Her Last Birthday Ever!

Christy celebrated her 39th birthday at our house on Friday. She asked for Spanish rice with tacos. We had a nice dinner and then had her favorite cake: cherry chip with almond butter cream frosting. She swears that this is her last birthday ever. She's not celebrating next year.

No Boys Allowed!

On Sunday night I was walking down the hall and saw this note posted on Alyssa's door. Despite the spelling you can understand what she's saying! I thought it was funny, so I thought I'd share.

And now with the Sports....Here's Curtis

This is what I saw walking into my classroom after school. His class is doing book reports. His group picked a book called, Running out of Time. They read it and now have to do a presentation. They are doing a newscast. Curtis' teacher told me that he has whipped up replicas of a cell phone, a laptop complete with a USB port and removable drive, microphone, etc....

Apparently he has also whipped up a mustache for his role as sportscaster and man on the street reporter. I always considered this kid shy and quiet. This special class has done extraordinary things for him. He is showing his real, creative, wonderful self. His teacher is fabulous and really gets wonderful things from him. I am thankful for her!

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

My little late bloomer is finally losing teeth. He lost 2 bottom teeth about 8 months ago, but hadn't lost any more. Last week he lost one of his front teeth and the other is hanging by a thread. I hope he looses it fast! It so grosses me out to see him pushing his tooth back and forth.

The Fairy Party

Alyssa chose to have a Tinker Bell birthday party. I thought maybe she would just want girls at her party, but she has some boys that she just loves so much and has to have them there too. Thanks to Aunt Jamie, who gave us a great idea for fairy wings and Aunt Christy for whipping up a Peter Pan hat prototype, we were in business. I borrowed some green butcher paper from school for the Peter Pan hats. They are a simple paper hat with some feathers tucked into the brim. The wings are made from tissue paper, gathered in the middle and tied with a pipe cleaner. The kids seemed to love them. From the pictures you'll see how great the kids looked.

We also had a treasure hunt. We found clues in Nana's doghouse and by the mermaid's pond. The treasure was a box painted gold. It was full of gift bags full of fun treasure.

We also ate fairy sandwiches, fairy wands (pretzels dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles), fruit kabobs, potato chips, and cupcakes.

We had a fun Tinker Bell shaped pinata. I think a great time was had by all.

We also had a great family party. Alyssa picked lasagna, garlic bread, and jello for our family dinner. She wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. She also wanted pink writing on her cake. She seemed thrilled with her cake. I was thankful that she picked a simple cake.

Alyssa got some fun stuff from everyone. Thanks to all our wonderful family who came and celebrated with us. We have been blessed with wonderful family and friends. We are lucky people.

Alyssa is six!

Alyssa turned 6 on November 20th. She is told me the night before that she wanted a donut with a candle in it for breakfast. She loves donuts! She takes after her Grandma Carla in that! She could eat one every day. So I got the donuts and she was thrilled. I also gave her a new shirt to wear to school. She was the happiest little birthday girl there ever was!

Curtis

Let me tell you a little about this cute little boy. He is usually the easiest kid in the world to parent. He is kind, thoughtful, sensitive, intelligent... The list truly could go on and on with all of his positive attributes.

One thing he isn't though is organized. If any of you have seen this child's bedroom, you could testify to this. Another problem is mornings. You would think that this child has never had a working mother, and that getting ready in the morning is a new thing.

Yesterday was particularly awful. It was well past our time to leave and he didn't have his shoes on, hadn't fed or watered Rory, hadn't combed his hair, or brushed his teeth. He was reading in his bedroom. When I called for us to get into the car and discovered that nothing had been done, I was upset. I was very calm though and we had a discussion in the car on the way to school. Now, this discussion has happened many times in the past, sometimes loudly, sometimes patiently. He always says, "Yes Mom, I will try and be better." I truly despaired of anything changing.

Fast forward to this morning: when I called he got right up. I asked him to lay out his clothes and he said it was already done. I looked over at the couch and sure enough there they were. He told me he'd laid them out last night so he could get ready on time. I still didn't think anything of it, although it was nice to not have to say it fifty times. Next he quickly ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, and got dressed. All with out me asking. I complimented him and he told me that he'd thought a lot about what I'd said and made a list last night of all he had to do and he was checking them off as he did them. Here' proof :

Here is the list. It is also more proof of what a truly wonderful kid he is.

Here's another reason I love this kid: For the culminating project for his class' study of Egypt they made death masks. Curtis' teacher told me his was the best. If you can't tell, it is a dog. When they brought the masks home he had made himself a tail and had drawn paw prints on the palms of his hands. I asked if everyone else had made tails, etc to go with their masks. He told me that he was the only one. I asked if anyone had laughed at him. He told me that some did, but he didn't care, because he was having fun. I am so glad he isn't like his mother. He didn't care what the other kids thought, because he was having fun.