<p>mathmomvt- Cake forms are styrofoam shapes that cake decorators as ‘fake cakes’. You can find them at most places that sell cake decorating supplies, or a craft store. I did a Google search and found this site:</p>
<p>I had to keep silent when one of my coworkers just informed me about the RH linen purchase his son received this week. His S bought it all, including the bed buddy. My coworker said the box was huge and expensive. I didn’t want to tell him I had heard/seen not too good reviews about RH. </p>
<p>so the care package company must be the same company that has our kids sell candy bars and wrapping paper in HS. </p>
<p>mathvtmom - you can get styrofoam forms at Michaels and just hot glue th cand to those. </p>
<p>I am another one who won’t be sending a cake to school for S’s bday. He would be mortified. He will get a nice package and cards, but no cake. </p>
<p>fog - I hate Walmart for the service. I know others really like them and shop them on a regular basis, but I am really turned off by the service and cleanliness. </p>
<p>I took D to TJMaxx to look at comforters for her full size bed. She fell in love with the dorm stuff and went to the service desk to ask about a similar set to fit her full bed. I knew they wouldn’t have one but had her go through the exercise. It was many hours later before she relented to find something else she liked on line.</p>
<p>Hey, Classof2015, welcome to the club! Thanks for the dose of humor. And hey … wouldn’t those ADD UP to 5s…?</p>
<p>D washed the house today - I mean washed it, as in with a power washer. D and I zested and juiced key limes for pies (her chosen dessert, instead of cake). We also filled some crusts with Door County cherries (the best) and other yummy stuff. It’s supposed to be roasting hot tomorrow, so we’re making sure there’s plenty of comfy space in the house. Both of my girls’ birthdays are in the summer, so we’re all used to having lots of “regrets” RSVPs, but a good amount of friends seem to be able to come tomorrow.</p>
<p>Since neither of them have ever had a birthday during school, we did give D1 money a few times to take her friends out to dinner just for the heck of it, and once she took a couple of GFs to a play. I imagine I’ll do that also for D2.</p>
<p>We went to HP tonight (yes, she’s seen it twice now, already). I was surprised to feel sad; even though I’ve been the least HP-ish in our family, I felt like something kind of special was ending, and that she’s all grown up. I guess it’s a bunch of things converging. It makes me realize how intense it must have been last summer seeing TS3 for the '10 parents, and kids, too. But that kind of catharsis can be a good thing, sometimes.</p>
<p>Hey EmmyBet – thanks for the tip – “wouldn’t those ADD UP to 5s…?” I’d ask her, but one of her 2’s was (you guessed it) in AP Calc…ha ha ha.</p>
<p>We are now All About Bedding!!! I appreciate the warnings about RH linens. I too got the “info pack” with care package stuff (don’t they realize kids just want money?) and an offer for laundry services. I should have been charging all these years – laundry, snacks, doctor’s appointments. I feel like I have a career as a concierge/housekeeper in my future.</p>
<p>Trying to keep up! Lots of great ideas and information.</p>
<p>I’m glad someone asked about what to do if their kid’s birthday was close to the start of school, I too am dealing with that. D’s 18th is the the first day of class! She’s not a big cake eater, so I think I will make her favorite cookies and send them in a care package along with the “18” gifts. We move her in a week and half earlier for a honors program, so she might appreciate getting a special package by then.</p>
<p>I laughed about the comment for school color duct tape. Just this evening Ds’ and I were at Target and they had U duct tape! Couldn’t grab it with her there, but I know where I’m headed tomorrow!</p>
<p>Family hasn’t gone to the HP movie, yet. We typically wait for movies to come out on DVD, but D2 said she may go with her BF when he returns from Korea in a week.</p>
<p>D got her AP scores Thursday. We had an idea of what she probably made since her school had posted her credits, but it was nice to see. She made all 4 & 5’s, so she was happy.</p>
<p>Oh, I just remembered that someone mentioned Dorm Co. I have not dealt with them personally, but a friend is in the middle of a battle with them regarding a wrong item being sent and then they are claiming she didn’t send it back. She has proof they received the package, but they insist it couldn’t be the comforter because it weighs too much! She is not a happy camper and has been dealing with this for 4 weeks! So just a word of caution.</p>
<p>re: the birthday cake, his birthday is only 2 weeks into school (with 1 week of freshman orientation prior) so I was thinking he probably wouldn’t have a few close friends he could take out to dinner, but if he got a cake, he could just offer it to everyone in the hall. I can’t imagine he’d be embarrassed to be offering free goodies to hallmates ;-)</p>
<p>On another topic, anyone know if the bounce color-catcher sheets really work as advertised? (They are supposed to help prevent colors from running in the wash.) For a young man without too much laundry experience, headed to a school whose colors are red and white, it seems like it might be a useful item, if it works. New red t-shirts and/or sweats seem like they might be a major culprit for running in the wash.</p>
<p>Mathmomvt–have used the color catch sheets and they work…though if there is something new–maybe a good cold water wash at home/alone to rinse it would be a good idea? idk?</p>
<p>My younger kiddo bought the ToyStory3 DVD…have seen it before…though with the Blue Ray set there are some “making of” bonus features which are nice–one made me cry–Its about andy saying goodbye and transitions…
cue the tissues! ToyStory 1 was kiddos first movie–was not even three and sat in my lap with a juice cup. I still recall kiddos reactio when Buzz takes off holding Woody–flying to the moving truck!!!</p>
<p>**I have taken the first and last move-in dates for this countdown from the list on this thread. To try and list all of them would be overkill to say the least.</p>
<p>First new student move-in is the University of Georgia on August 9th. (Excludes cadet training at West Point)
Move-in day in 22 days. WOW - only 3 weeks from tomorrow!</p>
<p>Last new student move-in is the University of Southern Oregon on September 22nd<br>
Move-in day in 66 days.**</p>
<p>If there are earlier or later move-in dates, please post them so that I can pick them up and adjust the countdown postings.</p>
<p>Fogfog - When that came out, I took all the kids (I think it was a “you come with me or you don’t get to go to Panera afterwards”- so ds was in) and when it came to the parts about going off to college, ds was glued to the screen cause I could see he was going to cry too. After 6 hrs in the car with him today going off to Pitt, I might have a different view of him - he’s been annoyingly awake when I am trying to sleep. I told him my cc friends warned me that you would probably ditch me during these 2 days and act all “bog man on campus” and that was ok with me. I just re-read the schedule and realized that advising and registration are WITHOUT Mommy. “Dear God, please look after my dopey son as he picks courses, please let him get an advisor that gives him the right advice. Please let him not schedule that Chem class with the prof that has a 1.8 rating on Ratemyprofs. Amen.”
On a brighter note - dd1, 2, and 3 (ages 16, 14 and 9) have all been happily cohabitating a tent on my deck these last 4 nights. No raccoons, no bear, no fox sighting. It’s kind of that idyllic summer experience I hoped they could have before they were all too mature.</p>
<p>YES!!! S1 played on a summer sports team last year where every clothing item was red. They really do work. </p>
<p>As a side note - S1 also informed me that he doesn’t want to bring any white clothing items to school this year. Not because of colors running together, but because it takes too long to build up a white load. S2 will probably never do laundry so I might just send him off with only gray and brown items. :p</p>
<p>amandakayak: good luck with the Pitt Start. My D went by herself but called me on the cellphone after talking with her advisor. She consulted with me about his suggested changes before actually registering - the registering is done in the computer lab AFTER you meet with the advisor. Her advisor didn’t agree with her original plan which would have been to take 17 credits. But after discussing it with my D, we thought that advisor’s suggestion to replace 4 credit Statistics course with a 1 credit phys ed course would have made her schedule too light (14 crediits) so she decided to substitute a 3 credit Psych 1 which will count for a science and she will have 16 credits- 1 of which is freshman seminar. They have peer advisors in the registration area and the advisor said that Psych 1 was a good course, not too hard, and that a ton of freshman take it. So in the end, it all worked out ok, but I would ask your son to check in with you by cellphone if the advisor suggests a radical change in his planned courses.</p>
<p>that is very sad about the BU student. I hate riding in vans, cars or busses on those small winding roads. </p>
<p>
LOL. I really have to addume you meant “big” but I like “bog.” </p>
<p>never used the catcher sheets. Might be worth looking at for son. He does his own laundry during the summer and always waits til he is completely out of clothes. I am sure that even though he could wash separately (he has enough of them) he doesn’t </p>
<p>mathmomvt - send the cake if you know your S will like it! My S stopped having parties and doing bday celebrations with friends when he was 12yo. He is not big on those types of things so I wouldn’t send him a bday cake, but that is just him. My D otoh would love a bday cake. She is only 11 and is already planning her sweat 16!</p>
<p>Amanda - we have orientation as well Monday/Tuesday. They swapped the parent schedule this year to be very heavy during student scheduling…they do NOT want mummy there. I deposit Bluejr in the AM and don’t see him again until the next afternoon. They set the tone very early, separation of student and parent. We are now spectators, cheerleaders, no longer coaches. I put in my two cents regarding classes last week, now it’s up to him. Engineers can’t go too far off the reservation anyway so I’m not as concerned as I would be if he were LA’s. </p>
<p>For all you HP fans I got such a laugh when I saw Bluejr’s U actually had a class this summer ‘Defense Against the Dark Arts’!! It was offered in Computer Science so it was just a very clever play on words and not a simple fluff class. I bet enrollment was up.</p>
<p>Thanks for the word on the color catcher sheets. I’m sure he will combine lights and darks, though I will certainly advise that any <em>new</em> dark clothes be washed with other dark non-favorite clothing (or just dark towels) but who knows if he will heed my advice ;-). I know our washer at home (front-loader) will not spin properly with a very small load, so you can’t just wash new stuff alone, which can be a pain. We have a number of navy and dark green “camp towels” that get washed with new stuff (even if the towels weren’t originally dirty).</p>
<p>Thanks again to everyone for the kind comments re: the passing of my sister’s MIL. She was an awesome person and will be missed.</p>
<p>I’ve used the color-catcher sheets also and they seem to work pretty well but I agree with the suggestion to watch new items separately. I wash things like that with my dark towels the first time AND I use the coor-catcher. </p>
<p>I just bought a bottle of the Metod detergent so I can try it out. HOpe I like it because it will definitely be lighter and easier to carry down to the laundry room. The small bottle does 25 loads so one bottle should last her the entire semester.</p>
<p>Went to see HP with DD (she went to the premiere but went again with me the next day). I have to admit that I am sad to see the series end - because it does feel like the end of an era AND because I truly loved the books and movies. I agree that the movies don’t follow the books exactly but how could they and not be hours longer than they are?</p>
<p>DD still doesn’t have her dorm and roommate assignment - really wish that would come so she can at least reach out to the RM and we can make our final purchases for the room. </p>
<p>My own personal countdown continues… 4 weeks from tomorrow, we will be moving her into the dorm and then facing that “good-bye” that makes me cry whenever I think about it.</p>
<p>mathmomvt, last year i posed the same question about b/d cake. CCers suggested I order cupcakes instead, and even suggested a local bakery. It was very expensive for delivery, so I shifted to Dancing Deer for other occasions. This Sept I will probably do something from them again. Son seems happy with combination of cookies and brownies.</p>
<p>I know other CCers have used other companies with success, but I can’t think of the names offhand.</p>
<p>I love the Defense against the dark arts class, blueig</p>
<p>Hello! I love the candy bar cake idea… sounds easy and fun to make.</p>
<p>Here is a funny story. My DS is living in dorms this summer for a bridge program. I sent him a care package with a roll of quarters to do laundry. Or so I thought… it was a (really old) roll of CHUCK E. CHEESE TOKENS!!! OMG I feel so silly.
The good news is DS found quarters on his own and actually did his laundry.</p>