to dance, or not to dance

Sydney and Maia love their dance classes. They are both excited for the new semester, new songs, new costumes, and new moves. And I love seeing them tap into their inner butterfly.

On Wednesday I told Sydney she had to get ready for dance. And then on an impulse I told Sam to get ready, too. I told him I signed him up this semester and he had class in an hour. "Really?" He wore a scrunched up is-this-for-real-or-are-you-messing-with-me smile. "Really." "Okay...?" he said cautiously. Then let-me-get-this-straight "you signed me up? without asking me?" "Yup, I thought you'd like to get some dance moves." "I already know how to dance." Pause. "Am I the only boy?" Yup. Long pause. "What am I going to wear?" "You know, like at the Nutcracker. Go try on Syd's tights and see if there are some that fit." "No way." "Soccer shorts then." Long pause. "I'm only doing it if Spencer does it." "Okay, call him." Leaves to find the phone. By the way, I happen to know nobody is home at Spencer's house. Returns, "Spencer is not home and I don't really want to do it." "Just try it for a while...5 weeks at least." This goes on for a while. Maia can't stand it anymore. "You KNOW she's joking Sam. She didn't sign you up for dance." "Did you, mom?" "Of course, I don't know why Maia is saying that." It goes on for another long while. My tone of voice gets increasingly facetious, but he is still hooked on the line. Maia is going crazy. Sam starts asking "are you kidding or not?" And I say "what do you think?" "I want to hear you say you are kidding." "Okay, I'm kidding." He leaves the room, a good ten minutes pass, then he returns. "Well, could I do dance?"

"Sorry dude."

Joke's over, readers. Now for the sad commentary: Oh, Sammy. I wish society would let you dance like a butterfly, just like your sisters, but it just ain't gonna happen. Part of me would love to go to bat and be that mom, but a bigger part of me knows that you don't know what you're getting yourself into there. Mommy knows best.

so this is '09

Are any of you feeling like I do right now? Like for 3 weeks you played and played, and had it in the back of your mind you would start getting stuff done as soon as the kids were back in school. And now that they are back in school you feel a little depressed and not at all productive. And now it's Friday and you aren't sure what you've accomplished this week, and you're wondering how did you ever believe the illusion that you could get a handle on things in a mere week? And how old are these left-overs anyway?

To top it off, I can't help feeling that my time was best spent sledding down hills and playing board games. Are we living our lives the way we should? My to-do list is just about as long as it was on Monday morning. My kids are stressed and tired. And I've taken to turning on the TV in the day just to have some background noise. And I know some of the food in the fridge is from 2008. Maybe that's why I'm feeling off.

On a random note, since I talk about the girls so much, here are the boys:

Berk wearing Sam's new hat, for a facebook profile photo shoot

Sam on the new unicycle, which is harder than it looks, if that's possible

I hope you're all adjusting to 2009 better than I am. Feel free to pass on your tips. Any good new year's resolutions? The top one on my list is "play more board games," followed by "have more fun."

Little Miss Personality

Happy Birthday, Maia Noelle!

We are so thankful for dear friends who trudged here in the snow to help us celebrate on what may have been the snowiest of snow days. And we are thankful for Grandma, who put all the snow clothes in the dryer and lined up all the boots at the end of the party. And Grandpa, who ran the craft station. And of course Maia, who was the happiest little hostess, hardly ever saying "it's my birthday, so I get to go first!" :0)



Our commissioned cake lady was snowed in at the Salt Lake airport, so Berkeley and I made the snowman cake--which didn't turn out half-bad! Although I obviously did not master the shade of lavender for the scarf and hat. The cake itself was downright yummy, because Berkeley added a package of vanilla pudding to the mix: yum. He poured the batter into 3 sturdy glass bowls to make the snowman shape.

The kids played pin-the-carrot-on-the-snowman, bean-bag toss, cake walk, red-light-green-light, and duck-duck-snowman. Sam, Berk, and Syd ran the game stations. They ate pigs-in-blankets (smokies in Rhodes dough), at Maia's request. A great party!

But since this is really all about me, can I just tell you what a strange sensation it is having the youngest turn FIVE? She is not a baby anymore, which means I have no baby, which is weird. Weird, but wonderful.

My little Maia.
I love this picture because she looks like my mom when she was little: