we have a busy day coming up today!

it's morning. nina is off to school, nick is at the Y (he dropped her off, although it's much warmer today, a balmy 9 degrees above zero!) maggie is still sleeping (cue maggie!), and i'm updating now because this will probably be my only quiet moment for the day. :-)

today is my SAT class, so maggie and nina will be at their friends charlie and hattie's house after school. it's also early release day (my class runs from about 1:30 to 3:00). then tonight we're going to the school for dinner--pastapalloza! pick your own sauce! after that, i'm going to see a movie with my friend beth (on a school night! it's a movie about school, actually. it's put on by friends of the harbor theater, they're showing waiting for superman (you can click on that), it's about how much schools in this country are bad, i think. but it's also supposed to be hopeful. and there'll be appetizers, and discussion afterward if beth and i stay that late! (unlikely, but you never know!).

so definitely no time to blog tonight, hence my unusual early morning blogging.

also, i ordered nina a math workbook and a game for both girls called tanagrams. that's the game where you have a card with a picture on it, and you have to build that picture from the shapes. click here to see. my friend from NY anne recommended them, and i got the harder set for ages 5 to 9 because she said her 5 year old had outgrown the 3-5 set. before they arrived, she told me it was a bust, he didn't like them, they were too hard, and i was briefly afraid that i'd have to put them away for a few years, and we'd lose all the pieces before the girls got to use it. ha! nina and maggie BOTH tore through them. maggie too! you've got to see this. i guess they're not too easy for nina because she has fun putting them together, and she likes games where she can race against herself for the fastest time but there's still a bit of challenge. so, this is totally perfect for both of them.

i also got nina a 1st grade math workbook. i thought about ordering the second grade book, but there's enough in the first grade book that will be new to her, however easy, and it was a good call. she loves it! she wanted to work on it first thing in the morning today. i might check with her teacher to see if she can bring it to school, but i'd rather not actually. she's tearing through it already, but i'll let her go however fast she wants. the newness might wear off and she'll leave it be for a few weeks, or i can just buy her the grade 2 one next.

wow, i can't believe i got to write this much! maggie was up last last night, so i'm glad she's still asleep. it will set her up for a late nap, which means i can go to the movie and she won't be cranky, ready to fall asleep, and needing me. i'm so excited for my night out!