March Madness

 March is slowly slipping away and much has happened this month.  Matt took a group of 24 - AP U.S. History students to Boston in early March.  I decided to sit this trip out (even though it was so much fun last year). He has a Twitter account for his APUSH class.  I felt like I got to experience the entire trip without even being present.  We sure did miss him and were excited when he got back home.  The kids made him a sign that said "Welcome Home Dad" and when they flipped it around, it said "We Missed You."

Our chicken Dumplin' is still around and becoming more and more used to us.  In fact, she will eat out of Karson's hand now.  I've tried to be careful how much we feed her because she's not the most popular hen in our neighborhood.  She belongs to one of our neighbors on an adjoining street.  She gets in everyones mulch and POOPS everywhere.  She's a bit of a nuisance.  However, she's at our doorstep every single morning and ready for some bread.  If I don't feed her immediately, she makes this ridiculous clucking noise.  She's a bit demanding.

 

I believe at one point this month, we had at least 7-8 kids at our house one weekend.  The beautiful weather means kids are OUT.  We are ready for SPRING!  We love having playdates with our neighbors and friends from school.  

  

  Karson's friend Elizabeth hung out with us last Saturday.  We did some running around and started the morning off with a trip to Panera.  From there, we went over to Ollie's Army for some Easter candy and where the girls got these lovely tattooes. A samurai, really?  We also found Karson's Easter dress at my friends Boutique.  I love this dress and wish it came in my size.  I am still working on finding the boys some matching shirts.  I got a nice neon green one at The Children's Place.  I'd love to find a shirt in the baby blue color as well.  I may stick with black and a bright scarf.  I don't know.  I usually throw something together at the last minute.

There are lots of things to plan during the month of March, it seems.  As a mom, you have to plan the whole Easter outfit thing, Matt had to plan the Boston trip, you are looking to plan what you "may" do on Spring Break, March is a birthday month in our family which means you are planning for those, and I have also managed to put myself into the planning of both a 6th Grade Trip for Plano Students and my 20th high school reunion this month. 

 

We love Plano Elementary.  It's a wonderful school, and our teachers are simply awesome.  However, like many of the schools in our area who take big trips with their 6th graders, our school doesn't do that sort of event.  A few of us decided to take it upon ourselves to try and plan a special event for our 6th grade class.  After a few months of discussion and permission from our school's principal and the 6th grade teachers, we organized a fun day in Nashville for our class.  I set up a facebook account through our Panther Happenings page and also sent 80+ flyers home with the all the students.  I hope we have a good turn out - I know spring sports occupy lots of Saturdays.

 

I have also been a part of planning my high school's 20th reunion.   I set up a facebook group page, and a handful of us have been kicking around ideas for the reunion.  I can hardly believe it's already been 20 years!  Wow!  In the spirit of simple, we have decided to couple our reunion with a Friday night football game and picnic in the park on Saturday.  Most of our classmates have kids, and we wanted to do something simple that didn't require collecting money ahead of time or putting a deposit down and family friendly.  We felt like if everyone was actually in town for the weekend, different groups could plan get together's outside of those two events.

 

We celebrated my dad's 65th birthday last Sunday.  His actual birthday was on Thursday, but last Sunday was gorgeous and the perfect time to celebrate.  We went over to Shannon's for a cook out.  I got him one of those DQ Blizzard cakes which are simply divine!  They are my new favorite - solid ice cream with a cookie crunch center and icing.  YUM!

My dad isn't hard to please at all, but it is always tricky trying to figure out what to get him for his birthday.  I had heard the best things about comedian Brian Regan who was scheduled to perform at SKyPAC on Friday night.  Anyone who knows my dad, knows he's a character.  AND, I love a good comedian.  We decided to purchase tickets for the four of us to see him as a birthday gift.  We met at Buckhead for dinner and headed over to SKyPAC after.  Regan was highly entertaining and very clean, which is not mainstream comedy.

 

The church has its annual Easter Egg Hunt this afternoon at my parents house.  It was a bit chilly but sunny and actually perfect for an egg hunt.  Last year it was so hot that all the chocolate candy had melted by the time it was found.  It takes about an hour to hide all the eggs (over 1,000).  We intentionally separated the chocolate eggs into their own bag this year to try and remedy the chocolate mess.  However, the cool weather aided with keeping the chocolate solid.  Our kiddos always look forward to the big hunt.  We are officially down to only two egg hunters, and I'm afraid Isaac may be done after this year =(.  My babies are getting older and bigger.

They are never too big for bubbles.  There's nothing like holding them over the heat/cooling unit to make massive amounts of bubbles too.

Our hunters.  After my mom explained to the kids who would hunt "inside" the fence area and who would hunt "outside" the fence area, we snapped some pictures and off they roared.  I mean, literally, they roared.  It reminded of the 300 Battle cry.

The March Madness continues tomorrow as I celebrate my 38th birthday!  AHHHH! You may hear me scream a rather large Battle Cry!

Mom's gathering post-hunt.  Why no, we were not raiding our kids Easter baskets for goodies!

National Pi Day

Did you know today is National Pi Day?  I didn't, but my daughter did and preceded to explain to me the significance, to which I completely tuned out.  Math + me = white noise.  Today is significant though because it's March 14, (20)15, and although National Pi Day is apparently celebrated each year on March 14 at 1:59, today's date only comes around once a century and is celebrated at 9:26.  For those of you math enthusiasts (not me), enjoy!  Thankfully Karson and Isaac's math scores are super HIGH - whew!  

I am reminded of the Tommy Boy scene with Chris Farley checking his History grade.  That scene was similar for me when I took freshman Math 116 at Western Kentucky University.  I got a 'D' on my math final, and I was ecstatic!  Math, especially algebra, is my enemy. I was so excited that I would never have to take another math class again.

While Matt's in Boston with the teens, I have acquired a new bed buddy.  This one doesn't snore but tends to grind her teeth.  Not sure which is worse?!?

I have been working out this week more than usual.  The weather change has been wonderful.  It's nice being able to jump on the elliptical.  My neighbor and I walked for over an hour last weekend one afternoon.  Bring on the spring (minus the rain).  I was about six minutes into my workout this afternoon when this little guy came out with his Pacers jersey coupled with purple Nike socks and black Crocs.  He grabbed some free weights and started lifting.  He then rolled out the yoga mat and did some lifting on the ground.  I think his workout last about 5 minutes...

Then he decided to play with some Playdoh for a little bit.  After Playdoh was the foam golf ball trick shots session(s) in the bucket.  It's a treat having Roy Hibbert as my entertainment during my workout.

I guess working out today gives me the green light for some "Pi" later?

Happy PI Day!

Basketball Ends and Another Round of Snow Begins

This has been the winter for SNOW, and we have loved every single minute of it.  I have also quickly realized that we have the worst base layers on the planet.  Karson and Miles's long underwear is a size too small.  I got Isaac the last pair in his size at Walmart this year, and they were complete junk.  His pants have since managed to acquire a huge hole (in the wrong area if you know what I mean) and are super tight.  When he wears them, he likes singing the Jimmy Fallon song Tight Pants.  I recently spotted some long undies at Gander Mountain that were a few sizes too big but were affordable.  I think I'll go there next winter and grab some good layering gear.  Good thing the kids don't seem to get too cold outside. They had a blast sledding over at Pap and Nana's with the second snowpocalypse, Miles especially.  There are some good hills on their farm.

Isaac found a Tennessee Titans toboggan at Pap and Nana's and had it on the entire snow season.  He even slept in it one night to keep his head warm.

The snow definitely puts a crimp in plans.  The timing of the second snow came during the week of our Youth Theatre production of FAME JR.  We decided that we still had to press on and continue with the show.  We ended up canceling the opening night (Thursday) because the weather was simply too rough/slick/dangerous, and we didn't want to put our kids, parents and staff in that position.  With school called off on Friday, we also had to postpone our scheduled School Day Performance.  However, we continued with our Friday, Saturday and Sunday showings.  The kids were incredible, and we had some of the best crowds we've ever had for a YT show.  The snow certainly didn't hold back our fan base.  Although I am not directly involved in the production itself, I sure do feel proud to be a "part" of it and work for the Education team at SKyPAC.  These talented kids sure make us look good at our jobs.

Karson always enjoys seeing the performances and tagged along with me on Friday night.  We also invited her friend Amelia to join us.

Miles had his last basketball game of the season on Saturday.  I was so glad that they went ahead with the games because school was cancelled on Thursday and Friday.  Seems like his season has lasted forever, even though he really enjoys playing (and we like watching him).  It's just nice having your Saturdays free for a little while.  Loved his little team!  They have all gotten a lot better over the season.

Coach Shane handing out all the trophies. 

Two goofballs.

The whole SPRING forward an hour is killing me this week.  I'm dragging and irritable.  AND, I am a single mom right now.

Matt took off with 24 students to Boston on Wednesday morning.  You can follow their adventures on Twitter (APUSH @swhsboston) which is what I have been doing each day.  My parents left for the beach this morning with my grandparents.  And, my sister and her family left for Colorado.  My uncle invited us out for dinner tonight at Kyoto.  It was nice getting to spend time with him and even nicer being treated to dinner by him.  We love uncle Mike!  After dinner, we grabbed a ginormous cupcake from Gigi's.  I haven't been there in ages, and they had my very favorite - Miss Princess cupcake.  Love it - thankful I pulled some time on the elliptical today to cancel it out =).

After sweets, I took the kids (actually Isaac) tennis shoes shopping.  Mistake.  They were hopped up on sugar which made shopping a nightmare.  BUT, Isaac needed new shoes.  I'm pretty sure our kids feet grow at faster rates than most.  It seems like I am always buying a new pair of shoes.  Thankfully Shoe Carnival usually runs the BOGO half off deal.  We also made a stop to TSC to get Karson a pair of rain boots for her field trip tomorrow to WKU.  It's like 80% chance of rain which means campus will be a watery mess. Plus, she and I can pretty much interchange shoes these days, and I needed a new pair of rain boots anyway.  The boots will pull double duty.

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!