The first part of the show was what I would call a typical elementary school music class presentation. Each of the kids in the third grade, all dressed the same, were lined up on a raised platform and sang a few songs for onlooking, camera happy parents. The second part was nothing I would have expected. We had to leave the cafeteria, the location of the first event, and head to the gym. Parents were situated around the edges while the kids populated the center, spaced nicely apart. Now I thought we were going in here for a “dance” were we might get to spend some time doing mommy-son or daddy-son dances but that certainly wasn’t the case.

The first song they danced to – and i do mean danced – was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller Night”. It was amazing fun. I would have never expected this from a third grader class. They all knew the moves and danced in unison from their assigned spots. Jacob was full of energy and fantastic to watch. He was situated at the very end of the gym somewhat in a row by himself and he took advantage of the space to show off his moves. The second dance was the “school dance”, the Berkeley Lake Bear Shuffle. I didn’t know schools had dances…and well maybe they shouldn’t…the kids had fun with it jumping in circles for a few minutes. The last one was also not expected – The Macarena – seriously. I would never have believed it had I not seen it. Forty or more kids dancing to the beat of the song and doing the moves right along with it.

Once the kids were done we got to come out and dance the Macarena with them – a couple of drinks and we could have made this a good night!

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A part of the assignment, which I didn’t really understand originally, and was confused somewhat when he started talking about, was that he had to incorporate various terminology from his math class into the overall story.  Currently he is  learning about various shapes and the parts that make them up – such as a circle which has a radius and circumference or a rhombus and its angles.  Many of the characters in the story come from distant worlds and take on such shapes.

Even in the role of stenographer the story was fun.  Granted hearing it vs. reading might have been different, especially with the enthusiasm and speed with which he delivered it – I can type fast buddy – but certainly not as fast as you can talk – and who the heck knew Rhombus was spelled Rhombus?  Spell check couldn’t figure out what a “rumbas” was – thank you Google for the assist.

Here is Jacob’s story:

The Lonely Snowman

Once there was a very lonely snowman.  He had no one to play with.  All that he had to play with was a fake snowman that was not alive.  It was plastic!  All he had to was throw snowballs at the snowman and it was really boring.  One day a snow saucer came down to snow earth.  A he saw a snow alien coming out.  He was so excited because he thought they were friendly.  And he thought they would play with him.  Then the snow alien came out of the snow saucer and he looked mean.  And the snowman said “Oh No!!!”.  And more and more came out of the saucer.  And when they finally all came out there was a hundred million.  The snow saucer was so big it that if filled up the whole snow earth.  Then they took out their blasters and zapped all the snow men on earth.  Then a snow alien baby was born.  And then a parallelogram from another planet was born.  And then more and more and more.  Then there was a trapezoid from the trapezoid planet.  Then a rectangle from the rectangle planet.  Then a square was formed from kryptonite from a distant planet from the far off side of the universe that the snowmen could not find at all because it was on the other side of the universe.  And then circles from the circle side of the universe.  And the circle drew a line through the middle up from top to bottom and this was its diameter.  Then he drew a line around the circle and that was called the circumference.  Then they all came to snow earth.  Then there was a tiny winy square that was born but it had super power.  And then a rhombus, but it did not have super powers.  It was just ordinary.  and then the grew up until they were bigger and they were thirty years old.  When they were old enough to use blasters.  The snowman was thirty-two so he could use a blaster too.  And the quadrilateral was just born and he was very tiny tiny tiny and his mother was like four hundred years old.  And the rectangle, the parallelogram, the square, the rhombus, fought the snow aliens and they won.  But this is not the end yet.  After a few years some more snow aliens came and they were ready to fight but these ones were friendly.  And they came and there was only five or six of them and they came in a snow cruiser.  And then they all played and had fun playing board games: chess, checkers, backgammon, and any kind of game you can think of, including risk.  They played and played and played until their deaths.  And then more and more and more children came alive from all the humans in the world.  And then our whole family made most of the snowmen.  They also made snow bunnies and rabbits and ants and turtles and they added a sea of snow marine life and snow land animals.  Plus made snow dinosaurs and birds.  They all came alive and then some more space aliens came to play.  They came and played until they were the same amount as the beginning of story.  One hundred million plus one hundred million equals two hundred million.  A hundred million more aliens came and there wasn’t enough room for the snowmen.  And the children said they need to make the world builder and then they make the world ten times bigger.  Now they have enough room for the snow aliens, all the polygons from all the different planets so they call all play big boy games and baby games.  After a few years the children got bigger and bigger until almost all of them turned nine.  And they got bigger until they were grownups and they didn’t want to play with the snowmen or the polygons so they left the snow earth and went somewhere else with snowmen and polygons.

The end.

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Well the glasses arrived on Friday and he was able to wear them to school for the first time on Monday.  He was apprehensive about getting made fun of, or called names, but Carol and I have been reassuring him that the opinions of others don’t matter – take it in stride – tell them to mind their own business – etc.  The glasses actually look great on him.  Hopefully he will grow out of the farsightedness, but until that time the frames look good and are tough and flexible.  Now we just have to get him used to taking care of them – extra chores won’t pay for replacements.

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One of the exhibits was a bird trainer.  He had a falcon and an owl that he showed.  It flew up into the tree, look around a bit, and with a signal from the trainer swooped back in.  One thing we found interesting was to learn that an owls eyes don’t actually rotate in their sockets but rely on the head of the owl to swivel for it to look around.  Also found out that they have fourteen vertebrae in their neck allowing them to look around with much more grace and at steeper angles than a human could ever hope to do.  Both of the birds were beautiful.  I think we came in near the end of the show and were only able to see a few flights before it ended.

We go to see a skin and tanning station, a pottery station – i found this process particularly interesting.  The sculptor molds the clay into a shape, say a bowl or toy, and then placed it in the coals of a regular fire.  By tending the fire with normal wood (pine, oak, etc…) and continuously scooping and piling the coals over the items they slowly lose any moisture and become hard but brittle.  He had several things that he had created in the few days the show had been going on: bowls, plates, cups, other dishes, etc…

Toward the end of our day we got to see a few rounds of a dancing contest.  I don’t think we really understood what we were seeing but the costumes that each of the participants wore were amazing to look at.  The dance routines seemed to be about celebrating fall and the harvest.

As an aside we got a chance to go through the Antebellum Plantation and Farmyard.  It was neat to see the various rooms, decor and furniture of the times.  My favorite bit was that the kids had their own table on a different floor of the house from the adults…we got to have a little fun with the boys telling them “how it used to be…”.

The festival was fun.  We certainly learned a lot and got picture of most of it.  Something the kids can look at from time to time.  I didn’t even think about it at the time but Carol mentioned it later – sadly I didn’t get any pictures of Us with the Indians.  Oh well, maybe next year.

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Thank you Grandma Donna.  Jacob and Isaac had a great time getting to shop for their gifts.

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I am glad this is taken care of.  With one car and four of our six going in different directions, all between 7:30 and 8:30, our mornings are hectic to say the least.  My one complaint is that I think the situation could have been resolved much quicker than it was.  It took nearly three weeks of working (or lack thereof) with the local transportation superintendent to realize that he didn’t care about what we needed or had to say – safety related or not – we were just another pair of complaining parent.  Realizing this and believing that we were being ignored we wrote a letter to the county commissioner at the recommendation of Carol’s dad and friend Heidi.  They both work for school systems and had some good advice on how to get the appropriate level of attention.  Once the letter was complete, proof read a dozen times, we stopped before sending it and called another person up the management chain for the transportation department.  She listened to what we had to say, asked for a copy of the letter we were going to mail (I mentioned it to her), and a few phone calls and two days later the problem was resolved.  Thanks Patty !!!

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Indeed the truck went “boom”.  It wasn’t drivable from the scene and was towed to a local lot and later transferred to Gerber Glass and Collision in Duluth.  We picked up a rental until the truck could either be fixed or totaled by the insurance company.  The rental we received was a new Dodge Caravan.  Not a bad van but as typical for most rentals it was lacking in nearly every feature – I was hoping to get to drive a newer model van and get a feel for an upgrade should the option come our way.  The rental is nice though, roomier than our current van and certainly roomier than the Xterra is with four kids – not that we could get them all in it.

Ultimately the insurance company declared the Xterra not worth salvage and totaled it.  I was figuring the sticker on repairs was between five and eight grand but they turned out to be a whopping twelve.  Amazing.  However after seeing the truck myself once Gerber dismantled it I could certainly understand the cost.  The frame was bent, the engine block was badly damaged, and everything between the front bumper and the driver was either missing, smashed, twisted or broken.  Interestingly looking at the pictures of the truck makes you think that the crumple zones did their job but all the stuff “in” the crumple zone paid the price.  The office who worked the scene told Carol that she was lucky she was in a solid vehicle and that just based on what he had seen in the past a smaller truck, van or car would have been demolished from the impact – sounds like a good advertising bump for Nissan – the Xterra’s are built tough, meant to be driven hard and take a good amount of abuse.

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Looks like the kids will get to stay home and play for another day.  Isaac was concerned though that school was “closed forever”…oddly that upset him (maybe we should check his temperature).  I don’t think we will hear the same complaint from Jacob he has been at home sick for the past few days missing much of school last week and was non to excited to go back today.  Piper still gets to go to pre-school which stays open regardless and Violet is already at school when she wakes up.

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The boys had road most everything they could by early evening.  Troy and Bonnie picked them up and gave us some free time to ride some coasters and grab dinner.  I had only been to six flags once before years ago and only really recall the Superman ride.  We didn’t ‘do Superman because of a very long line but we did do most of the others including a new coaster called “Goliath”.  This thing was awesome.  It was tall, fast and each time you went over the top of a hill or bump you floated until the track started to climb again.  There were a dozen or so such hills and the experience was a blast.  We road in both the front and the back – very different rides.  I was able to get a video as well of us taking a ride.

The night ended with margaritas, chips and salsa and some good Mexican fare at La Frontera.

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This week, again the first week of school, there has been some confusion about what exactly defines a “Bus Stop”.  According to the school transportation folks it is a place where the bus stops in the morning and in the afternoon to pickup and drop off precious packages.  It is an exact, literal spot that you should be able to walk to and point at.  Someplace where you can stand and wait for the bus to come.

Our bus driver didn’t get that memo. 

The first week of school is confusing enough for kids, especially young ones, first and third grade – add onto that a new neighborhood that is somewhat unfamiliar and you have a recipe for disaster.  Our bus driver likes to make up the bus stops on the fly.  Sometimes she stops short, up the road and out of sight, and then passes the actual bus stop without so much as a pause or second glance.  Another stop up the road is a secondary place where the boys might stand and wait but it too is not a guarantee.

The afternoon drop off is just as much fun and has an added element of danger.  Danger – the exact element you want to be a part of your kids release from the bus, full of thoughts of toys and playing and everything “not” school as they exit the bus and dash toward the house.  If the proper stop was used it might not be a big deal.  They would get out on the corner, cross over the road, a weird crossing at that as they have to cross in front of the bus diagonally to get across two streets that make up the corner, and head for home.  Instead the boys get let out some distance before the stop, have to run along side the bus, up the hill to the house, and cross the road right in front of the now moving bus which then has to stop to let them cross anyway – right in front of the house this time.

All this is assuming that the driver actually lets the boys off the bus.  One time Carol got to watch the bus drive by while the boys were waving at her and telling the bus driver that they needed to get off “here”, that this was their new home.  After all, each of them wears a tag on their backpack that says just as much – a tag that is issued by the same transportation office that the bus driver works for.  Instead the boys were taken to their old address and let off the bus in a neighborhood that they no longer live – at least their Nana was their to get them.

Frustration has set in.  Knowing that it is the first week and that such confusion might happen it does nothing to ease the burden of not being certain the school and transportation office are doing what they can, or are supposed to do, to ensure the safe and timely delivery of our kids from the school to their home – or designated bus stop.

The good part about this is that a few calls to the transportation office to explain the situation and understand their procedures and policies has raised some awareness that such expectations are not being met and that there is room for improvement with at minimum one bus driver and one bus stop.  We will see what happens.

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