8th Grade Trip to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Several weeks ago, the school announced they would be taking the 8th graders on a special day trip to celebrate the completion of middle school. They asked for parent drivers and I signed up.  Then they told us we would be going all the way to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and to arrive at school at 8am and not plan on returning until 5pm.  Oh boy!  That is a long day and I definitely had some regret about agreeing to the trip before I knew the details.  

But we showed up at 8am ready for a day of fun.  My kids have never been to the boardwalk and I haven't been since college, so I didn't know what I was getting myself into.  

I was assigned six kids, but one didn't show up.  Here's my group (right to left): Mariko, Drew, Vivian, Hadley and Leo.  

Our special wristbands got us unlimited rides and a BBQ lunch. 

It was still early when we got there and the planned activities hadn't started yet, so we decided to stroll the boardwalk and check it out.  

Of course we had to stop at this photo op.  

Hadley and Leo. 

Leo and Vivian

Drew and Leo. 

I've seen this movie countless time.  Leo watched it recently and found its 80s cheesiness hilarious. 

First up on our day's agenda was a beach cleanup.  When we gathered at the beach, Mariko saw some kids she's better friends with and asked to join their group.  That mom only had three kids so I had no problem handing over Mariko.  She had a much better time with that group, I'm sure.  She seemed slightly miserable with these dorks.  

The kids all got one glove for their trash picking-up hand and I held the trash bag.  They were not thrilled with this assignment.  I had them take a picture before we started.  Apparently in just about every picture Vivian flashed a middle finger and I didn't realize until I looked back at all the pictures last night.  Ah, teenagers.  

They found a crab they needed to return to the ocean. 

We had our own private outdoor party area for lunch.  It was pretty cool.  (Strange pose from Leo and another middle finger from Vivian)

It's been over two years since I've been a field trip chaperone.  I didn't miss it, but I also really enjoyed my group.  Plus, I looked very official in my lake hat.  (Oh Vivian)

As we wrapped up lunch, Gavin asked to join our group.  His mom was also a chaperone, but for some reason she was assigned a bunch of kids that Gavin doesn't really know.  Gavin, Hadley and Drew all went to elementary school together.  Gavin is sweet and easy, so I was happy to add him to my dork squad.  Here's a photo op after bumper cars with Mr. Matlock and Ms. Steele.  

A silly one. 

The Giant Dipper is a historic wooden roller coaster built in 1924.  I felt like I should experience it. Wow, what a mistake!  I screamed so much my throat hurt the whole rest of the day and night.   It was my only ride of the day and it was more than enough. 

Gavin smartly sat that one out, so here's the rest of my chuckleheads ready to board.  

Vivian ran into her "boyfriend" as we were exiting the Giant Dipper.  He was in line and she asked if she could ride again with him.  The other chaperone was willing to take her so off she went and we moved on to the log ride.  

Gavin decided to join this one and they all came out soaking wet.  It was a hot, beautiful day at the beach (kind of rare in Santa Cruz in June) so they dried out fast. 

This was a very fancy garbage can named Leo so of course I needed a photo. 

Dole Whip cheers!  (Not as good as Disneyland Dole Whip, but it was refreshing and practically medically necessary because how much my throat still hurt from the roller coaster screaming.)

They rode more rides and played some games.  They were entirely terrible at the games, but somehow Leo won this ugly orange creature.  The other kids were excited for him.  Except for Vivian who was in a bad mood for the rest of the day because her boyfriend wasn't all that interested in hanging out with her and she ended up back in our group to listen to her headphones and pout.  At least she didn't flip off the camera in this picture! 

 We wrapped up the day at 3:45.  I returned Gavin to his mother and took back Mariko for the ride home.  We were all sticky and drained of energy.  It was way more fun than I was expecting.  Drew is one of the most delightful kids I've ever met.  They were all so easy and happy.  Plus the weather was gorgeous.  It all worked out.  I knew I would be tired when I got home, but I was beyond exhausted.  I'm still tired today!  But at least my throat finally feels better.  Ha! 

Middle School Pride Party

The Middle School has a Gay and Allies club, and they organized a Pride Day event with lots of activities.  They started out the day decorating cupcakes with their mentor groups (kind of like homeroom class).  I made big batches of frosting for each kids' class.  I used two pounds of butter!  

I helped in Serafina's classroom because Leo's classroom is very small and has some of the biggest kids at the school.  

It was messy, but the kids had fun.  

Here's Serafina's cupcake. 

I stopped by Leo's room to take this quick picture.  

Here's Arya, Serafina and Mia ready to head out to the outdoor activities.  

Once outside, they linked up with Rozalynn.  

There were lots of stations outside.  They was flower crown making, nail painting, henna, temporary tattoos, shaved ice and a bounce house. They're was also a tie-dye station.  I sent my kids to school with white shirts to tie-dye, but I told myself that I wasn't going to help at that booth since it seemed like it would be too messy and chaotic.  Well, when we first got outside, I wandered by the tie-dye booth and was slightly alarmed. I headed inside, grabbed the apron I had brought for cake decorating, some good gloves and started helping.  Of course, the most important thing I needed to do at that station was warn those kids not to wash their freshly tie-dyed items with any laundry they care about.  

Anyway, my kids visited me periodically.  Here's Leo showing off the manicure his friend Vivian gave him. 

Leo and Hadley got matching (temporary) tattoos.  

My kids will only be in the same school together for another week, so I made them take a picture together.  

The last activity was a "color explosion" using colored chalk.  My kids didn't participate but it was fun to watch.  

Here's Serafina getting a very messy hug from Rozalynn. 

 

Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday the kids took turns running some errands with me, and then the rest of the weekend I was shuttling them to and fro to fun stuff.  

On Sunday, Serafina went to Great America (our local amusement park) with her friends.  I wasn't sure if it was the best idea with her boot, but I couldn't deny her a fun time with her friends.  She promised to take it easy. (Spoiler alert: she didn't). 

Here are the girls right as we arrived.  Left to right: Serafina, Arya, Mia and Rozalynn)

Leo and I went through the gates to go to Guest Services to resolve an issue with my pass. On our way, he ran into Snoopy and had to take advantage of this photo opportunity.  The line was too long at Guest Services, so we headed out.  That evening he hung out with his friend Vivian. 

Mia's mom Nina was serving as chaperone for the girls.  She hung out with them and sent the other moms lots of pictures.  Icee time! 

They realized pretty early on that Serafina's boot could get them this special "green pass" so she didn't have to stand in line.  The rest of the crew also got wrist bands to skip the line.  We just might hang on to that boot for future visits. 

They went on a #D ride.  Serafina reported back that I would hate it.  

Not only did Nina hang with them for seven hours on a holiday weekend, she also delivered all home!  Here they are headed out and Serafina has her foot elevated.  

On Monday, I drove Leo and his friends to see the Bob's Burgers movie.  I told them I would be their chauffeur if he took a picture in front of the movie poster in his Bob's Burgers shirt. 

It was a fun weekend with people coming and going.  I'm so happy these kids are going out in the world and (knocks all the wood) we have still managed to avoid Covid. 

 

Serafina's Stress Injury

The last dance competition/convention Serafina did was a little too much on her foot.  She was in pain after and despite icing and resting it as much as possible, it wasn't getting any better.  I took her to the doctor to check it out and he decided she should immobilize it in a walking boot for at least two weeks to allow for better recovery, and so she can be in good shape for her recital in June.  She's still going to her dance classes so she can observe and reinforce the choreography for recital.  She didn't want me to take a picture of her in the boot, but she let take a picture of just the boot.  So here it is, combined with ballet tights of course. 

 We went to the same office where she was treated for her leg break almost 12 years ago.  It brought back some less than pleasant memories for me. 

Beautiful May Tahoe trip and THE TREE

Because the kids had their Olympics day at the park, they were done early and we headed up to Tahoe in the mid-afternoon.  Getting there while it is still light out is always nice.  Discovering a giant tree has fallen in the yard is not so nice.  Oh boy. 

Here's a little video showing the downed tree. 

There were high winds about a week ago, so there were other trees and branches down in the neighborhood, but it definitely seemed like ours was the biggest. 

The fact that it fell in the space between the house and the shed is incredibly lucky. 

We could see a few branches on the roof so there may be a bit of damage up there, but nothing too major. 

The canoe that was being stored behind the house didn't make it though.  We do have some kayaks under the house, but the canoe was the vessel that would have fit all of us and maybe even Mousse if we could convince him to get in. 

The weekend was a combination of enjoyable activities and hard work.  Saturday we mostly enjoyed ourselves.  First up was a hike with just Tom, Mousse and me.  The kids weren't interested so we let them skip it this time to spare ourselves the whining.  Mousse is always an enthusiastic hiking companion.  Here he is posing in a pretty meadow at the beginning of the hike.  

We didn't go all the way to the top of the hike, but we did get high enough to find some snow, which inspired snow zoomies from Mousse. 

On Sunday, we did force the kids to take a walk around the neighborhood with us.  Leo is trying out some contact lenses.  He's tried them before but never really took to them.  This time he has these cool sunglasses as motivation to make the contacts work.  He's almost caught up to Serafina's height, which I swear happened over night. 

The kids turned back after a little bit.  Tom and I made our way through the neighborhood until we got to the lake.  We learned that before Memorial Day, dogs are allowed at the public beach.  Mousse was happy, but he also harassed some huge geese.  

Tom was very much enjoying the weather and the view. 

Lake side selfie.  I picked up this hat in town on Saturday and it's my official lake hat.  I'm very pleased with it.  

After our nice walk and some lunch, it was time to deal with the yard.  We are leaving the tree situation to the professionals, but there was still plenty for us to do.  All in all, the weekend was great with beautiful weather.  It wasn't too crowded up there, but that will be changing as the summer approaches and the tourists roll in.  
 

Middle School "Olympics" Day

The middle school held another Olympics day at the park on Friday.  It's similar to the field days my kids suffered through in elementary school.  There was one in the beginning of the school year.  I guess I didn't post about it, but I was there the whole time as a score keeper and it was exhausting.   This time I just helped serve lunch, which was a lot better.  A friend of mine was there as a score keeper and she sent me some pictures. 

Here's Leo, Hadley and Drew. 

Check out the photo bomb from Ms. Steele in the background. 

Serafina took a selfie with Selah and Jade.  

She's nursing a sore foot (too much dancing, honestly) and her friend Arya kept her company. 

Mia, Serafina and Arya. 

 

Heat Convention and Competition

 Serafina had her last regional dance competition of the season.  It was at an old Doubletree Hotel near the San Jose airport, so we didn't get a room.  We arrived at 8am on Saturday so she could take the workshop classes, and then after the last class, it was into a dressing room to get ready to compete.  

This was the most crowded, chaotic dressing room I've experienced.  I was sitting near an outlet, which was great later in the night when I needed to charge my phone, but it was downright frightening when a mom plugged in a hair straighter and disappeared for a very long while making me extremely concerned she was going to burn the hotel to the ground.  

The girls didn't seem to mind all the action in that small room.  Here's Serafina doing Kavni's hair.  

The "Junior" division was up first and Serafina had two routines to perform.  First up was Show Jazz.  Still her ugliest costume.  

Her jazz routine was also in the Junior division.  Evan, the lone boy in the routine, did not perform with them so they had to re-choreograph the dance so Serafina started out in the middle.  Her dad managed to come down to the hotel in time to see her dance.  He also got to witness the sheer lunacy that is a dance competition in full swing. 

These girls are so cute I can barely stand it! 

Then it was time for awards.  Here's Stella and Serafina getting silly with their selfies. 

The jazz routine placed 7th for "large group" routine.  This is an excellent showing in a very competitive category. Serafina got to accept the award. 

But the big deal was Show Jazz taking not only 1st in their category, but also winning the highest placement ("Fire"). And if that wasn't exciting enough, at the end of the award ceremony, they announced that just one routine won the "Entertainment" award and would be one of three routines invited to perform during the closing ceremonies.  Show Jazz won!  

There wasn't much time to celebrate because it was time to dance again. Up next: the Teen and Senior categories.  Here's Linda, Megan and Serafina ready to perform their hip hop routine. 

Last dance for Serafina was Lyrical. These two routines also did really well and placed.  But by the time awards were over, I could barely see straight.  We had been there for over 14 hours and we were both fully exhausted.  

But the thing with dance conventions is that it doesn't matter how tired you are from the first day, the second day comes for you at 8am.  So back to the crappy Doubletree for more workshop classes, including a ballroom class taught by a Dancing with the Stars performer. 

Here's a sweaty workshop selfie with Linda and Ananda. 

After classes, all the Show Jazz kids had to hurry up and get ready to perform again for the closing ceremonies.  This time there was no dressing room, so it was bathroom stalls for changing and hotel hallways for hair/makeup.  Here's Serafina and Ananda getting ready.  

It was really cool that the Show Jazz was included in the closing ceremony since only three routines were "Entertainment" winners out of hundreds that competed over the weekend.  Once we were done, we went home and I just relaxed the rest of the afternoon.  Tom picked up some Indian food to celebrate Mother's Day and I was extremely appreciative.