Thursday, June 26, 2008

You can pick your friends...

Bella's preschool is in summer mode - not much structured learning is going on - which I really appreciate. I feel guilty enough at times that I work full time and she has to be in daycare, so it's great that they treat summer like summer there.

Bella is LOVING the new school. She taken to it like a fish to water and loves going there each day. There's no crying (not that there ever really was, but I sure was worried a new location would trigger it), and, touch wood, she hasn't had a time out for the last week - yahoo!

And on the allergy front, this school has two bonus features.

ONE: They do not allow any outside snacks or birthday treats. AT ALL! The celebrate the children's birthdays without any food at all. Yay! Now, this is kind of a bummer, because what kid doesn't love a cupcake or something on their birthday with their friends, but what a relief! I was basically standing there with her teacher with a bag of safe snacks and wasn't sure what to do with it. They sure didn't need it, which was awesome.

TWO: They have a MUCH better peanut policy when it comes to lunch table seating. Sure, they have a peanut free table, where Bella sits, but at this school ANY of her friends can join her at the table as long as their lunch is peanut free. I was so happy to hear this. At her old school kids were all seated at the same table and it wasn't a great solution.

Maybe things are getting better all around - more awareness - I don't know. But I didn't have to fight anything. It was such a good experience for both Bella and I.

So back to the picking reference from the title. This weekend, we'll be doing a fun summer activity - berry picking! There's a U-Pick farm not too far from us that we're trying out on Saturday - you pay a small fee to pick and then pay for each pound of the berries you pick. They have strawberries, boysenberries, and olallieberries - yum! I think there will be more jam or a crumble (or two) in our future. We'll see how many berries actually make it home with us (in a container and not our bellies).


We're also planning on using the ice cream ball maker we got as a Christmas present (thanks Jon and Amanda!). You just add the ice cream mixture to one side, then some ice, and salt to another chamber and shake away. I can't wait!

If I'm feeling REALLY adventurous, I might try to make Butter with Bella too. We have a quart of heavy cream in our fridge that we need to use before it spoils.

I have a feeling I wont be sticking to my diet this weekend. Ah well, I'll sacrifice myself in the name of summer activities.

What do YOU have planned?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm so glad school is going well. What a relief to have a place that seems to really get it. Happy summer!!

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

Since we just got back all I have planned is trying to down load 5 million pictures and laundry :)

Pez said...

We have that ice cream ball and it works really well! Have fun!

Leigh said...

My nephews are both allergic to peanuts. Babiesrus.com/Toysrus.com has a great product for children in school that have peanut allergies. The name of the brand is Stat Kids and they have allergy backpacks, lunch kits and wrist bands that alert teachers and other parents to your child's allergy. I think its a great idea!!!

Anonymous said...

We've been making a lot of egg-free ice cream this summer. I'm going to give sunflowerbutter a try in my egg-free chocolate ice cream and see if I can give our peanut-allergic son a twist on one of my favorite flavors of ice cream. Let us know how the ice cream ball turns out!