Visit to Pennsylvania

C11, Q9, and I went to Pennsylvania to visit J, M, and S9. Good times as always!

Walked in a stream:

Walked back:


Went entirely underwater, stripped down, and wore a towel home:


Q9 put on PJs, and for the rest of the day wandered around in these cute fox pjs.


After dinner we had ice cream, and they let me take some picture. Some of these are better than others!






And

Stuck in a room

Ninoo & Papa visited and we all went to an Escape Room, The Escape Artist, the room was The Gallery Heist.

All performed well, and we escaped in 32 or so minutes. Not bad!

Safety Patrol Update

This week Q9 has been a little bit physically compromised. She has this dry, whooping, painful-sounding cough -- sometimes. And her stomach has been hurting. But no fever, nothing that would scream SICK! STAY HOME. Just kind of enough to want to stay home.

Except for the fact of safety patrol.

Twice this week now I've told Q9 she could stay home, but she didn't. Because, in part, of safety patrol. She was/is concerned about being dismissed from the patrol if she is sick. Because who will look after the kindergarteners?

So this morning I wasn't sure if she was going or not and I wrote to the teacher who supervises the program, and the teacher whose class Q9 works with.

I wrote this:

Hello, Mr. H and Ms. E,

Q9 loves being in safety patrol, thank you. She showed me your classroom, Ms. E, on back to school night.

Q9 may be staying home today because she is not feeling well, but she is rather worried about not being there for the kindergarteners, and also about possibly losing her spot in safety patrol.

I assured her that if she is sick she can't be expected to go in, but I figured I'd better check with you, Mr. H, on that. You may want to assure the kids that they are not going to be chucked out of safety patrol for missing a day of school?

Thanks again for everything,

E L (Q9's mother)


And got back this lovely note:

Hi Ms. L.

I'm so sorry to hear that shes not feeling well! Please tell Quinlan that she is an amazing safety patrol and we are so lucky to have her! Please reassure her that the kindergartners will be just fine today, though we will miss having her here we want her to get better so she can be healthy next week and every other week after that! :)

Thanks so much! 

Ms. E


Crisis averted!

Back to School Night - MIDDLE SCHOOL

Middle School. 

Yes. C11 is in MIDDLE SCHOOL. 
I got nothing to share except she's got a locker now. Pretty cool.

Oh, yeah, and we all leave the house before she does, she gets there without anybody telling her to leave, etc. etc. She had a minor run in with a science teacher who refused to call her by her name. Here's how it went down:

The grade roll was called on Monday and C11 was called as E C R. (the grade roll has her as E C R ... all names spelled out). C11 told me (ok, actually her best friend M11 told me when we were on the way to ClimbZone) what happened, that the teacher was calling her E11. Obviously not a big deal, because her first name is E. So C11 said to Ms. L. "Can you please call me C11, because that is my middle name and that is what I go by."

Ms. L responded by saying no, she would not call C11 C11, she would call her E11, because that was her "real name."

Uh oh.

C11 started to protest, but thought better of it, controlled her natural impulses, and stopped talking. M11 reported this all to me and told me "how proud" she was of C11 for doing that. THAT warms my heart. Seriously. M11 is the best friend ever.

C11 was called E11 all week, and I found out about it on Saturday. I emailed the teacher and wrote this (Despite my indignation and being incensed, I was seriously non-confrontational): 

Hi Ms. L.,  I  understand there has been some confusion about our daughter's name. We wanted to let you know that our daughter goes by her middle name, C11, not her first name, E11, and has since birth. 
Sincerely,
M. E. L.
T. C. R.

Ms. L wrote back:  "The attendance rooster has her legal name documented as E11. That was the appropriate call during attendance." That and only that. No salutation. No valediction. No indication that she might have been wrong.

And, SURE, it was appropriate to call C11 E11, the FIRST time. But not the 4 days after that.  Anyway, I contacted the principal, and he talked with the teacher. And C11 is now being called C11.

C11's Birthday

So, the birtday was officially the 4th and then activities on the 5th. And here it is days later.

C11 wanted cheesecake for her birthday, and she wanted to make it herself. Unfortunately, because she gets out of school so late (she gets back home around 4) she didn't have time to do it, so I made it instead. I can MAKE cheesecake, but I've only made a few, and I'm not a master. I put the cake in the oven for the minimum amount of time ... which was too long. It did some major cracking. Luckily C11 and M11 decided to decorate it with the blueberries and strawberries I'd bought and it looked fabulous. It wasn't fabulous, but it was edible. A little overcooked, especially around the edges.

We had C11's best friend, M11, and her family over for dinner. Mac & Cheese made especially by TCR46. Made three ways, actually, to accommodate everybody on the birthday: PLAIN mac & cheese for Q9 (which means ... plain pasta), unbaked mac & cheese for C11 (the cheese sauce, but not baked in the oven) and all baked and crispy awesome for everybody else.

Presents. You'll notice she got 1) books; 2) gift cards to book stores; and 3) a lovely picture in a frame from M11. She was supremely happy with it all!!! Oh, and some dresses, also deemed wonderful.

M11 stayed overnight and the next day C11, M11, and I went to Climbzone. I KNOW. AWESOME. I love that place. Q9 was put out, but she can go another time.

Anyway, some climbing highlights.

This is C11 & M11 climbing a wall; look how awesome they are!

And C11 got more than halfway up the tetris wall (this is a tough wall) and was very proud of herself.

Happy 11th, sweetie! Hard to believe it has been 11 years and hard to believe we've only known you for 11 years. XXOO.

Safety patrol

Q9 came home last week to tell us that the PE teacher called her (and a bunch of other children) out and told them they'd be safety patrol.

Told, or asked??? I don't know.

Q9 is in charge of a kindergarten class. The kids are "fun size" in the words of a classmate of C11's (yes, it IS C11's birthday, but no photos yet, so just hang on, stop getting ahead of yourself!!!

Anyway, Q9 came home today after her first day in charge of the fun sized kids, all decked out in her safety gear! She helps them in the building in the morning, and out in the afternoon. Maybe with snack, too. Love love love it. I'm so pleased she got chosen, because she is really quite compassionate and caring and conscientious. All around safety patrol material.