Kindergarten countdown

How excited is Sydney to start kindergarten? Let us count the ways...

She's more excited than all the fruit loops she could string onto two pink pipe cleaners.

And more excited than all the plastic shapes she needed to find to cover up her picture card.

Thursday night was the second in the series of evening events to get kids excited about (or at least comfortable with) kindergarten. The theme this time was math, and so there were plenty of activities relating to counting, shapes and patterns.

Jeff was working, which meant AJ had to come, too. He tried really hard to adapt the cool older kid "been there, done that" attitude, but eventually gave in to the desire to play along with the younger kids. Their math, after all, was way easier than his latest homework assignment. (More on that tomorrow.)

Once I was satisfied that Sydney had participated in enough of the organized activities, I gave her the go ahead to do what she'd been focused on since we walked in the room: play with the My Little Ponies and their house/barn.

As luck would have it, one of Sydney's friends from Cool Kids also was their and also loves Ponies and doll houses, and so soon the two were happily inventing pony dialogues.

Until Greta noticed the stack of stuffed animals in the background. But that was okay, too. Stuffed bunnies love to play and talk with ponies.

What finally lured the girls away? The Candy Land game opened up. Sydney had been eyeing it all evening, but it had always been in use. And this wasn't just any Candy Land game. It was a NEW one, Sydney repeatedly told me. When you open up the board, the path is laid out in more of a vertical design, not horizontal like the one we have at home. And that makes it totally different and way better. Sydney, Greta and Stella (a friend from dance class) happily took turns drawing cards and moving their pieces. It was such a treat to not have to play the game against her. And perhaps best of all was the outcome: clean up time came before the game ended, which means nobody lost.