Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Kids (Page 6 of 19)

What a success! (I say as I pat myself on the back)

October 21, 2011 / / 2 Comments

This week we had our Hawk Walk awards assembly. It’s the final activity of the fundraiser that I was in charge of for the PTA. If you’d like to read more about our actual walkathon which was held last month, you can read about it HERE. Our theme has been, “We need to raise SUMO money.”
After that we had a lot of lap card counting and tabulating to figure out the top walkers in each grade, the classes who walked the most laps, judge the coloring contest, count money that came in and figure out which classes brought in the most percentage of their envelopes and also the $100 club, or the kids who brought in over one hundred dollars. All of these winners get prizes of some sort. I had planned on treating the class that walked the most laps to lunch from Chick-fil-A WITH the Cow! But we had a little problem with the laps. You see, there were two tracks, and they were both 1/5 mile long. But on one, the track took a slight jog in and out to make it long enough, and come to find out some of the kids just walked straight, which made that lap shorter by about 50 feet. Big deal, right? Oh, the complaints from the teachers! “That track was shorter, and so it’s not fair that my kids were walking on the other track.” Hmmmm, when I look at my schedule, Mrs. We-Have-to-win-at-everything, it shows that you were supposed to walk on that track. If you had only walked on your assigned track, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we? (No, of course I didn’t say that! That’s why it’s not in quotes, silly!) I just smiled and said we would take that into account. But then that made me really want that class to NOT win. As I counted the lap totals, I adjusted for the shorter lap, etc. Two classes were neck and neck. Really, it was too close to call it. One was ahead in laps, until I made the adjustment for the cheaters who didn’t walk the actual lap, then the other class was slightly ahead. I wanted to throw out both of those classes (because they ALWAYS win at everything. Overachievers) and say that someone else was the winner. But, even though I am in charge of the event and can really do whatever I want, that would probably be wrong. So, I called those two classes AND the next class that was only a fraction of a lap behind the winners. THREE CLASSES as winners. But then I had a problem. How could I crown three classes the winner, and would I have to change my prize of lunch from Chick-fil-A? ARgh. I called Vern, my super great contact at Chick-fil-A, and we worked something out. I paid as much as I could possibly afford, ($100), and he covered the rest of the cost (which was about $230). They have been SO generous with us!

So, I made certificates, divvied out prizes, stapled the free sandwich and free kids meal gift certificates for every student in the school, distributed all these into the teachers boxes, and was ready for the assembly the next day.

I went Tuesday night to pick up the sumo suits so that I wouldn’t have to rush and get them the morning of. I had asked if that would be ok, but I failed to call the day of and remind her that I was coming to get them. I got there after 7:00, and when I rang the bell, no one was there. This is a home based business, so I could understand that they had stepped out. I called both numbers I had listed, sent a text, did everything I could to contact her, and then came home. I was frustrated and disappointed and kind of mad that I had just wasted an hour (and the gas) driving out there and gotten no sumo suits. I was going to let my kids play around in them that night, too. Darn. As I got home and sent her an email, the horrible thought came to my mind….”What if she’s out of town and I can’t get the suits for tomorrow?!” Then the panic really started to kick in. It had been a really bad day, I was feeling fluish, and just wanted to go to bed, but I was worried about the suits. Thankfully, she called me back at about 8:45 and apologized over and over and over. I understand that these things happen, and I told her I would just come in the morning at about 8:30.

The next morning, I picked up the suits and floor mats without incident, went to the school to do my last certificates, and set things up. The principal even let me drive my car around to the back to set up. I felt like SUCH a rebel!


(Here’s a suit waiting to be worn)

The weather was perfect! I had worried that it might rain, but it was wonderful. Chilly but not too cold (although cold is good if you’re going to be throwing yourself around in a huge sumo suit). The sun was shining, and the kids were excited.


(especially this cute kid!)

We started the assembly, and I got to thank them all for their hard work and tell them how successful our event was. We actually raised more money than we EVER have doing this thing, so I feel pretty good about that. I announced the names of the fastest walkers and the $100 club, but I didn’t call them up. They get their certificate back in class and then we don’t have to deal with a bunch of confusion with kids coming up to get their prizes (yes, I’m brilliant!). I made a big deal about how we had THREE class winners, and there was much cheering when I announced those classes. Then I turned the time over to our principal, and they had a whole schtick worked up.

First came the silly string. There must always be silly string.

Then the office ladies came out as witches to pronounce a hex on the teacher who was wrestling the principal. It was so cute!

Such fun! Such drama! Then they wriggled into the suits and had the actual SUMO part.

I was laughing so hard! It was GREAT!!
We declared the teacher the winner and let them get out of their suits. I thanked the kids again, and sent them back to class. And it was over! Well, not quite over. I had to pack up the suits then get ready for our reward lunch, which was happening in about 45 minutes.

The lunch with the cow was also a big success! The kids got to come down early and eat chicken nuggets and brownies and lemonaide with the fun and friendly cow, and it was a lot of fun.

We were a bit stingy on the chicken nugget distribution, and therefore ended up with quite a bit left over. Looking back, we should have given all the kids one more nugget each, and it would have been about perfect, but we didn’t want to run out at the end. We made up plates for the office lady, the principal, the teacher who wrestled, and the custodians. We also had some. There was still enough for me to bring home and feed my family for dinner.

So now it is over! Me and the cow and the sumo suits, we throw a great party.

And I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out! Hooray for me!

My Hawk Walk Extravaganza

September 24, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Our big walk-a-thon was Friday. The weather was PERFECT. Sunny and warm and beautiful. I had spent hours and hours planning and organizing, calling and emailing, and it was to the point that all I could do was hope that everyone actually did what they said they would do. I got there early, lugging three coolers, two bags a box and a backpack. I should have done like our PTA president did and piled everything into a wagon. Only I wasn’t bringing smaller children, and I don’t have a wagon. I gave the cd of carefully selected songs that I had had Cole help me with (Ok, I chose and bought the songs and he downloaded them and burned me a CD) to the principal, and his computer promptly froze up, trapping my one copy in his laptop. Seriously, I thought, this is how the day is going to go? No worries, though. He went and got another CD from inside, and he had a bunch of music from the previous Hawk walks on there, so that wasn’t a catastrophe, merely a glitch. Another glitch in my carefully crafted plan was when Ryan (who was working from home so that he could help me out a bit) went to pick up Megan from the high school and there was an assembly starting, and they could not find her to check her out. Luckily, she looked at her phone and saw that he had sent her a text, and she came to the office. Why did I need Megan, you ask? She was only playing the most important part…that of the MASCOT!

She dressed up as the Hawk (who has no name, as far as I know. Maybe we should name him) and waved, gave high fives, danced, and even hugged the kids. She did GREAT!

I had also arranged to have some other mascots come as well. We had visits from the Chick-fil-A cow,

and even Andy the Armadillo from Texas Roadhouse.

One of my friends came up and said, “This is like DISNEYLAND with all these characters walking around!” Although it was nothing like Disneyland, I think having the mascots added a bunch of fun to our hawk walk.
I had the Cow and the Hawk race each other in the center of one of the tracks, and even though the Cow has longer legs, the Hawk won, which is fitting, don’t you think?

There were a few other little problems, like teachers who don’t read their instructions and take their classes to the wrong tracks, other teachers who complained because one track “was longer” than the other track and those kids are going to get more laps.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Come on, teachers.

I won’t go into that one too much, but let’s just say that that class won’t be winning any awards for good sportsmanship, will they?

Tons of parents showed up to help and to walk with their kids, the Armadillo passed out free kids meals tokens, and Chick-fil-a donated a whole bunch of free kids meals certificates, the kids seemed happy to be walking, and no one was injured.

A very sweaty Megan even survived as the Hawk, and I am so glad that she was willing to help out.

After the two hour long walking sessions were over, there was still lots to do to take everything down and then count all those lap cards and record things. Some of my helpers didn’t come, but I had many who did come and helped. We were able to wrap everything up by the time my kids got out of school, which was good. Yes, I still have tons of work to do in calculating the winners and organizing the prize assembly, but the EVENT is over. Now we just have to wait and see how much money the event brings in.

It turned out well. It was a good event. I am still exhausted, but pleased.

John’s Baptism Day

September 9, 2011 / / 2 Comments

John was baptized on Saturday. It was a wonderful day!

Earlier we had asked John if he would like Cole to baptize him. He liked that idea and chose to have his big brother baptize him. We thought it was a wonderful idea, and Ryan didn’t mind handing over the job so that Cole could have the experience of baptizing someone before his mission.

The morning of the baptism, I was busy prepping the kitchen for the lunch afterward. Darn it if I don’t get so caught up in cleaning the house and getting the food ready that I sometimes forget to enjoy the actual event. But I said a prayer and asked that I be blessed to enjoy each moment and not to worry about the “after party”. No one coming over would be judging me as to how clean my house was, or how good the lunch spread was.

I am glad we got over to the church early, so there was no rushing around at the last minute. Cole and John picked up their white jumpsuits and got changed. I had to go to Walmart and buy white underwear for everyone involved the night before (glad I remembered that one).

We took some pictures and I got a little choked up seeing both of my boys in white. I am so proud of them both!

My mom gave a wonderful talk on baptism. It’s actually her “famous gate talk”. When we were discussing who should talk, the kids all wanted grandma to give her ‘gate talk’ about how baptism is the gate that you go through to get back to live with Heavenly Father. And my mom was great to give yet another talk at a baptism. John was lucky to share his baptism day with his good friend Carl, and Carl’s mom gave a wonderful talk on the Holy Ghost. She gave each boy a cute box and filled it with things that symbolize the Holy Ghost, and it was so sweet.

It was a wonderful day!

Afterward we came back to our house for lunch with the family, and a couple of John’s friends came over, as well.

We had a TON of food, with a lot of food leftover. I had bought a big old birthday cake from Costco, and when people started to leave (to go to a place that still has ESPN to watch the BYU football game, no doubt), I realized that we hadn’t served the cake. I could NOT be stuck with that WHOLE cake, so I hurried and plated some up to give away to the guests. I make Ryan’s nephew take a plate, and when Ryan went to a friend’s house to watch the game, I made him take a plate then, too. Luckily we only ended up with about a 9×13 pan worth, which I stuck in the freezer.

I am so proud of John, and love him to death!

On the edge

August 28, 2011 / / 4 Comments

I consider myself a fairly rational and calm person. I do. But really, I’m just one snafu away from an emotional breakdown.

It was a hard week for me. Nothing huge, but a lot of little things adding up to some big stress.
-Megan cut her finger and had to get stitches,
-It was the first week of school and all the back to school stuff with finding classes and meeting teachers and paying fees and more fees,
-I have a very big PTA responsibility this year and I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with that,
-John had his very first pack meeting ever and I couldn’t go because it was the same night as bells rehearsal, and Ryan couldn’t go because he was out of town. I felt terrible that I couldn’t be there for him, but thankfully Megan was available to take him, and I hear she did a good job as stand in parent. She even accepted my Bobcat award mother’s pin for me.
-I’m totally out of shape and sluggish, and need to get back to exercising,
-There’s the primary program coming up, and these things don’t happen spontaneously, unfortunately,
-Ryan was out of town for a week. Not just out of town, but out of the country with something like a 14 hour time difference, so I couldn’t just call if I needed to talk to him,
-My computer crashed, and like I said, my main man was out of town, and my back-up computer guy couldn’t fix it for me. I did have access to the main man’s computer, so I could at least use the internet and access my incoming email, but then when son was doing homework, that computer turned itself off and then we couldn’t get it started up again because it’s all password protected and complicated. So we were forced off the grid.

-Daughter lost her phone at Trafalga in Orem. She didn’t realize she didn’t’ have it until we were back on the freeway heading home. When we got home we called it (maybe she just left it at home, right?), but got no answer. We sent texts that said, “If you find this phone, please call…” and listed our home number. It really irks me when people are not honest. If I found a phone, I would certainly look through the contacts and find “Home” or something like that, or at least call the number that was texted to me. OR, I would turn it into the lost and found. That is not what this person did. The person that picked up her phone immediately called someone in Payson. (I looked it up! Cool that you can do that, huh?) When I tried to call that number, it was forwarding to another number or something, and I couldn’t get ahold of a person. Had to suspend service on that phone. The funniest thing was, in order to call Trafalga to ask if someone had turned in a phone, I had to look up the number, right? I have no computer, Ryan’s computer won’t turn on, I don’t have a phone book. I had to text Cole, who was at a friend’s house, ask him to look up the number, and send it to us. Crippled without technology. Crippled, I tell you.
-I had to go to a 2 hour long orientation at Kelly services to find out more hoops I have to jump through in order to substitute teach. Oh, the joys.
-People, namely my junior high carpool, are flaking on me.

As I was driving and feeling lonely and sorry for myself and started to cry in the car, I wondered WHY in the world I was being such a BABY and letting all of this get to me. Wait. What week is this? Oh. Hormones. Duh. I HATE those hormones and what they do to me approximately one week of every month. I tried to tell myself to buck up and stop getting so emotional, but that wasn’t really helping.

Instead, I made a mental list of the things that were really, really great. A “count your blessings moment”.

+I don’t have to drive my high school kids to school. With early morning seminary and HUGE amounts of road construction, this is TRULY a blessing. I am SO glad that Cole can drive both himself and Megan to school and that we are able to provide him with a vehicle.
+The kids all seem to be happy with their classes and teachers so far. With 5 kids in 3 different schools, that adds up to about 30 teachers, and I am SO thankful that they are treating my children with kindness and respect (so far), and nobody has come home declaring that they hate school and they are never going back again. (It’s early, I know, but so far so good.)
+Cole is nearly done with his Eagle project. He completed his last two merit badges and I can actually feel a tiny glimmer of hope that we may get this thing pulled off before his 18th birthday in 7 months.
+Facebook. Yes, I’m thankful for facebook. Because of facebook, I was in contact with an old friend of mine who is now living in Singapore. I told him that Ryan would be there, got the two of them communicating, and they actually had Ryan over for dinner while he was there. I also have felt less lonely and more connected to friends, even when my computer wasn’t working and I really didn’t have full use of my email. Yes, I know there are a lot of negatives to facebook, but for me, it’s been a positive thing, and this week especially, I’m thankful for it.
+My mother-in-law. I casually mentioned to my MIL that my children wanted a “Grabber” to reach things. Grandma has one (Grandma is pretty short, so it makes sense) and they thought it was so cool. I didn’t ask for one, I just said that Megan, specifically, was wanting one, and on Tuesday, they showed up with some yellow squash and a grabber. How nice is that?
+My house is not being pounded by a hurricane. Or an earthquake. Or any other such natural disasters. Record breaking heat? Yes. Huge thunderstorms & power outages? Yes, but no flooding, and we can put up with that. We have air conditioning and we have water.
+My children are safe and healthy.
+My husband does return to me.
+My car works.
+I live in the most beautiful area. Have you looked around lately at the mountains, the sky, the clouds? It’s gorgeous out there! Flowers are blooming, my sunflowers (even though the horses totally ate the tops off of them) are flowering, my garden is doing well in the heat, I have tons of zucchini, there are peaches and even apples on the trees in the ‘orchard’ in my back yard, and it’s beautiful. I just need to spend a few moments out with the chickens in the backyard to be reminded of the beauty of nature.
+My phone works.
+My family. My parents spent their Saturday with us at the dinosaur museum (actually they were taking my niece and we decided to tag along) and we had such a fun time. I know that if I asked any one of my family to come and help me out they would do whatever they could to help me. I’m very lucky to have that kind of support available to me.
+Visiting teaching. I actually did my visiting teaching this week (yay for me!) and it reminded me of WHY we do visiting teaching. To do some service; to connect with other people; and to remind each other of the importance of the gospel. It’s a good thing.

And the list goes on and on and on. Even as I was in an emotionally fragile state due to some minor inconveniences and some major PMS, I was able to count my blessings and realize how truly blessed I am.

The difference between a bad day and a good day is still 24 hours.

So if life is getting you down, or if you yourself are caught up in some hormonally induced blues, take a few minutes to think about or write down some things that you are thankful for. Even just listing 10 things can really lift you out of that funk.
Or take a few minutes and do some service for someone else.
Or call me and we’ll go to lunch. That always helps.

Summertime and the living is easy?

August 21, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Summer is almost over. Can you believe it? It’s been SUCH a busy summer, and I can hardly believe it’s over. I believe we crammed just about as much fun as we could into our time off. Not quite, but as much as I, as the chief entertainer and transporter of children, could take.

As the kiddos go back to school this week, it’s an exciting time. I have a SENIOR (A SENIOR?! What the heck!? How can Cole be a senior already? I remember when he was starting kindergarten and it seems like it was just a few years ago.) For the first time, I’ll have two kids in High School. It’s also Natalie’s first day of Junior High Monday. She’s so excited. It’s actually a good thing that Natalie and Megan won’t be in the same school ever again. Distance, you know. Jenna and John are still in elementary school, which is where I spend the bulk of my time volunteering.

Natalie goes to school Monday, and then everyone else goes on Tuesday. Natalie and the other 7th graders get Tuesday off. Weird, I know. So, I won’t have the house to myself until Wednesday, and boy am I going to par-tay. Dang, why did I schedule to go visiting teaching on Wednesday? I might have to change that. I plan to sit around the house all day. Not driving anywhere, not picking anyone up. Maybe I’ll watch some nice chick flick on tv, or maybe I’ll just read all day. Whatever it is that I do, I plan to do it ALONE. 7:45 to 2:30 is carved out as ME TIME.

Now don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my family. I think they are the best family EVER and I love to spend time with them. But remember that word “Balance”. I need to have a little alone time to balance all the kid time I’ve been having. And since Ryan’s out of the country right now, it’s just me as the responsible parent, anyway.

So, enjoy your back to school. Enjoy the last day of summer fun that you can with your kids, and then enjoy it when they go back. I’d like to know what you are looking forward to doing when you, too, might catch some alone time.

Actually I think I’ll be getting my pen and signing fingers ready so when they all come home with 25 disclosure documents, I can get them all signed.

We have worn ourselves out

August 4, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Some of our activities with the Chinese students have been…

We went to the rodeo, ate at Glade’s in Spanish Fork.
They went to youth activities where they sculpted out of ice cream.

Go carts, video games and miniature golfing.

Went to see Music and the Spoken word at the conference center

spent some time at the Church history museum

where the kids enjoyed dressing up and dancing. We couldn’t get our Chinese girls, Phoebe and Coco, to dress up, but they enjoyed laughing at us.

We made bracelets

We ate out

We made our own pizzas.
We played in the backyard with the chickens.


We worked on puzzles.
We went to a family barbeque and swimming party.
We went bowling.


We made them watch the best movie ever–Dispicable me.
We’ve driven through POURING rain, watched fireworks, and went swimming.

We took them to Walmart (they WANTED to go there.)

They have also hiked Timp caves, gone to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point, visited a farm, gone to Temple Square and this is the place state park, done a ropes course day, gone to the Utah Olympic Park, 7 peaks, and other adventures.

Yes, it has been a LOT of driving. I won’t even try to sugar coat it there. From our house to the school where they are going in Provo, google maps tells me it’s 17 miles. ONLY 17 FREAKING miles? Are you kidding me? Well, with construction (ARGGGH!!!!) and traffic, it’s about a 35 minute drive. A 35 minute drive that I’ve made once, sometimes twice a day for almost 3 weeks. I don’t even want to calculate it. The thing that’s saved me was that my two girls, who are acting as “buddies” have only had to go twice a week. Last year, they went every day, only they are supposed to arrive two hours after the students arrive in the am. That’s THREE trips to Provo on some days. And carpools have been scarce this time around, due to an A and B schedule, and most everyone else who is in North Utah County is on a different schedule. If I’d had to get them there every single day, I would have truly gone insane.

We still have a baseball game to go to tonight, and they have a closing social tomorrow. Then it’s a weekend full of activities for our Highland Fling. We have the 5K, breakfast, parade, activities in the park, art show, dance contest, and fireworks to attend. Then Sunday morning we will say goodbye. (and have a nap) It’s been a good experience. A fun experience, but a tiring experience.

Ni How

July 25, 2011 / / 1 Comment

It’s Chinese time here at the house, and we’ve all learned to say “Good job” in Chinese (it’s something like Gun de ha, in case you were wondering). Our girls, “Phoebe” and “Coco” are super cute girls, and we are happy to have them in our households for the next few weeks.

We picked up our girls on Tuesday night, and it’s been fun fun fun ever since. Wednesday they had to turn around and go right to school in the morning, and their buddies went with them. Megan and Natalie are doing the buddy program this year, and thankfully for me, it’s a bit less rigorous than last year’s program. Instead of going every day, I only have to get them there twice a week. Wednesday night they were pretty tired by the time they got home from school, so we just ate dinner and went outside to enjoy the evening a little bit.

Thursday the Chinese students’ activity was a hike to Timpanogos cave. I arranged with the coordinator to pick them up at the visitor’s center, rather than drive all the way to Provo to pick them up and drive all the way back. So they were home early, which was good because they were SO tired. Can you imagine flying to a foreign country, and on day two you do a rigorous hike in 100 degree weather? They are not used to this kind of heat, either. After they rested a bit, it was time for our Cinderella cast party, and the girls came with us. It was a big potluck type of dinner at the park, with some awards and songs from the play. One of the girls asked Megan, “Do you have parties every week?” She said probably. My response? Yep. Pretty much two times a week. Sometimes there is a party of some kind every day. I think that is pretty odd to these girls. They are used to going to school at 6 am and staying there until 10 pm. I am not making this up.

Friday I took them all (girls and buddies) out to the CLAS ropes course facility in west Provo. It looked like it was going to be another fun, yet tiring day. Ryan picked them up from that event and took them straight to his brother Kyle’s house, where we were spending our evening. His whole family was getting together to eat, swim, and help cousin Josh with his Eagle project. So, we ate, then sanded little cars, then the kids swam and played in the pool. Another fun evening.

Saturday, everyone slept in. Or at least tried to. Nobody had to be anywhere early, and everyone is adjusting to these early mornings, and Ryan is getting readjusted to Utah time (trip to Korea last week). So I made breakfast about 9:30 am, and it was nice to let everyone rest. Even though the girls were still tired, we decided to take everyone bowling. Both girls said they had NEVER been bowling before. Can you belive it? I thought Bowling was a universal sport. They did very well for never having bowled before. We came home, had lunch, and let them veg out and watch one of my favorite movies, Despicable Me. And then we geared up to go to the Spanish Fork Rodeo.

Now, the Spanish Fork Rodeo is like a whole different county. Half of my own kids hadn’t been to a rodeo, it had been that long since we had been. They especially liked the mutton busting. Imagine how foreign that all must seem to two young girls from China. We asked them if they liked it, and they said yes, but that it seemed kind of cruel. By the time we left, I seemed to have my y’all down, and wished I had worn a cowboy hat with my jeans. But it was a perfect night for a rodeo, and once the sun went down it was nice weather and not too not. Hopefully it was an experience they will remember.

Sunday was our day of rest. With it being Pioneer day, I made whole wheat bread, and even let them help me with the kneading. We went to church, which was SO long and boring for them, but they survived, and then we played some games and started a puzzle at home.

And now we’re onto week 2! And I am excited because I finally negotiated a carpool. I most days will only have to drive to Provo once a day, in the afternoon. I am VERY happy about that!

“I WANT MY SLUSHIEEEEE”

July 17, 2011 / / 1 Comment

This week I had the opportunity to go to day camp up at camp Jeremiah Johnson with our ward’s activity day girls. I made the reservation, got the forms, and all that jazz.
Aside from the worrying that we would either have too many girls or not enough girls going, and the fact that I really didn’t want to spend my one free night of the week with a bunch of girls at camp, it was not a bad experience. Mostly not a bad experience. It was well run and fun for the kids. Which is amazing since I don’t think I saw an adult the whole time after we checked in. I’m not kidding! The whole place is run by 13-15 year old kids. And run well. These kids have enthusiasm, patience, and were responsible. Amazing, right?



By the time we were done, the girls were all crowding around the trading post to spend every last dollar they had brought. Jenna and two other girls had gotten slushies, and were sipping them. Yum. After a few last minutes of “shopping”, I started to round the girls up. “It’s time to go, girls. Wrap it up,” I said. Most of them came over and we made sure we had everyone. One little girl, who I will call ‘Jane’, came over, and then said, “But I wanted a slushie! We can’t go yet! I want a slushie!” Now, we had been milling around the trading post for at least 10 minutes allowing them to buy whatever they wanted, and she was just realizing that she wanted to buy a slushie? I don’t think so. I said calmly that she could not buy a slushie now, because we were going to the car, and there were no slushies allowed in the car. The other girls were already half finished with their slushies, and therefor they would be mostly gone by the time we got to the car.

Nothing doing. This little ‘Jane’ proceeded to throw a fit. “But that’s not FAIR! I wanted to buy a slushie, and I still have a dollar left! Why can’t I get a slushie?” By this time, I wasn’t going to let her get a slushie for the sole reason that she was being a royal pain. I remained calm (because this wasn’t my kid, after all) and told her that no, she wasn’t going to get a slushie. If she had wanted to buy one, she should have done that 10 minutes ago, and now we were leaving. Reluctantly, she followed up to the car, complaining the whole way. This girl can REALLY ramble on.

Not knowing if I could really survive the whole drive home without my head exploding if I had to hear about the injustice of her slushie and that fact that she didn’t get one. I said, “Sarah I mean ‘Jane’, you have twenty seconds to complain about your slushie. Go!” I was looking at my watch to count the seconds. ‘Jane’ did not say anything for a few seconds until I said, “Only 16 seconds left, you’d better get started.”
“I WANT MY SLUSHIE!” she began, “You didn’t let me get a slushie, even though I wanted one, and that’s not fair that I didn’t get to get a slushie and those girls got to get slushies…… (slushie, slushie, slushie….)”
“Three, two, one, done.” I said. “Now, there will be not one more word of complaining or mentioning slushies. Understood?”
She nodded. And we actually had a pleasant, slushie-free drive home.
And did I mention that I was very glad to bring MY daughter home with me, and let all those girls go home to their own parents?

Summer–Week 3

June 27, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Have THREE precious weeks of summer vacation already passed us by? ACK!!! Where is the time going?

This week we didn’t do quite as much as the past weeks. We actually tried all week to get ourselves to Seven Peaks Water park, but things like piano lessons and swimming lessons and other things kept getting in the way. We finally made it there by Friday. It worked out nicely because our friends the Hilmos were there, so Jenna had a friend, and more importantly, I had a friend. Cole brought a friend with him, and Natalie met a friend there. Megan and John did not have friends, but things worked out. Each of the kids and I took turns watching out for John, while everyone else was pretty much happy on their own. Tess and I had a place in the shade to call home base, and I’m VERY glad it was in the shade. Even with liberal use of sunscreen, we all got burned. Even I got burned, and I was really only out in the sun about half the time the kids were. Cole burned his shins and feet VERY BAD. In fact, it’s been two days, and he’s still red as a lobster. Ouch. As we were watching the slides, I thought, “that boomerang ride looks like fun. I think I’ll get Megan to go on it with me. As we climbed the three story tower, I began to wonder what I was thinking. The heavier person goes in the FRONT of the tube, so there I was, facing death. There was screaming. Plenty of screaming.

This is not actually us on this ride, but you get the idea, right? Just with more screaming. Later, my friend said, “You sure were screaming. Everybody had to look up and see who was doing all the screaming.” Right. Other people scream, too. It’s not just me. It was actually kind of fun. So much fun that I decided to ride it again later in the day with Natalie. Funny how it was much scarier the second time! When Natalie and I rode it, we flipped around a lot and the whole thing made me MUCH more queasy the second time. I was done. No more slides for me. And nothing that goes around in a circle, thank you very much.

It wasn’t until the next day that I felt the full effect of my careless abandon of all that is rational. Oh, my neck! I honestly think I wrenched something on that slide. We won’t be going back there anytime soon. At least not this week.

And since we are talking about water, let me just mention that John is having tons of fun with his swimming lessons. We did one week of our two week lessons, and even though he wasn’t thrilled about having to have swimming lessons, he’s enjoyed it (that’s why taking lessons with a friend is such a great idea).

Ryan’s family did a tour of the Crandall Historic Printing Museum on Monday night. It’s a wonderful place, and if you’ve never been on a tour there, you REALLY need to do so. Where else can you learn about Guttenberg, Ben Franklin and Joseph Smith and how the printing press changed their history?

We also went and saw the movie Rio. Cute movie!

Ryan took the kids to a picnic in Provo. Natalie and I had rehearsal, so we couldn’t go, but I was glad he was willing to take them. John also had his post baseball party with his team. The coach’s family sure knows how to throw a party!

Saturday night Ryan and I invited another couple to go and see Singing in the Rain at the Scera theater. It was fun show, and very well done. And I knew two people in the cast! Small world.

Still enjoying the summer. Hope you are doing the same!

Summer-Week 2

June 19, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Is it the end of the week already?

What have we done?

Friday’s concert was wonderful.


It was sad to say goodbye to our retiring director, Tom Waldron. There’s a great article about the bells and Tom in the church news HERE.

Lagoon!–Saturday was Ryan’s company party at Lagoon, and we had a fun time there. I, of course, do not ride vomit inducing rides such as the ones that are plentiful at Lagoon. Instead, I took John around to the kiddie rides, and enjoyed visiting with my good friend Kimberly, who also avoids those icky rides. Ryan and the other kids had a fantastic time being turned upside down, thrown around in circles, and generally being bumped and jostled. And it’s SO much easier now that everyone has cell phones. I could just text them, ask them where they were and when they were coming to meet, and I didn’t feel abandoned when they went off for hours riding the sick rides and I was stuck waiting for them. The best part was that it was FREE.

Barbeque with friends– Cole had requested that we could have a get together with his old friends David and Sam. When they were little, we used to get them together a lot. Mostly because MY friends, Melinda and Michelle and Tina, wanted to get together. Those kids played so happily together! Well, time moves on and kids grow up. Schedules get packed, and it’s harder to get families together. But the stars aligned to get Melinda’s family and Michelle’s family together for a barbeque. It was lots of fun to get those boys together. David just graduated and is going to BYU in the fall, Cole and Sam will be seniors. Sam and Jesse stayed over that night and it was fun to have them here the next day.

Tennis lessons–Natalie finished up her tennis lessons, and she really enjoyed it. I don’t know if she mastered the sport, but she had a good time and learned some new skills and got some exercise.

Piano lessons–The kids are continuing piano over the summer, and since John is now reading like a champ, we decided it was time for him to start piano lessons. He was SO excited about starting his lessons, he got up early (well, let’s face it, he always gets up early) on the day of the lesson. After his lesson, he came home and PRACTICED his simple tunes. He is practicing EVERY day! I’m so thrilled that he’s thrilled.. Another 10 years of this and he’ll be a musician playing John Schmidt songs like his brother.

Swim–I have a certain child who is constantly asking if we can go swimming. Seriously. The first day temperatures crept above 65 degrees, she was bouncing home from school, asking if we could go swimming. I’ll admit it, I’m not a HUGE fan of the public pool, but since I don’t have a pool in my backyard, and I’m sadly not best friends with someone who does have a pool in their backyard, so the public pool it is. We had a fun time there on Wednesday, and then Natalie went with a friend on Saturday.

Visit the farm–I’m going to try to visit some aspect of Thanksgiving Point once a week, since we have the pass and all. This week we picked a not too hot day to visit the farm.

I only took the two youngest, since the other three were busy with youth activities. It was fun to see the grown up chickens and all the cute fluffy animals. Jenna and John enjoyed riding the ponies, and we had a carriage ride.

Youth Conference–Megan and Cole had Youth Conference Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They had a great time going down to Ephraim and attending the Manti pageant, among other fun things. I was just happy to have one half of the amazing duo of fighting, arguing sisters GONE for a couple of days. It’s kind of fun to only have three kids at home, and for that middle child to be the oldest. While they were gone, we went out to dinner (two kids cheaper!) at Mimi’s cafe and I took them out garage saleing on Saturday morning.

Ice Cream social–As it gets closer to Cinderella time, we had our annual Alpine Community Theater ice cream social. (Don’t you love the way this sticker adds a little class to the rusted old tailgate?)
All the ice cream you want to eat for only $1 per person, free entertainment, and the opportunity to buy tickets to the show for $2 less. It was a perfect night for it, too! Overcast, but not cold, and while the rain clouds threatened, there was no rain.

Father’s Day!–And today is Father’s day! Happy Father’s day, everyone! We made Ryan a scrumptious breakfast of scrambled eggs and waffles, and gave him the oh-so-extravagant gifts of new socks and a nice watch. We will have my parents and my sister’s family over for dinner tonight, so that will be fun.

That’s the week in review. Gosh, it’s no wonder I’m tired. I’ll have to have the kids read here when they inevitably complain or whine that we haven’t done anything fun all summer.

« Older posts Newer posts »

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

© 2024 Superpaige's Pad

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑