PTO

It was the third Grade's turn to perform for the PTO meeting this month, so after A's dance class, we hurried home, tossed down dinner, and headed over to the school. D seemed pretty excited about it on the way there, but then during the performance he looked like he was singing at a whisper, and didn't smile at all,... ever,... the entire performance. He honestly had this look on his face like someone was pulling his teeth out with rusty pliers! I mean, seriously,... this pic was the best one of the whole multitude of pictures that i took while they were performing. sad.

I asked him about it afterwards, and he said, "there were just so many PEOPLE! I kept thinking my fly was open!" I guess he was just REALLY inhibited. I asked him why he didn't have any problem at the piano recital, and he said, "well, i didn't have LOOK at the people then; i looked at the music." When he explained it that way,... you know,... i could understand completely!

Here's a video,... D is in the red shirt, on the second row, left hand side,... the one doing absolutely NO motions at all!

more sick...

We only THOUGHT that stomach virus was through with us! A was up Saturday night puking, and of course made it nowhere NEAR the bathroom. *sigh* All over her bedding, pillow, pjs, mattress, etc. At least it wasn't on the floor (I really despise cleaning throwup out of carpets - and YES, i have done this often enough to form a STRONG opinion on this! ;-) Dear Hubby and I did a couple batches of laundry, and determined that I would stay home from church sunday, as he had to conduct. That Stomach Bug definitely been going around, but honestly, couldn't we all have it at once and be DONE??!

Piano Recital

My students had a great piano recital Saturday afternoon. Everyone did a marvelous job, and i was SO happy that A, D, and I had practiced how to be a good audience member! I didn't have any problems with them sitting on their own (I had left the two little kids w/ my dear hubby) while i announced, accompanied, etc.

A played Tambourine Party and We Three Kings:

D played Sailing in the Sun and Jingle Bells:

although on this little excerpt, D severely kack-ed the ending (and refused to try for another recording - wonder where THAT stubbornness came from ;-)

After the recital, D, A, and I headed out to dinner at Cracker Barrel for dinner in addition to doing a little Christmas shopping. It was kinda fun just to hang out with the older two, and i'm looking forward to a break from piano lessons (I always give the students the week after the recital off from lessons!)

p.s. don't you love our pudgy 'palmer' hands :-)

Happy Birthday!!

This blog is a special birthday wish to my niece, Dana! I apologize for the lethargy of my loving munchkins; that's what you get when you interrupt movie night ;-)

positives and negatives...

I decided as i was not feeling well, i would set up a video for the little kids, and make the program for my piano recital this weekend. BIG MISTAKE!!

The kids were not very entertained with the video, and decided to go play with the markers in the kitchen. Well,... they did manage to keep the markers in the kitchen (the only place i allow them to color.) However, they made a mess on the floor, and then decided to clean it up themselves, using cups of water and all the hand and body soap from the bathroom, and 1/2 the bottle of dish soap. *sigh* By the time i finished with the program and checked on them, they were skating through a pool of soap and water run through with bleeding marker colors stretching from one end of my kitchen floor to the other.

I tossed the munchkins in the tub, and chose to tackle the kitchen myself. The negatives: i'm out 1/2 a bottle of dish soap and i can hear my septic system yelling at me for all the soap and water dumped down it. The positives: The mess stayed in the kitchen (the easiest room to clean), I've got a VERY clean kitchen floor, and 2 marvelously clean and happy kids (they LOVE baths!)

Service...

D and A wanted a way to earn more dates or outings with the family and with each parent individually; i wanted to emphasize the 'spirit' of Christmas rather than the commercialism. So, we combined the two to create our Service Chart for the month. The little kids only need 10stars, the older kids need 15. The conditions are that the service must be something for someone else, and un-prompted by anyone else (i.e. not from parents' asking ;-) Anyway,... since it's inception, I've been the recipient of the sorting, folding, and putting away of all those socks (my LEAST favorite part of laundry), and of an immaculate kid's bathroom - scrubbed mirror, counters, toilet, and floor. A also chose to make D's lunch for him since he had cubscouts lastnight. I LOVE this idea - we should have done this a LONG time ago!!

sick,... again.

That stomach bug has been making the rounds - it's my turn now. It started yesterday afternoon, so i bailed on cubscouts for the evening, and had my dear hubby take D up for his meeting. They were able to take time afterwards to go to McD's for a father/son date, which was REALLY nice! It's not often that M gets the time to spend one-on-one with the kids; D was really excited about it when he got home. He ran into our bedroom (which he knows is off-limits), but he was just 'glowing' and grinning his head off - and just HAD to show me the toy that he'd gotten. Despite his selective remembrance of 'rules', I really love that boy; he makes me smile. So here's a past pic just for D; my fun-loving crazy boy!