My Well-Mannered Girl

My Claire is chock-full of great one-liners.  Over the years we've had several good giggles over some of the things that's she has said.  Last week she added another one to the list....

 

She was sitting at the bar/island in the kitchen on Tuesday afternoon doing her homework.  I was cooking or doing something as she worked away.  Without apology or an "excuse me" afterwards, she very audibly passed gas.

 

Me: What was THAT?!

 

Claire: That was just for you.

 

I had the hardest time stifling the laughter that was building up inside.  I gently scolded her for her lack of manners and then hurried to the backyard to turn on the grill and giggle in privacy.

Halloween 2013

It's almost been a month since Halloween (better than several months since, right?) so I figured I should knock out a post with pictures before Thanksgiving hits us this week...

 

The Saturday before Halloween, the kiddies and I went to the home of my oldest brother and his family for their annual Halloween party.  Hudson was a banana, Claire was Belle (from Disney's Beauty & The Beast), and not having any kind of costume on hand, I threw together my best attempt at a goth-inspired look in the 24 hours before the party.  We had a great time at the shindig and I'm already excited for next year.  I just need to put my thinking cap on now for a better costume next time around (though I did get comments from a few people that they didn't recognize me...not too shabby!).

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know why Picasa has chosen to hate some of my iPhone pictures from the night of the party and not others. I would have made a collage but most of the pics weren't showing up in folders like they should have.  Whatever, Picasa.  Above you can see my Belle and Banana, me with brothers and with my sisters-in-law, my pirate nephew with Claire, my cute pirate niece with my oldest brother, my baby bro with his wife and their darling baby elephant, and a selfie of me as the kids and I were leaving home for the party.  I was SO not meant to have bangs.  My favorite costume of the night was my 6'7" brother in lederhosen...those shorts were extra special.  I'm not including the best pic of the night (which may or may not have shown him pulling up on the leg of his shorts) for the sake of his keeping some sort of dignity.

As for the big candy-begging night the next week, I didn't get as many pictures as I did in past years but I got a couple of good ones of my kids in their costumes so I'll just offer the best pre-trick-or-treating shot I got on our front porch:

 

Claire obviously opted out of being a princess again and was a super hero.  Hudson LOVES his banana costume and stuck with it for the big night.  We had a great time zipping around our neighborhood and the kids came home with WAY too much candy.  After allowing them to slowly consume it over the past few weeks, I allowed them to select a few final pieces last night and confiscated the rest.  We'll have plenty of goodies this week with Thanksgiving and in the next several weeks with the Christmas holiday.  Oh, the sugar comas!

 

Her Mother's Daughter

We had SEP (parent/teacher/student) conferences at the kids' school this week.  Both kids are getting along just fine in terms of grades and making progress in their education.  At the same time, both kids had a couple of things to work on when it comes to behavior.

 

Now, neither of my kids misbehaves at school.  We seriously scored in that department with our kids...no child is perfect but ours are pretty dang good.  That being said, Hudson needs to work on focusing on and retaining what the teacher says, remembering to buckle down and complete tasks, etc. These are things that don't come as a surprise to us.  Having a very active mind, he and his thoughts are often off someplace else while the world (and therefore his class and teacher) continues to go on around him.  We'll keep him, though...

 

Then there's Claire.  The kids in her class each did a self-evaluation about how they're doing in different areas of behavior.  Her paper was marked with "always" as the answer on just about everything.  This included things like:

 

I keep my desk clean so I can find things.

I start my work right away and I use my time to get my work done.

I try hard to get along with others in class and at recess.

 

There were a few others but you get the gist of it.  Claire's little self-evaluation looked marvelous with all of the word "always" circled.  We were discussing this when Mrs. W asked her to think about this one:

 

I try not to visit too much during work time.

 

Pause...flashback 30 years.

 

I may or may not have had a slight problem with being a chatterbox as a child (and as a teenager...and now).  In kindergarten, my buddies Scott, Brian, and I would talk too much.  Mrs. Murphy would punish us by sending us to different corners of the room.  I can very clearly remember sitting up in my corner and smiling at, waving to, and whispering (read: audibly saying) a "hello" to Scott and Brian in their respective corners. Corners were not an effective tool.  What my teacher should have done is adorned me with earplugs in my ears, a blindfold over my eyes, and duct tape over my mouth.  Once properly stripped of my ability to see, hear, and talk, she could have spun me around several times in order to disorient me and then seated me in an empty room or closet far from our classroom. That might have solved the problem.

 

After kindergarten, I totally shaped up.  I no longer got sent to the corner for talking.  Instead, moving desks pretty much became a hobby of mine and it lasted all throughout my schooling years.  I didn't necessarily have a lot of friends in any given class but everyone that I sat next to in school had EARS and I wanted to be sure that they were put to good use.  My teachers were very smart individuals and would always move me next to someone who they knew either a) wasn't a friend of mine or b) wasn't a talker.  I'm sure you can guess how much good those moves did.  If someone wasn't my friend, I did my darndest to make them one, even if it was just for that period of time each day when we were seated next to each other.  When I was parked next to a non-talker, I made up for their lack of communication and did enough talking for the both of us.

 

As an adult, I'm not too much better but lucky for me, there aren't teachers following me around and chastising me for my verbal prowess.

 

Okay, now....back to Claire.

 

Claire was very quick to admit that this isn't her strong point.  She picked up a pen, changed her answer to "most of the time", and promised to work on keeping quiet during work time.  I couldn't help but smile.

 

Poor girl is in for a lifetime of this.

Finishing Up Summer: Claire's Birthday & 1st Day of School

After our long break from reality, we took it easy the last few weeks of summer.  I did put the kids back in swimming lessons for one last session and let them have plenty of free time and time playing with friends while they could.

To top off the months of freedom, Claire helped us celebrate getting back to school and real life by having her 6th birthday....Happy Birthday, Claire! She opted for a party with a nice group of girls who were all going into 1st grade together (different classes but all the same year in school).  She chose a palette of teal, lavender, and pink for her decorations and I loved how the back patio turned out until the wind kicked up...it took a few balloons for a ride up into the sky and kept tossing some of the decorations that I had hung up onto the roof (and over to the other side of the yard).  The girls enjoyed eating a pizza lunch, making necklaces, having their faces painted, going on a "scavenger/treasure hunt" wherein they were required to do different physical (aka tiring) activities before moving on to the next step (end reward: party favor/goody bags), and of course, cake, ice cream, and the opening of presents.  Claire had a very happy day indeed!

Just a few short days after Claire's birthday was the 1st day of school for 2013-2014. Both kids were so happy to get back into the swing of things.  No, I'm not kidding...back at the end of June, Hudson expressed that he missed school and wished that they were already going back. It's so nice having kiddies who love learning! As mentioned above, Claire is in 1st grade this year and Hudson is in 4th.  I absolutely love their teachers this year.  Claire has the same teacher that Hudson did in 1st grade (she's our favorite!) and Hudson's teacher is fantastic...no complaints coming from our house!

I wish I had better pictures from that morning but we were rushed getting out the door (somebody has a chronically hard time getting going in the a.m...ahem) and I didn't have the time to coax and force the kids to endure a longer photo session.  Maybe I'll be up and going and do better on the last day of school next May...

Summer 2013: A Nutshell of Photo Collages

Alrighty, folks...trying to keep it simple as I promised.  Here's the rundown of our summer months:

 

1. Spent a week at Marriott's Newport Coast Villas in Southern California.  Minutes away from what I still consider my 2nd home: Balboa Island (spent 2 weeks there every other summer growing up). We spent time walking around the island (as much as I could on my poorly-timed broken toe), eating Balboa Bars, enjoying the sights on and around the island, relaxing and swimming at the villas, playing on our favorite beach: Corona del Mar, going for a cruise around the harbor on Duffy boats, spending a day at LEGOLAND (1st and last time) and more than anything, we enjoyed spending time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Walks around the island with family, time with cousins, and most importantly, Balboa Bars from Dad's.

 

 Amazing gardens and sights on Balboa Island.

Cruising in the Duffy boats.

Corona del Mar: my little brother found a seaweed super hero mask, my oldest brother showed the sand who's boss, Hudson and Grandpa had fun in the waves, and I discovered that buddy taped toes and sand don't jive...at least my nail polish rocked. The wide pic at the top is of my dad, two brothers, my bro-in-law, and a niece all a ways out from the beach waiting to catch waves (body surfing and body boarding).

LEGOLAND with my little brother and his family, my kids and I, and my niece, Becca.

2. After Newport Coast, we headed to Northern California for some quality time in my hometown of Los Gatos. We took my niece with us for some extra time with my kids (didn't hear one complaint from any of them).  We stopped at Harris Ranch and Casa de Fruta on the way up.  I was an amazingly awesome mom/aunt and paid for the kids to ride the double-decker carousel a the latter.  My childhood self wishes she could have ridden it.  While staying at my parents' place for over a week, we enjoyed going to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium, spending time with friends and extended family, going to the park, doing a little bit of shopping, and more than anything, we had a great time being at Grandpa & Grandma's house.

The three cousins together: at The Boardwalk, Casa de Fruta, Harris Ranch, and G&G's backyard sandbox.

 

Happy 4th of July: The kids spent a good chunk of the day riding scooters in the backyard. They were having fun hamming it up for the camera and Grandpa had fun photo-bombing a totally unsuspecting Hudson.

 

Day trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium: Hudson got to pet a Bat Ray, we all pet sea creatures in the tide pool exhibits, a saw Bottlenosed Dolphins swimming a ways off the main observation deck (a real treat...they're rarely in the Monterey Bay). The jelly fish exhibit is always a favorite...the one picture shows Hudson's hand with a teensy jelly swimming on the other side of the glass.

Swimming with friends and playing with 2nd cousins.

3. Next up was a trip to my sister's in El Dorado Hills, CA, where we spent the last few days of our trip.  I was thrilled to have the opportunity see two of my dear lifelong friends who live in the area.  One made the long-ish drive with her cute daughter to see me at my sister's and my kids and I went to visit the other friend and her family at her parents' home near EDH (extra special treat as I hadn't seen her parents in over 20 years!).  Aside from visits with friends, my sister and I made sure to fit in some sister time, complete with a yummy lunch at one of our favorite digs, Jack's Urban Eats.  The kids spent their time playing with their cousins and swimming in the neighbor's pool.

 

When we drove home to Utah, my sister and her kids came with us to spend almost 2 weeks out here.  One of the highlights of their visit here was our day spent up in Park City where we took the kids on the Alpine Slides (my 1st time ever!) and Alpine Coaster.  I didn't get many pictures of our other activities here but I'm pretty sure that only my sister and I would truly appreciate looking at photos of every eating establishment we went to and the foods we consumed at each place.

A glimpse of our days in EDH and at the Park City Mountain Resort.

Now, that was better than my usual wordy self, wasn't it?  It was wordier than it could have been but far less wordy than I'm capable of.  You're welcome.

Back In The Saddle...AGAIN

I hope you were sitting down when you opened my blog and saw that I had written for the first time in over 4 months.  I can only imagine the state of shock that I've put some of you into.

 

Not that I have a ton of readers, but amazingly enough, people have been checking my blog on a fairly regular basis during my hiatus.  I think that roughly 85% of those visits have been my own sister and parents (who know better than to think that this professional procrastinator would have gotten her act together) but still, I'm always surprised to see my ticker/counter keep going up. I've even checked my blog during these past months.  Never to write anything, mind you. It's always been to click over to blogs that I frequent, but that being said, sometimes even I've been surprised that nothing new has popped up on my feed.  So strange how that works.

 

I've decided that rather than writing four million "rewind" posts, I'm just going to do a few (ha ha ha...you thought you were safe, didn't you?!). They're primarily going to be filled with a whole lot of picture collages and not a whole lot of writing...at least that's my intention.  I've never been very good at keeping things a) short and sweet or b) my words to a minimum.  We'll see how this goes...

 

First up, we have the end of the 2012-2013 school year.  I was able to manage going on both kids' end-of-year field trips during the last month of school.

 

Hudson's class went to the Ogden Nature Center.  I volunteered to drive up with a couple of other parents and the lunches for all three classes in my car order to avoid riding on the school bus (don't get me started on how buses made for children don't have ample leg room for tall adults). It was rainy.  We got wet.  One kid slipped and fell in the mud.  All the kids "got to" skim the water in one of the ponds in search of nasty little bugs and organisms.  It was kind of cool and kind of gross.

 

Claire's class went to Wheeler Farm in SLC.  We all had to ride on the bus.  I dealt with it and it helped build my amazing character.  It was not rainy or wet that day.  The weather was beautiful.  I teamed up with another mom and we managed our little groups of girls together. We all walked and/or ran around seeing and petting the various animals. The barnyard stunk.  I didn't mind the stink, though, as the animals are fun/cute/awesome and I wish I could take a fair number of them home with me.  My backyard would be very crowded and messy if I did.

 

Finally, we had the last day of school.  I always take 1st day of school pictures and last day pictures.  We were running behind this particular morning (this had never happened before...) so I only managed to get a last day of school picture.  At least I remembered.

 

That's it for tonight, my people.  More to come in the next few days...