Party Like 1776

The Knowledge Bowl district tournament went much better this year!

Our 5th and 6th graders competed the first weekend.  I thought they would do pretty well because I know that they were all practicing pretty hard.  Their information was tough...tons of U.S. history and detailed world history (seriously, questions about Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek.  For 5th and 6th graders!!! I learned about them in college!), but then they also had to remember things about Utah history.  We had a very close win, two big wins, and then they had a bye where I actually got to play with the other two moms and two siblings.  We played full force the first half and then stepped back a little for the second half :) They placed in the top 10 for the district and I was pretty sure they would based on how the scores went.

Our shirts turned out so well!  They are the Declaration of Independence, but with all of the kids' names instead of the original signatures.  Except for John Hancock...because how can you have a Declaration shirt without Hancock?

Miles's team played the next weekend.  I knew he had practiced really hard that year, but I also knew that we only had four kids (instead of five) and that most of his team hadn't played before.  Also, when we got our schedule, we were playing against the really amazing team that destroyed us last year.

We were excited that my parents came to watch this year!  It was fun to have a full audience :)  We lost to the tough team again, but we scored more points this time so I feel very proud of our team.  We then had two wins and one really big win.  Again, the question were SO TOUGH.  They didn't have as much information (Utah history and a little American history), but they were much more in depth and involved things like population numbers and people's jobs.  At the end of the day, I knew our score was pretty good, but I was really happily surprised to see that they also made top ten!  We got medals for everyone and we'll get plaques eventually, too.  We celebrated the end of the season and everyone's very hard work with a big bowling party!  It was lots of fun and so much less stressful than having it at my house.  I did that last year and will NOT do that again.

Because my parents were here, we also got to have a full day of celebration after the competition.  Grandma and Grandpa treated everyone to ice cream at Booker's Founding Flavors (an American history-themed ice cream store) and they also got to take Elliott out for his Christmas present to Build-a-Bear.  Elliott loves his new bear!

Elliott at Class

Elliott and I go to a lot of different classes to fill the time.  It's hard to be the little brother when everyone else is gone at school all day and especially hard now that he's given up his nap! 

Here's what a normal week looks like:

*Monday we go to Rhythm & Song at the library.  They do a lot of small instruments, music and dance, and introduce the kids to different instruments like accordion, saxophone, guitar, etc. He also comes to the grocery store with me.

*On Tuesday mornings, we go to his Play Time Toddler class (cooking, crafts, and games).  We eat lunch for an hour and then he goes back to the rec center for preschool.

The craft for our Little Red Riding Hood week

They were supposed to make a self portrait of what their hair looked like on a windy day, but clearly Elliott was not going to let the chance to paint with watercolors go to waste.

One of the windy day activities involved watching an air popper pop out popcorn.  Elliott was fascinated!

*On Wednesday mornings, we go to story time at the library.  It's pretty awesome!  They do three stories, songs, puppet shows, and a craft.  We go straight from there to the Toddler Gym class for a lot of indoor games. 

The gym class has themes every week.  I have no memory of why fishing was involved during the same week that I can see a spiderweb game in the background...

*He has preschool on Thursday afternoons.  Once every two months, we'll do the art class at the museum on a  Thursday morning, but otherwise, we do errands and clean the house together on Thursday mornings.

*During the Knowledge Bowl season, Elliott comes to practice with me on Friday mornings.  We also have Primary presidency meetings every few weeks on Friday mornings, so I keep those open.  Friday also has the delightful distinction of being my laundry day.

*Our library sometimes has activities on Monday nights or a nighttime story time on Wednesday nights that we'll take him to if we don't have church or work commitments. These pictures are from a nighttime program our library threw for the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program (which Elliott and I are also doing.  Not hard given that we read anywhere from 5-15 books a day)

Miles may be a little too old for most of the games but somehow he didn't think he was too old for the snacks...

In our open time, we read a lot of stories, play with toys, and usually have a few hours where I let him watch TV or play games on the PBS Kids website.  There's a lot that goes into filling up 35 hours a week!

Attack of the Legos

I feel like the kids go through phases with their toys.  We'll have a toy that sits on the shelf for months and months and then all of a sudden it gets played with all the time!  Case in point:  we've had these Legos for years, but I hadn't seen anyone play with them for a long time when Molly ran down to tell me she made something awesome and I needed to take a picture.

It really was pretty cool!

Mom + Girl

Molly and I got to have two special girl's only activities in one weekend!

Our first activity was the rec center's mother-daughter Moana night. 

 We got these tiki cups as part of our dinner.  The dinner was Italian sodas (in case you were wondering, you should not make these with Sprite.  Sprite + cream is not delicious) and Hawaiian haystacks.  I hadn't eaten Hawaiian haystacks in years and recently had them twice.  It reminded me why I haven't eaten them in years.

 For our craft, we made big hair flowers and leis.   Molly's are beautiful and colorful!

 They had a dancer come to perform Polynesian dances

 Molly and her friend Sophie spent the performance trying to match whatever the dancer was doing :)

After the performance, they had a mini dance lesson.  This is the final dance!

 One of the game options was limbo.

 Dessert was a chocolate fountain.  Molly was VERY enthusiastic about this.

 Molly also loved games like hitting a beach ball with leaves and doing this tiki-balancing game.

The next day Molly and I went to see Sleeping Beauty from the BYU Theater Ballet.

 Molly was so excited to wear her Rapunzel dress!  We put the previous night's flowers in her braid.  The face painting is from a library event that morning :)

 It was fun to meet the ballerinas before the ballet and get a ring pop!

Unfortunately for Molly's attention span, the ballet performed two modern numbers before Sleeping Beauty and she was already bored by the time Sleeping Beauty started.  I was fine because I accidentally fell asleep during the first dance anyways. Yikes!

Funtopia

Our parents also gave us a day at Funtopia, the local children's climbing gym!  Miles had been before but the other two hadn't.  It's so much fun!  We did end up not having Elliott climb.  We had him harnessed up and ready but he just really couldn't do any of the walls, so we got a refund and he had a blast building with soft blocks and watching people climb and touching the various walls.

The Story of a Scar

Molly came home one day and told me she was going to the story of her scar for her class storytelling festival.  I thought that was cool, but didn't think much else of it.  Miles has done the storytelling festival before and hasn't done anything beyond the classroom level so I didn't think there was much more involved with it.

Apparently, there is!  She came home later that week and told me she'd won her class competition.  The next day, she advanced through the first grade competition and got to tell her story in front of all the students from kindergarten through third grade.

She was nervous but she did such a great job!  Gerrit and I were both really impressed with how clearly she told her story and how easy she was to understand.  She didn't win but I'm so proud of her for being brave and trying something new.

History Practice

I've been coaching Knowledge Bowl again this year!  I'm a lot more confident this time.  The theme is history, which I'm very comfortable with.  We spent the first four months learning a different topic each week and playing games, and we've spent the past few weeks doing buzzer practice and reviewing.

Our favorite event is the Wind Hill practice tournament.  We play against four other schools and do some practice games to get the kids ready for the district competition.  Miles did so well!  His practice really paid off :)

His team won the overall team score and got medals, and then our school won the combined team medal.  It was really exciting, especially because we were certain it was going to be a different school.

A Day in the Life: February 21st

There isn't much about these posts that is different from post to post, but I do love having a memory of what my everyday life looks like.  I also love having a record of all the big things we do!  These just give a different perspective.

6:00 Wake up

6:05  I'm skipping the gym today because I twisted my ankle on Sunday, so I go down to our
exercise bike.  I read President Eyring's Conference talk Try, Try, Try and some New Testament
study on what it means to be the salt of the earth.

6:35  Quick social media check and my daily crossword.  I slow down for a little because I can't
remember that A Farewell to Arms is about WWI and I keep trying to fit in something about the
Spanish Civil War. Gerrit comes downstairs and starts working on dishes.

6:45  Check work email. I help explain some meetings to one of TGLs and a student lets me
know they have to miss a live meeting for some trainings.  I also make a post about jihadi brides
and what’s happening now that they are trying to come back to the West on our class discussion
boards.

7:05  Switch to grading papers.

7:18 Elliott comes downstairs tells me it is bright out his window. He hates wearing his bedtime
pullups and wants underwear and keeps muttering Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! I give up on grading for
the minute.

7:25 Sneak into room where Miles is sleeping to get Elliott his robot underwear. Elliott REALLY
wants my phone, especially the flashlight.  

Elliott: Mom, do you have a hole in your ear? The hole in my ear is NOT for pens. If you shove a pen
in your ear, it wil be a big bad owie and I would never want to do that.

Good to know.

7:30 Back to grading.  Elliott shows me his Legos.  He asks me about ghosts. He asks me to spell
my name.  It is, as you might, imagine, kind of difficult to grade while this is going on so I give up.
I especially give up because one of my students writes in her assignment that she couldn’t answer
the questions because I never responded to her email.  I never got that email,so I’m guessing
Outlook ate it. I give her the option to resubmit for full credit.

7:45 Pour Elliott a bowl of Sour Patch Kids.  Gerrit bought on a whim and it is the worst cereal to
ever exist.  I’m saying that as someone who loves the candy but thinks that all boxes of the cereal
should be burned. Make myself some oatmeal.

8:00 Wake up Miles and Molly .  Elliott is so excited to help me wake them up and turn on the light.

8:10  Molly is already dressed and telling me how excited she is to share her story at the K-3
Storytelling Festival today.

8:15  The kids eat breakfast.  Miles is excited to show me a mega-cluster he found in his Honey
Bunches of Oats.  I tidy up while helpfully reminding them of the time every five minutes.  Miles is
pretty slow by nature and needs a lot of reminders. Elliott plays with cars while everyone else gets
ready.

8:20 Molly makes her own lunch while I make sure her coat is dry enough.  I had to hand-wash it
yesterday because she had a bloody nose. 5 minutes in the dryer and it should be perfect!

8:30 They need to leave in two minutes.  Miles has not made his lunch. He wastes valuable time
looking for ham that is literally right in front of him. Somehow we pull it together and they make it to
the bus on time!

8:35 It's time for a shower since Elliott is playing well with cars.  That lasts through the shower but
not for doing hair and makeup, where he mostly comes up and whines that I need to find his stuffies.
 They were in his room, exactly where he left them. He also manages to get a box of cereal and spill it on the carpet for the second day in a row while I'm putting on jeans and a plaid tunic.

9:00 Get Elliott dressed and read books on couch.  He picks Little Brown, Rapunzel, Pearl, and Blackout from our library pile.

9:25 Drive to Provo for art class.  He asks me how to spell “I need to go to the bathroom.”  He did not need to go to the bathroom but really just wanted to know how to spell it.

9:50 Play with toys while we wait for class

10:00 Time for art class!  We read a story and wander the woods.  They have activities with puppets, smells, and touch. He gets to wear a super adorable hat and binoculars and we are both very excited about this.

10:30 Class moves to the art room to paint cardboard tube binoculars, make leaf art, and do fingerprint stamping

10:55 Elliott and I wander the MOA store while we wait for paint to dry. They had a miniature version of Elliott's dinosaur so I think you can guess how thrilled he was to see it. I briefly lose both Elliott AND my phone. At the same time.  It’s a talent.

11:20 Drive home

11:40 I give Elliott Paw Patrol so I can eat lunch in peace. Lunch is rice and beans for me and grilled cheese for Elliott.

12:00 Time to read Unmarriageable.  It's Pride and Prejudice set in modern Pakistan. How could I resist? Elliott tries to sneak the whole block of cheese past me twice but I am on to him :)

1:00 Drop Elliott off at preschool

1:10 Back home to grade papers. It is not much fun but I finally finish the last 8 assignments.

2:10 I'm so glad to have a chance to make Molly the shirt for her new pajamas! I am making all three kids new pajamas but I really haven't had much time recently so it has taken forever.

3:00 Pick Elliott up from preschool. His teacher gives me the snack box because it will be Elliott's turn to bring snack next time. He is so excited to show me his George Washington craft and all of his counting practice.

3:10 Back home again! Elliott plays with toys while I read a little more of Unmarriageable.

3:45 Miles and Molly come home and grab a quick snack before we drive to the library for the afterschool activity. They are learning about different lesser-known holidays in February this month.

4:00 I start working on dinner, cooking the chicken, making the yogurt sauce, and making the falafel mix for our dinner of chicken and falafel waffles from the newest Taste of Home.

4:20 I've done what I can right now so I start writing some review questions for tomorrow morning's Knowledge Bowl practice

4:45 Elliott and I head back to the library to pick up Miles and Molly. Usually they are done by now but today they're taking longer, so Elliott plays on the tablets and I look to see if any of my holds have shown up.

5:00 Miles and Molly are all done! I find out that they made bird feeders, Miles won the paper plate frisbee contest, and they learned that if you go outside and yell "Hoodie Hoo!" three times and do a crazy dance, winter will end. I am all for it. They also made special cards. Molly made a birthday card for her best friend Lexi and Miles made me this very "special" card about coconuts

5:10 Molly is so excited to hang up her new bird feeder! I finish up the sauce for the chicken and making the falafels in the waffle iron. I make sure the kids start their reading homework and that Miles also does his piano practice.

5:30 I'm worried that Gerrit may not make it home in time so I eat dinner on my own. It's really yummy!

5:45 Gerrit did actually make it home on time so everyone gathers together to the table. I try to write a few more Knowledge Bowl questions.

6:15 My friend Sarah shows up to drive us to the Best Books of the Year event at the Provo Library! She lives about half an hour away and has been really busy, so I haven't seen her recently and I'm so excited to chat with her.

6:45 There wasn't any traffic so we're early, so we just wait outside and chat while we wait for our other friends.

7:00 Laura and Molly (we sometimes call her "Grown Up Molly" to avoid confusion) show up and we go to the children's book session. I have some awesome recommendations now for all three kids and two books that I want to read for myself.

7:50 I get a lemon cupcake from the refreshment break.

8:00 It's time for the adult session, or as I like to call it, the best hour of my entire year! Sincerely, this is my favorite event and I love their adult librarians. I have so many great adult book recommendations right now. I can't wait to read some books about the KGB, decluttering, a magic-less fairy tale, some Spanish magical realism, Civil War women's history, priorities, and SO MANY OTHERS.

9:00 We walk out of the session into, no lie, a dance party full of high school and college kids in the library ballroom. It is very crowded and full of people in fancy clothes. This reminds me that I am very glad to be in my 30s now, but also that I probably wouldn't have gone to a dance party on a weeknight even then :)

9:10 My friends and I have a huddle in a slightly less crazy part of the library to pick our book club books for the next year. I'm pretty pumped about our choices! Some are directly from the book recommendations and others were by the same author or earlier choices in a series. We pick Year of Less, Educated, The Poisonwood Bible, The Shadow of the Wind, How to Stop Time, The Map of Salt and Stars, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Nine Perfect Strangers, and Women of the Blue and Gray and then decide to also get two kits from our city library

9:45 We pass a girl in an extremely short skirt having a wardrobe malfunction and we all awkwardly look away. I am yet again so glad to have spent the night at a book event with close friends and not at a wild dance party.

10:00 Sarah drives us home and we chat for a while about everything that we've missed over the past few months. They're thinking of moving back to the Pleasant Grove area and that would make me so happy!

10:30 I come home and watch an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine with Gerrit

11:00 Time for bed!