First Grade Parade

A had her First Grade parade and performance today, and did a wonderful job! They had the opportunity to make floats if they wanted, and A used our kid-friendly stuffed nativity, and put it in a small wagon to drag around on their parade. I had taken E and C with me early to help drop off A's 'float', and get her ready (she wanted to dress as Mary ;-) Interestingly enough, when D did his 1st grade parade, he was a 'shepherd' - so both had stuck with spiritual themes,.. which was NOT the norm! Lots of elves, santas, presents, etc. with only a few angels and one other mary to try to balance things out. D got to come in and watch also, as his teacher has a son in A's class. I kept E and C entertained with snacks, and they did a great job behaving (after i put C in a time-out against the gym wall.)

They sang 4 different songs,... the most impressive was Silent Night, done completely in sign language!

Happy Birthday C-girl!!

We had an AWESOME time for C's birthday! I stayed up late the night before and decorated the cake; she LOVED the cake - being the 'princess' that she is :-)


She chose to have waffles for her birthday dinner, so i made a HUGE batch, and tossed the extras in the freezer for this next week. I managed to get away with only burning one waffle (during gift opening - C just COULDN'T wait!!)






D and A had helped me decorate the dining area - they did an incredible job, and it was MUCH faster than when i do it all on my own!


'course we had the requisite wrestling match between the siblings (always an entertaining time - D had to pry the little ones apart ;-)






A helped to entertain while i was finishing up the waffles by doing a little ring around the Rosy.




Then we FINALLY got to the gifts: new PJs, Glow in the dark bracelets, a new dress-up tutu for dancing, and a Baby-Alive potty training doll. (You can tell what WE'RE going to be doing soon!) The doll came complete with baby food, spoon and bowl, bottle, potty, diapers, wipes, and is completely interactive - the kids were all just captivated (even D and A!), 'course they immediately had to feed it a bottle, and then it had an 'accident' - necessitating changing the baby. I even managed to find an old baby blanket of C's, and showed her how to 'bundle' the baby up. I can tell already it'll be a much-loved toy; i might have to start stocking batteries now! :-)

balloon fun!

D and A helped me to decorate the kitchen for C's birthday (I ALWAYS put up streamers and balloons for them on their special day!) Now,... of course the kids had to play with the balloons,... i fully expect that, and always will blow up more than i plan on using - or allow the kids to blow up more than we need. Then, i send them all downstairs to play with them.

Well,... somehow, E's balloon ended up getting decorated with marker - and you know how marker just will NOT stay on the balloon, and ends up getting EVERYWHERE! Somehow (possibly with a little assistance from the older siblings :-), E ended up chewing on and rubbing his marker-ed balloon all over his face and arms. Even his TEETH were black! He was all-right with the result until I picked him up to show him what he looked like in the mirror - then he started whimpering and almost crying because he thought he was so 'scary.' His reaction was so drastic that D and I were just cracking up laughing at him; i felt kinda bad laughing so hard when he was next to tears - but he was just hilarious! We tossed him in the tub, and he was much happier after getting clean again.

Birthday time!

With my dear hubby out hunting today, we decided to forgo celebrating C's birthday until sunday. However, we still treated her like it was her birthday! I had her 'help' me make the cake mix she'd picked out (pink - of COURSE!) She was in heaven, and loved mixing the batter up with me. Interestingly enough, out of all my kids, even at her age - she is the best at controlling a mixer on her own. When i'm helping her support the weight, she'll even rotate the bowl around herself while she's mixing to get all the sides. Pretty good coordination for a just-turned three year old!

And, we just HAD to TRY the batter!
That's the best part!

Primary Quarterly Activity...

Life had gotten a little stressful this last week; building toward our quarterly activity and other weekend festivities. We did a 'Breakfast in Bethlehem' theme - fed the kids a pancake breakfast, did a christmas 'star activity and ornament - and then practiced for the nativity that the primary will be doing for the ward christmas party. I felt like i delegated fairly well - my 2nd counselor was in charge of the activity and ornament, we tag-teamed breakfast, my 1st counselor had taken care of gathering costumes, and i was in charge of our quick and dirty scenery (bed-sheets with the scenery chalked on them) What we hadn't planned on was the reception planned for that evening had decorated the entire gym (including the last section that we needed.) Even though we had talked explicitly to each person involved in the reception, being explicit as to our needs. Anyway, we ended up using up all our prep-time moving out their elaborate tables and centerpieces into the other 2/3rds of the gym so we could have the kids practice the nativity in the section they'd be performing in.
All went well in the end (it always does), but it was still a bit of a stress; i did manage, however, to slip in a practice with a girl i am accompanying tomorrow in sacrament - i was VERY happy we got to do that, as i discovered several areas where the piano music was not truly centered on the staff - the notes being neither line or space notes but somewhere between; now i have to figure out when i am going to find time to re-write those sections amidst making a birthday cake for C, decorating for her birthday, and planning my sharing time for tomorrow. Oh, and Marke is out hunting for black-powder weekend today - so in between all that, i'm monitoring munchkins.
I think i'm ready for another break.

Christmas in the country

My loving hubby and I actually got to go on a DATE!! *will wonders never cease?* We had an awesome time courtesy of my dear hubby's mom, who had bought us tickets down to 'Christmas in the Country' in Renfro Valley. It's a shame that we live so close, and yet it's taken so long for us to make it down there. We headed out to eat before, and during the show we really enjoyed the live music and humor; it really made me miss performing outside of church. I did have to tamp down my tendency to critique the entire performance and do a running commentary for M, but i managed fairly well :-)

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!