Candid Camera and Kindergarten

My goodness. Look at our little girl. She was quite happy with this outfit. Accessorized with the necklace all on her own, and applied her bright pink lipgloss perfectly. 


We were headed to her future school for Kindergarten evaluation. She was actually quite annoyed that I was not LEAVING the school while she had her tests.  I wasn't in the room with her- but this girl wanted mommy GONE (no idea where she gets that....). 


I'm not concerned with how she scored. The kid is adaptable, has been in school since she was 14 weeks old. She's reading a little and is spouting off French words left and right. It still baffles me she's speeding towards age six and 'real' school.

Our trip last weekend to Memphis can only be called a Comedy of Errors. Over the course of roughly 48 hours, we encountered:

• A closed Children's Museum (that only closes one day a year...apparently the day WE are in town)
• A gym of epic existence, where one could easily spend an entire day
• On the hunt for a Chuck.E.Cheese - by choice - in order to makeup for the closed museum.. only to end up in not the best part of town... and then trying to explain to Eileen what that means
• Taking Eileen for a 'Jamocha' Shake at Arbys - of which I'd never heard but clearly SHE knew what it was.. only to wait in line behind a slightly off woman who ordered enough food for 12.. to find out the shake machine was broken.  

This was all just the first day. We finally found a place called "FunQuest" which appeared to have bowling and roller skating. oh yes. real actual old school roller skating.  Only to find out the rink was closing for private Roller Hockey Practice. It was at this point we felt we had stepped into The Twilight Zone. 

WHY is this sideways?!

There was finally success with bowling. Eileen loved it. And there was beer. What more can a family want?!

(why wasn't this place open yet? and why doesn't knoxville have one?!)

There was more fun the next day ...

• Second trip to the Museum proved successful, in that it was open; tho we opted for a new route to get us there... said route took us near the Memphis Airport. I'll leave it at that.  
• Heading back to Dad's we opted for a different route.. which brought us to train tracks with a train. The slowest train you have ever seen in your entire life. Ever. It was baffling.  Bill was inclined to wait it out. When I finally drove him crazy enough he finally took a u-turn and we opted for a more scenic option...
• Taking Poplar Ave.. which is one of Memphis' biggest and busiest streets...happily driving along until we get to a Detour.  Flashing lights, big STREET CLOSED DETOUR signs. Wait what? You don't just close Poplar in the middle of the day.... turns out a train had derailed. 
• Really? really? I mean when is the last time THAT happened? Apparently we are bad luck for Memphis. The plus side here was we took an even MORE scenic route, one on which Eileen got to see Grampie's old house.

Finally home in time to see the SuperBowl. Sigh. Most of you know my team is the Pats.. so that basically sucked. Especially since I am successfully training Eileen in all sports Boston (sans college ball) and she ran around rubbing it in Bill's face that the Pats were winning.. until they lost. Ergh. 

I must now train Eileen in all things superstitious.. curses, jinxes, Bill Buckner.. we have work to do. 

She had a blast with Grandpa & Beanie. She's fascinated by their new house, and the fact that it has a clubhouse is apparently beyond cool. 

She's quickly learning the value of money. The girl is obsessed with the Barbie Jeep. Which is NOT cheap. So we keep telling her if she wants it she has to pay for it with her own allowance. You know.. that parent thing where you tell a kid that so they'll just give up on the idea? I'm usually really good at that.

I guess she reeeealy wants it. 

Sample conversations of late: 

E: oh Mommmy can i get these Squinkies? 

Me: Sure, if you pay for it with you're allowance.

E: Oh. Hmm. Nevermind. I want the Jeep.

This Jeep is one of those that can actually be driven. Gets up to maybe 10mph. On the one hand, if she's inherited a smidge of my grace and coordination, do we actually want her in a contraption with the ability to run over innocent squirrels? 

Awkward Creepy Family Photo

On the other hand.. if she's that determined, and we've been preaching allowance/we're not made of money, if she truly saves the money, how can we say no?

Wait. I figured it out. I'll just do her chores FOR her, so then she can't get any points. And no points means no allowance, right? 

Sweet. SEE? I really am brilliant.