Ryan’s 40th Birthday!

Shortly after Ryan’s 30th birthday I decided that for his 40th birthday I was going to do a surprise party for him. He struggles with turning a new decade so I thought it would be a fun way to help him welcome in his 40’s and be something different.

As it got closer I decided that instead of a surprise party I would just do a party for him so I talked to him about it and he kind of poo-hooed the idea because he isn’t excited about turning 40 like I figured. So I let it go and tried to come up with other ideas. He didn’t really have any suggestions of what to do either. I came up with having one of his best friends from his mission come for the weekend. I thought that would be a fun surprise for him, and it was, but I also had lots of people asking me when his party was or what the plan for his birthday was. A few weeks before his birthday I decided that I was going to do the surprise party anyway. So I rented our neighborhood clubhouse, invited about 100 of his closest friends, got a giant cake, balloons, and some yummy BBQ and we had a party! I had about 150 pictures of Ryan displayed as part of the decorations from when he was a baby up to now.

His buddy Mike Johnson flew in from Arizona and got to our house about 3:15 on Friday, the day of the party. I had told Ryan he had an appointment to get his car detailed (that was something he wanted for his birthday) at 4pm so he would be home. Johnson decided he wanted to hide somewhere and jump out and scare him. I ended up telling Ryan that I needed the A/C filter changed and when he went to change it Johnson jumped out. I was a little worried Ryan might take a swing at him when he got startled but he didn’t and he was very excited to see his buddy and find out they had the weekend to hang out.

As soon as Mike surprised Ryan, I took the kids to sleepover at their cousins house and then I was going to meet Ryan for dinner a little later. What actually happened is the kids and I all went to the clubhouse to wait for Ryan. A few minutes before they were supposed to leave I called Ryan and told him that Emilee had left her mermaid toy at the pool so I needed him to go to the clubhouse and check the lost and found on his way to dinner. He came to check but instead of finding a lost and found when he arrived, he found a surprise party! He had no idea. I thought he might have been a little suspicious but he said he didn’t really have any idea.

We had Joe’s KC BBQ for dinner and the adults visited, Ryan made the rounds to everyone to talk for a bit. The kids swam in the pool and drank way to much soda and blew the noise makers that I made the mistake of providing. We of course sang happy birthday and blew out candles. I think everyone had a fun time. It was a good night.

After the party Ryan and Mike spent the rest of the weekend golfing, eating out at their favorite places, getting massages, shopping, watching golf, enjoying having no responsibilities. They are quite the pair.

Sunday morning was Father’s Day. Johnson headed home to spend it with his family and we celebrated Ryan. We had Ross and Lauren over for dinner to help us eat some of our BBQ leftovers. Then Lauren and I played a game with Ross and Ryan because it was Father’s Day and they said we had too. Playing a game with Ross and Ryan is a 2-3 hour commitment so we often opt to do something else and let them play themselves. On Father’s Day and birthdays they say we have to play though.

It was a nice weekend. I am very grateful for the great dad’s we have in our lives. Ryan and I were both raised by great dads. Ryan is an amazing dad. I took a mental picture today of him skipping across the parking lot to the car after church with a daughter on each arm because they thought it would be fun and silly. I am grateful for all the friends and Uncle’s and other family members that are good examples of dads to my kids too. It takes a village.

  • Just realized he was at his own surprise party.
  • Hanging out with Mike Johnson.

Little Things That Make Me Smile

Sometimes as I am going about my day I come across things that bring a smile to my face. Usually it is something sweet and child like that my kids do. As my kids have gotten older I realize that these situations are happening less and less often so I have tried to start taking a picture when these moments happen to remember them for later… or when they are driving me crazy and I need to focus on their more endearing qualities. First up, in no particular order is a few of Emilee sleeping.

Before I go to bed each night I peak in on each kiddo to make sure they are sleeping happily. This night when I checked on Emilee she had decided to wear sunglasses to bed. She woke up with them in the morning too, they stayed on all night much to her delight.
This is Emilee sleeping in the car. When I looked at her something caught my eye. When I looked closer I found a little toy frog tucked under the edge of her shorts for safe keeping during her nap.
This is Wrinkles the puppy and Froggy the frog. They are Allison’s favorite stuffed animals. She left them hugging in her bean bag one day.

Ryan was saying something to Matthew about how he used to hold him when he was a baby. Matthew jumped in his arms to goof around and said he would let Ryan hold him like a baby if he sang a lullaby. Ryan started singing ‘Sweet Baby James’. They were being silly but Matthew was a little embarrassed when he saw I had gotten my camera out.

It is hard for Allison to brush the back of her hair with her broken arm so Matthew was helping her brush her hair. It made me smile so I snuck a picture.

We have played Nerf Dodge Ball since Matthew was 4 or 5 years old. It is hard to say if the kids or Ryan and I love it more. Most of the time its the kids run through the kitchen and Ryan and I sit in the living room and try and shoot them with Nerf guns. Sometimes we will switch spots and let the kids shoot at us. It is a pretty therapeutic game. 🙂

Harvesters

We have started our trips to Harvesters again this Summer. The kids really like it. They would like to go every week so we try to fit it in when we can. They each invite a friend or two to come. I think 4-5 kids is the magic number. Everyone has a job and can keep busy and it’s not too many for me to wrangle and keep focused. The minimum age is 8 years old. I debated on passing Emilee off as an 8 year old because she is the only one that can’t come. I asked her if she was interested in going to sort food with us, she said, “Umm working is not really my thing so I will let you guys do that. I will stay and play.” After our first trip I figured that was probably best. So I get a babysitter for her or she plays at a friends house and we are all happy.

Hailey Hinton, Aliya and Cambrie McDonald came with us. We sorted and boxed 1,850 pounds of canned goods in 2 hours. They worked hard!
Allison, Matthew and Reece. We shucked and bagged a few hundred ears of corn.

Baseball In Full Swing

Ha! I didn’t mean to make that pun in the title, I realized it after I typed it.

Anyway, it is true. We are in the meat of our Spring Baseball season. We have had a lot of rainouts which is crappy, but in return the games we have played have been in gorgeous weather or cold weather which I will take any day over heat. The Summer temps have finally arrived so now it will get a little less pleasant to watch them play. The team has been doing great though. Matthew started out strong, had a bit of a hitting slump (still one of the best hitters on the team though) and this past weekend finally came out of it and it doing great now. He has had some pretty awesome fielding plays too. Diving and rolling catches, huge leaps through the air to catch it, double plays, and some impressive catches off of hard hits or crazy bounces. He is a fun person to watch play. The last two tournaments we played in were on turf which we have never done. The boys had fun sliding and diving on it. They also took 2nd in one and 1st in one. They played well.

  • These two love doing baseball together
  • First Ring instead of trophy or medal.
  • Showing off their rings
  • NBA Adalms 2019
  • The Cheetah running the bases.
  • Power hit
  • Inning change over
  • Hanging out between games.
  • Lunch between games, and a little rough housing.
  • Aiden hits a home run.
  • Homerun celebration.
  • OUT!
  • Matthew pitched a little.
  • He likes sliding on turf
  • warm ups
  • First tournament of the season.

Girl Scout Day Camp

Allison went to her second year of day camp this summer. Her arm was freshly broken and still pretty tender but she decided she felt good enough to go every other day. She loves her leader and her best friend Hailey was in her Unit so she had a pretty fun time. We were able to get a cast cover for her so she could not completely swim but still participate and cool off a little in the swim activities. She grumbled about it a little but overall she had a fun time.

Emilee went for the first time this year. Per her usual she was a nervous nelly and not to excited about going somewhere new without me. Jovee signed up with her though which was a big help, and there were several other girls in her group she new from school or gymnastics as well. It was also a huge perk that they got to ride on a bus to and from camp everyday and go swimming. She loved it. She was exhausted but loved it. Her and Jovee were really into SWAPs (Share With A Pal). They are little trinkets that each girl makes a bunch of before camp and then during camp they trade and swap them to pin on their hats, by the end of the week they have a hat full of different trinkets from camp.

I asked Allison if she wanted me to come and be a helper during the week for her Unit. She thought about it for two seconds and said no. I did not ask Emilee because I knew she would say yes and want me there all week and she needs to work on her independence. I also didn’t really want to go to camp. A few weeks before camp I got a call saying Emilee’s unit needed a helper on Thursday. I decided to do it and spent one day at camp with Emilee. We saw Allison once, when we waved she pretended to not know us. We had a pretty fun time. Jovee and Emilee insisted I sit in the middle of their bus seat instead of the empty seat next to them so i wouldn’t be lonely. Sweet thought, I agree. Not the most comfortable though. We spent the ride singing camp songs, talking about what we were doing that day and they shared all the details of their SWAPs and how they traded for them with me. We did opening flag ceremony and went to a science lab station about density. The girls had a great time. Then we made volcanoes out of lemons and baking soda. Then it was their cookout day, so we cooked hot dogs and smores over the fire. Then it was scavenger hunt/hiking time. I think I have mentioned this before but Emilee is the least ‘outdoorsy’ of our family. None of us are very outdoorsy to be honest. We like the comforts of modern amenities but we like going on hikes and enjoying the outdoors on occasion. Emilee does not. About 15 minutes into our hour hike (which was maybe a mile and a half round trip just VERY slow going) she decided to start the whining and asking me to carry her, or her stuff, or just sit down and be done completely. It took a lot of coaxing, begging, dragging, and threatening to get her to finish but she took every step on her own. At several points she did just sit down and refuse to walk any farther. Luckily we were hiking with 8 other kindergartners so it was slow going enough and they took enough breaks that we weren’t to far behind when she finally flopped the last little way back to camp and I was muttering to myself this is exactly why I didn’t want to do this in the first place. Her leader confirmed with me later that she didn’t have any other issues the rest of the week when I was not there keeping up or cooperating with what they were doing. Oh well, we finished our day up with a painting craft and closing flag ceremony and all three of us shared a seat on the way home again (I did insist on taking the outside seat though). We fell asleep as soon as the bus pulled out of the parking area to head home.

  • Happy Day Campers after their first day.
  • My day at camp with the girls. Bus ride to camp. We sang LOTS of fun camp songs
  • This is where we found our last clue on our scavenger hunt hike.
  • Some of Jovee’s SWAPs. Her dad helped us out and 3D printed a bunch of SWAPs for Allison and Emilee.
  • Eating our fire cooked hot dogs.
  • Working on our density science project.
  • End of the day. Dirty, tired but happy, and ready to head home.
  • This little power nap on the way home is why they arrived at home with just as much energy as when they left that morning.

Allison’s First Day of Summer

This is how Allison’s first day of Summer went. Matthew and his friends were going to the pool so of course the girls wanted to go. I had to run to the store to get some things for them for Day Camp so Ryan was going to take them. As I was walking into the store Ryan called to tell me that Allison had broken her arm and they were headed to the hospital.

We went to the hospital closest to our house. I got there a few minutes after Alli. She was sitting in a chair waiting for them to take her back. You could tell she was in a lot of pain, she was focusing on keeping it together. Her and Ryan told me what happened while we waited for them to check her in. She had decided she was to excited to wait for Ryan to drive to the pool so she grabbed her towel and left on her bike, about 5 seconds into her ride the towel fell down and got caught in the wheel and flipped her over the handle bars. She had a couple scraps and of course her arm hurt really bad. She walked in the house and got an ice pack and told Ryan that she didn’t feel like going to the pool anymore and laid down on the couch. A few minutes later Ryan came to see if she really didn’t want to go swimming. She had her arm covered with the ice pack and asked him to get her a new one, he saw her arm when she lifted it off and realized that her arm was broken. She said, “Oh, that’s probably why I can’t move my fingers.” Then she got hysterical for a few minutes and Ryan said his brain was going hysterical too. He put the girls in the car and called me and headed to the nearest hospital. By the time they got to the hospital Allison had stopped crying and put her game face on. She never cried or even whimpered again after that.

A few minutes later they took us back and we started the waiting process for x-rays, doctors, and pain meds. When the x-rays came back it showed both bones broken, one obvious, one not so obvious. Since she was a kid and the way it was broken they wanted us to go to Children’s Mercy Hospital. They splinted it and gave her pain meds and sent us on our way. Ryan went home to drop Emilee off with Matthew and then met us there. Before he left to do that he gave Allison a blessing in the car then I took her to Children’s Mercy.

They put us in our room and Allison settled in and watched Harry Potter. The doctor came in and told her that they could give her more pain meds and do a shot in her arm to numb it then fix it, or do a shot in her arm that made her fall asleep and she could wake up when her arm was fixed. This seemed like an obvious decision to me but Allison didn’t even hesitate and said to just give her the shot to make it numb and fix it while she was awake. Ryan and I were both pretty surprised but she said she was sure. A little while later they came in to numb and set her arm. I sat at the bottom of her bed and rubbed her leg and tried not to pass out. She sat there and watched with only an occasional grimace and powered through it like a champ.

Through the whole process which took all day I was very impressed with Allison. It would have been totally fine if she was crying and upset. She definitely had a mental conversation with herself in the waiting room and you could see her decide to set her mind to the task at hand and handle the situation. When the doctor was explaining things, she listened and asked questions and when they were fixing her arm she cooperated and did whatever they needed without any issues. The doctors themselves kept saying over and over how impressed they were with how great she was doing.

Throughout the day she was asked several times if she needed anything to help make her comfortable. They wouldn’t let her eat or drink anything in case they had to put her to sleep, she didn’t complain about not eating ALL DAY even once, but she did ask if she could have some watermelon when she got home and a pizza with extra pineapple on it. Of course we made that happen. Her other request was she really wanted to see her brother, he was watching Emilee for us and can’t even handle someone talking about a broken bone let alone see one so he sent her some messages on the phone instead. Ryan and I were both touched that she wanted him for emotional support. After we got home Matthew sat in her room with her for a while and talked and hung out with her until she fell asleep. They have been spending a lot more time with each other since she broke her arm and it is nice to see them developing a closer relationship.

Ryan and I both had the thought separately that while it is crappy that she broke her arm it is also a blessing in disguise and opportunity for each of us to develop and work on our relationship with Allison without her having to much choice in the matter. Allison is extremely independent and isn’t always the most pleasant person to be around so the rest of us tend to keep a little more distance between ourselves and her than we do with other family members. Since she broke her arm she is limited on some of her regular activities and is around a little more than usual and obviously needs more help with things then she used to. She is also very particular about the way she looks and dresses and cares about presenting herself a certain way. She hates having to have help doing things that she has to do (shower, get dressed, brush and do her hair, cut her food, put on socks, tie shoes, carry things). Control is a big issue with Allison. It is very hard for her to even give the impression that she needs help because then she feels like she isn’t in control. This is when she can become quite unpleasant. Her SOP if she can’t control a situation to her desires is to take the stance that she could care less about it and wants nothing to do with whatever it was anymore at all costs. Again, this can be very unpleasant to be around. So while it would be annoying for anyone to not be able to put your shirt on. For her the situation is made even more loathsome and unbearable because she cares a great deal about her appearance and it irks her to no end that she not only has to ask for help, she has to wait and be dependent on when someone can help and be pleasant enough about it that whoever is helping her will continue to help her.

So the blessing in disguise, that for all involved seems to be very well if not perfectly disguised at times, is that Allison is presented with unavoidable ways to offer more opportunities of service and positive interaction with her to us, and we are presented with many opportunities to serve her and spend time with her in different ways then we are used too. It isn’t always pretty but I really do see many opportunities for each of us to better ourselves and our relationships with each other for the next 6-8 weeks she has her cast on. In case any of us are really slow learners though, Heavenly Father has given us plenty of extra practice time. We went to the doctor for a follow up a week or so after she broke it. They took a new xray and gave us an update. She will have her cast for 6-8 weeks minimum, then she will have a full time braces for several months, then she will be able to wear it part time for several more months. Then in 6 months to a year she can go back to her more active activities like gymnastics.

May-cember

The new trendy word this year I have been hearing a lot is May-cember. Meaning that May is crazy busy and packed full of end of the school year stuff and it feels like December because so much is going on. It is true, its a busy month. I find the word a little obnoxious though. I feel like it will perpetuate the craziness and people will start making things bigger and more elaborate to live up to the word. I am a little grumpy and cynical today though so maybe it’s just my negative attitude. We have had plenty going on this month though. I have put some of it in other posts but there are a few things I think are worth mentioning that I haven’t yet.

Ryan and I celebrated our 17th anniversary. Wow. It seems like forever and 5 minutes at the same time. The kids spent the night at their cousins and Ryan and I went downtown and stayed at a fancy hotel in the Power and Light District. We ate at a fancy steak house, and walked around afterwards for a bit. We found a place called Insomnia Cookie. They had giant delicious cookies that were served warm and they were open and delivered until 3AM. AAAhhh! I have never met a cookie I didn’t like so I tried a few. They were YUMMY! It was a fun little find but probably good that they are far enough away from my house that I can’t just pop in whenever I have a cookie craving.

Saw this at the Insomnia Cookie place, that would make your day better for sure!

The last time we had family pictures taken was four years ago. I have never gone that long between pictures but I really love the ones we have up now. I have been saying every Spring and Fall for the past two years that we needed to get new ones so I finally made myself make an appointment. Part of the reason I was postponing was because I was going to ‘lose 10 pounds first’ but mostly because it is a lot of work to get clean, coordinating outfits that fit everyone and haircuts, schedules, and the weather to all cooperate. It finally got done though. Instead of losing 10 pounds I gained 10 more, we had to reschedule once for rain, and Allison got a giant purple popsicle stain on her yellow shirt hid from me until we got there because she wasn’t supposed to eat it in the first place, but thanks to photo shop, we still got them done. I haven’t seen them yet, I am anxious for them to come!

Girls fell asleep after family pictures. Smiling for an hour is tough work.

I have been working on a few projects, or encouraging Ryan to work on a few projects around the house that we have wanted done for a while. It is nice to be getting a few of them checked off. Ryan put a screen door on our back porch which is awesome. I love being able to leave the door open and get fresh air with no bugs. Assuming everything lives I finally have the rock beds planted we put in last year and everything replaced that died last year and our front yard is done and can just grow and be pretty. Sherri helped me figure out the back yard while she was here so I can start on that…next year. I decorated our bathroom and master bedroom. We have a nice, pretty, relaxing space for Ryan and I to go hide in when we want to now. I also completed phase one of two in our garage re-organization. I designed some custom shelves that would hold and organize all the sports stuff in our garage. Ryan was willing to build them but I was not willing to wait until he had time to do it so I did it. It took me longer to do it, but it got done sooner that way and I was pretty impressed with myself. Power tools make me nervous but I got over it and used drills, saws and all kinds of power tools to get it done. The next thing I am currently working on is putting a new sink in our main floor half bath. It has a pedestal sink in it now which is completely useless and drives me crazy. I ordered an unfinished cabinet and I am sanding and staining it to match the rest of our cabinetry, then Ryan will put it in. Oh, we got our house tested for Radon as well and it measured at unsafe levels so we had a Radon pump put in. Ryan is convinced and I am on the fence that the whole Radon thing is a farce but we got a pump anyway. They left a PVC eye sore up the entire side of our house when they put it in. Ryan was not happy. The next day I climbed up to the very top of our 30′ ladder while Matthew held it with enough focus that made me feel only slightly more secure then if he wasn’t there at all but he promised to call 911 if I fell. I painted it all the same color as our house. Ryan hasn’t said anything since so it worked well enough that he doesn’t notice it anymore.

Matthew finished up 6th grade! He said it was the fastest year of school he has had so far. He also admitted that it school ‘isn’t that bad’. He had Field Day too but I didn’t make it to his so I don’t have pictures. He said it was a good time though. He always enjoys when he gets to test his speed skills. He is looking forward to not having to ride the bus for 45 minutes next year because he will be at the new middle school by our house. He picked art, cooking class, engineering and I can’t remember the last elective for next year. I was impressed with his variety when he showed me.

I did make it to his award ceremony. He was on the Principals Straight ‘A’s’ Honor Roll and was also recognized for participating in Mathletes and being the representative several times for their school for the events throughout the year. He is such a good boy. He just takes care of what he needs to have done and does a good job and is a good person. I am glad I get to be his mom.

  • Continental Math
  • Principal Honor Roll
  • Good job Matthew!

Emilee finishes up Kindergarten!

Emilee had her first Field Day this year. She didn’t really understand what it was but it was talked up enough by everyone and her teacher at school that she was very excited for it. She had a really fun time. She ran super fast in her relay. Her class was not the strongest at tug of war but they were the fastest in the mat pass. She loved the hamster ball and blow ups too. She tried the slip and slide but didn’t want to get to wet. I had a fun time sitting on the sidewalk drinking our lemonade and eating our snack. She is fun to just hang out with. She smoked everyone at the rope and net climb. She was pretty amazing on the pull up bar too. her gymnastic teachers always tell me how she is super strong. I don’t really notice it until she is doing more pull ups then the 3rd graders and climbing the rope in 3 seconds.

  • Playing Jenga with Carter.
  • Running in the hamster ball.
  • Zipping up the rope.
  • Racing the other kids up the net.
  • Getting ready for the class relay race.

For our end of the year celebration for Girl Scouts we went to a swimming activity. We had pizza and cupcakes and the girls swam their little hearts our for two hours. It was a fun time. Emilee says she wants to do it again next year so I guess I am in for another year as her Troop Leader. I still can’t believe I signed up to be a girl scout troop leader.

Emilee is getting really good with her reading and writing. I find lots of notes around the house that she has written. This is a picture she had laying next to her the other night when I checked on her before I went to bed. I loved it! We had just taken our family pictures the day before so she had drawn one of the poses we did. We are all lined up holding hands. I love the details she included too, all of our hair is correct and Ryan has his beard. Hehehe! So cute.

Ryan has been trying to take the girls out on a daddy date for some one on one time lately. Emilee was very excited and was watching like a hawk for Ryan to come home on their date day because she was very excited to go her Daddy Date. A friend came over and asked her to play and she said she would have to play another time because she didn’t want to miss her date with her dad. Emilee has the worlds biggest sweet tooth. For her date they started at the donut store with the best milk every made-strawberry flavor. Then they headed to a park and ran off some of the sugar.

My youngest is done with Kindergarten! It seems like just yesterday we were taking Matthew and Allison to Kindergarten! Emilee was excited to go to school this year but she struggled with the separation in the morning. She got braver each day and before long was jumping out the car door and skipping to class. She really likes her teacher. Mrs. Pahl is very nice and very organized and does a really good job making everyone feel special and important. I don’t think Emilee realizes yet that she won’t have Mrs. Pahl for 1st grade. We can worry about that later though.

For Kindergarten Promotion the kids sing a few songs for the parents. They all have a cute little graduation cap and tassle. Afterwards everyone goes back to their own class and the teacher hands out awards. Emilee got the Butterfly Award for her amazing colorful art work.

  • Promotion Songs
  • Emilee is not shy when they sing as a class. She loves it!
  • Heading back to class for awards after the performance.
  • Getting her Butterfly Award.
  • Emilee with Mrs. Pahl.
  • Only one more day of Kindergarten!
  • Mom and Emi selfie.
  • Emilee and her friend Bennett
  • Emilee and her friend Stella
  • Emilee and her friend Alton
  • Emilee and her friend Laney.

Allison wraps up the school year!

Allison has had a busy last month of school. Her teacher’s name this year is Miss Coovert. It is her first year teaching and she is pretty awesome. Allison has loved having her. All the third grade teachers have made this a pretty fun year. They always had fun projects when they learned things and Allison loved being able to use her creativity. One of her favorite projects was making a bottle buddy of a famous Kansan out of a soda bottle and a foam ball for the head. She picked Bob Dole because his name was Bob.

They have gone on several field trips the last few weeks too. They went to the Topeka Zoo and toured the Capitol building. They went to the Fire Station, and last week they went to the Mahaffie Stage Coach Stop. I went on that one with her. We panned for gold, road in a stage coach and learned a lot about the different trails pioneers used to travel around. I am glad that I got to go on a field trip with her. She won’t want me on to many more probably. She is getting to where she wants to be around friends more and more.

  • Panning for gold, we didn’t have any luck.
  • Stage Coach ride!
  • Mahaffie Stage Coach Stop

Allison has been learning the value of honesty the past few weeks too, and is still working on it. She asked me to sign her planner after school one day, which is very normal. The ‘planner’ she brought me was not normal. It was a stack of lined paper taped together with “Do Math” written on it. At the bottom of said stack of papers was a suspicious orange piece of paper sticking out that said “Parent Signature”. As you might have guessed she wanted me to sign her ‘planner’ on the orange paper. I looked at her and said, ‘You want me to sign your planner, is this your planner.’ She looked back and said, ‘Yep, my real one is missing so I made one.’ I picked up the pen she conveniently had ready for me to sign with and signed the white paper, she of course said I should sign at the bottom where the orange paper said. I told her is she wanted me to sign the orange paper I would have to untape it and read what it said first. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her face when she realized that her plan had not worked. I remember coming up with ridiculous plans like that as a kid and wondering how my plan could have possibly failed. Allison quickly disappeared when I started un-taping her ‘planner’. I told her when she wanted me to sign it she could come talk to me about it. It was a think sheet from school. They have to fill one out when they do something they are not supposed. It says what they did, why it’s wrong, and what they are going to do to fix it. All the teachers have tickets at the school and hand them out to kids when they see them doing something good. When they get so many tickets they can turn them in for a prize in the office. Allison had decided that she would make her own tickets at home with our color printer and then turn them in at school and told her teacher the substitute they had the day before had given them to her. Again, how did this brilliant plan fail?!? I of course did not fail to point out the irony that she tried to get me to sign her think sheet about being dishonest by trying to trick me and be dishonest again showing she clearly had a lot to learn about being honest. After a long repetitive talk about honesty and trust, several drafts of an apology letter to her teacher before one was approved, and the punishment of being grounded from friends and all electronics for two weeks, I signed her think sheet.

The forged tickets…

One of the best days of the year in elementary school is Field Day. It was a great success this year. It was 85 degrees and sunny. Perfect weather to play outside. They had the younger kids do Field Day in the morning and the older ones in the afternoon. I went and helped out with both of them and had some fun one on one time. Allison helped her class win the relay race and the tug of war. She had a few turns in the giant hamster balls and blow up obstacle course and slide. They had fun water activities and lots of rope climbs, net climbs, hula hoops, dancing, pogo sticks, and topped it off with lemonade and popsicles.

  • Water games
  • Alli in the hamster ball
  • Allison and Paighton waiting for the hamster ball.
  • Running her leg of the relay race.
  • Nice job Allison!

Allison finished her second year of Girl Scouts this year. She bridged from being a Brownie to a Junior. She joined a new troop this year and has really liked it. They do a lot more outdoor stuff. She went on a campout at the Zoo a few weeks ago. They went on a night hike while they were there and saw the animals while they were sleeping. Then they slept in one of the exhibits. She has a few good friends in her troop too. I am glad she has found something that she looks forward too.

  • Allison with her Girl Scout Troop
  • Walking through the rainbow bridge.
  • She is now a Junior Cadette instead of a Brownie.

This week at school they had the talent show and awards ceremony. Allison and her friend Hailey started working on a cheer routine at the very beginning of the year. Somewhere along the way it got changed to Hailey and Paighton doing the cheer (I think because they had matching cheer outfits) and Allison was the comedic relief/judge for the cheer leaders. They were all pretty excited about it and had fun doing it.

Allison was awarded the Student of the Month for P.E. and Miss Coovert gave her the Helping Hand Award because she is always willing to help in the class room. She is a very helpful girl when she wants to be.

She can also be thoughtful. The past week or so she has been learning to sew a little bit. She made a few pillow cases for herself to use. Then she decided to make little throw pillows for each of her Grandma’s so she picked out some fabric, I helped a little but she cut, sewed, stuffed and then decorated them pretty much on her own. They turned out pretty cute. She definitely has talented crafty side. In between sewing projects she decided to make a snack serving platter for her chips, salsa, and fruit. It actually worked quite well.

Allison’s snack tray.