Almost a Double Digit Dude!

How is it possible that I will have not one, but TWO children in double digits this time next year??? Isaac celebrated his 9th birthday last weekend which means the dreadful exciting 10 year old sleepover will happen next year.  I actually proposed the sleepover this year since his birthday landed on a Saturday, but he insisted we wait until his 10th just like Karson. 

 

 Isaac is a habitual eater and his current favorite (aside from Chick Fil A) is Zaxby's.  When I asked him where he wanted to have his birthday, (without hesitation) he said ZAXBY'S.  I thought, huh, how am I going to pull that off?  Zaxby's are small and don't offer birthday party options (not that that has stopped us before--CFA two years in a row).  Why not just order food to go and have it at your house, you ask?  The answer - because I know better.  Zaxby's food is only good when eaten fresh. Fortunately, there is a Zaxby's within about 3 miles of our house.  I figured...why not have a mobile party which starts in one location but ends in another.  Since I normally make all my own invitations, I came up with a plan, and a birthday party was born.  After I printed out all of my invitations and affixed them to colorful stock paper, I decided to take my "hot off the press" invite over to my in-laws house before sending them out.  My sweet mother-in-law took a look at the invitations and said, "Tiffany, am I missing something, or is the date not on here?"  I snatched it out of her hand and carefully inspected the invite.  Nope, no date.  THUS, the giant permanent marker, hand-written date at the top of the invite--not typically my style, but I wasn't about to print 15 full color invitations all over again.  Whatever works, right!

Isaac and Jack enjoying a sugar-high (and Harry Potter).

If you remember Isaac's birthday post last year, we actually got OUT of school on his birthday for snow which was awesome because we were celebrating in Nashville at The Aquarium.  This year, however, we were out of school every single day BUT his birthday (or birthday-eve).  The weather was crazy last week, and we ended up missing almost the entire week of school.  We returned to school on Friday, and I had already planned my traditional donuts and milk celebration with his class.  YEAH--Hostess donuts back in the house.  I had to do a cookie cake last year since Hostess had gone belly-up. Matt got to leave SWHS a little bit early and joined us at his class party on Friday afternoon.

I have a good feeling the cookie cakes will be Isaac's birthday treat of choice yearly.  I am totally okay with that too because they are delicious and rather inexpensive.  We went with a Star Wars theme this year. I scored some really cool dry-erase boards at Target in the dollar aisle for party favors.  I'm not sure if 9 is too old for that kind of thing, but our kids like dry-erase boards so it didn't seem to juvenile.  

Getting ready for the big PARTY at Zaxby's! I was sure to call ahead and give the manager a heads up about the 30+ guests that would be occupying the restaurant that evening.

 13 kids + 13 kids meals = Indescribable GOODness!                 I had to limit the amount of kids we could invite with it being a mobile party. Isaac is at an age where drop-off parties are the norm., and I wanted to have enough space in our cars to bring everyone back to our house. I told Isaac we had to cap his party at 11 guests (including the fab 5--him, Karson, Miles, Evan and Elizabeth).  We narrowed down to a friend from Richpond and 5 friends from school (two of which live in our actual neighborhood--literally right around the corner).

Here is the birthday crew.  I wonder exactly how many pictures it would've taken to get all of them looking in the general direction of the camera and better yet, smiling normal?  I think Matt snapped about five, and this was the best one we got =).  Boys can only stand still for so long, you know!

Simply put, the night was perfect.  We have managed to accumulate a load of cap guns through the years.  The boys played cops and spies most of the time.  I knew it would be a noisy night, and it was. Fortunately, no one was injured and everyone had a good time.  Next year's sleepover won't be quite the size of this party--we'll have to whittle the numbers down significantly.

Elizabeth was completely unfazed by the fact she was the only girl in the mix of all these 8/9-year olds.  She looks quite villainous with her mustache, gun and handcuffs.

Once the party starting winding down and parents started arriving to pick up their kids, Evan, Miles and Isaac succumbed to my bedroom with their dry-erase boards and watched Monsters University. We finally got them in bed around 10:30 and crashed ourselves.  Happy 9th Birthday Isaac, the world is a whole lot funnier with you in it!

Bring It On March 1

not to be confused with SKyPAC's upcoming Broadway production of

I titled this post Bring It On March 1 because the winter chapter in our lives will close.  I know as a parent, it is a faux pas to mention anything with regards to wishing time away with your little ones.  However, when your little one is involved in everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, under the sun during the winter months, you look forward to spring.  I'll give you one guess as to which child keeps us running around??  Anyone? Anyone?  You got it, Ms. Karson Ann.  This girl is a machine when it come to school.  She displays a great amount of leadership and wants to participate in as much as she can.  You should see this kids academic resume at the age of 11.  It's quite extensive along with her GPA, progress reports, test scores and everything she qualifies to participate in.  Yes, I'm bragging.  It is my blog, ya know =).  I've said it before and will say it again (probably her entire life) but we are very proud of her. However with all this academic success, comes a load of responsibility.  Her talent allows her access to many programs at Plano.  The areas she has chosen to focus on this year are the Robotics team, quick recall and language arts assessments for Academic team and the student Lighthouse team.

Here is a typical week for my girl.

This calendar remains on her closet door and is our go-to for every event she is to be a part of during the school week.  Unfortunately, she decided to drop out of piano for a while (maybe indefinitely).  Part of me wishes she'd continue on with her studies, but the other part screams thank goodness there is nothing else to squeeze into this schedule.  Robotics and Academic team unbeknownst to me run parallel to each other.  Karson's current practice schedule is Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 7:30 a.m., Tuesday and Thursday afternoons until 4:30.  That, coupled with 212 Academy on Wednesdays, basketball practices, quick recall matches, church and student lighthouse team meetings means we have NO after school life until the week of March 1 which is Governor's Cup.  Karson also qualified for the math portion of academic team which was to meet on Monday mornings at 7:30.  However, I had to tell that team teacher that Karson is simply over-extended and cannot have that many practices weekly.  Whew!  Matt is also in the thrush of bowling season which means he is completely out of pocket on Mondays and Thursdays as well.  On top of that, he is continuing with his 6th graduate class which keeps him occupied on Tuesdays.  I guess I should attribute Karson's desire to learn to her father who is working on his 3rd Master's Degree which is in Education (the first two were from Lipscomb).  He also has three undergraduate degrees as well.  I live with two over-achievers.  

Plano's FINEST

A Very Rare Saturday

It is a RARE treat when I get to hang out at the house ALONE on a Saturday with only one child.  I was blessed today to spend that one-on-one time with my middle son, Isaac.  It's always disheartening when you have to miss one child's ballgame to attend another child's ballgame.  Thankfully we have such a wonderful support system that both of our basketball players get lots of fans at each game.  I was sad to miss Isaac's basketball this morning which was a nail biter.  His team lost 22-21.  Karson's team on the other hand was beating their opponent by 25-0 at the half, our league commissioner asked the score keepers to turn the scoreboard off.  It was a lopsided kind of morning basketball-wise.  Karson and Miles both had playdates today, and Matt decided to head down to Nashville for the UK/Vandy game which left me and Isaac flying solo.  I decided to get him some Chick Fil A before heading home after Karson's game.  We've had an eventful afternoon building forts, playing cards, working puzzles, eating M&M's, & watching for Zombies.  

Is that not the cutest lil' melon popping out of our fort?  

Christmas WRAP Up

All I want for Christmas is to put my feet up and relax.  Friday, December 20 came as a welcomed gift. Since I've been working full-time and adjusting to life as a "career" person, time-off become much more special.  Thankfully SKyPAC allows employees quite a bit of time off for the holiday break.  In my previous post, I mentioned being a slacker on my holiday cards.  It seems I also became a slacker in my holiday gift shopping for the kids.  I took care of most of the extended family back around Thanksgiving purchasing gift cards, clothes, etc.  I wanted to do something special for my mom and mother-in-law this year.  I've always loved the house platters that the Paint'n' Place produces.  They are unique.  All the pictures had to be turned in by the second week of November to give the artist time to complete the projects.  I totally forgot to get a picture of Debbie's platter but did take one of Mom's.  LOVE!

My daughter Karson is a published writer.  I ordered a copy of her book and wanted to surprise her with it for Christmas, but she came home with a copy of it from 212 Academy.  I decided to have her autograph it and give it to her great grandparents who were the only ones I could think of who didn't own a copy.  I think everyone in my family and Matt's got a copy =).  I'm thinking with all the sales she's made on Lulu, she should get some royalties of some sort???  I guess we should just be happy she's got her own book online 'for sale'.

 

Matt has been showcasing a potpourri of funny Christmas cards at church.  He's been highlighting one of a guy and his cat.  We decided to do some photo editing and made cat cards of our own. 

One of our Christmas highlights is going to the Hudnall's house for Christmas dinner.  Arlene decorates every square inch of her house.  It's beautiful and reminds me of the Opryland hotel (on a smaller scale).  However, this year we weren't able to make it.  I had to work because we had to reschedule our entire production of A Christmas Story: The Musical due to the weather forecast the weekend of the 5th.  Karson had basketball practice, and it had been a tough week at church, one of our members passed away so Matt had to prepare for a funeral.  We were so sad to miss it but thankful we got to hang out with Phillip (not pictured above) on Monday at Shogun, his favorite place to lunch with Matt.  Matt and Phillip have been buddies for years.  I snapped a picture of Miles's best buddy, Trapper who went with us that day.

Christmas, no surprise, was busy as usual.  We hustle here and bustle there.  It's a whirlwind of crazy which usually ends with cranky kids and parents by the end of the day.  We started out Christmas Eve morning at my parents house.  Our yearly tradition begins with The Twelve Days of Christmas sung by each member of the family and requires a dramatic dance to accompany the day.  The kids get a kick out of it.  Actually, we all get a kick out of it.  My grandparents usually miss their cues or someone bobbles up the words.  It's funny.

Mom took the kids shopping for their gifts which is what my Memaw (her mom) always did with Shannon and I.  The kids enjoy picking out their toys, and quite frankly, I never know what they want.  This year was the year for Pokemon with Miles.  I have ZERO clue about Pokemon and cannot see the joy in collecting trading cards of that nature, but he LOVES them and constantly has a stash in his pocket.  He probably got at least 100 cards this Christmas, probably more.  Mom got him an album with page protectors which is a nice way to store them, but he has so many, the album filled up quickly.

Karson picked out some new dolls called Ever After High which are similar to those creepy Monster High dolls.  She never got into actual baby dolls or American Girl dolls but has always loved the Barbie-type dolls (and Barbie of course).

 Isaac and his passion for Legos never ends.  He wanted Star Wars Legos this year and got a couple of sets from everyone. As you can see from the pictures below, my dining room table is COVERED in Lego Star Wars sets.  I can't tell you how much a loathe Legos, but they are so expensive, it's hard to part ways with them.  There is a portion of my attic that contains the entire Lego City set, the entire Spongebob Lego sets and most of the Ninjago sets.  It looks like we will now have to make a spot for the Star Wars set.  I usually let him enjoy them for a few weeks, and then I have to put them up for my sanity--let's just call it my DARK SIDE for now.  I begged him not to ask for Lego's for his birthday which is right around the corner.  We'll see.  Isaac and Miles share a bedroom, and he is always asking for his own room.  Matt and I joke about getting him a camper and parking it on our backyard and designating it as his room.  At the rate we're going with Legos, we may need to consider that move.

 Isaac spent most of his Christmas assembling Legos and the other part writing sentences--I will be nice to Miles.  The torture of being pestered by an older sibling is horrible, I know from experience =).  Isaac has become a professional in this area.  His mission is to constantly pick, prod, annoy, bother, you name it--TORTURE his younger brother.  To date (since break started), he has written 40 sentences.  He has been threatened numerous times with sentence writing.  I was sitting next to a friend at the movies recently and asking her how her grandchildren were getting along (two boys).  She told me "not well" and proceeded to ask me if I thought it was a certain boy who was the cause.  I told her, "I have NO idea, my boys are constantly at each other's throats. I don't know any different"  Apparently, this is a common thing among siblings although I don't notice it as much with Karson and Isaac as I do with Isaac and Miles.  Sheesh!

Christmas at Meme's House - The Most Wonderful time of Christmas Eve!

After Christmas Eve morning with my side of the family, we headed over to celebrate with the Deaton side of the family.  We usually go to Mamaw's house for Christmas, but they have had a lot going on recently and Matt's aunt Michelle offered to host it at her place of business the Warehouse.  It's a nice place, and we got to visit with Matt's cousins, aunts and uncles.  We didn't stay long because we were all pretty worn out, and the kids were ready to get home and play with their new toys.

Maybe other parents out there can relate to this, maybe not?  Call Matt and I Scrooges if you'd like, but after 11+ years with kids, I find the whole Santa thing exhausting to keep up with, much like the tooth fairy.  I can't think of a time when we've really played Santa up BIG, but we did read The Night Before Christmas, set out reindeer food and cookies for Santa.  This year, we really did poorly.  We did manage to take Miles, our only believer, to see Santa at the mall (that gives us some brownie points).  Our kids have never gotten into the Elf thing, and we've never threatened our kids much with not receiving anything because Santa is watching.  I don't know--something about this year seemed dismal on the Santa front.  I'm happy to have one kid that still believes and two others that still want to believe.  I think for me personally, I never got in the Christmas spirit.  Thanksgiving came late this year and Christmas sprung up quickly.  Hopefully, we'll do better next year for Miles's sake.

I put the kids shopping off til the last minute.  I had purchased them little things here and there but nothing to look like a pile of presents, more stocking stuffer and small things.  Matt and I did some power shopping the weekend before Christmas.  I didn't want to spend much on the kids because they come home with such a haul from both sides of the family.  They don't know how fortunate they are.  Since Santa was bringing Miles a bike, I knew we needed to have "Santa" gifts for the other kids.  Their true Santa gift is the nice, new (expensive) basketball goal Matt installed.  But, we knew that wouldn't work with Santa leaving Miles things.  We managed to find some Santa things for the other two kids that were small and inexpensive.  The ONLY thing Karson asked us for was the Crayola Marker Maker.  It's all she wanted.  We got Isaac a Lego alarm clock and puzzle.

All Miles wanted from Santa was Pokemon cards, but Santa brought him one pack of cards and something that he needed even more, a NEW bike.  He has already put lots of miles on his new ride.

Our kids, like every kid on the planet, are big into the Rainbow looms.  Karson has been making bracelets for months and got a loom for her birthday in October.  Since the hobby is taking over her entire dresser, I decided an organizer was a necessity.  Isaac has been super interested in learning how to make bracelets, but Karson hasn't allowed him to use her loom.  He got his own loom, bands and organizer for Christmas.  We have rubber bands, bracelets and rings everywhere.  Isaac also got some Carl Hiaasen books he'd been wanting.

Isaac woke me up at 4:30 a.m. on Christmas Day.  He whispered, "Mama it's Christmas".  I took one look at the clock and told him it was way to early for me.  He gave it another hour before he came back in and whispered again.  I figured 5:30 was a little more doable than 4:30 and groggily rolled out of bed.  I have no before pictures, just after pictures thanks to Matt.  I've become a slacker with picture taking too.  I'm getting lazier each year with my video-ing and photography.

The kids had all their gifts opened in record time.  Matt decided to go back to bed, but I decided to get some cleaning and organizing done.  Shannon and I had planned to take a quick trip to Destin (Sunday-Tuesday) to look at vacation properties she and Paul are looking to potentially invest in.  I wanted to get my house in order before the trip--which meant packing all the Christmas stuff up.  I managed to get all the Christmas lights down and decorative decor collected and stored.  I did keep the tree up.  I love getting all of my snowmen out of the attic.  I guess snowmen can technically still be considered as Christmas decorations.  I got the house dusted and new decorations everywhere.  The kids were completely unscathed by my running around, cleaning and decorating.  I got everything done by 9:30 a.m. It's amazing how much you can get done when you get up at 5:30.  We headed over to the Deaton's house for Christmas breakfast at 11.  

Nana got Karson this cute monogrammed pullover.  She also got her The Hunger Games book trilogy which was something she was really wanting.  She loves this series and is constantly reading about the characters, drawing them and talking about them.  She's hooked.  I got her the first movie for Christmas.

Here we are on November 22 at Catching Fire - the 10:30 p.m. showing.  I had to slurp on Cherry Coke just to stay awake.  AND, I'm pretty sure I was the oldest person in the theater that night. Katniss may the odds be ever in your favor!!

The boys got lots of fun things like Legos, Spongebob Imaginext Playsets, movies, etc.  After hanging out with Pap and Nana and the uncles, we headed over to Granny and Grandad's to visit with the Bradford side of the family.  I was slowing running of steam since my 4:30 wake-up call.  I did manage to get some video footage at Pap and Nana's house.

Isaac unearthing dinosaur fossils. He's one cute paleontologist.

Post-Christmas, we've seen lots of movies, eaten breakfast at Panera, and Karson has managed to come down with a high fever which will probably require a doctor's visit tomorrow.  Shannon and I decided to cancel our trip to Destin because the primary property they are looking at isn't available to view this week.  I've done some mall walking, hits one after-Chrsitmas sales and made a handful of returns.  AND, I got to blog which is one of the most important things in my world.  I'm hoping to complete my 2012 Deaton Family Year in Review Snapfish book today---keeping my fingers crossed that I'll find the motivation to complete it. Hope everyone had a magical holiday season!  2014 here we come!