pictures & funny girls

This post is supposed to be about the girls' parent/teacher conferences at school, but then when I went looking for photos, I found a bunch from our "christmas photo shoot" (with our own personal, fabulous photographer Andrea Flow) and I wanted it to be about that too.  And so it shall (be).  :)

These girls are very, very sweet:

And taking pictures of them is always hard, but fun. 


It's hard because when I want them to all smile, they frown.  When I want them to be silly, they get mad.  When I tell them to look that way, they look this way.  When I tell them to act natural, they look posed and strained.


But it's funny because when you're able to capture them just being themselves, the results are always (in my opinion) winners:

Ah, good times!  Those are my favorite.

I couldn't exactly use this picture for our christmas cards, but I sure wanted to!  Don't know why I love it so.

Anyways, back to the girls & school. 


I expect certain things when I have appointments to meet with their teachers....I expect that they'll tell me they are good, they try, they are generally nice girls.  I even expect to hear about a few behavior issues here or there.


But I was so happy & proud at the conferences I had this week.  I couldn't stop smiling, and it made my whole day.

Arissa:

The facts: She led her own conference and showed me all her work and her report card.  Her grades are great but what really impressed me was her "plan" she had written out which identified her "problem" areas (such as they are) and how she plans to improve.  She sounded so self-assured and confident!

The funny:  When we were discussing a paper with her teacher which we all agreed could have had a more developed ending, she tried to call me out by saying "I had to finish it like that, because my mom was watching Oprah and yelling at me to go to bed!".  :)  Her teacher and I thought that was pretty funny.

Mallory:

The facts: She is the one I kind of expected I might hear about being too "chatty" in class, or god-forbid even bossy.  But her teacher only raved about her and how bright she is and that she strategically placed her next to someone she wouldn't be too chatty with, and in fact her seat-mate is a little less motivated than her so she keeps him on task.  She is helpful and respectful and well ahead of the standards for mid-year second grade.

The funny: The teacher was so impressed with a certain project that was given to the kids just for fun to supplement what they had learned in class, and how thorough Mallory was.  The reason that's funny is that when Mallory told me the project was "just for fun" and didn't even have to be turned in, I thought she was making it up and I was bound and determined to teach her good work habits and planning and I made her work on that thing bit by bit, even meeting with an actual police officer and writing a play about it!

Mariah:

The facts:  She is eager to learn, takes on extra responsibility, is so friendly and kind.  Her grades are perfect, she catches on quickly and likes to help those who are not as quick.  She loves to write and always goes above and beyond what's asked.

The funny:  Her teacher likes her new glasses.  wtf??  She doesn't HAVE glasses!  Apparently for the last two weeks though, she's been wearing a pair daily that I had gotten her from the Dollar Tree to play with.  I'm pretty sure they're reading glasses which means seeing beyond her desk must have been a challenge, but she stuck with it!  Silly girl.  Also, her teacher showed me this paper that Mariah wrote, which had me laughing out loud the entire time I read it:

My great-grandma is very special. She is ninety years old.  She is very beautiful.  She sounds rich, she gets money from the government.  She is careful with living creatures and will always help.  She is stronger than me.  She has many friends, and is curious about dead things.  She has two children.  Her daughter died but her son is still alive and helps her with her garden work.  She says she is ugly, she has wrinkles.  She also lives alone.  She is very special to my whole family.  She is about to die...I am not sure, but I think.  She likes having family over.  She likes to eat spaghetti.

Oh my goodness.  :) 


Oh and one more thing, which really amazed, delighted, and shocked me:


All three of them excel in math.  It comes easily to them.


How that's possible is beyond me, but I'm just thankful.

first day of school

New backpacks, all filled & ready to go.  I shopped all over the internet and the real world for these three things.  I ended up finding ones that were practical and that the girls approved of at: Gymboree (Mallory's), Amazon (Mariah's), and JC Penny (Arissa).







I always start off the school year really good as far as making breakfast (and getting up early) goes.  Usually that tapers off to where eventually everyone serves themself cereal.  But at least on the first day they get something home-made and warm, guaranteed.

I tried to pretty it up a bit with a nice place-setting, including fresh-cut hydrangeas & fancy doilies on the plates:

















I stayed up late the night before making Mormon muffin batter (the traditional recipe plus some secret ingredients + blueberries cause I had to "healthy" it up to make up for the buttermilk).


Then we were out the door.



















Got to hug & catch up with our friends:





I love the first day of school, and all fresh starts.










M&M brought hydrangeas for their teachers.










Arissa's teacher kept repeating that they should not be intimidated by all those books.

Maybe she wasn't, but I kind of was.

CTR

Getting ready for Mariah's big day....which will also be her "under-water debut", if it actually happens. (I'm sure it will. Pretty sure.)

Taking over 200 shots of her to put on her baptism invitations seemed like a good idea until I looked at them and they were all so cute and now I have to pick ONE.

It's almost impossible.

Of course there's some like this thrown in for good measure:

She was still sporting her Princess Leia hair-do from her party the day before, as you can see.

I don't know which is prettier....the little girl in the white dress or those hydrangeas!!!

(obviously Mariah is the prettier one....but it's a close call, don't you agree??? How gorgeous are they!!!)

Dance Recital And...

Yet another recital came and went.


They are not photo-friendly events, cause of the lighting and all the movement.


But I got a few!


Pre-performance:









Is it just me or do both of them look like their dads a LOT in that picture? More beautiful, girly versions of their dads, but still. Cute.



My other star-studded performer.....fresh out of the salon (aka: our kitchen)& sporting her new bangs!




Sidenote: There's a cute/interesting story to those bangs.



I don't think even a professional paparazzi could get some good action shots at one of these recitals.


Well, probably my friend Andrea could.

But for me, it's impossible.



Without the flash, it's nothing but a blur of color.


With the flash, nothing shows up because the light doesn't reach far enough.






I managed to get ONE photo where you can at least tell who the people in it are.

It was a perfect storm of:


the sun not being down yet so the room was lit up a little

+

me leaning forward over the shoulder of the person in front of me

+

all of the dancers posing and being still for 8 seconds.

So there's that, my one and only live-action recital photo that came out worth a darn.

In other news.....

My "boyfriend" was there!



Jesse and I started calling Jaiden (a baby) my boyfriend, but I realize that's creepy and wrong so I gotta find another word for him.


Feel free to submit one if you have one.


"Boyfriend" just seemed to be a good fit though because:


1) I get all giddy when he's around

2) I drop everything and run over to him

3) I find excuses to take him from his other girl (namely, his mom...sometimes his sister or Arissa)

4) I love to hold him

5) He is cute as all get-out, just as a boyfriend should be

It all started at Drill Team practice, a month or so after we "met" (he was born). I had already oo-ed and ah-ed over him with the other parents, and he was sleeping in his carseat on the floor.









All the girls ran out of the studio to go practice, and the adults followed.









Except for me, I was knitting and was in the middle of a row.



You know how that is.



Anyway, one of the girls ran back in and said to me: "Andrea says, can you watch the baby. Thanks." and ran right back out.




Well obviously I was already "watching" him, in the sense that I wasn't going to let a stranger come in and walk off with him, or if there was an earthquake I would have grabbed him up on my way to safer ground.




But once I was officially asked to watch him, I got kind of nervous! He was so small, and so new. My smallest, newest one is 7 years old....I wasn't sure I remembered what to do with one.



Then, of course, right on cue, he started to cry to get some attention.



Just like a man.




So I gave him his bottle and he was happy (again, just like a man).



But then after the food ran out, he cried again and he, like, wanted something.




I realized I had no choice.....



I stood up.


I picked him up.



I rocked him back and forth.


I patted his little back.

And then it happened.



He let out a burp..... the size, volume, and depth of which I have never heard before or since.

And that was it, our bond was established.

I was there in his time of need, and he repaid the favor by kindly stopping his crying once I had sovled his little "problem".




And it's been true love (albeit my usual kind of true love: one-sided) ever since!















I love that lil guy. And I will gladly fight Arissa to the death for a chance to hold him everytime he's around. :)




She luvs my little man too...and you know how that goes.

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away, Part 3

A friend at work let me borrow a wall backdrop, and even though it was hard to hang up outside, it did make for some cute Star Wars-y photos with Mariah's friends.

That was the only boy from her class that showed up.





I love how they're standing. You know how it is in 2nd grade....you can't touch a boy, that's ridiculous. Hopefully it stays that way until college graduation. A cootie epidemic or something. I don't know.

Anyways, he was super sweet, and his sister is in Arissa's class and she came too so that was fun.





Also fun, were the party snacks we had:











To any super-observant people like Jesse who might point out that those are RUFFLES chips: I didn't have enough LAY'S to fill the huge bowl my Grandma provided so I had to mix in whatever else she had in her pantry, which happened to be Ruffles. None of the party guests under the age of 11 could tell the difference. I say it that way because Arissa is super-observant like Jesse, and she could tell. :)

Are you impressed by my super fancy, one-of-a-kind labels with my lovely handwriting?











The Yoda Soda was by far the biggest hit. Everyone went back for more.

The cake I ordered was the only Star Wars one available.



It was dark....lots of black and red and it kind of scared me a little so I ordered it but I asked the baker if he couldn't.....pretty it up a little. He didn't understand what I meant, and I don't think he understood why a girl would even want a star wars cake at all. So I asked him to make the frosting white, and just add in some blue here and there.





I threw out the ugly parts of the cake accessories, leaving us with just Darth Vader and whatever the other guy's name is. Their light sabers really light up! I thought that was so cool.

As always, it takes a TEAM of people to blow out candles.

In this case, it also took a team to get them lit too:

(You can see Jesse's hand lighting them and Audie's hand blocking the wind)



The "force" was not with them on that one, cause the wind blew them out anyways. But we tried it again, and got 'er done.














Then, onto gifts!

Saying thank you:













More thank-you's:






It was a sweet, fun party. Very girly, if I do say so myself.





And I think we proved that GIRLS can be light-saber-carrying super heros who battle life-forms from other planets....and they can still look pretty doing it, thankyouverymuch! :)

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away, Part 2

Thank goodness for Jesse & Google or I would have had NO idea what to do for Mariah's party!








I love throwing parties, and throwing parties for little girls is just the best.

Pretty colors, fun games, pretty decorations, lots of ruffles and ribbons and bows and...more pretty colors. When I asked Mariah what kind of party she wanted, she chose Star Wars. So even though that made it more challenging for me on all criteria, the birthday girl gets what the birthday girl wants!

I still tried to girl-it-up a bit. Which is hard when dealing with Star Wars. There's no reason the birthday girl shouldn't get to wear a fancy party skirt just because it isn't drab like Princess Leia's outfit!










The birthday girl and friends:













I printed some Star Wars Bingo cards & "laminated" them myself.





Jesse was the Bingo caller because I couldn't tell what the heck any of the pictures were.



















The kids were kind of thrown for a loop too. Jesse would throw out some nerdy Star Wars terminology.... and then have to explain it in detail for all of us so we could see if that image was on our Bingo card. :)











I painted a sorry excuse for the Jedi Master Yoda, for "pin the light saber in Yoda's hand".








Arissa thought he was cute at least....here's her doing her, doing her best to look like him:




























That game was a hit though. I realize "pin the ___ on anything" is only going to be fun for another year or two tops. So I'm gonna milk it for as long as I can. :) When kids are too old for "Pin the ____", they're officially grown up.
































Then we tried to rescue Princess Leia. I said she got kidnapped by Chewbacca but apparently that's not something he would do, so Jesse changed it to Darth Vader.





In any case, she (a printed picture of her) was trapped inside one of these balloons and the kids had to pop them to try and rescue her. It was fun (and loud) to watch!






















Apparently Arissa is scared of popping balloons! She got a fork so she wouldn't have to use her actual hands. I'm pretty sure Mariah's friends popped the other 29 balloons with just their feet and their bums, but Arissa and her fork did get one:




























For "hot potato" we tossed around a "Death Star" (how do you make THAT girly???).























The little kids that came to the party from school were Mariah's friends that she's had since [way back] in kindergarten. They are all super cute and sweet.





Zoe, pictured here, is one who came to our house one time and said the blessing at dinner.....in english, spanish, and french.





She's awesome.