Well, it's officially "the holiday season." We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend - appetizers with Tim's side of the family, dinner with mine, and then Friendsgiving on Friday afternoon with our friends with kids (our framily, as it were.)
The kids have had half days all this week, and we've spent a lot of time hanging out with friends at the park after school gets out, which is quite nice. There's a really great group of moms who have second graders and then a younger kid, and a lot of them actually live in our immediate neighborhood. Ellie's friend Anabelle hosted a Friendsgiving for the girls last Monday, which was darling.
Anabelle has a "club" and the girls go over every other week on Wednesdays. Anabelle's mom is a saint (those are her almost three year old twin boys.)
From our Friendsgiving. We're lucky to have all of these people, for sure.
We went and got our Christmas tree over the weekend and put it up. Thus far only one ornament lost, but Ellie's also crafted a half dozen more. The cats are being reasonably well behaved with the tree - we adopted them before Christmas last year, but by the time we brought them home the tree was already up, plus they spent a few days without having run of the house, so this feels the first real "tree" experience for the babies. They thankfully haven't shown any interest in climbing the tree. I asked Tim, now that Thor is gone, does he need ME to eat a bunch of the Christmas tree needles, then sit on the floor, yeowl in pain and immediately vomit said needles right back up? EVERY YEAR that poor dumb beast, and he'd do it through ALL of December.
Today I have the kids school conferences - Ellie's was this morning and she's a pleasure to have in class, smart as a whip, a good friend, all that good jazz. Adam's is this afternoon, and I am 100% going to ask his teacher which of my children is her favorite. Then we're off to Arizona at 4:30, headed to ride the Christmas Train with Judd and Lexi. Should be a blast! (a blast of cold air, it's going to be cold enough to snow in Flagstaff!)
The kids don't have school this week, but we've been keeping busy (thus far. It's only Monday!)
Last Thursday night we went to a volunteer event at Share Our Selves, a local health care provider that services the homeless for their family night event. Everything was designed to help kids learn about the services they provide and the community they serve, in a kid-friendly way. They said they'll provide 1,600 meals this coming week to local families and individuals. Our group started off the evening packing produce bags to be handed out, with potatoes, onions, apples and carrots, and then the kids colored paper bags to hold the food bags and made cards to add to the pick up.
From there, we moved on to helping sort canned goods that had been donated over the past few weeks. We finished the evening cutting and tying the ends of fleece sheets to make blankets for those in need.
It felt good to be giving something back, and to be talking with the kids about how part of being thankful for what we have is doing good for others as well. Share Our Selves had really good materials available for parents on how to talk to kids about homelessness in a caring way (because it's also hard when kids are like "so we should just let them live with us!" to bring up the topics of mental illness or drug abuse, etc.) On the drive home we were talking about how the things we'd done, and the things we'd brought to donate would help people who were living on the street. Adam was quiet for a minute, thinking about the tooth brushes he'd helped me buy at the store the week before and asked "will the toothbrushes get squished, on the street?" Sorry buddy, I don't mean that the homeless live directly in the middle of the street, where cars are.
Friday morning was the kindergarten Thanksgiving play, and they were very cute. They ditched the out of date Pilgrims and Native American costumes, and all of the kids made "thankfulness vests" except for the five little girls were dressed up as turkeys (looked very cute, and also, very itchy.) Adam got reprimanded twice during the production, once for screwing around with a class mate, once for flapping his vest up and over his face a bunch. But, he delivered his line with confidence, and did some all star dancing and singing.
We spent Friday night and Saturday horsing around with friends, relaxing, and doing some planning for the upcoming holiday onslaught. The kids slept over at Mimi and Poppy's last night, and Tim and I were thankful for a night out!
This morning one of Ellie's girlfriends had a bunch of the gals over for a friendsgiving. I am truly thankful for Anabelle's mom, who took on a half dozen little girls along with her own twin toddlers and let them make slime and also apple sauce and pasta necklaces and have a feast.
The kids had Monday off for Veteran's Day, which is the first part of our No School November (next week they have completely off in the lead up to Thanksgiving. The following week is school conferences so every day is a half day... and then we're going to Arizona for a few days so they'll miss school that way.) Basically, I hope they learn something between now and New Year!
Anyhow, it worked out well because Pari and James had rented a house in Lake Arrowhead and asked us if we wanted to join, and yes, yes we did! It ended up working out quite well - Saturday morning we had family pictures taken, Adam had his final soccer game of the season (that's enough youth sports for me for this calendar year, thank you) and then we loaded the car and headed up the mountain.
The cabin was great - three stories, plenty of bedrooms, and came fully stocked with everything we'd need to just relax and unwind together. It had a real chef's kitchen, and Pari is a great cook (I brought breakfast supplies, home made cookies, and my sparkling personality to make up for my cooking deficiencies.) Mila is five days older than Adam and Rahim is four, so the kids all had someone to play with (plus we could send them to a different story of the house!) Pari and James also invited two other couples (one stayed Saturday night, one Sunday) and so the kids spent the day hanging out, then we did a big dinner, put the kids to bed and stayed up late drinking and talking.
When we got up there on Saturday we went down to the actual Lake Arrowhead village, which was rebuild in the last twenty years, and reminds me of an outlet mall, with random high end stores, and then a little carnival area. Sunday we made the windy drive over to Big Bear. The lake is really pretty, but sadly very low with the drought. The kids were hungry and nuts, but we were able to find a place that would seat all eight of us quickly AND bring out the kid food almost immediately. We did some good poking around, and then on the way home I declared that we MUST go to the Alpine slide on the outskirts of town. And lo, it was awesome! We all got to ride the chair lift up (Ellie was the only kid who had ever been on one) and they you take a sled down a concrete luge. I was all prepared to ride with Ellie, and then they informed me that she was too tall and had to ride by herself. Farewell little friend, hope you figure out the braking before the end of the track!
Tim and Adam made it down safely as well!
They are such a funny little foursome, we were sad to pack up and leave yesterday morning. We made it home in good time and Tim went into the office. The kids and I stayed in our pajamas all day, went over to Gigi's house for a bit, and then when Adam started melting down out of exhaustion, came home for early baths and VERY early bed time. All that fresh air and friend time is exhausting!
I am still confused that it's only Tuesday. Adam has a feast at school on Thursday and then the Thanksgiving play on Friday. And then, no school? Ellie has already complained about having to go to the YMCA with me, I've already told her I don't care. Family fitness for all!
Another great Trick or Treat in the books! We end up going over to our friend's neighborhood in Laguna Niguel to take advantage of the Candy Corn lane they have. Those people really go all out - there's donuts, there's popcorn, there's a woman manning an ice cream sundae table, there's water bottles, sometimes the houses will top off beer or wine for the adults. This year, there was also someone walking with a miniature pony. I mean... com'n.
The kids have been planning for months to be Harry Potter and Hermoine Granger from the Harry Potter series. Tim decided to be Professor Snape, and I decided to be Mrs. Norris, the grounds keeper's cat, in the interest of wearing my cat onesie for the third year in a row. I bought the kids cheap costumes at Target, and then this week Adam kept telling me he was going to be PacMan. The heck you are kid! He then clarified - he's going to be PacMan next year, so stay tuned. Tim got really into his costume, and found the perfect Michael Jackson wig to complete his look - he said the Amazon reviews were especially convincing when someone mentioned they bought it for their husband, who has a huge head.
Tomorrow is Halloween, so in the usual case of brilliant planning, the kids had Monday off for a teacher inservice. Why they don't schedule it for November 1 is beyond me, but last year they had actual Halloween off, based on how the week fell.
I made the most of our random holiday Monday by scheduling the kids dental check ups. Poor Ellie had once again grown a set of shark teeth. She already had her front middle bottom ones pulled back in May, and then the two teeth on either side of the middle had also grown up through her gumline without pushing the baby teeth out. That however, turned out to be the least of our problems, as due to bad luck, Ellie's teeth have awful, weak enamel. The dentist said her teeth are almost chalky, and showed us how one of her six year molars has already experienced a significant break. The poor little thing needs teeth pulled, her palate expanded, and is going to eventually end up with crowns on a number of her teeth. I guess the upside to living in Orange County is no one will bat an eye if we get her ridiculous chicklet teeth veneers for her 12th birthday (KIDDING.) So the dentist filled the chip to fix her tooth and pulled the two baby teeth. Ellie happily took another snootful of laughing gas and pronounced it the best dental visit ever! If she's going to end up with a lot of dental work, at least may she be happy during the procedure. One of the baby teeth was clearly never going to come out on its own - the root was three times the length of the tooth! The poor kitten was numb across her entire lower jaw when all was said and done, so we went and got a milkshake for lunch and stopped by Grizz and Gigi's to eat. I poured it into a bowl and got a spoon for her (no straws when you have teeth pulled) and asked her if I could make her a bib, since her face was numb. She initially said no, then said "wait, a bib like Grandpa Howie? Okay." At one point Grizz wiped her numb chin for her, and assured her he'd done the same for Grandpa back in the day. I also thought of Grandpa Howie as I ransacked my house in search of gold dollars for the tooth fairy to deliver (the tooth fairy left the stash in a bag in my glove box. OBVIOUSLY.)
Adam meanwhile, no cavities, no problems. His teeth are great even despite his thumb sucking (which has lessened significantly since we began leaving banishing Lamby to our house during the day since kinder started. Sometimes we will bring him in the car, and he's allowed to go with Adam to his grandparents, but I no longer make sure to have Lamby in my purse every time I walk out the door.) He got to eat a burger and fries, actually said he didn't want a shake!
This morning was the kids' jogathon at school. They've been hyping it for weeks and Adam in particular has been driven insane by the prospect of winning prizes and running the most laps. He has been asking me every day if I texted people to tell them (since the kids get crabby prizes if you send out emails on their behalf, even if no one donates) and also told me looks forward to winning the grand prize of the iPhone X. He was very dismayed when I said we don't need one, and even if I won it, I'd give it back to the school.
The kids ran at the same time, which was nice because I got to cheer them both on. Ellie's class raised the most money and sent out the most emails/texts (their class sent over 1,000, of which I sent 5, way to go other parents!) Her teacher also got to do a money grab thing at the end in one of those booths where they put in a bunch of bills and turn on a fan and all the kids that wanted to ran in superhero costumes. BEHOLD:
SUPER ELLIE!
SUPER FAST ADAM
Thank you to all of our family who donated - the kids will also get a bunch of additional garbage prizes for having met certain goals. The best part by far has been Adam winning a sequined snake, which he named Saver and carries around a la Britney Spears wearing a snake at the MTV music awards back in the day.
He's a slaaaaave, for you. Not gonna to deny it, he's not trying to hide it. On the plus side though, Saver is better quality than the bucket of slime I already hid and then threw away, and the two squishy balls that he squeezed to death within three days of receiving them.
My favorite donor is Uncle Jake, who thought the kids were running quarter mile laps and pledged $3 and $4 per lap per kid accordingly. I emailed him and called him a big spender, and let him know that Ellie ran 29 laps last year, so if she repeats that times three bucks a lap, he may be the lead donor in the family! Good thing he also appreciates running, so it enables him to support many people and activities he loves.
Ellie had her final soccer game this past Saturday. She said she loved it and would play again next fall, which is funny to me, as she was most often seen strolling slowly through the back field during games. Definitely not willing to run full out or go steal the ball and make a play, but willing to be on the field, that kid. We had a little picnic with the team afterwards, and it was a nice way to celebrate a good group of girls and coaches and a great season. They all had a blast and I can't argue with that, though I'm glad to be spending less time sitting on the sidelines!
I know, I know, I am the worst. Things have been fairly routine, which is always a little nutty. A couple hours of soccer a week, gymnastics, birthday parties, piano lessons, home work, school projects, plus trying to eat and sleep and read Harry Potter.
The kids are mostly having a good school year. There are some wild children who make Ellie's class a little unruly, and nothing bothers her like being punished because the rest of the class was acting up. Adam meanwhile, will get frustrated when something is anything other than totally easy for him (see: scissors work) and the other day I got a report that he'd crawled under a desk and refused to talk to the parent volunteer while they were trying to cut out squares and make a little math hat. So we've had discussions about doing our best, thinking of school work as exercise practice to make our brains stronger (like soccer practice!) and trying to go with the flow. But, they are kind friends, smart kids, and we'll help them deal with being perfectionists.
Soccer continues to be funny. Ellie is all out in practice, strolls casually during the game and might kick the ball if it comes her way, ready to do a cartwheel whenever. Adam is all out in practice (though sometimes all out crying) and then puts about half power into the game. Either way, they're both having a good time and like their teams - Adam in particular has a lot of kinder classmates from school on his team.
Still, not amused.
They could be twins!
On Tuesdays when Adam is at piano, if Auntie Sara isn't at our house, Ellie and I go and get a coffee and a cookie and do her homework.
Lots of good mathing ahoy.
On Friday she officially turned eight, which seems unbelievable. It's also interesting to me because this is the first year where it doesn't feel like a total seismic shift. A one year old is totally different than a newborn. A three year old is a different creature than their two year old self. But while yes, she's grown and matured a lot over the year, it's not as though she's completely unrecognizable compared to when she turned seven.
Though, now going strong on her fourth year of cowboy boots as her main pair of shoes.
At eight, she still loves math, but is getting to be a better reader. She still loves Nerdy Nummies and baking, and while she doesn't seem on fire for soccer, she LOVES gymnastics and busting out her moves where ever possible. Everything else is Harry Potter all the time - she's a few pages away from finding out that Dumbledore dies, and I dread the tears to come. She's delightfully exuberant and radiates attitude and sass, which has it's minuses when you're her mom and have to deal with the back sass, but I love her strength and hope she takes it forward with her forever.
For her birthday, we had a fun day at school, followed by the usual running around between gymnastics and soccer. Mimi and Poppy came to watch her play, and we made cookies for the team. Then back to our house for pizza and a lemon cake that she decorated with Harry Potter symbols (she wanted me to frost Hermoine's face onto the cake, but I steered her away from that.) Lexi and Judd came too, adding to the fun of family birthday party.
We also had a real great dance party.
For her friend party, she wanted to go to the indoor gym to pretend to be the American Ninja Warrior. I personally find the place to be a suburban hellscape, so I decided we could go with a couple of kids for 90 minutes, but we'd do dinner and the party back at our house. We've been having a really fun time this year with a bunch of her second grade girlfriends who live in the neighborhood and also have a younger sibling (two in Adam's kindergarten class!) I mean, isn't that the suburban dream, a bunch of great kids the same age as your kids who live within walking distance and also have fun parents? Truly, they are very sweet girls, and I love how funny they are hanging out for a little bit on the play ground after school pick up (while us moms catch up about how the day is going, what's new at school, etc.)
Our friends Julian and Felix came as well - we love them and wish they weren't moving out of state in a month. Please also enjoy crabby Adam refusing to sit with the girls, but still in the picture.
(plus in the back ground, our favorite kid, Auntie Sara.)
Tim was able to leave the party 15 minutes early and pick up catering from the Mexican place we love, and so when the tired and wild animals arrived at home, we were ready to feed them all. I invited all of the parents and siblings to come back to the party at our house. We ate, we drank, we had Costco cake and ice cream, and then ended with another dance party.
Conga Line!
I know this is super blurry, but I love the disco colors, and the little boys as monkeys in the middle.
Tomorrow Ellie is star student for her class, and she got to take the pet (stuffed animal) crocodile home for the weekend and will return the journal with updates of their activities. She also got to spend last weekend having a special time with Mimi and Poppy, going up to the American Girl Store for their wonderful traditional lunch and shopping for Bitty and Sammy. She's a lucky bunny to have such great friends and family to love on her, and I'm the luckiest that I get to be her mom.
Right now the kids, especially Adam, are obsessed with this online game called Slither IO. You're a worm, you're trying to kill other worms and then eat their sparkly guts. When Adam really gets into it, he likes to have his jams going as well.
Sometimes Ellie, Tim and Adam will all play and then collude with each other to take out other worms. They did it on Sunday and at one point it got so loud that I got my coffee, got my cat, and escaped to my room, where I turned the music up real loud to drown out the music and the yelling. Tim is living his best life.
Tim and Meg met in 2003 at UCLA, only three weeks before Meg graduated, and only three months before she moved to Canada for graduate school. They dated long distance for a year, got engaged in 2004 and married in 2005. Tim makes video games as an actual job. After five years in LA, in a 500 square foot apartment, we moved back behind the Orange Curtain and bought our first house in October 2009. We followed up that fun by having our first daughter, Elizabeth Rosemarie in October 2010.
Tim is 6'6" and Meg is 5'3". Yes, we know we look mismatched in pictures. Yes, Meg tries to stand on things to be taller whenever she can.
