Meetings and pancakes

Halfway through a busy week and it is finally warm and sunny!!! Of course it will be cool and rainy this weekend but at least there is no snow in the forecast. Yesterday I had Carolyn's Jr. Kindergarten transition meeting at her school. Because she is on an IEP and going to a different school than the one she is at they have a transition meeting so the new teacher and support staff have a chance to learn about her and figure out the best way to keep things as problem free as possible next fall. I missed Matthew's meeting last year so I had no idea what to expect. All in all it was quick and painless. I had a small scare when Carolyn's teacher started out the meeting by stating she was going to be attending a different school than the one we were at. There are three elementary schools in Brandon, one of them will be opening up next fall and that was the school Julie mentioned. All of us at the table had this stunned look on our faces. It turned out that Julie had just come from a meeting at the new school so she was still shifting gears. We are not in the new school's district. Carolyn has been making great progress this year and her teacher is optimistic that she will do very well next year. She is scheduled to go in the afternoon so all of her extra services like speech, PT, OT, and her Autism consultant will be during the morning hours. The Autism consultant was left off this form but since it was included on the original IEP she still gets the service. I will probably transport her to Marie like I have done the past two years. This meeting was not as complicated at Matthew's last year when it came to discussing services needed because Carolyn won't need a classroom aid or special transportation. She does have 10 min per week of special education classroom included in case she needs extra help or services but academically she does very well so I'm hoping that this is not used. I'm a little worried about the transportation because she will be riding the bus instead of a van but the bus makes special stops in front of the house for pick up and she and Matthew will be riding back home together so I'll just meet them at wherever the bus drops them off. I think the drop off spot is just up the block a few houses so it won't be too far for me to walk.

Once the meeting was over I headed back home. Hubby got out of work early so he could watch the kids while I went. I wasn't sure how long the meeting was going to go but I figured at least an hour but I was home in about 45 minutes. The Lions Club was doing it's annual pancake feed so I thought it might be fun to take the kids and eat pancakes for supper. We headed over to Sioux Falls and went to the convention center. This is a very big event and they serve thousands of pancakes. We got there around 5 so the line wasn't that bad. There were easily several hundred people in line or eating at the tables. hubby and I joked that the population inside was probably bigger than many small towns in the state. After we finished eating pancakes and sausage they had ice cream for sale for $1 so I took Matthew and Carolyn and headed over to get dessert. Both kids wanted bubble gum but hubby wasn't sure about that flavor and luckily they were out of it when we got up there so we had birthday cake, strawberry and chocolate chip cookie dough instead. Carolyn was upset they didn't have bubble gum so Jim told her the birthday cake flavor was bubble gum and she believed him. I ate way too much ice cream but it was very good. Since it was Wednesday, Matthew had a fitness class at the Wellness Center so we decided to go do that. Hubby and I elected to do one of the aerobics classes that neither of us have ever done. It was a total body workout--I'm still sore as I type this. After the class my Friend Tobi showed up and we met up with Shawna. The two of them were going to do their workout and I decided to walk a little with them While hubby showered. I found out from Tobi what my meal cost in Weight Watchers points---I'm glad I did the class. This morning I made my deadly chocolate chip cookie brownies for the MOPS meeting tomorrow. The brownies are so easy to make. Take a package of chocolate chip cookie mix and make it, take a box of brownie mix and make it, put both of them in the same pan and bake for 35 min. Frost when cool. Matthew has no school tomorrow due to a late start so I won't be able to make my meeting. I'm bummed but at least I get to sleep in (hopefully). It was our groups turn to provide breakfast and I signed up for the brownies and fruit. I don't do egg bakes so on days when our group does breakfast I make the stuff up ahead of time and drop it off the day before. The church we use is open in the afternoons and no one bothers my items. It saves me the hassle of trying to get there early and taking 2, or 3 kids (depending on what year) and food inside. Also if I have a sick kid or don't get out the door on time I'm not stressing because they don't have my food to serve. We only have one more meeting this year. I'm going to miss my Friday mornings. I'm thinking I will do it again next year. Carolyn will be afternoons so I'll just drop her off at school on those days. There is a Brandon group but I have gotten so attached to the Sioux Falls group that I am willing to drive 20 minutes (in good traffic) all the way to the South side of Sioux Falls. All too soon my time in MOPS will be done and I will no longer be a mother of preschoolers.