"...O! thoughtless Dandelion, to be misled
By a few warm days to leave thy natural bed,
Was folly growth and blooming over soon.
And yet, thou blasted yellow-coated gem,
Full many a heart has but a common boon
With thee, now freezing on they slender stem..."
-George Marion McClellan
I know...it's still February and technically winter...but we got a taste, just a little sip of spring, and now I'm craving it BIG TIME! I've given up on winter. I refuse to shovel my driveway another time this year. From now on it's put the Burb in 4-wheel drive and force our way out, come hell or high water.
This is how I know that I'm stir crazy: I volunteered to coach cub soccer in the spring. Ha! It'll be Ollie's team. He's super duper excited. He's been waiting around to be old enough to play soccer ever since he could walk. No one else was coaching, I asked. So I'm it, I guess. Soccer's not my favorite, nor my most knowledgeable sport...but it's Cub, so I'll be ok. :)
We went to one of our favorite Nature Journaling places (the Bean Museum on BYU campus) with Aaron's sister and her kids and Aaron's parents. My kids usually do a pretty good job of working on their journals while we're there, but this time they stayed super focused because it's more fun to natural journal if your cousins are doing it too! :) They also just randomly happened to have a live animal show while we were there, so we got to sit in on that too. The kids always love when they get to touch the animals.
Lincoln and Ivan are chugging away on their book lists. I actually think Ivan is about half way done. Lincoln has read some, but got distracted by the Percy Jackson series. I wouldn't let him put all of those on his list, because I feel like he needs to branch out. He's reading them anyways, which is fine, it just doesn't count towards his goal of 20 books.
I mentioned that we are going a form of Notebooking for book reports this go around. They don't love that I require book reports but are fighting this method MUCH less than they fought giving me oral book reports last year, so that's good. (It's also confusing, because in my mind an oral book report seems like so much less work, but whatever.) We've never done Notebooking before, so I tried to keep it simple. Basically, each book they read takes up one page in their notebook. The cut out and glue a picture of the book in the top corner. Then they put the date, title of the book, the author, list the main characters, describe the setting, tell the plot, and then pick one paragraph out of the book that they liked for whatever reason to copy. At the bottom they draw a picture of something that happened in the story. It's going well I think. Both boys could definitely use a lesson on writing neatly...but that's another battle for another day. ;)





Speaking of battles, let's talk about the one I have daily with Miss Stubborn Independence *rolls eyes*. I love this kid dearly, but some days she kills me. Nothing is hidden well enough, or placed high enough to be out of her reach if she wants it. She is forever into my make up, the hair spray the lotion, the water dispenser on the fridge, the other kids bedroom closets (she steals and eats all their candy they have hidden away), the cupboards, etc. The other day she kept getting into the fridge and unwrapping the little individual cheeses and taking one bite out and then crumbling the rest on the floor. She also got into the pantry and pulled down a bag of corn chips, and pulled chips out and stomped on them one by one. Hand her a pink bowl with cereal in it when she wanted the yellow one? She'll chuck the bowl across the room, with cereal flying all over the place. "MY DO IT!!" is her battle cry from morning until night. And by night, I mean the middle of the night and sometimes into the early hours of the morning. Sure, we PUT her to bed at 8:00...but that doesn't mean she goes to sleep, oh no! She's in there singing at the top of her lungs until after Aaron and I go to bed. I
almost feel bad for Adelia, with whom Ruby shares a room, except that it's sort of like payback because Del used to do the exact same thing. :)
Adelia "stayed home from school sick" the other day, except I think it was more like she just didn't want to go. Anyways, I had her lay down in her bed, with books and crayons and paper, etc, and listen to Where the Red Fern Grows on audiobook so she could rest and get well. She drew this funny little critter, among other things. I thought it was cute. And I was amazed at how long Del kept herself entertained with the audiobook going. Usually she can't be alone more than five seconds without needed to find someone to talk to. :) I love Adelia's art. It's fun an imaginative. I wish I could hear the stories she tells herself in her head about the fun things she draws.
Aaron and I got invited to an Oscars party that our neighbor was throwing. I've never watched the Oscars in my life, nor had I seen any of the movies being nominated to win. But the party was
SO MUCH FUN! Technically it was a "pre" Oscars party, because the party was Saturday night, and the actual Oscars weren't until Sunday. But I think that just made it more fun because we didn't actually have to watch the Oscars. Haha! Instead we did awesome things.
The theme of the party was "Musicals" so each couple had to pick a musical to dress up as. Aaron and I went as Frank Butler and Annie Oakley from Annie Get Your Gun. Other couples did La La Land, Phantom of the Opera, Sound of Music, Pitch Perfect, Newsies, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, My Fair Lady, Singin' in the Rain, Chicago, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, and Anastasia. Each couple brought a snack food that went along with their musical. Aaron and I brought "Better Than...You" Cake. (Instead of Better Than S Cake...get it, because our theme song is Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better, I Can Do Anything Better Than You." I thought it was clever.)
A week before the party, our hostess passed around ballots, and each person filled out who they wanted to win the awards. Our hostess tallied everything up, and the night of each couple took turns announcing which movies would be the winners if our group were "The Academy". We had to announce the awards in character. So for example I got up and said: Anything you can announce I can announce better.
Aaron: No you can't
Me: Yes I can
Aaron: No you can't
Me: Yes I can, yes I can! And I'll prove it! The nominees for best ________ are _______
Aaron: And the winner is _________!
Each couple also put together a 45-60 second skit from their musical. We had dances from La La Land and Newsies, a waltz from Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera sang Music of the Night, Pitch Perfect sang Cups. Aaron and I didn't want to sing or dance, so we put together the shooting scene from the end of Annie Get Your Gun, complete with Nerf Guns and a stuffed penguin acting as a clay pigeon. It was so fun! I loved everyone's skits, and I loved preforming ours. I thought I might be nervous, or shy, or embarrassed, but I wasn't. Not even one bit. It was actually really invigorating. It's been such a long time since I've done anything like this. I'd forgotten how much I love it. I'll be riding this high for awhile. :)