Giggles, Screaming, and Drama X 8 = Slumber Party

WOW~! I am tired tonight. We survived a first in our family last night. Our first slumber party. Madison invited seven 10/11 year olds to celebrate her 11th birthday with her. We went to the mall and spent a couple of hours doing what 11 year olds like to do at a mall.... eat pizza and shop. Afterwards we came home and the party began. I'm not sure why that really call it a Slumber Party. I thought Slumber meant Sleep. I'm still wondering who did much of that. All in all, they had a great time. No fights, no injuries, and no pranks (at least none that Mom knows about). Madison has some great friends, and I'm proud to say another successful party can be logged into our record book.

The Crew (minus one... she couldn't join us until later)

All in the Family

Oh how I don't have time to do this.... but will make time to write about this.

Last night, Madison presented her semester project for her TREC class. (TREC is Bentonville's term for gifted and talented) Now, we've always known that Madison was quite the creative child. I tended to pride myself in the fact that she HAD to get it from me. However, last night she really amazed us.

She had to design and build a bridge alone using skewers, cardboard paper towel rolls, and other various flimsy materials. She had talked about working on this project, but I dismissed it as a mere TinkerToy project. Last night, she had to prove her ability as a bridge engineer by allowing a fellow classmate to drive a small robotics car up a ramp, across the bridge, and down the other side. A couple of the bridges before Madison's caved in as the car made its way across. I was holding my breath as the robot car proceeded up the ramp..... slowly across the bridge, and down the other side. YEA Madison!

Her Daddy, the engineer brainy one in the family, was very impressed and proud. He might just get his token engineer after all.....

Aging thoughts...

The thoughts for this entry came to me this morning on the way to school as I watched Mason in the rear view mirror. He isn't much of a morning conversationalist. None of my family is.... And it reminded me of this.....

I vividly remember overnight trips to my grandmother's house. The house had 3 bedrooms, and none of them were for the next to the youngest grandchild.... so I had the privilege of sleeping on the hide-a-bed (who dreamt that up?!?!?!?). Then it happened..... a light would come on in the kitchen and one by one the adults would file in and join my grandparents. Full voiced loud greetings, refrigerator door opening and closing, cabinets slamming, coffee perking, mouths slurping. Yes, the adults were awake, up, and ready to socialize. I would be SO disgusted that people could be so rude to not be a little quieter around sleeping people. So when does that happen? When do you fly out of bed like Mary Poppins ready to greet everyone around you? When do you get out of bed early enough to get ready, sit and drink coffee, read the paper, and still get to where you are going earlier than expected? I am nearing 40, and I am still waiting. Stan IS 40, and obviously he is still waiting. So each day when the alarm goes off, I check to see if today is the day?? Three snooze buttons later, it's not looking like today's the day either. Still waiting..........

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I am excited to say that my blog has been revamped, and is a little more appealing to look at. Thanks Jennisa for your help in the blog design. Feel free to click on her link to see the amazing things she can do.

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to update this blog regularly. Now keep in mind that regularly is a loose term.... some weeks it might be every other day, some weeks only once a week. But my goal is at least once a week.

Today after school we had a staff development opportunity and our guest was Clayton Scott, a poet from Fayetteville. He was talking to the teachers about becoming writers and not just being teachers of writing. He brought up the idea that our writing becomes a legacy for our children. I'd never thought about writing being part of a legacy, and I thought it was a great point. So this blog for me serves as a tool for writing that my children can have later in life, and also gives me the opportunity to show my kids off to family and friends that have the power of the internet. Thanks Clayton for the additional motivation to get going on this blog.

I will end with a couple of pictures from the holidays. Enjoy my kids!

Makenzie with her favorite cousin Danielle at Thanksgiving

Madison after dancing at the NWA mall

Madison with one her best friends, Carter

(Looks like they've NEVER had their picture taken together)

Mason and his big cousin, Kirstie (nice chocolate face!)

Mason having fun with the big girls

Madison, Makenzie, and Mason Christmas 2007