Sam & Nash have been keeping me on my toes lately. For Literacy Night at their school they get to dress up as their favorite character from a book for the school day. I told the kids about three days before Literacy Night that I wasn't making their costumes this year (made them the last two years in a row - hence the American Girl costume & the Alice in Wonderland costume). Sam was rather disappointed but I just couldn't do it in three days time this year.
So, I asked Sam who she was going to go as. She was having difficulty deciding which character to go as. I asked her what books she's read recently & she proceeded to bring in about 2 dozen books. She finally decided to go as Dani from "My Sister's a Pop Star." There are three of these books (Usborne Series) and each one is about 300 pages. She got all three of them last year and I think she's read the first two but not the third. As she was getting ready for school Brooke was feeling left out so Sam had to give Brooke some glam too. Little sister was thrilled to play along!
Nash could really care less if he dresses up for the Literacy Night event or not. I told him the night before, "DUDE! You should TOTALLY go as Captain Underpants!" He has read the first nine books in this series. In fact, it was this series that got Nash to like no, love, reading. He's dying waiting for the library to get the tenth one or for me to finally break down and buy it for him. He laughed hysterically when I suggested this but then was like, "Yea! I'm going to do it!" The next morning I was telling him, "Nash, go put on your underwear, pants, and underwear and get ready to go to school." He kept telling me, "Mom. This is so embarrassing! I don't want to do this!" I had to keep telling him, "Nash! This is the coolest costume ever! NO ONE else is going to dress up as Captain Underpants!" To which he would reply, "Yea. Cuz it's embarrassing mom!" I finally convinced him he had nothing to be embarrassed about and that his costume was going to be the best costume at the school.
Later that night I took all four kids and wen went up to the school for the Literacy Night events. Each of the kids got a free book. Caleb & Brooke were excited they got one just like the big kids. Caleb was bummed though because I wouldn't let him take the volcano book - it was too old for him and I know full well he wouldn't have sat through looking at it. He picked a polar babies one instead. Brooke got a cute one called "Baa-Choo!" We went to my friend's "How to plot a novel in an hour" workshop, voted for the fourth grade dioramas (there were some pretty cool ones - and no, I didn't vote for Sam's. I felt like it was cheating to vote for my own kid! Is that bad?). We got the kids an ice cream sandwich & filled out the quiz on The Lemonade War. Nash's teacher (and anyone else I talked to about his costume) loved his costume! The best part - it was SO easy! Thanks to grandma Terri for making Caleb the flying suit for his birthday last year!
On Friday and Saturday the drama club at MC put on a workshop for all elementary school aged kids. They went for a few hours on Friday and then went back Saturday morning for a few hours. We went up at 11:30 to watch them put on the play & do the musical number they learned. It was cute and the kids had fun. I couldn't believe how many kids signed up! There were roughly 100 kids (six of my students if you count Sam). After their play & musical number they fed everyone pizza. I think Sam had more fun than Nash did. She's been singing different songs that they learned for two days now! They also each got a certificate saying they participated in the workshop, completed the classes & performed in the play.
I don't think either one of these kids plans on slowing down any time soon. Nash wanted to play spring soccer but I missed registration. Sam has about a million dance competitions/performances coming up too. We're also about to hit Relay season full swing. I'm planning to put them in swimming lessons for at least one session this summer again. They loved that last summer even if it did require them to wake up early!
