Monthly Archives: May 2014

An epic, EPIC birthday bash!

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For starters — Happy Birthday Lex!! Nine years old and awesome!!

I’ve been feeling a little low about Lex’s birthday this week. It snuck right up on me and certainty didn’t get the front-of-mind attention it has in the past. Driving home from school Thursday afternoon, I started thinking about getting a head start on his cake for today, but then suddenly remembered that he needed cupcakes for school Friday! I hadn’t even talked to the teacher about it, but I sent her a quick email and started pulling out ingredients. Unfortunately we discovered, in the nick of time, that we had no good cupcake papers. Soo… Lex suggested peanut butter chip brownies, a recipe I had made awhile ago and everyone like. To fancy them up a bit I added chocolate chips as well, and marshmallows on top. They smelled delicious and looked great out of the oven. Unfortunately, when I tried to cut them at 9pm they were a gooey mess! Completely uncutable! I was going to make another batch of regular brownies, but we didn’t have enough ingredients. I was crying, seriously, over my complete lack of birthday preparedness. Alan put the brownies in the freezer and put me to bed.

The next morning I pulled the brownies out of the freezer and was able to cut them, but they were still pretty messy. I still hadn’t heard back from his teacher on sending treats in either. I gave Lex the option of messy brownies on Friday or really awesome cupcakes on Tuesday. He chose the brownies so we packaged them up in individual bags with cute labels and lots of napkins, and sent them to school. Hoping for the best and completely forgetting to take any pictures. Sigh. When he got to me Friday afternoon the first thing he said was, “The brownies were AWESOME!” Whew!

Saturday we spent making and decorating cake, filling goody bags, praying for sunshine, and prepping for a party. Oh yeah, and Eve learned to ride her bike again. Yay!

This morning came, bright and early, and my baby turned NINE! Nine whole years old and handsome as always. He had a few little presents waiting for him on the table.

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Morning presents for my nine year old!

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Nine years old!

I got him an awesome Lego movie t-shirt that has Emmitt on it and says “The Special Has Arrived.” I thought he would love it, but instead he laughed briefly and then discarded it. He refused to wear it today. You never can tell with that boy!

magnet toys

He loved these magnet toys!

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Loved them so much he wanted a picture with them. :)

The forecast all week called for varying amounts of rain, but this morning it said clear skies and sunshine all day. Whoo hoo! We did our morning thing, then packed up a party and headed to the skate park for Lex’s birthday party.

skate park

This place is awesome. They have a skate park (seen here), a playground, and a big pavilion for parties.

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A brave friend on the half pipe.

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The birthday boy is one cool dude!

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Alan joined in the fun.

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Brave boys on bikes

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We had a few girls there too. This one forgot her bike, but luckily I packed an extra bike and two scooters. Everyone had a blast!

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Lex on his new bike.

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Hey party people!

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Cake time!

cake closeup

The cake was an evolving process. It started with a couple of round cakes and we went from there. Lex had input, I had input, the lack of supplies had input, and we ended up here. It is supposed to look like bike wheels. What do you think?

candles

Making wishes and blow out candles.

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Cake for everyone.

friends

I like this group of kids. I miss being in their school every day and seeing them all.

presents

Lex got some awesome presents!

Despite my last minute planning the party got rave reviews. One kid said it was the best he’s been to in a long long time, and another kiddo said it was an epic, EPIC party. Can’t beat that. Most important though is that Lex had a blast! Everything went well.

After the party we packed up and headed home. Everyone crashed for a bit. My parents were here and Mandy and Rachel as well. We ordered pizza for dinner, per Lex’s request (though he doesn’t eat the pizza, just the cheesy garlic bread), and enjoyed dinner in the front yard on a beautiful evening.

Happy birthday to my nine year old. My baby who is no longer a baby but a big, strong, handsome, growing boy. I love you with all my heart!

She rides again!

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With the confidence provided by knee pads, elbow pads, and protective gloves, Eve worked up the courage to ride her bike again! You may remember that she rode like the wind back when she was five, but for some reason she decided not to ride at all last summer, much to our dismay. All last summer she refused to ride her bike. I think she must have taken a tumble, but nothing too bad. Lex took a pretty bad one early last summer that may have scared her off. I don’t know. She rode her scooter all summer, but wouldn’t touch the bike. This spring she was hesitant but agreed to try again with knee and elbow pads. It took awhile, but we finally bought them and she was thrilled. Today she went out riding and it came right back to her… like riding a bike! After awhile she decided the pads were uncomfortable and she decided to brave it without them. She did fine, of course!

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Happy girl with well protected knees and elbows. :)

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She rides again!

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Riding with Daddy

She still has a bit of work to do on stopping. Hopefully she figures that out quickly before tumbling and losing all confidence again!

Gardening

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Eve and I planted a garden this morning in the backyard. This garden area is now on it’s third incarnation. It started as a veggie garden way back when, then turned into a dirt box for a few years where the kids played with their trucks and dug holes to China, and now it will (maybe) become a beautiful flower garden.

I’m teaching Eve the laziest gardening skills. Last weekend we pulled up as many weeks as we could and used the shovel and rake to level out the space (no more huge mountains and deep lava pits) and loosen up the dirt. Then a week went by and the weeds grew back. This morning we went out again, pulled up more weeds, and planted seeds. During the week Eve had drawn a few plans for the seed planting, based on the heights of the flowers and the angles of the sun, but when we went out this morning she ended up just sprinkling them in loose rows. We’re working with seed packets from last summer, so I don’t know if they’ll even grow! Once all seven types of flowers had been sprinkled about the garden we dumped a giant bag of potting soil (also from last summer) on top and use the rake to spread it all around, destroying any semblance of seed rows we had. Then we sprayed the whole thing with water from the hose. Easy peasy!

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I told her we should make a journal and keep track of what we planted and when, but probably we’ll both be too lazy busy to make that really happen. Hopefully nature will cooperate with us and Eve will have her big, beautiful flower garden this summer. If not, maybe I’ll teach her the right way next summer. :)

Busy Saturday

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Just a quick update before I retire to the couch. We had a busy Saturday today. It started bright and early. I’ve been coaching a Girls On The Run team at my school and today was the big 5K culmination event. The sky was dark and rain was pouring down when I woke up at 5:15 to get ready to go. I was not excited. I had told the kids that I might not see them in the morning because I had to leave so early, so they decided to get up extra early as well to see me before I headed out. Not exactly my plan, but it was ok. I packed rain gear, extra clothes, umbrella, etc. Everything in plastic bags because I have no idea how waterproof my backpack is. The race was about and hour and a half way, but I met the other coaches at a mid-way point and we carpooled together. That was nice. When we met the rain was subsiding and by the time we got to the race the skies were blue and the rain was gone. Yay!!

The day ended up being perfect. Sunny, breezy, cool, but perfect for running. We had a good turn out, I ran almost the entire 5K, and everyone had a great time. On the way home Alan texted me saying he was taking the kids to the playground, so when I got home the house was empty. I showered, scrubbed the Girls On The Run temporary tattoo on my cheek, but it didn’t come off, then settled in for some UVEI writing. Not a lot, but some. I have a TON to do this week. The final push before graduation in a few weeks.

When Alan got home with the kids, Eve and I headed out for a birthday party. It was a carnival theme and tons of fun. I ate lots of popcorn and m&ms and drank lemonade. The kids ran and played. I chatted with other parents and everyone was happy.

Back home we ordered pizza for dinner and relaxed with an episode of Cosmos. Generally a pretty cool show, but I’ll confess I dozed for much of this one. Eve snuggled on my lap and I couldn’t keep my eyes open!

Kids are in bed now and I’ll be there soon. I’ll post more later. Lex has a birthday coming right up and I foresee some free time in my future… eventually! For the next few weeks I’ll be busy!

Front page news

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The little guy made the front page today!  He and Alan were at an electric car event last night, showing off the Leaf for people interested in learning more.  Eve and I were at a concert at school (another step closer to being a teacher – having to work the extracurricular events!) and Lex chose to hang with Alan.  I picked him up when we were done and he told me that a newspaper lady there asked for his name and age and town.  He thought maybe I should buy the paper in the morning, just in case.  :-)  Of course, I did!  Apparently lots of other people did too because his teacher shows the whole class, Eve’s teacher showed her class, and several other teachers told them about it. By the time Lex got to me in the afternoon the paper was old news!  :-)

It looms like he is shooing that person away, but really he was just telling them all about the electric car.

A beautiful Mother’s Day

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I couldn’t have asked for a nicer Mother’s Day this year. Yesterday Alan and Lex cleaned the cars, which is awesome! This morning Eve made me a “surprise” breakfast. I say “surprise” because last night she asked me what I like for breakfast, how to make it, how to make tea, etc. so I had a bit of a hint. :) I read the paper and drank my tea. The kids played nicely. Then we went outside to work in the garden. Alan mowed the lawn while Eve and I prepped the small garden in the backyard for its third incarnation. It started as a veggie garden, spent a few years as a dirt patch/truck work site, and is now being reborn as Eve’s flower garden. She’s pretty excited and that makes me happy.

Eve’s Mother’s Day note from school

After lunch we went on a Valley Quest hike along a flowing brook. The weather was perfect, the walk was beautiful and just challenging enough, and we found the Valley Quest box! Those hikes are always better when we’re able to find the box at the end. :)

ducks

We saw ducks swimming in the brook, then two started fighting a bit further down. Lex whipped out his binoculars and I whipped out the camera. :)

kids

There’s always time to pose for momma!

cold water

The spring water was chilly!

butterflies

Eve, off to catch a butterfly.

crossing bridge

We came across a pretty cool bridge.

looking

Is the Valley Quest box in there? I’ll have you know Lex is using a flashlight he built with his SnapCircuit set and Alan is using his phone’s flashlight. Geeks through and through.

big rock

Ahh… that’s the rock the clue was talking about.

leanto

Someone built a lean-to against one side of the giant rock. The Valley Quest box, however, was not there.

box

Found it! Lex wrote a nice note and we all signed our names.

wading

Then we went wading in the cold spring water.

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Happy family on Mother’s Day.

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Dad and daughter.

waterfalls

We kept hiking for awhile further up the river and came across some beautiful sights, like this waterfall.

bridge

This is that cool bridge on the way back.

After the hike we stopped in town for gelato. I’m not sure I’ve ever had gelato before. It reminded me of eating cool frosting. I had coconut and dark chocolate. Yum! Then we came home to relax for the rest of the day. I’m still preparing for my interview tomorrow so I got more of that work done. Lex is working on science project. Everyone is happy. Alan is heading out momentarily to pick up some dinner for us. The kids are almost in bed and I’m looking forward to kicking back with some wine, tofu teriyaki and sushi, and Anchorman 2 on the big screen!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Oh, what a day!

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I have had a very, very busy week! It’s my second solo week in kindergarten, though the first one I’ve actually had all five days. Tuesday night my friend from UVEI called to tell me what I’d missed that day, which apparently was a bump up on the due dates for a few big projects due. I know what’s due, but apparently it’s due two weeks sooner than I anticipated! On Wednesday morning I scheduled an interview for next Monday (yay!) which I’m not even remotely prepared for yet. But I’m trying to keep my eye on this week. This solo week. Which has had plenty of ups and downs, of course, and I’m pretty sure I’m learning more than the kiddos this week.

My school day ended on a high. As a UVEI project I wrote a kindergarten unit on neighborhoods and I’ve been teaching it this week. It culminated with the class building a neighborhood in the classroom out of paper, cardboard, wooden blocks, Legos, and more. They loved it!! We gave the other kindergarten a tour, a few teachers, and the principal even stopped by to visit our neighborhood. The kids were so excited!

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After school Lex and Eve had their first belt test! They were super excited and I found myself feeling very nervous for them. Eve gets silly when she’s nervous and Lex tends to cry, so I wasn’t sure at all what to expect from the afternoon. Turns out they are both rockstars and did awesome! They needed to ace three separate tasks to move up a full belt color, or there are stripe levels to move up partial belt colors. They had the option of doing the third task or not, but if they did it it had to be done solo, not with the group. Both of them chose to do it! I was so surprised and proud of them! They ended up moving from white to orange with a white stripe, which is one step below orange. The Sensi was proud of both of them for trying the third tasks and they did well with it, but not perfectly. However, they were THRILLED about their orange/white stripe belts. Absolutely thrilled! Eve said her heart was bursting with joy and she swore she had happy tears inside too. :) I did too!!

new belts

This video is nearly nine minutes long, but I suspect there are one or two of you out there who might be interested.

Memories

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My kiddos have great memories. They tell me things all the time that they remember from books or movies or BrainPop. Eve one day busted out a ton of facts about caves that she had read weeks ago in a book during a reading test.

However, occasionally I find myself surprised by things they don’t remember. A few weeks ago we went to a party at “the bouncy house,” a fun play place we used to go to all the time when they were little. The place has a bouncy house and lots of mats for climbing and tumbling. They hold an open playgroup twice a week and we went regularly for a year or more when the kids were smaller. We stopped going when they became the “big” kids and started trampling the little ones. I found out at this party that Eve had no recollection of the place. When we got there she seemed to remember a bit, or maybe was just humoring me. I mentioned it to Lex later in the day and he had no memory of it either.

This evening I was in the kitchen making salad and Eve was hanging out with me. She saw “Pampered Chef” on something and asked what a pampered ch-ef was. I told her it was the name of the company who made the thing and, as the conversation went on, I realized she had no memory of Pampered Chef and my time there. She then spent the next ten minutes combing the kitchen trying to find Pampered Chef things. She didn’t even remember our Pampered Playhouse!

Their baby voices are so stinkin’ cute!

Anyway, none of that should surprise me really. It just seems crazy that things I remember like they were yesterday are completely foreign to them. Things we used to do all the time, they have no recollection of. Sigh.