The Really Good and The Really Bad

The Really Good:
Sydney was a top ten reader in second grade for the Read A Thon week!

She worked sooo hard all week long to be a top ten reader, and her hard work paid off!  She read about six chapter books and about a million picture books all in one week.  Go Sydney!  I'm soo proud of her!

The Really Bad:
Briana lost her ipod this week.  She left it in the dressing room at a store in the mall.  She remembered it about ten minutes later, but when we went back for it, it was gone.  I'm sure I'm overreacting about the whole thing, but every time I think about it I get a stomach ache.  She was devestated all weekend long.  But, we came up with a plan to get her a new ipod.  She's going to earn her own money and buy herself a new ipod.  A very hard lesson to learn. 
She started off on Saturday by cleaning out Mike's car for him.

We cleaned off her bookshelf and made a trip to Half Price Books, and today she started doing extra chores around the house to earn more. 

She even made herself a special jar to keep all her earnings.

She's doing a great job earning the money, and I'm really proud of her for that.  I know it is really hard for her though.  That ipod was her most prized possession.  Poor girl!

The Art of Play

The Art of Play, a Fourth Grade Presentation, by Briana (with a bit of dance mixed in, for fun)

10 Ways To Get Rid Of Your Sister

This week at the girls school, it's the Read A Thon.  This is a yearly event where the kids are encouraged to read as much as possible during and outside of school every day.  To kick off the Read A Thon, the school hosted a Snuggle Up With A Good Book night on Monday.  So we get to go up to the school and sip hot chocolate and read books together.  Well that's what you are supposed to do anyways.  Briana saw a group of her friends as soon as we got into the school and ran off with them.  I'm not sure how much reading they actually did.  Sydney prepared me earlier in the evening that she was planning on finding her friends and reading with them, and she would NOT be hanging out with me all night.  Gee, thanks!  Mike had conveniently come down with a stomach ache just before we left the house (which was completely gone by the time we got back!), so he wasn't able to join us.  Well, we didn't find any of Sydney's friends right away, so we had to walk around the school a little bit and track them down.  As we were walking, I noticed that the front wall in the school is completely decorated with giant animals (the theme of the read a thon is Animal Antics).

Sydney told me that each class got to decorate one of the animals (hers was the penguin pictured above!) and then each student got a paw and had to write their name on it along with the title of their favorite book.  We found Sydney's paw print, with her name and The Smurfin Guide To The Smurfs listed as her favorite book.  Then we found Briana's paw print with her name and her favorite book.





It was a proud moment. 

Granny Stripe Ta-Dah!!!

It's been at least a year in the making, but I am happy to say that my granny stripe blanket is officially DONE!!!

I got my blanket all laid out on the floor, ready for photographing, and someone immediately found it and curled up.  I think that's a good sign!

I really love the way it came out.  When I started on it, I picked out some bright colors, and just started crocheting away.  There's no rhyme or reason to the colors, I just crocheted whatever color I felt like as I finished each row. 

(Sydney just finished eating a smurf before this picture was taken.)

(Just kidding.  It was blue fun dip!)

I cannot wait to snuggle up under my new blanket tonight!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We spent our Valentine's Day attending the girls school parties,

doing our annual valentine's scavenger hunt,

we threw in a piano lesson,

ate fourteen pounds of candy,

and rounded out the night with a heart shaped pizza. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cuss words

About a year ago, we agreed to let the kids get their own email addresses.  They pretty much only use them to email Mike and I, and to receive email forwards from my father.  We haven't had any problems with the emails at all.  Until now.  The problem was brought to my attention Friday night, right after we dropped Briana off at her friend's house for a sleepover.  Sydney and I were planning a shopping trip and were just heading out the door when she showed me the inappropriate email my father had sent her. 

"Mom, I have to show you something," she told me as she held up her ipod for me to see, "why do you think Papaw would send me an email with a bad word in it?"

I took a good, long look at the email and noticed the word asses at the bottom.  I wondered to myself why would Papaw send Sydney an email with a bad word in it?  Unless he just didn't look at the email very closely.  Or, maybe he thought she was old enough to handle an email with a bad word in it.  She is eight years old. 

I decided to call my father right then and there and get to the bottom of this.  I told him about the email and he immediately ran to his computer to see what he had sent her. 

"Oh, I see," he tells me, "it says assess, not asses!" 

I looked at the email again, and darn it, he was right. 

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled, "I guess I didn't read it carefully enough." 

"That's ok," he tells me, "I'm just glad I didn't accidentally send her one of the emails I usually send to Mike!"

The Case of the Missing Tarts

Sydney performed in her second grade program on Tuesday, The Case of the Missing Tarts.  The show was very, very cute.

She got to play the xylophone too!



And, here's a clip of one of our favorite songs from the show.

Pretty great, huh!