Mixed bag

What a day. We started by running up to Lorton and picking up a pair paintings done by my grandmother- absolutely fabulous ones, the paintings look good, though reframed. Andy was a charming little angel at the gallery. Kept his hands to himself, asked cute questions, and spread that grin around generously. What a sugar-pie!

Joey had a great day at school. His afternoon teacher, Mrs. S, even came out when I picked up to tell me how great he did, paying attention and listening, and being able to answer questions about what was read. Another charming gentleman.

So of course they turned into wild freaks for the afternoon.

Actually, I am partly to blame, not keeping good techniques for motivation in mind, being tired myself, and over-scheduling. Joey had speech therapy, and then we had the art show at Andy's school. The boys like nothing better than to run wild while I am trying to talk to Ms. Nikki, and today was no exception. However, "sit down!" is not really a great way to get compliance. I think waiting to give out prizes until AFTER the discussion may be better, or having the prize box handy, until I can get them to calm down themselves. (It's not bribery. It's positive reinforcement.)

Andy did some lovely pieces for the show. The show is a fundraiser for the school, so you pay $15 to get the two pieces your kid made, but they do it up right. He made a bear sculpture, and a sand painting of a spider for the 2-D. They added a little picture of him posing as a French artiste, complete with tam and palette, to the corner of the painting- very cute. Tey also had a silent auction for some photos and scrapbooks of the kids, I put in a bid on a photo of the class that was cute. We'll see- the folks at this school are for the better part that "in-crowd" of wealthy folk, its a popular school and a good one. I'm sure shelling out $50 for a pic of the kid is nothing to a good many of these people. So we'll just see.

Anyhoo, there was a bit of chaos as people crammed in to the classroom to find their kids' work, and it got overwhelming fast. Then we had the grand idea to take them out to pizza for dinner, after they were overwhelmed and wound up. They did OK under the circumstances, though the waitress was clearly eager for us to eat and leave.

I was glad to get my Ms. Frizzles to bed where they can take a breath and get some rest.

Results of the day: