Your wish is my command!

So I have had some "polite reminders" from people about wanting to see the "after picture" of Melissa's desk in the basement. It isn't really hers, but she has certainly assumed the responsibility of it being hers. I went downstairs and took a picture of it in it's current state. Four bags of trash later, it was all cleaned out.
As you can see from the picture though, there were some things she couldn't stand to throw out. For example a diarama she did once on Cheetah's. Only the cheetah's aren't there any more, it has been taken over by some Panda bears that she made from another art project at school.Here is a picture that she painted on a piece of wood that Steve was tossing... Oh, and you can also see the owl there that she made by covering two tennis balls with a scrap piece of scrapbook paper I was going to throw out.This is a picture that she made for Thanksgiving and entered in a contest at school. She didn't win, but I thought it was well done...And here is her sewing box and stuff out because she has been working on "Lilly's Fashions"...

Lilly is Melissa's Webkin Beagle. Melissa has been making clothes for her. She took an empty food storage box and made it into a little Fashion store. She makes other clothes and will sell them to Spencer and Jenna for fake money.
This is the sign on the front of the store. The letter on the left of the door reads," Dear Lilly's Fashion: We are delighted to tell you that your store is the best. Love The City"

Here are some of her "fashions". This is the Sherlock homes meets Doris Day look. The hat is my favorite. You can't tell, but she actually took a piece of cardstock and sewed the fabric around the brim of the hat like an actual hat does. I did my best to dress the dog up and I didn't dare take the santa boots off because I don't think she would forgive me if I ruined them. The dog was already in the Santa outfit (you can see below) and I couldn't figure out how to get the stuff off, so I put the pink on over it.

Pretty clever huh?

He doesn't need anything

I think for Christmas we will get Jayden a big case of Mac n Cheese from Sam's Club. Why spend money on toys when there is a cupboard full of food boxes to play with?

The best part is he did this for about 20 min. What a treat for Mommy!

What's up with that?

For Jayden's birthday he got a bag of these animal cookies... Only what do you notice is wrong with them?

Yeah! No sprinkles, what a rip! (Although Jayden doesn't care, he still eats them all the time!)

Jayman's Birthday

It was Jayden's birthday last week and with all the stuff going on, we decided to wait and celebrate it on Sunday. Afterall, he doesn't know any better does he? So, here's the simple breakdown of it all. We opened some presents...

Sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candles (that is my attempt at "decorating" his cupcakes).
Had cake and ice cream...

I am just going to sit back and relish the fact that his birthday was THAT easy and he was THAT happy. If only it was this way all the time... Honestly I like making big hooplas for my kids birthdays, I LOVED putting on Spencer's party. And I already have Melissa and Jenna's next parties all planned. However, it was refreshing to have something this simple.

{And no, I didn't mis-spell Jayden's name to begin with... He's got all sorts of nicknames- All my kids do, another post another time}

The Dance Recital!

So, last night was the DANCE RECITAL! I look forward to it every year, twice a year - at Christmas and in the Spring. I love to watch the dancing and this year didn't disappoint. Well, maybe a little, but I can't help it so whatever...

Jenna danced to Lollipop and Deck the Halls, they had some cute little lollipops that they held. Jenna actually licked hers once (when they were supposed to only pretend), but Shh.. (Don't tell anyone).

I don't know who put sugar in Jenna's mac n' cheese, but she was sure on one. I think she was just excited to be there! She came running on the stage the second time and just bounced the entire song. She wasn't really doing all the right stuff, but she sure looked like she was having fun!

Melissa's group danced to "Last Christmas" and "Whine up" I LOVED the second one. The first one Melissa kind of "played it safe" because when the song started the safety pin holding her costume on in the back, popped open. She said that she could feel the end poking her neck and she was really nervous about having a "wardrobe malfunction". The second one really showed Melissa's personality and skill. She is a very technical dancer and you can see in her turns she is perfectly "on center" she does a GREAT JOB. She really likes it too, so it is a double bonus.

It was a fun night for all. Jayden even cooperated and let us stay in our seats the whole time!

Choir concert

My camera sucks... And I've only realized even more so since I found out that Michelle and Brett got a new camera. I'm jealous. I have had to turn off the preview the picture after you take it feature so as to preserve battery for the entire use. I knew that I wanted to take some video at Melissa's choir concert so I didn't preview this picture, Melissa's eyes are a little droopy and the girl below her looks like she's picking her nose. But you get the idea.

Melissa is the fourth one from the right in the middle row. This is Spencer watching the show with his class. The girls have their dance recital tonight and the parent choir concert is also tonight, so Melissa is going to have to miss the choir thing. I went to one of the assemblies they did during school to listen. And it was a lot of fun!

Here is the "Hot Cup of Cocoa" song that we all love! Or at least 30 seconds of it because that is only as long as my camera will take for video.

A Hot Cup of Cocoa

After listening to a post of Melissa's Choir singing on Motherboard's blog. Jenna wanted a "Hot Cup of Cocoa" and chicken nuggets. Not sure where the idea of chicken nuggets came from, but that's what we did! We even added whip cream and a candy cane. YUM!

Jayden of course just had the candy cane because ever since the day he ate that whole box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts Lisa brought home from Hawaii, he just hasn't liked chocolate. It ruined Halloween for him. Not for me though, he would pick out a piece of candy to eat, and unwrap it then when he saw it was chocolate, he would ask for a different one. So, I helped him out by discarding of the chocolate in my mouth of course!

Basketball!

So, we started Basketball season... We (Spencer, but I wasn't complaining) opted not to do soccer this year. I don't think he really liked it. Instead, Spencer thought that he would give basketball a try. And WE LOVE IT! Not only does Spencer like going, but it is INDOORS so no worrying about being cold or it raining or anything like that. The other bonus, is there isn't any weekly practices yet. They meet for one hour on Saturday. The first 20 min. is practice, and that is followed by a 40 min. game. I know that when he gets older that will change, but then again it will be during the winter and so we'll be looking for things to do to get him out of the house anyway.

It is very clever the way that each team has five writbands of different colors and you find the guy on the other team with the same color wristband as you and that's who you guard.

Um, I am and was trying really hard not to be a naggy mom, but "Get in there Spencer!" He wasn't really paying attention to what his coach was saying. He was too busy trying to jump really high. This was his attempt to listen. It lasted all of one minute. I don't insist he be the best player out there or anything (cause he's not) but at least pay attention and do your best (oh, and no Spencer if Basketball doesn't work out, you CAN'T try football, I don't have the stomach for it).

Trash and DI

That was a buzz word at my house growing up. It meant that we had to go through all of our stuff and get rid of half of it. Not really, but that's what it seemed like. So we did that the other day with the desk downstairs that Melissa kind of thinks is hers. So here is the before...
We are still working on it though, so the after will come later. So far the trash pile is four bags strong! Wish us luck!

Girlie Playgroup!

Jenna's Playgroup and how Jayden Survived!

Can you imagine what 9 little girls can do to Jayden? After the ninth time (they all had to try at least once) of girls trying to pick Jayden up, he ran away saying, "I don't want it!"

They all took turns during snack time handing Jayden their trash and telling him, "Throw it away Trash Man!" (He actually liked that...)

They really liked playing Twister and thought it was funny when Jayden tried to crawl under them to reach a circle.

Really though, it was A LOT OF FUN! I know it is hard to imagine, but we had nine little girls and only 1 fight. And that was because one of the girls thought that someone had taken her toy, but then realized that we had two of them. And the one she was playing with was purple and the other girl had a pink one. They all get along really well. One little girl even handed me the bucket of animals that she was playing with. She had finished playing them and so she PICKED THEM UP because she was done. UH, can I send my kids over to her mom for some serious training? Usually we just clean up when it is about time to go. Jayden also had a great time, but we were both pretty tired when it was all over. Not because it was hard, but just because all the energy expended just keeping up with them all.

So, now do the math, 9 girls means hosting playgroup only once every nine weeks!