Aubrey's Spa Birthday

Aubrey turned 10 this year, and she had grand ideas for this double-digit birthday. She decided she wanted a "spa" birthday, after seeing some ideas I had offered up from Pinterest, and she wanted to invite 12 girls. I was reluctant at first, overwhelmed with the scope of this party, but I started planning and got very excited to make it a great night for them all.

We had pizza and Italian sodas to start out, played a balloon stomping game, made Kool-aid lipgloss and let the girls choose their flavors, and then we did the foot baths. I had made a bath salt mixture that would fizz in the water, and the girls added their choice of essential oils to their salts. Each girl had her own foot bath, complete with Orbeez in the bottom. Turns out, Orbeez are very messy and bounce around everywhere! The girls had a great time with the foot baths. Thankfully, we had two extra sets of hands that night. Mom and Dad M. offered their services, and we gladly accepted. The party would not have gone smoothly without them! It was a lot of work.

After the foot baths, we moved into the dining room for facials. Each girl had a bowl for water, a washcloth, a headband, and a mirror. I made a mixture of avocado, yogurt, honey, and oatmeal for the facials, but I didn't mix it well enough, and it was chunky, which was just hilarious. The girls were such great sports and had a lot of fun with the failed facial mixtures.

We got everyone cleaned up, and moved into the other room for Aubrey to open presents. The girls were so sweet. They wanted to hear every word in every card and clapped after each one. So funny! Aubrey had requested red velvet cupcakes, so that's what we had for dessert, along with ice cream. I painted nails and did makeup for the girls while they sang along to karoaoke on our TV--"Can't Stop the Feeling," Shake it off," "Let it go," "Party in the USA," "How Far I'll Go" (Moana), and others. They had a blast, and Aubrey loved her birthday party. It was a great night!

We celebrated with family on her real birthday. Grandpa A gave her red roses when he came to pick her up for birthday breakfast. Apparently, she ate a ton of food for breakfast--hungry girl! :) We had more Italian sodas and more red velvet cupcakes. She was a happy birthday girl.

February Snow

I subbed in 2nd grade at the kids' school the day it started snowing. Early release makes for an exciting school and work day! We thoroughly enjoyed our snow days (and night).

Jump Rope Club

February 16th was a big day for Aubrey. She won the school spelling bee AND got to perform with her school jump rope club later that night at the Barlow basketball game during half time. It's always a big deal to get to perform at Barlow. The kids have to be able to do 30 seconds of "double unders" before they "make it to Barlow." This is Aubrey's 2nd year doing this, and she loves it. They performed at their school assembly, too, earlier in the week, which was also fun to go watch. The middle schoolers came with me, since I was their ride, and they got to watch for a while before they walked over to across the field to West Orient. .

Spelling Bee Champion

Aubrey's spelling bee for the 3rd-5th graders was in the afternoon. She had worked hard memorizing and reviewing the spelling lists the whole month prior, and we knew she was well-prepared. Turns out, she's a really good speller and quick, too! We knew she knew the words, but we wondered how she would do under pressure and with all those people watching. Turns out, she was calm, cool, and collected, so much so, that we were a little aghast at her confidence and antics while she was sitting up there. As soon as a speller got a letter wrong, she would shake her head sadly, as in, "Nope, that's not it!" and lift her index finger as if she were ringing Mr. Milliken's got-it-wrong bell. It was funny and terrible all at the same time. Oh, Aubrey!

The spelling bee was nerve-racking, exciting, and oh-so-intense at the end! They went through the lists of words the kids had been given and had to move on to another list, which had words the kids had not studied. "Superintendent" was the championship word Aubrey spelled correctly to win. The funny part was our district's superintendent, Dr. Katrisse Perrera was there, right behind the judges table, watching, as Aubrey spelled the word facing her. It was pretty great.  Such a proud moment for us parents. Greg has told the kids each year that he would help them study, if they wanted to put in the time, but none of them have been very interested. This year, Aubrey took him up on it, and her hard work paid off. Greg even ended up coming, at the last minute, to watch the spelling bee. I'm so glad he was there to see her win. Grant's teacher brought Grant in to sit with us when it was down to just a few students. His class had watched for a while but then went back to their classroom. We were especially thankful for his thoughtfulness in bringing Grant back, when she was the one who ended up winning. I loved seeing her classmates surrounding her after she won, too. It was very sweet how they cheered her on and how excited they were when she won.

Now she has to go to the regional Scripps Spelling Bee on March 17th. She's not so sure about that experience, but it'll be good for her to go.

Spelling Bee--Grant

This year was the first opportunity for Grant to participate in the school spelling bee. The 1st and 2nd graders had their own "bee" in the morning. Several kids from each class were chosen based on their classroom spelling competitions. Grant was the very first speller and made it through a couple rounds before he got out on the word "return." He did great, and I was proud of him for trying it. He did, however, keep chatting with whoever was sitting next to him throughout the time he was up there. I wanted him to look at me, so I could tell him to be quiet! He enjoyed himself, at least!

Snuggle Time

On Tuesday evenings right now between 7:15 and 8pm, Grant and I have reading and snuggle time while everyone else is at youth group and basketball practices. We’re reading The Trumpet of the Swan, a book I read to the other kids when they were younger. The older my kids get, the more I treasure times like this. 

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