Friend of The Week

Aidan is FRIEND OF THE WEEK this week at school.  I knew it was coming up and had to be a very serious situation because we were sent a calendar at the beginning of the year with every one's week pre picked and a short letter on how to prepare.

While I love the fact that his teachers are trying to think outside the box and do something a little more hands on involving the parents outside of the classroom tell me why they think that a 4 year old is going to come home, open the "FRIEND OF THE WEEK" binder and read the 6 pages of what that entails.  NEWS FLASH. They aren't. The parent that has worked 8 hours all day, come home to cook dinner drive the family to Noodles and Co. , folded 4 loads of laundry,  bathed and put to bed her four year old and prayed for an extra ten minutes where she might actually be able to shower herself will have to read it when all she really wants to do is over pour herself a glass of wine, get in her bed, flip through the catalogs from the mail that day and beg her husband to rub her back.

So "FRIEND OF THE WEEK" looks like this.  It's five days of "activities" you do with the giant stuffed Clifford that has been sent home with your child.  Every night you get to read the same Clifford book.  (This is actually a nice change from hearing Adam sing off tune the Puff the Magic Dragon jingle.)  Since Aidan's teacher was out sick on Monday we are being punished we are a few days behind on our activities and didn't get the tote bag full of dog, book and binder until yesterday.  As usual I was running around the house at 1am trying to put together his "3 or 4" items to share with the class and his favorite book. Oh you bet your happy a** I put Puff right in there. And I hope Aidan makes his teacher read it not once but 25 times and says "sing, sing, sing" like he does with us every night.  Back to the 3 or 4 items.  They are recorded in the "binder".  Well of course I pressure myself to be creative because every other mom is going to see what we shared via the pictures we have 2 days to take and develop (who does that anymore) and glue in to the binder. 

Our selections look like this: The wood checker set Aidan covets.  It comes with 40 pieces that will inevitably be left behind at school.  See where I am going with that one?  Yup, my kid plays checkers. Wait, no he doesn't but you will think he does because of the picture.  Next up, a plastic fireman. Because we have 500 of them and I think it will sound nice if I can convince Aidan to say something to his class about how brave firefighters are and how his grandfather bribed the fire department to let him ride on a truck once (that is actually a true story). The third item, a plastic photo album that Aidan likes to carry around. Obviously with the best photos I've ever taken with any and all family members inside.  I need those moms to know that while they see me day after day in no make up and yoga pants, I actually do get dressed and know what mascara looks like.

Tonight, I'll be making a Clifford puppet out of a "kit" they included in our binder (Yeah!) and I will probably be at Kinko's around midnight printing color copies of pictures I took of the Kid with Clifford in different outfits last night so no one would know I cheated and got all this done a few days early so I won't miss CMA's Country Christmas on Thursday night. 

Can't wait!

As Usual, a fuzzy iPhone photo.  Aidan and Clifford at the vet last night.  Clifford and Scout got treated for fleas. Are you dying over those Moose antlers? Me too!

**For the record Aidan has really been looking forward to this week (I have been pumping him up for it) and is loving having Clifford home and that alone makes the little bit of work worth it!**