Today has been one of those days where I have just spent the day enjoying in my children.  I love these kind of days.  Everyone’s been getting along.  Everyone is acting overly nice.  It’s like we are all in on it and have decided to make the day a good one.

We started the morning slowly.  Instead of waking up to the alarm clock, I slept in.  Edie curled up next to me in bed around 7:00, and we started channel surfing.  That’s rare for me.  I normally hit the ground running by 6:00 every morning, but for some reason today, we changed the routine.  We landed on Full House.  I hate this show with a passion, but I didn’t really seem to mind it this morning while I lazily ran my fingers through Edie’s hair and listened to her giggling every couple of minutes like she was part of the laugh track.

Eventually we got dressed and headed out, but we were in no hurry.  No big plans for the day.  We went to the library first, and everyone behaved.  Edie played quietly while I looked for books.  Roark acted adorable and had the librarian eating out of his hand while she helped us find books about Bob the Builder. And we scored big time in the DVD section: The Polar Express AND Charlie Brown’s Christmas.   What are the odds?  Well-behaved kids and two good movies.  I must be livin’ right!

As a spur of the moment treat, we stopped by the park.  Edie finally mastered climbing onto the monkey bars and hanging upside down all by herself.  It was a big day for her.  She was super proud of herself, and I was bummed that I didn’t have one of those smart phones to capture it.  That’s what living five years behind technology will do for you.

I then treated the kids to lunch before the grocery store.  Edie has decided that her new favorite food is buffalo wings.  I really don’t recommend eating them with her though because it is slightly nauseating.  Several times, I had to tell her to slow down and that we weren’t racing.  The thought, “Show me how the piggies eat!” came to mind several times.  But man was she enjoying her lunch.  Every couple of bites she would stop to thank me for taking her out for buffalo wings.  Then there was Roark, sitting next to me in the booth, trying to give me greasy kisses every few minutes.  It felt good to be so loved and appreciated.

Our good day even carried over into the grocery store.   I had no idea my kids could be so well-behaved in a Publix.   I was walking down those isles on cloud nine.  Edie was being helpful, putting things in the cart and moving out of the way of other people’s buggies, and Roarkie was sitting happily in the cart, pretending to drive the spaceship.

And I know what you are thinking, and you’re wrong.  Not one time today did I mention that Santa Claus might be watching.  They were just being good kids.  And if that’s what I get for starting our day with an episode of Full House, I think I might have just become a Bob Saget fan.

Dear Edie,

Another year has come and gone, and despite my pleading for you to please stop growing so fast, I turned around one day, and poof, you were another year older.

To celebrate your sixth birthday, we had a small princess party at home.  You had your reservations at first that I could pull off a decent party at our house, but when I mentioned that I would buy you a new princess dress to wear for the party, you never doubted again.  We invited seven of your friends to come to our house and be treated like royalty for an evening.  You had a blast.

As long as I live, I never want to forget the moment when you came home to see your party decorations.  You’d been gone all day, playing at a friend’s house while I got everything ready for your party.  I spent the entire day decorating, hurrying from one errand to the next, and running around like a crazy woman hopped up on goof pills.

I wanted everything to be perfect.  I wanted your party to feel magical.  I hung Christmas lights around the living room and lit a zillion candles.   Everything was pink: the tablecloth, the decorations, the lemonade.

When you came home, you ran upstairs, and immediately started going from one spot to the next, looking at everything with such excitement. You’d yell out,  “Oh wow! Look at this!” and then run to the next spot, “I didn’t know you’d bought these!” I stood at the top of the stairs, just watching you.

Then all of a sudden, you stopped.  It was like a switch flipped in your brain.  You turned in my direction and ran across the room.  You threw your arms around my legs and said, “Thank you, Mommy, for my party! It’s so beautiful!”  And as quickly as you came, you left and went back to exploring the room.

I started to cry, big, happy tears.

You see, this mothering gig has been pretty hard on me lately.  I’ve been struggling with the fact that I am dedicating all my time and energy towards people that don’t really understand the sacrifices.  Please, don’t take that as a negative comment on your character.  It’s not your fault.  You’re a child, and it’s just the nature of motherhood.   In fact, I like to think I’ve grown a lot this year because of some of the struggles we’ve faced, but in that one moment that you squeezed my legs tight, I knew you appreciated me.  You acknowledged the effort I’d put into planning this party, and what’s more? You appreciated it.  It felt kind of like I was being given a present on your birthday.  So thank you for that.

I think on the surface you are a pretty normal six year old little girl.

You love having secret hide-outs, and I’m constantly finding areas in our house that you’ve turned into a secret oasis by draping a blanket over a chair or lining up pillows around the legs of a table.   You’ll collect toys from your room and bring them into your secret hide-out like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter.  This leaves an incredible mess, and eventually, I make you clean it all up.  Several times I’ve tried to embrace the whole tent building/secret hideout thing, but for some reason, the tents I build just don’t meet code, and you quickly become bored with them.  I probably would  have failed the “Tent Building” chapter in Parenting 101, you know, if such a class existed.

You discovered the magic of a Barbie this year and have spent many hours laying in the floor of your room, making up your own fairy-tales, and acting them out with these dolls. Man, does that take me back.  I did the same thing when I was a kid, and if you are anything like me, you have only begun to scratch the surface of make believe with a Barbie doll.  Trust me, it gets better.

However, your favorite past time these days is painting.  Well, it’s probably more accurate to say painting pictures and then giving them away.  I’m not really sure which one you enjoy more.  The painting or the giving.  You want to take pictures that you’ve painted everywhere we go, to give to anyone we see.   Most of our family and friends have been given one of your masterpieces at some point this year.  I love this about you, and I hope that this trait of giving and serving others stays with you.

Your relationship with your brother has begun to morph into a more typical brother/sister relationship.  I now find myself saying motherly things like “Keep your hands to yourself!” or “Stop aggravating each other!”  Thanks to your Uncle Sonny, I had no illusions about the two of you always getting along.  I know what it’s like to have a brother, and like most siblings, I learned the definition of a love/hate relationship early as a child.  So I think what ya’ll are going through is pretty normal, and if your Uncle Sonny and I are the gauge to go by, then you will start to enjoy each others’ company soon enough.   I’ll just  make sure no one gets physically wounded in the process.

I should be use to it by now, but I still can’t get over how much you’ve grown this past year.  One morning not too long ago, I noticed you were looking strangely taller.  I couldn’t help myself.  I sent you to your room and stood you up against the growth chart.  Sure enough.  You had grown an inch.  OVERNIGHT.  Ok…so maybe not in one night, but seriously, it was a month. I’ve got the documentation to prove it.  One month, and you grew an inch.  And all of a sudden, those pants that use to cover your shoelaces became capris.  No wonder I can’t keep up.    And I know this is going to sound crazy to say it, but you are even outgrowing your teeth.  Your teeth?! I didn’t know it was possible either, but you are living proof that it happens.  Your baby teeth use to be all snug in your mouth, but at some point while you were five, your mouth grew bigger.  And now your teeth look small and spread apart, but don’t worry.  You’re still beautiful.

I’m so proud of the person you are growing into.  You have an amazing gift to forgive others, and I love that about you.  Recently, a close friend of yours said some ugly things to you because she was trying to show off in front of some other friends.  Later you told me about the incident while trying to choke back tears.  I asked if you said hateful things back to her.  I wasn’t accusing you of anything. We were just talking about what happened.  You looked up at me and said, “I would never say that to somebody.”  You were so sincere.  You acted like you were shocked that I could even think such a thing.  Even now as I write this, I tear up over it.  I’m not sure that I would’ve had the self-control to hold my tongue like you did.

Edie, if you don’t remember anything else about your childhood, I hope you know one thing–you are a good kid with a good heart.   And I couldn’t be prouder of you.

Love,

Mommy

So you can’t say I didn’t warn you.  Prepare yourself for cuteness overload when watching this video.  You might not be able to stand it. Enjoy!

I always approach my kids’ birthdays with the best of intentions.  Going into the party planning, I always think, “I’ll just do a simple party at home this year, really cheap and no big deal.” 

I start off with simple ideas and high expectations.  And it soon dawns on me that there will be a lot of people in my home and I’m going to be expected to feed and  entertain them.  I quickly realize that this is going to take way more effort than I anticipated, and before I know it, I’m googling party places in the Birmingham area and making an appointment.  That’s been the story for the past three years anyway.

But not this year!  I actually followed through!  First, with having the party at my house, and second, with keeping it simple.  And you know what?  It was a really great party. 

The party was Princess themed, and all of Edie’s guests came dressed in their favorite princess clothes.  Some had tiaras and others were decked-out in costume jewelry, but they were all adorable.  We did princess themed crafts and had a princess pinata. 

Edie picked the menu: Chicken nuggets, grapes, and white and orange Cheeze-its.  I made that special slushy punch ladies always serve at bridal showers and let the girls drink out of plastic champagne glasses.   Big. Hit.  We had tons of candy and cookies, along with cake and ice cream.  And about the time the sugar kicked in and I lost control of the princesses, their parents arrived to pick them up!  Perfect timing!

Edie had a blast, and truthfully, I think this was one of the most enjoyable birthday parties we’ve thrown.  So maybe there will be more at-home parties in our future.

On a somewhat unrelated note, maybe all that time I’ve spent on Pintrest hasn’t been in vain.  I mean, I can name at least three ideas I stole from the website to help with this party.   And even though I won’t see any of my party ideas show up there, I know in my heart that our princess party was totally worthy of Pintrest, and now I can stop beating myself up for wasting so much time on that blasted site!

Waiting her turn to perform her floor routine

Am I alone in seeing Olympic talent here?  Just look at that balance!

As promised, here are some pictures from the musical:

The show was titled “Go West” and it was about the Gold Rush of the 1800s.  Edie was a cowgirl, along with two of her best buds.  In this picture, they are about to sing with a little ensemble about riding out west on their ponies.  As if it weren’t cute enough, they gave the younger girls stick ponies to ride on during part of  the song.  This caused huge confusion on stage which resulted in three little girls not sure if they should ride or stand still, and Edie yelling out loud at them to “GO!”  This was my favorite part of the musical.

Here she is singing her heart out in the opening number.

Most of the songs had hand motions which upped the cuteness level to a point that I could hardly stand it.   When there weren’t any hand motions, Edie improvised with swinging her hips and bobbing her head to the music.

Down Time

Here they are singing the very last song.  Man, I can’t wait until next year…

Well as predicted, our schedule was crazy last week.  We began the week with a bang.  Halloween.  This year we decided to cram as much fun into this holiday as we could tolerate. 

We started out at our church’s Fall Festival and then went trick or treating around our neighborhood.  Now I know I’ve had several posts lately about some of my struggles with this homeschooling thing, but I have definately discovered one of the positives.  It doesn’t matter if my kids stay out  late on Halloween and then go bed on a sugar high…because we can sleep in.  This brought me a lot of comfort around 10:30 that night when we were still stuffing ourselves with Kit Kats and Laffy Taffy and telling the kids to stop bouncing off the ceiling.

However, we didn’t get to slow down too much because by Thursday we were back to a hectic schedule again. 

For the past two months, Edie has been spending her Friday afternoons at choir practice where she has been preparing for her first musical.  (We did this through our cover school…you know, so she can get some of that important socialization everyone is afraid she’s missing out on.) She finally got to show her stuff last Thursday and Friday night. 

I have to admit hauling her back and forth every week was a bit of pain, but let me tell you, watching her up on that stage made every second worth it.  She sang her heart out.  That kid loves a stage.  I’ve known this about her for quite some time, and if you don’t believe me, you should watch this video of her dance recital two years ago (fast forward to 1:30 into it). 

I’ll post pictures of the musical soon.

Then Saturday morning, Edie had a gymnastics show-off day.  This wasn’t near as entertaining to watch as the musical, but I’ve got to admit, I was impressed.  The kid is pretty limber. 

Again, I’ll post pictures soon.

This week isn’t near as hectic, but it will end with a bang.  Edie’s birthday party.  Most of this week will be spent dusting.  Due to our bathroom remodel, our entire house is covered in a thin layer of sheetrock powder.  Hopefully, I can disguise the mess well enough that some little girls can come to our castle and feel like princesses. 

Now I’ve just got to remember where I put that magic wand…

From Princess Edie and Bob the Builder

I know it sounds silly to say this, but I’m going to anyway.  We have been homeschooling for over two months now, and I think the thing I am struggling with the most is the home part of homeschooling.

For starters,  I am not a home-body.  I never have been.  I like to go.  Anywhere!  I don’t care!  And I’m afraid I have engrained this into my children as well.  I’ve never spent days and days at home with them even when they were newborns.  In the past, we were always headed somewhere, the zoo, the McWane Center, a play group.  And on the random days we were going to spend the day in the house, we had friends coming over to play and visit.

My house always felt like it had a revolving door with people coming and going, and I loved it.  But now our schedule has changed.  This is primarily because we need to actually be home in order to home-school without distractions.  But then I’ve also found that all of those friends that use to drop in are now in their homes, schooling their kids or in some cases, their kids are in school. And so that leaves us, at home, to ourselves, and with each other…all day.

The other part I’m struggling with is that our house is always a wreck these days.  Even though I’m at home more, you would think I would be able to stay on top of cleaning and putting things away, but I have actually found just the opposite to be true.  No matter how much I straighten and clean, I have two others making messes right behind me.  I can’t keep up.  I feel like a hamster on one of those hamster wheels, just spinning and spinning, not getting any closer to my destination.

I’m in no way a neat freak, but I do need to live in some semblance of clean so that I can function.  When my house is out of order, I feel like my whole life is chaotic.

Thankfully, once a week I’m forced to wipe everything down and make the house look presentable because we host a small group Bible Study, but the clean never lasts.  It feels like as soon as we shut the front door on our guests, the house falls apart.  Somehow the kids’ toys jump off the shelves and onto the floor.  Clothes dirty themselves and lay around in random piles, and the dishes fly out of the cabinets and into the sink.

I know I am suppose to be teaching my kids to pick up after themselves, and believe me, I’m trying.  But some days it’s easier to send them to their rooms where the mess can be contained while I pick up everything else.

So I’m conducting an experiment of sorts.  Starting this weekend, our days spent at home will be few and far between.  The month of November is going to be crazy with musicals and birthday parties, holidays and anniversaries.  November is always crazy for us.  And truthfully, I’m looking forward to a little craziness in our schedule again, but I’m also curious to see how we  hold up.  Can we still get some school accomplished in the midst of all the fun?

I guess time will tell.  But in the end, if we miss some school days here and there, I think life can still go on.  Getting us out of the house for awhile is important for everyone’s sanity…especially the teacher’s.

As I am sure you have already guessed by now, this weekend we carved our pumpkins.  It was really an impromptu carving party which I’ve decided might be the best way to do it in the future.

I was sitting on the deck late Saturday afternoon, listening to Edie read aloud when Ken randomly walks by and asks if I would like for him to build fire.  Silly question.  My husband knows that if I ever turn down a chance to relax by the fire, then call the guys in Roswell because aliens have taken over my body and possessed my brain.  In my world, fires/fireplaces rank right up there with snow.  I’m not sure if Julie Andrews included this in her list of favorite things, but it’s definitely in mine.

So he starts gathering wood and twigs as Edie and I are finishing up her reading, and it occurs to me–we’ve got several hours to kill.  It’s a nice night, and now there’s a fire to sit by.  Sounds like perfect time for pumpkin carving if you ask me.

Here we are removing the pumpkin guts.  Roark was hiding behind his daddy for this part because pumpkin guts are “yuck” according to him.  I always thought little boys enjoyed yucky things, but not my little guy.  He wanted no part of it.

It wasn’t until Ken brought out a flashlight that Roark came near the table.  Then he had a job to do, and he was all about it.

Last year I bought one of those pumpkin carving kits on the Clearance table at Michael’s.  I will never again carve a pumpkin without one of these kits.  Edie essentially carved the pumpkin on the left with minimal assistance from me.  And yes, she’s five.  And before you get high and mighty about my child being given a sharp object, she wasn’t unsupervised…she just wouldn’t let me help.

Before we got started, I printed off several templates from the Internet and let the kids choose which design they liked best.   When I selected the kitty cat face, I really expected Edie to jump at that one because it looked similar to Hello Kitty, but to my surprise, it was Roark that wanted the kitty cat…because it wasn’t “scary like the others.”  He’s secure in his manhood and hasn’t regretted his choice for one second.