May 365

Saying good-bye to May.  This month is always one of the fastest for me.  It seems like it just starts when it's June all of a sudden.  I guess the fact that it's a busy month for us makes it fly.

Memorial Day 2012

Memorial Day proved to be a perfect "parade day".  It was a sunny, hot day & everyone lined up our main street, ready to cheer the parade marchers.

This year both girls were in the parade.  Gianna marched with her Girl Scout Brownie troop.  Tossing out candy to everyone.  They have so much fun doing this.

Marissa's friend Sienna, invited her to walk with the "ADOPT" group.  They urge people to adopt pets from the shelter, passing out dog treats to all the dogs along the parade.  Although by the time they reached us (towards the end of the route), they were riding on the "float" under some shade. 

While watching the parade is fun, along with everything that goes with it.  I try to teach the girls the real reason we celebrate Memorial Day.  To be thankful to those that gave us our freedom. 

Marissa's 5th Grade Music Concert

It's been a busy month around here, with one thing after another.  Tonight was Marissa's Spring/Chorus Concert.

She sings in the Chorus which is mixed of 4th & 5th Graders.  Actually just Marissa & her friend are the only 5th graders in the Chorus, but whatever.  As a whole, they all sang beautifully.

 

After singing a number of songs, they left the stage & after a few minutes the whole 5th grade class marched in.  Marissa, conveniently was standing in the same spot. ;)

They sang & also played music on their recorders.  They even played other instruments & a few of the kids sang solos.  The kids did a wonderful job with their performances.   

Of course at the end the parents storm the kids for pictures.  I love this one of Marissa with some of her BFF's.

Hard to believe they're off to middle school!

Field Day 2012

The girls had Field Day today & we scored the perfect weather for it.  It was a warm, sunny day filled with fun. 

I had to work in the morning, but managed to get to the school around lunchtime.  I found the whole school dancing thanks to a parent that volunteered to DJ.  The kids danced the macarena, did the cha-cha slide & had so much fun!

Marissa was on the yellow team.  She is my sunshine.

Gianna was on the orange team,  She's my little firecracker.

I did my best splitting my time between both girls events, cheering them on.

At the end, all the fifth graders got together for a group pic.  This is their last field day here.  Next year they will be in Middle School. 

The kids all had a lot of fun--how could they not?  No lessons, no homework, just FUN!

Marissa's Birthday Weekend Extraganza (The Longest Weekend EVER!)

This weekend we celebrated Marissa's 11th birthday in style.

Her birthday morning, she woke up to her bedroom doorway papered in streamers.  I didn't plan this ahead of time but when the Birthday Girl woke up she said she wasn't surprised. WHAT?!?!?! She had seen the streamers in the kitchen while I was decorating.  Go figure, since when I pulled the streamers out I didn't know what I was doing with them.  She's a tough sell, is all I'm saying.

 

After school, I brought her to Party City to pick out a balloon for her party.  I had planned on surprising her with a balloon, but I didn't swing it time-wise.  Good thing too, since the balloon I would've picked out was declared "too baby-ish" for her.  **sigh** She's flipped the switch already & grown up.

That night after her choice of dinner at TGIFriday's, we had her open her presents from us.

She's really big on the Hunger Games series of books, so when I found a bunch of Hunger Games goodies to give her, she was thrilled!

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day was her friend party.  She invited 8 girls for Mani/Pedi's PLUS a sleepover.  How I allowed her to invite that many kids to sleepover is beyond me.  There were TEN, LOUD girls all together!!

Here she is with my niece Nikki & Gianna after picking out their nail colors.

Birthday girl was the first to get her pedicure.  The salon I go to made sure to make her feel special & gave her a bouquet of balloons (see the streamers?)

A group of the girls drying their nails...

The whole gang of girls sang "Happy Birthday" to Marissa (at the top of their lungs).  Luckily we had the salon to ourselves, but regardless I'm sure all the nail technicians were happy we left soon after! ;)

Back at home the kids went outside while I set up snacks until the pizza came.  I also set up a candy bar for the girls...no I don't think I was in my right mind when I had this idea.  However, I was told by a few of the girls that I was "the BEST MOM EVER!"....I made them repeat that to make sure Marissa heard them. ;)

Then of course there was CAKE!! 

The cake was SIX layers of awesomeness.  Everyone loved it.

Especially my favorite 11 year old.

Presents were opened & oohed over.  She was happy.

Shortly afterwards, the girls changed into PJ's & jumped around like monkeys from all the sugar they ingested watched movies.

 While they were all doing their thing I hung out in the den, attempting to work on my Project Life album.  I served leftover pizza around midnight & waited for them to fall asleep.  Finally around 2am things got quieter & I felt comfortable enough leaving them for the night.

The next morning Joe, (who didn't sleep the night before due to painting my scraproom trim & doors all night long, but thankfully managed to sleep through all the chaos) made the girls pancakes & bacon.  He took care of it all, knowing I was up late the night before.  All I'm saying is, those girls are like vultures when it comes to bacon....

When they were full, I made them get dressed & they all went outside.  There were a few that were feeling the after effect of the long night, but overall it wasn't too bad. 

 They all got picked up around 11am & then I had to get ready for round Two, or is it Three? We were having family over next. 

Yep another cake, but this time we kept it simple with Marissa's favorite Coconut cake.  The amount of cake in our house was crazy! 

Marissa had a fun, crazy, birthday weekend.  I don't think she'll ever forget it.  My mission was accomplished!

She is Eleven

Today is Marissa's 11th birthday.  So here are 11 things about her...

1.  Her favorite color is purple (again).

2. She's still a voracious book reader.  She loves The Hunger Games trilogy, The Kingdom Keepers series, the Kane Chronicles series & the Heroes of Olympus series. 

3.  She's tall for her age & towers over my one sister & my mother.  Sadly she's catching up to me & Joe...

4.  She got a cell phone recently & has turned into a texting tween.  Texting me from the couch or upstairs.

5.  Her shoe size is size 8 LADIES.  I am amazed, yet she giggles....and wears my shoes.

6.  She doesn't like wearing dresses, but prefers jeans or shorts.

7.  She is still owl obsessed.

8.  She is great at math.  Just like her Daddy.  She makes us very proud with her grades.

9.  She loves to try new foods, and has a huge appetite lately.

10.  She is happy-go-lucky.  She can be bossy, & moody too, but when she's in a good mood it's great.

11.  She has a beautiful smile (with or without braces), a wonderful heart & she's AMAZING!

Mother's Day 2012

Today was a relaxing day, spent with Joe & the girls.  We didn't do our "normal" Mother's Day tradition, but I was perfectly ok with that.  We had a nice early dinner at Chili's instead & came home & relaxed some more.

My favorite part is getting pics with the girls.  After all, they are the reason I celebrate today.

Happy Mother's Day!

12 on 12 May

The twelfth fell on the same day as my youngest niece Nari's 1st birthday party, so you know there weren't any shortages of pics!

I got my baby fix easily today.  Holding Nari for as long as I could before having to give her up to anyone else.

Gianna loved making the baby smile by giving her little flowers she found in the grass.  She loves that she's not the baby of the family anymore!

My sister, Marie, holding Nari.  I had to share my baby fix with her.

Since I'm an Aunt & can do no wrong that I need to deal with later, I snuck Nari a lollipop.  She went after it like there was no tomorrow!  So cute! 

My oldest niece Destiny holding her baby sister who adores her.

Nari stopped to smell the flowers.  So cute!

Got this hat at Disney for my nephew Tyler.  Every time I saw it at the park it cracked me up.  I just knew he would like it, but I was wrong--he LOVED it!!

Marissa & my niece Nikki.  They've been BFF's since birth.  They are my favorite 10 year olds.

Gianna was at a friend's birthday party earlier in the day & had a "make-over" complete with hair, make-up & nails.  She rocked that kazoo like nobody's business!!

Afterwards my sister Marie's family & mine went out to eat at Pizzeria Uno's.  The two older kids had a "make-your-own" pizza & they all had fun.  It was nice & relaxing.

These two are just thick as thieves.  Growing up way to fast than I'm ready for!

These two were content to sit & eat while playing their ipods.  Though if you look close the look on their faces crack me up! 

So that's May's twelve pics!  Hard to believe the year is going by so fast!

DARE Program

Marissa's 5th grade class "graduated" from the D.A.R.E program today.  Over the course of the program taught by a local policeman, they were told about the effect of alcohol, & drugs. As the teachers called out the names of all the kids they were given a certificate along with some goodies (t-shirt,bumper sticker & water bottle).  Here's Marissa (in a crappy pic)....

During the graduation some of the kids read the essays they wrote about what they learned in the program. Some of the other kids made up skits & acted them out.  Marissa and her friends acted out a skit, of course my daughter has her back to the camera the whole time........

Marissa with her girls.  They are the 3 tallest girls in their class...and apparently don't know what to do with their arms..... ;)

Looking back on this now, makes me realize how fast this year has gone.  Even worse--weren't they just in Kindergarten???  They don't have a "real" graduation from this school but they do have a bunch of fun activities/programs until the end of the year.  At the end of the year, they get let out a few minutes earlier than the rest of the school & are "clapped out". Basically all the parents show up & clap as they walk out of school, while some kids cry....and some parents as well...one of which I'm sure will be me.

Scrap Room Update: Painting

This past Saturday was "painting day".  I've been looking forward to this like nobody's business!!  This room hasn't had a fresh coat of paint since we moved in 12 years ago.  This used to be the master bedroom when we first moved in, but when we remodeled the house we changed it to be our guest room.  It was hardly used & not high on the "must get painted list", until we decided to turn it into my scrap studio.  It was time.

The color of the room was a light coffee color, something like cafe au lait.  Which was nice but I was over it.  Even when I was just dreaming of a scrap room, I knew it would be some sort of purple/lavender color.

Joe did all the hard work, spackling & painting.  I offered to help several times, but the only thing he let me do was tape off the windows, doors, etc.

It's hard to get a full picture of the room, but this shows the windows that face the front of the house, looking into the street.  The room has lots of natural light, which is a good thing since the room doesn't have any other lights currently, except for a small lamp (but that's in the plans too).

I was like a little kid watching Joe paint.  When he started cutting in, I was so excited, finally seeing it become a reality.

Watching paint dry is not my favorite past time by far, but hanging out with Joe keeping him company while he works is nice.  The kids would pop in from time to time but they know not to distract Daddy while he's on the big ladder. 

Now we're just waiting on the fan that we ordered for the room to come in so the electrician can install that as well as lights in the room.  The ball is rolling & I'm getting excited!  Joe says I should be able to move in by Memorial Day weekend, which would be great since the kids got an extra 2 days added on to the weekend from snow days not used (don't ask me why they didn't just end school 2 days earlier instead--I have no idea!).  I'm sure the girls will be willing to help me "move" in.  Cheap labor, what can I say? LOL!!