STAAR

This week has been a really great one for Madi.  Not one thing in particular, but just everything overall.  She had STAAR testing the last two days and said she feels really confident about the tests.  I took her to get donuts before school yesterday as a treat for having to do testing and we also told her that she didn't have to do FasttMath the past two days as all she did most of the day was sit and take the test or sit and wait for others to finish.  I don't think she minded waiting for other kids to finish because it meant she could read.  :)

She has another book report coming up and is almost done reading the book for it.  It's the book "Legend."  Looks really cool.

I've had several teachers (Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Fuller and her Zumba teacher) tell me what an awesome job she is doing and how much she has grown in her social skills and in other areas.  They always comment on how much taller she is - she only has probably four, maybe five??, inches before she is taller than me.  Getting to be so tall!  Long and lean!

Today Madi had Zumba after school and had a lot of fun.  So glad she enjoys it so much!  Only seven more classes for the year!

Tonight Jeremy is doing class at SMU so I have all three girls - dinner, bedtimes, prep for the next day.  They did very well despite the fact that Jules is fighting a sinus infection and getting her molars, Riley is running a fever of 100.3 and Madi complained of her stomach hurting.  Jules was super super cranky and there were about five minutes where I just wanted to go crazy from all of her whining and non-stop crying.  Nothing was working.  Finally we went upstairs for a change of pace and got her ready for bed.  Seemed to help.

Madi helped by reading to Riley - without me even asking!  And Riley told her that she wasn't feeling well and asked Madi to please be nice to her tomorrow and that she would remind her to be nice to her if she forgot.  Madi just smiled and said "ok."  They've been doing very well lately.  In fact, they've been getting along really great.  Yesterday they even mooned each other for fun in the front living room.  It was hysterical to hear (I did NOT go in to witness it.  Just listened.  After all, I don't need to see both of their butts.)  What happened was that Riley changed clothes and forgot panties and shook her butt at Madi.  Madi was like "Ew.  She keeps showing me her butt.  Can I moon her?"  So I said "Sure!  Just make sure it's in the front room where I don't have to see it."  And so she did.  And they were all laughing about it.

Another short story is that my parents were over last weekend and Madi was trying to explain why she shouldn't have sugar.  And she kept saying things like "It makes me really pooped.  I get tired from sugar."  My dad was like "Huh??"  So she says "Sugar makes me poop."  We all had a good laugh at that one.

Madi got her progress report a few days ago as well.  Her grades are doing awesome!!  She has three subjects that are 100%!  One is 92% and then Math and Language Arts are 89%.  I told her that we were proud of how well she's doing and that I have no doubt that her 89% will get up to A's in the next three weeks before grades close.  So far she has had some B's on her progress report, but has gotten all A's on her report cards!!!  This is awesome.  Her goal is that she get all A's all year long and she really wants to get all 100% in all subjects in the last six weeks.  So far she's on her way!

Photo Shoot and WOW

Madi played quite a bit of WOW this weekend.  Overall was a great weekend.  We had my friend Jenny Harry take some family photos this morning.  Madi got some pics with us as well as solo shots and I had her model a few things for the Etsy store.

On Tuesday and Wednesday she will take the STAAR test - the new version of the TAKS test.  It is two days of writing.  I have no doubt she'll do well if she doesn't rush.  They have four hours for the test.

We have less than 10 weeks of school left to go until summer.  Can not wait!!!

Lots of People

I felt like today was in-out-in-out because we saw so many people today for short bursts of time.  Poppi and Grammy drove in to spend time with Madi for her birthday table lunch.  Traffic was bad and the line at Taco Bell was long so they got there as soon as they could.  They brought her food and she ate some of the food from school as well - even got a chocolate treat!  I got to see them for two minutes - literally - and then went back to teach first grade.

She got to play a few games on the stage since she was at the birthday tables.

This afternoon Julia and her family from the Philippines came over the house.  Madi didn't quite know what to say when she saw her and so her parents were like "Girls!  You can hug!  It's been so long!"  I was able to talk to her parents and they seem like very nice people.  They shared that they don't do sleepovers, but that we can meet up at the mall or parks or something.  They are here through June 13 so we'll make sure to see them a few times.

We were under the impression that Madi was doing a sleepover or Julia was doing one here so Madi was bummed.  And rightly so.  In her talks with Julia, it came across that it'd be fun to get together.  Not sure that a sleepover on their end was ever confirmed, but we were led to believe it was going that way.  Madi handled it well.

Madi spent much of her time with Julia in her bedroom.  Julia brought a backpack from you and an oversized card that the kids from her school had signed.  I wasn't in the room when it was all given to her, but when I found out they'd been given, I asked if she said thank you.  She said "No.  It was from my mom."  So we'll clarify why it's good manners to say thank you for whatever anyone gives you or does for you.  It was very, very thoughtful of them to make sure she got them.

Much of their time together was spent with Madi on her iPod and Julia watching.  They did talk, but I had to tell Madi to put it down.  She kept picking it up to play a game.  Even as they left, Madi had it in her hands.  They said "We're going now.  It's good to see you."  I had to tell Madi to put the iPod down and say goodbye.  She then looked up and said "bye" and tried to go back to it.  I had her put it down again and made sure she said goodbye properly.  Tried not to embarrass her, but at the same time, more respect should have been shown.

Overall was a good visit - though another short one!  Then a roofer came by - very short visit again.  We had a bunch of shingles blow off in a storm last week.

Then my parents came over to have dinner since it was Julia's birthday.  We planned it in the afternoon and it was a very simple affair.  Sweet and simple.  The girls all went to bed great!  So here's to a good weekend!!

Busy - can you tell?

No blogs lately due to being back at work.  Madi spent the weekend with Poppi, Grammy, Kat, Tripp and Ranny.  She had a great time with them!  She was able to go to church with Mamaw and was very excited about that.  Kat was sick the whole weekend so she didn't get much time with her, but hopefully we'll see her again soon.

School is going well.  Madi's done a great job getting her homework done - even finished all of her spelling in class without being asked to and did all three sections of it during class instead of reading.  This was awesome for many reasons - one being that her work was done and the other being that she had even more time after school to read than she would normally have because her work was done.

She's done a great job this week being prepared and has gotten up on time every single day.

Julia from the Philippines (that is her official title over here) called to see if they could get together this weekend.  So it's very likely that she'll be having a sleepover with her tomorrow night and spending some time with her on Saturday too.  We have photos on Sunday and Julia's (our Jules) turns 2 and Jeremy turns 37 - crazy!!  And Madi has birthday table at school tomorrow so Poppi and Grammy will be coming to eat with her.  That'll make it super special for her!!!

Beautiful Pictures of a Beautiful Girl

Took these pics in our backyard to use as one of my Etsy Shop items!

WOW and Reading

Haven't really seen much of Madi today.  Gave her five hours of computer/iPod time today.  Rest of the time she's been reading the second book in The Hunger Games series.  She's loving the book!  We encouraged her to read it since she finished the first one and at first she didn't want to.  But now that she's started it, she's loving it!

I took Jules and Riley to the mall (Madi didn't want to go) and then went to the Arbor Hills Preserve to let the girls play for a while (Madi was playing at home still).  Had lunch, watched a movie with Riley - all while Madi played her game.  Then went to Target to get dish soap and some medicine for the girls since Julia is teething and Riley is having a tough time with allergies.  Madi wanted to stay home so that was fine.

Really have seen her for maybe 10 minutes total today.  Thinking she's had a good day though as WOW and reading are her two favorite things!

Great Day!

So nice to have such a great day today!  Madi chose to get up, make her bed, and do her Fasttmath this morning - all without any reminders or even having to ask her!  She made the choices so that her game time wouldn't be interrupted and she could enjoy it without having to think about working.  Awesome to see her thinking ahead and as a perk, to get lots of game time uninterrupted like she hoped!

I took Riley and Jules to the mall today.  Madi wanted to play WOW so she stayed home.  We got Jeremy some new pants and some killer deals at Gymboree - $2 and $3 shirts for Julia!  Girl is growing like crazy.

We got home for lunch and we all ate.  At 4pm, I told Madi that I was declaring it "no technology" time as she'd had seven hours of either iPod or computer or tv already.  Told the girls that we could play outside if they wanted.  So they went out to slide and kick the ball.  We all had a really fun time.  And I got to weed the backyard while playing too.  Double bonus before the rain hopefully comes!  Didn't take very long at all.  Was really fun to see them laughing and running and playing.

We had dinner and Riley and Madi watched a show before dinner.  Then Madi took a bath, I gave Jules a shower and will get Riley a bath tomorrow.  She's dying to go to school again to see her friends and do work so I'll take her for the morning and pick her up after lunch again. So glad she likes it so much!!

Madi was very happy to have WOW time and had a good attitude as she was enjoying it so much.  Overall a good day!

Fun Day Off

Today was somewhat disjointed.  Started with Riley getting ready for school and telling me that she really wanted to go.  So I wasn't about to tell her she couldn't go and make her think that school was not a place you want to go so I took her in the morning and then went to Walmart with Jules.  Madi didn't want to go so she stayed home and watched a movie and played on her iPod.

Then we were home for almost two hours so I got some laundry done and played a lot with Jules.  Madi just wanted to play her iPod and stayed in her pjs for a long time.  She really wanted to just hang out today and that was fine by me.

When I left to pick up Riley, I told her that she could play WOW.  I had forgotten that we had put restrictions on her account so that she could only play Fri, Sat and Sundays.  Jeremy changed the restrictions because if she was supposed to be doing homework, she'd choose to play a game or do a Warriors quiz or do something she wasn't supposed to be doing.  Easy to find out when you check her history on the internet and then ask her about it and have to work her into what the truth is.

She tried to get to me, but I'd already shut the garage and gone.  When I got back home with the girls, she asked why we changed her restrictions.  I told her that I'd completely forgotten about it - as we'd done it months ago - and that Jeremy would have to reset it.  She wanted me to call him at work, but I told her that I was not going to interrupt Jeremy's work day to ask him to reset her game.  I don't call him unless it's a "must know now" kind of thing.  She was not happy about it and went away crying.  Has been extremely emotional lately.

She came and talked later and told me "I was mad that you would put restrictions on my game.  Why did you guys do that?"  I explained to her that honesty breeds honesty and that lack of honesty and dishonesty and bold face lying creates trust issues.  That as a parent it is our job to set boundaries for her to follow.  She has pushed many boundaries and often is not honest about what she does and tries to push the limits.  So we chose to make this an easy limitation where she wouldn't be tempted to play when she's not supposed to.  Then I told her that if she thought about it, she could probably think of some scenarios where she was choosing to cause distrust in her actions and her obedience.  She said that yes, she could think of some.

So I simply told her that we set them up a long time ago to monitor - as any normal parent would who wants to know what their child is doing so that they are in safe places online.  She understood, but doesn't like it.  Tween life is hard.  And very hard to manage and to know how far to set the boundaries.  We tend to start hard because you can never get harder, but you can always get easier.  Definitely something I've learned from teaching.  Kids have a harder time when more and more limits are placed on them rather than them starting out harder and then loosening up.  Has been nice to loosen up on some of the things.  Just hard when she continues to push.  But could just be the tween stage.

Later in the day, when I started adding up all her iPod and computer time (seven hours total from 8am - 3pm), I knocked on her door and told her that it'd be a great idea to enjoy this 80 degree day and have some fun outside - kick a ball, ride a bike, go outside in the backyard or even see if Brooke wanted to play.  Told her Brooke was outside and she was more than welcome to play with her.  Madi liked the idea of that so she went out.  While they were out, Jules sat in a stroller and I mulched and weeded the beds in the front and laid out new mulch and planted flowers in the pots.  Brooke's mom had an appointment so I let Brooke and her brother Turner come over to play with the girls.  Turner is 5 so he and Riley had a fun time together.

They played for a few hours and then we ate dinner.  I mowed the lawn and fertilized it.  Then tested the sprinklers, took a shower and finished two loads of laundry.  Madi got  to talk to you for a bit.  She'll call tomorrow sometime.  I'm hoping to take them to the Arboretum if the rain holds off!  Madi's not real big on it, but the girls love it and it's great to get outside while we can.  Supposed to rain Wed - Sunday.  Or at least, according to the last time I checked the weather.

Run!

Weekend has been rainy and mostly peaceful.  We went over our friends' house on Friday night.  Had a really fun time with them and their two boys.  Their boys are Riley and Julia's ages so Madi spent much of the time on her iPod playing games.  We talked with her about it ahead of time and thanked her for being respectful and not complaining as we knew it probably wasn't up there on her list of things she really wanted to do.  Though she did love her games!

She also got to play some WOW today with Jeremy.  I had a baby shower for a close friend today.  Riley has known her for a long time (4 years - ha!) and so she came with me.  Julia took her nap while we were gone.  Then my parents came over and hung out with us in the last afternoon.  We had sausage pasta for dinner.

Madi did her Fasttmath this weekend.  We're going to have her do it on Tues and Thurs this week as it was really hard for her to jump back into it after an entire week off the last break and she was very frustrated with it.  Hopefully this will keep up her division skills enough to hold off on the really frustrating problems.

Tonight I really wanted to take advantage of the weather and I'm hoping to get started on the "Couch to 5K" program.  It looks awesome and I had started it last year, but didn't really get very far (like three workouts).  But with the cruise coming up, it'd be nice to buff up a little bit and just get some more much needed energy!  I mentioned wanting to run and Riley yelled out "I want to run!!"  and that followed with Madi going "I'll go too!!"  So within ten minutes, the three of us were dressed and ready to hit the pavement.

Madi has really regained her strength and quickness since coming here.  She wasn't very fast and didn't have much endurance when she first came.  And I know Poppi had told us that she is fast, but we hadn't seen it.  Today was the first time and she was able to keep a really great pace for short spurts.  She did a great job!!!  Riley loved the run as well, but hated the mosquitoes.  We ran a quarter of a mile to the park, let the girls run, ran another quarter of a mile around a bend and then walked most of the way home.  I dropped the girls off at home and then ran a mile by myself where I could run and not have to stop for mosquitoes or to tell them "come on girls!  you can do it!"  Though I loved every moment of it.

Madi took a bath and I gave Riley a shower.  We all settled down for bed.  They were so tired and went down so easy.  With daylight savings time, they actually went to bed at their normal time, but it's now an hour later.  Will take some adjusting to the new time.

Do you do daylight savings as well??  And if so, are we still the same amount of time difference between you and us - or one hour less?

We're home all week for Spring Break and Madi has her iPod in her room and it's charged since it's in the Sounddock.  Feel free to call anytime!  I am hoping to take them to the Arboretum this week and spend as much time outside as possible before all the rain comes Wed - Sun this week.

Crazy Hair Day!!

Rough week, but each day is a little better!

Today went well.  It was Open House tonight.  So after school came getting Riley's science project ready so Jeremy could finish it with her and just do a short experiment.  I set up the board and printed out the things and set up the experiment with some help from Madi.  She was super helpful and very excited about doing it.  It was very cool!  You create your own lava lamp using water, oil, food coloring and alka seltzer tablets inside a 1 liter bottle.  So cool!!

Then I had piano students and went right to Open House.  Madi had made a powerpoint that was really awesome.  I watched that and then looked through all of her things.  She had really worked hard.  It all looked really great!!

Her Charlotte's Web project was much better the second time around.  The video was more of what Carol had been looking for.  Amazing that 45 minutes of work is all it would have taken her had she actually just applied herself and did it right the first time around without complaining and procrastinating.  The good news is that the end result was much better.

No homework today or yesterday - just Fasttmath.  We have next week off which should be really great.

Hoping to have family pictures taken this Sunday with my friend Jenny - who did the pics of us last year.  Should be really great if the weather will stay sunnier than it has been the last few days.

Madi will get her hair cut on Saturday and then we are going to a friend's house that night.

I've also contacted Kathryn's friend to do a Premier Jewelry party.  Hoping to have that soon too!

So each day has been better than the last.  Here's to hoping that next week is relaxing and calm and peaceful!!

Where to begin...

Wish I could say that today was much better than yesterday.  Good news is that she was upbeat for most of the day.  I tried to help guide her into some time management help so that all of her work assigned at school would get done in a timely manner.  Meaning finished by tonight to turn in tomorrow.  So she did her Fasttmath, spelling assignment (1/3 of it - the rest she can do tomorrow), and a worksheet that is also due.

The Charlotte's Web project was due today.  Was assigned a few weeks ago.  Mrs. Campbell brought her to me at the end of the day and told me that she wanted to let me know in person that Madi was going to spend tonight reworking her project because it was not adequate enough and up to standards set.  That it was not her best and that she needed to do it again.

Between Mrs. Campbell and Jer/I, we have all talked with her about responsibility, doing our best and getting it done on time.  We also all have talked with her about not placing blame on us or her teacher.  Madi understood.

Madi told me today that she loves challenges, but that she doesn't enjoy doing some things.  And then she followed it up by saying that she doesn't like the challenge of Fasttmath or her project.  I talked with her about the kinds of challenges she does enjoy (ones she creates for herself like finishing a book or starting projects she wants to) and how she needs to take ahold of challenges given to her and take them on rather than fighting them.  Because you can't say you love challenges and then not overcome then or challenge yourself to attempt to do your best.  A challenge is not always one that you choose - it is often placed on you and then you have to choose to overcome.

So tonight she spent some time writing a script and then taping herself on iPod.  Jeremy is editing the video at the moment.  Will be interesting.  There is definitely a very good lesson to be learned through all of this and hopefully it will be a good example to come back to when the next project comes.  Jeremy will post her final product from tonight on here so you can see.  The project was to either research pigs or another animal from the farm and create a video of the research.  Or do a powerpoint or movie of a scene from the book. Or to conduct an interview.  She started a movie about it, but gave up.  Then she made a powerpoint at the last minute yesterday.

She does make a really good newscaster!!  Not sure about the detail and how much information from the book is really given, but she would make a fabulous newscaster!!

We have to send it to Mrs. Campbell tonight.  Madi forgot her drive.  This has happened several times.  Some on purpose because she didn't want to work on her project and thought we wouldn't make her work on it if she didn't bring it home.  Other times it was on accident - just wasn't thought of.

Sorry this isn't very happy or cheery.  It just is what it is.  And this too will pass.

Bittersweet Birthday

Today is the day!  Hard to believe Madi is eleven!!

We started the day off by going to store "Donut Palace."  We always laugh because all the donut stores are just called "Donut."  Guess this one is a little fancier - ha!  Bought two dozen glazed donuts for her class and they had them during snack break.  I had her class today so we sang to her at the end of class.

There was a book fair at our school this week and as a teacher, we get a deal where if we buy two books, we get the third one free.  So we got nine books - five for Madi and four for Riley.  They look really great!

Madi had yarn club after school and I helped out with it.  Then we packed up and went to get the girls.  Got home at 4:45pm and Madi was wanting to go play outside.  Can't blame her - it was an absolutely gorgeous day!  However, there was still much to get done on her major project for the book Charlotte's Web.  She's had the assignment for a few weeks and we've reminded her to do it and given her time to get it done.  But she has been dawdling and taking her time and working on it without really "working" on it.  She was reminded many times yesterday to work on it and she kept laying on the couch and trying to get out of it.  She did finally work on it, but it wasn't finished.

So today she told me to tell the neighbor girl - Brooke - that she'd be outside after a few minutes.  I told Madi that she needed to work on her project for more than a few minutes as there was still plenty to do and that I was not going to walk over to tell Brooke that she would play later because nothing had been planned and there was plenty else for me to do with the house and girls and dinner and etc...  She gave me quite the looks and attitude (which she had done several times throughout the day due to wanting more books without saying thank you for the ones we got and other instances).  She also had spelling homework.  I was done with the attitude and so I was very firm with her and told her that she would not be going outside at all as there was only an hour until dinner and she needed to use that hour to get her work done on her major project that she had procrastinated on.  I would not let her go outside to play as she chose to play yesterday and didn't use her work time to get it done and did it slowly because she didn't really want to do it.  I let her know that despite the fact that it was her birthday, she made choices that led up to this point and that she needed to focus and get her project done.  And I promise you - there have been many conversations between Jer and I and her about working on it.  And lots of excuses on her end as to why it wasn't done.  This wasn't sprung on her in any way and she wasn't surprised by it.

She was really looking forward to talking to you, Monica.  And she felt so bad that the conversation was not what she hoped it to be.  She was sad to be missing you on her birthday and was having a hard day being away from you.  So the emotional part of today was also very hard.

Madi cried for some time and I let her be for a while and took Jules and Riley out to give her space.  When Jer got home, we talked briefly and then I went into the computer.  Madi walked over with tears in her eyes and said "I really miss my mom."  She sat on my lap and we hugged and I told her "I know you do."  I knew today would be hard on her as being away from you guys is always amplified on major events.  Throw in a major assignment unfinished and due tomorrow morning and it's even more stressful.

She stayed on my lap for a little while and we looked at some websites together.  Then she sat with Riley and chose a movie for them to watch.  The rest of the night was fine.  Jeremy asked to see her planner so he could sign it.  When he opened it, it was blank for the day.  She hadn't copied the information or homework assignments for today at all.  When asked why, she told him that she had to do Fasttmath this morning.  This is nothing new either - she does Fasttmath on Monday morning every morning.  Jeremy asked her what she was doing when she was supposed to be doing it and she told him Fasttmath.  He asked her if she was the first one done on Fasttmath.  She said no.  So he asked a few more questions and had to wait for her to answer honestly.  She chose to read her book instead of writing out her planner.  So now she can't bring a special drink next Monday and it is possible she'll have laps because she did the same thing last Thursday in not filling out her planner.

Her teacher told me that she is rushing through assignments and doing them sloppily just so she can get to her books.  She recommended that she not be allowed to bring any books into class for the week before STAAR testing or the days of STAAR testing because she is afraid she will rush through the tests just so that she can read her book.  As a result of reading, she brought home some 70% and 80% papers that would have otherwise been much higher if she had taken her time and not rushed.

Her grades on the report card were all A's!!  So that was fantastic.  Math was a 90% and Language Arts was a 91%.  Three weeks ago they were 85% and 88% because she had late work in class that she didn't turn in on time because she chose to read instead of getting out of her chair and turning them in.  These weren't homework assignments that she forgot to turn in.  They actually did the assignment in class and were asked to turn them in.  Madi chose to sit and read and not turn it in because she didn't want to leave her book.

She had mostly 3s (meeting expectations) and a couple of 4s (exceeds expectations).  She had one 3- (between meeting and not meeting expectations) in time management.  There was a note at the bottom of the page that states that Madi is beautiful, intelligent and kind.  She is working below the level she can work at and with hard work and effort, will do well in life.

We don't want to kill her love of reading (impossible to do, I know) but it is something she needs to learn to use wisely.  She sees it as something that defines her and is one of the things she can do that gets recognition and attention since she is fast at it and loves it so much that she reads much.  I've talked to the counselor about how to handle it and she believes that it is a classroom issue that should be handled by the teacher as there's plenty of other things we handle.  However, this is occurring in class so it seems that Mrs. Campbell should be able to tell her "do the paper again" or "put your book away - it's not the right time."  So we'll see if that'll help.

Hopefully she'll sleep well tonight.  Last night she was playing yo-yo ma on her sounddock and she said there was this one song that kept waking her up the last two nights.  Jeremy heard it and said it was Bobbi McFerrin screeching with yo-yo ma and it sounded horrible!!  He said it was so loud and not nice.  So he got the song off the iPod so that she could sleep with the nice music.  She's loving the iPod sounddock and it's been really great for her.  Not to mention that now it's charged at all times!!

Happy Birthday Party Madison!

I copied and pasted this from Riley/Julia blog.  Don't have the heart to relive some of the moments so here goes (and these moments were not anything due to the girls - you'll see what I mean):


So our niece turns eleven on Monday and we tried figuring out what kind of party to do.  Jumpstreet (indoor trampolining place) was $23 a person!!  And that was before any food.  Going to a hotel with two friends would have cost over $200 a night plus food and things to do.  I briefly joked with Jeremy "Heck - for the money we'd pay for this party, we could get a brand new tv for our bedroom!"  Hmmmm....

So yea - we went that route and got a new tv for free using credit card points that we'd saved.  And we also purchased two blue ray players as our dvd player is making dying noises.

Tonight is the big event.  At the moment, the girls are all upstairs in their sleeping bags watching the movie "Aquamarine."  Has been a really great party so far.

To sum it up:

Decorations - involved tissue paper poms (making them out of tissue paper, floral wire, and then making accordion folds in it and foofing them out), tablecloths with polka dots in bright colors

Party Favors - I crocheted every girl a hat with a flower in their favorite color.  Then we put together baggies with candy inside.

Food - Chick Fila chicken nuggets, four bags of chips, five kinds of pop

Dessert - Bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes and an ice cream bar consisting of trays with nine kinds of candy and BlueBell vanilla and chocolate ice cream.

Movie - Aquamarine

There were fourteen girls at the house.  Fourteen.  It was a total blast!!!  Until it happened.

A few hours into the party, one of the girls came to me and said "Mrs. Grant, your bathroom is flooding."

I said "Are you serious?"

She goes "Would I ever lie to you?"

And I said "No, I know you wouldn't."  And walked through the kitchen to the hallway and saw water pouring - and I mean pouring out everywhere.  Carpet was wet and the bathroom had at least and inch or two of water.  So I quickly walked through the water and shut off the water supply to the toilet.  Argh.

We used several towels to sop up what we could and then used a pan to scoop up the water into a bucket.  Then Jeremy got out the wet and dry vacuum from the garage.  We used it and got most of it up.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  so stressful.  So we will be needing a carpet cleaner and a plumber now.  $$$  Cha Ching $$$

Thankfully the party itself has been a huge success.  The girls all got along.  There were a few moments of craziness, but all in all, they were well behaved.

When it came time to open the gifts, Riley sat right next to Madi and Riley on the other side of her.  She loved being involved with all of the girls.  We had all of the girls gifts in bags on a table near Madi's gifts.  Riley asked everyone "So - who wants to open their hats???!!"  And said it several times loudly.  There was no denying what they were getting!  :)


Madi got all sorts of gifts - wooden bracelet kit to paint bracelets, looms to create more looms :)  and many gift cards which she'll have a blast with!!  Riley got her a gumball machine from Justice.  We got her a Sony iPod dock that also has a radio and cd player.  We're going to give her more responsibility and allow her to keep her iPod in her room and give her the opportunity to make wise choices with it.  Step by step!  She's very excited about it and it'll be great for her to have it in her room!!


The girls loved the bundtinis and the ice cream bar!!  They devoured all of the chick fila nuggets and had some chips.  They also enjoyed making bracelets and necklaces.  Tomorrow morning we'll do donuts and possibly start a yarn project??!!  Hoping for some sleep!  After the movie ends, it'll be night time.


Praying that all goes great tonight and that we don't have any more flooding!

Tomorrow is the Big Day!

So the party planning is in progress.  15 girls coming and confirmed.  Chick Fila nuggets/strips ordered.  Chips, ice cream, toppings purchased.  Nothing Bundt Cakes - their mini bundtinis - ordered.  Decorations made and being put up tonight.  Gifts for the guests ready and will be put in bags tonight.  Madi is super excited as are the girls attending.  Should be loads of fun.

Now I just have to finish my piano students (one is very late right now so I'm on here).  Then clean the downstairs by vacuuming.  And possibly dusting if I feel up to it!