yee haw

The 3rd through 5th grade concert was fabulous and even more so, since both kids were performing this year! This year, the theme was Country music and what an interesting set of songs it was!

The 3rd graders started off the evening. You can find Alyssa almost in the middle of the photos, 2nd row. She was decked out in her cute red country western shirt with the white fringe. She wore Papa's cowboy hat and a fun 3 tiered black skirt with her brown boots. 

 Alyssa's grade sang John Denver Grandma's Featherbed, Billy Ray Cyrus Achy Breaky Heart and Miley Cyrus Hoedown Throwdown. She sang her heart out!

 Then it was the 5th graders turn. Jaiden is also towards the middle, 2nd row and decked out in his plaid country western shirt. He wore blue jeans and my black cowboy boots... so darn cute!

 The all-time best was the when the 5th graders sang Taylor Swift's We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together! The choreography was hilarious with boys on the left and girls on the right and the way they were so dramatic with boys rolling their eyes and girls being so cute and sassy! It was hilarious. I only wish I would have known ahead of time as I would have videotaped that for sure!

It kind of made me sad when the concert ended as I knew this was Jaiden's last concert with Mrs. Ordway. Everything about this year is bittersweet and fills me with tears every time.

tobor twenty fifteen

January weekends were full this year with swim practice and vex robotics practice for Saturday mornings, Vex tournaments on a Saturday and ski lessons all day on Sundays... there was hardly time to do much of anything else! The kids had their first Vex tournament on Saturday. 

I took Alyssa to her swim practice and then met the team at the tournament bringing with me Starbuck's for Dennis and the 2 other parents.

Getting ready to go for one of their games... 

 Actually playing the game with Jaiden steering the robot.

Our team and another being given their award and certificate!

They didn't win the entire tournament but they did place in the top 15 out of 30 teams. 

that day in the life of Jaiden?

Well, that day was packed with so much that I forgot his choir sang the Star Spangled Banner at the local high school again this year!

This first photo is the only sort of close up that I took so I could find him in the see of red shirts. See the whiteboard on the wall? Follow the top right corner to the bottom right corner and it's almost sitting on top of Jaiden's head. There is another blondie to his right/ our left but Jaiden is the one in shorts, the other blondie is a good friend of ours.

Now try to find him! Actually you can use the whiteboard again, but he is in the front row. Since I still do not know what the etiquette is about photographing your kid singing the national anthem, I managed to grab just two shots and this one is the better of the two.

We stayed again for the game and it was a blast. Jaiden was really into it with his friends.

a day in the life of jaiden

Today was a seriously busy day for Jaiden. It all started with MESA mentors at 8 am this morning ... but different from other mentoring early mornings, this one he came dressed up and looking very dapper!

Because at 9:00 am sharp, the entire 5th grade was going to the local symphony! Not my best photo but a quick one because his teacher was so proud of him looking so nice.

Then like most the other 5th grade boys, (I only heard of 1 or maybe 2 that stayed dressed up), they changed the minute they returned to school.

After school was just as busy as we dashed off to a haircut for Alyssa, a quick dinner and then to our local high school where Jaiden and his choir once again performed the Star Spangle Banner... beautifully!

It's a little hard to see him but he's in the front row about a third of the way to the right, next to Drew who is very blonde. Jaiden is also wearing shorts with neon green shoes! Being our local high school basketball game, Mrs. O treats this very low key and let's the kids where whatever bottoms they want, however, normally she prefers them in their red choir shirts and black pants.

A pretty exciting day in the life of a 5th grader!

the ever evolving Alyssa room...

I don't think I have shared with many the constant changes that happen with Alyssa and her room... thankfully, it has often involved easy fixes like painting her walls pink, adding her artwork to the walls, rearranging furniture, trying to organize her toys... none are small tasks but they are manageable...  until her latest request at the height of the crazy December season, she decides she needs to move rooms. Yes, move rooms. This was not an easy task but we tackled one day in December when Daddy was out of town (lucky him) and with the help of both kids, we managed to move the queen size bed out of the guest room and then into her old room. We managed to move her twin bed, dresser and most of her things to her new room... in one day... but the closet and her desk had to wait. 

I spent another day moving out the closets and that was not easier either as the old guest room, new Alyssa room had shelves that were great for holding my sewing, kid's art and craft and scrapbooking supplies. I was cursing those shelves mid day but I moved them along with all of her items. The desk had to wait until we got home from Arizona, which turned out to be a good thing because Dennis had a better idea about transferring that to the new room and so I had to get more supplies but that's a whole different story and one I am not entirely interested in telling. In the end, I finally moved the desk yesterday but I didn't let her know I was planning it as I thought it would be fun to surprise her. 

So yesterday, she came home and then went straight to Sophie's, which was okay but I was anxious to see what she thought of what I did. After dinner, she said "Mom, I am going to go work on my homework."

And I excitedly started to say "Oh I have a surprise you" 

And she looked at me sweetly and said "I already saw! You moved my desk."

And that was that. Nothing too exciting or unusual and off she went. I felt a little deflated as I was glad to finally be done with this unplanned project and excited to share with her what I did for her.

But then it paid off... I was walking up the stairs to find Jaiden and make sure he was doing his homework when I saw this...

... she was sitting at her desk working on her homework. Something about the light from her desk and her sitting there made my heart skip a beat. In that fleeting moment, I realized she was growing up, she looked so sweet there. Of course, she heard the click of the camera and gave me a roll of the eyes and a "mom!"

I started to step in to ask where was Jaiden and there he was sitting off to the left in her pink camo bean bag doing his homework! I must have looked puzzled because he said "she invited me in to study!"

Now this made me smile big inside because you know if I do that on the outside they tend to freak out but wow, in that single moment they both managed to melt my heart. They were working quietly and together... such pure sweetness. It's hard to imagine that only a few years ago they were younger, not doing homework, not seemingly growing up... but they did, are and do and I love when I see them like this... I won't mention about tonight though, when Jaiden got mad and Alyssa screamed... I will just savor this photo at that particular moment of pure sweetness!

Oh and relish in the fact that I finished moving her room!

y prospero año nuevo

Happy New Year! 

Jaiden had been planning all year about his next New Year's Animal Crossing party. Of course, Tyler was invited but a few new friends were coming as well including Matt and Malia. 

Both kids were so excited and to make it even more festive, I went to the Party store and picked up a few decorations, sparkly hats, and of course, sparkling cider for midnight!

This photo was too funny. I noticed him messing with the decorations and then we tried to match the hat to the head... voila! 

I may regret having glittery hats but the effect was perfect!

Alyssa was so excited that she decided to create her own "green" decorations in which she raided Dennis' office garbage can and my tape to create a sign made of receipts!

It turned out pretty cute!

And so happy new year's eve it was... we had a little drama at just before midnight when we discovered only 4 people can be in Animal Crossing at one time, and we had 5 kids. The big kids (Tyler, Matt, Malia and Jaiden) were great as they fast forwarded their time so Alyssa could hop in and host hers at midnight. Next year, we will have to remember that and only have a total of 4 kids... or maybe we can find a few more girls who would like to play with Alyssa.