Self-inflicted Misery

The girls have always been fans of the Barbie movies. They watch them over and over again until they can say every word and sing every song. It was no surprise that Elise used some of her birthday money to buy Barbie and the Three Musketeers when it came out last month. I watched it with her and thought it would be cute if the girls were musketeers for Halloween. I figured Wal-Mart would have the dresses and it would be a cute and easy costume. The girls loved the idea. It seemed like a great plan until I went shopping. The only dress I could find in stores was the pink one. Bummer. Not wanting to disappoint the girls, I decided to just make some dresses. Big mistake. My sewing skills are sufficient for making pajama pants. Altering patterns, putting in zippers, and making petticoats are way beyond my skill set. But, I did it anyway. The process took MUCH longer than I anticipated and each dress has its own special flaw that makes me twitch. But, the girls are happy. I guess that counts for something. :) Next year I am going to take them to the store and let them pick any costume they want off the shelves. I am officially out of the costume making business.

As much as the sewing part was a pain, it was actually pretty fun to make the masks and add the embellishments to the front of the dresses. Nate helped out by making foam boot tops for each of the girls. He did a great job. My favorite part was making a costume for Miette (Abby’s cat).

Soccer Season Summary

***I really typed this post two weeks ago; we just didn’t get around to picking pictures until now.

I just realized I haven’t done a soccer post yet. This was our first year of having three kids playing. I was kind of dreading it. Soccer schedules always complicate life, and I was afraid that with three kids playing it would be too much. Surprisingly, I never really felt burnt out this time around. It monopolized a chunk of time on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but it was fun to watch the kids play. They all had good coaches and we saw some real improvements in their skills this year.
Ben has come a long way since he started playing soccer. He is finally getting to the point where he really gets the rules and how to play. His team always seemed to be a bit outmatched in both size and skill this year, but he had fun and was a much more effective player than ever before (even if they did lose every game).

Emily is still not super aggressive, but is doing loads better than last year. Her coach is pretty intense and that has been really good for Emily. She’s learned a lot about how to play positions and really seems to understand the game. She is best at playing defense, but the highlight of the season was scoring her first goal ever a couple of weeks ago. I missed it (I was at Elise’s game), but just hearing her tell about it was great. It was the only goal her team made in that game and she was so proud of herself.

Elise was really fun to watch. She has certainly benefited from backyard soccer games with the family. She scored her first goal within the first minute of her first game. I think she was the only girl who knew what to do, so when she kicked off and no one got in her way, she just kicked the ball right down to the goal. She scored a goal or two in almost every game, but was still a bit unpredictable. She would go from super aggressive to completely passive from game to game (at times from quarter to quarter).

Abby has been a trooper about spending her Saturday mornings at soccer games. She has her pick of Ben and Emily’s old soccer shirts and usually gets dressed up for the games too. She is a cutie. It will be fun to see how she plays after watching/playing with her siblings for three years.

Reasons 7962 to 7968

. . . that I love my husband:

7962: We had a bridal shower at our house for my new niece-in-law last week. The theme for the shower was “A Night at the Movies” and Nate made a quality interactive DVD game for us to use. He has mad computer skills . . . and “girls only want boyfriends who have great skills . . . you know, like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills.” (If you are reading this and don’t get that joke, I’m not sure we can still be friends.)

7963: He helped me clean the whole house to prepare for the shower.

7964: He took the kids out to eat and then to sit in the hot tub at my brother’s house during the shower. They loved it.

7965: He helped me count Box Tops all weekend.

7966: He taught our primary lesson on Sunday even though it was my turn.

7967: He pretends to care when I ask his opinion about important things like Halloween costumes and hair accessories for the girls.

7968: He figured out what was really wrong with his car and how to fix it (something that seven different Auto Zone employees and his mechanic uncle were unable to do). I love seeing his analytical mind at work and I love that he has learned how to do all kinds of car (and home) repairs to save us big bucks in labor charges.

Box Tops

I love our new school. It is an old building and has the craziest layout I’ve ever seen, but it has a really nice neighborhood feel about it. We know lots more of the kids and their parents because they live close by. That can be a blessing and a curse. :) I knew that I was in trouble when I found out that both of the PTA co-presidents live in our ward. I didn’t really want to help with PTA. I’m the room mother type, not the PTA board member type. Still, when they asked me to be the coordinator for Box Tops and Labels for Education, I said yes.

We had our first big collection drive in October and I got to count them all up last weekend. It was lots of work, but I kind of loved it. It’s a job that very much suits my personality. I was glad when Nate offered to help/hang out with me while I counted (it can get a little boring after the first seven hours). The kids got in on the action by sorting labels and trimming up the edges. They thought it was great fun. We got over 9,000 Box Tops ($900) and 2,000 Campbell’s LFE points in this first drive. Wahoo!

I certainly have caught Box Top fever. It seems like the program has been way underdone at our school in the past. We set a high goal this year and I’m on a mission to get everyone to clip Box Tops. So, if you don’t have kids in school, feel free to give your Box Tops to me. :)

Reclaiming Tuesday Nights

For the past two months, our Tuesday nights have looked like this:

3:25 – Pick up the kids from school in time to get Ben to his piano lesson at 3:30.

4:00 – Pick up Ben/drop off Emily at Sister Shelton’s. Get Ben ready for soccer practice.

4:30 – One of us picks up Emily while the other one takes Ben to soccer practice. Get Emily ready for soccer practice. Cook dinner.

5:30 – Get Ben home from soccer. Eat dinner.

6:00 – Everyone out the door to Emily’s soccer practice so the other kids can play at the park and Nate and I can spend a whole hour together.

7:00 – Homework, chores, baths, pajamas, scriptures, family prayer, bedtime stories, etc.

It sounds pretty manageable until you throw in a couple of pack meetings, soccer pictures, and some church activities. I’m glad we are a two parent family and have quality friends who have helped with transportation on days when we needed it. Needless to say, it was wonderful to have everyone home at 4:30 this afternoon and to have the rest of the night free. The kids had some friends over to play, we took advantage of the slickdeal at Dominos, and watched The Amazing Race together. It was heavenly. Nate and I even had time to watch an episode of Firefly after the kids were in bed. I’m thankful that soccer seasons are only 8 weeks long.

Birthday Lunch

I got together with three of my college friends today. It’s Hilary’s birthday tomorrow (aka National Day of Rejoicing), so Cyd and I headed up to Cache Valley to go out to lunch with her and Kaylynn. Cyd offered to be my taxi service since Nate’s car was still out of commission. It was great to have a chance to catch up with her a bit one on one. We met up with Kaylynn, took a tour of Hil’s gorgeous new house, and had a yummy lunch at Firehouse. I feel blessed to have quality friends. We’ve known each other so long and so well that it is always just fun and completely comfortable when we are together. I love that feeling. Plus, we only had six kids with us, so we could actually have complete conversations without interruption. Hardly ever happens.

Abby and (Cyd’s) Elise watched Barbie and the Diamond Castle in the car on the way up. I don’t think their eyes left the screen once the whole time.

Swine Flu?

Yesterday we got an email from Ben’s teacher saying that she has two students out of school with swine flu. Emily named off three kids from her class who have it too. This morning Elise woke up with a fever of 101. I don’t really know if it is the start of swine flu (or any other kind of flu). I told her that we’ll know if she has it because she’ll start looking like this:



She looked a little worried for a minute and then smiled and said “You’re tidding!” Still working on those Ks, but at least her sense of humor is intact. Thanks for the funny picture Amity.

First Grade Fieldtrip

Yesterday was Emily’s turn for a fieldtrip. We spent the morning at the Ogden Nature Center. It was fun to see my sometimes shy Emily raising her hand in a big group to answer questions. She explained the difference between insects and spiders and between birds and mammals. The mom/science teacher in me was so proud. When I said something about it to her later, she said “Mostly it’s because of Ben.” I’m glad that his obsession with science books and Planet Earth is educating the whole family.

After the Nature Center, we headed to the trout farm. We ate lunch and then the kids got to play with bubbles, catch a fish, walk through the corn maze, and pick a cool gourd to take home. Emily was very proud of herself for holding a fish in her bare hands. I was proud of myself for taking the hook out of its mouth. We had a great time together.

Potty Queen

If I would have known how easy this round of potty training would be, we would have done it months ago. Abby is a pro. She’s passed the tests of shopping trips with Mom and soccer Saturdays at the park. I figure she is the freebie we earned for training three other kids . . . kind of a buy three get one free deal. My favorite (next to her need for “pwizacy”) is when she camps out on the toilet with her stack of books to read.

Planetarium Fieldtrip

Tuesday was Ben’s first fieldtrip of the year. It was my turn to be a parent volunteer. Nate has gone on lots more fieldtrips than I have since I was usually at home with a nursing baby. Now that all of the kids are older, I can go more easily. As much as I’ve been looking forward to this season in my life when I can be a regular on class fieldtrips, I’m already thinking about handing the job back to Nate. His personality is much more suited to fieldtrips than mine is. He is lots better at blocking out noise and naughtiness and doesn’t worry as much as I do if he loses track of one (or two) the kids in his group for a few minutes. I lack those skills.

That being said, we mostly had a good day. We rode FrontRunner down to Salt Lake, took TRAX to the Gateway, ate lunch by the fountain, and then headed over to the Planetarium. It is lots cooler than the planetarium that I went to when I was a kid. They have great displays and the kids really seemed to have fun and learn a lot. Ben’s favorite part was watching the movie on the cool dome-shaped screen. The train ride home was filled with a little friend drama, but the good news about being eight is that you get over things fast.

Ben with his friend Korbin on the train.

Ben’s class. They made their shirts the first week of school. The four designs are the four strokes you use in cursive handwriting.

This contraption was absolutely fascinating to every third grade boy.

I wish I had audio for this picture. It was quite amusing to hear Ben talking about the possible hurricane forming off the coast of Florida.