Deep Freeze February Wrap Up

We celebrated my Memaw's 86th birthday on February 19.  We had planned to have the celebration at my mom's house, but unfortunately, her heat pump went out.  Memaw seemed to be in good spirits and was working her crossword puzzles buried in her layers of clothes and blankets when we got there.  She always has a big bowl of chocolate smack dab in the center of her coffee table too (or some Russell Stover's chocolates handy).  Mom had planned for chili and hot dogs.  We got all the kids settled and starting fixing our plates and noticed Memaw had made her way to the great-grandkids table.  I can't imagine the funny conversations that took place at this table.  Memaw is a character and loves cleaning.  She's been that way my entire life.  I remember when Shannon and I were kids and she'd come in town for a visit, she was notorious about cleaning and doing our laundry.  When items started shrinking, we quickly learned to hide all of our valuable clothes.  She'll start clearing the dishes before everyone is done eating.  One minute you will have a drink on the table, the next it's gone.  It doesn't bother anyone - it's just her way of doing things.  Every Saturday is cleaning day at their house.  I expected nothing less when we went to her house to celebrate last week.  She started clearing out all the chili bowls and filled the sink with dishes and started washing them.  We had to pry her away from the sink to sing "Happy Birthday" to her.  She came over and had her candles blown our before we had finished the first line of the song and was back at her dish post.  There was a full pot of coffee, and she poured it out cause no one was drinking it (which my mom had made for the cake) and started washing it.  A character. We were all still visiting in the kitchen when she headed into the living room and someone noticed she was opening up her gifts.  We scrambled in there so we could see her.  It was a fun night and reminded me how much I love my Memaw.  I imagine I will be exactly like that when I'm her age.

At some point during all of this cold weather, we have managed to acquire a chicken.  On one of the coldest nights last week, I saw this chicken pecking around my neighbors mailbox and felt so sorry for it.  When I noticed it the next morning on my front porch, I decided she had earned a treat for surviving and fed her some bread.  She's come around most days for a piece of bread, but I haven't seen her lately.  I have been informed that she is a neighborhood chicken and lives a few houses down.  I'm not sure if she'll come around anymore or not, but the kids have named her Dumplin.

School resumed this week after a snow-cation last week.  We were out on Monday but returned on Tuesday.  The 2nd grade class had originally planned to have their Wax Museum project last week, but instead, it was pushed back to this week because of the absences.  This was my third Wax Museum, and the kids were on-cue and ready to present.  I talked with Elvis, Theodore Roosevelt, Betsy Ross, Meriwether Lewis, Princess Diana, Pocahontas, Sacajawea, Milton Hershey and others about their influence in American History. 

Presentations took place in the school's cafeteria yesterday afternoon.

I wish I could upload his video and speech, but for some reason, blogger doesn't work well with iPhoto.  It was super cute though.  I'm proud of my bearded Abe Lincoln!

Ready to SPRING forward in two weeks!  This 20 degree weather has got to go!  I was in SKyPAC's beautiful lobby yesterday, and the sun was pouring in through the glass.  I wanted a lawn chair and a magazine.  I need some vitamin B!

Valentine President Snow-valanche

I guess Valentine's Day should matter to the average married couple.  I don't know?  Matt and I are coming up on 16 years, and neither one of us got the other one something.  Actually, I take that back, I did get him a funny card, and he did want to make a mall run to Bath and Body after school one day last week.  The miser in me encouraged him to come home because I had coupons ( BB has the BEST coupons).  My sister had us over for a nice, home-cooked meal on Vday.  We played cards and hung out and noshed on some yummy Dairy Queen Blizzard cake.  That's the perfect date in my book! 

I  guess the evolution of "gift giving" changes among the grade schoolers too. 

The kids had their parties on Friday afternoon. 

Maybe it's a boy thing, maybe not, but I feel like the Valentine's box (for school party's) needs to make a statement about one's personality?  For my 8-year old, his whole world is centered around basketball.  It was a no-brainer what we'd make for his box this year.  It's not easy turning a shoebox into a basketball goal.  You definitely need something more pliable, like a left over Krispy Kreme donut box. We had one handy from Isaac's party the weekend before.  Add some acrylic paint and a little hot glue, and viola..

 He told me people were shooting Valentine's into his basket.

 The second grader comes home with loads of Valentines.  There's candy, pencils, small treats, a book, goody bags - lots of stuff. 

The 4th grader still comes home with cards and treats, but making boxes has been nixed by this point.  At the most, they will make a bag.  Isaac's came home with his Valentine's in his backpack - he told me his bag had broke.  He was completely "not" interested in talking about the party at all.

 And, then, there are the 6th grade treats.  Pitiful. Karson did tell me that she ate a few of them at school, but this is what she came home with - 3 measly pieces.  Do Valentine's mean something in 6th grade?  Is it a lost cause at this point?  Who knows?

My sister got the kids some early Valentine treats last Wednesday night - Brusters gift cards.  

We made an ice cream run after church.

One of the projects that generally occurs during the 2nd grade year is the school's wax museum.  Students choose an important person from American history to research and essentially become.  Miles and I discussed some possible options, and he was supposed to select three (3) from the list his teacher had provided.  He chose Martin Luther King Jr., Obama and Abraham Lincoln.  I loved his choices, but both MLK and Obama had already been selected, making him honest Abe.  I scored a cheap costume on Amazon and with my points and PRIME, the costume was free.  

 I was pleasantly surprised by the costume which arrived last Friday (especially based on the poor reviews it received).  It will work perfect for his project.  However, I had to make some minor adjustments on the beard because there were only three small sticky tabs on it.  There is NO WAY that would hold a beard on for more than a minute or two. 

I found some flags, star cut-outs and a tri-fold at Hobby Lobby.  We've been working on his poster and learning lots of fun facts about Abe like:  he was the only president with a beard, the first one to be assassinated, he didn't have a middle name, his mom died from milk poisoning….the list goes on.  The wax museum  project is scheduled to take place this Thursday.  I highly doubt that will happen though with this winter weather. Looking back through the 2nd grade wax museum pics., the other two were aviators.

Isaac as American Pioneer Orville Wright.

Karson as the first female aviator Amelia Earhart.

It was pure joy to wake up to blanket of snow yesterday.  I believe we got a total of 10 inches.  Due to the weather predictions, SKyPAC offices were closed.  It was a treat getting to stay home and enjoy the snow with the kids.  However, preparing for "snow play" reminds me much of Randy from a Christmas Story.  The prepping is time consuming.  We pull down all of our snow gear from the attic - ski pants, bibs, gloves, etc.  

Karson has had the same jacket for the last three years, and it was time for it to be replaced.  We scored a nice North Face on-sale at Dick's Sunday night along with some water proof gloves and a new hat.  I got the jacket a bit big so she can use it for the next two years (adult small).  Speaking of Karson, I'm certain she has grown a foot this winter.  I hardly recognize her.  She's not a kid anymore, and it's getting difficult to fix her hair because she's almost eye-level.  Sigh. 

After about an hour in the snow, bright red noses and mounds of wet clothes entered into the house.  Karson and Miles were wanting hot cocoa.  I rarely have instant cocoa in the house but always have unsweetened cocoa (for no-bake oatmeal cookies).  There's tasty recipe on the side of the container which satisfied the kids sweet tooth and hot cocoa craving.

Snow Day take 2 - our offices are closed again today which meant another round of snow fun with the kids.  We cooked a big pancake breakfast and invited our neighbors the Vernon's over.  Their kids and ours are literally stair-steps of each other and always have the best time together.

Miles and I went out this morning and decided to try and "free" my car which is buried in mounds of snow.  We pretended each snow chunk that we took off the car was a piece of cake.  

We are loving the SNOW-valanche!  I realize that weather like this puts a kink in things, but it sure is fun to play in.  Sometimes it's important to learn to "slow down" in life and enjoy God's beauty and the blessings of warm homes and valuable time spent with family. 

Belated SPONGE Party

Isaac has talked about his 10 year old birthday sleepover for years.  I'm not sure if he's ever been this excited about a birthday party before!?!  He wanted it to be special, and therefore, he wanted to postpone it to the weekend that the new SPONGEBOB movie was released.  Nothing screams "I'm READY" like Spongebob Squarepants.  The movie release date was last Friday night (Feb. 6) - only two week's post-birthday, not bad.

    We started the evening off at the house.  I wanted to collect all the boys and their belongings as opposed to doing that in the theater parking lot.  Since Regal doesn't release their movie times until late in the week, I wasn't entirely sure what time we'd be going to the movie.  Plus, I wanted to make sure everyone had something to eat before the movie.  I got a few of Isaac favorite foods including Zaxby's chicken, fries, marshmallows, Fun Dip, pretzels, Gold Fish, Chips Ahoy and cookie cake.  His drink choice is always A & W Root Beer.

If Isaac had his way, he would've invited quite a few more friends.  But, unfortunately, his dear ol' mother told him that our maximum party limit was five (six with him).  I told him I didn't have space in my car nor my house for more than that.  I had capped Karson's 10 year old party at five and plan to do the same if Miles wants to have one in two years.  Isaac carefully selected his party pics - his cousin Evan, his long-time friend at church Gunnar, our neighbor Jack L., and two friends from his class at school Eli and Jack O.  I don't think he could've picked a better, more compatible group of boys.  They were all perfect!  Everyone got along well and seemed to enjoy their time together.

 

If you haven't played Bean Boozled yet, you need to?  AND, you need to invite my son Miles over because it's his favorite past-time in the world right now.  Bean Boozled is a Jelly Belly (beans) game where there are two jellybeans the exact same color, however, they taste different.  For example (see chart)

The boys (especially Miles) enjoyed this game before we took off to the movies.

One adult, one senior and seven kids tickets...I decided to take the boys to the 8:15 showing since I figured it would be packed, and we'd need to leave relatively early to get good seats.  I got the tickets early just in case. Did I mention yet that Matt was out of town last weekend?  He was.  He and South Warren's bowling team went to the regional tournament in Mayfield, KY.  I knew Isaac had his heart set on February 6 so I asked the next best person to help with the party,  Isaac's PAP Colvin.  I knew I would need extra hands and eyes at the movie - getting them there, safety in the parking lot, etc.

 Popcorn, Cherry Cokes, slushies and arcade games to start off the night at the theater.  Looks like we had the entire theater to ourselves, but it filled up pretty quickly after we arrived.  We almost filled an entire row.

I thought the movie was great.  It's actually been a while since I've been to a cartoon movie.  I can't think of that last one?  Karson was a bit bummed she missed it.  She spent the night with her cousin.  Since I scored a free movie ticket purchasing ALL those tickets, I'll let Matt take her to see it.  Miles came with us to the movie but Colvin took him to my mom's post-movie at Isaac's request.  I realize having a younger sibling can make it tough when you just want to hang out with your friends, and I wanted Isaac to have "his" night.  Miles was disappointed (because he loved being with the older boys) but went willingly.

  I was a bit nervous taking the boys home alone, but again, they were such an easy going group.  I blew up all the air mattresses when we got home (about 10:15/10:30), and they all got in their PJ's.  Isaac wanted them to watch the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" which lasted about 30 minutes before they all wanted to play NBA 2K15 on the X-box.  Around midnight, I told them all it was time for bed because a few of them had early morning basketball games, tournament games.  I said, "your parents will not be happy with me if I let you all stay up super late."  After about 15 more minutes of talking and whispering, I didn't hear a sound.

 The boys woke up a little earlier than I would've liked on Saturday morning - 6:15 a.m.  Don't get me wrong, I usually get up before 7 most days.  However, I was kind of hoping they'd get a little more rest since they went to bed so late. 

 

Saturday was gorgeous.  It was almost 50 degrees outside by 7:30.  After the boys ate donuts and cinnamon rolls (Isaac's favorite breakfast), they started the sugar twitch and were ready to go. I set up the ping pong table in the garage, told them all to get dressed and they could go outside and shoot, play ping pong and run around.  They liked that idea.  They also decided to play a good ol' fashioned round of dogdeball in the backyard.  Parents started showing up right around 9 to collect the boys and their things.  I truly don't think a slumber party could have gone any smoother.  Everybody had fun, got along, no one broke anything and my house was still in tact.

To quote Spongebob's song "It's the best day ever!"  And it truly was.