Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Kelsie does it again!

Kelsie competed in the NC Federation of Music Festival last Friday.  She had to memorize 2 songs, play them for a judge and is then graded on her performance.  The highest score you can earn is a “Superior”.  This is her 3rd year competing, earning 2 “Superior” grades in the past 2 years.  She received her grade last night… another “Superior”!!!  Because of her perfect scores, she has earned her “Gold Cup” trophy from the NC Federation of Music. 

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We are beyond proud of our girl!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Kid’s Birthday Parties… For the Kids or the Parents?

Kelsie recently went to a birthday party, for a 9 year old girl, themed “Clayton’s Next Top Model”.  Now, the mother of this girl admitted to me that this was not her daughters idea – it was another mother’s idea.  The theme was adorable and the mother went all out, buying each girl a dress and accessories for the dress, all of which they got to keep!

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The mother had even hired two girls to do hair and makeup.

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Everything was decorated beautifully. Champagne glasses for each girl to drink their punch out of.

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A lot went into putting this party together.  I couldn’t help but to think if this is what the birthday girl had envisioned.  I think the parents (moms really… I don’t think the dads care) like to see how they can outdo each other.  Over the past year, Kelsie has been to a Harry Potter themed party (everyone came home with their own Harry Potter wand), an American Girl party (the girls AND their dolls came home with a gift), an Amazing Race party and other outrageously themed parties.  What happened to the good old fashioned sleep-over?  The girls watch movies and eat popcorn.  Shouldn’t that be enough?  Growing up, one of my birthday parties was at McDonald’s and it was a JOINT party with my sister!  I didn’t even get my own party!  Kelsie is already starting to make plans for her birthday – in JULY.  She’s already told me I have to hire my hairdresser and find someone to do makeup.  I wonder if McDonald’s still does parties??

Monday, February 27, 2012

Weekend In Review

Dave’s parents, Grandy and Pap, came down for a long weekend visit.  The kids enjoyed hanging with their “new and improved” Pap…

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Retirement is treating him well!

Kelsie went to a “Clayton’s Next Top Model” themed birthday party.  She looked beautiful all dolled up!

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Hope y’all had a great weekend!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

“Mama, smell my armpits”

Kyle has started insisting he use Dave’s “Old Spice Swagger” shower gel (yes, that is the real name of the shower gel.  Maybe men think they will have more “Swagger” after using it?) when he takes a bath.  And he insists on having everyone smell his armpits.  He says it makes him smell like a man (a man with no swagger, I hope!).  That’s my baby boy!

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Monday, February 20, 2012

Happy 11th Birthday To My First Baby!

I’m talking about this baby…

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My 4-legged baby, Duke.  Dave and I got him together before we were married.  We drove from Arlington, VA to Luray, VA just to get him.  The breeders convinced us that he would be a “Toy” Rat Terrier and not be any bigger than 5-7 pounds and we’d have to pay $50 extra for him.  Little did we know that he’d balloon up to about 30 pounds!  Since we moved to NC, Duke has been on a strict diet and now weighs about 13 pounds.  Far from being a “Toy” Rat Terrier!

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(Excuse the bad picture – Duke looks enormous and Kyle looks Chinese).  The kids adore Duke.  Duke has mixed feelings about the kids.  They torture him on a daily basis, but they always seem to drop food when we’re eating, so Duke can’t totally hate them.  Kids dropping food = Duke’s weight gain = a constant diet for Duke.  Since it was his birthday, we did forgo the diet for the night and treated him to his favorite ice cream…

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I’d say he had a pretty good day.  He even had a few bites of macaroni n’ cheese, courtesy of Kyle.

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Happy Birthday to my Dukey Lukes!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Dinner with Kelsie & Kyle

The only perk about Dave working late is that I don’t have to make dinner!!  I love going out to dinner with the kids.  It always leads to such interesting conversations.  Kyle didn’t have much to say except that he was STARVING (saying this about 100 times!).  Kelsie explained to me what figurative speech is – “You have the floor” and “It’s raining cats and dogs”, to which she said that she wished it would rain cats and dogs so that she can get a new dog.  She also was curious about this…

Kelsie – “Mom, what is a hickey?”

Me – “WHAT??  WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT!?”

Kelsie – “From Katy Perry.”

Thank you, Katy Perry.  That made for an awkward dinner conversation.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Our Valentine’s Day

We love Valentine’s Day around here!  Dave woke up early and set up lots of goodies for us, so we were surprised when we woke up.

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He even went out and got us heart shaped doughnuts!  The kids got me a “LOVE” cup and the kids got lots of candy and a DS game.

Kyle’s Kindergarten class dressed up as “Love Bugs”!  They were so cute! 

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Valentine’s Day has become the new Halloween at school.  The amount of candy the kids got was insane!  Guess the little Valentine’s cards aren’t good enough anymore!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Cheerleading has come a long way since 1988!

Yesterday Kelsie and I went to a cheerleading competition in Raleigh to see Emily (a neighbor, the kids favorite babysitter and family friend) cheer.  

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She’s been cheering/dancing/tumbling most of her life, so we knew she was pretty good.  Pretty good is putting it mildly.  Those cheer groups were INCREDIBLE!  But, they weren’t the cheer teams that I remember.  Yes, I’ve been out of cheerleading since 1988, so I’ve missed a couple things. 

1. There were NO cheers!  What happened to “A-W-E-S-O-M-E, AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME ARE WE”?!  I never heard the girls say a word.

2. Hello bellybuttons!  In my day the outfits were polyester, the skirts came down to our knees and we had to wear a turtleneck!  Today the outfits are covered in glitter, sequins and not much else.  Emily’s cheer team was the only team that didn’t have exposed stomachs.  They did NOT win the trophy for best uniform (yes, there is a trophy for that).  The hair accessories were outrageous, too.  The bows were bigger than most of the girls heads.  A simple ponytail or braid won’t do? And don’t get me started on the matching cheer uniforms for the American Girl Dolls.

3. Boy cheerleaders?  When I was cheering, the only boys at my games were on the playing field.  I was shocked to see all of the male cheerleaders.  I counted 12 on one team.  Those guys were AMAZING!  I came home and asked Dave if I could put Kyle into gymnastics.  Guess what his answer was.

4. The “music”… most of the noise was bass and voice-overs.  There were a few songs, one of which caught my attention… “Too much booty on da’ floor”… I’m sure the boys loved dancing to that.

5. The team names.  Shockers, Bombshells, Cheer Divas.  Again, I’m sure the boys loved to be referred to as a “Bombshell”.  What happened to the Blue Knights, Wildcats and Rams?

6. The “Cheer Parents”.  I think I was more exhausted watching the parents jump around than the cheerleaders on stage.   Most of them had buttons on with pictures of their cheerleader, team shirts and cowbells.  Yes, cowbells.  One mother even had a massive purple feather wig on.  That’s hardcore.  It was hard to talk to her while keeping a straight face. 

Whew… makes me glad Kelsie doesn’t want to be a cheerleader.  I don’t think I have it in me to be a “Cheer Mom”.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Kyle’s Valentine Card Box

Oh, Pinterest, how you suck me in again with another project!  Kyle has to bring in a box to put his Valentine’s cards and treats in for their party next week.  A simple shoebox will do.  But, not for my son!  After seeing this cute “monster” card box on Pinterest, I showed it to Kyle and he decided that is what he wanted.  Instead of painting dots on the box, I used white circle stickers so that Kyle could put them on. 

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I think it’s really cute!  Kyle loves it and that’s all that matters!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A little home spruce up…

Thank you, Pinterest, for your never ending pictures of home ideas.  You’ve given me so much to work with (3,100 ideas and counting).  Dave, on the other hand, is not so excited.  Every day I have something new I want to do to my house of 7 years old.  Every day I show Dave what I want to do.  He honestly doesn’t care what I do, but he’s quick to say he will NOT help paint.  I came across a great picture of a black pantry door.  For some reason, it made the kitchen look better.  Tired of my white doors…

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I decided to try the black paint.  What’s the worst that could happen?!  Not liking it and having to repaint a perfectly good white door, is what could happen.  And by myself, since Dave told me a hundred times he would NOT help paint.  So… a quart of black paint later…

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I LOVE it!  Dave loves it, too, but not enough to help me paint the other 3 doors downstairs. 

Monday, February 6, 2012

Weekend In Review

Hope y’all had a great weekend!  It was a quiet around here.  We went to the boat show on Saturday.  We’re hoping a boat is in our near future!  The kids had fun getting in and out of every boat!

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On Sunday, we went to a Super Bowl party with our neighbors and friends from church.  We weren’t really excited about the big game since our teams weren’t playing, but it turned out to be a great game.

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Have a great week!

Friday, February 3, 2012

THE COOKIES ARE HERE! THE COOKIES ARE HERE!

It’s Girl Scout cookie time and as the “Troop Cookie Mom”, I get the pleasure of picking up the cookies from the warehouse.  And, as an added bonus, I’m the first to “sample” the cookies!   This is only a small order of 40 cases – next week is the big order of about 90 cases.

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In typing this, one sleeve of cookies is already gone.  Not good for my New Year’s resolution.  If you need cookies, let me know.  I think I can spare a box or two.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Kelsie and The Biebs

Kelsie’s class has been learning about Biography’s and how to research and write one.  Each child could pick ANY famous person they wanted to research.  Kelsie quickly picked Justin Bieber.  Really??  Aren’t we over him??  Along with a 5 paragraph report and timeline, she had to create a “poster person” of her famous person and use 5 different materials to create him.  A life-size Biebs?  Fun.  It took Kelsie Dave all day Sunday to create this little bugger.  This is what the finished product looked like…

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He had a large butt and very small feet.  You know what they say about that!  Kidding.  The 5 pockets on his “shirt” are filled with a fun fact about the Biebs.  It turned out cute and Kelsie was happy with it.  Hope Dave gets an “A” on it!

I’m off to start my life size George Clooney poster!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012