Spirit Week!

Alice and the twins participated in Spirit week for Homecoming!  

Monday was PJ day for both schools, so I took no pictures, but all three participated. ; )

Tuesday was twin day for Alice, but she failed to coordinate with her friends, so she twinned with Juliet. (Juliet was not yet awake, but Alice wanted a picture with the outfit that she'd laid out to wear.)

For the twins it was one color day!  Grace was pink, pink, pink!  Juliet wore a one piece to make sure that it was truly one color. = )

Wednesday was Adam Sandler* Day for Alice.


And hat day for the twins!

Thursday was separated into classes, who were each assigned a season.  Alice's class was assigned winter, so she wanted to channel her inner Elsa.  The Elsa costume from many, many years ago, was repurposed into a cape**, and se used some face paint to enhance the winter look.  

I don't recall what Thursday was for the twins, and I failed to snap a picture!  Maybe backwards day?

Friday was school spirit day for all three of them.  Alice dug out an old hoodie set that she's had forever! And the twins wore last year's robotics shirt.  

When Avia arrived, she was also in maroon, as was Billy, and I was in my maroon shirt too!  Emily was disappointed that she'd missed the memo. ; )

I think Emily and William have one more week until their spirit week.  I don't know if I'll add them here or make a new post.  We'll see.

later days

 *Alice came home telling me all about how it was Sam Adams day, and that there were all sorts of memes of him, and I was thinking how creative, it's like revolutionary day!  But when we looked up Sam Adams memes, she remembered that it was Adam Sandler, which, no offense to him, is far less cool.

**Super impressed with Alice's creativity this week!

Robotics Update

Last year, being new to robotics, I didn't do much outside of the designated meeting times.  This year, I am in charge of my own little team, so it's been a little more intense.

Grace spent Sunday afternoon helping me build (and rebuild some of) the missions that they didn't finish at build night.  She was able to work independently for most of the day, and I was glad for her help, because I would not have finished alone.




We can't bring the robot home, so after subbing one day, I attempted to put the pieces together so that we could jump straight into programming this week.  The sides were not properly assembled (I had to leave to get Emily and William from their robotics in the middle, since it was a Thursday) and the teacher mentors were trying to help my team and all the other team leaders.

In any case, I stayed late, and the twins helped me rebuild the robot.  Only a few pieces were misplaced it turned out, but you have to start from scratch to figure it out, when someone else did the original build.

I also spent a few hours making badges to pass out at the event, like other schools do.  I used up the leftover badge lapel pins from our Fallout party, and was going to buy more in smaller sizes before Billy's layoff, but now I'm in money conservation mode, so people can take little wooden stars instead, if they'd like. = )



Twin power, helping put away the tables!

I'm feeling very hopeful about this season, now that we are finally to the programming piece!

later days

Other Fun Things!

Juliet wanted one of the 'fancy' braids that I'd given Grace after watching a video.  Hers came out much cuter, since I had experience the second time!

I think this might have been a particularly flat pretzel that Juliet found in her snack?

My mom drove up from Florida, with a car full of things for us to sort.  When going through the pile, I ended up 'upgrading' my zipties, because Grandpa's were better. = )


I also took the opportunity to prune, so now the drawer is a little cleaner and easier to navigate.

One afternoon, Billy and I decided to finally try the Korean BBQ place that opened up right next to the thrift store that I frequent.

We went in with no expectations, and no understanding of how it worked, and were suitably impressed!  You use a tablet to order cut meats and veggies, then use the hot grill to cook them at your table!  There is a traditional buffet area with extra veggies, and dozens of sauces, and desert!


The half-moon orange slices there are pumpkin, and they were so good on the grill!

The deserts all looked so good, I wanted to try one of each!  I tried to eat at least half of each one.  Billy didn't care for any.

Hopefully, once Billy lands another position, we can take the kids there sometime!  If not, I'm sure glad that we got to try it out!

When I took Emily to get fitted for her braces, she really wanted to choose the metal ones, despite their drawbacks, because people at her school who get braces, get a few minutes of attention.  She didn't want to miss out on that, so I bargained with her, offering her <permanent> purple hair dye, if she would get the Invisalign braces.  

She agreed, and so after my next shopping trip, we put two large stripes of purple on either side of her face.  There was not enough dye in the container to color the entirety of her long, thick hair, so it was probably good that we hadn't planned on that.

Alice requested brown pants to wear with her pusheen shirt.  I bought 5 pairs at an estate sale (she likes the elastic waists) and she picked two.  These were the lighter, and softer, of the two she chose. = )

One day, my scheduled allowed for me to sub in the early childhood center in Potterville.  There were only four students, but the teacher definitely needs a second adult in there!  It wasn't a long or hard day, but I was sad that I didn't spy either of my children during their lunch (while we were out on the playground and I could, possibly, have seen them.)

Alice had a playdate scheduled, but totally forgot about it.  When she arrived, her friends were already in costume, and greeted her at the car. lol.  We had a party to go to that evening, so unfortunately she was not able to make up the lost time by staying later.  But, I think she had a good time!

They had these crackers during lunch on a different sub day.  The two cookies they chose to put on the outside were relevant to me, and from my vantage point, I could only see Texas cookies on the students' plates, so I thought maybe they were exclusively Michigan and Texas?  But it turns out those were just they ones they chose to picture, and many (probably all) of the states are represented according to the twins, who also had them for lunch.

Cali was cleaning out some American Girl Dolls and Toys, so Haley sent a doll and selection of accessories up here to me.  I was just trying to clean up, so placed the doll in the closest and promptly forgot about her.  A few weeks later, Grace and Juliet found her.  They've named her June, and she is the doll for guests. = )


Last week was conference week at all three schools.  So, I spent 3 separate evenings chatting with my children's teachers.  I knew what to expect at everyone's except for Alice's.  I chose to go on band rehearsal night, since I was already over there.  

First off, let me say that they have it super well organized.  All the teachers are at tables in the commons, in Alphabetical order, and they have a bell to signal time.  

I was under the impression that I would be going between classrooms, so I gave myself 5 minutes between each meeting, so as not to miss out on any of my 5 minutes of discussion time with the teachers.

Well, I will intentionally schedule them 5 minutes apart next year, especially with two sets of teachers, because it took away the stress of finding the next teacher, or if the parent in front of me went over, I knew taking a couple of minutes after wouldn't eat into my next appointment.

As I went from teacher to teacher, I heard only wonderful things about Alice. Apparently, she participates in class, gets her work in on time, raises her hand, and shows off her creativity.  I was so stinkin proud!!!  Last year, I was told "Alice is smart, but..." this year there were not buts!!!!

She came home confused in Geometry, not understanding sine, cosine, and tangent.  While I was surprised that the teacher would cover them all in a single day, we spent around half an hour going over them, until she could calculate them independently.  Her teacher praised her for knowing how to do it ahead of the group, as all that he had given them was a chart, and they were just matching up ratios to triangles. lol.

Her ELA teacher told me about an assignment that she wrote about bats, and the words formed a picture of a bat inside a cave.

In Science apparently, she was too quick to guess what was in the 'mystery' box. 

It would seem that the transition to high school has been good for her. <3

Emily found a new outfit at the rummage sale on Friday.  The pants were way too long, but it was an easy enough alteration.  Though I didn't cut them, in case she grows and wants to keep wearing them, so they are just tacked up.

The kids, mostly Grace, have been asking to get out the Halloween village.  I told them that they were welcome to get it out whenever they wanted but I wasn't willing to do it until October 1st.  After seeing that October first falls on this coming Tuesday, we backed up the set up to Sunday.

Last year, there was barely enough room on the table for the houses that we bought for Billy, so this year the only new addition was the water tower, since it had a small footprint.  And I really wanted to get him something unique in Frankenmuth.

But then, a few weeks ago, the palliative care thrift store had a sturdy shelf, with no back, for sale for just one dollar!  I bought it for his village, and now we have room for even more!





Considering this one was the priciest of the set, it has been the worst quality!  The cement spinner started clicking just a few weeks into the season last year (and I bought it brand new!), so we had to pad it with foam.  Then the little guy in red popped off before we put it away, so I tried to let it repair in the basement over the year, but it just fell off. And this year, despite having the original packaging, the crane is no longer turning. = (

Avia bought Grace and Juliet some Christmas dresses at the rummage sale, so after their shower Sunday, they, of course, wanted to wear the new outfits.  So, they were wearing Christmas dresses while decorating for Halloween, in September.  At least we have holiday spirit!


 later days

A Very Short Nature Post

It's been getting a little chilly, so I've been walking less, but had a few fun things to share.

The first was a picture that Alice took of the harvest moon.  It was HUGE!  I was not able to get a picture on my way to get her from band, but it was impressive.

I think I may have actually taken this picture at Horrocks, but they flowers were so pretty, I couldn't help myself.

This leaf in our yard was giving me Land Before Time vibes. = )


 See, short and sweet!

later days

Murder Mystery: A Murder on the Grill

 At the end of last school year, Tabitha and I made plans to co-host a murder mystery party at her house!

I collected things for a few months, and when we went to set up, I was pleased with how well it turned out, since it didn't feel like much!


Michael manned the grill for us, cranking out burgers and hot dogs (and asparagus!)  Kristy brought some cornbread and streusel muffins, with some candy corn mixture, that I did not try.  I brought corn on the cob, buns, chips, and some condiments. It was quite a feast! Once the flies found us, we had to cover the food. 

These cool sunglasses that I had, acted like a real time filter!


It was a laid back affair, Tabitha invited some non-playing detectives, so everyone got to make some guesses!  As a side note, I totally stole some of these pictures from her facebook page, so I can only claim some of them as my own. = )

Tabitha was the lovely Ms. Kansas, Michael a rebellious mechanic.

David was an en vouge musician, while Kristy was the darling kid sister of the deceased.

Billy was a Russian scientist who defected (to Kansas?), and I was a divorcee with money. (and cool glasses)


Some of the bonus detectives!


These ladies had speaking parts, but were not suspects.  


Who dunnit?


It was Tabitha!  Or Tabitha's twin maybe?  lol.  

It was a really fun time, and I'm so glad that we got to pretend to time travel back to 1950s Kansas!  We ate, we laughed, we acted sus, and the weather was perfect for it!

Can't wait til the murderer strikes again! ; )

later days

As a side note, I bought a dress just for this event, 6 weeks in advance, and it took forever to arrive (I didn't realize it was coming from China.)  The reviews recommended ordering up a size, so I did, and it was too big. = (  I was so sad, and there was no time to order another one.  I attempted some simple alterations, but the fit was wrong, so it just didn't look good. 



I ended up in my fallout costume again, so Grace assumed we were going to another fallout party! lol.