It's a Harry Potter Thing

Bug's teacher (who I love!) had a bunch of white polo shirts donated by a parent to her classroom.  Determined to find something to do with them, she came across a Bill and Melinda Gates grant for a literacy week project involving parents.  She had a flash of brilliance and all of this week, parents came to her classroom to design polo shirts based on a book they've read.

Today I made the trek into the class room to work on a shirt with Bug.  This was our design front and back:

Bug explained all the pieces of the book he wanted to be included, then I outlined each image on the shirt and he and I both colored them all in.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the upper left.  Starting with his letter from Hogwarts, his trip to Platform 9 3/4, The Sorting Hat, and getting put into Griffindor, his Numbus 2000 and the golden snitch connected by foot prints with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid and Dumbledor on the front.

The Troll, Fluffy the Three Headed Dog, The Harp that put Fluffy to sleep, Wizard Chess Piece, the Mirror of Erised, Malfoy, Professor Snape, Professor Quirrell and Voldemort on the back!

What an absolutely amazing bonding experience for the Bug and me.

Seriously... Thoughts?

They're Still Kids

I often lament to myself, and sometimes to the hubs, okay and a lot on Facebook, about how quickly the little kids are growing. And most days, it does feel like if I blink, they'll suddenly be in college.

And then I have days like today when my drive home from school is filled with this nonsense.

And I realize, they're still kids.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Up Helly Aa - An Epic Viking Festival

The Shetland Islands, archipelago of Scotland, were invaded and colonized by Norse viking settlers in the 8th century.  Today they celebrate a tradition called Up Helly Aa which is a viking festival where they dress up in traditional viking gear.

The groups of vikings are known as Jarl Squads and are leed by an elected Guizer Jar.

And it's KID FRIENDLY people!  You keep looking at photos while I go start work on Bug and Bunny's Viking uniforms!  Anyone know where I can buy one of those helmets??

They spend the whole day marching through Lerwick, the capital of Shetland province singing and chanting then head to the waterfront.

And these guys aren't messing around!

When they get there,  they burn a viking ship with 1 thousand torches.

Let me say that again. ONE THOUSAND TORCHES!

The whole thing ends with a huge blow out party at the town hall with much drinking and revelry.. and drinking!

Absolutely EPIC!  Who's coming with me next year?

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Here's the original article: Epic Photos From Viking Festival In Scotland

Raising Men

You know those forms they send home at school picture time? The ones where you fill out what pose you'd like the kid to be in and if there are any special instructions you want the photographer to know?  The note that photographer typically ignores because frankly, they're not paid enough to deal with Timmy not smiling when there are literally hundreds of kids that have to get their picture take that day too?  Yeah, that one.

I found that form in our "Wednesday folder" (the folder that gets sent home once a week - on Wednesdays - to share information and flyers from the school to the parents).  The same one, I had filled out, and put in the folder last week and told Bug to make sure he gives to the photographer, because I had a note.  A simple note. "Please make sure his tie is straight". And yet, here it was in his Wednesday Folder a week later and it clearly didn't make it to the photographer.

So, I called Bug on this.
   
     Me: Why is this still in here?
     Bug: I don't know.
     Me: I told you to make sure you gave it to the photographer.
     Bug: I thought Mrs. A would do it.
     
     Me: Did you at least make sure your tie was straight?
     And then fell the heavy silence, a huff, and a stream of angry excuses.

The morning of picture day, Bug did NOT want to wear the dress shirt and tie I picked out for him.  We argued even about it.  I get to pick out his clothes TWICE a year - once for Fall pictures and once for Spring pictures.  Twice a year, I expect him to just put on what I'm asking him to wear, so he can get a nice picture taken in an outfit of my choosing.  I even reminded him that I had compromised with him on the Fall photos for an outfit that wasn't dressy because I knew he loved his 'new outfit' so much.  So it was pretty clear to him on photo day, what my expectations were.  I even had him bring a shirt to change into so he wouldn't be stuck wearing dress clothes all day.  I'm not heartless, I just want a nice photo of my kid in a dress shirt and tie.

During Bug's tirade he said the following things:

• I took off the tie because it was annoying me.
• I forgot to put it back on.
• I forgot to tell you, geez.
• It wasn't my fault! 
• It's no big deal mom, it's just a tie.
• The world isn't going to end just because I didn't have a tie on.
• I still looked presentable, why are you getting so mad?
• What do you even DO with those pictures anyway?

It was like a punch in the gut.  I could just see my sweet boy, deflecting, minimizing his responsibility and minimizing the feelings of another person (a girlfriend? a wife?) 20 years from now and I was NOT. HAVING. IT.

I responded (not as calmly as I would have liked) with the following:

• You are only 9, but 9 is old enough to be responsible for your own actions.
• Trying to blame others is not okay.
• Not owning up to what you did and sincerely apologizing is not okay.
• Yelling at ME when you've done something wrong, is not okay.
• You don't get to decide what's a big deal for me.  And I made it pretty clear that it was a big deal to me.
• You don't get to minimize my feelings by telling me it's not a big deal.
• You don't get to minimize my feelings by challenging what I do with those photos.  Even if I never shared them with another human being, they are MY photos, and that's enough of a reason.
• It is not too much to ask for you to wear a tie twice a year on picture day.
• Lies by omission are still lies - hiding it from me was not okay.

I know that it was "just a tie".  I know that it was "just picture day".  I also know that he was absolutely presentable in just his dress shirt and probably his adorable GQ self.  And I also know that I will love the pictures, tie or not.  But I can just as easily see how these behaviors can evolve when he's in relationships down the road.  And I can't just sit back and let it slide.  People have feelings, and you don't get to decide when you've hurt them.  And if you hurt them, even if it wasn't on purpose - maybe ESPECIALLY if it wasn't on purpose - you need to take responsibility for your actions and sincerely apologize.  I know he's only 9, but his age can't be used an excuse for bad behavior, because when does it stop? It's okay at 9, but not okay at 19 when he's had 10 years of ingraining this behavior into who he is? 

He may not have "gotten" it today.  He may, in his little 9 year old brain, really still think this was all about a tie.  But these words, these ideas, will sit in the back of his developing personality, and hopefully, have a positive impact later on.  And I'll keep calling him out on it, every time he does it, because I'm trying to raise a man in a world filled with over grown boys.  And that makes raising men hard but even more important.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

     
   

Growing up Basketball

For as long as I can remember my brother (Let's call him Big J), played basketball. And he wasn't just good, he was very very good.

So good that when I finally joined him in high school and all of us small skinny Frosh were getting our fitness evaluation, the basket ball coach said if I could jump as well as my brother could he'd start me on JV no tryout needed.  Not being my brother, I did not start JV. Other than one or two years in middle school, basketball wasn't my sport.

Anyway, because my brother was so good at basketball, it meant when he was in middle school through high school, if it was basketball season we lived on the courts. I spent countless weekends and week nights at the gym hanging out, doing homework, running wild with my BFF, consuming ungodly amounts of hot dogs, popcorn, and candy, learning all the cheers, and occasionally watching the games.

I didn't realize it at the time, but over the course of these seemingly endless years of basketball, the sport was worming its nostalgic way into my heart.  I've always liked college ball but couldn't get passed the egos in the professional games. But post-college, I just kind of forgot about it in favor of other interests (like archery, reading, raising kids, and you know napping).

A few years ago, in the interest of annoying a good friend of mine, in the spirit of a good rivalry, I started paying attention to March Madness and all of those wonderful memories of my childhood revived a love of the sport.  The Hubs even managed to get us a tickets to a few professional games. Once just a few rows back from the floor, and once in BOX seating!!! 

Which as you can see wasn't as thrilling for Bug at the time as it was for me. (To be fair, it was past his beadtime).

And now that soccer season is over, Bug is starting his own basketball journey. His very first practice was a few weeks ago. And yes, I am THAT mom, taking pics and video of everything.

From his first basket.

To his first team meeting.

To learning to be a pick.

To scrimmaging and going for a shot (even though he totally traveled).

It took a few games, but his team is finding their groove...

and so is he.

And so I find myself back in a middle school gym. And despite the oh so familiar smell and the squeak of shoes on the court, I can't say I'm anything but thrilled. In fact, I might go so far as to say I'm home.

Seriously... Thoughts?

New Year 2017: Let's Catch Up

So, I made one whole post in 2015 and nothing in 2016. I have to tell you I've missed my blog. So, with the new year comes a new commitment to my blog and maybe vicariously, myself.

And while I have a TON of things swimming around in this little head of mine to talk about, I think I'll start with an update since it has been 2 years since I wrote anything.

LW: What do I say about my little Lone Wolf (who as a reminder can't do anything alone)? She's still plugging away at her undergrad degree. She's only take one or two classes a semester because she's working almost full time at a swim lesson company as tech support. She moved out of her grandmother's and moved in with her boyfriend at his parent's house. They hope to move out into their own place soon.

GG: My sweet Glamour Girl is about to start her LAST semester of her under grad degree. When LW moved out of their grandmother's house, GG moved in. She has two new kitties and is happily single and having fun with her friends.  Last I heard she planned to work for a year before going back for her Masters.

The Hubs: He completed not only his undergrad, but just wrapped up his graduate degree. His biggest issue now is having  no clue what he wants to do it all of his new found spare time after 6 years of schooling.

Bunny:  My girl is 11 now. And a 6th grader. Can you believe that?? Not to sound like the proverbial old woman, but when did that happen???? And where was I??? Okay, back to Bunny. 6th grade in a new school where she didn't really know anyone with 7 different classes and teachers and teaching styles and expectations has been an adjustment. Throw in all of her classes are honors and it has been not just an adjustment but a challenge.  She and I are working through studying and organizational skills.  She's also did soccer in the fall, she's a girl scout, and in choir and youth group at our church not to mention socializing with her friends. She's a very busy kid that's for sure.

Bug: My boy is 9 years old now and in the 3rd grade. He's a soccer playing superstar and is about to try his hands basketball in the Spring. He did baseball last Spring but decided it wasn't his thing. He's had exactly one scrimmage for basketball and loved it. As a girl who grew up on basketball, this mama couldn't be more proud. I just hope his games don't interfere with March Madness! He's also in his 3rd year of boy scouts, and in choir at our church.

And Me: I'm 42 now. 42. Most of my life right now is kid centric (can you say driving the kids across all God's creation All. Of. The. Time) I think this year will be more about my own journey.  So if you're interested in reading about how this middle aged caterpillar transforms into a middle aged butterfly..you're welcome to come along for the ride.

Seriously.. Thought?

PS Happy New Year Everyone!

The Big 10

Today is our official 10 year anniversary.  If you know our family at all, you know a rose ceremony was part of our wedding.  This is where we all (LW, GG, The Hubs and myself) exchanged roses.  The point of this was to symbolize the change in our relationships as we became a family and we come together every year to exchange roses again - adding Bug and Bunny along the way, and talk about what our personal goals are to help make our family stronger.  Since we're all very busy people, we don't always do it exactly on our anniversary, so last night was our night to celebrate.  Since it was our TEN YEAR anniversary, I thought I'd shake things up a bit.

A few weeks ago I sent an email out to LW, GG and The Hubs asking them to provide me with 10 unique reasons they like/love LW, GG, Bug and Bunny respectively - with  reminder that they can't submit reasons why the love themselves.  Their egos are fine people, just trust me on this.  I sat down with Bug and Bunny separately and asked them to do the same thing. Then I got to crafting, hole punching, cutting - SO MUCH CUTTING - and double sided sticky taping and this is what I came up with.

Each kid was presented with this little booklet, made from playing cards and craft paper. It included 10 reasons from each of their siblings, 10 reasons from The Hubs, 10 reasons from me and then two extras reasons about why we like/love them to make 52 reasons.

The thing I really liked about this project was it really made everyone think about each other.  Really figure out what it is they love about them.  It was fun to see when everyone came up with similar answers - Like Bug is really funny, or Bunny sings a lot.

And more funny when the answers contradicted each other.  Like when LW said that GG wasn't judgmental, but GG said that one of the things she loved best about LW was that they could sit and judge things/people together.  (All in good fun of course - no feelings were hurt in the making of these booklets).

The best part though, was letting the kids read their booklets and try to figure out who said what.  Some were obvious, and some not so much.

But ultimately, it let each of the kids feel really good about themselves and about how the rest of the family sees them.  I can't believe we've made it 10 years, but it's easy to see the love in our family that holds us together.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

PS - this project was not my idea, I found it on Pintrest!

Yellowstone Day 2

Gooooooood Morning Yellowstone!  This photo is brought to you by Bug.  I took one too, but I liked this one so much better.  We woke ourselves up pretty early on day two hoping to see some animals, but all we saw were the two legged hungry kind on their way to the main lodge for their cup of joe. The view from the lodge's considerable front porch (minus the construction) was probably as much of a draw as the joe.

I gave the kids a choice of a slow day driving up and stopping at whatever we wanted to see along the way and going on a hike.  The yells of "hike" are still echoing across Lake Yellowstone today.  After a quick check-in with the front desk on what hike would be good with two small children and we were on our way to Storm Point trail which begins right next to Indian Pond.

Isn't it pretty?  We followed the trails into the woods which even at 9am was better than being out under the direct sun.   It's always nice walking through the woods.  We've done a ton of hiking as a family and there is just something about walking through the woods that slows everything down.  I don't know if it's the quiet and lack of distractions, or if it's just us being alone as a family, but we do love our hikes.  

We were walking along talking about this and that when this view popped up out of no where.  Such an amazing view of the lake and we walked along beside it for a while before we hit this very cute wooden bridge.  I love wooden bridges.  I have no idea why, but there's nothing like the sound and feel of walking on one.  I say we convert all sidewalks to wooden walkways.  I bet we'd all be a lot happier!

About half way through our hike we found ourselves at this beautiful overlook.  

We were all having a good time, enjoying the view when Bunny - my fearless girl - walked right up to the edge of that 30 foot drop behind them down to the water and large boulders sure to crush her little bones. And then I lost my mind.  Now, *I* am afraid of heights, but neither of my kids seems to have inherited that little trait. So seeing my beautiful baby so close to what, to me, is obviously clear death, sent my poor heart into a tizzy.  Once I'd managed to pull her back from the edge and she'd managed to remove my death grip from her arm, we had a long talk about safety.  With only me on this trip with them, we all needed to be extra careful.  And that included not going to close to the edges of death drops and stopping mama's heart. 

And with that, we moved on down the edge of the lake until we found this beautiful sandy beach complete with rocky point.  If you zoom in on this picture, you'll even see my two little monkeys down at the very tip of the point.  And while we were down there, these two little monkeys came out to play with us - as long as we were very still and very quiet that is. These are Yellow Bellied Marmots for those not in the know, and they apparently love this area.  Cute little guys, no?

We wrapped up the hike and started our long trek north to Montana out of the North entrance.  We hadn't gone more than a few yards when we came across this old man wandering next to the road.

I got a little too close and was the recipient of some dirty looks from one of the many wonderfully helpful park rangers.  And despite my error in judgement, she was more than happy to answer questions for us.  

As we continued to make our way North, I worried he was going to be our only encounter with a buffalo when we found this guy just chill-axing on the side of the road.  We stayed a safe distance this time.

I was thrilled to see two whole Buffalo on our trip, but we had no idea what was waiting for us just around the river bend.. just around the river bed.. (okay, name that song!)

We were stuck in traffic that didn't move for over a half hour.  Have you ever sat in bumper to bumper non-moving traffic with a 6 and 8 year old?  You do whatever it takes to keep them entertained.  And that included taking photos of lots of trees and singing Pocahontas Disney songs.  

The wait was so completely worth it.  

After sitting in the car for so long, we stopped at the first hot springs / mud pots we came to. This is Dragon Mouth Springs.  A wonderful bubbling, steaming cave that even sounded like a dragon roaring.

Bug, however, was clearly less than impressed with the smell.  

I don't know why though.  The buffalo didn't seem to mind it.

We decided to move along, but got caught behind this buffalo for a few minutes instead.  Best game of follow the leader, ever!

He led the way to the biggest herd we saw (and one of the best views) of our whole trip!  We didn't know it at the time, but there are only about 4,000 buffalo living in all of Yellowstone.  It just doesn't seem like enough considering how prevalent they used to be back in the day. 

The Tweedles and I talked a lot about why Yellowstone was protected, and why there was a need for places like this.  I don't know how much sunk in, but at least we're giving them the beginnings of a conservation education.  And with views like this, it's never to early to start.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Lunchbox Disparity

This year, before school started, I asked both of The Tweedles if they wanted to do school lunch or bag lunch this year.  They both enthusiastically voted for bag lunches.  It means more work for me, but they're more likely to eat what I send them than what's offered at school, so it's worth it.  However, I'm noticing there's a huge disparity in my house when it comes to the quantity of food included in Bug and Bunny's lunch boxes.  Today for example.

Bug's Lunchbox:

2 Ham and Swiss Sandwiches.
1 Baby Bell Cheese
Baby Carrots
Grapes and blueberries (about a half a cup combined).
Graham Cracker Stackables
Lunch bag size bag of gold fish
Yogurt covered pretzels
V8 Fusion Juice Box
Water Bottle (not pictured)

Bunny's Lunchbox:

1 cheese and tomato quesadilla
Grapes and blueberries (about a half cup combined).
Baby Carrots with several slices of cucumbers
1 Baby Bell Cheese
Lunch bag size cheezeits
V8 Fusion Juice Box
Water Bottle (not pictured)

And the kicker? Bunny will come home with only part of her lunch eaten and tell me how she even shared that part with her friends.  Bug will come home from school today having eaten all of his food, and tell me how starved he is and needs more food in his lunch box.  He's only 6.  What am I going to do when he becomes a teenager???

Seriously.. Thoughts?

P.S. I'll get back to our Yellowstone trip with more pictures, I promise.

End of Summer Last Hurrah

We took one last hurrah trip to Yellowstone right before school started this week.  And by we, I mean the Tweedles and myself.  It was a 3 day drive up to the park.  Three days of really really long driving.  The Tweedles did amazing.  Honestly, I think I watched Bunny mature overnight on this trip!  Seriously, OVERNIGHT she turned into this helpful, well-mannered, good listener. I was amazed.  Watching this little girl grow, is pure joy.. PURE JOY.

And now, onto the photos from our trip:

When we came into Yellowstone from the West Entrance and drove all the way around to the Lake Cabins.  And here was our home sweet home for our first night.

And this was our view.  Can I tell you how many times I used the words 'amazing', 'wow' and 'just look you guys'?  It was, a lot.

It was a mad dash to the lake...

stopping only long enough to take some photos,  (Awww, my budding photographer).

And maybe a quick game of hide and seek.

He's a hide and seek expert.

You'd think they'd been cooped up in the car for three days, the way they acted.  Oh wait...

But could we have found a prettier place to celebrate our freedom?

Heaven.  Simply heaven.

Seriously... Thoughts?