Category: Curie

This is the first year of summer camp for Curie and she really loved going to martial arts camp at EMA, but after going to Congressional Camp with her pre-school friends, she has quite fallen in love with the place. She likes being in the specialty camps learning different things and loves her counselors (they love her too) She has been to Congo Chemistry, Lego, Junior Architects, Eco Science, and will do Summer Adventures and Chess. The new schedule changed our commute with Erin taking Curie to camp and Albert taking Elia to school in separate cars. It has really allowed for some bonding with each kid, but it also means a bit of disproportionate time with each one. Continue reading “Curie July 2017”

So Curie graduated kindergarten; there wasn’t a cute ceremony with mortars and tassels, but it was a big deal anyway. Albert did not go to the beginning of his conference to be there when school got out; when he got there, the teachers and all the staff were waiting in the hall to give students hugs and congratulations. Mrs. Best, who is rumored to be retiring, told Curie to “persevere” which Curie has taken very much to heart. Mrs. Campbell is also leaving to go wherever her husband is stationed, so Elia will have a different kindergarten teacher.

That weekend, Albert went to Phoenix for work, and Erin’s parents came down to help out. The girls got haircuts to their shoulders which is significant since their hair had come down their backs before the haircut. Albert was worried since they liked braids and playing princess and queen, but Curie said “I look beautiful!” Alaying any fears.

Curie also began sleeping in her own bed for a few days after sleeping with Albert in the guest room for a while. Her comment was “I am a first grader now.” But with Albert gone at his conference, he wasn’t there to sit next to her as she fell asleep so got lonely in her room and went back to the “big bed.”

The end of kindergarten has meant the start of camp(s), where Curie started the summer with martial arts camp at EVA for two weeks. There she was so proud to be a white belt with stripe and standing in the front row because with the start of camp there were a number of new kids; tiger tots, no-belts, and white belts. Curie just needs her black tip to test for her yellow belt, but since she is going to Congressional Camp for the summer, it will likely take place after she returns. It was a little sad for us that she left martial arts for the summer, but to be fair, the other camps are pretty interesting. So much so that Erin made the comment that she wanted to go herself.

Mrs. Best also recommended that we keep up Curie’s reading, so we enrolled her into a summer reading program on Saturdays for five weeks where she and Erin would go and practice on Curie’s reading and work on it each night of the week.

Curie has been a trooper, working on her emotion control when she is tired, being remarkable when she is not tired. On the field trip to the Air and Space museum, Albert gave Curie $20 to spend on snacks there, and while Mr. Andre did not let the kids go to McDonalds there, he did let them go to the gift shop. Curie came home with a plastic space shuttle for Elia and nothing for herself. You know why? A long time ago, Curie got that space shuttle, her rocket, at the museum and Elia got a little die cast one; later when they were playing, Elia was upset because she didn’t have the plastic one. This was two years ago. We even bought Elia one later because she was so upset. This must have made an impression on Curie because she bought it because she remembered that Elia wanted it back in the day. Curie has a really good heart (so does Elia) and earned her yellow tip with that.

So Curie is growing up and she has new friends at kindergarten, and is going to go to camp with her old friends from preschool. She loves to wear her tsum tsum dress and her purple shopkins dress. She plays queen or mother with Elia, names her play acting “Rosa” these days. Loves little kids and makes it a point to take care of them. This summer she wants to go to the beach, ideally with Eleanor and Miranda, and will learn a lot at camp. She watches too much TV, though we have moved her and Elia to Netflix from “eggs” where she has started watching a broader range of shows than just “Sarah and Duck.” One morning though, Albert asked if she would snuggle instead of watch and the two of them slept on the couch together for hours instead.

Finally, two Curie quotes: Erin said one night “we’re going to have an eat whatever you want night,” To which Curie replied, “does that mean left-overs?” And, in describing our plants we are growing on our porch (we had little strawberries but the squirrels ate them, but our tomatoes have given us two which the girls ate): “That’s our strawberries, that’s our pumpkin, that’s our Chinese food (the Chinese “watercress” that we have been growing). That cracked us up.