Celebrating Lucy

Lucy, ready to come home from the hospital, March 2007

Lucy, ready to rock out to her new iPod, March 2015

This weekend marked our Lucy's 8th birthday. We've enjoyed watching her grow from a tiny baby into a sweet, tender-hearted girl in what feels like just mere minutes. As most parents can attest to, "time flies" and all of a sudden their little ones are no longer so little. While Lucy is still "little" (don't tell her I said that!) it is amazing to me to watch her personality grow; her sense of humor coming out when she is finally comfortable and has warmed up. It's takes her awhile to do that, to get comfortable around new people, but once she does she is silly and loves you with her whole heart. She is sensitive and good to her friends. She loves her big brother enormously; this I hope she continues to hold dear to her their whole lives. What a great team! She loves animals and books and music and dance. She loves baking cookies with me, loves watching her brother navigate through Minecraft worlds, loves reading and kayaking with her dad. Honestly, she's a pretty great kid!

This weekend we had a birthday party for her at our  house. (her idea, I was totally committed to taking her and her friends OUT to bounce, or play, or paint, or skate...)  She wanted an art party so we made our plans and had 11 of her friends join us for painting, sand art, yarn sculpture and scratch art fun. And of course cake! It was another joy to watch her play with her sweet friends that afternoon. These girls are so great and I loved listening to them talk about their creations. The paintings were on framed canvas with acrylic paints. Animals, monograms, fireworks, rainbows, and sunsets were featured on their paintings. Beautiful!  Her friends gave her wonderful gifts with the best homemade cards! We ate "big yellow cake with pink frosting, 'Lucy' in cursive with white frosting and white flowers and candles" along with ice cream. They giggled, they told knock-knock jokes, they sang and just enjoyed being together. A great day for being 8!

In our family, the birthday person gets to choose The Birthday Dinner plan. Adam chooses something different every year, but it is often someplace for seafood. Lucy, however almost always sticks to Noodles & Co. for mac and cheese, and always with family invited. This year, like with her party, she wanted to stick close to home. She wanted to invite her grandma and she wanted her Godparents. And she wanted BREAKFAST. Her plan was lovely: Butterbraid coffee cakes, fresh fruit and yogurt dip, mini muffins, bacon and sausage, and scrambled eggs. Great plan, quick and easy to prepare for mom, and who doesn't love breakfast for dinner???  What a great night with her friends and some of her family together! I am so thankful to God for placing her in our care, thankful for her friends and our family, thankful for Michael's art supply coupons, and for Mark and helped me bring this little girl into the world. Love you honey. Happy Birthday Lucy!

play dates--the big switcheroo

This week both of my kids have had friends over to play after school.  On Thursday  Lucy was able to bring two little girls home on the bus with her, twins in fact. I enjoyed having them over and everyone had a great time the whole visit.  Friday, Adam had a friend from class come home on the bus too. He stayed the afternoon, had dinner with us, then we took him home. Everyone had a great time on this visit as well. All the kids gave me a great insight to my own children and  how they "play" at different ages. I just completely had an incorrect vision as to how each of these days were going to go!

I thought for sure the three little 5 year olds would be quietly playing dolls or dress up and doing what they do. I thought the boys would be out of control wildness, aggressively enacting some sort of military operation. ABSOLUTELY NOT. :)   I couldn't have been more wrong. Let me repeat that I enjoyed having ALL of these kids together and I will have them over again in a heart beat! But....such a different experience than I had anticipated.

The girls DID play dress up and dolls and kitchen, but they did it with absolutely every single piece of dress up taken out of the closet for close inspection first. They chose every single doll and put them into families laid out on the bed and floor. They took out every single stuffed animal and toy horse and led them into a giant animal toy parade. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. This all took place in her bedroom, then continued on into the playroom where a full on 7 course meal of plastic food was created and served in the toy kitchen. In between these activities, there was My Little Pony video watching and a game of "catch the cat". All done while singing of course. It was beautiful bedlam.

The boys were a different story. They came in and went straight to Adam's room where they discuss the finer points of Minecraft and what they needed to do to create the best world. They came down for cookies, ate them quickly and quietly-all business- then retreated for some Tom and Jerry on TV while talking about how they can set up "chat" on their iPods with each other. (not that I was listening in...)  Moving on---Legos, Furby, general silliness and laughter, but all in his room,  the family room or the playroom. There were no battles, shooting sounds or even ONE farting armpit!!  (do I sound disappointed?)  At dinner, they took a booth by themselves and invited Lucy to sit with them at the "kids table". They ate while they played and laughed and talked more about the best apps and homework. (Minecraft and Angry Bird BTW, and homework stinks-they have it now that the the big Immigration research project is done) And then moved on to planning the next time they could get together, but this time a sleep over so they would have more time.

I enjoyed ALL of these friends and loved how these siblings included each other and were kind to each other while they each had their own friends over. I loved that they all cleaned up after and were polite to the parents! What a great week these kids have had together. Can't wait to have them all over again!!

Christmas Story wordle

ballerina dreams

Lucy has recently completed a ballet class taught by a wonderful young woman named Miss Jenny. She has really enjoyed her time there, twirling and learning and wearing pink tutus. Some of her favorite things! Her class at Dreams Dance Academy has been good for her. She learned that sometimes it will be hard and she will have to work at it. It is not "just twirling and looking cute" although she does that just fine! :)  I'm excited for her as she tries something new and fun for her. Last night was her last class for this session and she was allowed to bring a friend. There ended up being several girls from her kindergarten class at this night and it was crazy giggly! When the class was over there was the promise of McDonald's for all and off we went. Walking in with another mom from class, all the girls piled themselves into one booth! More giggles and lots of  pink and sparkles! Both Lucy and her friend quickly fell asleep on the way home, not even making it out of the main road before closing their eyes. I say falling asleep dreaming of ballerina poses isn't a bad way to end an evening.

the Santa party

Every year our dear friends, The Reilley's, invited us over for their annual Santa Party. It started as a get together for the daycare kids and their parents--maybe about 6-10 families. Over the years, the Reilley's have grown this event (yes-I've said it...it's an EVENT) to include other of their friends, family and of course now that our kids our older....school-aged friends and their families. It's an event that we look forward to every year and really is a permanent part of getting our Christmas on!
  This year was no exception.  Here's the drill. The adults all plan to bring some sort of appetizer or dessert. This is great because then Katie and Rob do not have any cooking to do. They can circulate and chat, snack and visit with everyone. As it should be! While Katie and Rob also have beverages out to share, the adults usually bring a little "cheer" along with them to share with others.
  As for the kids, Katie thought ahead about this too. Happy kids mean happy adults. We feed them first with some fun pasta, fresh fruit, crackers, chicken strips, and a juice box. They are happy, fed, and they move on to play with each other. This frees up the adults to enjoy their adult beverage of choice, and catch up with each other. This year the first chat I walked into was a very intense conversation about tech options in our homes. Bundling, cable, Dish, wireless, streaming, home phone/no home phone, ....it was really something.
  Anyway, the kids play, the adults play, everyone eats. Just a note...there was a moment of silence held this year as our friends, the Sears family, were unable to be with us due to sick kiddos.. We missed them...and their Cookie Crumbs cookies. Actually, it was unusual for us this year too as Lucy was saying she didn't feel well either. No fever, vomiting or ANY symptoms at all, just tired...so we went because it's tradition. Mistake! She was asleep on Daddy before Santa even showed up. Wait, I didn't talk about Santa yet! It's a Santa party....so......
   Katie's dad, Bob, is Santa. He has the beard and the belly and the bag. We all sneak a wrapped gift for our kids into the Santa bag hidden in the garage, and Santa makes his appearance every year to pass out presents that make our children smile. Even though Lucy was tired and cuddled up with Mark on the sofa, she was the FIRST to see Santa. She spied him peeking through the window and her eyes have never been bigger!! She was so excited and sat straight up "Look! It's Santa!! He's really here! Daddy! Mama! Santa!" Priceless reaction that only someone so young and believing can have. I wish I could bottle that innocence and bring it out when I needed to feel great about the world again.  Santa comes in  ringing his bells and the kids go cuckoo! They surrounded him at his feet and we all laughed at how perfectly still, quiet, on their bottoms, angelic they all were waiting for Santa to speak. Awesome. Every year Santa greets the children and before he does any presents he asks the kids to sing a song with him. I think this is my favorite part. They all believe for that moment, even the bigger kids who may have questions in their heads about him being "real", they all love this moment, and it's pure Christmas. Thanks Mr. Praeger!
   Of course, this moment is shaken up a bit later as Santa has passed out all of his gifts and he's counting down to allow them to rip the paper open!  An interesting thing happened this year. Adam will be 9 years old in just a couple of weeks. He's on the border of whether he believes or not, hearing stories on the playground, bus and lunchroom. He hasn't quite asked us yet if Santa is real. When he does, I plan to share this letter I found as I feel it really says what I want him to know. Santa passed out all the gifts and asked if everyone had a gift. Adam started looking around and then realized that he DIDN'T have a gift. He looked quickly around and Santa was starting to count...he had a bit of shock, and hurt, and "oh no" on his face as he turned to look at me. Of course, I asked Santa if he could look in his bag again and of course there was  gift for Adam there way at the bottom. He thanked Santa then turned to me and said " I was nervous there for a minute, I thought I wasn't getting a gift. That meant I was too naughty this year!"  We left soon after to take Lucy home to bed. In the car on the way home Mark asked him about that moment. He said, "Dad, at first I was really sad and thought Santa wasn't going to give me anything. After he gave me my present I realized something. The elves made MY gift first. First gift IN the bag, last gift OUT of the bag. I was just at the TOP of the list this year...not the bottom!"
   And in truth, that's the best of it.  Last year was so different than this year--for him and for all of us. What a different a year can make. What a difference a DAY can make. Things change and kids grow and people leave us. Babies are born, new friends come into our lives and Santa is there every year--to make our eyes wide and to invite us to sing with him. Thank you Reilley's! Thank you Santa!

Reilley's Santa Party 2010

This year! 2012

December Top Ten List

Top Ten Things I Love About December This Year
10. no snow yet! It's been warm enough to have our Cub Scout den meeting outside around a campfire, warm enough for sweatshirts instead of coats, warm enough to keep geocaching in the woods
9. I have decorations up before Christmas Eve this year. Last year we didn't even have our tree until the 23rd. This year I am gettin' my Christmas on!
8. watching them look for Tom the Elf every morning with excitement. Man! that Elf on the Shelf is still incentive and I love it!
7. new mistletoe!  Any time I can get my son to willingly give a kiss to me or his sister is priceless. And you can't argue with mistletoe placed conveniently in front of the refrigerator
6.visits with friends. I am really looking forward to three different get-togethers that are planned this month. First, a small group to make DIY ornaments while drinking adult beverages. Maybe that isn't such a brilliant plan but nonetheless...it's happening. Our annual BT Christmas shopping, eating, adult beverages.  Can't wait to see you girls! And lastly, the annual "Jay takes the boys to Culver's and the teacher ladies eat, laugh, play games and drink adult beverages at Chris' house" night!  I sense a theme here.
5. ballet recital next week to Silent Night...will I cry??  oh yes! This date is also my dad's birthday. He would have been 67 and my heart is broken that he is gone from us only a month ago. Silent Night and little girl in  pink leg warmers will go a long way to warm my sad heart
4. lights, lights and more lights. With all this warmer weather our neighborhood has had a lot of time to continue putting up lights. It seems to have inspired some to keep purchasing new sets and load it up. Our street looks beautiful. As always, we are looking forward to our trip to Larsen's Christmas Lights. Best I've ever seen!
3. most of my shopping is done!  I love online shopping. I love shopping for that perfect hard to find gift...and then finding it. This year I have done that for a few people and I'm excited to see them open the gift.
2. RichWrap warehouse sale. Wrapping paper, tissue gift bags and tags for the next two years for under $50. This year is was Ladies Day Out and I went with my mom and my daughter. We went armed with Starbucks Peppermint Mocha and cake pops. Great deals to be had here! Even on the last day!

and the number one thing I love about December this year....

1. Advent at church. Jesus is our number 1 gift. Not just this year, but every year. Our church is decorated and we are celebrating the birth of My Savior. Come join us!

joy and panic

So. I took out the calendar this morning and just took a look at the upcoming events in the Wold Household to get a handle on the week ahead. Just out of curiosity I began to count the actual days of school remaining in this year. Are you ready for this??

36.


Now if you're a "layperson" in the education field, this may not matter much to you. For those of us in the throngs of 4th grade, kindergarten, high school biology or middle school English...you get it. 36 days. 36 days. 36 days.

36 days to finish your last 2 US regions, states and capitals. 36 days to finish the last 2 units of math. 36 days to teach persuasive writing. To make sure all those kids who are still writing incomplete sentences are ready for 5th grade writing! To get those who still don't know their multiplication facts motivated to practice them! 36 days to reach that kid who so far this year seems...unreachable. 36 days to inspire that kid who never reads, only page-turns a book, to find a book or an author that interests her. 36 days. Panic.

36 days until we can be home with our children and get to be the ones who spend the days with them. 36 days until I can play in my garden and read books to my heart's content. 36 days until we can stay in our pjs until lunchtime if we want to. 36 days until we know our Brazil friend is on her way home to us. 36 days until the kids have my undivided attention, and I have theirs. 36 days until camping trips, bonfires, lightning bugs, long walks, popsicles, and bare feet the come inside black and green on the bottom from grass and dirt. 36 days. Joy.

In reality, out of those 36 days are last field trips, field days, assemblies, special readers, a few early dismissal days, memory scrapbooks and picnics. Our 36 days quickly dwindle down to maybe 28 days...and in perfect Seinfeldian (I may have just invented that word) style...our 36 days just became, really, like 28. Really...it's only like 4 weeks of school left until summer break.

Joy. And Panic. :)