First Grade Christmas Show

BumbleBee is in first grade and every year they do a play based on the Christmas story of baby Jesus. BumbleBee was a star (not THE star!). They sang traditional Christmas songs and re-enacted the night Jesus was born. It was cute because much of it was from the perspective of tiny insects and how God thinks they are just as important, etc. You get the idea.

First Day of School

The kids had their first day of school in August, just four weeks after we moved. I had them in a week of summer camp at the school so it wasn't all completely new when they arrived for school. DoubleA was excited about wearing a uniform and just for school in general. BumbleBee was quite nervous and worried.

They are doing great. They have settled in and are making friends nicely. I especially like the fact the school has drop off and pick up lines so I do not have to get dressed in the morning before we go to school. I do miss going in and seeing the teachers and other parents, though. I feel like I am not really meeting people as well as at their last school when I walked them in everyday.

FOOTBALL!

Being so much closer to our alma mater made it easier to use our football season tickets. We cheered for the Golden Eagles all season and they won the conference championship!! Unfortunately the bowl game was in Hawaii on Christmas Eve so we were not able to attend...maybe next year!

Halloween

(For those of you who have not read back yet...I am updating randomly and you should scroll back to see if you missed anything.)



Our first Halloween in our new house! We live in a gated neighborhood so still no trick or treaters. The neighborhood decides when we will trick or treat and this year it was on Friday Oct 28. Saturday is too busy with college football, Sunday is too busy with Church and Monday has school and work. We have a neighborhood party with bounce house, etc and then the kids go trick or treating (read: run wild in the street). Husband #1 was not able to make it so we went trick or treating on the actual day of Halloween in another area of town.


Can anyone guess what the kids were dressed as this year?

If you guessed Flesh Eating Monster and Taylor Swift...you were right! BumbleBee picked his costume based on the coolest weapon. He picked out the ax thing and then chose a random costume to go with it. Double A chose Taylor Swift because she LOVES Taylor and that is the only music she listens to and Double A is convinced they look alike (because of the hair).

I watched some YouTube videos and learned how to make BumbleBee's face look like this. It was very cool and I was quite proud of my work. He was nervous so I did it on my own face too. It is Elmer's glue and toilet paper. I did not have Halloween makeup so I just used various kinds of eyeshadow and powder until the color looked right. Then...it just peels off like glue that dried on your hand!

Double A was just super excited to be able to wear makeup. Good golly, you think her eyelashes are long enough?! She once told me that it bothered her to wear sunglasses because her eyelashes hit the lenses. Must be tough.

Catching Up

Okay, so here it goes...I have gone about five months since my last post and probably about that long before that post. I am playing catch up with photos and what not. I really want to do better with this blog because I do enjoy it but feel I cannot move on until I go back. So, here starts a series of random, out of order posts to catch people up on SOME of the stuff we have been up to lately. They are in no particular order and may not be completely thorough but you are going to be appreciative of what you get and enjoy looking at the pictures and reading the posts...RIGHT??!!

This is Double A's 9th birthday. We had a party before we left St. Louis so she could invite all of her friends. She had a great time even though it was pretty stressful for Husband #1 and I... keeping track of all the kids at a local pizza/arcade place.

For her actual birthday she was visiting her grandparents so we celebrated a few days after at home by just opening presents. She got these legos and a password journal which she desperately wanted and has never worked properly. She asked for money so she could buy her own iTouch. She got most what she needed but did not buy the iTouch until right before Christmas at our urging. She doesn't like to spend her cash, which I suppose is a good thing!

Wild and Crazy Summer

Well, we have had quite the adventure this summer and this has obviously prevented me from blogging anything. I thought about it frequently but...no go.

We had our usual fun summer stuff such as our fourth annual "cruise" of the Bahamas with my parents and brother and his family. We also had the same blistering heat in St. Louis that most of the country has had...this means we really didn't so much of anything outside.

However, our biggest adventure has been...WE MOVED! We now live in Jackson, MS. I am pretty sure most (read: all) people who read this already know this bit of info so this post is kind of anticlimactic, I'm sure.

This move has been a long time in the making but we didn't tell anyone...the kids, friends or family until it was definite in mid April. We are thrilled to be closer to our family. We have gotten a lovely house and it even has a pool!! The kids are so excited about that particular development.

We have been here four weeks now. So, the first part of the summer and even late spring was completely consumed with getting the St. Louis house ready to sell, and traveling to MS to find a school and house. The last four - five weeks have been consumed with packing up the house, saying our goodbyes and now unpacking and meeting new people! I also squeezed in my 20th high school reunion! Double A even had the nerve to turn nine in the last week.

The kids start school Monday (tomorrow) and they are excited...and so am I! Bumblebee is a bit nervous, because that is his nature, but they will be just fine. Husband #1 has been at his new job for two weeks already and has hit the ground running with operating, etc. My new neighbors have been amazing at welcoming us and even held a lunch for them to meet me one day.

There are definitely things (mostly good friends) that we will miss about St. Louis but so far things have been going very well here. I hope it continues!

I will try to do some posts soon with pictures about our Bahamas trip, my reunion and the new house and the birthday. If anyone needs our address let me know! I am getting some address cards made and will send those out soon.

Wizard of Oz

Recently Double A was in a Drama Club production of the Wizard of Oz. I am including a link to the video if anyone wants to view it. It was very funny...especially the Wicked Witch of the West who was played by a 6th grade boy. Double A plays a munchkin, citizen of Oz and a poppy. She is wearing a green tank top.

The play was about and hour and a half long so be prepared! I was not at this particular showing (during school) but Double A tells me the static noise you hear is heavy rain on the roof of the theater.

Keep in mind this entire production was done by kids in first through sixth grade. They made the scenery, did the music and lights and practiced very hard for many months. I think they did a great job!

click here to view video
The password is oz2011