Time for Another Break...

I don't really appreciate these breaks considering the cirucmstances that they come by. Mia had a trip to the doctor today so we could get the great news that she has strep throat. Fun times...not.

Time for a Break

This week has been the longest and craziest week of the new year. The schedule has been non-stop, every morning, afternoon, and evening with some sort of scheduled committment. It's been a whirlwind and I am waiting for the breakdown to come. Lucky for me, but not for Mia, life gives us moments to take a break when babies get sick. Mia is home from school for the second day. Below she is out cold! But because she is home, and I am forced to stay home, cancel my commitments and take a little breather. I sure hope she feels better soon!

An Artist in the Making

The "Certificate of Achievent", presented to Leilani Lawton reads..."Because of your excellence in artistic expression, your artwork has been selected to represent Keith ELementary in the 2008-2009 Annual Cy-Fair Elementary Art Exhibit at the Instructional Support Center building on February 10, 2009". Signed by the art teacher and Principal. Leilani was so excited to recieve this opportunity. Below she is standing in front of the Keith wall of artwork. Her "excellence in artistic expression"...a 2-litre recycled bottle turned fish.

Good Job, Leilani!

Finally!

It felt like the day would never come, but after two years, the day has finally come where Mia has graduated from her Suzuki Piano, Book 1! We are so proud of all of her hard work! Way to go, Mia! Below she is with her friend, Emily Paule (who also graduated), and teacher Ineza Childze. The graduation consisted of an opening and closing song, and 4 surprise songs. The surprise songs were inside inflated balloons that they had to pop. It was exciting for Mia, a relief for me, and quite nervewracking for Mark! The video is 10 minutes long so it's a little much to post, but close your eyes and imagine 10 little fingers making beautiful music!

Too Good to be True

Alas, I thought the day had come where Aidyn would forever sleep in her own bed. She did it for a week, I got overexcited, snapped this shot, just to have her waking up in our bed for the past two nights. Some things are just too good to be true!

The Best Volcano Ever

Every year the third graders at Keith elementary have an opportunity to build a volcano. In searching for the most creative way of producing "lava" we watched lots of You-tube clips, and did a lot of online searches. However, the best idea came when Leilani was hanging out with Uncle Daniel, our chemistry teacher. He suggested using sodium dichromate with a magnesium band. This was different from the soda and vinegar, or mentos and coke idea so we decided that's what we would use for our lava. The idea for the volcano had been born! Here we are working together as a family on what is to be the best volcano ever!And here is the finished product of the best volcano ever. In addition to the volcano, we did a little landscaping that included trees, sand, and a river. Leilani wanted to put a climber on the side of the volcano, but it would have been too small to identify once we had it to scale. And yes, it was so the climber would become covered in lava...she must be my daughter...

The big day came when all the third graders were able to erupt their volcanoes. Aidyn raced me to the school, her run showing her excitement that the time had finally come and we checked Mia out of school so she could witness the volcano greatness...we were all excited. After waiting for about 10 minutes, Leilani's class walked out, each with their personal volcano in hand. They sat in a circle and the eruptions began. Everyone had a turn at success and then it was Leilani's turn. The wind was blowing and in order for her volcano to erupt she needed to ignite the magnesium band, after a few tries, it caught spark and we had an excited crowd. As quickly as the excitement came, it was taken away with the same swiftness when the wind blew out the sparks seconds later. We could not light it again. So the greatly anticipated moment became a moment of temporary failure and disappointment. Her friends told her "sorry" and we went home. I could feel Leilani's disappointment as her eyes filled with light tears. It was crushing...BUT we would not fail. We got home, placed the volcano in the middle of the sunroom where the wind was not a factor, and lit her up! The feeling of failure and disappointment dissipated and success was on her side as we witnessed the best volcano eruption ever. I hope you enjoy the eruption as much as we enjoyed it in person!

My Sister

You know when you are just having a really bad day/week...you wake up tired and the first thing you see is that the dinner dishes from last night are still in the sink, loads of laundry are not put away, there are crumbs on the floor, shoes scattered everywhere, your kids aren't cooperating, and neither is your spouse, there's too much to do and you are running way behind schedule all with a rental car because your truck is in the shop because of a dumb little mouse that caused so much havoc in such little time costing you thousands, and life just doesn't seem to be going your way? That's when talking to your sister makes everything bad look better, really. My sister is the best, I mean, just look at the picture...well, and then the other day, when I was having a very bad moment, she just said,"Just stay upset, it will make you feel better. I love you, BYE!!!" Her comment made me laugh and made me realize that I didn't really want to stay upset...or did I?

Kudo's to Sachi for winning the "BEST SISTER EVER" award!!! Love you!

Oh, and P.S. my mother in-law just asked me to be a guest speaker for her youth lesson next week...the topic "The Joys of Womanhood"...I told her I'm not sure I should be talking about this after my weekend....HA!!! Perhaps this week I'll find joy in all the little things that are driving me NUTS! Yes, I know, I need a major attitude adjustment...smile!