All Hail, Sir Matthew!

I know I’ve already mentioned it, but we have absolutely loved our new elementary school and Matthew’s third grade teacher. Our latest bit of delight was the program the third grade teachers put together to help celebrate the children’s accomplishments in memorizing the multiplication tables. When the kids pass off a certain number of timed tests, they are “knighted” and become Knights of the Multiplication Tables. For those who go further and pass off division as well, they are given the keys to the kingdom.

Matthew has passed off his times tables and today was his knighting ceremony. We received our official invitation about a week ago and Matthew has been looking forward to this. Let me tell you, the teachers and the administration definitely went out of their way to make this neat for the kids. The kids all filed in, those who would be knighted having the spots of honor in the center of the group. Then, as the royal music began to play, the children all rose to honor the entrance of the king and queen (the principal and vice-principal). Each knight-to-be was called up one at a time and knelt before either the king or queen (they took turns) who recited to oath of knighthood and then knighted each child with the official sword. Seriously, they played it all up…and the kids loved it. I’m totally proud of Matthew for working hard to learn his facts so he could join the ranks of the honorable knights of the multiplication tables!

Yeah, typical Matthew. What can I say? He keeps us laughing. :-)

He's a Winner!

Our middle school has an award they call the Diamondback of the Month. Basically, one boy and one girl or selected by the faculty each month to be honored. Every three months they hold an assembly to honor the six most recently selected students. Daniel was selected when he was in 7th grade and this month was Nathan’s turn. Unfortunately, the parents of all the boys notified in advance like usual. This morning the phone rang at 8:45. It was one of Nathan’s teachers asking for a brief bio or some stories about Nathan. The assembly was already underway and they had just realized that there were parents who had not been notified. She told me they would leave Nathan until the very end and I blasted out the door, dropped Malia off at preschool and rushed over to the middle school to arrive just in time. When the assembly was over, the teacher in charge of notifying the parents found me and apologized profusely. She had been on maternity leave and today was her very first day back at school. Totally acceptable excuse in my book. Anyway, I’m very proud. Nathan is a good kid. And I’m so glad I was able to get to the school in time…even though I was in my yoga gear. :-)

Twinkle Toes

Malia has started taking dance lessons. I have been checking out options for a while, but had not made any decisions mainly because the cost associated most of them is pretty high. Just a couple of months ago a friend from the ward told me that her daughter takes lessons from a lady who has converted her garage to a dance studio and only charges $35 a month for an hour long lesson once a week. We signed up for the summer “dance camp,” mostly because we were told that those who sign up for the summer session get first choice of classes for fall and because her prices are so super, her classes always fill up quickly. In dance camp there is a theme each week. They do a craft and then dance to music that fits the week’s theme. It is more relaxed than a regular lesson and I think it is a great way to introduce the littlest ones to dancing.

Malia has been super excited about dance and has been asking regularly if we had reached the appropriate day. Today was finally the day and she had a great time. I’m not one of those moms who will make my daughter take dance lessons just because she is a girl, but I’m hoping she enjoys it as much as I did when I was a kid.

Break a Leg

Daniel and Nathan are both in the school musical this year. Nathan has been anxiously awaiting 7th grade so he could participate and Daniel thought he should try it once so he could see if he likes being on stage or in the pit. The production was “Annie Jr.” Daniel was cast as Drake, the butler, and Nathan was Louie Howe/general man on the stage. This was the first time they had experienced the long hours of rehearsal and although they were both pretty worn out by the end, they both loved the experience and had a great time.

Daniel and His Staff (which included Nathan)

Daniel and Oliver Warbucks (Caleb Sweet)

During the Friday night performance, Mr. Warbuck's overcoat had a sleeve turned the wrong direction. He and Daniel struggled to get the coat on, encountering multiple difficulties. They covered it well, however, and Daniel learned a bit about faking it onstage.

Nathan as Louie Howe with President Roosevelt (Connor Kellis, one of Daniel's good friends)

 The Cast

 Nathan found a picture of Daniel that was taken at exactly the wrong moment. Nathan pulled it into Photoshop to make sure no one could possibly miss the crazy expression. Ahh, brotherly love at its best.

The Manly Art of Stage Makeup

Daniel and Nathan are in the school musical this year. Today was their first full dress rehearsal and tomorrow is full dress and make up. I thought I had some stuff I could send with them, but when I went digging through all my stuff, I discovered that I had been a good little girl and thrown out everything that was old. Now the drama teacher at the school said they could share makeup with others (although they would want their own sponges), but honestly, ewwww. So this evening, Daniel, Nathan and I took a little excursion to Walgreens.

Due to some difficulty with a broken light bulb and a corroded base stuck in one of our kitchen floodlights, our Deacons quorum adviser (and friendly neighborhood general contractor) was in our kitchen. When I announced that I was taking my big boys to buy makeup, there was a definite pause with the accompanying “Did I just hear that right?” expression. And I laughed. When we got to Walgreens and had “guy-liner” in hand, one of the counselors in our bishopric and his 14 year old son walked in. They were looking for candy, a manly nighttime excursion, and there was some definite laughter and light mocking about our own reasons for an evening shopping trip. As we stood there trying to find good foundation shades (I’m not great at that part), some unknown gentleman began walking down out aisle, saw us trying foundation on two boys who are both bigger than me, gave us the “you are a bunch of complete weirdos” look, and walked the long way around to avoid us. All three of us laughed our heads off.

Yeah, it was pretty hilarious. Although my own experience should have clued me in to the fact that the boys would need makeup, it is honestly not something I had thought about until this evening. I figured I had 8-10 years until I needed to help one of my children pick out that perfect shade. But it was an entertaining experience. And as Daniel says, at least they don’t need “man-scara.”

She's Discovering Her Inner Smart Aleck

Sometimes I call Malia Little Miss. After I did so today, she turned around and addressed her response to Big Miss.

It made me giggle.

A Hair Affair

Malia and I had haircuts yesterday. Last time Malia had a haircut, the hair on the sides of her head was still only shoulder length even though the back was getting pretty long. So we evened out the ends and shaped her hair in a U so we wouldn’t need to cut it super short. Since then, her hair has grown long enough that we could just cut it all the same length. I think it looks nicer now that everything is all evened out. And because there is less length, her nature waves are a bit more prominent. It also makes her look older which I’m not sure I’m ready for. But mommy desires aside, time marches on.

 Can you tell whose hair is whose? It's kind of a no brainer. ;-)

Do you remember my rant about hair elastics last year? The subject came us as we were getting the locks clipped and our wonderful hairdresser suggested we check out Sally Beauty Supply. We did so as soon as we were finished and it looks like I've found some elastics that won't make me Mormon swear every time I comb Malia's hair. They didn't have any of the normal big box brands (thankfully) and it looks like I'll be a repeat customer.

Hippety Hoppety

Easter kind of snuck up on me this year. It is super early and March has been pretty crazy so I just didn’t think ahead like I usually do. As a result, we skipped some of the things we normally do. We didn’t do our FHE on Easter. We didn’t make resurrection rolls. We didn’t even color eggs. Matthew and Malia are the only ones still young enough to do an Easter egg hunt and since Matthew can’t eat eggs and Malia doesn’t like them hard boiled, they never even missed it. We did, however, make our annual bunny buns. They definitely would have missed that one if we had skipped it. And since I was not going to get to it, Nathan made jello eggs. The kids love those. We also did our very own little Easter egg hunt. Matthew and Malia quite enjoyed it. And Matthew's mouth was already full of candy by the time all the eggs were gathered.

So our holiday was calmer than usual, but I’m okay with that. It was actually really nice.