Accomplishments

Well, allow me to brag a bit:  I am so proud of this girl.  Her life is pretty busy right now (and I know it will just get more so in the future), but she is handling it all quite gracefully at the moment.  On Saturday, she had to play at 8am for her solo instrument competition at school.  She was the only 6th grader to receive an outstanding rating!  

Then we had to whisk her over to the state swim meet, for which she was the only girl in her age group to actually qualify at state level by times (each team could bring its fastest swimmers in each event, even if they didn't qualify by state times).  It wasn't her best meet, but she was still consistent with her season times.  Her relay team cut quite a few seconds, and they were very excited about that. She had a good time. 

Her coaches also selected her as the female All-Star swimmer from her team, which was a special honor.  She just puts her head down and works hard, and that doesn't often get you noticed.  So I'm grateful to her coaches for choosing her.

I'll put some actual swimming shots up soon!  But I just want to say that I am proud...middle school can be kinda rough, and so far she seems to be on a pretty even keel.

D'oh! The cake...

And now she is 12...

International Book Giving Day

I know only about three people check this blog, but I'm posting something besides pictures of the kids for once.  A friend, Amy Broadmoore, publishes a book review blog of sorts called Delightful Children's Books.  She and her son have come up with a fantastic idea this year:  a new holiday tradition on February 14 called International Book Giving Day! 

What's more, she already has a list of amazing authors on board!  Authors like: Judy Blume!  (Excuse me while I squeeeee!)  Amy wants to use the power of social media (I know, I know, that's a cliche phrase) to spread the word.  As we all know, the power and possibility of electronic connection can be used for both good and evil.  In this case, it's definitely good, and I really want to help her spread the word.  It doesn't have to be a new book....just getting books into children's hands is the point.

This idea appeals to me because I feel pretty meh about Valentine's Day  But if we're going to talk about love, I LOVE books.  So what better way to celebrate V-day? 

Spread the word through her blog, on Facebook, and Twitter (@delightchildbooks if you are a Tweeter); even on Pinterest (which I've never checked out as I don't really need another online addiction but this could force my hand).

PUZZLE!!

This one's for Noelle, who got the kids this 3000 (!!) piece puzzle for Christmas.  It took us about 12 days, fully admitting that Mark and I did spend some late nights unable to stop obsessively searching and sorting the pieces.  Have you ever dreamed in puzzle pieces?  Next up: 1000 piece Sunday in the Park.  No big whup.

Some December doings...

So it's been a month since I posted.  Sorry!  It was the holidays, ya'll, plus I was working on a new venture: becoming a partner/co-owner with my pal/colleague Jenny at Studio Z!  So I am now a small business co-owner!  So I'll be making even less money!!  Ha!  But I am thrilled to join Jenny and so glad she agreed to have me join her.  We've kinda been partners anyway, so now it's official.  I think we are a good pair...she is the creative ideas woman, and I take care of details.  Whee!!

I already posted about M4's bday, but we also had M3's choir and band concert in December.  None of my photos turned out, so here is one a friend took with M3 in full voice:

I also took terrible pictures at Christmas, and I succeeded in taking none of Nana and Boppa who made the trek here to spend the holidays with us.  What is up with me and photography?  Ugh!  It was a muted Christmas, because M4 developed an extremely high fever and was fighting it for days.  Not much fun.  But he recovered in time to back to school, poor kid.  We did manage an afternoon of ice skating in Iowa City, but that was about it for the fun stuffs.  Here is a bad Christmas photo:

 And here is a cute photo of M3 in her gift from cousin V.  Stylin'!!

Now he's 9...

It's hard to believe, but M4 has turned nine.  His last year of single digits.  He was very keen on indoor-glow-in-the-dark-mini-golf.  Fortunately, Des Moines has such a place.  It also has a variety of lame arcade games and some appropriately greasy pizza.  (Just an aside, but what happened to cool video games?  Are they all on Xbox and Wii, etc.?  B/c there were pretty much only driving games and shooting games at this place.  Where was Galaga for crying out loud??  What's that you say?  Galaga is not a cool video game?  Oh....OK.)  But the glow-in-the-dark mini-golf was really cool, and we had a great time! 

 

 The cake maker worked his magic again...you'll note that the dinosaurs are playing golf.  As he himself suggested, we really need an album of Mark's cakes.  He has made so many amazing cakes!

 Tyrannosaurus attacks!

 But also is shown some love.

The gorilla was cool, too!

The crew...M4's best buds.