Busy Days Yuck!!!

Today Ezekiel has a Geography Bee at 1:15pm, he is very nervous, Cenneidigh has an orthodontic appt. at 2pm. Qatar has a Basketball game at 4:30pm. Then I have an appt. at 5:45pm and Qatar's Christmas Concert is at 7pm. David is leaving for DC on Sunday. He has a conference to attend there. Qatar and I leave for Eagle Bluff on Monday and we all get back sometime on Wednesday. By the way it is suppose to be very cold while Qatar and I are gone on the outdoor adventure at Eagle Bluff where the motto is, "It is never to cold to be outside for the day." Goody for me.

Gunnar has Basketball practice until 6pm tonight. Last night Gunnar got home at 6pm from practice and then was gone again until after 8pm handing out phone books. The Basketball team is doing the phone book delivery for cash for the team. Poor Qatar was gone yesterday from 7am(Jazz band rehearsal) until he got home at 6:30 from practice and Science Olympiad prep. He left at 7am today for Early bird Choir and he will be at school until after the concert. Science stuff right after school again. Enjoy your little ones that stay at home most of the time. At least you get to see them for more then five mins a day.

Snow and Gym

I worked for the gym teacher at my kids school yesterday and I had Cenny and JT come to gym. I had a great time. I got to wear sweats and tennis shoes. Yea! Everyone else was looking very dressed up and I wasn't yea again.

It snowed last night and today everyone had to be at school early and so at 8am I started shoveling snow. It took me over an hour and I am now quite sore. I exercise, but I do not exercise shoveling snow. My sore back.

America Girl Birthday Mystery Party

Guess who has been invited to play a character in the Kit Mystery Party? No, it is not Cenneidigh. It is Ezekiel, he is to play the part of Will. It looks like fun, the invitations are really cute with colored cards with the character you are playing. He needs to dress like the character and it looks like it will be an easy costume to put together.

Gingerbread houses

We all went and made gingerbread houses at the church for Activity Days. Here is a photo of the houses. The kids enjoyed eating the candy. The Whites were working on the perfect house and we just stood back and threw candy at our, whatever didn't stick the kids got to eat. Or something like that. The next day I found that a tornado(or hammer) hit our house and it was a pile of crumbs on the kitchen table. All of the candy had disappeared and all I can think is that it was reduced to crumbled rubble by the said tornado the kids said must have hit the kitchen table. No one would admit to knowing anything else about what happened to the house.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving morning working on Gunnar's room. I then fixed my mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables and we all went the the Connetts' for dinner. We all had a great time eating and talking. After dinner and dessert (which was a huge amount of pretty much any item you wanted), we went to Walmart to check out the sales for the next day. We were able to get a few items already on sale so it was a good trip. We also found out where the items we wanted the next day would be located. When we got back to the Connetts' David had taken two of the kids home and so Bonnie and I went to the basement and talked Shawn and Eric into letting us play Rock Band. I played the drums and Bonnie sung. We sounded great, if I say so myself. I think I would really like a real drum set now. We sounded so great that several people asked us to try to keep it down. I think it was so they could hear better without the disruption from the speakers. A great Thanksgiving, THANKS!!

School Conferences and Piano Conferences

We hit all the kids teachers yesterday and were gone at conferences from 4-8pm. A long night of listening about our kids. Most good and some not so good. We found out that JT is doing great and is Thankful for the Army, as most boys are in the class with all of their elaborate war strategies they play in free time.
Cenneidigh is tiring to grow up to fast and is worried about makeup, being thin, spending time with her friends at school. Great at math.
Ezekiel is not proofreading his items at school and needs to work on raising his hand to talk. He is also is really enjoying his new high potential teacher. He is doing great in his accelerated math.
Gunnar was next with the conferences in the gym where all the teachers were seated at desks with lines at each desk of waiting parents. We talked with each of his teachers and the common themes were; great kid, talks too much, very respectful but loud, could be doing better then he is, has great potential. Sounds like Gunnar.
Qatar's conferences were similar to the high school. All the teachers were in the gyms and we walked around and waited to see each one. David and I split up and David stood in one line and waited while I was able to see three other teachers. Common theme for Qatar were; great kid, very respectful, likes to talk, unorganized, so sweet, nothing much like Gunnar but both are great kids. Qatar's choir teacher thinks he is doing great, but was extrmely impressed by Gunnars performance in the play and his voice improvement.
Then piano conference today. Qatar was first and he needs to stop memorizing and pay more attention to the notes and rhythm. He is picking up the piano fast.
Ezekiel needs to curve his fingers. He plays with stiff fingers and needs to curve them or she does not want anyone to know she is the teacher. But, he is otherwise learning very fast and doing great.
Gunnar needs to practice not just play. He said he can play most things and yes he can, but playing a piece perfect does not make it pleasant to listen too. He needs to practice the passion and feeling of the songs. He has so many things on his plate and maybe he needs to be more selective to become really good at any of them. He needs to be more attentive at lessons.
More good then bad, but also more potential then they are all living up too.

Conferences

School conferences tonight. We start at the elementary at 4pm then to Ellis for an hour then the high school by 6pm and back to Ellis for any missed teachers. I figure we will be home around 9 or so. Remember this when you want a baby, they grow up and you have to see their teachers and explain why your beautiful child is not perfect in school.

Someone at church asked me how JT does in school, (he has a hard time sitting still in Primary) I said that last year he did great and I would find out on Monday from his new teacher. JT's teacher in kindergarten loved how JT would hum when he worked on math and things. She said she always knew he was happy. JT does not like to sit or be quiet. He is the loudest singer in Primary and I just have to keep telling him to sit down and be quiet the rest of the time. I have taken him to David at times to keep from killing him myself.