Getting Ready for the Grandparents' Program

One of the big deals in 2nd grade at our school is the Grandparents' Program. The kids spend a month or so writing their best stories and learning to sing some fun songs. The teachers prepare a slide show with pics sent in from all the families.

When Drama Queen and Teach were little, this was a much bigger deal! We didn't have digital cameras and phones with built in equipment. We had to take real pictures and have them developed at Walgreens and then send them in.

I remember one of the teachers even insisted that the pic had to be submitted on a slide! Does anyone even remember what a slide is anymore?

Anyway, pics are still not easy to get. We had to wait until Grandpa got home from New Zealand and then convince him to come over (that was easy, we just had to say "party!"). Then we had to actually remember to take the picture...

The Gym Rat's birthday worked out great, but it still wasn't easy. Just as we were getting things set up, we had all these photo bombers show up! I finally managed to drag them out so we could get something cute. After Grandpa left and I was downloading pics, I noticed this funny black line on some of them.

Any ideas on what would cause that? I'm going to have to see if Prima Donna can help me photoshop them out, otherwise we have to have another party so we can get Grandpa back up here. Oh wait, that's not a problem, Burrito's birthday is next Tuesday.



Grandpa, you up for another party?? I'll bring the cake... and the camera. :)

Birthday Party for Gym Rat

The Gym Rat has been so busy moving into his new house and getting everything set up just right. He took a whole week off work, so when Friday rolled around, he couldn't really afford to take it off just because he was turning 27. So he worked.

I sent him a quick "Happy birthday!" right after midnight, but I didn't get to see him at all. Since Princess had the dance date on Saturday, we opted for a Sunday night party. The Gym Rat surprised me when he asked for chicken chimis for dinner (without the olives, of course). He usually wants BBQ chicken or steak, something my sweetie would be required to cook.

We started the party around 6:30. Bossy and Gamer and their kids showed up, as did Grandpa and the Gym Rat's roommate. It was a fun party, mostly just visiting and hanging out. When the Gym Rat opened his gifts, I think his favorite one was this stuffed little Sulley from Monsters' University.  The Drama Queen gave it to him and honestly, I'm really glad it went to his house! It was pretty annoying...

I'm not sure how we managed to miss taking pictures of the cake before I started cutting it. It was his favorite, Funfetti, with the cake frozen pretty solid under the frosting. I could hardly get the knife through it, but that's the way he likes it. :)

I am so proud of him! He has been making huge strides in his life, buying a house, graduating from university next month, turning 27, and getting promoted at his job.

Now if I could just convince him to find a wife...

Happy Birthday, Gym Rat!
I love you.

Getting Ready for the Ball

My sweet Princess had a date for the Sweetheart's Dance tonight. She worked for 5 1/2 hours and then had about 30 minutes to get ready. The Drama Queen had everything laid out and ready to do her hair as soon as she was dressed.

The little sisters hovered around, just dying to be part of the excitement. It wasn't long before they were all dressed in their "princess" clothes too. Then they got in line to have their hair and makeup done. We teased Scout mercilessly about her little crush. I threatened to text all the pictures of her to his mom.

Princess and Scout

OK, so this is a good story. Her little guy is on my basketball team. This morning at our last game he came up to her with his awesome black basketball that he never lets anyone shoot and said, "You can use my ball today!" She turned a beautiful shade of pink, but accepted the ball and started shooting. This guy is also in her class at school and he walks her home (along with her brothers) every day. Sounds pretty obvious to me, what do you think?

So back to our princess party...

The Drama Queen made Princess even more beautiful (if that is possible), my sweetie snapped a few pics and we sent her out the door. She is number 4 of my 8 daughters. Baby Doll will be old enough to date in 13 years and she'll be putting on the lipstick for real. Want to take any guesses on how old I will be?

Yeah, almost a senior citizen...

Sugar Cookies

I have eaten SOOO many sugar cookies today!! And if you ask my kids, it hasn't helped a bit...

I'm still not sweet!

I have been so grumpy today. I think it's because I knew before I even opened my eyes this morning that today was going to be a difficult day. My sweetie eased me into it by getting most of the kids off to school before he headed off to work. I realized Scout was still in her bed when the phone rang and it was the school pointing out that she was absent and I should have called. Within 20 minutes I delivered her to the office to check in.

Half an hour later I dropped off Curly for kindergarten, then I ran to the shop to pick up Gamer after he dropped off his truck for repairs. We picked up my serger from the repair shop since we were already halfway there. All of those errands put me WAY behind. That's about when the Dog Walker called to tell me he had failed his Biology test.

That is not me, that is Prima Donna! Scary, huh?!

I had all the Girl Scouts coming by at 3:00 to make Sugar Cookies, so I spent the next hour cleaning up and getting ready for them. Thank goodness Princess mixed up all the dough last night.

They had lots of fun making cookies! After they left we finished cooking up the dough for neighbors and I'm going to try to send some to Sister Teach in Texas.

I spent the rest of the evening eating cookies and helping the Dog Walker get all his assignments in on time. He writes all his papers, but he always appreciates a quick edit before they are submitted. I hovered close this time just to make sure all 12 were in on time. We submitted the last one just after 11:00 which was pretty good since it wasn't due until midnight!

I guess it wasn't really a bad day, just super stressful, and how do I deal with stress??

I EAT!!