Busy birthday weekend

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Tessa

We have had a busy birthday weekend celebrating Eve. Double digits. End of a decade here. No more little ones. *Sniff* and sigh and on we go!

Friday Eve was home with a fever. She missed out on birthday at school and getting to be Governor of her class (government unit!), but she did get to watch TV and eat ice cream with daddy, so all was well. Her party was supposed to be Friday night, but we postponed due to her fever and the impending storm. I couldn’t let the day go by without a candle and song though, so a quick improvise and voila – ice cream sundae with a sparkling candle on top!

A candle in a dish of ice cream is what you get when your birthday party is postponed.

At bedtime Eve gave me a little gift by asking if I would read to her. She hasn’t wanted me to read to her at bedtime in ages and I was almost giddy at the invite to snuggle in her bed and read to her. Of course mid way through I remembered the measure-on-the-wall thing and we all got up (me, Eve, dog, cat) and headed to Lex’s room where both boys joined in the fun.

Saturday morning I gave her the gift of staying home alone while I took Lex to karate. When we returned I found her in her room with a mirror and all her hair supplies out. She asked if I would do her hair (yay!) and we had a lovely time talking about jewelry and hair and girly stuff. She had on a beautiful dress, jewelry, and lip gloss.

She let me do her hair! She ASKED me to do her hair!! <3

She’s all ready to party at 11am!

Sadly by 5pm when the party already started she had changed back into regular clothes. At least she kept the beautiful hair-do! :)

Pizza and silly friends!

We did a sleepover again this year, but with fewer friends and even fewer planned activities! I told Eve that she’s old enough to entertain her friends now and we didn’t plan and crafts or projects or anything. Just pizza, ice cream cake, and dancing!

Presents!

Just Dance!

Eve asked me to make an ice cream cake this year. I used the Stoneware bundt pan, three gallons of ice cream, and lots of guesswork. I’m pleased to say it came out really great! I poured hot fudge on the top right at the end, stuck 10 sparkling candles in there and it was perfect!

I’m very proud of my ice cream cake. It was lovely and yummy, and only a little stressful trying to get the candles lit before it melted everywhere!

Three layers of ice cream goodness with mini M+Ms between two layers and crushed cookies between the other two layers.

Only two girls ended up staying over night (because we had changed the date at the last minute), so around 9:30pm, after we watched Moana, half of the party headed home and the other half went to bed… and talked and giggled and carried on until midnight! I only had to go up a few times though and they fell asleep eventually. :)

Today was spent in a sugar/tired haze. Her friends left at 10:30, I had homework to do and school work to do so Eve and I spent a few hours in the library while Lex and Alan spent a few blessed hours in a very quiet house.

Happy Birthday to my baby who is growing up so fast. I look forward to many, many more years of giggly girl sleepovers, braiding hair, and cuddling with stories. <3

I put up all the pictures from the past few days in a Google Album.

10!

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Tessa

Happy birthday to this beautiful girl!

10!

Presents

I’ve had all the feels over the past few days. She is so amazing and independent and sweet and wild and moody and snuggly. I feel blessed every day that I have her in my life.

And these two together. Pure love.

I love everything about these two! I hope they always love each other too!

Sadly Eve will be spending her birthday home on the couch. Her fever is down this morning, but still there a bit and she went to bed last night with 100.7 so I don’t think she should be in school. I think her birthday brownies should though! (they are in the freezer until next week instead!) I stayed home with her yesterday and Alan will be with her today. I imagine lots of snuggles on the couch, TV, and maybe even lunch at Panera if she’s up for it. :)

Studying up on being cool. :)

Eve and Arlo

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Tessa

Eve is home with a fever today. She spent the day on the couch reading, drawing, and snoozing. She’s sick, but not too sick to make ties for the dog. :)

Handsome pup in a bow tie.

Bow tie or neck tie? Hmm….

Silly girl in cat ears.

Enrichment

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Tessa

I run an enrichment group at school where twice a week I work with a small group of kids who can afford to miss some class time. The sessions run for 3-6 weeks, depending on the topic, and teachers chose which students to send. For my upcoming enrichment group Eve’s teacher chose Eve to go. I was talking to Eve about it the other day and said I was thinking about doing either electricity or book reviews. She wasn’t thrilled with those options. :) She is pretty set on doing a research project about the topic of your choice and presenting it in the way of your choice (prezi, glogster, poster, Google presentation, etc.)

Tonight while I was laying with her I told her I just didn’t feel prepared for an enrichment group about research. She said, “That’s ok mom, we can do it together this weekend! We’ll start with a rubric.” The conversation went from there. When I left her we agreed to work together this weekend on it. When I went to check on her just now I found this:

Eve’s rubric

I love that girl! We’ve got education in our blood!

Cookie monster

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Tessa

I just went up to check on Eve and found this…

A reminder note propped in front of her clock.

In case you need a better view…

Note to self.

I understand the excitement, but the fact that she wrote herself a reminder note is hysterical! I guess I know what’s for breakfast tomorrow! 😂

Eve’s comic strip

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Tessa

I found this sitting on the bench in the mudroom the other day. I think it is hysterical!

More skiing

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Tessa

Looking good!

Here’s how Eve’s five week learn-to-ski program has gone so far.
Week 1: She walked around on skiis as everyone else fell over, but the first time she fell over she fell apart. Tears, pain, the world coming to an end. Eventually she angrily made her way to the lodge where she was cranky and mean to the parents and teachers there who tried to help her. (embarrassed)

Week 1.5: Alan and I took her and Lex on a Sunday and we all skied together. She loved it!

Week 2: She made it up and down the bunny slope a few times, but then fell at the the top and gave up. Several coaches and even the school principal tried to teacher her how to stand up, and I tried to teach her how to just take her skis off, but she insisted she could not and eventually (with help) got them off and just hung out at the bottom of the slopes for the remainder of the time. (tired and embarrassed)

Week 3: Today! She was up and down that bunny slope a bunch of times and loving it! She had different skis this time and insisted they worked better and came off easier. She worked on her snowplow and was having fun. Half way through I escorted a group of kids from the bunny slope to the next level up, called the “tow lift,” because, you know, you actually get to use a lift! :) The coach sent four kids with me, including Eve. I didn’t feel confident that Eve was ready for the bigger hill yet and I should have trusted my instinct, but I know she wanted to go be with her friends and with me and the coach thought she was ready, so off we went. Eve figured out the tow lift pretty quickly and made it up. A friend gave her some advice on going down, and she made it down, but definitely out of control.

She went back again, got more advice from a coach, and made it down again, equally out of control. She went back up again, but decided no was was she going down again! :/ I tried to help, coaches tried, friends tried, but no, she would not ski down again. She sat at the top with a very friendly coach for the remainder of the time and then took her skis off and walked down the hill at the end, in angry tears. It doesn’t help that she is getting bruises from these falls so all week she has bruises to remind her how awful skiing is. :/ (scared)

Next week is the 4th week and I’m going to insist she stay on the bunny slope until she gets that snowplow down with confidence. She won’t be happy, but hey, she hasn’t been happy for an entire lesson yet. There’s a chance I also bribed her with Dunkin Donuts (located right next to the ski place) if she made it through an entire lesson. We’ll see how that goes next week. Stay tuned!

Save

Skiing – take 2

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Tessa

On my mother’s brilliant advice, I offered Eve the chance to go skiing today and get caught up on the lesson she missed on Thursday. She thought for a moment then decided it was a great idea. She also told me she was really embarrassed that she fell and didn’t noticed that everyone else was falling too! We decided to invite the boys and after a little convincing for the younger one, we all headed off to the slopes on this sunny 18° day.

Smiles all around! (Alan was still getting his gear on)

Eve was eager to “teach” Lex all about skiing. That made me laugh.

Lex lasted for a little while, but didn’t love it. He wasn’t thrilled with the out of control feeling, and one time Alan caught him at the bottom of the hill, but they both fell down together since Alan was also on skis. Lex said he hurt his head in that tumble. He did a few trips down, but then decided he was done with skiing and went to sit on the bench and watch the lift go around. Eve, on the other hand, LOVED it! She was up and down and up and down and at the moment is better than anyone else in her lesson group! Assuming none of them went skiing this weekend!:)

Alan in the black and Eve right behind him.

I hope we can get Lex back on skis again someday, but for now I’m just thrilled that I won’t have to fight with Eve about ski lessons for the next four weeks! Hallelujah and thank you mom!

Girl Scouts in politics

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Tessa

We had the best field trip today!! Eve’s Girl Scout troop (finally) got started again with their first meeting last Wednesday to hand out cookie sale sheets. (buy cookies, you want cookies, cookies, cookies, cookies) They also talked about the badges and which ones they might like to pursue. One of the badges is called “Inside Government” and it involves interviewing an elected official and attending a town meeting. We joked about how that would be an easy one! When we got home we told Alan about it and he loved the idea and readily volunteered to help out. He told the Select Board about it at their meeting the next night and one of the women on the board told him about a “women in politics” (EmergeVermont) meeting happening on Saturday. One rapid thing led to another and by Saturday morning the troop was gathered at the leader’s house and preparing to attend this event. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we knew the agenda said “Lunch with a local Girl Scout troop.” We were expecting to walk around and ask a few questions (“take a poll” is what the badge requirement says) of various women, then leave. Instead we got so much more!!

She jumped right into Alan’s chair! This girl is going places. :)

When we got there we were welcomed warmly and eagerly. The girls were invited to sit in the Select Board chairs and they held a mock meeting with conference attendees coming up to the podium and asking the girls questions. When there was an extend pause in the questioning I said that really the girls are supposed to be asking the women in politics questions, so they all swapped rolls and the girls asked the questions. We had several Select Board members there (from our town and surrounding towns) and even a woman from our town who is a Vermont State Representative and an amazing person!

Eve is the only one not making a funny face here. LOL! Becca White, in black, ran the “meeting” and everyone loved it.

Our future town government! Holding a “mock” Select Board meeting. Discussing important issues such as banning cigarettes and rescuing puppies.

Ruth from EmergeVermont even had a presentation prepared to show the girls, all about how to get involved even if you aren’t old enough to run for public office. They gave the girls stickers and coloring sheets too.

How to be and involved citizen, even as a child.

After pointing out the humor in it, Ruth presented the Girl Scouts with some cookies her daughter had made. She said, “When I told my 12 year old daughter that Girl Scouts were coming to the meeting, she said, Oh, Can I make them Cookies??” So she did. Very sweet.

Time for a few fun pictures at the end. Ruth asked if we would be ok if they used them in promotional materials and online forums. That would be fun to see!

Your Candidacy Begins Today. #runlikeagirl

Our Girl Scouts with Becca White, VP of the Select Board, and Gabrielle Lucke, Vermont State Representative. They are hanging with a good crowd!

I am so pleased with how well the day went, how eager the women were to have our girls there, and how happy the girls were to be there! Gabrielle Lucke invited them to tour the State House too, if they wanted to Girl Scout field trip. She offered to personally give them a tour if she was available. I love our state!!

Learn to ski… or not.

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Tessa

Look at that face. She doesn’t entirely look happy, even before the fall.

Our school offers a five-week learn-to-ski program in partnership with a local ski hill. When the paperwork came home a few months ago Eve said “thanks, but no thanks” and threw it in the recycling bin. However, the final day that forms were due she decided to join (several friends are also doing it), filled out the paperwork herself, and delivered it all to the office on her own. The school says it’s available at a discounted rate, but oh boy, it is still expensive! Especially since we had to rent everything.

Last week my boss emails me and says, “Since Eve is skiing… would you have any interest in volunteering on the slopes with them?” I double checked Volunteerspot, where the PTO posts volunteer listings, and saw that no parents had signed up! I asked Eve if she was ok with me being there (I like to check first with her), she said “yes, definitely!”, so I agreed.

Yesterday was the first day. Mass chaos (on our end AND the ski “resorts” end)! Eventually everyone ended up where they were supposed to be, fully equipped, and ready to ski. Two parents and several teachers ended up going, so we had enough adults to get the job done. Finally we were in our groups and off, learning to ski! I was with the beginner group because 1) that’s where they needed help and 2) that’s about my level these days! :) I spent most of the time picking kids up off the ground! Lots of them fell, some of them cried, but they all got back up and tried again… except mine. She was doing ok until she fell, then she fell apart. Tears streaming down her face. I got her back on her feet but she cried so hard, telling me her ankle hurt and her leg hurt. I mostly thought it was drama, but it is possible to hurt yourself in ski boots so I finally relented and let her go inside, hoping she would regroup and come back. I told her to check in with the parents in there, have them take a look at her ankle and leg, then come back. She never did. Later in the lesson I texted a parent inside asking if she could send Eve back out, but nope. Another teacher went in and later told me she had tried to encourage Eve to come back out but was shocked when Eve barked at her (not literally!) She told me she’d never seen Eve so angry before.

By the end of the lesson all of the kids were making it up and down the tiny hill and some of them could even stop themselves at the bottom. When I got everyone situated and made my way back to Eve I found her friends with her, consoling and encouraging her. It was sweet. One friend told me privately, “I feel bad for Eve, but I kind of want to tell her to just do it! Get back out there and try again!” I said “YES, please tell her that!”

At home that night Eve and I had a chat about quitting and why it isn’t an option. We talked (again!) about the importance of trying again, and how everything is hard in the beginning, and how everyone has things that come easily to them and things they have to work at, and how I paid a ton of money for this program and she’s not allowed to quit after ten minutes, and about how I’m volunteering and she’s not allowed to quit at all. Notice how I start off empathetic and compassionate, but by the end it’s down to the cold, hard facts?! :) We’ve been down this road before.

Eve was angry and sad and frustrated. I hope she is willing to put those skis back on next week though and give it a try again. It will be even harder next time because the rest of the group has a whole lesson under their belts and she is still starting from scratch. Sigh. This is why I hate volunteering for things! :)