Chimpanzees, garter (garden?) snakes, and family time

When I picked TD up from school yesterday, she said she had a bad day and she even looked stressed out.  Turns out, TD had been procrastinating on a couple of reports and projects, they had all piled up on her, and her teacher called her out for pouting about it.  So after lengthy discussions about time and stress management, we were off to Target for 3-D animal habitat supplies.  Love Target, by the way, especially the ones that have Starbucks in them.  That's a happy Saturday morning in my world.  Anyway, this particular project she had not procrastinated on.  We started it this week and it isn't due until the 30th.  We'll be out of town for Thanskgiving, though, so it has to get finished way before it's actually due.  As a side note, I can't imagine we're the only people going out of town, so why would projects be assigned over a holiday???  Anyone?  She's 9!  This is the 4th grade, not graduate school!


So we spent all of last night doing homework.  Sentences for spelling (extract vs. extract?  Seriously?), an entire report (rough draft and  final draft and drawing) on chimpanzees, math worksheet, and finishing the 3-D portion of the animal habitat project.  That project still needs a report, but she's going to do that at her mom's. 
Just as an aside, I feel badly for TD when she has to juggle these multiple-week projects across two houses.  That just adds a layer of difficulty to everything for her, and it's going to get worse the older she gets.  *sigh*

She started when we got home from Target at 5 and worked until 9:15p.  The best part is that we had lots of fun doing it.  She learned a lesson about procrastinating.............and then we played with shoeboxes, craft paper, Play-Doh and pipe cleaners, all 3 of us.  We colored, we glued, we made tomato plants and sunflowers, there's a textured water effect, NG got out the drill, I made hot chocolate, it was a blast.  At one point she looked up at us and said "This is what families do, isn't it."  Yes, sweety, this is what families do.

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