School's Out for...Thanksgiving?!

What a week! Paprika's school was busy all week celebrating Thanksgiving. I only realized yesterday WHY they have been celebrating all week. It's because they have the WHOLE week off school next week. What?! I guess I need to read my calendar better.

Anyhoo, on Wednesday, they had their classroom Thanksgiving Feast. They actually combined all three kindergarten classes for it, so there were about 70 kids total. I had anticipated that it MIGHT be an issue for Paprika, so I made sure to be there for the Feast. Plus, since I'm the classroom photographer, I kinda had to be there anyway!

They had all the kids eating together outside, and the parents were there, too. All told, probably 100 people in a pretty small space. I knew that wasn't going to work for Paprika, so I went inside with her and made her a little plate of food and we sat together. The speech teacher came in and sat with us, and we had a lovely little meal. Paprika tried one bite of her food (the pumpkin pie) and then that was it. But hey, I wasn't even expecting that!

Paprika was a little upset at the Feast because she said she really wanted to be a Pilgrim instead of a Native American.  (Some kids were Pilgrims, some were Native Americans).  She was kind of fixated on that - which I took to mean that either she really did want to be a Pilgrim or that she was feeling anxious and overwhelmed by the party and she needed something to explain why...so that's what she chose.

Either way, I was really glad I was able to be there with her at this event.  After just six short years of being her mom, I can read how she's going to react to a situation and help her through it.  I am so grateful for that.




On Thursday, I volunteered in the classroom for the day. Mr. M has been working cah-razy hours lately. Basically, the only time he was home this week was for a few hours in the afternoon on Wednesday and Thursday. For volunteering in Paprika's class, that worked perfectly!

All the moms in Paprika's class had a "Mom's Night Out" on Thursday night, which I couldn't go to because Mr. M was working. I was a little bummed about that because I would like to get to know some of them better socially...but it is what it is. I keep reminding myself that this is a season of life, and to enjoy each part of it for its own unique challenges and joys.

Yesterday, Paprika had the "Turkey Trot" at her school, which is a fun run to raise money for our sister school in South Central LA. Paprika was so excited about it. She got tired of running after a few minutes (running is not her favorite thing - ha!) and she ended up walking with the school mascot for about half an hour. She said that was the best part of the whole run!

So, now we are officially in our "Thanksgiving Break" week that I knew nothing about until yesterday. We have a few things planned, but other than that, we are just going to relax and staycation.  I'm looking forward to a whole week of not having to wake up Violet from her nap just to go pick up Paprika at school.  It's the little things!  ;-)  Yay!