Friday, October 29, 2010

Story Night

Tonight we had Story Telling Night at the elementary. Our wonderful librarian was sweet enough to ask me to come read to the kids. I was very excited until I saw who I was following. He is such a great story teller that I got pretty nervous going after him. Even though I had to follow a great act, I had lots of fun. The kids enjoyed going out with their families and listening too. It was nice to see all the kids curled up on the floor with their parents. One thing that did surprise me though was a couple of the parents looked just as happy to be read to as the kids. all in all, a pretty good night.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Nice Girls

We had our annual Young Women's Halloween Party last night. All the girls came over to my house and we had dinner, ate treats and watched a movie. A few months ago this wouldn't be such a big deal when we had about 6-7 girls coming to activities, but last night there were 12 girls and 3 leaders over here in my little bitty apartment. It was lots of fun and very noisy. The best part? All the hugs I got from the girls as they filed out the front door.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sweet

Jack rarely sleeps in his own bed. He is too much of a cuddler to sleep alone so he is always climbing in bed with someone. Just when I think my kids can't be any more perfect, I walk down the hallway to find Jack crawling in between his two sisters with a book. Then, Hollee yawns, smiles and gets her book light and pats her pillow. How sweet is that?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Alone Time

Jack wasn't too happy about sharing me today. When he finally did get me to himself he smiles and yells, "It's just us! Yes!" fist pump and all.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Peace and Quiet

Going somewhere quiet with a group of kids that usually bounce off the walls is always a risk. When the risk pays off and everyone behaves, nice.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Awards

Andrew got his first award in school today. It was adorable, he is always so proud of his sisters and brother when they get awards and was little sad last year when he learned that the Kindergarteners didn't go to the awards assembly. Now that he is a first grader I was so happy that he got an award at the first awards assembly. It is for academics and citizenship. I asked him if that means that he is super smart AND super nice. He said "Yep!"

Monday, October 18, 2010

In Laws

Sometimes getting a whole second family can be difficult. You forget birthdays, you have to schedule holidays, you live far away from some in order to live close to others and once in a while you have a brother-in-law that just gets to you. Last week I was pretty angry at a particular family member and I was at the point of "why talk to anybody that doesn't live in this house?" that I get to every couple of years. Then, I checked the mail. Last year while we were in Oregon at Timm's parents house (who I adore!) I was talking to my sister-in-law about sweets. She has a sweets business and was trying to find some cute designs for cake balls. I sent her over to Bakerella's web site and she now makes adorable cake pops all the time. She recently went to a Bakerella book signing and remembered that we had talked about her. So do you know what she did? She got me a book, had it signed and sent it to me. It was a wonderful surprise to find in the mail. Plus, it came at the perfect time. It's nice to know that even when some people can make you so angry that you just want to SCREAM!, you have a family out there that thinks about you and loves you.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Winning

I hosted Bunco and every body had fun, then I won a contest. Score!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Knowing

Sometimes there are difficult obstacles put in our path. These obstacles are never fun, but isn't it nice to know what they are? Sometimes they are just there, big and shapeless and daunting. Then the thing gets a name and all of the sudden it's not quite so scary. Sure, it's still big and it's still gonna take awhile to get over it, but now that it has a name, it also has a shape and it isn't quite so daunting.

Monday, October 11, 2010

More Ice Blocking

The Swaner's were here yesterday. We were all thinking of going to a park and just watching the kids ride bikes and play when I changed plans and took them all ice blocking. We all had tons of fun, but I think the dad's had the most fun. Watching those two go down the hill as fast as they could and fall off their blocks, tumble three more feet and then just lay there laughing. That was priceless.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Books

So I read to another class today. The kids were having so much fun during the story that they kept yelling out comments while I was reading. Cute kids.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Noticing

It's nice to let go of your own drama for a while and notice if somebody else is having a bad day. It's even better when you can make that person feel better. Forget about yourself for a while and get out there and be a good friend.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Concord Grapes

Why hello childhood, you taste good!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Steve

I don't know if many of you know this, but Alison is really funny. She really has the best sense of humor of anyone I know. She not only sees the humor in hard situations, she can even laugh at herself which is something most people can't do. If you ever see Alison laughing, you better look around because you are missing something. She has been writing little stories in her Language Arts class. I just read one of them. "He decided it was a chameleon bird. So, he named him Steve." Need I say more?

Friday, October 1, 2010

Birthdays

Today is a cute little boys birthday. I went and picked him up for school today and he had a big grin on his face. He sat in the car with my boys as we dropped off the girls and smiled and talked the whole time. When they came home today I could hear him chatting away on the porch as I opened the door. When his mom came and got him a few minutes later he immediately told her how many birthday cards he got from his class today (like 90 cards!((his class has 25 kids)) cool huh!) I wonder why grown ups aren't so excited for their birthdays? This is the one day a year when you are the most special person around. Embrace it!