Longest Saturday Ever

Yesterday was the “longest Saturday ever”.

We left our house at 9:00am. Stopped at the bagel store for breakfast and drove to an animal shelter. We have been thinking about adding a dog to our family for a long time now. A shelter about 45 minutes away had just received a large group of puppies from the South 50 puppies! We had looked online and Ally really liked an older dog.

We got to the shelter at 945 – it opened at 10am and there were already 40 people or so in line! Ugh thought Becky and I. But we waited, and Ally picked out this older dog, he was small, only 13 pounds, 8 years old. We had to wait 90 minutes to meet him. We waited and Ally was so patient. She kept going back to stand in front of his cage. It was finally our turn, and we met him, he was nice at first, very mellow no barking. But Ally went to pick him up again (yes we had all picked him up and held him in our laps) but he growled and nipped at Ally. She was fine – but scared. That was it – no dog for us. We made it out of the shelter before the tears started.

In the car we talked about how he was not the one for our family. We had talked at length before we visited the shelter that we probably would not get a dog – but maybe we might. Ally and I really want a pug dog. But we all agreed we should see if we could find a good dog for our family at a shelter before we looked for a pug. So Ally understood that this dog was not the right one for us. We told her that now we would get a pug. Becky and I had talked the night before and decided if there was no dog at the shelter that day we would begin the breeder search.

But oh it was a long drive back towards our house. Ally was so sad. She knew we couldn’t take the dog, but she was sad that he had to stay the shelter where he was so sad and scared and unhappy. Oh my heart ached for my empathetic daughter. It can be so hard to understand something but still not like it. She fell asleep holding my hand in the car. As  we drove towards home, Becky  and I agreed we needed to do something to brighten the day.

We stopped for lunch at a burger place and then visited Lego Land.

 

When we told Ally the day before that we were planning a trip to the animal shelter she was super excited. And had all kinds of questions. Through out the afternoon and evening she would say “I have a question….” right before bed she picked out her clothes to get dressed in the morning. She didn’t want us leaving late. She was so adorable and so patient. It made the whole experience even more heart breaking for Becky and I. But we do feel it was a good experience, and we feel we tried hard at a shelter dog (this is our 2nd attempt at a rescue dog – we had one for a few weeks before we had Ally and had to give him back when he bit Becky.) So we feel its time for a puppy from someplace where we know what the puppy’s life has been before us.

The giant giraffe outside was cool and the Fenway park replica made out of Legos!

We watched a 4-D Lego movie, Ally made a pressed penny as a souvenir.

We posed for pictures in front of neat Lego figurines.

Becky and I were not thrilled with the place, but it was a great thing for us to do to turn our day around and make new fun memories of the Saturday.

We got home at 630pm and spent the next hour before bed with Ally looking at pug pictures and making some inquiries about a puppy. If anyone who reads this knows of any pug puppies please let us know.

Becky’s Birthday

It was Ally’s last day of school so kind of a double celebration!

Opening Presents

Then out to dinner for seafood.

After dinner we went home for dessert. I had made Ally her very own un-frosted cake, since she does not like the brown sugar frosting that is Becky’s favorite.

Ally put the candles on the cake.

Then we sang and Becky made her wish.

Fun day and what a fun start to summer vacation.

Last week of school

On Monday of the last week of school it was Field Day. I stopped by the field between jobsite visits and watched 2 events – the dizzy race and the back to back race.

Ally’s relay team for the dizzy race – you had to spin in a circle 3 times and then run down to the cone and back. Ally was with Lexie, Erik, Oscar, Ally & Alina.

Then on to the back to back event. As you can see Ally paired up with Olive – there is about a 6” height difference between the two of them, which makes a back to back race even more of a challenge.

They took a tumble at the mid point, and finished holding hands.

 

That night Ally said her pinky finger hurt- it was swollen and bruised. After school on Tuesday it still hurt so we went to the doctor to get it checked out. It was x-rayed and not broken. We were directed to tape it to the finger next to it for a few days and it should feel better in a few days. No gymnastics for a week.

As it turns out Olive sprained her finger too – the pinky on her right has as well! Here they are on Wednesday afternoon with their taped fingers.

Wednesday was a half day of school. I took Ally and Olive to Ikea for a quick trip to get some drawers for Ally’s new storage unit. They were still out of stock, but we had fun. After Ikea we went to the pool and 2 friends from school were there, Willow and Colette.

After we brought Olive home we rushed to the park to have dinner with other friends! Below is Ally, Stella and Erik eating their pizza and watermelon at the park.

Thursday was the big Spanish plays in the evening after school.

But first – this is what I found when I picked Ally up at the end of the day.

That is Ally and Oscar all squished into their cubbies hiding behind their backpacks. I had to snap a picture of them.

The first grade had been practicing a series of short  fairy tale  plays. Each play had about 5 students in it, Ally was the 3rd pig in the “True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” which is that the wolf actually was looking for a cup of sugar, and was sneezing when the pigs thought he was trying to eat them. It is a very cute story, and Ally was thrilled with her part. The whole class met at school for pizza and drinks before the performances started.

Ally in her pig makeup – and then in full costume, sitting with Oscar waiting for the 1st performance.

Oscar and Olive were in the “Chicken Little” story.

Erik, Lexie & Jaylinne were the 3 Billy Goats Gruff.

Finally it was time for the 3 Little Pigs. Alex was the wolf, Lily was Pig #1, Melyna was Pig #2, Ally was Pig #3, Dean was the policeman, and Alina was the narrator.

The girls (pigs) behind their houses were adorable.

When one house blew down the girls would leap sideways to the next house.

There is the wolf asking for a cup of sugar. Ally said her lines perfectly – and loud enough to be heard. It was great!

The policeman came and arrested the wolf for terrorizing the pigs.

Afterwards they were introduced and took a bow. The evening was really special. All of the students spoke in Spanish and the native speaking parents said  the accents were amazing, spot on! I think my favorite part was how excited the students were and how proud they were of their hard work.

Friday was Ally’s the last full day of school! (There was school on  Monday, but Ally split her time between camp and school). Friday was also a field trip to a local state park with a lake. We rode with Olive and her mom.

There Ally is in the morning before school. Nali has realized he can get a snuggle in the morning on the couch with Ally while she has her “chocolate milk and cheerios” and watches TV. And Ally on the last day of 1st grade!

At the lake – Ally’s Spanish teachers, Sra. Castineira and Brigida sat in the lifeguard chair! Ally wasn’t ready for the lake so she played soccer with the boys for a while. You can see her pony tail.

Then after lunch Ally played in the lake with Olive and Becker. They made sand castles, looked for fish and had a fun time. We even stayed after the school bus left.

On the way home we stopped for ice cream. It was the perfect day – until Ally got a bloody nose! Lucia quickly stopped the car and while I jumped out and helped Ally deal with it. We all stayed calm and while it was scary no harm was done and no blood was spilled on anything other than a towel and napkins!

When we got home Ally was pretty shook up. We cuddled on the couch for a while and then watched a movie. It was Friday our movie night! It was also Becky’s last day of school.