What a Day!

Amy and Erin had their swimming assessments on Thursday after school.  They loved this for two reasons:  They got to go swimming again, and we had McDonalds for dinner because we were in such a hurry to get to swimming and then to the school's reading evening.  (note to all health conscious friends and family:  SHUT UP!  Happy meals have apple slices now...SHEESH)

The girls both did splendidly and the young lifeguard who conducted the assessment (a South-African girl who was tickled by the Ghana factor) was thoroughly impressed by their ability and enthusiasm.

Please read on, all is not as rosy as it would seem:

So they do their assessments, well, and the young lady says no problem:  Amy will be level three and Erin will be a whale.  I'm told that's a good thing.  The girls get dressed and we go out to the main office to sign up for lessons and such.  When the lady finds out that Erin's a whale, she says sorry - they have no whale classes on and that if I really wanted Erin to take lessons, I'd have to find at least three more kids of equal age and skill to join her.  I tried all kinds of angles, like private lessons, putting her in with an older class, a younger class, etc.  All were 'no go' except for the private instructor, but that would be 26 bucks per hour.  Because they're Red Cross they can't make exceptions.  Needless to say, Erin was slightly devistated.  Tears welled up.  If you knew the background a bit you'd understand:  We found out that gymnastics were full in our first week in the new house.  Then we found out that dance was full a couple of weeks ago - that was the one Erin really wanted.  It seems that all of these things were signed up for just before we got to Peace River.   I had told her that since we were doing the assessment, she'd be going swimming for sure.  Dumb ass.  

Well, all is not lost.  Skating and snowboarding are taking her for sure - they seem to just want our money.  (of course, they're the most expensive classes too).  I only hope and pray that Erin really really likes skating and snowboarding.  

I think I made this sound terrible and devistating.  Please don't feel too bad - Erin is really fine with it now, and knows that I'll do all I can to get her into a class of four or more swimmers and knows that she might have to wait until spring.  She's really ok with it all.  The tears were just about ten or twenty seconds.  She didn't really cry.  She remains a happy girl who's got a full schedule of play with lots of friends and is fast becoming royalty in this town.  

You want to know who the real loser was in all of this?:

She was so ticked off that she couldn't go swimming.  She cried a heck of a lot more.

Here's a nicer story...

So the girls and I are at Reading night at school.  We go around the rooms, being read to and doing crafts.  Nice.  The last activity is one where we trace out two polar bears, a baby and a mom, and then we use chalk and crayons to recreate the scene of the two of them under the northern lights as in last book that was read to us.  

The lady directing the activity points out two pictures as examples, one by the front door of the school and one over by the office.  I suppose the school has two star artists.

So we do our activity.  Sadie and I get right into it, creating a huge explosion of light and colour in the flavour of Gerhard Richter or Turner.  Amy as usual is quiet, diligently working the chalk into the drawing to get her polar bears just right.  Erin, as usual, isn't too interested and is finished way before the rest of us and is chatting with some kid.  

After about ten minutes, the activity is coming to a close and I'm just waiting for Sadie to finish up.  Amy's got hers done and Erin's walking around.  All of the sudden Erin comes up to me and says "did you see mine?"  and I say "yeah, right there"  pointing to her unfinished piece.  She says "no that one" and points to the front door!  Our little Erin had created the perfect rendition of the book and it was on display at the front door of the school!  Here are a couple of photos.

(I know this is the typical proud parent story and have tried hard not to use any hyperbole or unnecessary praise.  But hey - this is for the grandparents, after all...)

That's all for today.  Talk to you later!