VIP Presentation and Jump-Up Day

Today was an exciting day for both girls!

For Julia, it was the 5th grade VIP Living History Museum.  Each 5th grader had chosen a character from history spent the past month or so researching that person.  Today, in culmination of the research, the students dressed as their character and stood in chronological order around the performance center.  Each character was surrounded by five props, and as an adult or student approached, the 5th grader would recite facts about his or her historical person.

Julia was renowned the under-acknowledged virtuosic pianist and composer Clara Schumann:

Her props included two concert programs, a miniature piano, sheet music of Clara Schumann's piano compositions, a passport, and a love letter from Robert Schumann to Clara:

(By the way, that love letter, OMG...she made a hand-written copy of one of the authentic love letters that she found on google, and it took FOREVER.  I can say first hand how much time and effort she put into that one because I witnessed the struggle, and the writer's cramp that came from it...)


Parents were invited to the museum first thing in the morning, and throughout the day, other grades got to come in and check out the historical re-enactments.  After school, I asked Madeleine if she'd had a chance to see Julia as Clara.

MADELEINE: Yup.  I just immediately marched right over to Julia and gave her a hug.
ME: (feeling sentimental) It's gonna be hard when you're not at the same school anymore.
MADELEINE: (with cheerful optimism) Yup.  You just gotta get all the hugs you CAN, until you CAN'T.

Madeleine, meanwhile, had Jump-Up Day, in which the 2nd grade visited the 3rd grade classrooms and met all the teachers, in preparation for next school year.  Madeleine had (mostly) an extremely positive impression.

MADELEINE: Mommy, we had Jump-Up Day, and third grade seems SOOOOO fun!  And I really liked the teachers, except...one teacher was really ANNOYING, because she was like, (with exaggerated exuberance) HIIII, GUUUUYS!

How dare she.

That one ANNOYING teacher didn't deter Madeleine's overall enthusiasm for 3rd grade, though.


MADELEINE: I just want it to be the end of school and the end of summer so that it can be third grade!  Mommy.  I was so EXCITED that...I nearly fell OVER!

Wow.  What a day for both kids.  Julia got to go BACK in time to the 1800s while Madeleine got to go forward in time to 3rd grade.  Fun for all!