An Evening Out & Kindergarten Orientation!

Our lives are just jam packed lately. This is a busy couple of weeks! So last night (Sunday) we decided to go out to the east coast near Awase Air Base and try Sam's By the Sea. This place was hilarious - like a Hawaiian tiki restarant inside of a ship with exotic birds (real ones) and the most attentive staff EVER. (For the money, they should be...) Here's Mia out front by the BIG tiki when we arrived:

And here is Mia's fruit punch - that kid freaked out when it arrived. Can you blame her?

Our food was delicious - Craig had a steak and I had a baked seafood dish. Mia had chicken and actually ate a pretty good amount of it, for a change. (It had sauce on it - the nerve of those people.)


TODAY, Monday, at 9am, we went to Mia's kindergarten orientation. The rest of the kids started school today - the kindergarteners start next Wednesday, the 5th. So we met her teacher, Ms. Robin, and the TA, Ms. Karey (who's actually leaving on 9/21, so she'll be replaced with someone). Both of whom are delightful.

The run a tight ship! We went to Mia's new classroom - a delightful room with cubbies, 6 computers, a play area (dress up clothes, kitchen, etc), a reading area, 2 bathroom stalls and sinks, and of course, several tables with chairs. Pretty typical. There is a play structure outside, and it's very nice - though it'd be nicer if it were in the shade. There are 23 kids in her class. There are 8 classes. This school is BIG - the kindergarten rooms have their own wing!

Yes - I was "THAT Mom" - here's a picture of the kids on the floor while Ms. Robin was talking:

We got a big packet full of great info, one page of which was the list of supplies. Here they are after our trip to the PX today:
AND - how STOKED am I (and everyone else in our family) - there's a website for the school:
http://www.bob-hope-ps.pac.dodea.edu/
AND and the bottom of the page is an intranet link for which I'll be given a password. Ms. Robin will post pictures every day on there and puts out a newsletter every other week on Fridays. It'll be like having a web cam in the class! I'm so happy. Mia loved it there so much, she whined and cried when we had to leave. She's going to be just fine. I'll be a mess.. but she'll be fine.

Funny story of the morning....
Ms. Robin had the kids sit on squares on the carpet (as pictured above). She got everyone's attention, and said she was going to call roll. So raise your hand high in the air.

"Charles Abrams!"
Mia raises her hand high in the air. The WHOLE room full of parents laughs hysterically, as does Ms. Robin, who chuckled and said, "Sweetie, I'm pretty sure you aren't Charles." And I'm laughing hardest - though my face was in my hands. Well - she followed directions, she raised her hand high! She didn't say she had to call her name first....