School Lunch

About half way through the school year, Cami and I started a weekly tradition of eating lunch with Ellie each Friday.  Ellie has adored the one-on-one attention and I think it's also been a motivating factor for Ellie to stay at school some days. 

 Today Spencer arrived home from school just as I was leaving for the elementary school for our last lunch date of the year and with a little persuasion (in the form of letting him help me pick which restaurant to stop at ) I talked him into accompanying us on our rendezvous with Ellie. 

Despite his gargantuan height (5'10" according to the doctor) that struck fear into the hearts of several of Ellie's classmates,  Ellie was thrilled to have her big brother  as her accompaniment to and from the lunchroom. 

  

Spencer was thrilled too....

And Ellie made sure that he showed it for the camera.....

After a couple of times of buying as-disgusting-as-we-remembered hot lunches, Cami and I resorted long ago to bringing our own lunches for these dates, either from home or from a restaurant.  I must say that I certainly enjoyed my lunch from Baja Fresh....

just as much as Ellie enjoyed her school cafeteria pizza (the Friday menu item).... 

While we were in the cafeteria, Mr. S came over to greet Spencer and Cami.  He had been  both of their 4th grade teacher eons ago and he invited them to stop by his classroom after lunch, so he could introduce them to the class and look them up in his collection of old-time yearbooks.  It was an entertaining journey down memory lane and eye-opening at how fast time really does fly. 

Here's where I should input Spencer and Cami's 4th grade pictures, so you can see how much they've grown and laugh at how different they look. But since that would require actual effort in the form of me diving into my picture box to locate the pictures and then scanning them in, that will have to wait for another day week year.  

Just picture Spencer with short spiky hair and a silly smile. 

And Cami as a cute little shortie wearing a sweatshirt that looks like it belongs to me. 

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Spirit Week

Dress-Up Day:    

Ellie came home bragging about how her dress was the prettiest in the whole school.

Crazy Hair Day
 

Adam had to be convinced to let me do his hair like this (since we didn't have any hair dye), but in the end he loved his faux-hawk for a day!   Cami is now trying to convince him to wear it like that more often, but he has yet to accept that challenge.  On the flipside, after 20 minutes of trying to brush out the tangles the next day, I discouraged Emma from ever wearing her hair like that again.

Pajama Day: 

They thought it was SO cool that they could just wake up and go to school without taking the time to get dressed!  Pillow pets and stuffed animals were brought along as well. 

Hat Day:

We convinced Ellie to wear the hat to school by telling her she looked like a little girl from a magazine ad.  It worked like a charm.  Not only did she wear the hat, but she went around telling everyone that she looked like she belonged in a magazine.

 At least she's got some confidence to go with that fashion sense!


Now there's only 4 days of school left and I think I may be as excited as they are to shed the crazy schedule.  I definitely have a love-hate relationship with all this end-of-year craziness!



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A New Passion

 Between all of the end-of-year activities (Colonial Days, end-of-year parties, award ceremonies, concerts, etc), a few too many projects (organizing activities for Youth Conference, teacher gifts, PTA fundraiser, Summer Girls' Club organization, house projects, etc), AND my brother Tim and sister Heather being in town.....I am exhausted and not getting near enough sleep.   I truly have no business blogging while I have a whole heap of emails that need to be answered, but what can I say?  I need a sanity break and I have loads of pictures to blog about.... 

In amongst all of the craziness lately, we've caught a bug.  The birdwatching bug.  I blame it on Adam's 2nd grade teacher who interwove birds and nature into every subject this year.  Adam can identify birds by sight and sometimes even just by the call.  It's truly an amazing gift his teacher has given him (and by default us as well). 

Over the last month or so, we've collected quite an array of bird paraphernalia to attract the birds to our deck.  We've got everything set outside our dining room window and so while some kids plop down in front of a TV, my kids plop down at the dining room table and birdwatch!

When I am eating or working on my computer, I will set my things up so I can maintain a good view of the feeders while I work.   It's a little distracting sometimes, but it's so worth it to capture these amazingly beautiful little creatures.  This picture is one of my favorites with 2 downy woodpeckers on our suet feeder.  The downies are regular visitors to our suet and are stunningly beautiful in my opinion.   

This is a photo of a tufted titmouse.  There are several that come to our feeder and I love their little mohawks and bluish-gray plumage. 

We also love the cardinals, Carolina chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, house finches, purple finches, and house sparrows that come regularly.    Of course we only know how to identify them thanks to Adam, which brings me to  a picture Adam drew for his teacher. 

And one Ellie drew for Adam's teacher as well. 

And my new favorite bird photo of all time.....

I found these two Eastern bluebirds in a tree and luckily had my camera and telephoto lens with me.  I snapped several shots, but ended up in love with how this one really captured the beautiful details on its feathers.  What a gorgeous bird! 




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Three Steps to Being the Most Popular Kid in School

1.  Be cheerful and friendly

2.  Be kind and respectful to all you meet

3.  Volunteer to be the mascot at the school faculty basketball game

Your admirers will flock to help you and swear to keep your identity a secret....

The hugs and smiles will start almost immediately (even before leaving the bathroom)...

You'll get the crowd to cheer louder than anyone else in the room....

You'll inspire confidence in those around you....

Your little sister will treat you like a walking, talking teddy bear and never leave your side (but of course your secret is still safe with her)....

You'll never give and get so many hugs and high fives in such a short period of time...

And when your team wins the game, you'll be mobbed with adoring fans....

My three gurrrrrrrrrls....

Go TIGERS!!!!



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ellie's habit

After a couple of months of being exhausted from the side effects of her medication, Ellie has learned all the right things to say to her school teacher to get them to call me.    I now get phone calls a couple times a week that go something like this, "Hi Mrs. G.  This is Ms. H from the clinic at school and I just wanted to let you know that Ellie is here to rest, but she's not really resting and would like to talk to you." 

Then I have a conversation that goes something like this, "Hi Mom!  Do I have a playdate after school?" 

"No, Ellie.  Not today."

"I feel funny.  I want to come home."

Sometimes I can talk her into staying the rest of the day at school (especially if she actually does have a playdate) and other days she's insistent that she really doesn't feel well.  When I do come get her, she often spends the rest of the day  as happy as a clam playing around the house with Cami.

While I would never have tolerated such seemingly manipulative antics in my other kids, I really hesitate cracking down on her, because she legitimately still has bad days where she's exhausted and "off" all day and it's hard to judge that over the phone.   

It is definitely a good thing they don't really care about attendance in kindergarten, because she's well into the double digit absences for this year....and that's not even counting the dozens upon dozens of days she's left early as well!  

It's also a good thing that she keeps us smiling and laughing with her humorous philosophical conversations whenever she's at home (and especially at bedtime).  Lately I've heard all about her philosophies on choosing a good husband, listening to the Holy Ghost, dying, getting boobs, Cosette and Eponine's relationship in Les Mis, exercising, and the tooth fairy.   I'm totally convinced she'll either be a writer, philosopher, or talk show host someday, because this is one deep-thinking girl who loves to share what's on her mind!!!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this little sweetie pie? 


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Mom to the Rescue

The Problem:  It's time for soccer and one of the soccer balls is missing.  All that can be found is this long-lost ball that has spent a few too many days in the backyard.... 

While the ball was well inflated and perfectly fine for kicking around a field,  there were still buckets of tears and arguing over which one of the kids would have to be the one to take the scruffy ball to soccer...

I was feeling my frustration level rise as quickly as their decibel level, when suddenly I had an idea!!!!  Why not break out the markers and make the soccer ball as colorful as they wanted it to be? 

After Ellie, Adam, and Cami frantically colored away, their smiles seemed to grow as each pentagon took on a new color and design. 

It was definitely the most colorful ball on the field...

which worked well for masking the fact that her socks didn't exactly match....

YAY!  Make that one big colorful tally mark in the "Mom Saves the Day" column!

And believe me, when I say that I need all the tally marks I can get today.  I'm at about negative 3,000 after a little parking lot incident I had today in our three-day-old car.    



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Isn't it Ironic?

After receiving word that the crashed Corolla was a lost cause,  we decided to go ahead and get a new Sienna and make our old Sienna the commuter car.  We figured it would be nice to have the family car be new and reliable and have a safe, old car for Spencer to drive when he gets his driver's license in a few months (not that I'm old enough to have child with a driver's license yet or anything). 

So, on Friday night, after much haggling on the internet and in person, we bought this beautimous new minivan with 8 seats, automatic doors, a navigation system, and even a built-in DVD player.  While these features may not seem very exciting to most of you, to those of us who have been driving around the same old economy car for the last decade, these features are downright  luxurious. 

On Saturday morning, before leaving the house, we give the kids a lecture about how we're going to keep this car uncluttered and clean, including a strict no-food policy except on vacations.  We really made a big deal of it and went so far as to breathe out threatenings for anyone who dares to maim our sparkly new car with so much as a muddy footprint. 


Shortly thereafter the aforementioned parental pep-talk/threats, the following prayer was given by Ellie: 

Dear Heavenly Father, We thank thee for this day and for our new car.  Please keep us safe.  Bless us to be good and keep our new car clean, so it won't get messy like our old car.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Shortly thereafter the aforementioned prayer, we get in the car for our inaugural trip (other than driving it home the night before) to take Ellie and Adam to ward soccer. 

Within 20 seconds of being in the car, Ellie accidentally dumped out a bag of stuff she'd randomly brought with her.   Thankfully, the stuff was all easily picked up and put back in the bag.  Unfortunately the long-lost crumbled remnants of a chocolate Easter bunny that also adorned the inside of the bag proved to be another story. 

<SIGH>

At least the new-car smell hasn't worn off yet. 




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RIP: Little Corolla

Now that our Corolla has officially been declared dead and gone by the insurance company, I thought I'd give a little eulogy on what had been, until a couple of weeks ago, a faithful little commuter car for Glen.  

a)  we purchased it on Ebay in 2003

b)  we drove to West Chester, Pennsylvania to pick it up

c)  we paid $6900 for it, which was significantly below blue book values for a one-year-old car

d)  it had nothing automatic and sported old fashioned window rollers, no CD player, and manual door locks, etc.

e)  we thought we were so clever when we got these personalized license plates  (4 MY 4 QTs)

f) we never updated our license plates after Ellie was born.  When questioned at why only four of our five kids were considered QT's (cuties), we would tease that one of them had outgrown their cuteness.
 
g) it had 110,000 miles or so on the odometer at the time of its demise

h) other than the obnoxious phase it went through shortly after Glen added his bike rack to the back, it's been a good and faithful car that's needed very little in the way of maintenance

i)  The estimated cost of repairing the damage inflicted in Glen's rainy, early morning  accident was over $10,000

j)  The insurance company estimated its replacement value at $6000 and sent us a check for that amount (minus our deductible)

k)  that's only $900 loss in value over 8 years.  We attribute it to the good deal we got in the first place and for how well Toyotas hold their value in our area. 

Goodbye faithful Corolla.  We will miss you and our 7 years of being car payment-less. 



(And here's the story, for those of you hadn't heard before now:   Glen had just dropped Spencer off at school after seminary and when traffic stopped suddenly in front of him, he slid on the wet pavement.  The other car (Kia Sol) only sustained minor damage to the bumper.  Other than a couple of bruises from the seat belt and wounded pride, Glen is completely fine. )


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Whatever Floats Your Boat....

For Emma, it's doing her homework outside on the deck....

For my girls, it's watching a real live prince and princess get married....

For Spencer, it's texting (on my phone since he broke his a year ago), lacrosse,  and golfing....

For Glen, it's whipping up something for dinner that he's been craving for ages, but I refused to make for him....       (I've got a meatloaf phobia)

For Cami, it's experimenting with cupcake and frosting recipes....      (key lime...yum!)

For Ellie, it's painting, and reading and writing stories....

For Adam, it's doing random math problems for no reason whatsoever other than being curious about what the answer is....

For me, it's trying to crash read the book group book for tonight ("The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio") while not missing out on a beautiful day with the kids....

Now book group is over and I'm bracing myself for the crazy last few weeks of school and looking forward to a little more laid-back schedule that comes with summer!  



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