ART NIGHT

I was in charge of this school activity last week. It was a family art night, featuring booths with art projects, a lego building station, a jazz quartet, and a lego sculpture artist. We were expecting about 200 people to come but ended up with nearly 400! I was surprised! But luckily we also had great turnout of fabulous volunteers, especially of the teenage variety. They more or less ran the booths, carried heavy objects, passed out water bottles, lured wandering children to project tables, filled the need for extra prep work, and they stayed after and cleaned up!!!

Spin Art

Hannah and Maia with their "valentines" from the card booth

Lego creation station

The piece de resistance was definitely the giant lego sculpture. This was created by a dad of one of the kindergarteners--we call him "Lego Dwayne." I can't do his rocket sculpture justice with what would be a lame attempt at describing it. It came apart and contained several swinging parts inside with smaller planes and rockets. When I asked Sam, "wasn't that cool when Dwayne took it apart?" he said straightforwardly, "yes, I nearly fainted."

Rapture

Notice Dwayne's "signature" in legos over the flag

Yarn Art

Disney animation

When it was supposed to be over at 8 pm, people were still going strong and having a great time, and yet I was home at 9:30. My own kids were among the most helpful from start to finish, including hours of cutting and sorting and preparing during the days beforehand. They also gave lots of encouragement for all my posters, signs and flyers. It felt great knowing the kids appreciated my efforts. It also felt amazing having all the help pour in from my dear friends, acquaintances, and even strangers!

My neighbor, Aaron, does some impromptu cariactures for people

This kid from my ward, Skylar (on trumpet) brought some jazz friends

And Sam gets jiggy with it

Love is in the air...

And it smells like this!

Let me back up. I have always disliked Valentine's day. Ever since I was twelve and I received my first heart shaped box of candy from a boy who liked me. I felt so...manipulated. In high school I broke up with a perfectly good boyfriend once on valentine's day, because I just couldn't take the pressure. The flowers, the candy, the carefully chosen tokens...there is something so nauseating about it. Does anyone else share that problem? That intense aversion to pink, pre-packaged romance?

My sweet, patient husband knows I have these weird hangups. (One of the countless adorable things about me.) He likes to call my bluff, like when I made fun of my roommate's boyfriend for bringing her flowers, Mike put flowers on my windshield the next day. And this weekend, he booked a romantic room at the beach and planned my perfect day. We hiked, shopped, ate seafood, hot-tubbed, napped and went to a movie. All of these activities are in my top-10 favorites, and half of them are in Mike's bottom-10 dislikes (can you guess which half?).

Here are some pictures from our romantic hike to Drift Creek falls:

Looking down on the waterfall from the suspension bridge.

Sunlight through the mossy trees.

Thank you, Mike! And...it's hard to say, but here goes: Happy Valentine's day!

I have come to terms with my dislike of the holiday by making it all-about-the-kids. The last couple of years we've done fancy dinners (at home) and chocolate fondue with the kids. This year we let them have a "party," with heart shaped pizza, games, and heart-shaped cookies made into "fruit pizzas." Yum.

"Do you love your neighbor?"

Next time you have a bunch of kids over, of any age, this is a great game. The person in the middle asks, "do you love your neighbor?" If the child says yes, the neighbors have to switch places before the "it child" grabs a spot. OR the question "do you love your neighbor?" can lead to "No. But I love people with bare feet..." (or some such qualifier) then all those children have to jump up and switch spots. The child left in the center is "it."

Big, loving fun. I hope your weekends were equally wonderful!

Lil' Bookworms

My week is way too busy for me to sit around blogging, but I still just feel like reaching out to everybody right now and saying "hi." The issue on my mind is children's literature. A great friend of mine with a 5-year old asked about good read-aloud chapter books for that age, and it got me thinking about everything we have enjoyed as a family. My mom used to make those long hours on car trips go by faster reading such classics as Trumpeter of the Swans and ... what else mom?

Now I read books aloud--it's my favorite part of traveling. I almost want to plan a road trip on the release date of the new Fablehaven book. Sometimes we pull into a stop and nobody wants to get out until the end of the chapter.

So for 5-year olds I was thinking the Boxcar Children series, the American Girl books, the Borrowers...what else? Please comment with your suggestions. I have to admit we read the first Harry Potter books with our five year olds. And I read many Young Readers Choice books and Battle of the Books books aloud with everyone present. I may be targeting the 9 year-old, but it's often the 5 and 7 year-olds who are begging for more. The 13 year-old has been known to stop by for a chapter of Little House.

I started Anne of Green Gables last night with the girls--the descriptions are so lengthy and florid--not really for 5 year-olds. But then today I heard Maia summarizing the first couple of chapters for her little friend, so I'm going to stick with it.

So what are your favorites from childhood, and what are you reading with your kids?

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:

wonderland

So my bonus day of the previous post turned into a bonus week. No school, lots of play. My parents came up to go to the temple Friday and decided to stay through to Christmas. We're thrilled to be snowed in with them. My dad and Sam heroically shoveled the driveway and sidewalk (while I was still sleeping).

Milo is still confused about the snow.
He wants in and out all day, just like the kids.

Mike made caramel corn, then heroically cleaned
off his truck to deliver it to people.

Sam's ice castle.

bonus day

Today (sunday) felt like a day out of time, outside of the calendar, not accounted for. Free. I went to bed last night dreading this day, actually, because it was supposed to be so busy for me, straight from 9:30 am to 9:30 pm. But I woke up to a blanket of snow and the squeals of kids jumping on the trampoline. Church was canceled. I stayed in my pajamas the entire day. Mike made beef vegetable stew and bread. I spent the day playing the piano and preparing little gifts to deliver. I snacked, I read. I didn't accomplish much, but everything I did was bonus. I could not have planned a more perfect day, because days like today cannot be planned.

Sydney and Maia dance around like giggle-heads every day, but today was especially gleeful. I said "I'm so glad you two get along so well....when I was your age my sister and I hated each other." Maia smiled at me with pity and stage-whispered, "your brothers hated you, too." She had that look on her face like, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you. It was hilarious. (p.s. my siblings and I get along great--now.)

Back to the snow: My main function today was to let these two in and out of the house all day. Neither Maia nor Milo know how they feel about snow. I finally told Maia that every time she came in she needed to stay in for at least 15 minutes (which is not long enough for mittens to dry).

For "church" I read a story from the Friend magazine about building a tradition of helping others at Christmas time, and Mike shared some scriptures about service. Then we made these ornaments with canning rings for our old spare fake tree. We wrote gifts we could give to the Lord this season. Maia wrote "dance," and "sing," and "make cookies." It was a fun activity and the picture doesn't really do the cute tree justice.


Monday's continuation: The only sad thing about the bonus day yesterday was realizing how much we needed the break. Why do we let ourselves run on empty? Why do I commit to so many things? I was sad to have the Messiah performance postponed, but otherwise I was celebrating the day off! Now I'm trying not to feel guilty for that--hurray for snow!

feelin' california

Maia and Syd on the rock behind Grandparents' house in San Luis Obispo

I am so relaxed. Maybe it's the sunshine, or maybe it's the fact that I have done hardly any cooking, housework or dishes for days. Maybe it's the way the kids have played with cousins non-stop this weekend. I love being here and I'm so glad the grandparents and other relatives like having us. They have gone out of their way to show us a good time.

Highlights:

• Grandma's macadamia nut pie--I could only eat a sliver it was so rich

• The golf cart--watching Berkeley overcome his fear of driving as he cruised around Grandpa's property

• Meeting Jamie's husband--welcome to the family, Patrick!

• Nancy and Danny's barbecue chicken

• Dan and Kim's barbecue ribs

• Salmon tacos at Chili Peppers (Hmm...are most of my highlights food-related?)

• Wake-boarding (in November!)--even though I spent the majority of the time trying to get out of the water

• A peaceful afternoon at the beach

And here are pictures of some of said highlights, not necessarily in order. (Sorry this is another brainless brag post.)

Hang on, kids! Berk is driving!

Girl cousins at Avila

Piling into Danny's boat at Lake Nacimiento

Girl cousins


Camille, Sam and Berk

Me!

Mike catching air