Why it takes me forever to blog

More often than not, I follow my children's messes during the day trying to undo the daily damage they wreaked.  Some days I give up and try to get other things done.  When I do, this happens.

Elsa, so sweetly, attaches Sage's nursery coloring page to our fridge with an entire bottle's worth of Elmer's glue. 

Also, don't assume that snack time is a good time to snag some "Mom time".

Also, don't chastise the messes.  They will continue to happen with or without the tears.

Last Day of School!!

The start of a glorious and incredibly busy summer.  The end of eternal substitute teachers for Nadia and a pretty good year for Rowan.  Here's hoping for an even better school year in 2016-17!

FUNraising

Every year our school hosts an Extravaganza to help raise money for the school.  Our family has grown to love and anticipate going.  It is so fun for the kids!  They have cake auctions, bounce houses, games galore, super cheap food, treats, soft serve ice cream.  This is the way fundraising should be done rather than obligate parents to buy cookie dough or wrapping paper.  It's an event where we want to spend money and everyone comes out a winner.

This year I helped judge the cakes that are decorated and made by the sixth graders.  The best decorated cakes go to auction where the whole community can bid to bring one home and the remaining cakes are given away as prizes in a musical chairs game. We ended up with a cake from both.  Rowan won a cake in the game and I bid on a castle cake that Nadia was enamored with.  You can tell by the pictures that she was VERY pleased it came home with us.

It didn't take us long to get sick of cake. 

Rowan's Unbirthday Party

Sometimes I love giving unbirthday parties and sometimes it is easy to let it fall through the cracks.  Rowan has been pretty good about reminding me to have one though and this year it took a little frangling with our schedule and his friends, but we got it done.  Boys are easy.  Pizza, root beer, laser tag, dessert and done!

Jacob, Austin, Rowan, Mateo, Josep, and Cooper all digging in and playing around in the backyard.  Some of the boys really wanted to utilize the Barbie Jeep, but I think we finally discovered its weight limit.

 

 The girls helped me clean up while the boys took off to do laser tag.  Sage washed things and Elsa ate things. 

 Steve admittedly had a grand time with the boys.  I guess in a way, this was his birthday party too.  They had the whole floor to themselves and spent an hour in there giving each other a run for their money.  Josep, is the smallest boy and apparently that gave him quite the advantage.  He curled up behind an obstacle and  had a lot of success by squirreling himself away and shooting anyone who came near him. 

Happy Unbirthday Son!  You are worth celebrating twice a year.

Piano Recital

What I am most sad about missing on film this year is Nadia in a moment of sheer bravery.  While waiting for her turn to present her pieces, she was fretting about having to introduce herself to the whole room and saying what the names of her songs were.  There is quite a crowd that comes to these recitals, encompassing of many family members and all of the piano students of Krystal and her neighbor, Jenn Beckstrand. It doesn't seem to be a necessary part of the performance to speak before playing, but most of the kids do.  I told Nadia that she didn't have to do that if it made her uncomfortable and just to concentrate on doing her best while playing the pieces.  She calmed down a bit and I figured she was going to take my advice and just go ahead and skip the introduction.  So I was completely shocked and unprepared with the camera when she hopped up and introduced herself and her numbers on the verge of tears.  I almost started crying myself because I know how difficult that was for her and I was so proud of her for facing her fears.  She is so brave sometimes it blows me away.  I would have never done that at her age.




Rowan was also a bit nervous, but did a great job too.  You can tell the songs were a little faster than he normally plays them, but he makes me so proud.  I'm so grateful they have the opportunity to learn to play despite the grumblings I hear at times.  I know they will appreciate it later down the line.

Two Little Monkeys

I heard quite the commotion upstairs and went to go see what was going on.  Elsa and Sage were having a grand time throwing a pair of pants at each other.  I tried to catch it on tape, but as it usually goes, they were tapering off.





 These two are the greatest of friends and enemies.  Elsa often boasts several bite marks at any given time, courtesy of baby Sage.  She is my first biter and it has been difficult to curb.  I blame Spaz for putting the idea into her head that it is a worthy defense mechanism.

Thankfully, I can always count on Elsa to rat Sage out.  One day I heard Elsa calling for me and when she found me, she quickly told me "Mom!  Elsa is trying to be Batman!!"  I found Sage getting "Batified" in the kitchen.  Sage LOVES to color anything and everything, but she is her own favorite muse.

Preschool Recital

Elsa had a great year at Raya Grace preschool.  It is a music based program that exposed the kids to many different musical experiences.  They sang, played instruments, and did other typical activities involving letters and art. 6 months later, Elsa still talks about Miss Rachel, her teacher, and you can tell it was a very positive experience for her.  She made a lot of friends and hopefully learned early how a classroom functions.  At the end, they had two recitals.  One was in April and one in May.  The one in April was just Elsa's class and May's included other classes of children. 

This is the April recital.  Elsa is not a shy child, but she was a bit more reserved than you usually see her during these performances.  It may not be the greatest display of what she's learned, but she's so cute all the same.  She loves playing "Hot Cross Buns" as her homework everyday and singing the songs she's learned over the year.







May Recital

I'm so grateful that Elsa had this opportunity to go to this school.  As we were leaving the May recital, we had to carry her sobbing to the car, which is quite the contrast to what you see in the videos.  She loved her school so much, she didn't want it to stop and she knew that that was the last day for school.  We started the year with tears and ended on the same note, but there was a whole lot of happiness in between.