The Infamous Double Rainbow

It’s rare, but it does happen.  The Double Rainbow is a neat thing to see, and the other day we happened to have one.  I took a quick video of it, with sound effects and everything.  The second rainbow is very faint in the video, but it’s just a little bit above the one that’s easy to see.  And as a bonus, if you wish upon a double rainbow, your wish is guaranteed to come true.  So be prepared to bow down before me as I’m crowned King of the World (eat it James Cameron!).

Sick as a Dog (or a four year old girl)

 

Not everything was great with Kasia’s first field trip.  When she came, she became noticeably ill.  After she took a brief nap (which she never does) it was obvious that something was wrong.  We took her to the doctor that night, and sure enough, she was struck down with the dreaded pink eye.

The whole next week turned in to a slew of other illnesses.  Her pink eye cleared up, but she then caught a cold. That kept her out of school for a few more days, and then she had something else wrong with her.  So again, we went to the doctor, and this time she had an ear infection.  So we got some medicine for that, and that cleared up as well.  Finally.  After a week of being sick, Kasia finally got healthy again.

And then Kara got sick.  And then I got sick.  Eventually, we’re all going to get better and our house will be the very model of health.  Hopefully that will happen sometime before Christmas.

Apple Picking Field Trip

Kasia went on her first ever field trip with her pre-school in September. The whole class went out to Knotts Island to go apple picking. Suffice it to say, Kasia had a great time wandering in between the various apple trees and picking everything and anything that slightly resembled an apple. Kasia was initially going with the philosophy of "quantity over quality." We quickly had to correct this view and had her picking some high quality apples in no time. And pick them she did. We left with a bag over-flowing with apples of all kinds, and despite the fact that Kasia won't eat them, she had a great time picking them. Kara was able to turn the pile of apples in to two very delicious apple pies (which I enjoyed very much).

Kasia's pre-school and her teacher Miss Debbie

After the apple picking was finished, the class then took the ferry back home. We really lucked out in that the weather was absolutely perfect for a field trip and ferry ride. It was sunny, warm (but not too warm), with low humidity. You could not have asked for better weather for being outdoors. Kasia loved the ferry ride almost as much as picking apples. She and her friends were able to run amok around the ferry, and just have a great time.

It was the first of many field trips that she's going to be going on this year, and this one certainly set the bar pretty high.

Hurricane Earl Ruins Our Day

So there's this hurricane churning out in the ocean that is coming our way, and it has completely ruined our day. The schools are closed today, and probably tomorrow, because of this thing, and that means Kasia doesn't have pre-school today. Now, the little girl who was screaming and crying on her first day because she was at school and just wanted to go home was no at home and screaming and crying because she couldn't go to school. Over and over she just kept crying "I WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL TODAY!!!" It's amazing what a few days can do.

Now, instead of doing all the stuff I had planned for the day, I instead have to move all our lovely patio furniture in to the garage so that it doesn't blow away. And the sad part is that we're probably not going to get all that much of a storm anyway. I may be wrong, but this isn't the first storm that they have hyped as being the big one that's going to get us all. A few years ago, tropical storm Hanna was supposed to be the big one. That one ended without it even raining here, and the worst damage I had was a shingle blew off my roof. And I spent that day moving my neighbor's patio furniture because I didn't have any of my own.

So we'll see how it all turns out. It's supposed to be at its closest late tonight. We'll probably get a good breeze and some nice kite flying weather, but I don't anticipate anything bad. The really bad thing is that apparently since the state of North Carolina is in a state of emergency, the sale of alcohol is prohibited. Now how am I going to throw a hurricane party if I can't buy beer and margaritas?

Kasia's First Day of Pre-School

Kasia today went to her first day of pre-school. A little girl could not be more excited for a day to arrive, outside of Christmas that is. She has been looking forward to going to school since we first signed her up last spring. She was ready to go. She had her backpack all ready. She had all her school supplies ready to go. This girl was ready for school. That is, until we got to school.

Today has been a day of mixed emotions. First there was excitement (as seen in the picture above). Kasia was skipping all the way to the car as we were getting ready to go. Her friends were all going to be at her new school, and she was all ready to play. We got to the school and she was all excited. She hopped out of the car and ran up the stairs. Then suddenly, after we walked in, fear fell over her and she was no longer excited.
It's a little hard to tell from the picture (and I didn't want to take too many pictures of her not having fun), but Kasia was not feeling good about school. She was clinging to Mom and Dad with a death grip. In fact, at one time, she was holding on to me so hard she would have made an NFL coach proud. There were tears, lots of tears. She didn't want to take her backpack off. Her friends were there waiting to play, but she didn't care. We tried to calm her down and get her relaxed so she could have some fun, but it just wasn't happening. Then the teacher asked Kasia if she wanted to go see a puppy that they had in the next room. Kasia said yes, and away we went. Hopefully she'd have a better time when we were gone.

Apparently that worked. The teacher called us about five minutes later to say that Kasia was all smiles and playing great. I guess they went to see the puppy, and Kasia started talking about how she has a dog named Michelle. And then she kept on talking about dogs and puppies and what her dog likes to do. The teacher asked if she wanted to go play with her friends, and Kasia said yes and away she went. She never even asked where we went. She never noticed that Mom and Dad had left.
When I went to pick her up, Kasia was all smiles. I walked in the door, and she was bouncy and smiling. She came running over to me as happy as a clam and showed me all the wonderful crafts they had made that day. This was not the same little girl that I had dropped off just a few hours earlier. She was going on and on about about everything they did and how much fun it all was. She told me that she was extremely excited to go back to school tomorrow.

So while the day was a mixed bag of emotions, at least it ended with some happy ones. Kasia had fun and is looking forward to going back. We couldn't ask for anything more.

Two Peas in a Pod

When our neighbors across the street moved and rented out their house, I told them that the new occupants needed to have 1) a four year old child 2) preferably a girl and 3) a stay at home dad. Well, they tried their hardest, and they got two out of the three. A couple weeks ago, Kasia's newest friend moved in across the street, and the two have been inseparable ever since. Kasia's first thought in the morning is now what the fastest way is to get ready so that she can go out and play with Kalina.

The great thing is just how similar the two of them are. Their personalities compliment each other so well that they end up playing for hours and hours at a time without so much as a fuss. They love to play the same things. They get along great. It's awesome. And they both have a sixth sense about when the ice cream truck is coming through the neighborhood. The other day, they both came running through the house screaming "ICE CREAM MAN! THE ICE CREAM MAN IS COMING!!!" Kasia was tearing through drawers looking for money to buy some ice cream. I went outside with her and listened for that familiar music. All I heard was silence. Occasionally I could hear the faint sound of wind chimes from a neighbor's house, but nothing else. Then about thirty minutes later, sure enough, here comes the ice cream truck. I was floored. How did they do that? It reminded me of Radar from MASH. I'm not sure how these kids know, but they know.

Our Little Beach Bum

At the beginning of the summer, I was really looking forward to going to the beach with Kasia this year, because she is now finally old enough to really enjoy the beach. Now, while the crashing waves of the ocean are still a little too much for her, she is definitely enjoying playing in the sand a lot more than she was last year.

Earlier this month, we made a trip down to Salvo to visit Karlie, Bryan, and the girls again. We always have such a great time when we go down there that it's a shame we don't do it more often. Sadly, we haven't actually gone to the beach all that much this summer. But now that school is starting and the crowds down in the Outer Banks are thinning (and the water is warming up) we are probably going to head down a few more times in the up coming weeks. We were just down there this past weekend, and it was absolutely perfect. The weather was not too hot and the water was not too cold. Kara and Kasia walked the beach looking for seashells, and then Kasia and I built sand castles together (or rather, I built and Kasia stomped on).

Now we just need to teach Kasia to surf, and all will be good with the beach.