School Spirit Days and Other School Related Pictures

For spirit week, Alice and Emily dressed up each day, but William's themes were kind of difficult for him to join in on!  As rushed as our mornings are, the only pictures I have time for are in the car.  But for day one, it was grinch/green day!

The twins had flannel day, but we only had a single shirt, so Juliet went looking very 90s grunge, and Grace borrowed a plaid shirt from Alice, that was huge, but at least she was kind of themed.  Kristy gave me some of Zoey's old flannels for the next round of dress up days!

Christmas accessory day is definitely the easiest!  We have hats and headbands and necklaces galore!  Sadly, these were the only days I took photos, but there was more spirit, and William did don spirit wear at least once. = )

On the first day back at school, I was in for one of the support teachers, and we did an activity that required cutting.  Sadly, she only had five pair of scissors, and we needed 8 for one of the groups.  Ironically, as part of one of my Christmas gifts, the twins bought me a bag of two adult sized scissors, and a class set of metal scissors.  I happily dug the largest and easiest to use from my get rid of box, and donated them to her scissor bucket. = )

From her window, during planning time, I was able to watch bird and squirrel drama while eating my lunch and listening to one of my first audio books of the year.  On the day it rained, they were nowhere to be seen, but I kept forgetting to pack my binoculars for a better view!

The same tree, a week later.  No birds or squirrels in sight.

I'm not sure when the next spirit week is, but I do feel like it may be around Valentine's Day.  

Now, we'll just try to stay warm and celebrate the things we can as they come!

later days

All the Fun Keeps Us Busy

September has had many goings on, each and every week!  

Emily was invited to a birthday sleepover, and since she was gone, we had Jacob over for the night, and then Juliet got to go spend time with her new friend Charlotte for a few hours.

Right after school started, they had an open house at the new Dimondale School, so we walked up to check it out.  The kids were impressed by how new and shiny it is.  It is a nice facility, hopefully it serves as well long and well as the old one!  

An "eat me before I go bad" spread.  They did a good job, collectively, of eating the food!

For Emily's Halloween costume, she needed four matching white buttons with the back loops. I had just the right ones in my stash!  As I sewed on the final one of the four to her costume, I found that the back plastic of the loop had broken. = (  I've repaired it with three rounds of glue and sealant.  So far, it took my sewing it on, and it's stayed put, so we'll see how it does Halloween night!

New shoes!  I was subbing at the girls' school last week, and so many of their peers have converse shoes!  It's no wonder that they picked these.

For exactly one week, William carried this massive lunch box, plus his backpack and trombone to and from school.  The next week, we found him a soft side lunchbox that he could fit in his backpack.

On Labor Day, I charged up my kindle, in anticipation of a day of reading!

The latest installment of CB Strike, The Hallmarked Man came out, so I marked the day off on the calendar, made myself a fancy cup of coffee in my new Texas Tech mug from Haley, assembled a 'German' breakfast, and spent the day reading.  I didn't finish, but I was able to finish before reading any spoilers!

WGJ had a Grand Rapids check up with their Endo.  Everything looked good.  On the return trip, we stopped at the awesome thrift shop in Lowell, and even found a rummage sale in Ionia. = )

Alice loved her handmade gift from the Helterbrands!

"Look, now it's holding a sushi!"

I purchased the ingredients for a Greek Salad to make at the murder mystery party, and just flat-out ran out of time to make it.  We had plenty of food, so it wasn't a big deal, but I did want to use the ingredients, so for dinner I put together a Greek-inspired Chicken dish.  It was good, if a little plain.

William has been working on his handwriting.  Noticing lots of improvement during practice, and a little bit of improvement when he's not focused, we'll keep at it!

I felt like this vantage point looked so much like the architectural mockup photo!  I'm guessing that they still plan to put on the letters of the name, so I plan to add at least one more picture to the blog, and then I'll be done.  Promise!  I took this one when I was subbing one day.  

We earned enough grocery points in August, that I got the full dollar off of a tank of gas at Kroger!

Since the band doesn't get to participate in the student paint out before the first football game, the band holds a paint out night after practice the week following.  Emily didn't plan to go, but ended up staying and getting covered in paint. = 0  She had a good time, if you can't tell.

Asian-inspired chicken with rice and carrots from our garden!

Billy's Halloween village is getting quite large, so I needed a new tub, and found one for $2 at an estate sale.

At the same estate sale, I also bought some replacement luggage.  On the final leg of our Poland trip, the handle of one of our matching set stopped lifting.  = (  I had been going back and forth on a set from Sam's club for days, ultimately deciding against it that morning.  So, finding a used set, of the exact brand in my cart, in relatively good condition, for a fraction of the price was exhilarating!  I will most likely buy the set in my cart soon, or maybe I'll get lucky again!

We've had the old luggage for so long, Billy was worried about recognizing it, so I used my last Texas Tech sticker on the luggage tag of the one we'll use the most.

Grace decided to sort the crayons one night.

I found her a pair of tiny glues at that estate sale too, she loved them!  Sadly, the plastic was old, and broke when she squeezed it.  So, we rescued the glue that we could into our existing bottles, and threw out the old, cracked bottles.  = (

Emily's top pick for her color guard picture this year was a memory mate.  If you ordered this expensive ($55) version, it would let you pick your photo and your team photo. The cheaper one just indicated that it would include the team photo, and we were unsure if that meant just the color guard or the entire band. 

I was super proud of Emily, when she came up with the idea of just ordering the group photo that she wanted, and assembling our own!  I saved the template to use for the next three years, and slid our creation into the memory binder! (After she approved it, of course.)

I think I mentioned how quickly my canvas came in during the Country Mill post, but in less than a week, I took a picture of my dear ones and then had that picture installed on the wall!  I'm still getting used to it, but it makes me happy every time I go by!

 

This past weekend we had Zoey and Kennedy over, while Emily was spending the day, and night, with Emma, while doing all things Homecoming.  Kristy brought us some tasty seasonal chocolates when she dropped off Zoey.  I don't think they even lasted until dusk.

Emily's Homecoming outfit*!  

Despite not shopping together, they did a nice job looking matchy!

She had a great time at her very first High School dance!

And, catching all the way up to today, I helped set up the Book Fair at Grace and Juliet's school today.  Thankfully, the person in charge was new to the position, and was very unpick about how we set it up.

We were given the back of the choir room to set it up, so it was a tight fit, but every bit as magical.

Shopping is held odd hours, so I don't know that my girls will be buying anything.  I'm helping at William's school later this week.

The next few weeks, heading into fall break are wildly busy, so I'm hoping to have my blog all caught up before the next round of fun!

later days

*One day, Emily came home telling me that her friends were planning a Homecoming dress shopping day.  I told her I would be happy to take her to socialize, but that I would only be giving her $20 to spend.  I also offered to take her to some thrift stores ahead of time, so that she could have her dress ready to go before the shopping trip. One free afternoon we went down to the palliative care thrift shop where she scored three dresses and two pairs of shoes for $12.  So, she still had $8 to spend on accessories when her friends went!  Which might only buy a clearance necklace at Claire's or maybe a pretzel, but her outfit was set!  And then, they didn't even end up going. = (

Fun Moments to Remember

This is the collection of all the events that are too small to merit their own post, but are beloved memories none the less.

Juliet's bff, Kennedy, gave her a big bag of goodies for Christmas, but her favorite was the Flounder Squishmallow that is a perfect match for her Ariel Squishmallow!

Juliet recruited Grace, or maybe Grace volunteered to help her craft the gnome decorating kit, and once they finished the craft, they used the leftover as nail stick-ons and bracelets. <3

I found a more appropriately sized bin for our water bottles, and repurposed one of our food safe buckets to hold the chips!  It's a snug fit, but I was happy to use something that I already had.  Looking at this picture I realize how badly the inside of these cabinets need repainting, but I have a much more pressing list before we get to that!

Over the break we got to have Zoey over for a night.  I keep an ear out for trouble, but for the most part, I don't see much of my children when we have a guest over. = )

We went with Avia to the MSU surplus store and to the bargain basement at a consignment store!

On a different day, while out thrift shopping, we found some boots that made me think of Kristy, so she absolutely got a text!

We went out for a sushi(ish) lunch after shopping.

Grace and Juliet split a big bowl of Ramen!  Sadly, this is like the 90s over here, and this was the only picture that I took!  

Emily and I split a lunch bento box, and everything was delicious!

Update on my sandals, they came back with plenty of time to spare, and are beautiful!!!  Here's the before and after:

I'm waiting until it's time to wear them before resetting the straps, but I'm so happy to see how fresh they look!

One short Wednesday, we also got to bring Renae home with us for a few hours.  Grace was a happy little girl. = )

Last year, when my sister Sarah's insurance was rolling over, she had a lot of HSA money to spend, so she recruited us.  Amazon allows you to search for such items, and one of the items that I selected was a heating pad.  Let me tell you, it has been a favorite all winter!  In fact, I'm using while typing this up.  We'll put it away once the weather turns, but right now it's a favorite. = )

Not necessarily fun, but for the sake of posterity, I also filled out our yearly CSHCS paperwork.  Sadly, it's carbon copy paper, so I can't use my traditional cheat of filling out all of the common information and running copies. = (

Also not super fun, Billy has repaired this key at least twice, possibly three times with JB Weld, but this break was the final straw, and my mom came and picked me up from the dealership while they reset my key.  It took a couple of hours, and cost almost $200, but I do have a new key!

However, if had needed to wait in the lobby, it wouldn't have been too bad of a wait!  They had a very fancy coffee machine.

And popcorn, with toppings!  But it was way more fun to go thrift shopping with my mom.

Emily and William had a "conversation heart" theme during their spirit week, so I got Emily some special socks for the occasion!

Billy's been eating a lot of Broccoli lately, in the form of meals from Factor.  His first order, however, he over ordered, and a couple of the meals were going to go bad, so the kids and I ate them.  This one was pretty good, though I personally would have preferred a chicken protein instead of tofu.

I wrapped up a birthday gift for Kristy, but then we ended up having to cancel our day out because of the weather.  Luckily, we were able to make it up last week, and she really liked her book of herbs and uses.  And she gave me back the paper and ribbon to use another time! = )

After the twins' field trip we went to a rummage sale.  They knew exactly what to do in front of the photo op!

In December, the latest CB Strike videos came out in the UK.  I thought maybe now that HBO, an American company, is involved, I wouldn't have to wait the extra month for release.  But I did.  It was sad, but a few weeks before Christmas I marked the release weekend (it released on a Thursday) on my calendar, so as not to have any conflicts.

During my rewatch, I was reading an article that said they were releasing one episode a week, for four weeks.  I was soooooo disappointed. I know it's silly, but I feel like I went through all of the stages of grief! = (  So, on my calendar, I struck out Strike.

In any case, this coming Thursday (today is a Tuesday) the final episode of the four drops, so Billy took off Friday, since we already had Saturday plans, and we are watching it Thursday night and Friday!  I do already know what happens, since I read the books, but I'm super excited again.  Only two more wakeups!

Avia picked out a Dimondale shirt for Emily, and she wears it weekly!  Also, I had been reading the numbers as the zip code, not the date established.  Ironically, it's only missing one number from the zip code (48821!)

One of my favorite songs, Texas, by Blake Shelton, was playing in the car when I went to get a rotisserie chicken from Carl's; who knew what a good luck charm it would be!

Grace and Juliet were making up some bracelets, and made one for me!

Grace stayed home sick from school yesterday, and so when Juliet got home, she was tending to her, and stayed close to her, closer than usual, the entire evening!  Grace was feeling better today though, and went to school

And I thought, I love old-timey pictures of when buildings are being built, so why not snap a picture of the new elementary school as it's going up?  I figure the cars will just help give it that je ne sais quoi when it's a hundred year's old!  When the weather is better, I might take another one outside of the car.

What a fun time to be alive!

And one more story from our day, with no picture to accompany it.

Billy and I went on a coffee date to our local ice cream store a few days ago.  I saw on the menu that they had boba, and knew Grace would be delighted!   She was not home at the time, and I forgot to tell her until last night.  So naturally, today on the way home, Juliet asked if we could stop, but they didn't have money on them.  When we got home Juliet was pouty, but I had dinner to make, and several other immediate tasks (like hand washing the dishes, since our dishwasher doesn't arrive until Monday.)  So, I struck up a bargain with Grace and Juliet, if they would make dinner, tacos, I would take them to the ice cream store.

So, we loaded back up, and I drove them over and sat in the car while they went in.  While I was waiting, I saw that I had a missed call from Emily.  Apparently, the activity bus at her school failed to run, again.  = (  Therefore, I needed to go pick her up.  So, as soon as the twins came out with their boba, which wasn't quite what they wanted, but it was good enough to drink apparently, I turned the car around to go grab Emily.

When Emily got in the car, she was surprised that the twins got boba, because she thought the ice cream store only carried bull boba (red bull with boba balls.)  Queue my panic!  I told the twins to stop drinking, and attempted to remain calm the entire way back to the village.  Once at the ice cream shop, I went in and asked if they had given boba to the small girls who were in just a few minutes before, and apparently they won't sell the red bull to the children.  whew. thank goodness! I had visions of off the wall twins at 3am.

Next time, the twins are going to bring a picture in, so that they know more of what they are expecting, and I might just go in to make sure that there is no red bull boba. 

later days