Nash & Sam

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!

Cakes for Cakes

My niece, Sunny, turned two yesterday!  She's so stinking cute.  My sister asked if I'd do cupcakes for her to take to daycare and her birthday cake.  I said sure (cuz you know, I don't have anything else going on right now).  My sister never lets me down when it comes to finding an appropriate challenge for me.

Here's what we created this go round:
These were the cupcakes we made to take to daycare (thank you pinterest - you fantastically evil invention you).  Apparently Sunny quite liked these.  She insisted Cassidy bring them in the house Wednesday night & let her eat one!  I told her her daycare lady probably would want to kill us since they were 1-cupcakes, 2-had frosting, and 3-20 m&m's a piece on each one!

My sister wanted me to create a mermaid cake for her birthday cake.  Then she found gelatin bubbles (thanks again pinterest).  I have never done gelatin bubbles before but happily accepted this challenge.  I'm always looking for ways to improve my skills :)  The gelatin bubbles weren't as bad as I thought they'd be.  The worst thing about them was that once I opened the water balloons I then had four kids blowing up water balloons & drawing faces on them with sharpies (which Brookelyn found & proceeded to color on her own arms!)  The sponge, coral, starfish & sea weed are all marshmallow fondant.

I think the cake turned out really cute.  I wish I would have done an 8 inch on the top layer instead of a nine inch.  Then there would have been more of a ledge for me to put stuff on between the cake layers.  The original picture my sister found also had purple fondant flowers & sea shells, pink sea shells & some grey rocks.  Had I had a bit more time I would have done the rocks.  I didn't have the right cookie cutter to do the flower & I'm not sure how they did the sea shell and made it look so real.  Next time!

In sad news, my mixer died today.  I've had it five years or less (I didn't get it until after we moved into our house and we've been here six years this April).  At least I finished Sunny's cake & cupcakes before it died.  Now to find a new one...

Act of Kindness #15

This week is teacher appreciation week at the kids' school.  This year I decided I was going to do what I could for them because I've really appreciated all the work they've done with my kids.  Sam has struggled with math this year and her teacher has really tried to help her.  Nash's teacher is a first year teacher and she's worked her tail off.  We just love Caleb's teacher too so we've included her as well.  I bought a variety of items for each teacher.

 For Sam & Nash's teacher I bought several different playground toys they could keep for their class.  I know that when I was teaching I was always looking for deals on good playground toys for the kids.  One day the kids took a dodge ball.  One day the kids took a football & a Frisbee.  One day they took 3 jump ropes.  These weren't the cheap dollar jump ropes either.  These are the long jump ropes that the tall kids can use & not get hit in the head with.  The ones you can play double dutch with if you know how. 

For all three teachers I made a fleece blanket.  I got 2 yards of a plain anti pill fleece and 2 yards of a printed fleece (micro fleece for two and an anti pill for one).  These turned out super cute.  I tied both layers together so each side is a different design/color.

 

I also made a cute little thing I found on pinterest for all three teachers.  These turned out really cute.   The crayons were a beast to peel.  Note to self - the cheap crayons peel super easy.  Crayola Crayons are a monster to get the wrappers off of!  I could have put them in really hot water and let them soak until the wrappers fell off, but I didn't want to wait for the crayons to dry.  I got thinking after I did Caleb's teacher (Mrs. Beddes) that I should have done an S for Miss Shannon instead of Mrs. Beddes because he calls her Miss Shannon.  I was excited when I found a three pack of the shadow boxes at Michael's for $12.  That made it nice!  They were a weird size though because they weren't as big as an 8x10 but they were bigger than a 5x7.  I have seen these done with the wrappers left on and used brand new crayons and just cut the crayons in half.  I liked using the crayons we had at home better.  It gives the letter more character (I think).

 

 

I also donated $10 to the room mom teacher appreciation gift fund.  No idea what was purchased with those funds.  I think Sam said her teacher got movie tickets.  I just hope the kids' teachers feel appreciated because we really do appreciate how much they've done for our kids this year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Act of Kindness #14

The kids' school is doing a fundraiser for the Humane Society.  Sam asked if we could send some donations.  We went through Charlotte's stuff and found some things that we could donate.  Here's to making a puppy or kitty happy!

Mystery Object

Not sure which kid is going to finally do me in, but I'm getting closer to the edge every single day!  Today was Nash's turn.  I took all four kids to the ENT (basically because I knew I wouldn't have time to go back to Hyrum to get them & get to dance class on time).  Generally speaking I love my ENT.  The office visits, however, leave much to be desired simply because it is almost always a minimum of an hour and a half and sometimes as long as 3 hours (not exaggerating).  Today we were going to see Lindsey (the PA) for a follow up on Nash's allergy shots.  He just recently finished his first vial so we had to make sure nothing needed to be changed.  After we talked about allergy shots she asked if I had any questions or concerns.  I told her we had been at InstaCare on Friday and that Nash had had a really bad ear infection and wanted to know if she could please check it to be sure all looked well.  She checked his right ear and it looked great.  

She looks in the left ear and says, "Um..I think there's something in there."  

Me: "Something like a tube or something like a mystery object?"

Lindsey: "Something like a mystery object."

Awesome.  She gets out her microscope thing so she can see a little better.  She tells Nash she's going to gently poke to see if she can see what's going on and to let her know if she hurts him.  Nash of course proceeds to say "OW!" about ten times.  She got her tweezers and told Nash she was going to try & get whatever it was that was in there.  A few seconds later out comes this:

Me: "Nash!  What the hell have you been putting in your ears?!"

Nash: "I don't know what that is!  I haven't put anything in my ear!"

This thing is the size of a pencil eraser and squishy/foamy.I'm thinking art class?  And then Lindsey says, "I have some more good news for you."

Me: "Crap.  What?"
Lindsey: "It looks like the tube is behind the ear drum and the ear drum has healed up."

Me: "Again?!  Are you serious?!"

I got a sympathetic look.  "You were the one that figured it was behind the drum last time!  Dr. Blotter said he'd only had that happen once in his career!  That's been less than a year ago!"

Lindsey wanted to do a pressure test to make sure the pressure behind his ear drum was in an ok range.  The test was quick and painless.  The pressure is fine.  Lindsey: "So, when do you want to schedule to take it out?"

Me: "What does taking it out involve?"

Lindsey: "Surgery."

Me: Big. Fat. Sigh.  "I guess lets schedule for next week when his dad is home if we can."

Lindsey: "I guess the real question is, do you want to put another one?"

Me: "You mean lucky number 16?"

Lindsey: "Seriously?  That many?  I knew you'd had a lot."

Me: "Yes.  15 sets of tubes, 4 adenoids & 3 tonsils."

Lindsey: "Wow."

You know it's bad when the PA is amazed at your stats.

So, we have scheduled surgery for next Thursday (Feb. 28).  At least I won't have to miss work because Travis will be home.  I talked to Travis and I think we are in agreement - don't put another one in.  This one was in for less than a year.  I don't want to go in and take another one out in six months.  I'd like to be medical debt free sometime in the near future!  You know, like before the kids graduate, move out, get married or I die!