Kindergarten Social Media

Aaron's classroom has two stuffed animals -- Pete the Cat and Scaredy Squirrel -- that get to go home with a different randomly-chosen student each weekend.  Sounds fun, right?  Except that the unfortunate host family has to drag Pete/Scaredy around all weekend, taking multiple pictures, and then return Pete/Scaredy to class by Monday morning with a "journal entry" that includes an artistic picture collage and a witty essay detailing all of his weekend adventures.  It's basically the Kindergarten version of social media, i.e., you share posed pictures of yourself doing things you don't normally do and writing status updates that make it seem like you're having WAY more fun than you're actually having. 

We successfully avoided a visit from Pete/Scaredy for most of the school year.  But last month, our luck ran out.  When I picked Aaron up from school, he exuberantly held out a nubby and faded Pete the Cat.  My heart sank.  But I dutifully pulled out my phone and started chronicling.  And then I proceeded to show Pete (and by extension, my kids) the best weekend ever.  Because mom guilt.

See how happy Pete is to be joining our family for the weekend?

We read Pete the Cat stories about...Pete the Cat.

We gave him cookies.

He played with toys.

We even baked cupcakes.  Cupakes.  Ask me when was the last time I baked cupcakes.  Social media is filled with lies, I tell you.

They were pretty delish though.  Maybe we should do it more often.

Eat it Pete.

Pete got a front row seat for movie night.

This one would have looked even better with an Instagram filter.

Then we took Pete to the zoo.  See how much fun we're having??

There's no way any of Aaron's other classmates can beat this shot.  Winning!

The final product.  

(Whew!  I am off the hook!)

I was very happy to send Aaron back to school on Monday with Pete and our perfectly crafted journal entry.  So imagine my shock and excitement when he came home with Scaredy Squirrel the very next weekend.  His teacher shot me an apologetic look as he bounced up to me and triumphantly held up another threadbare houseguest.

Defeated, I wearily took out my camera and planned another "fun" weekend.  What could possibly beat last weekend's trip to the zoo??!

Answer: a trip to a bigger zoo.  

(The tiger isn't buying it.)

At least the weather was nice.

Behave Scaredy, or we feed you to the lemurs.

Posing with the peacocks.

Turns out Scaredy wasn't scared of much.

This time, we let Starbucks do the baking.  Eat it Scaredy.

The final, FINAL product.

(We're really done now, right?)

As painful as it was for me, Aaron actually really loved having Pete and Scaredy home for the weekend.  He didn't quite share my level of glee when they returned to school on Monday.  But it's all good -- we'll see them again next year when Jill is in Kindergarten.  Yayyyyy.