The Diva on Stage

Today was Faith's day of stardom.

First up, her dance recital at 10am. Her class had two dances--a tap routine to "I Love Being a Girl" and a ballet routine to a princess song from Enchanted. They were adorable. We couldn't take photos during the recital, so I'll have to wait for the DVD to come in.

My little tap dancer at home, before the show

And my ballerina at home afterwards

We came home and had lunch, then Faith had to get ready again for her theater performance! It was her theater class finale and she was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I did not realize that she was actually going to sing this time. In her last theater class, the children sang but it was all group songs. This time, she sang Over the Rainbow on her own. Too cute!

Here she is, front and center singing!

What We've Been Up to ...

It's been a busy few days.

Tuesday - Faith was a little sick to her stomach, so we stayed home and essentially relaxed in the hopes that she would feel better. Then ...

Wednesday - Nana & Miss Barb came to visit!!! (This would be my mom and her friend for those playing along at home. Barb has never been to Texas, so they timed their trip to coincide with Faith's dance recital.) We went out for dinner and then to church where we found out that Miss Faith will be a "honor Daisy" for earning all her badges this year!

Thursday - We went to the Dallas World Aquarium because it is really cool and mostly indoors. Ben is still fascinated with sharks (we may have to have a shark birthday party), I'm not sure what Faith's favorite part was, I'll have to ask her.

I just thought this was such a cool shot of F&B:



Friday (today) - We did a shopping tour with stops at Joann's, Kirkland's and Stonebriar Mall, plus lunch at La Madeline. Faith had her recital rehearsal today and the recital is tomorrow!

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme ...

Shaun was off today for Memorial Day, so we took the kids to Scarborough Faire. I have been singing the song all day, so it's only fair that anyone reading this should have it running through their heads too. I tried to make Shaun do it too, but he didn't know the song, so it's just me that has that annoying refrain on perennial repeat.

Anyhow, the Faire was about an hour south of us, so we headed out of here at 11, got there around noon and stayed till it closed around 7. Thankfully, F&B stayed awake in the car, so when we got home around 8, they went right to bed.

Let's see, we ate a ton, they shot arrows, rode llamas, saw a couple of jousts, saw a dual, saw turtle races, ate some more, went on a couple of rides, played a couple of game, ate some more, saw a few fairies, met some interesting knights who gave them jeweled dragon tears to wish on and got some new dress up costumes.

I've never been before and Shaun hasn't been in years (he thinks it was probably high school last he went), so we all had a good time.

Ben learning how to shoot a bow & arrow

Faith rides a llama

Ben & his llama

Faith and a really cool carved stump/chair

The kids meet some cool knights--these guys weren't part of the fair, they were just dressed up, but they gave the kids little gems that were "dragon tears" to wish on and took pictures with them. They told Shaun & I that they like to see the imagination with the kids which is why they come in costume.

Faith and a knight water fountain

On a swinging boat ride, the boy was not quite thrilled

Faith and a fairy she met along the way

Showing off their new hats--Faith got a pretty crown and Ben got a dragon hat. They also each got a cape and a white unicorn & brown horse hat that are similar to Ben's dragon one.

Dragon Ben, isn't he the cutest dragon ever???

An interesting fact

F&B, as I commonly refer to my munchkins as, is also an informal abbreviation for "Food & Beverage".

I learned that tonight, clicking on a referral link to see how someone found me (Google in Egypt). It does make sense though, based on how much they eat. ;o)

I wonder if he or she found us fascinating ...

Running to Stand Still, and the Race for the Cure

I wanted a catchier title, but it's late and I can't think of anything brilliant that involves "run" or "running" in the title, so this is what you're getting. It was either U2 or Bryan Adams "Run to You".

Tonight, for the first time in my entire life, I ran a half mile straight.

If you know me, that should come as a huge surprise. I'm not a runner, I don't play one on tv, I suck at it and I really really really hate it. Even when I'm in my best shape, I still don't run. I did a grand total of three 5Ks when Shaun & I were working out at UBT and that was it, it was not fun. I bike ride, I do the elliptical, I swim, but I do NOT run. Yet it's one of those things that I *think* I should do.

The discussion arose a little while ago on DAM and the idea was proposed that we do a 5K as a group. After some planning and organization, it was decided that we should do the Komen Race for the Cure 5K (it's for breast cancer, not sure if it is called "Komen" outside of Dallas). And I signed up. Because apparently, raising two small children made me lose enough brain cells to forget the fact that I don't run.

But since I signed up, I am going to do it and I am going to run it to the best of my ability (as opposed to walking it which I can do but I already know I can *walk* a 5K, I want to see how well I can *run* one). And I've been running. The lake next to my house is 0.4 miles once around (Shaun GPSed it for me). I started out jogging the long stretches and walking the short ones, it's kind of a big crooked rectangle. Then I managed to jog long-short-long. And tonight, for the very first time, I managed to go once around plus a long strip before I had to slow down, leaving me with a total of 1/2 mile *running*!

Now as for the Komen 5K, it's in about two weeks, so I need to up my distance soon, rather than the speed. I'm comfy with 1.6 miles (4 laps), but I really need to be working towards 3.2 miles/5K which is about 8 laps. That is this week's project.

And if you love me and want to donate, which you should because it is a great cause and I am busting my *ss to run the darn thing, the link is right over there on the right, second link from the top. Thank you. ;o)

And more meetings!

I'm actually getting really excited about the fall.

We had more meetings today at the main campus, so I had a chance to really get to find out more about the school, curriculum, etc.

Now, being that it is a classical curriculum, there isn't a huge emphasis on science in the early years, mainly just the Friday elective that Faith takes. However, they are adding in a little more that corresponds with the time periods in history, so I'll get to basically write my own for it! I've got a couple of ideas brewing already--making compasses with Prince Henry the Navigator, a look into temperature/measurement/Fahrenheit & Celcius. I'm all about unit studies, so we can use the science as information for handwriting practice and/or paragraph writing skills, the temperature unit, I want to use it for math as well in terms of multiplying/dividing with decimals as well as graphing.

We're dropping Lion, Witch & Wardrobe since most kids have read it and are adding Prince Caspian. I'm definitely making "horn books" with the whole early American unit. It all sounds like so much fun to me.

Remember how I said my brain was finally turning back on? I actually have critical thinking skills again!

Winding Down

Summertime is really just about on us now.

On Monday, Ben had his last Kindermusik class and Faith had her last dance class. Nothing left there except her recital.

On Tuesday, Faith had her second to last theater class. Then just one more of those and her show and it's over.

I'm getting quite excited. I'm ready to stop playing chauffeur for a few months and I'm definitely ready to stop having to play "entertain Ben in a lobby" for a few months. He takes Kindermusik while she is in school, but she takes dance and theater in the afternoons which means I have to drive her, then entertain Ben for an hour while she is at her activity. That gets old pretty quickly, sometime after the first 20 minutes of the first week.

For next year, we are leaning towards them both taking classes that they can take at the same time. Stonebriar has ice skating at tons of different times, divided by age, so they could both skate at the same time. We are also thinking gymnastics, lots of mostly the same time classes (1 hour for Faith, 45 minutes for Ben). That sounds more enjoyable to me. I'd still have to sit there, but I could sit there and read a book for an hour.

Either way, stuff is almost done here, I cannot wait till the end of the month, we have nothing scheduled all summer as of the moment.

We Had Visitors ...

Our ducks are back and they came by the house this evening.

Feeding our feathered friends some bread

Uh oh, this one is coming towards me?!?!?!

Then they walked across the street to go back to the lake and we followed. Here are two of our three friends.

And this cranky guy also lives in the lake and he chased the ducks away when they went for the bread. Note, he did not *eat* the bread. I was the lucky one who got to see him catch and eat a little fish. YUCK! Thankfully Faith & Ben did not see or I would have had a bunch of explaining to do.

Ben's Haircut

As requested, photos of my cute little guy!



He was playing football on the patio, doesn't he look tough? ;o)

Shark Boy, the Sequel

The boy comes up to me this morning, with a shark costume in hand, and says "Mama, help me put this on." I agree, providing he goes to the bathroom first (with my luck, he would pee in the darn shark costume). He contemplates the offer and decides OK. So he goes to the potty and I help him into his costume. I get him zipped in, he puts up the hood, smiles at me and announces "I go bite Faithie now!"

On the plus side, it was shark bite game where he pretends to chomp her with his arms, not real Ben bite game where he actually uses his teeth.

~*~*~*~

And one more Ben & sharks story. He needed a haircut desperately. To be honest, he probably needed one two weeks ago, but that's neither here or there. He was starting to resemble my sister in law's shih tzu before she got him a summer cut. There are a couple of hair cut places in the plaza with Super Target near my house. We have not been terribly fond of Great Clips and Shaun is a bit iffy on Sport Clips. I had no desire to go to my stylist at the salon even though she does a kick-ass job. So we opted to try the new kid place in the plaza. It's name:
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wait for it
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SHARKEY'S!!!!!

Ben immediately fell in love with the large stuffed shark at the entrance, so it was enough to get him in there. He completely ignored the stylist but was very cooperative for his hair cut. He did exactly what she asked and got to sit in a little yellow Hummer, but he wouldn't look at her or God forbid talk to her. I call it a victory though, we were in and out in 10 minutes and you can see his eyes again.

Work, play, more work

I was right, it's been a busy couple of days.

Tuesday was afternoon meetings regarding writing assessments--on grading for quality & content versus structure & conventions. My personal feelings have always ran towards quality & content, unless it is a long term project with multiple drafts, in which case it all should be correct by the final copy.

Wednesday was Faith's end of kindergarten playdate at Peter Piper Pizza. Out of the 12 families in her class, 7 were there and it was actually all 7 girls that will be back next year. And her best friend Abby was there, so that completely made Faith's day. Shaun went with us and Ben had a great time with Daddy. We also had life group, Faith had Daisies and Ben had his little church class too. All in all, a fun but slightly hectic day.

And that brings us to today. I had a new parent coffee, then more meetings, so Shaun was in charge of making it a fun Daddy-Faith-Ben day. I believe they spent the morning playing Wii and the afternoon swimming in the hot tub. Since there are not a ton of new fourth graders and I have very little info anyhow, my role at the new parent coffee was mostly limited to standing there and nodding. I did get a chance to go through a number of the fourth grade books and made myself tons of notes on projects, assessments, learning exercises, etc. I at least have a little bit of a plan now. Then I came home, went swimming with the kids and went for a run, what excitement.

Last Day of School, First Day of Work

Faith's official 100% last day of kindergarten was today. Bear in mind, we had the actual last class day last Wednesday. We had the last day of electives two weeks ago and the arts festival the previous week. Today was an awards assembly that necessitated us taking her there at 8am and dragging a not-so-happy two year old back there at 9:30 and subjecting him to a very long awards assembly. The parents in Faith's class who have older ones could have at least warned us rookie mom that awards assembly means 1.5 hours of sitting there to see your kid on stage with her class for 20 seconds while she gets a ribbon. I would have left the boy at home. Or with grandma. Even Daddy's office would have been more fun for him.

After said awards assembly (which could be abbreviated as AA with a full double entrendre intended), I headed home with F&B and called my mother in law to see if she wanted quality grandchild time. She was in California till yesterday, so she missed Mother's Day. No time like the present to make up for it. She met me at my house and off went F&B for some sort of adventure. I found out later that they talked her into taking them to the Wiggles Playplace, which is on my list of headache inducing spots that Mommy has to be severely deranged to attempt to go to. Chuck E Cheese is also on that list--they talked her into that last week.

Anyhow, I headed back to the school to my very first faculty meeting as faculty. In a few months, someone make sure to smack me upside the head for saying this because as a general rule, faculty meetings are more of a necessary evil, but I actually enjoyed it. Possibly because it involved adults having intelligent discourses on educational issues, rather than commenting on the poop habits of two year olds. The book discussions involved the great works of Western Literature, not "Elmo's New Babysitter". And they had cookies & coffee which always helps. There are more meetings all week--writing assessments, timelines for history and religion classes, a new parents' coffee, etc. It appears I will be busy for a little bit.

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all my mommy friends had wonderful days!

We had a quiet one--brunch this morning, then Shaun had to work for a bit, so Faith & Ben & I just hung out at the house. We ran a couple of errands and did get a little plastic pool for the backyard, but it was only in the low 70s which didn't seem warm enough to be running around outside in bathing suits to me.

We had an easy dinner, just a frozen hamburger pie I made a few weeks ago. Easy enough to be no work for me. Faith made me a card and Ben made me a little pot in church with a poem about the goodies inside. Shaun helped them pick out some hand weights, bike pump, pedometer and a new movie for me. Before you laugh, this is actually what I wanted. I need to get the tires blown up better on the jogging stroller so Ben can run with me. The hand weights are for when I am on the ellipitcal and the pedometer is for daily usage.

Still trying to figure out a plan for tomorrow. Faith has an awards ceremony, then Ben has Kindermusik. I have an optional meeting on writing assessments, if I can find a babysitter, so I'm still trying to figure that one out. Our regular people are either in school or work, so I'm going to have to call my MIL in the morning and see if she cna stay with the kids for an hour or two.

My News!

I am going back to work in the fall!

Faith goes to a university-model school which means she goes MW and we homeschool TuTh. She'll continue to go there and on that schedule for a number of years. They even have a high school.

Ben is going to start preschool in the fall. We wanted him at Faith's old preschool, but the logistics (and rising gas prices) were a concern. The church next door to Faith's school has an MDO and a preschool that a lot of the parents use and rave about, so we are sending Ben there on Mondays and Wednesdays. His schedule is very similar to hers.

Anyhow, I asked her principal if they happened to be doing any hiring and he had a part-time 4th Grade position open! They apparently have a ton of third graders (it's the largest class in the school), so they are adding one more MW section of fourth grade. I figured why not, I taught 5th/6th and applied for it. I interviewed with him on Tuesday and got an email today offering me the job!

I'm so excited. I'll be working the same schedule as the kids, give or take a couple of days and I loved teaching, so I am thrilled to be able to do it again!

Super Lala Boy

Or what happens when Mommy works out and Ben feels horribly neglected.

He has no toys, no shows to watch, no books to read ...

So the solution is to lay in a basket of laundry.

Of course, he has no blanket, so the next best thing is the tag from a shirt.

Life is rough if you're a Ben.

Another Crazy Day in My Life

I spent entirely too much time in the car today.

Dentist with Ben - He has awesome teeth and is apparently an awesome little patient. I was pleasantly surprised.

Job interview - It went well, cross your fingers, I want it!

Theater class - OK, I skipped this one by being at the interview longer than anticipated, Shaun had to take her. ;o)

Post Office - If you need to fill out paperwork, you shouldn't wait until you are at the desk. It makes other people behind you want to stab you with the cheap little pens they have chained to the counter.

Dinner & the Theater - Bliss! We had dinner at the theater, then saw Rain, the Beatles Experience. It was quite relaxing and my MIL watched F&B. She got roped into Chuck E Cheese and we had a quiet adult meal. Fair trade. ;o)

A Conversation with F&B

We headed off to SuperTarget late this afternoon. I had a chicken enchilada casserole out for dinner but I wanted tostada chips for on the side.

While at SuperTarget, I opted to do a little much needed shopping--paper towels, milk, etc. Faith then reminds me (repeatedly) that we need syrup and cereal. Over and over and over again.

Finally I gave up.

Me: We're not getting those, we dont really need them.
F: But we dooooooooooo, what are we going to eat for breakfast?
Me: Well, we've decided to make budget cuts and eliminate breakfast, you already eat two other meals. [Note to self: sarcasm is often lost on five year olds.]
F: But we have to eat breakfast, I need it.
Me: What could you eat for breakfast?
Ben: Corndogs!!!!
Me: [look of utter disgust I'm sure] Corndogs? Who in their right mind would give you corndogs for breakfast?
F: Daddy would!

OK, now, that is probably true, but I am pretty sure Shaun does *not* give the children corndogs for breakfast. I'm reasonably certain that lunch and dinner are fair game, but breakfast? And really, why would anyone even want to eat a corndog for breakfast?

I think a few more grey hairs popped out before we left the store.

Summertime is finally here

Well, almost, but May in Dallas is kind of like summer in most of the country--85 and sunny today. Shaun was home, so we headed outside to enjoy the pool (before it is 105 and sunny and outside isn't fun anymore which is what summer is really like in Dallas).

And contrary to popular opinion (MOM!), I do feed my children. Yes, their ribs seem to stick out, but I guarantee that they are eating me out of house and home. We've been through 2 bowls of cereal/fruit/juice for breakfast, they split a pizza for lunch, macaroni/fries/chicken/Shaun's sweet potatoes/ice cream at the Outback for dinner, and multiple cookies along the way because we kept forgetting to shut the pantry. No one is starving, just skinny.

Super Faith flying off the diving board

I told Ben I'd give him a cookie if he jumped off the diving board too ... it worked

F&B somewhere in the middle of the deep end

Faith and our teeny tiny slide

Ben got a cookie for this too

Oh, and as for the Kenny Chesney lyric in the title? I'm seriously contemplating taking Faith to the concert on Saturday.