School Activities

Since this year I only have one little baby at home while Miriam is at Kindergarten, I have a goal to be at more school activities. This is great in theory and even in practice. It was just crazy for a week or two in September when everything happened all at the same time. Two assemblies, two after school activities, and two classroom volunteer days, and a day to get trained on how to do art masterpiece. All in the same two weeks. Other than that crazy couple weeks it has been great.

At Eliza's fall party there was an apple theme--apple games, snacks, and crafts. It was really fun. Some of those kids in the second grade gifted class are smart! I am sure that they all are super smart, but I was wasted at the apple connect four game by a couple of them.

Eliza wants to say: We had this craft. The parents had glued a little brown tree on a piece of white paper. We got q-tips to dab shimmery red, gold, and green paint on the paper. We did this to make apples because it was an apple themed party. I also dabbed some of them on the bottom so it would look like apples had fallen down. They're also the color of fall leaves, so I thought that some of them should be fall leaves.

At Miriam's school we had an after school sock hop. This meant a fun dance party in 50's style clothes. I actually don't really know what that entails, aside from poodle skirts, so this what we came up with. It was pretty funny/horrifying to see all the kids do the "Whip and Nay, Nay" dance. 

Miriam wants to say: We danced a lot, and I even got some root beer float with chocolate ice cream inside. My teacher, Mrs. Bowlin, even danced with me.

I also attended a cheer assembly for Miriam. They are held to celebrate kids that are exemplifying the character traits for the school. This month's character trait was caring, but on her certificate Mrs. Bowlin said Miriam does all six character traits. That was a good mom moment. (No sarcasm this time.) It was a surprise to Miriam that she received an award. As an added excitement, her name was pulled in the drawing for all of K, 1st, 2nd, grades to select a special prize for her class. She picked to have extra recess time. Pretty awesome.

Miriam wants to say: I got an award, and my ticket got pulled out. If you get your ticket pulled out you get to pick a surprise.

I also attended Eliza's Patriot Day assembly on Sept 11. It was a great  assembly with patriotic songs sung by the school. It was great to be able to see that.

Eliza wants to say: It was fun learning all the songs for the Patriot Day Assembly. The easiest one was "The Grand Ol' Flag." Ms. Mulkey (our music teacher) says that because it has actions. The two other ones we learned were "God Bless the USA," and "The Star Spangled Banner." "The Star Spangled Banner" was hard to learn because it has a very, very, very hard melody. We practiced and practiced and after the assembly I could sing "God Bless the USA" while I was vacuuming without a single mistake.

Apparently I didn't take any photos of the after school party at Eliza's school. It was a movie night on the field. They showed Zootopia. My kids had seen this movie before at John's parents' house in July, but they still wanted to go see it. We actually volunteered to help the PTO at the candy booth. There was a choir performance, food to buy, free popcorn and beach balls. It was a really fun event. My friend Margaret was in charge of the whole event and even though it turned out great I could tell she was really stressed, for which I can't blame her. Unfortunately even though they had seen the movie before my girls got too nervous watching the movie on the dark field and wanted to go home part-way through the movie. Actually Miriam ended up staying with friends, but Eliza and Holly were not having fun so they came home with me. Much more calm at home. Funny kids. 

This is a photo of them last night, getting nervous during a Magic School Bus episode.

During this time, at church they had the Primary Program. The Primary Presidency had the kids make an invitation to give to a friend to invite them to come to the program. Eliza meant to give hers to her friend Madelyn, but she never got a good opportunity to. Miriam actually did give hers to her friend Nadia at school. And surprise, surprise she and her mom came to the program! I only saw them at the end of the meeting as everyone was leaving, but we chatted in the foyer for a few minutes after. I was so touched they came. The girls each gave a great little talk towards the end of the meeting. They also sang their duet as the last musical number.  It was the same song we sang in Stake Conference.

I am glad Miriam had the courage to invite her friend. Sometimes that can seem so hard, but I shouldn't be so nervous to talk people about the gospel.

Miriam got ahold of the camera feature on the phone and took some photos. Cutie pie.

Selfie by Miriam!

Artistic photo by Miriam!

Having Fun vs. Having Joy

It is conference weekend and this morning President Russell M. Nelson spoke about joy. He reminded us that we can find joy in the Savior no matter our earthly circumstances. While he was speaking I started to consider the difference between having joy and having fun. Earlier in my life I thought those words were interchangeable. Now I find that joy is something much more precious. Even though these pictures and events that I am recording are mostly of us having fun. I find joy in the seeing the innocence of my children, like Miriam making up songs and dancing or just dancing to the music in the store. I find joy in seeing their delight in small things--like gluing random stuff together to make a creation. I love it.

We did these creations at this IDEA Museum. We visited this museum in August when my mom was visiting. My mom coming to visit us is getting harder and harder as my grandparents have increasingly failing health. It is so sad to see them decline so much from what I remember them being. My grandpa is in a Veteran's home near my parents' home. My mom takes my grandma over to visit him every day. The reality of what happens to an old person as they near death is shocking to me. I have never really been close to someone who has gone through this process before. It is a stark contrast to my little girls that are overflowing with life and energy.

There was a fun baby section of this museum that had a socks only area with a smaller area for just babies. I went in with Holland and got scolded several times by a little boy who kept reminding me that it was only for babies. 

There was a fun green screen where the backgrounds could be drawn. There was a black light room, lots of crafts, and even a clothes designing area. What a fun day!

Also while Grandma was visiting, we watched my friend's little girl and because my mom was here we even ventured out. My mom also made a matching quilt to the girls' beds for Holland. My mom definitely never goes half way at anything.

Happy birthday to the best daddy in the world! 33! We love our birthday traditions, as well as some goofy faces. Those cheesy church commercials are right--family really is about time together. "Isn't it about ... time?"

John enjoyed his bump on the head.

Miriam and I making goofy faces.

Because of John's birthday we used his free birthday burger and went to Red Robin on the last day of the month. :) The kids were thrilled to each pick out their own little meal (we really don't eat out very often). Also, when did they get big enough that we have to buy something individually for each of them?? It was freezing there so they were snuggling on the bench. Holly is my sweater (as in she sweats a lot) so I hope she was fine in her summer romper. She really loved playing with the wet wipe we gave her to play with. Towards the end though the girls were all getting crazy so I had to leave with them while John payed the bill. Crazy kids. They really do bring us so much happiness and joy.