Every other year the kids have birthday parties, starting with Zoe's birthday in September. Isabella and Noah both have birthdays in January so it usually goes: birthday, birthday, party, party. It makes for a LONG, busy month. Don't ask me why I didn't stagger the birthday parties every other year. I'm just not that smart I guess. Anyhow, I think they each had a good birthday and some fun parties. Isabella turned thirteen! I can't believe I have a teenager. It was a good group of girls, they were all loud and crazy but they all behaved well. No drama! I guess we didn't get many pictures. Got more video footage.
Noah had a lego themed party. It turned out fun, Noah said it was as good as the bowling/laser tag party he went to the week before. That is saying something. It helps that he was the birthday boy. There were lego games, lego prizes, lego candy party favors! I even tried to make lego pizzas and lego cakes. Ten 7 and 8 year old boys running around! I swear you burn off about a thousand calories hosting one of these things.
The new school year has come again. Isabella had her first day of Jr. High-7th grade. Zoe is now in 5th and Noah is in 2nd. They're growing up too fast, dang it! They all had a good first week and no one cried or had any horror stories. Success!
I guess I've been taking some sort of blogging vacation. Well, it is summer. It has been busy. I spent the month of June working like crazy to get projects around the house done. You should have seen the pile of junk I took to the D.I. (a store like Goodwill run by my church). When I was done I had an organized storage closet in the basement that was a thing of pure beauty. I also once again had a walk in closet that I could actually WALK INTO. No longer do I trip and break things when I try to find some pants to wear. I found those sneaky little extension cords that are always hiding out, never to be found when you need them. I found things that were needed for other projects I was working on that I didn't even know I needed yet!
We also had a broken dryer so I spent some quality time either dragging baskets full of wet laundry to the laundromat or hauling it all to the backyard pioneer style and hanging it up wherever I could find a spot. I love crunchy laundry. Thankfully a dryer-less home is once again nowhere to be found here.
The best part of my project list was finally getting Isabella's new room done. She'd been wanting her own room for a while so I agreed she could have the guest room this summer. So we decided to redo the whole room. That led to deciding to redo Zoe's room too and some minor changes in Noah's room as well so he wouldn't feel left out.
Before: Rarely used Guest Room
and...
After: A really cool, fun room for a soon to be teenager! She's still got plenty of room to add her own posters and what not above her bed there. She picked the bedding and we picked the paint together. (I'm trying to get over my control issues here.) I love the molding and the white paint at the top, it makes the low ceiling feel higher, I've done this in all the kids' rooms now. I love the desk! $25 from Ikea! Funny thing, though not surprising, she actually misses Zoe a little. Actually she doesn't anymore, we moved Zoe's bed in there the other night until I finish painting her room. Which I've admittedly started to get a little lazy on but it will be done before summer is over, hopefully before July is over!
Now, Noah...
Noah's Room Before
and...
Noah's Room After! Not a huge change, got some things moved around, got a bigger table and got the girl's bunk bed. I figure someone should enjoy the bunk bed while he is still young enough to have fun with it. What boy doesn't want to sleep on top of a bunk bed? (And the ceiling is low enough that he can't possibly comfortably try to jump off the bed. :)
It's been one of those weeks where you just look back and think, Dang I love those kids!
First of all, Noah. Noah uses his foot as a break for his bike. His bike has a couple of perfectly functional breaks so I cannot be blamed for this. Unlike so many other traumas in my children's lives. This time he was unfortunately wearing his flipflops and it all ended in bloody hysterics and Noah later hobbling around like a spazy old man.
Big bandaged toe there on the left foot
Zoe had her end of year piano recital. She struggled and it was touch and go there for a minute but she didn't quit and she ended up doing quite well. She was a trooper and I was a proud mama.
Isabella graduated from elementary school! I can't believe she is off to Jr. High in the fall. She has worked so hard and I'm so proud of her.
First day of kindergarten
Last day of sixth grade and elementary school. Ready for Jr. High. Help us all!
Isabella and Noah each had birthdays. Isabella turned twelve. (Gasp!) Noah turned seven. Well, the birthdays were actually in January. I am just that behind. Isabella got the cool new purple mountain bike.
Zoe joined myself and Isabella in the land of the glasses wearers. Isn't she cute?
Ugg. Why is it painful trying to help Isabella convert pints to quarts and quarts to gallons and ounces to tons? It feels like your brain is trying to reach back through the recesses of time to that week in 3rd grade. After which you never bothered with it again (apparenty these days they are a bit more thorough.) Then your brain is being twisted in seven different directions.
Yesterday I watched the rest of the State of The Union Address. What struck me most about the whole thing was the bizarreness of watching congress stand up and applaud every three minutes. Then I noticed that there are far more women in congress who are democrats than republicans. I only noticed one female republican, not that there aren't more I suppose, that's just what I noticed. I also noticed that all those democrat women in congress like to dress like colorful polyester adorned peacocks. If I were in congress I'd definitely go for a more neutral looking dress suit or pant suit. Just sayin'.
All week I listened to classical music for my art class. A little Mozart. A little Verdi. A lot of Henry Purcell-from the Baroque period. My two favorite songs by Henry Purcell were "Scene of The Drunken Poet"from the semi opera The Fairy Queen and "Your Hay It Is Mow'd" from the semi opera King Arthur. They both had the added benefit of having cool titles too. Henry was my man to do a short paper on. Did you know school is a bit more complicated than it was back in the 1990s? When you submit your paper for your online class there is a thing that will check for you to see if you are a plagiarizer. It's so nice of them to warn you like that, huh?
So we took the kids to this family fun place for Noah's birthday a couple of weekends ago. We skated a bit and rode the crappy rides and watched the magician. The guy running the bumper car things- they were bumper cars with a big inner tube at the bottom- he starts the ride without checking to see if the riders had buckled themselves up. Noah hadn't and so after a second the guy stopped it and then kept restarting it because he was too impatient to wait for Noah. Seriously dude, your job consists of walking around and making sure a dozen people have their seatbelts on then pushing go and stop. It's not brain surgery! Then the kids rode this other ride that was kind of like a ferris wheel with things that spun in a circle. Brent rode it with Noah the first time then later Noah wanted to ride it alone so he could spin it whatever way he wanted. But they let some teenage boy sit with Noah and he kept spinning it as fast as he could. Noah was all smiles at first, then it was less and less until he did not look happy at all. The boy finally notice and slowed down. I think it may have occurred to him that he may have been in danger of having a seven year old barf all over him. Noah was ready to leave when that ride was over.
While we were there we were checking out the magician and he was doing some disappearing act with his assistant. After, Brent and I were commenting that we both liked that song that was blaring while the magician did his thing. I said it was Talking Heads or at least David Byrne. Brent disagreed. Because he's more of an expert on Talking Heads and David Byrne than I am. How do you explain that I knew David Byrne was from Baltimore and he didn't then? Huh? So when we got home I had to prove him wrong, but I couldn't! I could only remember three words of the song at that point so I google in the phrase "hold my hand" and "sounds like talking heads". The first thing that comes up is those exact words (of course) and a song by some band from the '90s called Rusted Root. So at least I was right that someone else out there thought the song sounded like Talking Heads. Google is awesome! Another example of that is Brent the other day saying to me, "Who's that actor? The one with the weird nose who tried to commit suicide?" Me, "I don't know." Brent,"Sure you do." So I google in "actor tried to commit suicide weird nose" and Owen Wilson comes right up. I'm going to find something really useful to google one of these days.
Noah turned six on January 12th. He finally got to have his friend party on the 31st. Barely making it in January. The party was fun but exhausting. Ten kindergarteners in my house- Aaaah! Noah had a lot of fun. They had a pinata and played games like pin the tail on the dinosaur and the balloon race. Some of the kids didn't want to do anything but play in Noah's bedroom with his toys. Noah didn't mind so whatever kept them all happy, right?
So last Saturday was the ward Christmas party over at the church. It was a pretty good one I'd say. Noah was happy because we saw a girl eating kid approved macaroni and cheese (at least that's what we thought it was) and he didn't want the bread bowl and soup that was being offered. Nothing beats a warmish bowl of macaroni and cheese that's been sitting around for a while, right? Well when we got up there, there was no macaroni and cheese so it must have been all gone since we waited ten minutes to get in line. So Noah was very upset and didn't like his soup or bread bowl once the soup was in it. So, anyhoo, Noah is all upset and I'm done eating so I take him out to the hall to get some air. We were out there for a minute and he's still crying a little (he must have been tired, he's not usually that over dramatic). Then a door opens and what to our wondering eyes should appear? Santa Claus, of course. Minus the eight, tiny reindeer. So Noah sees Santa and Santa sees Noah and gives him this look that says, you want to meet me? Well come on over! So I ask Noah if he wants to come over and he says no. He wants to go out to the parking lot and see if the reindeer are there. Well I couldn't take him out to see the reindeer of course. We didn't have jackets on! That would be silly! So Santa goes in the cultural hall to see all the kids and after a minute I talk Noah into going in. Then of course, like everyone else we have to go stand in a long, confusing line and I'm smacking my head thinking, he was there! Santa was right there ten feet away from us with no kids in sight besides my own! And now here we are standing in the long line with every kid in the neighborhood! Now, who's being over dramatic? Finally, it's Noah's turn but he couldn't think of what he wanted for Christmas so I whisper transformer in his ear. He tells Santa transformer and then Santa asks, which transformer, Optimus Prime? (Is that the right name?) Some other kind I can't remember? That's me who can't remember, not Santa. Santa's smart and I think he was The Santa Claus because he had a real white beard that looked very authentic and had a very "Santa" vibe about him. So neither of us know which transformer because we know nothing about transformers except that Noah had fun playing with them at his friend Nick's house. Meanwhile, everyone is getting their dessert. Which looked like a lovely selection of cheesecakes and eclairs. We finish up and grab the little goody bags Santa was kind enough to give to all the boys and girls. Isabella and Zoe lucked out and didn't have to work for their goody bag. So we head over to the desserts and guess what? They are all gone! All gone. No dessert for me, darn. But the good thing was Noah had the goody bag and didn't notice the desserts were all gone so we didn't have a repeat of the macaroni and cheese incident. All in all, a highly successful evening!
Why don't the grocery stores sell the plain Malto Meal Scooters anymore? You know, the cereal like cheerios. Scooters were cheaper and tasted better. Now I have to buy cheerios or the store brand which taste weird. Just wondering and it really annoys me.
Why does the brown stuff in the center of salmon taste fishier than the pink part? Yeck!
So today in the car going to the credit union in Magna and one last try to find the scooters at the Smith's out there I told Noah to remind me later and we could get our Halloween decorations out. We are (I am) being very slow this year with that. Noah's reply to me: For my birthday? Noah's birthday isn't until January but he has been talking about it all the time lately and he has decided he wants to have a Halloween birthday party. I guess it's as good a time as any to get a jump start on the decorating, huh? My reply to him: No....for Halloween. Funny kid.
Last week they had Red Ribbon week at school. You know, the drug prevention week where they dress up everyday and have assemblies and such. So kids from the local high school came to talk to the elementary kids. Isabella was telling me about it later and she says something to the effect of: "Mom the kid in the assembly said that when we are grown ups we can do drugs if we want to but now we shouldn't. I don't think he should have said that, kids shouldn't do drugs now or when they are grown ups." Smart girl! I mentioned it to Noah's teacher and she said her son heard the same thing at his school. Something like, when you're an adult you can make your own decisions and do drugs if you choose to but now you shouldn't. I agree with Isabella, you shouldn't do drugs as a kid or adult. I think they need to work on their confusing talking points!
So I teach the ten year olds in primary at church (Isabella's in my class). We've been practicing for the upcoming sacrament meeting primary program. My friend Lisa is the senior primary chorister and she was trying to get the kids to sing louder. She told them in sacrament meeting they want everyone to hear them so sing loud enough so that old lady sitting in the back can hear you (paraphrasing Lisa here). So half the kids turn around and look at me! They take things so literally. So after we went to class and I announced to the class, I am NOT the old lady sitting in the back! They all thought it was very funny of course. :)
Noah started Kindergarten this week! He is having a lot of fun. He is still a little nervous, but he's doing great! The first day he was fine until his dumb mom stared him down a little too long while she was trying not to cry, making him start to cry. But Brent talked with him and all was good. That's why I insist he come with me on the first day of school (he likes to too, of course!) Then we watched him on the playground and he ran back and forth between us and the kids and went into the class just fine when the teacher came out. Noah and I have been riding bikes to school everyday. I'm loving that, it was too much of a pain with the girls when they were in kindergarten, with younger siblings in tow, since I never really got along with the bike trailer. We just zip over to the school and back after. It's fun doing that with him. I guess the girls could walk him home from school but I walked them when they were little and I want to enjoy this short time I have left with him before he's too big and rides off with the scooter gang. Yesterday before we left he asked what time he would be home. I told him 3:30, then he went in his room, picked up his big teddy bear and told him when he would be home, giving him a kiss and a hug. It was seriously too cute.
This morning Isabella, Zoe, and Noah ran the 1k Teddy Bear Race for The Children's Justice Center in West Jordan. They did awesome! Isabella and Zoe ran together and came in a little bit before Noah. I ran alongside Noah to keep him going. They had a great time and of course their favorite part was getting a teddy bear at the end.
I thought this was way funny so I had to take a picture. Noah's stuffed moose has quite a few holes so Noah and Zoe set him up in the hospital. Please keep Moose in your thoughts.;o)
So Noah graduated from preschool today. Wow! He's growing up fast. I'm excited for him to go to Kindergarten but I'm going to be a little sad too. At the graduation they played that country song that goes something like "Let them be little for a little while." Or something like that. I think they play that song at all preschool graduations (at least that's my experience). Now, I am really not a fan of country music but I am a sap, especially when it comes to my kids, and that song always gets me a little weepy. The graduation had a train theme and instead of caps and gowns the kids wore train engineer hats and bandanas. It was cute.
After graduation I took Noah with me to the store and then I said we could go to McDonald's for a for a happymeal to celebrate graduation. So we go there and eat and then he puts his shoes in the shoe bin so he can go play. About twenty minutes later it's time to go so I tell him to get his flipflops on (he gets mad if I call his flipflops shoes, doesn't believe they're a kind of shoe- completely different things). He puts on his navy blue flipflop and then takes another flipflop out that is lighter blue, like the old flipflops he outgrew, and puts that one on. I tell him, take off that shoe and put your flipflop on. I don't want him wearing someone else's nasty shoe. Well we look all over for his other shoe but can't find it anywhere. Then I proceed to walk around the play area and look to see if there is another kid with two different kinds of flipflops on. After about five minutes I give up and say let's just go. Again he tries to put the light blue flipflop on and I tell him to take that shoe off and let's go home. He's worried because he doesn't have another shoe to wear across the parking lot and I tell him I'll carry him, so we take off. So we're driving home and he starts telling me about how he couldn't find his other flipflop so he put his old flipflop on. This never even occurred to me because my kids have always left the house with matching shoes on. I'm still not sure about the story and he seems a little vague on it himself, but we get home and there in the mudroom sitting right on top of a small pile of shoes is the other navy blue flipflop. So now I guess I get to check his feet for matching shoes (or flipflops) before we leave the house from now on!
