Snow! Sort of...

So last week we had our first sort of snow. It started out as a sleety rain and gradually turned into ginormous soggy cotton balls and started to stick. The girls were so excited they headed out in flip-flops and Ts. They back tracked quickly and redressed more appropriately, their own idea - it is amazing what an inch of slush will make you do. BK admired their bravery from the doorway.

They made it about 15 minutes and then trudged in with heavy shoes and soggy socks. We are so ready for winter! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Red Ribbon Week

Sock it to Drugs (Crazy sock day)

Red-y to always be drug free (wear red)

Make Drugs Walk the Plank (pirate dress - prelude to that nights Fall Festival Theme)

We also had Hats off to being drug free (hat day). It has just been a fun reminder and good dialogue starter for keeping our kids drug free.

Pirates Don't Cry or Do They...

Change is always a big deal in our house. I have tried springing it on them and I have tried the gentle persuasion and reminder of upcoming events but it always comes down to the same thing. Tears.

We started early this year with our Halloween costume finding. The girls wanted to be witches (not the scary/ugly ones but the pretty ones like princesses), we had a spider for JD and BK didn't care. So we found suitable witch costumes, and happened across a pirate costume. IT WAS AWESOME!! It was such a great find because BK to Daddy could fit into it. BLEE had pirate day at school for Red Ribbon week and was able to use it then and then BK could use it at several Halloween occasions.

When we finally got it on all he wanted to be was a Pooh Bear (a suggestion from his older sister). So we tried Pooh Bear. Thank you C & W! Though the tears streamed in that one also. It did help when the candy started flowing though. Someday he will look back and ask why it looks like he was crying in all of his Halloween picts.

Optimistic

I would like to think of myself as an optimist. This is why I get Blee ready for school with my mask pushed up on top of my head and one eye closed. It could happen. I could get her ready for school and quietly slip back in bed for a few more zzz, couldn't I?
The issue has become sleep deprivation. This week JP and I took the opportunity to push JD out of our nest. He is 7 1/2 months old. He hasn't been excited about the move and it takes him awhile to calm down.

It was especially tough for him last night. JP just went back to work after being home for a week. So we started out late-late even for me. Then at 5 am EEP and BK came creeping, panicked into my room. A robot with "grabber" hands was coming after them. Their night light was out and I had just put the last bulb into JD's light.
So my empty nest quickly filled with whispers, grinding teeth (Princess EEP), quiet giggling, and finally soft snores. This was followed by a 6 am feeding and a jarring alarm soon after. So I am optimistic. There will be a nap in today's itinerary.Tonight should be better. JD's bottom teeth finally came in!!!

Who's Who?

So can you figure out which one is Bk and which is JD? The teeth will always be the give away for me. JD is 6 months in his picture and BK is 8 months in his. Highlight the area underneath each picture to find out which is which. JD

BK

Fall Festival

I just wanted to put down the finer points of the PTA Fall Festival before the sieve is empty. The Fall Festival is a free carnival-like party at our school given in thanks for all the support of our PTA fundraiser. This year we ran with a pirate theme so the kids could dress up. It was October 30th from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. If you have pics email them to me and I will add them to my blog.

Some of our PTA mommies that have absolutely nothing better to do on an afternoon than plan a shindig for hundreds of people.

We ran five game booths, 1 craft booth, and the ever popular DJ NIX (who will be having a baby and won't be able to be at our Spring Carnival). We also served free chili for the whole family, a bake sale, and sold school T-shirts.

Our games were:

Bowling for Skulls - 6 2-liter soda bottles covered with skulls and a b-ball, Eyeballs Everywhere - red plastic cups duct taped to the bottom of a small kiddie pool and ping pong balls colored like eyeballs,

Walk the Plank - a balance beam that the kids had to walk down and back (I was skeptical but BLEE loved this one the most and said that it was very challenging),

Trolling for Treasure - fish pond,

Creepy Crawly (?) - cooked spaghetti noodles with plastic spider rings.

Our craft booth was a coloring contest. It worked out really great and kept kids busy. We gave out Starbursts for the top three pictures in 4 and under, 5-7, and 8 and up groupings. We had planned tootsie pop spiders, but couldn't find the pipe cleaners. I choose to do the coloring next year too.

We spent $25 on the orange punch from McDonald's - 24 gallons ($8 dollars off regular price). They check out their 10 gallon igloo and seriously JP was busy, let's never do a 5 gal. We did do a 5 gallon igloo for water (full time job). We opened 36 1-gallon cans of Chili served with tortilla chips (two or three boxes ?) and sprinkled with cheese (20lbs) - $350 (including some cups, bowls, plates (bake sale) and tootsie rolls for booth prizes).

We paid the lunch ladies to serve the chili and DJ NIX to do her thing ($$$ WELL SPENT on both parts). I don't believe we have to pay the janitors but after learning how to run the automatic mop we didn't need them for anything else.

For our next function we will need to buy more prizes for booths we usually get those bulk from Oriental Trading or the like. Plastic bracelets and tattoos and candy always go well. I'd like to steer clear of choking hazards...they just end up in the trash as soon as we get home.

The bake sale was sensational. Lots of donations. Cookies, cupcakes, and goodie bags seem to sell the best. Larger items that are more pricey sit until the very end. The bake sale was with the t-shirt sales. They were the only things that cost money. We brought in a huge amount of money. Next year I would like to keep record for how many shirts we sell so we can see what the profit is (we make no money on t-shirts). It would be fun to see what our kiddos bring in on a well stocked sale.

This was our third festival that the board has done this together and I think that it went really well. We really couldn't have done it without the men in our lives though - THANK YOU! High fives all around.

I am glad that it is done and went well. For me the best part was running the automatic mop. I so need one in my house. I wonder if they make the like of it for toilets...