Today Aidan's class invited their parents to school to hear their animal presentations. The kids all did a lot of research about a particular animal - Aidan's was the cheetah - and they had to do written reports, a hands-on project, and a PowerPoint presentation. They made their own PowerPoint slides, complete with pictures, sounds, transitions and lots of information - and then they had to present the slides orally using a microphone. All the students did a great job, and even though we were a friendly audience, we were probably pretty intimidating! Aidan's report was great and we could all tell he put a lot of work into his presentation. Good job, buddy!
Anyway, the reports were all done by about 2:45 - and that counted two of the reports being done twice, as those kids' parents were late arriving due to other commitments! So as we were all there already anyway, and as Mrs. Schmuker had planned for that to take a lot longer, most of us just signed the kids out and came home! That was an unexpected treat!
So we had a fun afternoon and evening of doing things we don't normally have time to do. We came home to drop off all of Aidan's stuff, and then went out to the Hallmark store to add to our collection of WebKinz. Aidan chose the Pet of the Month, a panda, which he named Bamboo. Esme chose the girliest thing she could find, a pink poodle, which she named Polly. Then we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things - which turned out to be mostly fresh fruit and a lot of unnecessary snacks. This is why I don't normally shop with the children! They are good snack-pickers, though...they choose things like blanched almonds, multi-grain crackers, BabyBel cheese and yogurty raisins. Ahhh, I have taught them well. Perhaps to temper my claims, though, I should also mention that when it's Aidan's turn to take a treat to school, he always picks chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting; and that when Esme eats a doughnut she eats it from the top to the bottom - frosting first (yes, it's quite possible, apparently). So our snacking habits aren't ENTIRELY without indulgence...
We stopped at home to drop off the groceries (frozen foods, you know...) and then went to Jimmy John's for sandwiches for dinner. Good stuff! I can't believe we've been eating Subway for so long. And they really are "freaky fast". I honestly don't know how it's possible for one person to make three sandwiches in less than one minute, but they do it every time.
When we got home we took a few minutes to sign Bamboo and Polly up on WebKinz, and then we made popcorn and watched The Muppet Movie. Esme freaked out when Mel Brooks was about to fry Kermit's brain, but we convinced her to stay and watch, and she found out that Miss Piggy would save Kermit and there was no reason to worry.
On the medical front, apparently there is nothing wrong with me, so who knows what caused the heart-racing a week ago. I am all clear to go to the dentist without antibiotics, but I've been advised to wait a month before giving blood again. I also have to continue taking the atenolol (or whatever - I might not be spelling that quite right) until I see the doctor again. As it makes me really tired and gives me a headache, I will be seeing the doctor on Monday, and hopefully I can stop taking that medication.
My book is still at the "publisher," but I have had reports on its progress and it appears to be making some. Yesterday I had to go in to check that it had the right number of pages (it didn't, so I uploaded a new file for them), and tomorrow I am going in to check that the cover is as I requested it - they're printing a silver cover with black lettering! Shouldn't be too long now!
I know Mother's Day isn't until Sunday but I've already received gifts and cards from my family! Esme made me a beautiful cutout profile of herself at school, and a pretty card with a poem on it. The profile is black construction paper but it is so nice I am going to get a frame for it. Today Aidan brought home a little fabric basket he made, with silk flowers and Hershey's kisses; and he wrote me a little letter to go with it, too. (Earlier in the week I did a lot of fabric cutting for Mrs. Schmuker...but she didn't tell me what it was for!) Also, this afternoon when we got home from Aidan's presentation, there was a pajamagram on the front porch from all of my bofas! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in our lives!