Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas! Yay!

We went to church this morning, where we sang lots of awesome Christmas songs, which made me insanely happy. We rarely sing Christmas songs in church anymore, so as we were driving to church this morning, i was all, "I really, really, really hope we sing SOME actual Christmas songs! There are so many good ones!" And we did!

And then the pastor gave a sermon that ... Okay. It was a good sermon. But he was totally talking about how true stories become legends, particularly regarding St. Nicholas and Santa Claus. And there was no nursery today. So i was looking around at all of the many, many families with small children and wondering just how many of them were kind of mad that the pastor was up there telling their kids that Santa isn't real! I mean....

Anyhow! This afternoon we opened presents, and then we played with presents. I bought a couple of games for the family, and i am happy to report that both of them are totally fun. One of them is kind of practice for beer pong, but nevertheless, it's totally enjoyable. Everyone was very happy with their presents, so yay! Success!

 And then tonight we watched "It's a Wonderful Life." It's such a great movie. Even my kids totally love it.

More pictures here, if you're interested.

December 2

Several years ago, the kids wanted to do a Secret Santa in our family. They, of course, were little and didn't have the ability to drive and didn't have money, so we decided to do an actions-based Secret Santa. Make your person's bed! Put a cookie with their name on it somewhere! Just do something extra, whatever you wanted. This ultimately failed horribly, partly because Zane was too little and Juanito and Houston kept forgetting. It was disappointing all around. I quietly let the idea die for the next couple of years.

But then last year, Katrina really, really wanted to do Secret Santa, and the boys joined the "We want to do that!" bandwagon, and so i added it to the Advent calendar. We drew names, made a trip to the dollar store with the whole family, gave each person $5, and set them loose. And it was surprisingly successful.

Today's activity was the same Secret Santa thing. We drew names and set off for the dollar store. Everyone went through the line alone, and i don't think anyone saw what anyone else had in their basket. Juanito dropped us off at home and took off for the pizza place for dough balls, i started chopping mushrooms, and the kids headed off to all corners of the house. And two minutes later, Katrina yelled, "Thank you, Secret Santa!" (Me, to myself: "Well, clearly Juanito doesn't have her!") Clearly they are all super-eager, and probably half of the presents will be given by the end of the weekend.

I spent most of the day sewing and making Christmas presents. My sewing machine is being bratty and keeps quitting working, so then i have to stop for the day until Juanito can fix it again. It's making projects take longer than they should, which is not ideal at Christmastime.

We made pizza and watched "A Christmas Carol." We were eventually all piled on the couch together (minus Juanito) (plus Emma), mostly because the kids were all a bit frightened by the movie, but also because cuddling is happy. And thus ended the night.

Everything since Nov. 8th

I have a lot of pictures - most from a few specific days - from the past month. These are some (lots) of my favorites: Pictures on Google Albums

So it's been a long time. Just over three weeks. I've meant to blog. I've thought about blogging. But honestly, i just didn't have the heart to do it after the election. But life goes on, and things keep happening, and now it's December and Christmas is coming, and so.

(A quick aside. I am really quite heartbroken about the election. Not because i loved Hillary so much, but because i'm just so incredibly disappointed in people. I realize that people don't like Hillary, and that's fine. And in any other election in my lifetime, i'd say, "I'm bummed that my guy didn't win, but i'm sure the other guy will be able to do the job too." But Trump? He's just so offensive and unqualified. And so many of his followers are far too happy about being given leave to be openly racist and offensive now. And so far, since the election, nothing has lessened my fears. So. There. There's that for posterity.)

Anyhow. Things that we've been doing in November:

• Family Drawing night. It's always a favorite activity and really something we don't do often enough. Everyone has a special sketch book used specifically for family drawing night - the kids are all nearly finished with their second books (theirs are quite thin books...) - so there are drawings going back several years at the beginning of their books. They all started looking at what they'd drawn 4-5 years ago, and it really is fun to see how much better they are at drawing!
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The movie came out on the 18th, and so we got a big group together and had everyone over for a pre-movie party and then all went to see the movie together. Beth and Juanito and Keren and i made party favors - bookmarks and cookies and origami rats and suitcases (for where the beasts lived) and passports and little tiny beasts. Everyone brought food, and we had cupcakes to sort people into their American Magic school houses. Brooke even got to come, having just returned from New Zealand. Yay!
• We went to Meijer Gardens for the Tree Lighting. It was a members only event (fun!), and it was quite packed. The tree lighting itself was quite lame, but we got to see all of the trees and decorations at night, which was really pretty and totally worth it. My mom came with us, which was extra fun. It's been several years since we've gotten to all go, and i'm happy we got to see it again! Plus there were carolers and cookies, so it was extra awesome.
• Thanksgiving! We went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving this year, and we had lots and lots of people to celebrate with us. My aunt and uncle and cousins who we always do Thanksgiving with were there, along with my cousin Cindy and her family and my mom's cousin and her husband. We ended up with two long tables full of people. And i remembered again that i really like my whole extended family.
• The kids and i decorated the house for Christmas while Juanito was sleeping. He's not actually a fan of the decorating, and we all are, so we figured that there was no reason to wait for Juanito for us to get started. Katrina and Zane woke up early and brought up all of the decorations from the basement. (If i'd known this ahead of time, i'd have been extremely worried about all of the very fragile things they were maybe going to drop and break, but they didn't break anything at all! Woohoo!) We set up the fake tree (but didn't decorate it). We hung up the stockings and the advent calendars and the mistletoe and all of the other decorations that we put on walls. We found places for the snow globes and snowmen and nativity scenes and all of the other stuff that goes on random shelves. And the kids were actually helpful! Like...actually helpful! This is a wonderful new phase!
• We went to get a real Christmas tree. We met my parents at the same tree farm we've been going to for years. We fully planned to get a "pretty tree," but then we just happened along a really cute wonky-ish tree. The past several years we've looked for wonky trees and haven't found any that were remotely cute, so when we saw this one, we were like, "Huh. We kind of can't pass this up, can we?" Katrina was a little bit devastated - we'd just been looking at pictures that very morning of the year that she thought we were joking about getting a silly tree and then was completely crushed when she realized that we actually were getting a silly tree instead of a pretty one - but she was placated by my mom's kind offer to let her borrow a little fake tree for her own bedroom. Juanito got the tree all set up and the kids put their ornaments in the most ridiculously random pattern ever, and once it was decorated it's really quite adorable.
• We went to Meijer Gardens again. This time we went with my sister Chellie and her kids. Going with different people always makes it a whole different experience. It was fun to see the trees when it wasn't so completely mobbed. Katrina and Zane had fun getting to show their cousins around. Juanito and Houston came later to meet us so Chellie could take family pictures for our Christmas cards. Yay!
• Advent started, so we got to light our first candle on Sunday. My goal this year is to actually get all the way to the last candle. Every year we do the first 2-3, and then by the end we're all busy and we just forget. 
• I got to babysit my friends' kids today. They're between 4-8, and they're all adorable, and i was reminded of just how short kids' attention spans are at this age. And also how much little kids like to touch All! The! Things! They were all very disappointed in me for not having more toys around for them to play with, but my kids weren't home, and i didn't want to offer their toys without their permission. I did teach them "Guess Who," and that continues to be a game that every single kid ever loves to play. We played lots of other games too, but Guess Who was the hands-down favorite. And they spent half of their time here holding the guinea pig and only stopped when i insisted that the poor little thing needed some quiet alone time. (Me: "Y'know how, when you're really tired and you just want to be quiet and alone for a little while?" All of them: "I never want to be quiet! Or alone!")

Adventure Thursday!

The rest of the pictures from today are here.

It was Adventure Thursday! Woohoo!

The first thing we did, i warned the kids that i'd never done it before, and it would probably be fun, but we might fail. (Katrina later reminded me that we DID actually do it once before. Unsuccessfully.) I'd searched and searched for someplace nearby that seemed likely to lead to success, which brought us to East Grand Rapids.

We followed the clues and found the spot where the first package was supposed to be hidden among a whole bunch of reeds. Houston dived right in and started hunting around, until suddenly he started leaping around and shouting that there were thorns and it hurt. While he was jumping around, i was all, "Well here. I'll hold these pokey leaves back, and you guys can look around them." Zane and Katrina halfheartedly poked around a bit. And then all of us started feeling the pain. And then we all broke out in hives and started itching like crazy. (There was no package anywhere.) Our next clue took us past the library, so we stopped in to see if we could figure out what we'd been digging around in. Houston talked to the librarian and was all, "I think we might be poisoned!" She googled something like, "itchy plant landscaping horrible hives," and the first thing that came up looked exactly like the whatever it was. And now we all know what stinging nettles look like.

Ultimately, we found the exact spot (and knew we were in the right spot!) and searched them all, but didn't find anything. Sigh. The kids all said that it was lots of fun nonetheless. Even with the hives. "It was an adventure!" said Houston. We went to McDonalds for ice cream to distract from the itching. (Though honestly, the itching had mostly stopped already....)

We stopped home and ate some lunch, picked up Juanito, and headed out for Adventure Thursday Act 2. The kids had gotten coupons for free giant cookies from the library summer reading program (possibly last year, though....), so we went and got those. They all agreed that they were completely delicious. And then we went to a park to play. Unfortunately, it had rained like crazy last night (So! Much! Thunder!!!), and apparently kept raining to the southeast of us, because the playground was totally wet and covered in puddles, but the kids totally had fun nonetheless.

Next we used a gift card to watch a movie - The Secret Lives of Pets. It was really cute, and my kids laughed SO HARD. They absolutely loved it.

And then we went to Pizza Hut to use their coupons (also from the summer reading program) for free personal pan pizzas.

So we had lots and lots and lots of fun, and all we had to pay for were some cheap ice cream cones and a pizza for Juanito and me. Yay!!!

We survived a tornado.

Yesterday my sisters and i went to my grandpa's house to help clean it for a bit, and then we headed down to the beach to let the kids swim a little bit. And then we all went out to lunch with my grandpa. The kids sat at one table and the adults sat at another, and it was great fun for all of us. We talked about lots of random things, including the story about how my grandparents met and which provinces in the Netherlands all of our ancestors (on that side) came from. (Friesland, Friesland, Krampf, and wherever the city of Apeldoorn is located. But looking at a map of the Netherlands, i can't find any provinces that look remotely like "Krampf," so now i'm confused.) (Apeldoorn is in Gelderland, which makes me - as someone who liked the movie "A Knight's Tale" - very happy.)

The waves on Lake Michigan were huge, and they all loved leaping around in them. I remember being little, and absolutely loving the days when the waves were giant. Now that i'm the parent, i'm actually quite nervous about it - undertows and all that - so i'm a mean mom who only lets the kids go a short distance out into the lake, both because it's dangerous with the undertow and because it's so insanely loud that if they get any farther out, they totally can't hear me. They had fun, even though they had to stay close to shore.

In the evening, we went to a movie at our church. They showed "Zootopia" in the parking lot, and it would have been awesome, except that they forgot that there were giant lights in the parking lot that came on as soon as it got dark, so it wasn't actually terribly dark out there. As a result, we could only actually SEE about half of the movie - the half that takes place in bright light - because everything that happens in dim light was completely dark for us. Afterwards, Zane said, "It was too bad we were sitting so far down, because we couldn't see as well." Because when you watch a movie on a computer and it's tilted wrong, everything looks dark.... Cute little child of technology.

Today was going to be a completely boring day, filled with sleeping and reading and lounging, and it started out that way. At about 2:15, though, the sirens all started going off, and i looked it up to be sure, and yep! There was a tornado! We all headed down to the basement (Except Emma, who refused, causing the children all kinds of worry. But the basement steps are scary, especially for a dog.), and i started "The Great British Baking Show" on Netflix to keep the kids' minds off the tornado. While we were down there, my dad called to make SURE we were down there, because the tornado totally touched down and was headed straight for us. Upon hearing that, Zane crawled under a nearby end table and started crying. This is part of the problem when your favorite genre is "books about the most dangerous things in the world," because then you know exactly how dangerous tornadoes can be.

After about an hour, we were given the all-clear, and headed back upstairs. We did drive around a little bit this evening, and about a mile from us had lots and lots of downed trees and power outages and closed streets. We saw one tree that managed to take out part of a house and a car. So it might be the tornado that has touched down closest to where i've been. 

Lansing!

In Michigan, all of the fourth graders are invited take a tour of the state capital. Apparently this has been going on for years - some of the moms that went along said that they remember going when they were in fourth grade. It's kind of a cool tradition. All of my kids have loved it.

Friday was Zane's field trip to Lansing, and i got to go along as a chaperon. Our group was the biggest group, and we had the worst kid (i can't prove that, but i'm fairly certain that i'm right), so there were parts of the trip that weren't ideal, but Zane loved it.

Our first stop was the Science museum. Zane was super, completely excited about this museum, because, "I want to be a scientist, so of course i'm excited!" There were a few really interesting things there that i'd have loved to play around with if i was there with only my kids. Every single exhibit we came to, Zane would have wanted to look at for a lot longer, but the rest of the kids in our group were not so excited. They were all, "Can we go to the next room? Can we go to the next room? Can we just go to the bubble room???" We'd been given very strict instructions that we needed to absolutely stay together as a group, so i couldn't just let some of the kids go on and others stay back. I tried to slow everyone down, but keeping six kids in one area when they are determined to leave it is nearly impossible. So we kind of flew through the first several rooms, got to the bubble room (where the kids realized that, oh. It's not actually that fun when you're not 4 years old), flew through the next several rooms, and then had still had lots of time left over...but the five kids that weren't Zane didn't want to go back to look at things they'd already seen. (Eye. Roll.)

(Side note: Worst kid ever - hereafter known as WKE - completely ignored my constant refrain of, "We NEED to stay together as a group. Do not go out of this area," and just ... intentionally walked off repeatedly. At one point, when i reminded him to stay with the group, he angrily told me, "I am not a kid!" To which i replied, "Um. Yes. You are. You're kind of the definition of  'a kid.'" He was not happy with me at all.)

Stop two was the History museum. I think it's just the history of Michigan, so it's not exactly the MOST thrilling of museums, but we had one of the kids in our group who was actually completely interested in looking closely at most of it. He was totally excited about the history and told me that this is what he was looking forward to the most.

We got there, walked into the first room, and there was a table with papers and instructions to "Draw what nature means to you." WKE turns to me and asks, "Can i draw something inappropriate?" Me: "NO!" He proceeded to write the F word in large letters, filling the paper. I was talking to another kid at the time, and one of the other kids called, "WKE is being inappropriate." WKE immediately ripped up the paper into about 6 pieces, and then was shocked - SHOCKED - when i could still tell what it said. (Apparently he doesn't yet realize that there aren't a lot of inappropriate words that start with fu?) I banned him from that area. He left for 30 seconds and then came back and started drawing on a giant paper on the wall.
Me: "You are not allowed in here."
Him: "I'm just drawing a picture."
Me: "I don't care. You lost the privilege of being in here when you disobeyed specific instructions and wrote inappropriate words."
Him: "You can't tell me what to do."
I sent him out of that area. He immediately walked out of the room to go across the hall to a different room. I called him back. He covered his ears (!) and ignored me. I ran to stand in front of him and told him that he needed to stay right next to me from now on. He walked away, grabbed a pole, and refused to move. At this point, i gave up and told him that we needed to find his teacher. He refused, continued to hold on to the pole, and told me, "It doesn't matter if you hate me. You still can't make me do anything." I heaved a deep sigh and sent the 2 girls in our group to go get their teacher and bring her to us. She took him away to call his mom, and the rest of us were free from him for most of the rest of the museum. I may have sighed a deep sigh of relief.

The rest of the time in the History museum was fairly typical. Most of the ran past every single exhibit in an effort to get to the next exhibit, which they would then run past. Except for the one boy who was SO interested. We had plenty of time (and that's what we were there for), so i totally made the other kids slow - much to their annoyance. WKE joined us again when we were in the last room of the museum, and immediately made me SO GLAD that he hadn't been with us the whole time.

The final stop of the trip was the capital building. It's my favorite part, partly because it's just a beautiful building, but also because it's all one giant group, and the tour guide is in charge. By the time we were walking around there, Zane was exhausted, but he was still quite captivated by everything. (May i just say that i love that Zane is so interested in learning and seeing new things? He was one of the most engaged kids for the entire trip.)

We rode on buses, and the trip home was quite quiet. Everyone else was obviously worn out too.

We got back to the school at about 6:15, and one of the other chaperons was nice enough to drive Zane home, so that i could go straight to the theater, which is about half a mile from the school. There was a Ladies Night event for "Allegiant," and it started at 6:30, so i was really grateful to not have to drive him home, turn around, and go straight back. Beth, Juanito (yep, he went to his first Ladies Night), Diana, Karla, and Stephanie (and several other people - we had a group of 10) all went as well. It's always fun when there's Ladies Night because they have food and desserts and usually everyone is extra excited. This time people were a lot less excited about the movie, i think. And with good reason - we knew it was going to be terrible, and we were not wrong. We giggled through large sections that were not actually supposed to be funny. It was just ridiculous. But fun!

Friday night dates

Tonight was the Daddy-daughter dance at our school. (Side question: Why isn't there a Mommy-son night?)

Katrina has been deciding for weeks what to wear, and was completely excited about tonight. She even helped me look at cute hairstyles a few days ago to pick one out for tonight. She got home from school, showered (because she'd had Jump Rope for Heart this afternoon), and got dressed immediately. We blew her hair mostly dry, and i fancied it up for her, and then she picked out all of her jewelry and shoes and made herself adorable. Meanwhile, Juanito ran to the Goodwill to see if he could find a purple shirt. Men.

They went out for Chinese food to make it even more special. And then, from all accounts, they ate a lot of chocolate and danced and danced and danced and had a fabulous time.

Meanwhile, Zane used his Christmas present "Date with Beth" coupon tonight. He got home from school and exclaimed, "Only one and a half hours until my date!!!" And then he changed from his muddy jeans into clean ones and changed his shirt and sweater to look more fancy and handsome. (Though he wouldn't say handsome. He hates being called that.) The two of them went to Noodles for dinner and then to the theater to watch "Kung Fu Panda 3." Zane got to eat macaroni and cheese, popcorn, and gobstoppers. They sat in the fancy reclining seats. And from all accounts, they had a marvelous time.

And that left Houston and me alone. Yay! Alone time with Houston! He spent the first hour talking on the phone to his friend, which actually worked out well, because by that time it was safe for us to go to Noodles. (Zane had very specifically told us that he didn't want us to be around for his date.) We ate delicious food and had fun talking to each other, and then we headed back home to watch a "silly, dumb movie" - Houston's request. I looked at our movies and gleefully chose "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," one of the silliest, dumbest, and most hilariously awesome movies ever. Houston and i giggled a lot, and he has decided that from now on he's going to use the phrase, "Kill him a lot!" all the time.

So there was no pizza-movie night tonight, but everyone had tons of fun. Yay!

Pizza Movie Night

My mom and dad joined us for Pizza-Movie night for the first time, and it was totally great. We made a million pizzas (okay, eight) and watched "Galaxy Quest," because it's a great movie that my parents hadn't seen AND because it has Alan Rickman in it and we wanted to watch something in remembrance of him. (Because he died yesterday, and we are all sad.) And everyone laughed a lot and gasped in the right places and generally thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

Sometimes i wish that we had a bigger family room in which to watch movies, because i love having people join us, but it does make for some cramped seating. Tonight my parents, Katrina, and Zane were all on the couch, and Emma was miserable until she could join them. My dad pretended not to like it, but i think that the evidence is a little bit stacked against him....

Mostly Advent, but also a little bit of Downton Abbey

A few years ago we went to a "live nativity" at a church in town, and afterwards our entire family was all, "Okay. So that was...kind of lame." And so i was a little bit nervous when i had this "Evening at Bethlehem" on the schedule this year. But it was at a different church, and i was feeling optimistic. 

The first 5 minutes were a little video with still pictures and a voice over reading the King James Version of the Christmas story, and Katrina, who was sitting next to me, started giving me a look that clearly said, "Um. This is kind of boring, Mom." But as soon as the video was finished, it all got better. This guy who clearly loved his role as a shepherd came out dragging an adorable sheep, and then we all got to walk through "Bethlehem," where a money lender gave us "shekles" and then later a tax collector (who took all of the shekles we had). There were people making pottery and people "selling" jewelry and flowers and bread and cloth. The "streets" were totally crowded with people, which my kids later said they really liked because it made it seem more realistic. The actors were all adorable and committed to their roles, and it was kind of awesome.

So that's definitely something that we'd all be happy to do again. Yay!

Yesterday's Advent activity was Christmas Mad Libs. This is our fourth year, i think, and since we do it in the same book every year, the kids think it's hilarious to read back over previous years' stories as well. We always do three pages, and we counted ahead to see how many years remained in the book - three, which i thought was pretty good, but the kids all cried, "Nooooo!" It's weird that this is a tradition that they all love.

Today we made cards for teachers and leaders. Houston just ignored the actual card and made snowflakes, which he then wrote notes on. Katrina made beautiful Christmas trees with lots of glitter. Zane wrote a note in pen and glued a small snowflake to the inside. So they all did pretty much what i could have predicted. Except Houston. I can never predict what he's going to do with crafts.

Tonight Juanito and i went with Beth, Stephanie, and another friend to see the final season premier of Downton Abbey. The movie theater gives away tickets to see it about a month before it comes out on TV, and it's always so much fun to watch with a huge crowd of people. Everyone sighs and giggles and claps and makes angry noises, and it's this feeling of solidarity. Beth and i even managed to get interviewed by a TV station before the movie, and ... i kind of hope that that doesn't actually make it onto TV ever. I'm such a dork.

Afterwards we went for frozen yogurt and sat on the floor in the hallway (because the place was completely packed) and talked and giggled and just generally had fun. Friends are awesome.

Long, long post to make up for missing two weeks

Yep. It's been weeks. Important weeks, at that. Days when i actually had stuff to say, rather than just, "So. It was a day." It's the Christmas season! We're doing fun things!

But it's the Christmas season! When the kids aren't surrounding me (and even sometimes when they are), i'm busy making presents until late into the night, and then all i want to do is fall into bed and sleep. So i'll try to do better! But....

So. To recap:
On November 19th, the final movie for the Hunger Games came out, and it was the Ladies Night movie, which meant that we had a huge group of people who all came with us to go have fun and watch Mockingjay. Beth, who is amazing, put together little gift bags for everyone, along with Keren, who totally made stuff for it too. Cookies and a bookmark and a necklace and a little painting, all wrapped up in a silver parachute. Fun!

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Thanksgiving was at my aunt and uncle's house this year, which was either very fortuitous or just very well-planned-out on my mom's part, because she was still very unable to host a ton of people at her house, what with still recovering from her knee surgery. There was delicious food, and i always like my family, extended and immediate, so it was a really good day. After dinner we had the traditional Thanksgiving craft, which is almost always some kind of  Christmas decoration. This year we made fancy snowflakes and cute paint-chip Christmas trees.

Thanksgiving evening, our family (Juanito, the kids, and i) played a game of Catchphrase. Sort of. Initially it was just the kids and me, and i set teams with Zane on my team, assuming that, as the youngest, he'd be the obvious weak link. And then i just ... didn't get out the board to keep score, and since it's been a while since we played that game, the kids didn't notice. So we just played with the timer, and when the timer ran out we'd pause, and then either just start going again or pass the turn and start with the next person, whatever the person holding the thingy felt like doing. It was completely not competitive, which meant that eventually Juanito wandered over and joined in.

The thing is...Zane was amazing. He was better than some adults i've played with. I mean, Houston and Katrina were good too, but Zane is just really good at it. It's a good thing we weren't keeping score, because it totally would have looked like i was stacking the deck in my favor, choosing him for my team.

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The day after Thanksgiving, we always go get a tree. Usually we go with my parents, but my mom isn't quite up to stomping through rough terrain to haul a tree out yet, so this year we were on our own.  We picked out a super-cute tree. The kids actually made the decision. They wanted this one because it was "all bright green and happy-looking!" And it is! It's also the pokiest tree in the history of trees. Everyone was hanging ornaments, going, "Ow. Ow. Ow." Poor Juanito, who's always in charge of putting the lights on, got his hands all poked up even through his work gloves.

While Juanito was struggling with the lights, the kids and i decorated the rest of the house. It's always so much fun to see the house all pretty and Christmasy, and i on-purpose don't even think about the fact that, in a month, it's not nearly as much fun to put away. Because, if nothing else, it's a fun way to clean and possibly put different nick-knacks out! Yay!

We have so many traditions in our family, and a lot of them were entirely accidental on my part, but they started when the kids were little, and the kids just want to do them every single year. And that's totally fine! Except that it's things like putting the star on the top of the tree or ringing in Christmas with a special bell ornament, and they want to take turns and be fair...except nobody ever remembers FOR SURE from year to year who did each thing last year. So last year, the kids were smart and wrote down the schedule for the next three years and put it into the box with the ornaments. They are brilliant.

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Katrina bought herself a knitting loom. I don't know what it's actually called, but it's a circle with little pegs, and you loop the yarn around the pegs, and it magically makes a knit hat. (Years and years ago, my grandpa got into knitting the same way and made everyone the best scarves in the world. I still have mine, and it's still used regularly by me or my kids, because it's insanely warm.) Katrina bought it on Saturday night, and then spent all day Sunday teaching herself to use it and then knitting and knitting, and by Sunday night, she had an adorable hat which she has not taken off since. That was four days ago.

Meanwhile, Houston decided that he wanted to learn how to crochet, so i sat down and taught him using a big hook and thick yarn, because that way things go faster. He worked at it for a while and got incredibly frustrated, so i switched him to regular yarn and a normal hook, and he immediately threw himself into it whole-heartedly and has been crocheting every spare moment since. He is nearly finished with his first scarf, and i'm pretty sure that three minutes after he finishes that one, he'll start on a new one.

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Emma has been in our family for about a year now - almost exactly - and she's just a really good dog. We still put her in her crate at night and if we're gone for longer than half an hour, but i leave her out when i drive the kids to school in the mornings. Usually i come home and she's curled up on the couch, completely happy.

Today i came home and she met me at the front door, which i initially thought was a nice change. Except...no. Turns out, she had a party while i was gone. She somehow pulled my basket of yarn balls to the floor and then proceeded to play with them like a cat. Approximately 10 balls of yarn, all completely tangled together. Good yarn, too, that i didn't want to just throw away. So i spent the first two and a half hours of my morning untangling and re-winding balls of yarn. SIGH.

Guess who's going to be going in her crate when i bring the kids to school from now on....

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Possibly my favorite moment of today: Katrina, Houston, and i were in the car. Katrina was explaining what she wants for Christmas. 

Katrina: "I want glitter, because i really like to use it for projects." (She talked about the glitter for a while.)

Me: "Wait. Do you want glitter? Or glitter glue?"

Katrina: "Oh! Glitter glue. I really like pink glitter! It's so pretty!"

Me: "Pink glitter? Or pink glitter glue?"

Her: "Glitter glue. I mean glitter glue when i say glitter."

Me: "It's kind of an important distinction, though. They're totally different things, if you're asking for them for Christmas...."

Houston: "Yeah! Like, if i wanted a flower pot, but i just said, 'I want a pot,' then that's not the same thing at all!" 

Katrina: "And then on Christmas, people would be all like, 'Here's your pot!'"

I managed to not laugh until later, when i was recounting the conversation for Juanito.

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So it's Advent season, and we always have a several different Advent calendars going. This year we've got one that has jokes, one that has activities, and one that has the Christmas story, one verse at a time, for everyone to memorize. Also one that has candy.

Yesterday's activity was to start doing Secret Santa. We went to the dollar store and each got the same number of presents, and then came home and wrapped them with printed-up name tags so that the giver could be properly secret. It's day 2, and i'm pretty sure i already know who everyone has. Because i'm obnoxious.

Today's activity was looking up funny Christmas videos on Youtube. Easy, fast, and able get finished between Katrina's Heart and Soul practice and Juanito and Houston's needing to leave for Zumba. 

Conferences and other random things

During conferences, our school always has a book fair - kind of like a mini book store that comes to the school. My kids LOVE the book fair and always, always buy books from it. What always amuses me is that they buy books that i would never expect them to buy. This year, Houston bought a little book with Grumpy Cat "inspirational" sayings, a book about myths that aren't true, and "Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall." Zane bought a diary for boys and a book about sea creatures. Katrina's the only one i could possibly have predicted, with a National Geographic book about animals. (I got a $10 certificate for working at the book fair, so bought a couple of books for me too, because i am a teenage girl.)

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Tonight was the movie premier night, which i've been going to with Beth and Stephanie for the past year or so. Every 4 months, the theater offers free tickets to whoever grabs them first. They offer little containers of candy (usually - this time there were just crackers and cookies), movie posters, and a chance to win a raffle, and they show about 30-40 movie previews in a row. It sounds kind of weird, but it's actually quite an enjoyable night out. This time, my mom and two of my sisters came along, and it was totally fun.

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The school does middle school conferences like this: All of the teachers sit at a table in the gym, and you go to whatever teacher you want to talk to (usually the homeroom teacher), and they tell you how your kid is doing. There's no set times or anything. And so today we went to talk to Katrina and Houston's teachers.

Both of them were really excited about conferences, especially Houston, because he knew - knew, for the first time ever - that he was doing really, really well. No missing assignments (except that one that he didn't know about, from when he was sick), good grades in everything, and good behavior. It's such a change from the early days of his schooling, when i used to despair that he'd ever stop being in trouble all the time. It's lovely.

Katrina's conference was the fasted thing ever. Teacher: "Here's her grades. They're great. She's such a great kid, and such a pleasure to have in class, and so dedicated to working hard. Any questions?" Us: "Nope."

Student of the Month

Last night i got an email from Katrina's teacher, telling me that she was getting an award in the assembly today. That should have been my first hint that middle school was different - in the past, i'd get an email days in advance telling me exactly what was coming.

I dropped the kids off casually, made sure Katrina wasn't watching, and parked in the parking lot to wait until school started. As soon as i walked into the gym, it was obvious that this just wasn't going to be like assemblies in the past. The bleachers weren't taken down, so there was nowhere to sit (i took them down), and there were no other parents there. At all. Eventually two other parents wandered in, but in elementary school award assemblies, the bleachers (all three sets) are always packed full of parents.

When Katrina walked in, she didn't immediately look at the bleachers, so i thought that maybe she'd actually be surprised this time around. Usually she's seen me as soon as she walks into the gym and knows immediately that she's getting an award. She continued to not look back at all for half of the assembly, all through the completely random and utterly un-understandable skits that were supposedly about respect. (I mean, DUDE. There was a 20-30 minute thing that felt more like hours, where one of the teachers boringly explained how we could have respect for ourselves, and then the seventh graders had a skit that made NO SENSE done by kids who were reading off papers and skipping lines, i think, and ... pretending that one of the smaller kid had become a larger kid because he had eaten too much? Which seemed kind of mean to the larger kid. And then the teacher explained how we could respect each other, followed by a skit that made no sense.... This went on through respecting teachers and the building and ... something else. It was interminable.)

As soon as she realized that it was awards day, though, she swiveled around to look, saw me...and immediately deduced that she was getting an award. Stinker.

So i'm going to brag a second: Here we are, first month of awards, and Katrina has received the "Student of the month for moral focus." I'm not surprised. She's an incredibly dedicated, hard-working, kind student. She's the kind of kid i'd want in my classroom. I'm super proud of her. She's such a great kid.

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Tonight we went to see "Minions" at the movie theater, because it was free for kids and only $5 for adults. It was a cute movie, and going to the theater is a fun thing to do, but it kind of doesn't feel like a Friday right now, because there was no pizza or anything. I'm a creature of habit, and this has totally thrown off my routine. 

Movie night and school shopping and other randomness

We had movie night tonight with Linda and Andrew and their kids and Stephanie and Beth and us and our kids. It's always just fun to get together with all of those people, and it's just been a long time since we've seen Linda and Andrew's family (not counting church). Stephanie chose "Grand Budapest Hotel" for the movie, and it was quite delightful. I kind of feel like i would need to watch it again to fully understand it, but i think i really liked it.

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Zane went to a birthday party for one of his best friends this afternoon. I asked if he had fun and what they did, and he said, "We had a piñata, except it wasn't actually a piñata, because it was a Minecraft Creeper, and it wasn't hanging up and we didn't hit it with a bat." 

Me: "So...what did you do with it then?"

Zane: "We just had to punch it with our hands until it broke."

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I feel like we've just been gone a lot this summer, so our whole back-to-school shopping has been thrown off. Usually, by this time, we're completely ready to go, but this year we're still getting a few last things.

Yesterday, we went to two Goodwill stores and a Salvation Army, looking for clothes for Houston mostly. (We managed to find him clothes AND two pairs of shoes, and we found an adorable pair of shoes for Katrina as well. Yay!)

Today, Katrina and i went shopping and got clothes for her. Adorable clothes. (I wish that they made adult clothes as cute as kid's clothes. Sparkly pictures on shirts! Embroidered pictures on jeans! I want embroidered flowers and birds on my jeans too!) Shopping for clothes with Katrina has changed in the past few years, because she just has much more a sense of her own style now. Whereas before, she just liked random stuff, and i could convince her to like almost anything, she now likes specific styles (chunky turtleneck sweaters, for example). I've been trying to teach her to (kindly) tell me when she doesn't like something i hold up, rather than trying it on, buying it, and then never wearing it. If you're not going to wear it, just TELL ME!!! It's fine!!! No feelings hurt!

Zane doesn't actually need any new clothes, because he's just inherited a TON of clothes from Houston and some good jeans from his cousin. I asked him if he felt like he wanted to go shopping for a new outfit, and he was all, "Nope! I'm good!" Yay!

So. Some new socks and underwear, and i think we're finished!

(I do realize that we can buy things at other times of the year, but i just...don't, usually. Beginning of the school year, we stock up, and then we only buy things if they've actually outgrown what they have.)

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Juanito's now put something like 40 hours into his drawing for ArtPrize, and it looks amazing. He's all, "Really, anyone can do it, if they use a small enough grid and enough patience," but he's wrong. He's just really, really talented.

Pallets and Harrison and Spy

This afternoon, Juanito was all, "Hey! Want to go do something with me?!" I was all, "Yes! Probably?" So we drove to a parking lot to haul three giant oak pallets onto the the top of the van. The first one weighed about 200 pounds, and we were struggling to lift it onto our van when a couple of men stopped and volunteered to help. (Sometimes being a woman is helpful. Nobody would stop to help a couple of men.) We secured the pallets with bungee cords and drove them home and then hauled them back off the car so that Juanito could rip them apart. Hopefully they'll turn into awesome furniture.

This afternoon we got to go celebrate my little nephew Harrison, who just turned one. He's completely adorable, and it was a fun party.

And then tonight i went to a movie with Beth. "Spy." I'd seen it before with Juanito, but it was just as hilarious the second time, although i did have several moments of, "Oh yeah. I forgot about THAT." And then i'd get all nervous, because i'd told Beth that i really liked it, and i was afraid that she'd be all, "Geez, Karen!" But then it would be hilarious again, and i just still really liked it. (So did she.) (I think.)

Sunday

We went to Grand Haven today, to have lunch at a park with my family, and then from there went to my Grandpa's house. We visited with my grandpa for a little while, and then headed down to the beach. This week finally feels like summer - it's hot enough to actually want to maybe go into the lake and everything!

The kids had tons of fun playing in the water and the sand. The adults had fun soaking up some sunshine. We celebrated Kelly and Wyatt's and Chellie's birthdays, and could easily have celebrated Jill's, Rick's, and Zane's as well, but Jill and Rick weren't there, and Zane decided to wait until next time so that he could have a cake and singing all to himself. (Also, i think that he didn't want to be the center of THAT much attention.)

And then our family drove back to Grand Rapids to go see the movie "Inside Out" with Beth and Stephanie. All of us have been waiting and waiting to get to see that movie, and it really was incredibly good. It's all feelings-y and totally made me cry. Afterwards, Houston told me that he cried during it, both from laughing so hard and from sadness, and in the parking lot he cried into my shoulder for a few minutes, because he was so, so sad about one of the characters. It's one of those movies that, almost as soon as it was over, i thought, "Okay. I'm going to need to watch that again."

Sunday

Katrina "couldn't fall asleep" last night, so she came downstairs and promptly fell asleep on the couch, and then Juanito sat down to "read his book" and promptly fell asleep on the couch as well. I made it up to bed, but then i totally slept through church this morning. We were all tired!

This afternoon, Juanito got Katrina's door up on her door frame. It turned out to be a much bigger and more complicated job than i think he'd expected, first because the door, as he sawed it small enough, started falling apart a little bit, and second because the door frame (being in an old house) is all crooked, so he had to saw the top of the door crooked to fit it. He eventually conquered the door, though, and Katrina is completely happy to be able to shut it and keep people (brothers) out and dogs in.

Ever since Juanito saw the movie Mad Max, he's been desperately wanting me to go see it with him. So tonight we went. I can totally understand why he likes it. Lots of crazy cars with giant tires and enormous trucks with giant tires and explosions. 

Sunday

It was a rainy day today, so we did rainy day stuff for a lot of the day.

Juanito and i sat on the couch with the intention of reading. I read, while he slept. The kids played "Just Dance" on the Wii, while Emma went back and forth between sleeping between Juanito and me and jumping around trying to play with the kids who were dancing.

The kids and i planned to watch one episode of Doctor Who and accidentally watched three.

Legos were played. Drawing was done. Email was written.

It was a normal day.

And then tonight, Beth and i went to see "Pitch Perfect 2," because it was the $5 Sunday movie. And it was really good. We both laughed a lot.

So all in all, in was a really good Sunday.

Movies and friends

Tonight we had another movie night - this one with the friends we get together with every month or so to watch a movie. We grilled and laughed and talked through the entire movie, like we generally do. (I need to remember not to watch a movie with this group if i actually want to be able to hear the entire movie!)

It was Andrew's turn to choose the movie this month, so we watched "The Red Shoes," a ballet movie that was all sad and surreal and ... i think i liked it?

And now Juanito wants to start watching Ender's Game with me, so i am prepared to be really annoyed. :)

Friends

Katrina has been asking if her friend Alex could come over and play - or if she could go there - since the very first afternoon that school let out. (I mean, to be fair, she asks fairly regularly anyhow, but she started asking in earnest, and often, after summer vacation started.) Yesterday we went and got Alex from her daycare, had her until her mom picked her up after work, and then got her back at 8:00 so that she could sleep over and had her until 5:00 today. I am hoping that that will sate Katrina's need to have her over for at least a few days.

As to why Katrina used a marker to make herself look like a cat, i cannot explain that.

Beth and Keren came over for pizza-movie night tonight. We watched Paddington, which i was super, super hesitant about wanting to watch, based on the horrible previews that made it seem like a lot of potty humor. I was quite pleasantly surprised that it was really sweet and enjoyable. (Thanks, Beth, for making me watch it!) (Okay, actually, she didn't MAKE me watch it. She just said, "Maybe i'll watch it with your kids next weekend when you're not around...." And then i had to agree to watch it, because what if it was good and i missed out on enjoying it with them?! I'm so ridiculous.)

After we threw the kids in bed, we sat and talked and talked and reminisced and laughed. Friends are the best.

And, since it was a rainy day, that's pretty much all we did all day. That and read. And watch some Doctor Who.