The Night that wasn't Supposed to be

Last night was not in the stars for me to be a good night. It started a week ago and I should have just given up then. Tyler comes home from school with a flyer that says that there will be a kindergarten parent/child pumpkin carving night on Tuesday. We think it's such a fun idea and totally get Tyler excited to go with Derek. Then a few days later our friends invite us to go to a corn maze with them - a couples only evening that would be lots of fun. So I tell her that it sounds great, we're in, and then I remember that we've got the pumpkin carving that night. She has a kindergartener too so I tell her that's the same night and she says she'll think about moving the date of the corn maze. Later I hear that she'd already invited too many people to change the date. So Derek and I are left with this decision of what to do. So we feel Tyler out to see how badly he wants to go and he's not budging on how great this is going to be so we're kind of stuck. Then I talk to my friend Kim who has a first grader and she's telling me how great the pumpkin carving is and how she's really surprised that we'd skip it to go to a corn maze for ourselves. Then she says, "well I don't want to tell you what to do, but at our house, our kids come first." - someone remove the knife from heart please! I'm just dying and right then and there I'm comitted to the pumkin carving and hope that everyone knows I'm all about my kids too!
So then Derek and I go into Plan B operation - how can we do BOTH? We think about maybe we could do the maze fast and get to the carving a little late - and then we think about doing the carving and then meeting up with them for dessert . . . so we're trying to get a plan. We get a babysitter but that's as far as we can get the plan. In the middle of our dillema we realize that Derek also has Pack Night that night and he really needs to be there. So put that on the list of places we need/want to be at last night.
By Monday morning we agree that will skip the maze, get out of Pack Night, and go to carving like responsible parents. And then comes the bombshell - Derek gets off the phone with his manager and says, "I have to be on the next flight to California and I'll be back Thursday." Is that night cursed or what? So I tell my friend that we're out and she says, "oh yeah, we cancelled it because everyone wanted to go to the carving" (aka - no one else was throwing their kids under the bus but us!)
So I make a plan - I'm going to keep my babysitter for the girls, and I'm going to take Tyler to the carving. So that afternoon we cleaned out our pumpkin, talked about how he wanted to carve it, looked at jack-o-laterns on on the internet to get ideas and we're both pumped. Then my friend calls that night and says, "hey I know Derek's out of town - would you like my husband to take Tyler with him?" "no, I say, thanks but I'm taking him and we've got it all worked out". So I get off the phone and tell Tyler that he'd been invited, and wasn't that nice, thinking it would just make him feel good - no, now he has a fit because I'd said 'no'! He loves boys, doesn't want to go with girls (ME), never gets to go in anyone else's car - the whole nine yards on how this is the worst case of injustice ever inflicted! Cursed, I know. So I just have to say, "we're getting the babysitter in 20 minutes, I am taking to the carving and we're going to have fun dang it!".
So we get the babysitter, leave the girls, and off we go. There weren't many moms there but that didn't stop us - we carved our pumpkin and just had a great time adding more things to our already lame pumpkin (i.e. mustache, ears, and eyebrows!). All the dad there had pumpkin carving tools and patterns and Tyler and show up with a pumpkin and a knife! Then they had the kids put the pumpkins on a table and we walked around the table to see everyone's. The kids sang three songs and the night was over.
On the way out I tell Tyler I'll take him to get an ice cream and he said he'll go if it's a doughnut - so off we went to Krispy Kreme. They were just making them so we got them for free (which I didn't know happened because it was the first time I'd ever been inside a Krispy Kreme!). So the night ended ok, despite the forces of nature that had other ideas.

Grandma's 90th

Last weekend Derek and I took the kids to Utah to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday. Due to other conditions, we couldn't leave until Saturday morning and had to be at the party at 1:00 so we left bright and early at 5:30. We thought if we just moved the kids from their beds to the car they'd go back to sleep and we could get down the road a ways. No such luck though - they all stayed up for more than an hour before Bailey crashed, followed by Emily and Tyler. We didn't stop once (nothing short of a miracle for our family) and made great time. We did have to stop right before we saw everyone to get kids dressed and looking respectable. We went to the party and had a great time. Twelve out of her 16 grandkids were there and all totaled she had 59 people there. It was so fun to see her and spend such a big day with her. I love it when my kids get to see their great grandparents and hope they can get a sense of what wonderful people they are. We spent the night at my Grandma's house, had her traditional enormous breakfast and had to get back in the car to come home. We'd gone 20 miles before Tyler started asking if we were there yet! It was really fun, but also really important.

A Student of the Week lives here

A few weeks ago Tyler comes home with a coupon from McDonald's for a free hamburger, drink and fries. He doesn't know why he got it, but he's pretty sure that no one else had a coupon in their cubby (I know, I'm encouraging cubby peeking!). I ask lots of questions and get nothing as to why we're getting this coupon. So I just think it's some freebie from McDonald's and not much more. Derek however is not so convinced - for days he asked me to call his teacher and ask why he got it. I refused saying that if everyone got one we'd solidify our position of really high maintence parents!
So the next week I go in to volunteer (where I found out that I'd been assigned as Room Mom even though I totally did not volunteer!) and I ask her about it. She says, "Oh, Tyler was student of the week." She goes on to tell me that each month has a different theme and then she picks two students that month that are examples of that theme - October's was Personal Responsibility - and she picked Tyler! She doesn't know how Tyler couldn't know that - she said she explained everything and made a big fuss - Tyler even got an ovation - but he was clueless as to why he got the coupon. There's going to be an assembly next month recognizing all of the students of the week this month - Derek and I will be their in the front row!
So I take Tyler to McDonald's and am so excited to get his coupon worth of food for his big achievement - but wait, he doesn't want a hamburger - he wants nuggets, and wait, where's the toy? So I ended up getting the kid a dang happy meal and I got my lunch from his coupon! Not a great deal, but a good deal none the less!

Feel Good Story

Ok, here's your feel good story for the day. Last week I was in Tyler's classroom volunteering. The kids were gone to the library so it was just me and his teacher. She told me that she'd be back in a few minutes and explained where she was going. Her son is in third grade at the same school and while her students were at the library she was going in to his classroom to volunteer! Isn't that the nicest thing?! I know how busy teachers are - and they work like crazy while those kids are gone - it's the equivalent of getting one 1/2 hour nap a day with your kids! - and she was spending it helping another teacher in her son's classroom. I just loved it! It just made me love his teacher so much more!

I'll give you my 2-cents worth if you'll give me yours!

First, here's my two-cents worth - my book club just read a book that I thought I'd pass on - it's a really quick, light story called Letters for Emily by Cameron Wright. It's a cute story that I really liked. It's not deep or thought inspiring but if you're looking for a quick feel-good book this is a good one. The author is a graduate from BYU if that helps entice you!
Now I want yours! I'm looking for new ideas on how to make flashcards fun. Tyler has these flashcards with sight words that we're supposed to do every night. But I need new ideas to keep it interesting - any advice?

Signs Your child is listening to Conference

So Saturday and Sunday were all Conference all the time at our house. We tried to make it good for the kids to help them listen and they did great with Conference Bingo. They also did great with every time they hear a song they got a treat - never once did they miss a song! Between that and the M&M's used for markers in Bingo I'm sure their teeth are going to fall out!
During the weekend I was giving Tyler a big hug and he said, "How long are you going to hug me?" and I answered, "all day" (his nightmare!) and he instantly went into a prayer saying, "Heavenly Father, please help Mama not hug me all day" - isn't that so funny? And so then I didn't have much choice but to let go!
Then on Sunday Bailey had a blowout - I mean, up to her shoulders blowout - and Tyler looks at her diaper and says "Holy Ghost!" - Derek and I both burst out laughing and embarrassed, he says, "I meant, 'Holy Smokes!'" - hilarious isn't it? Now he's started saying it to get attention but the first time was dang funny.
So I guess our Conference-filled weekend did have an impact on our family - at least Tyler!