Jazz Bash By The Bay

Hello blog readers! I'm hopeful that this is the first of many new blog entries. It is almost Spring after all, and hope springs eternal. Two weekends ago, we escaped to Monterey, CA for our annual jazz festival with Daddy's family. Traditionally we meet in Seaside, OR, but we decided to head further south and hope for better weather than horizontal rain. It was a super decision! First, Hazel geared up for the trip. She had her hood up at the airport, "so she wouldn't be recognized." That's her Diego animal rescue phone, and she let us know that there had been a tsunami in CA and a whale was waiting to be rescued! Al rescate! To the rescue!

 

 

Guess what? It was sunny! The sand in Carmel was soft and warm...

 

Note the buried feet.

 

 

 

 

Hazel would wait for the waves to come up and then run from them, as the water was not as warm as the sand. Eventually, she let the waves get her wetter than planned.

 

Carmel is all about tourism. Hazel was staring into Candy World and saying, "I have to go in there and get something!" So, of course, we did. 

 

Famous lone Cypress tree, on the fabulous 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach. 

 

Oh yes, we were also there for the jazz. Hazel enjoyed the washboard extravaganza and attended six jazz sessions - her best number to date. She was always ready to leave halfway through but was a trooper and enjoyed dancing crazy to the music. Oh, and for the first time, she didn't request ear plugs. She is a seasoned veteran, having been to five jazz festivals. Our favorite group usually sings Happy Birthday to her, and this year was no exception. After the serenade, they asked what her favorite instrument was. After a moment's thought, she said "the drums!" She was rewarded by the drummer running down the aisle and handing her a pair of sticks! Thanks to Danny and the rest of the band for making her trip extra special. She also received some customized jazz beads from a sweet lady.

 

Just lounging with Daddy at the airport, on the way home. She always enjoys spending extra time with him when he's on vacation.

 

For the life of me, I cannot get this photo to turn right side up. So please turn your computer in its side. : )  After our trip, I asked Hazel to draw her favorite moment, and she drew getting the drumsticks. Definitely a memorable trip!

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

I loved Hazel's Thanksgiving prayer today. The first line is our standard one, but she added the second. "God is great. God is good, and we thank him for our food.

On this day, we all give thanks. We all give thanks for family and friends."

 

We had a bit of a lazy day, as we had a restaurant reservation. We watched the Macy's parade, and then Hazel planned a party for us. I thought perhaps it was a Thanksgiving party, but she said it was just a party. She started out by having us choose instruments and play some tunes before trading out instruments and playing more tunes and again and again.Then it was time for games. Tossing a hacky sack back and forth and then a 3-legged race around the house. Then Daddy escaped, and I played a game where a large rubber ball was in a plastic bag, with which we then hit other balls. I'm not sure what the purpose of that one was. Then she set the table for tea and poured water for all. It was quite the event you all missed.

 

Goodbye to the cold

We are California bound today, and while the forecast may call for cooler temperatures, it will be 40-50 degrees warmer than home. We'll see Grandma Kitty, Grandpa Don, Aunt Trudy, Uncle Milton, Aunt Hilary and the adorable wee cousin Mairen. Oh, and we finally get to walk down Main Street in Radiator Springs! Whoo hoo to all of that! So, before we go, here are some photos of Hazel from last weekend. She was out helping Daddy put up the Christmas lights on the fence, just in case it snows a bunch while we're gone (which is currently predicted), making that more difficult. The first picture is Hazel on the roof, outside our bedroom, helping Daddy put up our star. It's a large flat space, but I kept telling her to stay near the windows just the same.

 

When our trees were cut down after the windstorm, they made Hazel a cute chair.

 

 

 

This last one is per Hazel's request. She liked her smile. I like her eyes. Lovely, goofy kid!

October and Halloween

On September 30th, Hazel's Halloween began by helping with the annual decorating of the neighbor's yard at the end of our street. Fall in Alaska is pretty much almost winter, so Hazel dressed herself appropriately for the weather - hence the mismatched gloves. I like the hat over the balaclava.

 

This neighbor's yard turns into a graveyard for the month, with ghosts, skeletons, witches, ghouls and witty sayings on too many headstones to count. Hazel's job is to collect the almost dead flowers from nearby yards and place them at the foot of the stones and any other appropriate place she can find. Helping with this project usually means that she ends up less afraid of creepy Halloween decor, but we did end up with one dramatic, teary moment when I made the mistake of explaining what "buried six feet deep" means. (It was on one of the tombstones). This is Hazel's favorite tombstone. Hopefully she doesn't have an image in her head of what it would look like.

 

 

 

See the flower in the middle of the web?

 

Neighbor Emmy high-fiving the skeleton, who has a bloom in his coffee cup.

 

Playing in the leaves with Brady.

 

Thought I'd include a few of Hazel's random dress-up moments for the month. This is an upside down doll's tent re-appropriated for a rain hat?

 

Looking like an early 80's blond Pat Benatar?

 

 

Thanks to teachers' inservice days and parent conferences, we took a quick trip to my folks' house and were very happy to borrow some of cousin Havalah's costumes to try on. You all know this beauty from Wonderland, I'm sure.

 

Havalah surprised Hazel when dropping us off at the airport by giving her this rainbow colored, ethereal fairy dress. Hazel was over the moon to bring it home with us.

 

Hazel was happy to hand out candy for the first 45 minutes until Daddy arrived home to man the door, and then we bundled her into two pairs of socks (under her very cheap, flimsy moccasins), long underwear, turtleneck, snow pants and finally her "Indian princess" dress. She picked this hat to wear, because it looked like she had two black braids, and she also wore a headband with a red feather. She was plenty warm without a coat, but one shoe did fall off a couple times and her sock got wet. Nevertheless, snow and freezing temperatures didn't stop her (or the 800 other youth) from trick-or-treating, and she could have gone on long after we stopped (which was after two blocks). She then continued to hand out candy at the door for about an hour - so excitedly, jumping up and down and opening the door long before the kids were actually headed up the stairs to our porch. There were some creepy costumes, but she only refused to put candy in one bag belonging to a fellow (?) in a long black hooded robe, with cobwebs around his face. Personally, the creepy, crouching, dancing werewolf was the one that I disliked... and the Scream masks with dripping blood in them. Yuck! 

 

 

 

Neighbor Cowboy Brady.

 

Hazel's vote for the cutest pumpkin of the night.

First two weeks of school

This week is the first regular school week since Hazel started school. The first week they began on Wednesday, and the second week included Labor Day and an unscheduled day off due to lack of power from our terrific windstorm. Daddy said that he noticed more little ones crying the day after the holiday - they may not have realized that this is a full time gig for the year. Hazel, however, is excited for school every day - once she fully wakes up. The last five minutes before heading out the door have been a bit hectic, but our morning preparations are mostly peaceful.

 

Hazel did finally remember to ask her recess friend for her name, but she had already forgotten it when she got home that day. We also ran into a classmate at Red Robin last week, and they hugged and were so excited to see each other. Then Hazel said she couldn't remember if that friend was Isabelle or Elsa. Too funny. Let's see... she has bravely not cried when getting two rope burns from the play toy. She has figured out how to eat faster, since snack time and lunch time started out too short for her. She enjoys music time and PE, and she is very excited to exercise most days so that she can check off days on her exercise log sheet. They get a prize when they complete one every month, if they exercise at least three times a week. We've kicked the soccer ball, gone for walks, and raked leaves, but some days Hazel just has me time her while she runs in circles around the house. She even has me running around with her. 

 

The first weekend after school started, Hazel spent several hours preparing to have school for Daddy and I. She made good behavior charts for us and a prize box. If the kids get a sticker for good behavior every day, they get to pick something from the prize box at the end of the week, in both the German and English classes. This means I no longer have to buy Hazel things from the dollar bins myself - yaay! Back to school... Hazel called us into her room and then provided us with an example of the stenciling she wished us to do.

 

Daddy is holding up his behavior signs. He started out on green, but then got in trouble and had to change his card to yellow. You'll be happy to know that he did receive a good behavior sticker for the day.

 

You may not be able to see this, but Hazel drew smiley faces on squares of paper and taped them to the items we were allowed to play with for free time. She also wanted us to have recess and lunch, but we declined and opted for a shorter school day. We did have Saturday chores to do, after all.

 

Teacher Hazel burped and laughed at herself. It was such a perfect expression.

 

Daddy drew a firetruck during art time. Hazel gets her drawing talent from him.

 

My drawing was a bit more juvenile.

 

Hazel wrote letters inside of her stenciling, I think.

 

Our first day of school was capped off by Hazel presenting us with our very own schultuten she had made.

 

These are the gifts I received in mine.

 

The windstorm took down our nice big birch tree in back. Notice how it carefully fell down the middle of the yard, missing the fence and the house. The deck it fell on barely has a scratch as well.

 

The view from Hazel's window. She likes to crawl under the branches on the deck and say she's in the tree. We had fun helping the neighbors clean up their yards the morning after. The kids happily helped for several hours.

 

Hazel decorated this frame at Michaels for Grandparents' Day, but she decided to keep it herself. Sorry about that to the grandmas and grandpas, but we did think about you all this weekend. Hazel wore her dirndl for school picture day, and you will be getting a copy of that at some point.

 

As the mornings are now frosty, the mountains have fresh snow, and the Christmas decorations are appearing at select stores, Hazel has started her Halloween preparations. She already has her costume - an indian princess dress - and she made these two projects this weekend.

 

First day of kindergarten

Wednesday was Hazel's first day of kindergarten. She's attending a public charter school that is a German immersion program. It's all day, and part of the time is spent in an English speaking classroom and part in a German-only classroom, with a separate teacher for each. She's such a little smarty-pants, and I'm hoping the additional language will keep her busy in school. I also hope my five years of German long ago are still hidden away in my brain somewhere, and I'm looking forward to re-learning with her. She was not impressed with her assessment tests with her teachers - way too easy.

She's been looking forward to school all summer - well, actually, since February. She was disappointed to learn she would not start kindergarten the day she turned five. Anyhoo... on with the details.

Since I've never discouraged Hazel from being a late riser, we took three weeks to ease her into having to wake up 2-3 hours earlier than usual - just before 7 am. She doesn't complain too much about having to get up, but she still takes an hour to fall asleep, even though I know she's tired. Hazel's quite proud of her lunch sack and backpack. She says the backpack is heavy, although it only carries her water bottle (required) and some spare clothes.

It was very important that I take a side shot as well.

Daddy will drop Hazel off most mornings on his way to work (helps him get out the door in a more timely manner too), but we both joined her on the first day. I hadn't noticed how reflective her straps were - just shows her shiny potential.

 

They sit five to a table, and she shares a table with different kids in English vs. German. It's nice to get to know several table mates. She told me that she met her first friend today, however, during recess. She didn't ask her name, but she remembered she had two cute blond pigtails. I suggested they exchange names tomorrow.

In Germany, kindergartners receive schultuten (cones) on their first day of school, which contain gifts of school supplies and a few sweets (Hazel was disappointed there weren't more sweets). There was a special assembly to present them all, and when Hazel's class entered the gym, she was jumping up and down and waving to the crowd with both hands. Perhaps she learned this entrance from watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The other children were a tad more subdued. While my camera was not focusing well, I think you can tell she's jumping.

 

Hazel was very patient to wait until we got home to open her gift (those were her instructions from the principle).

These are Hazel's Playmobil characters with their schultuten. Maybe Playmobil is a German company?

Hazel's other impressions from the first day or two are as follows. She says she is the best behaved student, always sitting still and being quiet. Her teachers say "pretzels and bubbles" to have the children cross their arms and puff out their cheeks so they stop talking and playing. Cute idea.

She said the English part of the day is easy, peasy, as they are going over letters and sounds when Hazel is already reading anything and everything. She says German is a little harder, and she was disappointed that she wasn't already fluent on the first day. My little over achiever...  Overall, she had a great time on both days and is looking forward to school tomorrow. She says she has plans to teach German classes to her dolls on Saturdays and to us on Sundays. Sehr gut, meine kleine madchen. Hmm... I'll have to find the keystrokes for vowels with umlauts on my keyboard...