Monthly Archives: May 2017

Spelling Bee

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This young lady came home with a Spelling Bee qualification a few weeks (months?) ago.  I was surprised that she had taken the pretest and pleased she qualified.  She was nervous and proud of herself.  She did a little practicing off and on over the next few weeks, and today was the big day!

 
Spelling “climbed”

Spelling “dimensions”

She made it to the top five!  She was one of two remaining fourth graders and she went out with a third grader.  The Spelling Bee ended with the top two spellers (they were the top two for the past three years!) going back and forth for a few rounds and then the winner finally emerged – victorious for the third year in a row!!  She is a friend of Eve’s and Eve was proud of her, although she later told me, “Mom, next year it’s mine!!!”   :)

Happy (late) Birthday!!

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This handsome fellow turned 12 last week (well, four day ago)!  I’m a little busy with life, but we snuck in some birthday celebrations here and there.

Hugs for Doctor Nurse Professor Aunt Rosy!

We celebrated a little early in Franklin with the family.

We love Snap Circuits!!

Fun with the drone.

Look at it go! Lex is a very good drone driver. I am not.

We celebrated a little on the actual day.  In past years I’ve found myself making three cakes/cupcakes: one for a family party, one for a friends party, and one for school.  This year, I made none.  :(

Do pancakes count as cake?!

The pile was a little small and half pajamas, but the big present came later in the day.

An early dinner at Panera Bread before Eve’s concert in the evening. This reminds me of another picture I have of them on Lex’s 4th birthday. They’ve grown a little since then. :)

Finally, FINALLY, the surprise arrived, everyone got home, and we let this extremely patient 12 year old open his fancy new laptop! The better for playing Minecraft on.

The weekend after his birthday Aunt Mandy came to visit and went out for ice cream and mini-golf.  Sadly I left my phone home on accident, so there are no photos.  We all had a great time though!  Then Ziggy’s for dinner and a round of pool.

Sunday evening (yesterday), Alan and I talked the kids into going to a new-ish restaurant.  We promised them dessert and had them bring games.  Lex set up a variety of chess challenges for me, then we had an intense game.  It was great!

<3 <3 <3

I felt a little guilty about this birthday because we didn’t do a party and didn’t do anything big and special.  I offered to take him on a day trip or invite some friends for ice cream and mini-golf, but nothing appealed to him.  The week was full of concerts and plays and meetings and parties he wasn’t invited to, so I feel like he got very little attention, but he said he’s happy and it was a good birthday.  I try to remind myself that in general “very little attention” is what Lex prefers.  :)   I’m glad we were able to go out to dinner Sunday night, just the four of us, and have a good family bonding time.  We get one more year with this preteen before he hits those scary-sounding teenage years.  Let’s make this year last and last!  <3

Ground breaking!

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A boy, a dog, and a digger. Happiness is.

It’s official! Construction of our new house is underway!!

Alan jumped up on the flat bed truck for an overview shot.

I stopped by later in the day and the guy had a good trench going! I think there’s a more proper word for it. Foundation wall or something. Looked like a well formed ditch to me! :)

It’s hard to imagine our house here. Crazy.

Sadly we found out on Friday that the buyer we had lined up for our current house pulled out of the deal. The inspection report came back and the inspector was harsh! The family is moving up from Texas and had only seen the house through a Skype tour with their realtor. After viewing the inspection report they felt there are too many “unknowns” and they weren’t comfortable moving forward. That hit me hard! I spent Friday in an emotional spiral, but after a fun evening with friends, a little too much wine, and a nice long sleep-in on Saturday, I woke up feeling much better and much more positive about the world. Alan and Lex went over to the site bright and early Saturday morning to watch the ground breaking. I was sleeping and Eve was at a sleepover party. Alan was sweet enough to take my phone though and take lots of pictures and videos for me. I went back over later in the day with Arlo and the digger driver said, “Hey, I recognize that dog!” I laughed and said “You’re digging my foundation!”

Saturday afternoon I rented a storage unit and this week we will start bringing stuff over there to start clearing out this house a bit, making room to spot what needs repairing and do the repairs. I am not looking forward to fixing up this house and the kids are still wondering why we can’t just stay here if we have to fix it up anyway. I hope their excitement will grow as the new house is built!

Spring concert

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Eve had her spring concert tonight. One more busy night, but so much fun! I had a tech job at the show so I got there early and had prime seating. Sorry not sorry other parents! I also recorded everything Eve was in. Maybe a little obsessive, or maybe making up for last night when I didn’t record anything. Anyway, enjoy the show!

Another late night. Tomorrow we all have party plans, but happily I just canceled a bunch of Saturday plans so we can all look forward to the weekend. :)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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We have this awesome program called Shakespeare In School that comes to DBS and teaches the 4th grade a play. This is the second year they have done it. The whole class participates, they practice at school for many weeks, they do a performance at school, then they get to do a performance on a real stage in a real theater! This year the kids did A Midsummer Night’s Dream and it was AMAZING!!!

Eve has been practicing and rehearsing lines and worrying and crying and telling me a hundred stories a day about this play. I’ve read lines with her at the hair salon and in bed and in the car and she’s even asked others to read lines with her too. When she got worried or nervous I reminded her of her enthusiasm after seeing Shrek and she perks back up.

Tonight was the big night!

I wanted to record the whole thing and take a billion pictures, but the Northern Stage guy said that photography was not allowed. :( It took ALL OF MY WILLPOWER to not pull out my camera! Except this one picture I took before he made that statement. ;)

Eve was amazing!! Her classmates were amazing! They were funny and loud and expressive. Everyone remembered their lines, they paused for laugh breaks, they look at the audience, and made big movements. I spent the entire play with a smile so big it hurt. I cannot believe no one recorded the whole thing! I want to watch it a thousand more time!

Here is a picture of Eve as King Oberon from the dress rehearsal (I stole it from her class’s Facebook page.)

After the show they had a little cookie and lemonade wrap party. The energy was high (adrenaline and cookies!) and everyone was happy. It was great.

I love our school and I love her class and I love our community. Life is good.

Twelve is coming way too fast!

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This handsome fella is turning twelve tomorrow and I a feeling very guilty about our complete lack of plans. I told him we wouldn’t be doing a big party this year, but I was hoping for a day trip or an activity with a friend, or something! But, alas, life is busy and 12 is coming up fast! He wasn’t very interest in any of my ideas, and tomorrow, his big day, I have a meeting after school, Alan has a meetings, and Eve has a concert. Everyone is busy, but him! We are going to sneak in a dinner at Panera between my meeting and Eve’s concert.

I was looking for presents to wrap yesterday and, though I swear I had a pile for him… umm… I guess I do not. :/ We have little toys that Eve bought and I bought him some PJs the other days, but nothing exciting. Alan decided to order him a big present (laptop! shhhh… don’t tell!). He had it overnighted, but that still leaves me with not much excitement for the big birthday morning. :/

Can we just skip birthday’s this year? He can be eleven for a bit longer. Next year I’ll have more time and brainpower to focus on him. I love him forever though, even if life is busy! I hung his birthday collages just now. He was such an adorable baby, and turning into a super handsome young man. <3

PS. Apparently 12 is the year the gross jokes birthday cards start arriving. He laughed and an unsure sort of way. :)

Shrek!

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Have I mentioned lately that I love our schools?!? There are so many amazing opportunities for the kids in this district, and the support they get from the teachers and parents is outstanding!

After many hard weeks and late nights (for the cast and directors especially!) Shrek! Jr, The Musical opened this weekend. I LOVE it! Lex has been coming home each night telling me about the characters and jokes and he is just alight when he talks about it. Tonight we went to see it. Sooo funny! Every year the middle school puts on a musical and every year it is outstanding! This year is no different.

The local ice cream place stayed open late tonight, just for the cast and crew. Lex is there now with a friend. Loving it! Tomorrow night is the last show and then there is a cast party until midnight! I might have to bring the boy home a bit earlier than that, but he’s excited to go for a little while. He’s growing up so fast!

The people behind the scenes!