Evelyn's new bed

A bitter sweet day

Today is the last day of a long and lovely weekend--and it has been bittersweet for me. Sweet, because I got to go to church and feel confirmed in my faith; bitter (a little) because my husband and son weren't there (Andrew threw up twice before church--and again after I left). I'm also reluctant to let go of this weekend, which has been mild-weathered and full of food and family (family who are also friends).

I'm not really looking forward to reality again tomorrow, especially since we start our mad dash to the end of the semester and things won't calm down for several weeks.

But tomorrow we're also planning to decorate our Christmas tree for family home evening, and I do love Christmas. I love the camaraderie, I love the decorations and the music, I love planning gifts for people I love--and most of all, I love the time to talk to my children about Christ and about hope.

So, a bittersweet day.

But we have enjoyed our week. We stayed in town, because Dan's brother was visiting. Instead of doing a big dinner on Thursday, we waited to have our feast yesterday, when Dan's sister Sarah could also be present. On Thursday, we still got together with family--everyone brought appetizers and finger food, which was much less stressful than a big meal. We spent the morning making pomegranate jelly and then spent the afternoon hanging out with family.

On Friday, we drove down to SG and enjoyed some beautiful fall weather. We had a picnic, followed by a very short walk and bike-ride with the children. (And yes, a little shopping was done, but not anywhere near opening hours.)

Saturday, I finished up the last batch of jelly (3, if you were wondering), Dan put together a twin bed for Evelyn (now we have to figure out what to do with the toddler bed currently sitting in our living room), we raked the last of our leaves, and then enjoyed our delayed Thanksgiving feast, where we had turkey, ham, rolls, mashed potatoes, beans, sweet potato casserole (our contribution), stuffing (with mushrooms and artichoke hearts--this family doesn't do anything the easy way), stuffed jalepenos, and, of course, pie. Lots of pie. I made a chocolate hazelnut pie that started out smelling like Nutella (but didn't end up tasting like it). It was very rich and Dan made a very strange face when he first tasted it (but later said it improved upon acquaintance. I think that's because he knew I would be hurt if he just left me with the strange faces).

And that brings us to today. I hope all our readers had a lovely long weekend full of things that make them happy (whether that is food, sleep, family, friends, shopping, or whatever the case may be).

So you think you can dance?

Dancing seems to be one of those talents that was disproportionately spread in my family (just ask Jared, the former BYU ballroom dancer, who tried to help me learn a dance for my social dance class once up on a time).

 Evelyn, however, loves dancing. If she hears music, she'll dance. Sometimes she doesn't even need music. So we've signed her up for a weekly dance class. And in this town, that means the occasional performance.

A week or so ago, when we got the dresses for the performance, Evelyn excitedly told her father, "Daddy, my dance teachers bought me a beautiful dress!" Um, no. That dress was paid for by your parents, kid. In any case, we're grateful that she got a cute dress. (Seriously, some of the costumes are just strange).

This Saturday was her first performance, at a local scam talent show, where the dancers get in free but all of their family members pay to get in. (Not much, but given the number of dances, I'm sure they made a pretty tidy profit just off family members.)

 She was pretty excited about the whole thing--from the costume, to the ridiculous little bun she was required to have (seriously, I hair-sprayed and bobby-pinned that thing within an inch of its life), and the lipstick and blush she was also (required) to have.

She still doesn't quite get the concept of smiling for the camera.

 

 

You'll have to pardon the quality of the next several shots--we were in a large commons room at a local high school, and if I used the flash, I got a dim picture; if I didn't use the flash, it was too blurry. One of these days I'll get around to a new camera. In the meantime, you get these highly edited pictures, just to get a sense of the dance routine. (Next time, I'll know what apparently all experienced dance moms know--don't try to take pictures, just record the dang routine).

 

  

 This last one is super blurry (no flash), but I loved the funny little cheek on hands that they used to close the routine. Of course, probably only half of the dancers actually made it into position, but three year olds have a huge advantage on older dancers: they're just as cute when they mess up the routine as when they nail it.

Saturday, in general, was a busy day. We started with Bountiful Baskets (a friend was kind enough to get ours for me, because I was carless, as Dan had driven the car down to SG to help his parents pick up his brother Matt, who's in town for Thanksgiving). Then Andrew had Junior Jazz at 9:00 at one high school, and we had to be at the other high school at 10 to get ready for Evelyn's performance. At 11, Andrew had a pirate birthday party at a friend's house. He's been entertaining us with pirate speak since he got back.

In the afternoon, after finishing a freelance project 6 days early (go me!), we finally finished bagging the piles of leaves that I'd raked up on Thursday (with some help--or interference--from the kids).

This last is just because she's cute and we love her--and she's been a little sick all week.

 

We're all looking forward to a break this week: food, family, books, shopping . . . maybe not necessarily in that order. At least you know what my priorities are, right?

Reflections Update

For anyone who hasn't already heard, Andrew's story (see previous post) was one of the winner's for his school's Reflections Contest! That means he's going on to compete at the district level (whatever that means, exactly). I tried to get a picture, but the gym where the assembly took place was too dim. You'll just have to picture Andrew with the biggest, cheesiest grin you can imagine plastered across his face.

And his aspiring-author mom might have been just a little proud too.

Here's my dim assembly room picture--Andrew's in the front row in the light blue shirt.

Short and sweet

We took a quick jaunt up north to see family (mine and Dan's)--we even got to see Sarah's primary program. The kids did great--they must have a great primary president! :)

We're back now and gearing up for a full week.

In other news, I've decided I should not be allowed to talk to door-to-door salesmen. Apparently, what sounds like "no" to me, doesn't sound like "no" to them . . . You'd think a trained rhetorician could do better than this! (Not to worry--we've already cancelled the order. :P)

School pictures

This morning, as I was getting Evelyn ready for her school pictures, Andrew sauntered into the bathroom. I was using the curling iron to curl her ponytails, and Andrew asked, "what is that?" Apparently, the curling iron doesn't get used very much at our house.

Anyway, thinking about pictures reminded me about Andrew's pictures from earlier this year. I had mixed feelings about his picture. On the one hand, it's a very Andrew expression (he gets this one from his dad, I think). On the other hand, it's not the greatest picture. I was planning on doing re-takes, and then Andrew was home with pink eye the day of retakes and I didn't think a) the school would appreciate the pink-eye or b) that Andrew would look any better with bloodshot eyes. So, here's the picture that will go down in perpetuity as Andrew's kindergarten picture:

I remembered

What else we did this week. Friday was the deadline for the PTA Reflections contest (which I remember fondly from my childhood because I actually won a few times). I spent all week asking Andrew if he wanted to enter. He must have started 20 different drawings, only to give up because the heads weren't round enough, or the colors were wrong. (Honestly, I have no idea where the kid gets his perfectionist tendencies from). In any case, the drawing never happened.

However, Friday morning, inspiration apparently struck. (That, or desperation). Andrew dictated a story the following story for me:

Caleb wanted a toy car, but his mom wouldn’t let him buy one. So Caleb decided to ride his bike to the grocery store by himself.

There were lots of different people at the store. Caleb was the only one with light colored skin. Caleb wanted to hide, but there were too many people.

Then he saw his mom at the store. Caleb decided to run down the aisles because he didn’t want his mom to see him. He got lost. He tried to find his way around, but he couldn’t.

Caleb met a tall man with dark skin. The man walked over to Caleb. Caleb felt a little shy.

The man said, “Are you lost?”

Caleb said, “yes.”

The man helped Caleb find his way back to the check-out line. They walked by the frozen food. Caleb saw some pizza boxes.

“I like pizza!” Caleb said.

The man said, “I like pizza, too!”

Caleb said, “Hey, we both like pizza.”

They found Caleb’s mom. She said, “Caleb, where were you?”

Caleb said, “I went to the store by myself. I’m sorry. But this man helped me find you.”

Caleb learned that some people can help you. Even if you think they’re scary, they sometimes can be like you.

The theme this year is "Diversity." Andrew and I talked about it a lot, but I'm still not sure how much he got from our discussions (as you might be able to guess from the role "diversity" plays in his story).

Post-Halloween

 I'm trying to remember last week, but aside from Halloween, I'm not coming up with much. I suppose that means life as usual.

Here's Evelyn's costume for Monday morning, for her preschool. (One of the women who works at the preschool told me later that when she'd told Evelyn, "you look gorgeous," Evelyn responded "That's because it's Halloween!")

I tried to liven things up during the day by making a special Halloween lunch (which went mostly unappreciated): apple mouths and sandwiches with Halloween shapes pressed in (the shapes didn't show up well here).

 

I helped out with Andrew's Halloween party--I painted faces. I'd forgotten how imitative five-year-olds are. After one little girl requested a princess (one that didn't even turn out very attractively--simple designs are best for face painting!), I must have had another half dozen requests for the same thing. Oh well, at least they all seemed happy. I use the paints again later to paint Evelyn's face. (I offered to do Andrew's, but he wanted the mask. Of course, he pulled the mask off half-way down the street and didn't really wear it again.)

Of course, the kids were most excited about the actual trick-or-treating. We had dinner, and then I took the kids out around 5:30 (Dan elected to stay and pass out candy). We did have one boy at one of the first houses we came to tell us that we were too early for trick-or-treating, but most people were happy to see the kids. We didn't make it far--our street and part of another street--before heading over to Bubby and Poppy's house.

 

 

Aside from this, we don't have a lot to report. It snowed yesterday, which put a halt on our plans to clean up the yard (hopefully it will warm up again later in the week!). Today, both Dan and I taught in church. This was my first time giving a lesson for the young women. The lesson was on missionary responsibilities, and I dug up a bunch of missionary stuff from my mission, so that was fun. I think it went well, except that I finished the lesson with fifteen minutes left and then found myself filling time with mission stories. The girls here are nice--but they're not super talkative!

Hope all our readers have had a fun, safe week.