Wonderfully Exhausting

I am so tired, but we had another great weekend.

Friday, we went to the Spring Fling at New Hope! Honestly, it's not my favorite event. It's essentially a DJ playing music way too loud combined with hoola hooping and neon hair paint. This year, though, I somehow managed to avoid the gym almost entirely. The kids were content to dance without me, and I stood at the door and helped with ticket sales. The highlight, Evan got his first official Voyager shirt:

It was more than he could handle. Halfway through the fling, we left to go decorate the teachers' lounge and bathrooms for Teacher Appreciation week, which starts today. Anitra had everything so organized, and the kids had a blast helping.

Saturday, Issa and I headed to the last dance competition of the year while Evan went to the museum with Miss Erin and had way too much fun at their Robot Rumble. The competition went so well! It's amazing to see the growth in the dances since the beginning of the season! In fact, hip hop won best dance for 8 and under and was invited to Nationals! Jazz and tap won first and second overall, and Issa got to accept the Jazz first, which meant she got to say her name and studio. Bless her heart. She was so nervous, and stumbled over the last half of the studio name, but she was loud and clear on the first part. I knew she was mortified, but thankfully a senior from another company said the wrong name, so Issa felt so much better! We also had a big break in the schedule so we were able to actually go out to dinner with some other dancers. It was lovely.

Sunday, we headed out for our second adventure Sunday. This time, we just headed to Gold Park for a picnic and some easy hiking. I swear Evan was no where close to falling into the river:

I do love that this little park is less than 15 minutes from our house:

It was a gorgeous day, and the kids loved watching tadpoles and butterflies and just being by the river:

Did I mention it was just gorgeous:

When we got home and washed the river and mud off, we made all of the teacher appreciation gifts. Both kids wanted to do office supplies for their teachers, so we turned to Pinterest for some creative ideas. Issa did hers almost completely on her own:

She chose to do highlighters:

I just helped with the tags.

Evan needed a lot more help with his rubber band balls:

His little hands just weren't quite able to twist the bands into place. He did hand them to me and decide when they were finished:

Tonight, we head to the library and then have our little Cinco de Mayo fiesta. I'm just hoping I don't fall asleep in my nachos.

The Highlights

Now that the weekend is finally wrapped up--just in time to start another--I thought I would share the highlights of the week:

1. I took Issa for her orthodontist appointment this week, and right now we are going nothing. She will eventually needs braces, but it's just not time yet. There was much rejoicing.

2. I finished (at least I think I finished) Issa's solo costume:

 We'll see what the verdict is when she has her lesson next week.

3. Yesterday was studio spirit day:

 She just gets bendy-er and bendy-er.

4. The studio moms wanted to show our spirit, too:

The words spell out the chant the girls do before every competition. I am so, so proud to be part of this dance family.

5. We are beginning to get ready for a certain little monsters birthday! The first gifts arrived from Papa Don and Grandma Nancy. Evan was thrilled to put his sea monkey eggs in water yesterday. Wish us luck!

I also started getting ready for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle birthday party with Evan's friends. The Foot Clan has invaded our house:

I painted the masks on all these rocks, which will be hidden around the backyard for the Turtles to capture and return to the lair (the tree house). Please pray for perfect weather May 10! I don't know if my house can survive six little boys trapped inside.

Sunday Adventure

We are finally coming to the end of the weekend wrap-up.

The weather was nearly perfect this weekend, and we decided we needed to take advantage of that. Our original plan was to go to a local park, but while we were at lunch Saturday we decided the zoo was a better option. So...Sunday morning we packed a picnic and left for the zoo right from church.

As always, the first stop had to be the stone hippos:

I love that picture of my boys.

Issa loves the little guy:

We decided to head into Africa, and the elephants did not disappoint:

Issa was our navigator:

Of course, we had to stop to fly the helicopter to spot the elephant herds:

Our little ostrich hatchlings:

The special exhibit this year is "Bugs," and the huge critters did not disappoint:

Check out this mantis:

Evan found the ants hysterical:

And both kids loved pretending they were dung beetles with the giant rubber balls:

It was a really cool exhibit, although I spent a good deal of time explaining that not all of the insects were bugs and not all of the critters were even insects. I did get major points for knowing the sex and scientific name of the giant dragonfly. I guess those four years of entomology in college come in handy in odd situations.

We stopped at the carousel on the way to North America:

And the highlight of the day was meeting the new polar bear:

I think the kids would have stayed all day if we would have let them:

We also explored the new Kids' Zone, which include lots of places to climb and explore. Our own Spiderman:

The trip really was perfect. It's so nice that the kids are big enough to walk the whole trip and not get too tired. It's also fabulous that the zoo is just over an hour away, so we can go often.

After this little adventure, we decided that Sundays will be adventure days. We may not always go as far as the zoo, but we plan to go out and do something fun as a family every Sunday. I could get used to this...

Just a Really Good Saturday

Saturday was just one of those really good days.

Issa had dance rehearsal, which she is thankfully still loving. Not once has she even mentioned that she didn't want to go. She and I headed out to the studio and the boys headed to the farm.  As soon as she finished, though, we joined them. 

Saturdays at the farm are quickly becoming a family favorite. When we got there, the boys were planting squash. Issa set off to collect eggs, and she was beyond thrilled to find seven. I was sent to the hoop house to harvest greens. I love the hoop house. It nice and warm, and for many blissful moments I was alone, listening to the farm and harvesting chard, kale, and mustard greens. Eventually another mom joined me, and we chatted as we clipped. It's just easy to talk at the farm, and everyone just seems at peace there. 

Brad had a boot malfunction--like the bottom fell off--so he and the kids headed home while I finished up in the best possible way. I had a basket of greens that were well past their prime, and I got to walk them out to the goats. The beauty of that is there are now five baby goats at the farm, the littlest of which are less than a week old. Cute does not begin to cover it. One little guy was jumping straight off the ground all around me. He is a little ham and loves snuggles, so once I dropped my greens I didn't even need to lean over to scoop him up and give him a little snuggle. He just jumped right into my arms. 

I came home with a basket full of greens that would become dinner, grabbed a shower, and the Daddy took us all out to a BBQ lunch. As we were waiting Issa announced she wanted to play "I love you because" which turned into if I could give you any gift or if I could take you anywhere. We went around the table answering the questions about each other, and it just felt so organic. Some answers were so sweet and others made us laugh hysterically. It was one of those moments where we felt like we might just be getting this parenting thing right, especially when a woman stopped by our table to tell us how delightful our family was. 

We went from there to the grocery, and spent the rest of the day around the house doing not much of anything extraordinary, but we all went to bed knowing it was a good day, and that was more than enough. 

Our Little Inventor

After a highly successful kindergarten registration, we turned our attention to Issa's Science Fair. She has literally been working on her project for months. One thing I will say for her is she doesn't take the easy way out! When we started talking about project ideas, she decided she wanted to invent raiser shoes. The spelling is very important there. She wanted to design shoes that had built in stools. It's actually a pretty cool idea.

Daddy was all over this, and he wanted to be sure she started with the mechanics of raising things. So...she and I did some library research on simple machines, and she decided gears, pulleys, and levers were all viable options. From that point, she and Daddy started sketching. He even taught her how to use some simple computer drafting software and how to share her desktop via Skype so they would work on it when he was out of town. It's pretty amazing to watch your seven year old share a desktop.

She ultimately decided on scissor jacks, which she taught me are first-class levers, as the design of choice:

For the Fair, she decided to concentrate on the design process and a simple model of the mechanics, which was probably a good call. Popsicle sticks and toothpicks make a dandy model, and Daddy taught her to use a drill press so all of the holes would line up:

This almost gave me a panic attack.

She then had to sand the toothpicks to make them fit:

You can see the cool finished scissor jacks and poster at the fair:

She typed up everything she learned about simple machines and why she made the choices she made. She even included pictures of her building and some of her sketches:

Yes...one of the sketches in on a napkin. Daddy was so proud when she wanted to sketch an idea while we were out to lunch. I'm afraid he is geek-ifying her a bit.

We had a blast at the science fair. As always, making ice cream was the favorite event:

Mr. Ryan even came to join in the fun:

He was so excited to be photographed. Daddy has more practice pretending:

Issa and Daddy plan to build a real prototype this summer, but even if they don't this was an incredible experience for our little inventor, and we couldn't be more proud.

We're Official!

This weekend just cannot be contained in one post. In fact, I have decided it will take four...

This was how we began Friday morning:

Our little man is officially registered for kindergarten.

Just when I thought I couldn't love our school more we went to kindergarten registration. Everyone was so excited to see Evan, and he was so excited to finally be there instead of just being the tag-along little brother. Even though this is our second to enter kindergarten, it will be the first at this school, so it was all a little new for me.

It was by far the most organized kindergarten registration I have ever seen. We had been given all of the paperwork in advance, so there was no stress of trying to fill our forms on a clipboard. We checked in with our proof of residency and birth certificate, and then Evan was able to find the name tag they had waiting for him. He got his picture taken, and then he was whisked off to "play games" with the kindergarten teachers while I went to the media center to get all of the parent information. He barely even waved goodbye he was so excited.

I was fine--really truly fine--all morning. He walked confidently into the music room, and I sat and listened to the presentations about everything from the PTSA to the lunch line. Then one of the kindergarten teachers stood up and said, "In kindergarten, we have two rules: We are problem solvers and we care. That is true for the teachers, too. If your child is not eating lunch, we will call. If they scrape their knee, we'll clean it and put a bandaid on it." And that was it. That was the crack. I nearly bit through my lip to hold it together. I trust the school implicitly, but hearing them say that they will care for my baby like their own almost did me in. I did hold it together, though, and shortly after that I walked back down the hall to pick up my little man.

He was so thrilled. He had a blast, and he could hardly wait to show me the book and coloring book he had been given. We now know all about chipmunks, by the way. On the way out, Evan stopped to talk to the principal:

"I'm coming to kindergarten Monday!"

"Evan, we can't wait to have you here, but you have to wait until August to start kindergarten."

"Nope, I'm coming Monday."

And this is why we have the best principal ever. He dropped to his knees and said, "Evan, there a whole bunch of old kindergartners hanging around right now. Can you give me until August to get rid of them so you and your friends can have the classrooms to yourselves?"

Evan thought he could handle that, and I think we are all ready to start the adventure.

Our Researcher

Tomorrow is the big science fair, and Issa has been working on her project for months. She finally finished her poster last night, and although I'm not allowed to share pictures until the big event, I wanted to share this one:

Look at how grown-up she looks! I can't believe how much content is on her board this year. She did a significant amount of research (by second grade standards), and she typed her little heart out last night. It also amuses me that this is how she sits in her chair. This girl just can't be still. My goodness how I love her...

Really Listening

I noticed that listening is not always my strong suit. I'm great with a friend or a student or my kids. But I don't listen the way I should to strangers. I'm guilty of the quick, "How are you?" with no real plan to listen to the answer. So, I'm working on changing this. When I ask the question, I physically stop and look the person in the eyes. It so paid off yesterday...

I was grocery shopping, and an elderly gentleman was sweeping the floor. He said hello, and I stopped and started the conversation:

"Hello, how are you?"

"I'm tired."

"Long day?"

"I'm not a baby. I'm 77."

"Well, you don't look a day over 60."

Through his laughter, "Listen, I work here 32 hours a week and clean a building out in RTP five days a week."

"Wow, it must keep you young."

"I've got a 47 year old woman and she's not complaining if you know what I mean."

I think the whole store heard me crack up. He asked to give me a hug, and thanked me for taking the time to talk. He said he often feels invisible. And so, I will continue to stop, because no one should feel invisible.

Happy Easter!

We made a whirlwind trip to Ohio to celebrate Easter with family. Per usual, I totally forgot I had a camera when we were with Brad's side, but we had a great time playing with the grandparents and hunting eggs.

When we got to Napoleon, Aunt Shannon reminded me to take lots of pictures since she couldn't be there this year. Our visit started with the traditional egg coloring:

Please notice that both children managed to put their shirts on backwards for the experience. This year, they were both determined to make vivid eggs, and Issa learned that dipping just part of the egg in each color made some pretty cool tie-dye eggs.

We then headed out for the annual Easter pictures with Issa's bush:

Aunt Shannon still sent appropriate attire, and the kids would live in the hats if I let them.

You can dress him up but you can't calm him down:

Such sweet siblings:

We had our Easter dinner Saturday night, and these cousins had way too much fun playing together:

I so love that these kiddos love playing together even though they don't see each other often.

After everyone left, Nana helped the kids make Easter cookies:

Each ingredient told part of the Easter story.

Since they were meringue based, when we woke up Easter morning they were empty--just like the tomb.

I can't explain this face:

Easter morning, the kids conned us into rejecting tradition and hunting in their PJs:

The bunny was very good to the kiddos:

It took us forever to find the last egg, but Evan finally did. The kids consented to the traditional Easter pics. Issa looking way too grown up:

He is too cute for words:

Such adorable kiddos:

Once we were all ready, we headed down to have brunch with Granddaddy and Grandma Judy. The kids love his stories:

We were so grateful for the time with family. These are memories that are worth the miles.

It's a Blur

We're two weeks from the end of the semester, which means that life is a bit of a blur right now. I'm actually working from home today so I can simultaneously finish a major data analysis project, wait for the gas company to come fix our meter, and catch up the laundry. The highlights from the week...

1. I did my final observations of all of my student teachers. This is always bittersweet. They are teachers now--not students. I love watching that. It also means I say goodbye to three classroom that I will truly miss.

2. We have an orthodontic consult for Issa in a couple of weeks. She had a great check-up at the dentist, but she made the referral. The hope is early intervention will help the rest of her teeth come in straight and save her longer, more painful braces later. Here's hoping.

3. I have more stones to put on Issa's solo costume. I feel like this could be the story of my life.

4. I volunteered to write a new dance mom handbook for the studio. I'm actually very excited about it, but I have no idea when that's going to happen. It may be a June project.

5. I'm officially teaching two summer school classes. The great news is they are both first session, so I will actually be able to take some time off in July. The kids don't have camp in July, so I will get to enjoy summer break with them, and I am so, so excited about that.

Nothing extraordinary to report, but I still love my rather ordinary life.