Hard to believe that it has been a month since I last blogged and I have lots to share.
Amara loves OCSA! We hoped she would! I am lucky and get to go with Jenna most days to drop Amara off in the morning. We’ve been trying to go to the gym afterwards on at least 3 of those mornings and so far we are doing pretty well. Many afternoons I am lucky and get to go with Jenna to pick up, too. It is pick up that is the most fun. Jenna will ask her how her day was and the answer is always “Awesome” or “Amazing”. She loves all her classes and has made some new friends.
It was on one of those pick ups that she told us about the clubs she had joined. They had 2 days where they could rush the different clubs during lunch. The club meetings are held during lunch on different days. Amara joined The Teenage Grannies, The Cat Club, Steven Universe Club and the Undertale Club. We certainly weren’t surprised that she joined the Cat Club. Her nickname at school is Cat because she always has a cat eared headband or her cat eared headphones on! Plus she does have 5 cats! They are going to make cat toys for the Animal Shelter and maybe arrange to go walk the dogs. So of course when it was Spirit Week and they had to come as their favorite animal was there any question about what she would be? The Teenage Grannies drink tea, crochet and knit! Steven Universe is a cartoon that they are all into at the moment. Amara tends to rush her speech and for the longest time I thought the show was called Steve and the Universe! Silly Grandma! Undertale is a video game that all the kids are playing! More on Undertale coming up later.

A couple of times at pickup we have gone for ice cream at Baskin & Robins. A couple of times we have gone for frozen yogurt. One afternoon we took her to buy tap dance shoes for her MT dance class. She already had jazz and ballet shoes and the teacher had said they didn’t HAVE to have them so with Amara growing at supersonic rates Jenna said no to tap shoes. I had taken tap as a little girl and I loved my tap shoes so I asked Jenna if it would be OK if Grampy and I got them for her – that is if she really wanted them. So I asked her, “do you really want to have tap shoes or do you not care?” She thought for a few minutes and said that honestly, she would like to have them. So we went shoe shopping!
I was in the car last week when Amara got in the backseat bursting with excitement and told Mommy that she had gotten one of the leads in the MT Dance Showcase in December! I’ve been there to hear Amara talk about how tough their dance teacher is. They’ve been learning to do planking and if one of the students falls before they are done the whole class has to start over and add 10 seconds! So having him give her one of the leads was extra fulfilling!

We’ve all visited Santiago Elementary too. A few weeks ago they had their 2nd Annual Science and Engineering Fair and they invited Justin back again. We had been there to help with the first one and this one was even better! Again the students could sign up to “Ask a Scientist” and they were very interested in Justin’s demonstration of his company’s software. Grampy went this year and was very impressed with Justin’s presentation.
One of the things we love about OCSA is that modified day (early out) is on Fridays! She usually gets out at 3:30 but on Fridays they get out at 1:30 which meant the 3 of us girls could go to Santiago last Friday and get paletas (fruit pops). It was the first time they sold them this year and we’ve been going through withdrawals! Amara got to see some of her friends again and we all got our paleta fix!
I also joined Jenna, Justin and Amara a couple of weeks ago at the Downtown Santa Ana Art Walk. They have one every Saturday evening but this one was extra special as Santiago’s Intermediate Drama was presenting An Evening with Charlie Chaplin. Each student did their own pantomime and it was such fun to figure out what each of them was doing and it was so great to see old friends – especially for Amara.

Amara’s first year is sure off to a great start! She got her first 6 week progress report on Friday. She got a B in Spanish and the rest were all As! That’s our girl!
We are very proud of her!