A Summer to Remember

Maybe the title for this post should be "A Year to Remember." My posts are so far and few between I need to try to remember all that has happened for the whole year.


So first of all a recap of the 2011-2012 school year. Lily and Addison were in Kindergarten at Prairie Vista Elementary. Lily was in Mrs. Lord's class and Addison was in Mrs. Hammond's. Many people have asked me if the school separated the girls. Yes, but I could have requested that they be put together. Mike and I thought they'd do well separately, and they did.

At the beginning of the year we felt they should be dropped off and picked up by Mom and Dad. The very first day, Mike dropped them off and got misty as he watched his two babies go off to their first day of real school. Kelsey and I arrived early to pick them up and caught them as they were making their way to the buses. I said "Whoa, you are riding home with me." but by that time they were determined to ride the bus. Kelsey and I returned home and waited for the bus arrival. As fate would have it, the bus drove past our house to the driveway. Well, this passing by our house freaked the girls out and they decided the bus was not for them. That lasted for months, then one day Addison asked to ride the bus home again. After a few days, Lily decided she would also ride the bus home. Then in the Spring, they decided to start taking the bus in the morning too. After a full year, we all think we like the bus!


Kelsey's school year was eventful. She started the year at Bridges School in Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings class with Miss Molly and Miss Jen. For about a month we had tearful goodbyes, but eventually Kelsey realized she enjoyed school. Then at the beginning of January we received word that Bridges would be closing at the end of the school year. The owner had sold the building to Logan Center to be used as a facility for Autistic children. We started looking for a replacement and decided to check out the Early Childhood Development Center at Notre Dame and Salem Preschool which is a small school located about 20 minutes away at a Methodist Church. In late January we went to an open house at ECDC. We'd heard stories of people being wait listed for ECDC and discovered we could get current family status for next fall if we got Kelsey in to class right away. Luckily there was a spot available Tues/Thurs afternoons in a 3s class. Unfortunately Kelsey kind of hated it. I didn't love it either. Kelsey hated the hour rest time where most of her classmates slept and she had to play quietly on her cot. A whole hour. That is a lot of sit and play time for a 3 year old. I didn't love the fact that Kelsey was the oldest child in the class, many of the children were still in diapers and that Kelsey was having nap time when she didn't need it. She had dropped naps over a year before then. Well, again we had tearful goodbyes each school day.

Ultimately for the upcoming school year, we've decided Kelsey will again attend ECDC. She will be in a 4/5 M-F class where she will be one of the youngest children. She'll go in the morning when there is no nap time (Yay!) Those factors combined with the fact that Mike will be able to drive Kelsey to school on his way to work will be great. Although we REALLY liked Salem, their Pre-K class filled up so Kelsey couldn't be in it and the drive back and forth was a big negative.

A brief statement about Addison and Lily's Kindergarten class. As new parents to real school, you just don't know what to expect or what you'll get with teachers. And our experiences could not have been more on the ends of the spectrum. Mrs. Lord has been teaching for a long time. She is loved for her warmth and compassion. Mrs. Hammond is a relatively new teacher. I loved her organization. Each week the girls came home with homework. Some was the same, some different. Addison would get one worksheet one week and Lily would come home with the same one the next week. I'd swear we saw some worksheets 3 times! Mrs. Hammond's class kept to a schedule. We could depend on Addison keeping to that schedule. By the end of the year we just kept Lily on the same schedule to make it easier on us!

The bus provided opportunities for new friends. Lily became friends with Olivia Nilles who lives a block away. We've exchanged many play dates since they struck up a friendship. Addison became friends with Michael Tapp, a first grader. They have decided to get married someday. Michael has also come to our house to play.

Academically Lily is excelling. She's probably reading at a 2nd or 3rd grade level now. Mathematically Lily is probably at grade level, or a little better. Addison's academics are more of a struggle now. At the beginning of the year, she refused to even talk to Mrs Hammond, so testing didn't go so well. By the end of the year Mrs. Hammond felt that Addison's reading was at grade level. But that Addison needed a little help on math. So this summer Addison has been getting tutored by Mrs. Hammond one day a week. This summer we've seen Addison's reading improve greatly, and she's definitely doing OK with math as well. Kelsey, as always, is working to keep up with her sisters. She's reading books along with them and has mastered more books this summer than either of her sisters. Her math abilities are still emerging.

Activities. Addison and Lily both played soccer in the Fall and Spring. We saw great improvement over the previous year when Addison refused to play most games. In the Spring Mike was the coach of their team and I was the assistant. Lily began the season as the team's cheerleader...while on the field. She would trail along behind her teammates cheering them on. However the last game of the season, she got a fire in her belly and scored a goal! Her mother was VERY excited on the sideline. In an attempt to keep their skill level and interest up, Addison and Lily have been going to soccer camp one day a week. One day during camp Addison scored all three goals for her team in their scrimmage! Kelsey has also started soccer. She is doing the 4 year old soccer camp one day a week. This fall, Mike will coach Addison and Lily and I will be coaching Kelsey's team. Fortunately, Kelsey's friend Abbie will be on the team too and her mom Heidi will be the team's assistant coach.

The girls also did gymnastics this year. It has been fun to see their coordination improve. They really love gymnastics and we look forward to watching their skills improve, but we don't expect the Olympic team to need to save a spots for them.
This summer began our foray into dance. Addison and Lily are taking a Ballet 1 class. Kelsey is taking a Creative Movement class. Addison and Lily and their class are quite good at following the teacher's lead. Kelsey is a great listener and also follows along quite well. They have all decided they want to continue ballet for the school year. This is great except for the cost. With three girls the $ really add up!

Also this summer all three girls have taken swim lessons. We were shocked when the second day of class had Addison and Lily jumping off the diving board. They've also been learning strokes and diving into the pool. It is so nice to feel comfortable letting them go into the pool by themselves with the lifeguard. Kelsey has made the most dramatic improvement this summer. At the beginning of summer she didn't want to put her face in the water. Now she can jump in from the side and swim to some one or the steps or ladder. And she loves it. She also went off the diving board during swim lessons, but hasn't gone back to it since.

Family changes: Last summer we bit the bullet and got a pupppy. Her name is Dilly. Addison suggested the name. It is one that came from a game on her Leapster Explorer. She is a goldendoodle. We got her from a breeder in Indiana named Joe Vosbergh. He was recommened by one of our neighbors whose daughter ended up in Lily's kindergarten class. She is a cute, smart dog who loves to play and jump. Unfortunately Jack, the cocker spaniel, was not a huge fan and kind of hated that she wanted to play with him. I also got a bit annoyed with Dilly who would come up behind me and bite my bottom if I wouldn't play with her.

In April, we had to put Jack down. He was having some digestive issues and $700 later we discovered he had a large mass in his abdomen. We took him home from the vet and he just layed around. In the house, then we'd carry him outside and he'd lay out there. When we picked him up, he was in pain, so we made the sad decision to let him go. Jack was an awesome dog and companion. He'd been with Mike through sad and happy times. And he endured the coonhounds and children.

Since getting Dilly we knew that when Jack was no longer with us, we would get another dog to play with Dilly. So we quickly checked rescue groups and found Biscuit (formerly known as Kioki). The group that had him only had adoptions on certain days, and that certain day happened to be Friday April 13, the day before Kelsey's birthday and birthday party. Well, we basically had decided he was the dog for us, so we all trouped off to the adoption event. The whole time we were getting to know him, the rescue people kept assuring us that he had a long day and was on edge because of that. He seemed nice enough. Totally not aggressive, but unfortunately not friendly either. The rescue folks assured us he was good with dogs and people. Well, one out of two ain't bad. Ends up he is AWESOME with Dilly. Since getting him, the two of them are constant companions and spend most of their time out in the yard. Unfortunately, Biscuit is just slowly warming up to us. At first he didn't even trust us to take treats from us. Now, he likes his treats, but the only way we can pet him is to trap him in his crate or trap him somewhere else. Hopefully by next April he'll let us pet him! We weren't even sure he'd stay with us at first. It took two people to get him to come inside. And, honestly, that wasn't going to work for us trying to get kids to where they needed to be. Fortunately, we found that if we got Dilly to come inside and go to her crate, Biscuit would follow, so we've figured out a system that works for us. We still have to work on having Biscuit come in the door and allowing us to close it behind him. One fantastic thing about Biscuit is that despite his obvious fear, he has never showed aggression towards anyone.

Mike continues to love working at ND. This Spring he had the pleasure of being asked to speak during Jr. Parent's weekend at Mendoza. Mike gave a stirring speach about "We are ND" similar to one he delivers to his student's at the last day of class. Last summer and this summer Mike has taken to biking to work one or two days a week. He is member of a bike to work team and he is leading his group in miles this summer.

My big news is that I had sinus surgery a few weeks ago. After being treated for recurring sinus infections that were not only giving me headaches and general face and tooth pain, but also making my asthma worse, it was time to bite the bullet. The procedure was outpatient and after initial pain on coming out of the anesthesia, it has been relatively painless. I'm also training for a Sprint Triathlon that I'll be doing with her awesomeness, Sara Harty, at the end of August. I've also managed to get on the Notre Dame payroll. This summer I've made updates to Mike's Accounting 20100/20200 websites for which I'm getting paid (Yay!). I continue to get paid doing contract work for ScreamFree and Solidica. (YAY!)

Travel. This year I've been fortunate enough to go to Atlanta in January for my brother Billy's 50 birthday party. I also went to Oregon in April for my brother Eddie's 25th wedding anniversary. Mike went to St Louis for an ND friend's funeral. And just went to DC to be with his mom who had Aortic valve replacement surgery. In March we all travelled to Savannah, GA to walk in the St. Patrick's Day parade with most of the Sheppard clan. We were able to spend a little time at the beach and the girls loved having time with their cousin Coleman. For spring break we took the girls up to Chicago to the field museum. We ALL loved seeing the dinosaurs. In three days we will leave in the middle of the night to drive to DC and Ocean City.