Tag Archives: Eve

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Oh, this girl.  I can’t believe she’s eleven years old.  It seems so old, yet, after a day with her and her friend I was reminded over and over that she’s still pretty young. That made my heart happy.

She started her day bright and early with the one thing she wanted more than anything else in the world.

A special owl delivery. This owl is looking a little worse for the wear after a few run-ins with Arlo!

 

It’s her letter from Hogwarts!!!

She was squealing with delight!

Alan is in Florida this weekend so we did a video chat with him for morning presents.  Fortunately Mandy had made plans for the day so they were up early too.  Eve didn’t have to wait THAT long to open her presents!

Eleven years old! Eleven years of loving this perfect child.

Google hanging out with Daddy and Aunt Mandy.

Showing daddy her letter to Hogwarts.

Jasmine meets Leo. Jazzy had no interest whatsoever. LOL!

Eve got Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and bravely tried the vomit flavor.

It wasn’t very good. In fact, it was hysterically bad!

She had to get up and walk it off! LOL!

A Ravenclaw banner for her room. I hope the Sorting Hat gets the message! (Thanks Rosy!)

Strorks the Rhinoceros from the Just So Stories. (Thanks Grampy Don and Pat!)

I made scones and we had a nice morning.  I measured Eve on the wall on our new measuring stick.  She’s 5’1″ and growing taller every second!  I eventually was able to round them up (they were pretty wound up!) and got them in the car for a day of adventure.  We picked up Eve’s bestie, put on an awesome audio book, and headed to the trampoline park!

These kids keep me laughing!

Jumping, jumping, jumping…

Crashing!

The SkyZone check-in lady offered us the option to “upgrade” to two hours instead of just one, but I think one was plenty.  They all wanted to leave five minutes before our time was even up!  They were exhausted!  I jumped too, but there are no photos of that. :)  Lex spent a lot of time on the dodge ball “court” and loved it!

Everyone was hungry after all that jumping, so we headed to the OG.

A celebratory Shirley Temple for this little curly-q.

Crazy girls

We are a bread and cheese kinda crowd! Sarah threw in a little shrimp, and I had some salad, but really we just went for the bread sticks and alfredo sauce.

They even sang to her! Nothing compares to the birthday song at the Syracuse OG, but this was fun too. :)

Once we had eaten way more than we should have, we headed to the mall!  Or more precisely, Build-A-Bear!

Build-A-Bear is a funny place, but Eve loves it.

Sarah got the Eevee Pokemon and Eve got a cat and named it Sarah. They both got matching Pokemon outfits for their stuffies.

We did a lap around the mall and the kids all griped about the stores.  We passed Victoria’s Secret and PINK and the kids were uncomfortable and made comments about how awkward the stores were.  One even said, “There are children around for goodness sake!”  We passed a few other stores with underwear models and the kids kept commenting on how unnecessary and inappropriate they were.  Good kids!  Then we stopped at a toy store.  On the way out the girls noticed a Motherhood Maternity store nearby and started making the same comments about awkwardness.  I tried to defend that store, saying pregnant women need clothes too.  They didn’t get it.  I asked which was more awkward for them, VS or MM?  They couldn’t decide.  I said, “Maybe they should be closer together because if you start wearing clothes from Victoria’s Secret you’ll probably need the maternity clothes soon after.”  Totally just making a joke. Their reactions were PRICELESS!  Huh? Heads cocked, noses crunched, eyes confused. “Why?” they asked.  I burst out laughing and walked away.  I wish I had a camera for those looks.  I texted Sarah’s mom about it to give her a heads up about possible topics that may come up later, but when we dropped Sarah off it came up within minutes!  Lisa asked how was the mall and the girls immediately started talking about all the inappropriate stores and displays.  LOL!  Still little girls.  Even at Claire’s they commented on the ridiculousness of the little makeup compacts and double mirrors.  “Who needs two mirrors?!” said Eve.  “Who even needs one in their bag?” added Sarah!  :)

We got back in the car for a quiet ride home.  And sweaty.  Turns out I have to get the AC fixed in my car!  It was sunny and in the 50’s today, so the car felt like an oven.  Not complaining though!!

We dropped Sarah off to have dinner with her mom. It’s her mom’s birthday today too. Wasn’t it nice of her to share her daughter with us for the day?!  Then we headed home. The plan was to dye Easter eggs and watch Coco with dinner.  Instead we all checked out into our own things.  (Minecraft, Harry Potter audio book, and Facebook — I’ll let you guess who did what!)

Daddy gave her the moon. More specifically, a 3D printed very detailed replica of the moon. It’s pretty cool.

I love this picture. The shiny above her head is a reflection off the new cats ears she got at Claires.

This one is her favorite. Also a little evil-villany.

Tomorrow is Easter and we have a low-key day planned.  I’m hoping to sleep late and read the Sunday paper.  The kids are hoping to dye Easter eggs, then hide them.  :)  I have little baskets planned for them, but nothing too exciting.  We’ve invited a friend over for dinner, which will probably be pizza.  I should do some homework and lesson planning in there too.  But now, wine and laundry!

Happy Birthday to Miss Eeveecat!  May she forever be wild and free. <3 <3

Bio Fair and Birthdays

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Eve had her Bio Fair today.  Each year the fifth graders each choose a person to study.  The project goes almost all year and included writing, research, and art.  Bio Fair is the culmination of this project.  The kids have to dress as their person and “be” their person for the duration of the fair.  Parents and families come, as do all the other students in the building.  This has been going on for many years and all the students look forward to it.

Eve chose to be Emma Watson for her Bio Fair project.  Because Emma Watson is alive today, her “costume” was just regular clothes, but she looked oh so grown-up!

Emma Watson has a big fan club! They had lots of questions for her.

 

I tried to take a selfie with her and I just looked so tired next to her!  I tried three times, then gave up.  My friend took this one.  It’s the best we could do.  :)

Me and Emma :)

This afternoon she decided to come shopping with me while Lex was in karate.  She has been saying all along that the doesn’t want to bring in a birthday treat to school, but in the grocery store today she changed her mind and decided to make “bunny butts” for her treat.  Thanks YouTube!

Really they are Oreos and frosting.

Mini marshmallow tails and feet, pink frosting toes.

We ran out of frosting so she decided to melt chocolate and make some of the bunnies brown. Things got a little messy!

This might be considered a “Pinterest fail” but I’m going to call it a success because she did most of it on her own and she’s thrilled! :)

I did some Googling and it seems “bunny butts” are all the rage this Easter.  There are a wide variety of ways to make them, using cookies, cupcakes, cakes, etc.  Who knew!?

 

A musical weekend

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We had a fun-filled musical weekend. Friday and Saturday, anyway. Sunday was spent paying the price. :O

Lex got a special delivery on Friday afternoon. It took him all afternoon to set it up and only near the very end did he discover the instructions. He didn’t need them anyway!

Drummer boy!

He spent a good deal of Saturday hanging out with a new friend, playing Magic the Gathering, jumping on their trampoline, and playing the drums.

Meanwhile, Eve and a few friends got silly.

Saturday night we went out to dinner at Three Tomatoes and then saw Footloose at Northern Stage. It was a North Country Community Teen (NCCT) production, directed by a DBS 4th grade teacher. It was a great show and the kids were surprised by how many songs they recognized. We sat right in the front row, with an amazing view of the stage AND the orchestra!

Drums, front and center.

It was nearly 11pm by the time we got home and well after by the time everyone made it to bed. Needless to say Sunday was a tired day. I had a PTO planning meeting, lots of home work (which I finished), and lesson planning (which I started), and grocery shopping (which will have to wait). Eve had a Girl Scout event that she didn’t want to attend, resulting in an emotionally exhausting day dealing with her and ended with her quitting Girl Scouts. That will have to be another post though!

Off to fold the laundry mountain now!

Glad the rest of the set came quickly!

Parsee Cake (this one’s for you, Grampy Don!)

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Eve has been in a treat making mood lately. She baked and decorated sugar cookies a few times, and yesterday she made some Jell-O. Seeing the Jell-O reminded Alan of a cake his dad created and his mom used to make for him every year for his birthday. She taught me and I took over the tradition for many years until he decided he wanted Birthday Cookies instead. Well, today, on our last day of February vacation, this happened.

She got pretty loopy at the end! I can’t imagine why?! :) She made the cake almost all on her own, with just my guidance and minor help. It came out great! I love how proud she looks. <3

The holiday concert that wasn’t

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Eve had her last holiday concert last night.  We didn’t make it.  She’s had a cold and sniffles for a few days now.  She woke up in the morning saying her neck hurt.  I had a long meeting after school and by the time I got back to her she was cuddled up in the chair, covered in my jacket.  She told me she was too tired and cold and stuffed up.  I rushed her down to the nurse real quick (who was also in the long meeting with me) for a fever check.  It was low-grade but “within the range of normal for an evening temperature.”  The nurse also checked her throat because apparently strep is going around her classroom!  The throat was red, but not too red.

That left me with the eternal parent/teacher dilemma.  I was signed up to run the raffle table and Lex was going to come help me.  What to do, what to do.  I talked to the music teacher who assured me they could find someone else to run the table – though I know that’s the last thing she wanted to be thinking about an hour before the concert starts!  I negotiated with Eve for a bit, but she wanted nothing to do with anything.  I even told her it was lights out at 7:30 if she didn’t go to the concert.  She said ok.  And was in bed at 7:30.  I read her a few Christmas stories so lights weren’t quite out, but close.  :)  She was asleep fast and slept late this morning.  I felt bad about bailing on my teacher commitments, but damn, we are tired around here!

When I broke the news to Lex he was completely indifferent, but then he told me how excited he was for his own concert on Monday and I said, “what?”  Concert Monday?  Crap.  Not on my calendar!  So Monday will be karate -> Girl Scouts -> concert… while hoping someone can pick Eve up from Girl Scouts for me!

Anyway, I did go to the dress rehearsal and took a few videos of Eve’s band performance.  I didn’t stick around for the chorus part, thinking I’d be back again in the evening for the actual show.  Silly me.  This family isn’t very good at the concert thing.

 

My life, in bullet points

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  • We are closing on our new house next Friday (Friday the 13th, to be precise!)

We have a lot of mirrors in the master bath vanity!

  • Everything is coming along swimmingly!

We were here for awhile, making faces in the mirrors.  :)

  • We hope to get all the moving done in one weekend. Alan says one day, but I can’t even imagine that. :)

I”m sure she’ll be super helpful!

  • Lego League is going a bit better.  We have divided up into three teams, so the chaos is more manageable.  I have a bad habit of finding myself in charge of things, so I’m pretty much in charge of the Upper Valley First Lego League team.
  • School is good.  No, school is great!  I don’t always love going (so much to do at home!), but I always love being there.
  • I’m in the middle of two grad courses.  One boring and the other super boring!  I posted a minor vent on a closed Facebook group for librarians about my cataloging course and got over 100 replies, most all of them completely emphasize, but a handful who admit to absolutely loving cataloging. It takes all sorts, I suppose.  Glad someone likes doing that stuff and I’m double glad I won’t have to do much of it after completing the program!  :)
  • The kids have both had growth spurts and now have a whole lot of ankle showing.  ‘Tis the season, I suppose.  Probably should do some cold weather shopping soon, before the cold weather really hits!
  • I started a Battle of the Books program at school.  It’s for 4th and 5th graders and will take us through the end of February.  The kids were luke warm at first and I was getting nervous, but last week they got to pick their books and we officially kicked off the project and they were SO EXCITED!  I loved it!  It made me feel 100% more confident about the idea and I know it’s going to be fun!

The brackets are up!

  • I finished making the growth chart I’ve been thinking about for 10 years.  It came out really great.  I’m happy with it and now we can officially move.

Growth chart ruler

  • I am running my first book fair at school in three weeks.  I feel wholly unprepared for it!  The kids at school are very excited and definitely missed it last year.
  • PTO is organizing a Color-A-Thon again this year.  It’s supposed to be bigger and better than last year.  I’m the VP of the PTO and should be helping with this effort.  I’m not.  I do plan to show up for the event.  I hope that’s sufficient for this year.
  • We got flu shots last weekend.  Did you see the photo?  Lex was worried, of course, but didn’t protest too much.  He held my hands and cried a little, but he got himself there, talked himself through the whole thing, and didn’t end up no the floor even once.  Eve smiled for a photo at the end!  I think my babies are growing up!!

Alan says, “Flu shots for a happy family and healthy community.”

  • Eve is playing field hockey this fall and loving it!  She has practices three times a week and one or two games each week (sometimes a game replaces a practice).
  • Lex is belt testing next week for his purple belt.  He’s had the green one so long that the threads are coming out!  He said it’s time to retire the green belt.  We missed a few tests over the summer, so he hasn’t tested in many months.
  • Monday is in-service for me and no school for the kids.  I decided to sign them up for a rec sponsored trip to Jay Peak, a super cool (or so I’ve heard) indoor water park that’s two hours away!  We have talked about going for years, but never made it.  The kids are thrilled that I’m letting them go.  I’m nervous about the distance, but I had a nice email exchange with the parks department director and the details he provided greatly reassured me.  I still don’t love them being that far away without me (am I weird?) but I know they’ll have a great time and ya know, Alan and I have to work, so it’s a pretty good deal.
  • Alan is super busy at work, with town stuff, and, of course, taking care of all the important yet boring parts of this house process, like researching lights and keeping the finances moving forward.  He has been the detail man on this project and has done a wonderful job keeping it all on track.  I just show up with cookies and a camera when the mood strikes!

My growing girl

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Eve picked up her flute tonight. She is so excited! It was a crazy night at “instrument pick-up” where all the 5th graders in the district showed up for their new band instruments.

She also started sewing, all on her own. She sewed up a stuffed animal that Arlo chewed the eye off of, and today, after Arlo got her doggie, Eve went right to work. She does a great job too!

Good News! (or Eve update – part III)

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I got a call from the doctor with the results from the second part of the Lyme test. It came back negative. Which means, says the doctor, that she doesn’t have Lyme disease. So I asked if the first test was wrong and she said maybe. Or maybe this one is. Haha. Apparently this disease has got everyone confused – doctors and patients alike! The doctor said given the symptoms and timeline that she read about, since she didn’t actually get to see Eve, the doctor thinks it’s likely she doesn’t have Lyme. However, we both agreed finishing out this course of antibiotics (which I just realized I forgot to give her the evening dose – damn it!) and then see how she’s doing then. This Lyme thing is nuts. It’s got everyone flummoxed!

On another note, mom and dad, less than an hour after you left the kids were wrestling and Lex got a busted lip. Not too bad, but it bled and needed ice. Then I forgot Eve’s meds tonight. I don’t think you should leave me in charge of these kids!! :)

Eve update – part II

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Got a phone call from the hospital this evening. Eve’s Lyme test came back positive. :/ Not a good diagnosis, but it does explain the fevers, headaches, and vomiting. They phoned in a prescription for amoxicillin and Alan picked it up on the way home from work. I’m going to give our primary care doctor a call in the morning to ask a few questions. Google is all over the place and since we really have no concrete idea when she was bit (we’re blaming it on camp, but that’s not a certainty) it’s hard to know what to expect. Lyme disease is so vague! I’m hoping a few weeks of antibiotics will do the trick and we won’t have any more trouble.