Sunday

Sunday

Jeans or Shorts

For years I've been accused by my oldest child of controlling the clothes he wears. Two summers ago Ethan came to me and expressed his frustrations. We talked about what it was he wanted to wear that I wasn't getting and that that evening I purchased him an (almost) whole new wardrobe. (It seems to me that I'm a pretty reasonable lady! )

Since then I have tried to keep my opinions quite and reserved for only must address clothing situations. Summers are no problem. Ethan wants to wear shorts and t-shirts, and since I'm the one making final purchase decisions I'm generally fine with how he puts them together. Enter the problem, ETHAN ONLY WANTS TO WEAR SHORTS AND T-SHIRTS!

Fast forward to this morning. My weather app said it was 24 degrees outside. Ethan came down in basketball shorts (already a no, no), long socks, and a hoodie. UGH!

I kindly and lovingly told him the temperature and let him know he would need to quickly go upstairs and change into jeans if he was going to eat breakfast before he left school.

Enter the two year old tantrum. And the "you just want to control everything I wear" speech.

His thoughts and reasonings are that since only 2-3 inches of his legs are showing between the shorts and long socks it's almost as though he is wearing pants. I'm sorry, call me controlling, but "almost" wearing pants on a 24 degree walk to the bus just isn't going to cut it. His other frustration is that pants aren't comfortable. Well, no they most certainly aren't as comfortable as basketball shorts and sweatpants.

Since the children started school (and since I'm controlling) I've had a strict no sweats to school policy. I am not of the mind that my children need to be "comfortable" at school, in fact I want them to be a little uncomfortable. I don't want their lazy, sloppy, or too casual attire to bleed over to their attitude. Now, I'm also not making them wear suits and ties to school either. I fully believe there is a happy medium here.

I'm happy to report that Ethan did end up changing into jeans, and still had time for breakfast and to apologize to his sweet, sweet mama. And that I'm fairly certain we found that happy medium!

Sunday

 We've been doing Sunday pictures for a few years now, and we basically have it down to a science, but we still end up with lots of wild and crazy out takes! HA

Parent Teacher Conf. Preschool Edition

After I dropped the boys off at school on Monday I saw the sign up for Parent Teacher Conference. There was a long line, and I had errands to run so I made a mental note of it and headed out! To be perfectly honest I wasn't even sure I would sign up. I mean he's 4. I imagine if there were any problems academically, emotionally, or otherwise they would have contacted me by now.

Fast forward to Thursday drop off. My plan was to not even make eye contact with the sign up list. But as I got closer and all the other moms were hoovering over the lists the mom guilt got the best of me. 1:15pm  was the only time left and now it had Danae West next to it!

Brian and I met up at the school to talk with his teacher at the fore mentioned time. It went great, all 5 minutes of it. Basically he is a great friend and kind boy, he can follow four and five step instructions, he helps his friends at the table follow said instructions, and is doing great with his letters and letter sounds. Clearly it was well worth waking Elle up from her nap for!

I'm so proud of that little wild man! I can't believe only one summer separates him from kindergarten!

Winter Book Club

I haven't been to book club since Elle was born, and I miss it terribly. So today I decided I wouldn't wait any longer and ordered the next few months of book club books. While I was on Amazon I also ordered the Furminator, and a new phone case. It just feels like a successful Friday morning! Ha

 "The Shoemaker's Wife" by Adriana Trigiani peeked my interest right away! Two people fall in love but are both forced at different times to leave their homes to go to America. A love story about two people who just can't seem to get timing right sounds like a perfect fireplace read to me!

 "Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker" by Jennifer Chiaverini had me at Lincoln. I love anything to do with past presidents. This is all about the relationship that grew between Mary Todd Lincoln and her seamstress, a former slave. Sounds like perfection!

 "The God Who Weeps" by Terryl & Fiona Given's  is a great book for anyone who as ever been curious about Mormonism. This one is first up on the list for Book Club and I can't wait to jump in. I've heard only great things!

"Happy, Happy, Happy" by Phil Robertson isn't technically on the Book Club list, but is on my own personal winter reading list! I love Duck Dynasty, but mostly I love that I can't watch it with my children. One of my proudest "mom moments" happened earlier this week when Kai was filling out his reading log for me to sign. After I handed it back to him he looked it over and said, "I'm on a roll this week, Jack!" Clearly I'm doing something right! Ha

Can't wait to add to my list over at Kelly's Korner!

Waiting Game

I've been known to procrastinate somethings. A few months ago I dropped my phone and cracked it. The good news is that I have Apple Care (this time), the bad news is that still requires me to actually go to the Apple store. Since today was the expiration date of my Apple Care I figured I better go take care of it! HA

Elle was great at the mall and we were so quick in the Apple store that we had a few minutes to hit up J Crew before having to be home for the after school rush! The most important thing (other than my new phone) is my new house shoes! Oh how I've been wanting these bad babies since last winter, and now they are all mine!

After school Ethan didn't even come in for a snack before heading outside to practice basketball. For an hour he was out there shooting and dribbling and rebounding. When he finally came in for dinner he told me that he just couldn't come in until he made 10 baskets in a row. I'm so proud of him. He seriously is one of the hardest workers I know. His ability to set goals, and work until he reaches them is a difficult trait to find in adult let along 10 year old boys.

After tryouts he felt good. There were things he felt he did great and other things he said he needs to work on. There were nearly 60 boys at tryouts. Out of those 60 there will be 2 travel teams with 8 players each. So, now we wait. Teams are supposed to be posted tomorrow before 10:30am. Of course Ethan checked  three times before we went to bed to see if teams had been posted, spoiler alert they weren't.

Hard Things

Right after school Ethan dropped his backpack at the door and zipped outside, which has been a daily ritual since school started. Today however, he had traded in his football for a basketball. 5th grade basketball tryouts were tonight and he was unsure of what to expect. 

I followed him out to have him run a few drills and to grab rebounds for him. I was pleased with how much he has improved since last year. He's a much more confident dribbler, has a great lay up, and has greatly improved in the boxing out and rebounding arena. We practiced and talked. He's growing so quickly and my role as his mother is changing from micro manager to something else I don't fully recognize yet. It's uncharted territory, for both of us.

He left the house feeling confident and ready. I sent him off with a hug and some last words of encouragement.

When I picked him up he wasn't standing quite as tall as when he left the house. Although tryouts are 2 days long, he felt pretty certain that he was already on the chopping block. This time my sweet, loving words of encouragement weren't as appreciated. He was discouraged and I couldn't fix it.

After we got home I decided to talk to him one last time.

When I was a freshmen in High School I decided that I would tryout for the Volleyball team. Tryouts were 3 days long and were 9-12 graders. I felt like the worst player in the gymnasium (and I probably was). I never went to day 2 or 3 of tryouts, I never made or didn't make the team. I quit.

We talked about never giving up. We talked about going out tomorrow and still giving it his all regardless of the fact that in his mind its over.  We talked about the reality of not making the team. It was good and hard, just the way most things that are valuable seem to be in this life.

Being a mom to a 10 year old is hard, and makes my heart hurt.

The View From Inside

It's cold, although you'd never know that since my children are dressed like it's an 85 degree summer afternoon. Backyard football is a staple every free second they get. They have an on going scoring system which is somewhere in the hundreds by now. They are extremely competitive with one another which has the tendency to make this fun game a not-so-fun-game.

But to Elle it doesn't matter who's crying, or cheating, or bleeding. She just loves to watch them through the window. She laughs and points and tells them no. The best has to be when she leans back in disappointment when they fumble or drop a pass.

She sure loves those wild ones!

15 Months

This perfect little lady is 15 months old! Whenever anyone at church asks me how old she is they always respond with, "three months until nursery." I've just smiling and replying with "yes, it's coming fast" but honestly I don't know if either of us are ready! Ok, maybe she's ready but I'm certainly not! HA

Fun things about Elle right now:
*she is the queen of singing. she sings to herself and she always sings along at church.
*she loves being outside with the big kids.
*she is not a fan of me holding other babies, but really hates if I give them a bottle!
*she loves to play with her baby and trains
*she hates getting her hair washed in the bath
*she's still not a big car seat fan
*she thinks its hilarious to hit us because the children have encouraged it!
*she is trying to transition to one nap a day, but she still wants the morning nap. So, it's not going so well!
*she's a climber. Every time I turn around she's on to of a table or chair.



Her words:
Daddy
Mama
Puppy
Baby
Thank You
No, no, no
Hi
Bye
Yes
Mine

Warriors Football Banquet

I might be a procrastinator. About three weeks ago I emailed Ethan’s coach asking if he had any personal preferences for the end of year party. Twelve days ago he emailed me to let me know he was good with anything, but his family was going on vacation November 3 so we needed it done before then! So, with less than 2 weeks I got to work!

I had lists and price quotes all over my house. On Monday before the party I shopped for everything I had on my lists from tablecloths, napkins, and forks, to gift cards, footballs, and DVD cases. I was feeling pretty good about being ahead of the game. 

Then Thursday rolled around, which just happened to be a pretty busy holiday for anyone with small children, maybe you’ve heard of it, Halloween. So naturally I didn’t spend one second thinking of the party only preparing costumes, finishing pumpkins, and eating candy!

Friday morning I came up with the grand idea of make goal posts for the center pieces out of PVC pipe. I’ll spare all the details of trips back and forth from the store, to the sawing, and spray painting. Basically I decided to do a 2 day project in 3 hours. Note to self, that’s never a good idea!

In the end it turned out great! Everyone had a great time and the boys enjoyed being together as a team one last time! 

Oh yeah, the centerpieces looked amazing!

Sofia Petrillo

 This Halloween a personal dream came true when Elle dressed up as Sofia Petrillo from The Golden Girls. Everything about it was perfection from her cottonball wig, to her glasses, to the broach on her cardigan. I really wanted to Olivia to be Dorothy, because that would be even more hilarious. Obviously she didn't indulge me!

Introducing Elle Kate West as Sophia Petrillo:

It really was a happy happy Halloween!