In all seriousness

(and yes that is a word, I checked)

Hailey's moving up ceremony was great! Her school did a great job (as they always do). Hailey was a Bumble Bee...

And this was her small group teacher!

And here she is walking up with her classmates

And here she is giving Cade the evil eye (go Hailey)

And now Hailey will be a Frog (pre-k) she can't be really, can she? I think I blinked.

and if you missed the post before this one...you shouldn't have Click Here

Maybe she should walk the plank...

Friday we got to enjoy Lauren's spring program at school. It was grades 1 through 5 and they did a pirates musical. Since the music teacher does all the school plays they are usually very musical and the kids do a great job.

They do two plays a year, we have been their for 4 years (8 plays) and that same music teacher is also very good at picking the same kids to have the lead roles season after season -

When the same lead role players were announced for this play Lauren said to me "I don't know why Mrs. Music Teacher doesn't trust me enough to memorize my lines and have a real role in the plays".

Lauren has an AMAZING memory, it has nothing to do with trusting her to memorize her lines. I felt bad for Lauren.

As you all know Lauren was a Mini Purple Beard for this play and we made her a beard and put together a decent costume too! Though, we were using the headband to hold on the visor AND to cover up the fact that it was a visor. I talked to said music teacher the day before the play and explained the costume and told her I would be at school early to help Lauren get it all together right and she smiled, and she humored me and told me how cute it sounded and then she told the kids at rehearsal that day that they...

and I quote...

"Are not 4 years old and you don't need your mommies to help you get dressed, their will be no parents in the dressing rooms"

Now, I have been known to say things similar to this to my children in a not so proud mommy moment...but I DO NOT expect teachers to speak to my children this way - especially since Lauren was with me that morning when I spoke to the teacher and then she had to listen to this.

Lauren is a bright little girl, she reads people well and she knows when someone is not so good. In this particular case Lauren asked me "Mrs. Music teacher shouldn't tell us kids that especially after she was so nice about it this morning"

No wonder Lauren is terrified to ask her teachers questions - they just might turn around and backfire on her.

So this is how she came out on stage:

Instead of like this

And as far as I am concerned Mrs. Music Teacher CAN walk the plank and take her ego with her.

It's a Jungle out there

There is nothing better than a room full of parents fighting for the best camera position to watch a preschool performance!


But I have to say Hailey's school ROCKS when it comes to these things! Her class has all turned 4 (except her of course) and some are nearing 5 already! Yet each kid, Hailey included had a line to say. A solo so to speak and they all did great! It is such wonderful practice for future!

Hailey's line is " Elephants are plant eaters!!" (watch the big white bows)

and she said it big and she said it loud and it was adorable!

They sing, they dance

and overall they do a great job of entertaining us for 30 minutes!

And when they're done - we all go home for bed!

PS: in case you didn't miss this post - it is snowing, I am freezing - it is way past my bedtime and now I hope we do have a snowday so I don't have to get dressed tomorrow (Friday)!

Lauren Art Fair

Lauren's school does an art fair every other year (sandwiching a science fair). This is especially interesting since the school does not have a formal art class. They also live by the ever popular (with everyone except me) rule that no-one wins or loses and everyone goes home with a blue ribbon weather they spend 5 minutes or 5 hours on their project (but that is a whole nother Oprah)




Lauren's first art fair was 2 years ago when she was 6 years old. She painted this

The rules were a little easier for second graders but she had to create her art, write about it and display it and go home with your blue ribbon.



This year, age 8 - 4th grade - stronger rules. I love the requirements based on the fact that they don't teach art in school (well, every now and then the class teacher introduces some art, Lauren brought home some shredded paper glued to paper, and a swirly dot art type thing once) anyway...this year she has to write a 12 paragraph synopsis of her creation - including "an explanation on how the elements of art were used to create it", the "two main principals of art used", and an explanation on "how the principals were used to organize the elements". She also has to account for any and all help given to create the piece, including spending an afternoon with her Aunt Anna (bless you Anna) so she could learn a little about what the heck she was doing before she set out to do it!!!

When she was six she chose a "big" project for a little girl with no art training. Now at 8 she chose an even BIGGER project for a little girl with no art training (except that of her amazing Aunt of course!!!)

Seeing that she would one day like to travel to space she picked a solar system picture off the net and is using it to model her painting. Her afternoon with Aunt Anna has done her wonders, I can't help her because I paint and draw like a 4 year old (seriously) but here is what she has so far!

Touching up Earth

Mixing colors


Completed Earth


Completed Saturn

The whole thing so far (she has to add all the stars etc. in the background still) but she is doing a great job.

Strangely, she has already written her 12 paragraphs - a smart girl can BS her way through anything, even when she hasn't even done the project yet...not necessarily a good skill to have or to learn but in this case - I blame the school.

What I learned this week:

Jo-Lynn over at Musings of a Housewife is starting a new bloggy carnival. What I learned this week.... I am trying to keep my blog as close to its roots as possible so I stear clear of most memes and awards but in this case I think I will try to hang with the carny folk for a while and see if I like it, can keep up with it etc. So here goes...



I learned that in some ways homework is overrated.

Why? Well let me just tell you. I have talked before about how Lauren never has homework and if she does she can almost always finish it between school and home (15 minutes if there is traffic) she gets excellent marks and rarely misses a beat.

This is a bone I have picked with her school since first grade...where is the homework, how are they learning to budget their time against work and play etc. You would not believe me if I told you the response, well perhaps you would - but let’s just say it had something to do with busy schedules and parents complaining and the work not getting done....but then they would always say NEXT YEAR she will have more...then next year would come and I would bark up that same tree again and they started saying "well, she must get her work done in class, good for her" and I would argue not teaching her responsibility etc...

I finally quit barking, counted myself lucky she only has a short time left in elementary school and now we are just biding our time (poor Lauren)

Fast forward to...tonight; Lauren actually has homework. Something to do with Ute Indian Dances...she is supposed to research a Ute dance, make a poster board and potentially be prepared to talk about it in class on Wed. She had dance till 6:30 and came right home to dinner and home work –

She was enthusiastic and ready to go…until she realized that she still didn’t fully understand the POINT to what she was doing. Can you blame her? She is happy to go through the motions and do the work but she questions why she has to spend all this time learning about a dance the Ute’s did…again can you blame her? Some of her comments…Everyone is doing the same project “how silly”, what am I supposed to say about a dance?, I mean I read all this stuff, they use snakes and that is gross but what is the point to the poster-board? I just don’t get this assignment. I could just take some notes and talk about it right?

All that coming from a girl that LOVES to make things on poster board…

Ok…so back to what I learned this week: The moral of my story is - maybe not having homework is a good thing – at least she isn’t wasting time each and every night on pointless assignments.

On the 6th day before Christmas

This week Hailey's Preschool has been singing Christmas Politically Correct Holiday Carols each morning from 8:30 to 9:00. There really is nothing better than a group of 2 1/2 to 6 year old children singing holiday songs!

Hailey is in the front row with the red shirt, black pants, hot pink shoes, white socks, green bow (don't ask)

Hailey has also been serenading us in the shower each day and I am quite surprised at how well she knows the words. This morning it was the "you better not pout" song and I laughed (silently, sort of) during the whole song/shower! Over and over and over again, never missed a word. Too cute.

Anyway, I didn't have my camera, but used my phone and my Flip video - Hailey wasn't much for the Holiday Carolling session so I clipped it much like Lauren's and added some written commentary of my own.




********UPDATED PHOTOS***********



One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the books. I love the books. I took some photos of some of our favorites to share with you. Most of these have more of a "winter" theme than a Christmas theme but I still wait till December to break them out each year! We have another favorite not shown here called "Dream Snow" but we couldn't find it when I had the camera out so it did not make the picture show.
















If you don't have some of these they are definitely worth checking out and maybe even buying!

if you have a favorite Christmas book not shown here please jot it down for me! I'll say it again, I love books (and my Kindle of course)

On the 7th Day before Christmas

Yesterday we got to enjoy a politically correct Holiday program at Lauren's School. The 1st through 5th graders were performing! They did a lot of singing and little acting and it was cute!

I love her Christmas shirt! Grandma scored it at small local store and I wish I had one!!!

Moving on:

Everyone in blogger land, at least everyone I know, has been busy getting ready for the holidays and many have posted beautiful pictures of their homes all decked out! One mom, Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer, who's blog I pop onto every now and then, was a bit more honest and posted a reality check...so I thought I would share a little of my reality with everyone too! The truth is Christmas takes over our house! I try to keep the clutter to a minimum (by making a conscience effort to clean it up every other day only to make new clutter 5 minutes later) but Christmas

definitely takes over.

A pile of junk that must be cleaned up, last year I set my dining room table with my Christmas dishes to avoid this mess -this year I can't keep it clear long enough to do that. Oh well.

These are the gift bags for Lauren's classmates, hanging out on the floor next to the cluttered dining room table. I used to go to stores and buy lots of little junk for the kids (toys, candies etc) by the time I did that and got bags to put them etc I was actually spending a fair amount of money on these holiday goody bags. Then I got smart last year and contacted my friend that sells Usborne books and gave her my budget and bada bing bada boom - I am spending less money and the kids are getting books!!!

This is what you will trip over when you get to the bottom of our basement stairs...

These are gift bags ready to deliver to friends around town...Hey, STOP IT, No peeking! And yes they are sitting on top of the Air Hockey table.

This is our pool table. Anyone wanna play? You can line your quarters up on the side and we will get with you in January (ok, maybe February)

This scary scene is what takes over Grandma Mary's bedroom after Thanksgiving...these won't be opened till I am ready to wrap the girls gifts and though I REALLY look forward to that, I also dread the sorting, figuring part if you know what I mean.

So that is it, a little dose of Christmas Clutter for everyone to revel in.

School, Dance and more

School has started and seems to be going well. Hailey is still a bit sad when we drop her and off and on during her short day but she is doing well and seems like her new teacher and class mates. When playing around the house she plays "school" a bit...taking attendance etc. It is cute.

From Untitled Album

This photo was taken while getting ready for the first day of school...

Lauren's new teacher is going to be fine/great. Mrs. Finke has taught at Beacon for a couple years and elsewhere for several years before that. She did not have long to learn the 4th grade curriculum but she is a very dedicated and motivated teacher so I have no doubt we are in for a good year.

From Untitled Album

This was Lauren getting ready for the first day of school

From Untitled Album

And they both got dressed but neither cooperated that well for the photo!

This past weekend was Nutcracker Auditions at the dance studios. Lauren went ahead and tried out for the Nutcracker at both studios (The International Ballet School and The Academy of Colorado Ballet) as a parent....I was more impressed with the audition at IBS than at ACB - as a student Lauren really wants to be in the Colorado Ballet's performance. They have not announced the parts yet at that studio so I don't know what we will do. She was awarded two parts at IBS (mouse and bon bon) and rehearsals begin on Saturday. We should hear from ACB by Wednesday and will have to decide at that time which show she wants to do because I really don't think we can do both.

Last week both girls tried a gymnastics class...and today we are going back to try again...I am not willing to register them for the classes yet because I can't tell if they really want to do them...Lauren tried a class because Hailey did...Hailey tried a class because she had been asking for months and I finally caved. Lauren enjoyed her class, Hailey left hers early because it was boring (too many kids) so....today's class for Hailey only has 5 or 6 little ones in it and we are going to try again....keep you posted. For Lauren...she is going to have to let go of something if she wants to keep going to gymnastics after today - Tap is probably going to have to go - she can not have "something" every night of the week...it is just too much.

Anything else??? Hmmmm...I don't think so. Oh...we had some Hawks come to visit on the weekend. There were two on the back fence. By the time I got my camera only one was left. Paige sent the photo to a friend that works for the Raptor Education Society and found out they were Juvenile Red Tailed Hawks. They didn't look very juvenile to me...but I certainly know NOTHING about Hawks etc...

From Hawk

From Hawk

BUSY BUSY BUSY

We have spent this last week before school staying very busy! I wish I had fun exciting thing to blog about but I don't. I still need to post the photos from the berry picking farm and the coggy doggy Lauren built but haven't found the time. We bought our new lunch boxes and backpacks this week and Hailey carries hers with her just about everywhere we go! Lauren found out she has a different teacher than she was expecting on Thursday...so we swallowed that and moved on. She also found out a girl that she thought was not returning to school this year is in fact coming back...neither good nor bad news just news. I am wondering if CBS is going to tell Renny (Big Brother 10) about Gustav and New Orleans being evacuted? Just two more days before we hit the daily grind again...(Wednesday) WOW - Summer went by fast. I am glad the girls got to do a lot of fun things this summer though. I suppose I should stop typing my random thoughts as I really have nothing important to say!

Last Day of School

It is finally here! What a long wait this week has been. Such a waste of time to be at school. Monday they cleaned, Tuesday Field Day, Wednesday Class Party at bowling alley (we played hooky) Thursday more cleaning and a movie (skipped the movie) and today - finally - the awards ceremony!

We are meeting her teacher for breakfast this morning at 7:30! Then off to school for a little while. The rest of us will go to school at 1:00 for the awards ceremony then it is finally summer break! YAHOO!

Just wait till August when I am blogging " Is school ever going to start???"

I will post pictures from today later this evening!

Not better yet

Well, Hailey is not better yet. Today is day 5 of this ick for her. I feel so bad for her, even with cough syrup she is coughing a lot in the night, still has a fever above 102 most of the time and in general doesn't feel good. She is like the energizer bunny though and does not succumb to the sickies until / unless the fever gets really high (104) and even then she fights succumbing to it! We will be headed back to the Dr. this morning to get things checked out...with the antibiotics she should have been getting better by now

Lauren has a field trip downtown today...this will be the first time I didn't drive on a downtown field trip...and I am not liking it. I guess I have to let go sometime, I can't be in two places at once. I just hate sending her in a car full of kids downtown. I think though that she will be riding with her teacher (who can only put two kids in her car) so that is not so bad. She will have her phone with her too (I am convincing myself that she will use it in an emergency!)

With less than two weeks left of school I am really looking forward to next Friday (last day for the summer). These two weeks will proove to be a big fat waste...with spirit week, field day, 2 field trips, cleaning day and awards day I really don't see the point.

Oh well, I will post after we see the Dr (or later tonight)

Monday

Monday Monday...

Conference this morning. Nothing new to report. All is well and ready for 4th grade. No surprises!

Thank you Grandma Mary for your wonderful email about the blog. I love doing it and glad people are enjoying reading it!

Roads? Open Space? Apparently Douglas County is considering building a road behind our house. It is difficult to tell how serious they are at this point but quite obviously it is raising quite an uproar around the neighborhood. Emails are flying, meetings are planning and so much more. 2 meetings this week, one with HRCA and the other with HRMD. Funny thing is...we don't even live in Highlands Ranch, not only that but we are in unincorporated Douglas County but we get to fight the county anyway. Trying not make a mountain out of a mole hill...till the mole hill grows a bit. Their are 8 options being considered...this option is the most costly and quite frankly most ridiculous. But anyway, wish us luck.


What else? Most of Hailey's class is moving up on Friday. She is not. She just started in February and is a full year (++) younger than her classmates. The issue? She thinks she is moving up. Going to have to chat with the school on Wed! Poor Hailey.

Science test tomorrow. Another doozy. "Name 3 good conductors of electricity" the books says Metals such as copper and salt water. The question asks for 3? So the answer (from the horses mouth) is Other Metals, Copper and Salt Water. Now why on earth would you have to classify OTHER METALS and COPPER as separate answers. Lauren and I slaved over this one last night...she kept saying COPPER IS A METAL so metal is one answer and salt water is the another but what is the third? She was right (in my opinion)Can't wait to see what else is challenged on this test.

The weekend Arrives

Advance apology...most of these photos were taken with my phone...clarity leaves a lot to be desired but they were fun anyway! Or at least the story behind them was fun!!!

We had quite a week! After all my complaining about the bedtime blues...I spent one night in the hall placing Hailey back in her bed when she came out of her room and the second night she never came out (still took her 2 hours to fall asleep but...) and tonight she was asleep in less than 20 minutes but she had a LONG DAY today...more later.

Thursday we met Grandma at the mall...Hailey went into Nordstrom's wearing pink sandals, a pinkish tank dress and a princess crown and left the mall looking like this...

From Princess to hippie...not sure we heading the right direction. but she sure looked cute. (you can't see it but she was also barefoot at this point)

Then it was off to dance class where she refused to remove her do-rag...Had a blast dancing though...

Gotta throw in a cute picture of Lauren here. This was Wed. afternoon shortly before the girls lost the slide for a few days because they could not stop bickering about it. Poor deprived children!!!

Friday rolled around and we had a BUSY day. We started at dance where Hailey got her first of 3 costumes for the recital in June...she was in HEAVEN. I failed to get a single shot of her face smiling because she was so busy dancing...I think it was a full hour of dance...Enjoy...

After dance we headed off to Lauren's school for the Spring Concert...Grades 1-5. It was cute they did Jazz songs and a couple from High school Musical. I took the camera and the Flip Video...I left the battery for the camera on the floor in the office charging (DUH) so I only got video. Took a bunch...but here are a couple:



I took a picture of Lauren when we got home and put the battery in the camera!

Then we topped off the afternoon with some landscape removing...Todd using an Ax and a chainsaw to get rid of some pesky junipers...both of us covered in hives...I sprayed hairspray on my arms because they were so bad...stopped the itching immediately. Still have tons of hives but they no-longer itch!

Shortly thereafter...we were off to Chucky Cheese for a B-day party Lauren was invited too. Hailey and I tagged along but stayed away from the party. Lauren had a great time and liked being left alone with her friends (poor mommy) Hailey loved the car rides and INSISTED on being buckled on each one...in fact one had a "broken" buckle and she refused to ride it! She cracks me up...

But wait there's more...after Chuck e Cheese Lauren was off to the neighbors for part of a slumber party! No slumber for her...too much to do in the morning but she got to party a little anyway!

PHEW...as previously stated - Hailey crashed upon hitting the bed tonight...WONDER WHY???

Lauren just went to bed at 9:35 and will hopefully sleep in tomorrow...

Todd and Gary are shooting pool in the basement...I am watching Dateline NBC and BLOGGING...and soon heading to bed myself (ok, lets be honest...I am going to play games on the computer first!)

What a week...

What a week...Glad it is over! Sunday starts the new week right?

Hailey got the pleasure of visiting the Dr. twice, once for Croup and once for just about nothing...except the decision that she can no longer take Decadron (sp?) - it makes her nutso! She is getting better, is very tired and really just beside herself...part of it is her age and part of it is still the medicine and part of it is being sick so all of it is tough on us!

Lauren had a performance today at the Wildlife Museum, that went well - her wonderful teacher and some neighbors joined the audience to cheer her on! They had a small dance floor to work with and that was new to the girls, especially the young ones but they handled it pretty well!

I made Peanut Butter Candy tonight...an old family recipe. It is rich and yummy and will do nothing to assist with the pounds I insist I need to lose. Oh well. Life happens.

Let's see, what else...OH, Social Studies test this week! She got an A - missed two! GO LAUREN...but even better she did her spelling packet on Friday Morning at McDonald's before school...had not seen it all before that, had a few tough words like Question, opponant, spectator - but she insisted she did not need to be quizzed...ACED IT! 100% - go Lauren again!

I used the part of most of my brain cells trying to figure out the girls dance schedules for next year...even talked the studio into adding a class for Hailey. And now that I have it down to PERFECT for me...I am still waiting for the schedule for the OTHER studio to come out. Theirs comes out in a couple weeks and lets all cross our fingers that the Ballet class Lauren needs falls on the right day!!!

Well, I guess I am jumping around a lot and not really making a point tonight...so I guess I will sign off...keep in touch.

It's Friday

Big Weekend and week ahead! Lauren has her competition tomorrow! No School on Monday, Wrats and a Social Studies test next week, performance at the Wildlife Museum next Saturday, Hailey threw up in my car yesterday. Yup. Yeah. It is the third time in as many years she has done that and it is SO gross. I want to throw her car seat away...EWWW. They are so hard to clean. But she wasn't sick after that (said she was) but never got sick so don't know what is going on with her. Let's just Hope Lauren doesn't get sick before her competition!!!

We are approaching the end of the school year. In May we have a long weekend so their are only like 27 days of school left - the last week of May of Spirit week and the first week of June should prove to be a waste of time! SO hopefully some stuff will start to settle down a little for the summer! The girls don't have dance after June 21st they have a 6 week break - we will do a lot of swimming and Lauren will do some golf and tennis and hopefully we will all have a nice summer - and let's not forget mom and dad's big weekend away in August!

Hailey's Spring Program

What a fun night! Hailey had her spring program at preschool (at 6:30 ugh) but it was great! There was one little boy that just BOOGIED. He was cute, but Hailey brought tears to my eyes. She did so great and was adorable all the people standing around me were talking about her even the director of her school! They sang the Yellow Polka Dot Bikini song and she was adorable, acting all shy and doing the swimming dance motions from that era! It was great. My photo's however are not so great - did the best I could. enjoy.

Half way point

We have reached the halfway point of this week and are once again bracing for a spring storm! Watch out Douglas County is slated for 5 to 10 inches. That means, as usual we will get an inch or 10. Regardless it will make things messy and we will be pulling out the shovels yet again!

Hailey is still struggling with separating a bit. I know she got thrown off track during vacation because she had been fine before hand. She is so funny though because transfers her affections to the adult in charge in my absence. I suppose my feelings should be hurt, I am easily replaced in her eyes. She just glues herself to her teacher at school, today it was a substitute and Hailey still clung on like a suction cup. Don't get me wrong she participates and does all that she is supposed to do at school, just sticks to the teacher kind of obsessively.

I just wish she would not have transferred these issues to her dance classes too. We had never had any problems at dance till last week. She made it through a class last night due in large part to Ms. Lauren (owner) taking her under her wing and aiding her through the first 10 minutes of class THANK YOU LAUREN. So I am anxious to see how she does tomorrow!

Tomorrow evening her preschool is doing their spring program at 6:30. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? Most of the kids are 6 months to a year older than Hailey but still, that is late for little kids! Anyway, she is excited that we are all coming to watch, Grams and Gramps too...Her group is supposed to wear cacky bottoms and yellow tops, wouldn't you know that in a closet full of absolutely adorable clothes we had nothing CACKY or YELLOW. UGH, off to the mall I ran today. It was hard too...I didn't want to buy crap, If I have to buy it I want her to wear it again but it was really hard to piece together something cute, Hailey's style, in those colors ...I did it, not real pleased with what I got but I did it.

Well, that is it for now I suppose - wish I had more exciting things to say - but I don't.