Another year older, another first day of school conquered!

For reference, we present First Day 2010:

Keeping with my long-standing tradition of honoring each of Felicia’s birthdays with books that tell the story of the year, I’ve got four selections to share.

By any measure, it has been a momentous year for our youngest.

2009-2010 was the year Felicia ascended into the world of her older sister, joining Jocelyn in many important endeavors like school (Kindergarten!) and sports. And church choir. And later this summer, she’ll be part of the Center Stage Dance “Big Show.”

Felicia loves Kindergarten. Until this year, her entire life had been centered around bringing her sister to school. Or to sports practices. Or Choir. And even dance class. … but now it’s all about her too. And she loves it.

So the books attempt to capture that, and more.

My Kindergarten (by Rosemary Wells) is an incredibly fun collection of activities, poems, and lessons from the standard Kindergarten curriculum.

Nearly coincident with her birthday is the traditional “100th Day of Kindergarten,” which her class will celebrate on Tuesday. School children across the country will undoubtedly mark the occasion by reading Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day, as will we.

And 2009 was a big year for our Family’s love of soccer, too. Of course, this was Felicia’s first year of organized soccer after a few of watching her sister’s practices and cheering from the sidelines. Her Green Ninjas had a ton of fun, and she even scored her first goal. And yes, I was the coach for her as I was for most of Jocelyn’s teams. This was also the inaugural year of the new Womens Professional Soccer league, and we enjoyed many of the FC Gold Pride games played in Santa Clara.

So, What Is Soccer? (by Larry Tabash) is a fun book about two sisters who play soccer, and their father who teaches them about the game. And on a more elementary level, My Soccer Book (by Gail Gibbons) is an introduction to the sport for totally new players. Not that Felicia was ever a new player, but the book will help codify the rules in her mind.

The tradition continues … with a twist! … This year’s “Christmas Carol” gift to Mommy was the time-honored ‘Frosty the Snowman.”

While no long, drawn-out explanation is required this year, we added an enhancement to the standard tradition for 2009. Our “Frosty the Snowman” gift included the usual hand-made ornament and a handy kit for actually making Frosty: a magic top hat, an actual corncob pipe, a button nose, and two eyes made out of coal … just add snow!

Speaking of snow, we’ve got it! We are spending the Holidays in our new Serene Lakes Cabin, and so far this year, we’ve got four feet of snow sitting right outside the cabin window. So a snowman-making kit makes perfect sense!

—-

Past Christmas Carol gifts:

2008: The Race That Long in Darkness Pined
2007: Away in a Manger
2006: Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!
2005: What Child is This?
2004: I Saw three Ships
2003: One-Horse Open Sleigh (Jingle Bells)
2002: A Sweetie Goose in a Pear tree (12 Days of Christmas)

Yep, there they are! Congratulations to Felicia, who started Kindergarten today!

And Jocelyn started the Fifth Grade, marking the only year that both girls will ever be at the same school (barring some tricky post-secondary matriculation rubrics that I don’t want to pay for). The confluence was not lost on the girls, who graciously agreed to let me take a picture in the same spot we took on of Jocelyn back in 2004, on her first day of kindergarten.

Technically, Monday’s classtime was only an hour-long for Felicia, while Jocelyn served her full term. That means pursist might say Tuesday if Felicia’s first real day of Kindergarten. Either way, life is changing.

And for those of you worried about what I’ll do with all of my extra time … well, don’t worry … this poor fool is volunteering to co-Chair the school’s big massive Walkathon fundraiser, which ought to keep me quite busy for now.

Over the extended-weekend that Spring Break afforded, I took Felicia and Jocelyn back to Donner Memorial State Park on Monday.

We had also visited the park in January, when there was a lot more snow. So much in fact, that we somehow missed the gigantic memorial statue that you see here in the background. I don’t know how we managed to miss it, since the pedestal itself is 22 feet high — marking the depth of the snowfall when the Donner Party spent the Winter of 1846 at the shores of Donner Lake — and the family on top make sit even taller.

Anyway, there was a lot new to see at the park, since most of the snow we saw in January has melted. We traipsed across patches of snow, but nothing like the snow and ice the covered the trail and the part of the lake on which we had our picnic three months ago.

Everyone eventually gets a chance, of course, but this week — after much anticipation — Felicia was the SJPPNS Four-Day Star!

Among her responsibilities included compiling a letter collage, sharing something that was important to her, and sitting down with teacher Susanne to write some things about herself. Thursday was the big day for her presentation:

Although we’ve been through the preschool with both girls, Felicia is the only Four Day Star in our family. Jocelyn skipped Four-Day to attend another preschool where I was briefly the executive director.

Sometimes when the girls participate on an activity, it’s hard to single out just one fantastic effort. Today was no exception, as the Booksin Walkathon (a whole-family effort to benefit Jocelyn’s school) went off without a hitch for its 21st year.

Jocelyn got credit for 20 miles — 12 of them before her soccer game (where she assisted on both Griffins goals … and got 5 miles credit) — and 3 more afterward to record her personal best in the annual event (it was 15 last year). Felicia, no slouch on her own, walked 4 miles and extra one lap (three laps to a mile), eclipsing the “Junior Walker” expectation of three miles. Here she is with good friend Luca, hamming it up on the grassy infield while her sister completed her walking goal.

Fresh from her “travels” across a variety of culinary destinations at last week’s Food Camp, Jocelyn set about making a gourmet dinner on Saturday for our family, plus special visitor Kiana.

She actually planned the whole menu, right down to the shopping list, and then executed it with only a smattering of adult assistance. She even welcomed a little help from her sister the Sous Chef, and her cousin, too.

Jocelyn even designed the actual menu from which we could order, right down to the price of each item. In addition the California Roll sushi, Jocelyn topped off the meal with fortune cookies complete with fortunes penned by everyone in the family.

It’s been a busy two weeks of almost-daily swim lessons, as we get ready for our even-busier summer.

Today, Felicia even had two lessons! In the bigger picture, she’s riding the pink noodle with some classmates while Jocelyn finished 200 yards of freestyle swimming in the next lane.

The smaller picture is Felicia at AVAC earlier in the day, where she even got to do the Hokey Pokey as part of the last class of the session.