: Laurel was baptized Catholic, went to a Christian School for four years and is currently attending Methodist Sunday school regularly so I was surprised to hear she is Jewish.)
She went on, “You give up something you like but you can’t give up reading because you have to do that everyday and you can’t give up your kids.”

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Robbins Rumble

Well it has been awhile since I wrote here. And I can’t say there is a whole lot to say. But I can tell a few vignettes about the Robbins House lately.
We had Winterfest at the lake. Laurel taught herself to ice skate while we were there. Her persistence always amazes me. She just keeps trying and trying until she succeeds. I hope she always keeps this trait.
This weekend Laurel and I sold Girl Scout cookies. It was amazing how many we sold, even though you could tell some really did not want any cookies. Laurel was funny. She said, “Mom for some reason people have a hard time saying no to brownies.”
This weekend Laurel and Owen got new desks. It brings me back to when Denise and I got matching desks from Sears Surplus. They had all these cool little compartments to display my treasures, mostly Smurfs. Anyway, Laurel and Owen are taking pride in their personal learning space. Thanks to Grammy, we went to Staples to buy some basics like staplers, tape and pencils. Hopefully now my desk supplies will stay where they belong.
Owen had his first Pinewood Derby Race. He came in second for his den. It was nice to see Owen and Justin working closely to make this cool golden car. The chemists at Justin’s job shared some gold and silver nail polish straight from the lab. They also used the agitator balls from nail polish to up the weight a little. It was fun to see everyone pitch in to make a car from a block of wood.
Owen is finishing his first wrestling season. I am proud of how he has stuck with this. Although the matches were a little rough to watch, he is not the most aggressive child and he pretty much only does moves that he has learned. At one match he kept getting body slammed. By the 7th time you could see in his face that it was not really fun anymore. After the match we were talking about it. He said, “Mom, he kept doing this move I did not learn yet and we did not learn how to get out of the move yet either so I just kept landing on the floor.”
I am afraid Laurel has gotten my awful teeth genes. We went to the dentist Tuesday and Owen the ten second tooth-brusher got a “good job.” Laurel, who rinses, brushes and flosses so long every night we have to tell her to get to bed has 4 cavities. She was sad and told me it hurt in her heart because she tries so hard to take care of her teeth and she still got cavities. I tried giving her a pep talk but she was still sad. She asked Owen to promise not to tell anyone at school. Somehow Owen “accidentally” told his friend. This must be big news for first and second graders because according to Laurel the entire lunchroom knew. She was mad at Owen and started chasing him around the lunchroom. Owen was scared of her wrath and started screaming. Eventually both children were disciplined by the teacher on duty. Sounds like it was a real Robbins Rumble at Riverview School today!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Health and Happiness- Two Best Gifts of All

Most readers of this blog entry will be bored to death- feel free to skip. But since I do not keep any other sort of journal, I wanted some way to remember what a wonderful winter break I had with my family.
On Christmas Eve, Grammy outdid herself with a Christmas Extravaganza. First we enjoyed a feast that included lasagna, salad, garlic bread, scallops, chicken, shrimp and much more. All of the important Christmas characters visited, including Cindy Lou Who, The Grinch, Mrs. Claus, Buddy the Elf and OldMacDubbels farmers. Dessert was our Jesus Birthday Cake when we sang happy birthday to him.
When we got home, Laurel and Owen quickly got ready for sleep so that Santa could arrive. Owen just couldn’t fall asleep. He kept thinking that he heard the hooves of the reindeer on the roof. Finally- after 11:30, he fell asleep to The Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon album. At 4:45 he came up to tell me Santa had arrived. I told him he needed to go back to bed. At seven Laurel awoke to report reindeer prints in the snow from the “reindeer food” we left out. She exclaimed, “Santa really is real. I can’t believe it.” In 30 minutes the months of shopping and wrapping were over. I think the bakugan were the biggest hit.
Justin really surprised me with my most exciting gift ever- He got me a kindle. I know most people are reading this and saying- What is a kindle? Go ahead and Google- but for me it was the most generous, thoughtful and perfect gift and it seemed to be received better than the 100% PAIN hot sauce that I got Justin.
We headed over to Nana’s house. She did her Yankee Gift Exchange. Owen eagerly traded the oven mitt that he had opened for the chocolate bar that Uncle Brad had gotten. We had a great time visiting with family at nana’s house and then going over to see Grandpa David, Grandpa Murray and Grandma Stella.
We went on a one night family trip to the Tropicana in Atlantic City. While daddy played poker, Laurel, Owen and Mommy enjoyed the pool, a walk on the boardwalk to the Candy Store and Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum and then we met up with Daddy for lunch at one of our favorite Irish Restaurants.
New Year’s Eve was just the way I like it- home and quiet. Laurel and I went to the store for essential treats like chips and dip and Ritz crackers and cheese and wings. Then we came home and watched Fred Claus. I think I was sleeping by 10:30!
The next day I had a wonderful spa day with my book club and then we went out to dinner. Our break ended with an amazing outing to NYC. Nana bought Laurel and Owen tickets to Shrek the Musical. This was Owen’s first Broadway show. We had a fun lunch with family, went to the show and came home to have dinner with friends.
All in all, our break was filled with a perfect mix of relaxing and enjoying each other. Here’s hoping 2009 will continue to bless the Robbins’ house with love, health and happiness.