January random

January was looking to be a pretty slow month around here until Brandon at the last minute decided to play basketball. I'm glad he did. It was a fun season to watch. After a so/so regular season, they totally pulled it together for the playoffs and made it all the way to the championship game. They played the undefeated "Jimmers" who had been beating teams 80-10. They gave them a run for their money and only lost by a couple of shots. It was a nail bitter for sure. He, once again, took home the second place trophy. He put it on his dresser next to ALL his other 2nd place trophies. He is bound and determined to one of these days get a first place trophy to add to his collection. And knowing Brandon, he'll do just that.

Another random shot of my sweet girl playing with her princesses and a few princes.

She is so precious.

This picture doesn't look like much but it was the funniest thing. The weather warmed up and so Kara decided to wash her car. OK. There just happened to still be snow in certain spots around the yard and the neighborhood kids decided to have a snowball fight. So here Kara was in shorts with the hose casually washing her car as if it were June and everybody else was running around dodging snowballs that were whizzing all around the town. The funniest thing was right after she finished drying her car they all threw snowballs at it. Messed it right back up. Good times!

President's Day

One night, when we were all in the car driving home from a dinner at Grandma's, Trevor had the kids captivated with stories from his childhood. They were particularly interested in his mad paper mâché skills. They didn't even know what paper mâché was. They needed to know more. He told them how he started out making a small piggy bank in school, but then progressed to a very detailed Star Wars Sand Man mask that he actually wore for Halloween. He explained the process, the materials, the mess. And before we pulled into our driveway, it was decided. President's day was coming up, and we were going to honor the Presidents by making ourselves some paper mâché!

We looked forward with great anticipation to Paper Mâché Presidents Day.

Here he is the Master of Mâché.

He took his position very seriously. He bought all the supplies, he invited guests.

He may have even practiced, I'm not really sure.

We tore and taped.

We dipped.

And dipped.

And dipped some more.

We followed the Master's instructions exactly.

We were told they needed 24 hours to dry.

For us, they took 4 days (maybe it was all that dipping!).

Some of us took a risk and branched off with an attempt at a vintage Sand Man mask.

And then after reconvening we painted.

And painted.

And attached special eyes to our mask.

Before our creations were even dry from the paint they started to sink and shrivel. The pigs looked like they had been kicked in the snout or the side by an angry farmer. I didn't even take a picture of the final products. It was too depressing. All that taping and dipping and drying and waiting and painting for nothing.

I'm blaming the Master.

books

Every 3 weeks we head to the library.

And every 3 weeks we check out 40 books.

(if there wasn't a cap on the number they let you check out it would be higher than that for sure.)

My kids love to read. Every single one of them. And so, as I carefully browse every section, every aisle, every genre of our beloved library with all of my kiddos in mind my book basket grows heavier and heavier.

The day I bring the book basket h0me is one of my favorite days of the month. I set the basket down in the middle of the family room floor before it finds its permanent home upstairs in the corner of the hall. And without fail as the children trickle in from school, they all end up right here, in the family room, huddled around the basket. Soon all the books are out and being read, looked at and smiled over. Even the teenagers will stop by and leaf through the children's books before picking up their chapter books and continuing on their busy way.

There is just something about a library book. I feel it and so do my kids. The well worn pages, the distinct smell, the crinkle of the plastic cover as it is carefully opened and explored. The faraway worlds and excitement that each one brings into our home.

Yes, I certainly love library day.

Happy reading!

high school

A Christmas tradition at good ole AF High School is for the Student Body Officers to each perform a dare in front of all the students if the school raises enough money for the annual sub-for-santa fundraiser. This year they far exceeded their goals, and so the SBO dares were set in motion. Let me just share some of those dares:

* Eating a plate full of jalapeno peppers

* Swallowing (and chewing) live goldfish

* Being shot at close range with paint balls

* Eating a dog food and a cat food sandwich

* Licking, yes, I said LICKING, the entire perimeter of the gym

*Or how about having 10 people brush their teeth and spit in a cup and then drinking that cup?

I am not kidding.

Kara, at dinner one night, said, "Mom, I don't think you're going to let me do my dare." I replied, "Probably not if it's anything like the others I have heard about." She hesitated and then said, "My dare is going to school for one entire day handcuffed to MY MOTHER!" I immediately said, "I'll do it!" I would have done just about anything to assist my daughter in avoiding some of those other dares.

I knew the purpose of this dare was to embarrass her, so the question became "What should I wear?" We discussed several options. How about my pajamas and big fuzzy slippers? Old lady clothes? My threadbare duster? As we were talking, still at the dinner table, with each suggestion Tyler's face grew more horrified. "You CANNOT wear that! You wouldn't DARE wear that!" Just for fun we threw out the idea of me wearing a sign that said 'I'm Tyler's mom too!' At that he just got up and walked out, completely unable to handle the conversation any further.

We tried on several outfits, practiced an annoying walk in case we walked by Tyler in the hall, and finally decided to go matchy matchy with coordinating side ponytails.

And then we headed off to High School...together, hand in hand cuffed hand.

I felt like I was stepping back in time.

Waaaay back in time.

Our first class was World Religions (Kara's very favorite class). I knew my purpose was to embarrass her and so I whispered in her ear that I wanted a picture in every single class. Why I wanted one, I don't know. I really really don't suit a side pony tail.

Now, I am a person who likes to multi-task, and the week before Christmas is a very busy time, so I had brought my backpack along filled with stuff to do. During this class I was getting a little bored (it was kind of over my head anyways, all that deep ancient religious stuff) so I pulled out my Christmas newsletter to work on.

And I totally got in trouble!

The teacher stopped right in the middle of his lecture and pointed out that he doesn't let his students work on anything during a lecture. The class was silent as I sheepishly stuffed my papers back into my backpack. It totally brought back memories of when my Spanish 3 teacher duct-taped my mouth shut for talking too much (By the way, Kara just informed me that she too has had her mouth duct-taped shut by a teacher!).

After I survived my tongue-lashing we shuffled out into the hall. Kara told me we were in what all the students called the "Birth Canal." I was fascinated. And so, of course, I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of the birth canal. She was mortified. She looked at me and said, "You're like a TOURIST in high school." And that's exactly what I was. A tourist. And what tourist wouldn't want a picture of the famous Birth Canal Hall? I know I sure did. And I definitely got one; in fact, I got plenty.

We were eventually pushed out of the dreaded birth canal and made our way into the front office where Kara has to do the announcements each day. I was very obedient and sat very quietly as she carried out her Student Body responsibilities. After my mishap in the first class I didn't want any more trouble.

Because we had to do announcements, we were late to our next class: Foods. It is awkward enough to walk into a class late, it is beyond awkward when you walk in late handcuffed to your mother dressed like a child from the 80's. But Kara was taking it all in stride. I lucked out because in Foods it was a free lab. Kara's group was making grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies (Weird combo, but OK). We donned our aprons and began to cook.

I really couldn't believe this class. It was nothing like the Foods classes I took in High School. Look at that! Tablecloths and place mats. They even had an ice dispenser machine. It was awesome.

Here is our cooking group. Kara was once again mortified when apparently I asked the big, popular, cute basketball star to snap this here picture for us. Embarrassing! How was I supposed to know?

After this class I really really had to go to the bathroom. Are you kidding? I usually have a bladder of steel and according to all of my kids, you never use the school bathroom. We devised a plan. We walked into the bathroom and then quickly unlocked ourselves with the special key I had tucked in my backpack for just such an emergency. I took care of business and then we hooked back up. What we didn't anticipate was all the people who saw us walking out of the bathroom handcuffed together. They were looking at us kind of weird. We quickly headed down the hall avoiding any and all eye contact.

Our next class was AP English. I was pleasantly surprised to find out we were having a white elephant party and that my sweet Kara had brought a present for me to contribute so that I could participate. Of course I drew lucky #1 , so up we went to pick the first gift. I didn't end up with what I picked first, but that is OK because I love what I got.

Here is my gift.

"Shave with me Barbie," compliments of Kara's teacher (That is real hair under her arm and on her legs, don't ask me how. Sick!). I obviously had to show everyone who we talked to after this class my big win. They were equally disgusted and interested. Kara was, once again, embarrassed at my excitement over my hairy barbie.

Apparently, these days in High School, you don't eat lunch at lunch time. You just hang out by the lockers and talk. This got boring to me after a while so I pulled Kara away and told her we needed to go find Tyler who had sworn he was going to eat in a different place because he was literally dying at the thought of me being at his school, and dying even more at the thought of actually seeing us. It took some time, but we found him and suceeded in embarasssing him practically to death.

It was great.

We then had only a few minutes to frantically finish our homework before AP Calculus. Here, I am acting like I am helping. Yeah right. Me and math. I don't think so (see, I told you they don't eat).

Here we are in our last class of the day, AP Calc. I was blown away. How are these kids so smart? How do they even understand what this man is talking about? It has definitely been a long, long time since my days in Senior Math where we learned how to balance a checkbook. Those were the good old days.

So, what did I learn from my day at High School? I learned my daughter is a flirt, just like I was back in the day. I learned that she is kind and friendly to EVERYONE, to Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. To nerds and pops and jocks and all those somewhere in betwen. To her brother and his friends and to boys with beards (I'm serious-full on fluffy beards!). I learned that my girl has awesome teachers and that she truly enjoys school and learning. And I learned that it is really uncomfortable to be in handcuffs ALL day long. Seriously uncomfortable.

The last thing we heard as we walked out of the school together was one girl saying to another girl, "I would literally shoot myself if I had to go to school with my mom."

We smiled as our handcuffs happily jingled on our way out the doors of the High School. Kara wasn't going to shoot herself, nope, not at all. It had been a good day. Actually, a really good day for all 3 of us. A great girl, her old mom, and a stubble-ridden barbie.

I would recommend it to every parent.

I think I'll go ask Tyler what day he wants me to come. This time it will be pj's and fuzzy slippers for sure! I may even throw in some hair curlers just to be funny!

He will probably DIE laughing.

cooties

There are certain parts of my kids' lives that I just don't have a lot of pictures of. School is one of those things. Oh, we have pictures of programs and things, and, of course, the traditional first day, but not of the everyday nitty gritty stuff. The classroom, the teachers, the art work, the halls. So this year when SEP's rolled around I grabbed my camera in hopes of capturing some of the magic of elementary school.

After about 7 tries, Ethan finally had his eyes open enough to OK this picture. He is pointing to his snow globe creation.

Alyssa and some art.

Bryson and all the patriotic things he is learning this year in 5th grade.

And I had to snap a few shots of the Book Fair.

The dreaded book fair.

It is not dreaded to the kids, only to me. I hate the book fair. Now, I love books, I just hate how they parade the kids through the book fair all week tempting them and encouraging them to buy buy buy.

We deposit the kids here while we are in the teacher conferences, and with 3 kids at the school, they have plenty of time to browse. After many years of tears and dragging them out of the book fair bookless, they have learned to not even ask anymore

(I can get the same books for a fraction of the cost on amazon).

But occasionally they bring in their own money and blow it on giant pencils or invisible ink, like Ethan is here.

And so, we survived another parent teacher conference and another book fair with glowing reports for each of our brilliant children, a giant pencil and a picture of the elementary school bathroom.

Now that's the nitty gritty of elementary school.

And I don't know why I even took a picture of this because none of my children have ever used the school bathroom before. They absolutely refuse.

Cooties, I guess!

And cooties now documented!

Is there something wrong with this picture?

It's called a coat rack people!

Please use it.

let the games begin

As I was cleaning and organizing the game closet one day for the billioneth time, I reached up to put away a game and took a moment to look at the shelves and shelves of games we have collected over the years. As I scanned all of the boxes and bags I realized it has been years since my kids have played some of these treasures. Did my little ones even know we had all of these games? I doubted it, so I came up with a little plan. A plan that would re-introduce the good old fashioned board game to my kiddos.

I wrote down all of the games we owned on little strips of paper.

It took me a total of about 5 minutes.

I then put all of those strips of paper into this jar. And then I set the jar on the table and explained the rules. Which were: Pick a paper and play that game. No put backs. If they picked it they had to give it a try.

And then the game playing began.

My kids happily picked papers and played game after game after game.

And after a long absence little Miss Caterpillar Scramble finally got some action.

I think she was happy.

Prayer at our house

There is never a dull moment around here. Not even during family scripture study and family prayer, where on this particular evening, my kids decided to try this:

Planking during the prayer

(Ashlyn was obviously unable to hold the pose, we'll blame it on underdeveloped abs ).

They make me laugh, yes, even in the middle of a prayer!

a girl and her camera

One of the things I love most about Ashlyn is her ability to entertain herself for hours on end. This morning she was completely involved in a very extensive photo shoot. She brought every stuffed animal that has ever existed into my bedroom and then meticulously sorted them. She then pulled out her new camera from Christmas (a huge hit by the way) and the photo session was underway. I couldn't reist grabbing my camera as well and snapping a few shots of this darling photographer hard at work.

She started with the bears, in descending height order.

Next came the bunnies.


Birds.

Um, vegetables.

And the lone ferret, because, seriously who has more than one stuffed ferret?

This little project kept her busy all morning.

Her clients were quiet and very cooperative.

Her clients couldn't pay much.

But this photographer didn't mind.

Because that's just the kind of photographer she is.

Love her!

a new year

I spent the last night of 2011 surrounded by the people I love the very most.

And I needed that.

2011 hasn't been our best year.

We filled our night with food (tons of yum!) games and laughter.

We rotated between games for the kids, like Hullabaloo.

And games for the adults, like Read My Lips.

(I love you Sarah, ha ha!)

It turned out to be a really great party.

With really great people.

And really great hopes for the New Year.

Here's to 2012.

It's gonna be good.

I can feel it.

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!