The past few days…

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Tessa

Here is a quick look back at the past few days. We have officially entered the busy holiday season (unlike the busy sports season, or the busy summer season) and life is moving by quickly!

Thursday night was the school concert and Friday was Alan’s company party. He got an award for being with them for fivve years. He also got a lot of attention for his holiday décor. He seems to be pretty well loved at work. :)

You can tell he works for a big corporation. Had this come from the local office it would have said something different. :)

On Saturday Alan went to a conference while the kids and I had some fun on our own. It started with Eve pretending to be a cat for several hours. She took it pretty far!

Kitty Eve doesn’t fit in the laundry basket quite as well as Daisy does.

Don’t worry, she’s eating craisins, not cat food!

I took the kids to karate, then we stopped by Alan’s diner. It’s not really his, but it’s where he goes every Saturday morning while the kids are in karate. The diner staff were excited to meet the family of “eggs benedict and a large grape fruit juice.” Hahaha…

The waitress suggested we take a picture and send it to him. He laughed.

She’s a classy date!

After lunch we did some painting at the pottery studio. There were several holiday craft fairs going on and the Gingerbread Festival, but alas, we were tired and headed home after painting. I was a little bummed to miss the Gingerbread Festival and not see all the cool houses people made. Maybe there will be other craft fairs we can check out next weekend. ‘Tis the season, after all!

Sunday we got our Christmas tree.

It was a misty, mizzly morning… well, all day really! There was intense fog most of the day and into the next day.

Our little tree. <3

While the boys put up the tree, Eve and I went to Clara’s Dream and Tea. I’ve been wanting to take her for years, but I never got tickets. Last year I was so excited that I got tickets, but then Lex’s FLL championship was the same day so we had to sell them again. Sad. I think I might have missed the peak opportunity for this with Miss Eve though. If you’re going to the ballet (Clara’s Dream), you can also buy tickets to Clara’s Tea, a sweet and fancy tea serve at the ballet studio nearby. Everyone dresses up in fancy clothes, drinks tea, eats scones, and meets the cast of the ballet. Eve was only mildly interested and wanted nothing to do with dressing up. She ended up putting on a somewhat dress and we discovered (again) that she has no dress shoes. She didn’t want any jewelery and wouldn’t let me touch her hair. Oh well. I got gussied up and we had lots of fun.

She’s so silly!

Pretty ladies at a tea party.

They served tea, scones, sandwhiches, desserts, and even gave out little presents. This girl dances in the ballet and she brought around a basket of gifts for each little girl.

Eve with the Russian dancer and “Hot Chocolate” from the ballet.

I was beat after that, but the kids were itching to decorate, so I made them eat dinner and shower, then we broke out the decorations, put on some tunes, and relaxed into the holiday spirit.

Who are these big kids?!?

The front camera on my phone is awful! The colors are so washed out, and for some reason the picture is sideways. I’m not going to fix it now. Sorry.

I tried using the regular camera and just guessing at the aim, ya know, the old fashioned way, but we were too silly and wobbly for that to be useful.

Our beautiful tree.

Monday we skipped karate (shh… don’t tell!) and decorated the house.

Peaceful

Happy holidays!

The 2015 Holiday Concert

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Tessa

We had another lovely holiday concert tonight. I’m so glad our school does this. The kids are adorable and it’s nice to see all the parents I don’t see very often.

We were five rows back and could barely see! This is a zoomed in picture I took by holding my phone way above my head.

Eve’s class sang Oh, Hanukkah, and did a song with the boomwhackers (plastic tubes the use to make music).

We had a very special guest at this year’s concert. Listen closely to the bells and see if you can spot him.

That’s right, Lex was in the concert this year!! He wasn’t even very nervous! He told me last night that he knew all the songs (they played four) and was pretty sure it would be ok. It was!! It was absolutely perfect, and when they pulled out those hats for the final song (in this video), and he didn’t put one on, that made it even more perfect. He’s still Lex. :)

I haven’t been in school lately and it was nice to get a chance to see all the holiday decorations they have up. I took pictures of just a few things, but the whole lobby looked amazing!

The gingerbread neighborhood. Each class makes one and then they are all donated to the Gingerbread Festitival, a local fundraiser that happens each year.

Lex’s class made these. He was telling me about them the other day. The used tin and hammers to punch out the designs. I think the display looked beautiful, but I can’t wait for his to come home.

They also punched out designs on tin can lids to hang on the tree. I’m not sure who made the pictures on the wall, but they are beautiful too.

Happy holidays!

Advent Boxes

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Tessa

Advent boxes are up! Fa la la.

This year I went with coupons. (Thanks Mom!) And candy, of course.

I hope the kids like them. They love the advent boxes and look forward to them each year. This year they were hoping for puzzles, and Legos, and tiny toys. All the things they’ve had in past years. :-)

Thanksgiving 2015

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Tessa

Happy Thanksgiving! Another holiday has come and gone. I obviously wasn’t motivated to post during the main event, but since we had a lovely family chat going the whole time I feel like this is almost unnecessary. I’m sure years from now when I’m looking back through my blog I’ll be glad I did this post anyway. :)

We drove to Franklin on Wednesday. The weather this week was beautiful! Nothing like the snowstorms of years past.

Look at these GIANT candy bars we found at a rest stop!!! I love Eve’s face here. :)

We spent Thanksgiving in the usual way, hanging out, eating, drinking, oh yeah, and cooking a delicious non-traditional meal!

I was thankful for this beautiful sunrise!

A boy and his dogs. My kids LOVE Rosy’s dogs. It’s nice now that the kids are bigger and the dogs are calmer. They are all able to connect really well now.

Sweet girls

Carrot coma?! (These pictures would really be much better if I took the time to edit them before posting. Not happening today though. Sorry.)

Doing nothing all day can really wear a girl out! Actually, I think she had just returned from a long walk with Rosy and the dogs. And she went to the playground with Alan and Lex. I guess I was the one who did nothing! She was busy! :)

The dessert table. We had two pumpkin pies, two chocolate tofu cream pies, and a cheese cake. Plus some baked brie and berries off to the left. Hey, what are those veggies doing there?!?

The semi-set dinner table, complete with Connectagon turkey centerpiece! We are a classy family! :)

I think Eddie enjoyed his vacation. No shortage of people to sleep on and with. He slept in Lex’s bed each night too.

This is what an awesome vegetarian Thanksgiving looks like! Baked tofu, bourbon sweet potatoes, cheddar biscuits, baked spaghetti squash with garlic and butter, Annie’s macaroni and cheese, and sautéed spinach. Add a cranberry cosmo and life is good!

The front camera on my phone is TERRIBLE!! Happy Thanksgiving anyway! :)

The next day we did a lot more hanging around. We made it out for a walk up the hill, watched some TV, and ate more food. It was an excellent post-holiday day.

Morning cuddles.

Walking the dogs. Eddie did not want to smile for the camera. :)

The rock quarry. A seriously beautiful day for the end of November! Do you see Alan and Eve?

There they are!

Back home, everyone all tuckered out.

It’s not a proper family holiday without a round of Monopoly. Lex kicked all our butts!

Late night TV watching. They boys were not interested.

Saturday (today) we packed up and headed home. Lex decided that we should go to Franklin at least six times a year. I wonder why…

Pie, directly from the pan, for breakfast…

… and snacks, directly from the bags/boxes, in front of the TV. Cartoons galore! Happiness is.

I think it would be nice to visit a little more often as well, though maybe not six times a year! It’s always nice to come home too. Daisy was glad to see us!

“Feline soccer,” a game that the cat and kids all love!

We have so much in this life to be thankful for. It is easy to get trodden down by the daily minutia of life, so I love being able to take time to recognize how lucky we really are. Life truly is good and I am lucky to be surrounded by love from every direction.

My boys

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Tessa

This boy really loves his kitty, enough so to lay like this for five minutes just to cuddle her.

This boy really loves his new snowblower, the one he's been waiting for for years. Now we just need some snow.... After our t-day travels!

Out of air?

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Tessa

Lex asked me tonight why we never run out of air on this planet. I answered with blah about exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide with plants and all that. He says, “I know, I know, but…” and proceeds to clarify his point. If we breath in one “air” (which equals one oxygen and one carbon dioxide), use the O and exhale the CO2, which leaves one CO2 floating out there. A plant “breaths” in one “air”, uses the CO2, and exhales the O, leaving one O floating out there. The O and the CO2 find each other and merge. I’m with him so far. Then he says, “But that means there were two “airs” breathed in and only one breathed out. Why don’t we run out of air?” I really wanted an intelligent answer, but… I had nothing! I tried to make some blah blah guesses, but you can’t pull that wool over Lex’s eyes. I told him maybe his teacher knows, or daddy, because daddy knows everything. He said, “No he doesn’t. I bet he doesn’t know what it feels like to be inside a black hole.”

Just a usual bedtime with my boy. He’s ten and already a deeper thinker than I am. Tomorrow I’ll tell him to ask Alan.

CHaD

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Tessa

#TBT to that time last month we did the CHaD!

I decided to do some blog cleanup today and remove a few things from the sidebar. Of course, that reminded me that I never wrote a blog post about the CHaD hike. Silly me! This year was less fun than past years, which maybe is why I didn’t enthusiastically rush home and do a post. Alan ran the 5K with a still-recovering calf muscle, and the kids and I did the 10k hike with Rosy. It was snowing in the morning on the way there, but the snow cleared and the sun came out. They change the hike route a bit, without any useful signage, so we were a bit confused along the way and we all agreed that the new route is much hillier! They have also been upping the registration fee and minimum donation amounts each year, and it’s getting pretty pricey for a family of four! I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot a bit and pricing out some families who have been loyal participants. I know a few who didn’t participate this year and we are unlikely to do it next year. I was thinking a nice check to Team Brady would be much easier and more enjoyable for most of us. :)

Anyway, we did it and I have the photos to prove it! (well, photos to prove Rosy, Eve, and Lex did it anyway ;) )

Eve loved the obstacle course before the hike.

She gets some good air!

It ended up being a beautiful day, once the snow blizzard passed.

This tree root provided a lovely spot to rest.

We even did some trail clearing along the way!

Awful day in school

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Tessa

Teaching is hard. The first year is hard. Everyone tells me this and everyone swears it’s true. Don’t give up, they say, stick with it. The first year is hard.

I’m only subbing, long-term, but so far things were going great. I was confident in my abilities, moving right along, getting things done, and we were doing ok. Then this week hit! I only have ten kids, and a few of them are challenging, but I have enough easy-going ones to balance it out and keep the class going. Not this week. Monday was tough and Tuesday was tougher. Wednesday I made a plan and made some changes. Today I tried again. It was a mess! I found myself apologizing all day to any grownup around, swearing that my class isn’t usually this awful. Even the easy-going ones were falling apart on me, wandering around, making random noises. Trying to gather them for morning meeting was like herding cats, just when you get one to the rug another wanders away. It was chaos. Fortunately it’s only half day! The weather is dreary and drizzly, and there was some talk of indoor recess, but I said no way! Out we went. It wasn’t really raining, maybe just a little moist. They needed it. I needed it!

Now I need a new plan, and apparently some serious work on my classroom management skills. I thought I was doing well, but ugh, maybe not! All day I kept thinking “I’m no good at this, I can’t handle it,” but then the voices of many experienced people filled my head, reminding me that the first year is hard. Even though I’m just the long-term sub, it’s still my first year (or half year, anyway) and it will be hard.

I need a nap.

Advent

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Tessa

Lex reminded me, via a conversation he was having with Eve, about the advent boxes. Once again they are very excited for them and once again I completely forgot. I feel like I had so much more time back in the day! Back when our life revolved around the home, not schools. December first is a measly 12 days away. I suppose now is a good time to start thinking about what to put in those boxes I love so much. Any suggestions?

A few more First Lego League Competition photos

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Tessa

One of Lex’s coaches put a bunch of pictures online from the FLL competition. Here are two I like a lot. :)

Lex’s expression in this one cracks me up. It was just a momentary camera snap, just a passing expression, but so funny. He wasn’t at all annoyed. He also looks much older in this picture. :)

This one caputures Lex and FLL perfectly! He had just started his mission running and was excited to see it succeed (or IF it would succeed!)

We also got a copy of the final scoring rubrics for the project, core values, and robot design presentations. The kids did amazing! Their robot didn’t score a ton of points on the field, but they did outstanding in the presentation. The comments included, “The team had vivid enthusiasm and were clearly having fun,” “The team was phenomenally compatible with each other,” and “respect and inclusion.” I’m so proud of how well they worked together, how well they support one another, and how well they perform. I couldn’t ask for better teammates or coaches for Lex.

One of the older kids suggested Lex take home the trophy for awhile and the coach agreed. When I questioned “wouldn’t an older kid, on their final year, rather take it first?” but the coach said they thought Lex would like it. Boy were they right! His face lit right up when I told him and he was so proud it carry it out of the building. Happiness is.