Mom's thoughts:
Yes, I am bound and determined to get caught up on this family blog. Nothing current will be posted until I'm officially caught up. So towards that end, here is how things played out in November of 2010.
The recap:
The first week we had sick kid again and didn't venture out much until the weekend when we went out with a local photographer to get a family picture taken for our Christmas cards. It was nothing fancy but fortunately the kids did fairly well and the picture turned out nicely.
The following weekend we kept quite busy. That Friday night we went to M's Fall Piano Recital. His piano teacher held the recital at her house. Her students enjoyed playing their pieces on her beautiful grand piano for an audience (rather than just for their teacher at lessons each week). M played a fun piece entitled, "Catch the Villain: Music for an Old Fashioned Silent Movie Chase Scene."
~Taking after his Daddy a little bit!~
Saturday morning bright and early it was time to wrap up the soccer season for M and Li'l J. While I'm glad they got to play and enjoyed it, I was also very glad to see the season come to an end! Having all their games scheduled on the same day, at the same exact time, but on fields on opposite sides of the ball park around the corner from each other (as opposed to being on fields that backed up to each other like some of the other games) while I was their only parent available to cheer them both on, take pictures, and keep little C-sta happy was well...not ideal and rather challenging. I count myself lucky though, I only had two kids playing one sport. I don't know how some of the other amazing moms out there with any where from three to five kids playing soccer, baseball, and football manage to do it each week without going bananas!
After their last soccer game, both teams met up at our local Peter Piper Pizza to celebrate(for those out of the area, think Chuck E. Cheese's). Everyone had a good ol' time spending their tokens while playing lots of games to rack up tickets for a few of those silly prizes that make them all so happy; it's too funny! After the pizza parties it was home to put the final touches on getting the house ready for some special visitors.
After we got the house all ready, J-rod headed off to the adult session of stake conference while the kids and I anxiously awaited the arrival of my two wonderful friends from college, J and A! We had such a fun night visiting, enjoying each other's company, and enjoying a YUMMY dinner that they so kindly picked up at the Olive Garden on their way over to our house--mmm, LOVE the salad and bread sticks from the Olive Garden! It was so good to sit and enjoy their company, just picking up where we last left off!
After staying up 'til the wee hours of the night, I finally saw J and A off with promises that I would make my way out to the other side of the valley on Wednesday for some more fun. And oh-what-fun it was to spend the day with J and A--a girls day out! Not only did we get beautified by A's cousin K who gave us each a fun new hair-do (I had her cut 10 inches off of my hair so I can donate it again), but we also got manicures, pedicures, and then ate an incredibly delicious lunch at a fantastic restaurant to which A so kindly introduced us. What a great little get-away I got to enjoy with two of my favorite women! A HUGE thank you to another dear friend, J, for making this day possible for me by watching C-sta for me ALL. DAY. LONG! I'm so glad J was able to come cross-country to visit and that I got to spend some time with both her and A.
"Chop-chop"
~Our new do's~
The day before my wonderful "mom's day out" with J and A, I got to help chaperon Li'l J and a bunch of happy kindergartners on a ride in a great big and extra LONG yellow Hummer limo to...drum roll please...Peter Piper Pizza. Yep, lucky kids! It was a reward for all in the school that participated in the fall fundraiser and sold 15 or more items. Each grade level went at different times throughout the day so as to not overwhelm the place--ha, ha! M and Li'l J sold 18 items between the two of them, but M gave most of those to Li'l J so that he could enjoy the limo ride and pizza party ("since I can't eat the pizza anyway, Mom"). What a nice big brother, huh? Later that day at our Cub Scout Pack Meeting, M was received his Bear award. What a good day for our boys!
~Limo + pizza + friends = FUN!~
~Congrats M on having earned your Bear!~
Two days later, lucky Li'l J got to go on another field trip (this time with ALL the kindergartners) to our local zoo. I didn't get to chaperon this field trip, but all reports from the parent chaperons and from his teacher were good: Li'l J had a great time and was so well-behaved that each of them would LOVE to take him home with them!! Ahh, so glad he behaves well for others even if its difficult for him to do so for us at home most of the time. : ) When I asked Li'l J if he decided to fee the giraffe (he had told me before going that he wasn't going to because he was scared it would eat his hand), he said that he did "because I changed my mind Mom" and that he had fun doing so! I'm glad he changed his mind and had a good time at the zoo, just wish I could have been there.
The afternoon of the zoo field trip, when our boys came home from school we began our Thanksgiving break from school. While most of the schools in our area get a week off for "fall break" during October and then just Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving, our charter school has opted to skip the traditional "fall break" for a nice, long Thanksgiving break. Doing it this way helps cut down on class time missed when families that are traveling for the holiday leave early; this way works out nicely for all involved. We LOVE it and are grateful for it (even if we didn't travel this year)!
The following Saturday was another super busy one that began early in the morning with J-rod having the opportunity to help a young widow and her family pack up and move. We will miss this sweet family and hope this move will be the beginning of a good chapter in their life. As soon as J-rod came home, C-sta and I headed over to a fun bridal shower for a sweet young gal in our ward. It was fun to be there with lots of wonderful women to support this young bride-to-be and help her and her fiance get established in their new life together.
After the bridal shower it was off to quickly pick up a babysitter so J-rod and I could leave our kids for the rest of the day as we dashed off to see the fun musical version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" and then to the temple to be there with the above mentioned bride-to-be as she took out her endowment. After a nice temple session, we had a late dinner at Cafe Rio where we decided that must be the place EVERYONE from our side of the valley goes to eat after doing a temple session because we saw SO many familiar faces from our area having dinner there that had just been in our session or the one right after ours--too funny, but oh-so-yummy!
Yummy...that brings me to the week of Thanksgiving. For our Family Home Evening activity prior to Thanksgiving, we made "Thankful Trees". I got the idea from a talented friend of mine that teaches kindergarten in one of our local schools. Each month Miss S. hosts a "family night" where her students and their families can come to the classroom and work on a fun craft together. Her November activity Miss S. took brown paper lunch sacks, cut 3 "tree branches" down the front of the bag and then had colorful paper leaves on which the students could write what they were thankful for and then glue them on to their tree branches. The leaves we used were too big for our "branches" and since we all had MUCH to be thankful for, we overwhelmed our trees with many leaves and they ended up being kind of droopy. That's okay, they were fun to make anyhow!
What the boys listed they were thankful for on their trees:
Li'l J:
*Houses
*Friends
*My DS
*The Wii
*Swimming in my pool
M:
*Education
*Health
*Friends
*Transportation
*Heavenly Father and Jesus
Late Wednesday night just as I was pulling the apple pie out of the oven and J-rod was brining the turkey, my sister A and my mom arrived to spend the weekend with us--yay! Thanksgiving morning while we watched the Macy's Parade, in went the turkey and the cooking marathon began. I was SO glad to have my mom her here to help me out or else our food would not have been ready by 1 o'clock when our guests arrived to eat! The B family from our ward joined us for Thanksgiving dinner and games before J-rod and the B family's dad R both had to leave to work the night shift--boo! When the B family arrived the brought with them a pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, and delicious rolls...such a nice addition to our meal. It's no secret that I usually don't enjoy cooking, but I especially don't enjoy it when there is limited time and added pressure for things to be just right, so I'm very grateful for all the help I received that day, that it all turned out well, and that everyone had a good time!
~"Family faces are magic mirrors.
Looking at people who belong to us,
we see the past, present, and future."~
Gail Lumet Buckley
Friday while J-rod slept (recovered from working night shift), my mom, A, the kids and I went to see the new Disney movie "Tangled". Even though the classic "princess" movies are great stories and fun to watch, this is by far my new FAVORITE "princess" movie! It was such a fun, well told story with a little bit for everyone to enjoy that even our boys openly enjoyed it was could be heard laughing throughout it. This was not the only time I saw it in the theater and definitely looked forward to it coming out on DVD.
~LOVED it!~
The rest of the Thanksgiving weekend was spent helping M work on a "weather forecasting" science project and presentation due the day after the Thanksgiving break was over. M was assigned to research the forecasted weather for a week for the state of Tennessee. The day of the presentation M acted out a complete script he wrote and presented it as though he were an actual meteorologist giving the weather report on a newscast. The purpose of the project was to help the students learn and correctly use weather terms and be able to understand the meanings of symbols on a weather map. M did a good job and received full points on this assignment. Way to go M!
~M's finished product~
In addition to helping M with his project, we enjoyed having my mom and A around while J-rod was off working hard. We didn't take any pictures this whole weekend until after church before my mom and A packed up to head back home. Guess we were just too busy having fun!
~Our kids think EVERY picture needs to be a GOOFY picture.~
~So happy together!~
~Tickle FIGHT!!~
~"The family is link to our past, bridge to our future"~
Alex Haley
~So happy Aunt A came for a visit!~
~"Other things may change us,
but we start and end with family."~
Anthony Brandt
After a great Thanksgiving weekend, we closed out the month we a great Cub Scout service project. One evening for their den activity, our boys gathered at the home of one of their leaders and put on a FREE "Dog Wash" for a number of dogs in our neighborhood. In the hour and a half those boys were out there, they managed to wrangle and wash eight dogs...three of which were HUGE (but very loving) Great Danes! The boys (and their leaders) did such a fantastic job and everyone is looking forward to making this a yearly activity, though maybe earlier in the year when it's a bit warmer.
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