Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Mama Ball Says

Had Open House for the 7th and 8th grade parents tonight. I think it went very well overall, but it was a pain in the neck late this afternoon because we couldn't begin the presentation setups for the teams until after all the kids had left, and then I had to leave to go pick up my munchkins. I think I have just been getting too tired lately and I can't seem to catch up -- feel like I'm constantly playing catchup which is irritating. I don't mind doing that occasionally but on a constant basis it is pretty wearing. I decided tonight that I am going to start having "Guilt-free No Days" where I say no to everything until I have caught up on what I already have on my plate. Tomorrow should be a good starting off point for that.

Jake finally decided on his Halloween costume this weekend ( a dragon) and we found two on ebay: a red one and a green one. He liked the red one (his favorite color), so we bid on that one and won it. He was thrilled to pieces! So we are all literary characters for Halloween this year: Sadie is going as Chicken Little, Jake will be the dragon Thorn (from the cover of Christopher Paolini's newest book, Eldest), and I get to be the Fairy GodMama. I decided that this year I was going to put together a really fun costume, and when I found a really funky fancy gold lace dress on ebay, it made sense to do this ... so now I have the tiara, dress, and makings of a magic wand, which is this weekend's project. When you work in a middle school, you can still do this sort of thing and get away with it! I love Halloween.

We had our first "real" playdate at our house yesterday. Jake's friend Chris came over with his older brother and they all played together for a couple hours. It was nice because I got to have some grownup conversation with Marilyn, Chris' mother! I was amazed that the boys really didn't trash the house. They were all great! I think the chocolate chip cookies helped. Sadie kept checking them out, but she was good too -- didn't get in their way or do her Godzilla act, which was nothing short of miraculous.

We measured the kids last night on the basement door. Jake grew just over an inch since June, and Sadie grew two and a half inches. Whew! The amazing part is that Jake did all that growing eating next to nothing for the most part, and Sadie has been eating everything in sight. They are both among the taller kids in their respective classes.

Found two new Robert Sabuda pop-up books at Costco, so I picked them up for the kids for Christmas. I love his pop-ups -- they are absolutely ART. I got the Winter's Tale book for Charlotte and Sadie, and the Dinosaur book for Jake and Owen. I really like getting each kid a book for Christmas. Must be that inner librarian coming out of me. ;)

It's going to be a busy next couple of weeks for us, but I am hoping that things will settle down a bit in November. Steve told me that we are doing Christmas Day here at our house this year again, so we have to get busy and figure out what we're doing for dining room furniture. I don't want to have folding tables and folding chairs again this year! We found a nice table at the Lillian August outlet in Norwalk, and the price was reasonable, but the chairs were *ahem* an arm and a leg, as were the china cabinet and server pieces. We'll see what I can get him to agree to. Wish me luck.

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