Classroom Doors and Halloween

 Here are the two Fall doors I did, obviously not in chronological order. The Halloween door says "What's brewing in 1st Grade?" and the kids' names are on the bubbles. The Thanksgiving door says "Gobble + Gobble = Gobble Gobble" the kids names are on the leaves and they have written one thing they are thankful for. I had so much fun doing the doors! Another room mom and I planned out the December door, but our schedules didn't match up so she went in on her own to put it up. It turned out super cute. And the best part is that I got a print-out from the school of my volunteer hours this week and I've already got 35! (30 hours is what is required.)

Funny unrelated photo of Lars wearing this sweet little knit outfit from my aunt Debbie. It was so sweet and adorable and the pants would come up high over his fat belly, old man style.

 For Halloween there was really no other discussion other than that Lars would be Elvis. He was so perfect for it and I even found a little mini microphone on Amazon! Willa and June changed several times with each party that they went to. Halloween night was a ballerina fairy princess and Princess Aurora....I think.

 

This summer I found myself with six piano students. The older kids were all learning a Star Wars song, so I thought it would be fun if we planned a costumed Star Wars piano recital around Halloween. It was so fun! The kids were really excited about their pieces and most of them dressed up. A friend in the ward even used some connections to find me a Princess Leia costume!

 One of my students had just gotten this new gorgeous grand piano so his mom volunteered their house for the recital. It was AMAZING. The dad is a PI attorney with his own firm and in the mom's words "He's done VERY well." ha ha. We're so glad that they shared their beautiful home with the rest of us plebeians!

And one last hilarious photo of Lars as Elvis. The look on his face is perfect, even though the photo is blurry. And I just love the tight little jumpsuit over his fat belly. Very realistic!

Fall Fun

The Children's Museum had the most adorable Japan exhibit in its traveling section. My favorite was the sushi shop. There was also a tree where you could write wishes and a Hello Kitty section. Some of the exhibits are geared towards older kids, but this one was perfect for June's age. We went a few times with ward friends.

 

Rebecca went to Hawaii with Shannon and her family. She brought Ryan and Lars these matching Hawaiian shirts. Father-Son stylin' at its best!

 Cute little happy Lars!

This Fall we went pinenut picking in Mt. Charleston. I've been wanting to do it for a long time and it was surprisingly easy to find and do. We just drove up, pulled off the road, and found some pinion pine trees. It was amazingly sticky. Thankfully a friend had warned me. I took some rubber kitchen gloves and a blanket. A lot of pine cones had already fallen to the ground and had started opening. Ryan also picked and knocked some cones down from the tree. The cones from the tree were more green and absolutely covered in a thick sap. But when we opened them, they were full of untouched nuts. There were also pine nuts all over the ground in some places. So while I worked prying the nuts out of the sticky shells, the girls and Ryan took little baggies around and picked up loose ones from the ground. 

The girls had a lot of fun, surprisingly! We probably picked 1-2 pounds of nuts. I think you're only allowed to take a pound. I thought that was all we had, but once we got home it was a bit more. I read to put the pine nuts in water and all of them that floated to the top were "bad". It was quite a lot, probably a third of what we had gathered. But sure enough, when I cracked some of the bad ones open just to check, they were all dried out inside and inedible. From my reading, it seemed like that amount of bad ones was normal. I roasted the others in the oven with a little oil and salt. Then I bagged and froze a bunch and kept a bunch out of eating. Delicious!

Willa turns 7, gets head lice

 Willa turned seven in October, I can hardly believe it! I feel like every time I look at her she seems older and older. She had a fun day at school. I wasn't able to be there, I can't remember why - but I think mainly because I couldn't bring in June and Lars. But her teacher took some pictures and sent them to me. This fun school day was on Friday.

Her birthday fell on Saturday and she was so excited to do the party on the actual day. The new My Little Pony movie had just come out, so we decided to invite some friends to go see the movie with us. I was going to write that it was a "My Little Pony" party, but Willa was adamant that she wanted a Mermaid or Lego party, but since we were going to a Ponies movie, that fact kind of got missed.

I thought it would be a super fun treat to take her to get a beautiful blowout at the salon the morning of her birthday. That way her hair would be glossy and wavy for the party and everything would just be perfect. She was super excited started out! They washed her and got her all set.

 So fun and cute!!!

It was such a great idea until the worker left for a moment and came back with her supervisor. The supervisor started looking through Willa's hair and suddenly it dawned on me. I was like, "Does she have LICE?!!!" And sure enough, nits, nits everywhere. I'm sorry if anyone is grossed out by this. I was and am still super grossed out!! But I also want to be real about our life. So of course they couldn't finish the blowout, I had them check June's and my hair. June was clean but they said there was a few nits on my head!!! Barf, barf, double barf!!!

We drove straight to CVS and bought the stuff they recommended and then headed home to treat our hair. We actually treated everyone's hair except for Lars. The salon said once we did the shampoo and combed, then we could still hold her birthday and she wouldn't be contagious. I thought long and hard about what to do. It was heartbreaking having to make her leave the salon and not knowing whether she could still have her party. In the end, I texted all the parents and told them what had happened. Everyone was super nice and about half the kids still came (3 out of 6).

The party was much more low-key than we had been planning but I was just so exhausted and on edge. Luckily, the salon was like at 8 or 9 a.m. and the party wasn't until the afternoon, so we had time to comb out the hair and clean the house, but just barely. I felt so overwhelmed and helpless thinking about bagging up all the pillows and stuffed animals, washing all the linens, steaming the couches! Ryan helped but I should also mention that our car desperately needed new brakes and he had all the stuff to change those out that day too. In fact, he attempted a more tricky repair that was pretty difficult, so we were stressed and busy the whole day.

We decorated a little the night before - (pre-lice)

 Ryan made this cute Rarity for "Pin the tail on the pony"

 Willa got a candle in her waffles.

 Our party crew. Robin, Bridgett, and Alisse - a friend from school.

 My neighbor Christine made this really cute Rarity pony cake!

 At the movie theater, not a great photo but it's documented.

Finally, that night after the girls were in bed and everything was cleaned out, I finally had time for Ryan to comb out my hair. My hair wasn't too bad, but mentally it was horrible not knowing and freaking out. So disgusting.

I kept thinking about a recent conference talk that was about social media and only showing the positive parts of our life. I considered posting a picture of Willa's birthday cake with the lice comb next to it and saying "Happy Birthday Willa!" on Instagram or Facebook. I thought better of it, however, and just decided to keep this embarrassing, disgusting, horrifying, grotesque incident all to ourselves (and this blog). I know lice isn't supposed to be a big deal, but I just felt so out of control. How had I not noticed this before? How could you not noticed bugs in your hair? I felt powerless to really know if we beat it. I combed out the girls' and my hair frequently over the next few weeks. About two weeks after I found a few new eggs in Willa's hair. So I must have missed one egg in the original treatment, it takes about a week to hatch, then another week before it can lay more eggs.... I retreated her and kept combing. Finally, we were rid of it.

My neighbor admitted that her daughter had lice about a month before Willa, but she hadn't told us about it at the time. The girls play together a lot and I'm fairly certain this is where Willa got it from. Though... I suppose Willa could have given it to the girl too. The gross thing is that the nits had grown out an inch or so in Willa's hair so you know that she had had it for a while. The other thing I realized is that lice is not so super contagious in Las Vegas. I think because of the hot and dry climate. It seemed very contagious in Houston, because it was so humid. But Willa and June had been sharing towels, combs, brushes, headbands, you name it - and June didn't have any. So I don't think it spreads very well here, but you just have to be careful to get every single tiny last egg when you are going through the hair. Still, I think you should be responsible and 'fess up to other parents if your child gets it. I contacted Willa's teacher at school and her class had to do a lice check and had a letter sent home. I was also really careful to clean all her jackets, her backpack, and the carseats in the car. The lice will only be on the head, but anywhere that a loose hair with a nit attached is fair game. But again, that brings me to why I don't think it really spreads that well in Vegas - because once the hair is unattached from the head, the climate just isn't right and the eggs probably don't hatch.

It ended up not being the greatest birthday in the entire world, but it is certainly one we will remember. And just typing this makes me want to go comb through my hair with a nit comb again!

Piano Teams

Willa was old enough and advanced enough to do Piano Teams this year. Piano Teams are a big part of the teaching method that her teacher follows. It can mean duets or trios, but most of the time it means five pianos and ten hands. So basically, five kids each on a separate piano playing all together. So. Much. Fun. My favorite memories of music growing up was group lessons and playing along with other friends, so I'm just so excited that Willa is getting a little bit of a similar experience.

It was A LOT of work. They started working on their song during the summer. Then, when school started we started having group lessons together. That meant either the teacher scheduled an additional hour into her teaching schedule when we were all available, or she used the kids' private lesson times and we all met during those times. Either way, it was a lot. Several of the kids had taken a rule out of my playbook and asked for morning lessons. So three mornings a week for an hour before school, they practiced. Then they also practiced Friday afternoon for an hour. Did I mention yet that it was a lot? I think we were all so exhausted and ready to be done! Cheryl, their teacher, is truly a saint for putting it all together. They are all so young that it was ground zero when they started. I mean, they had to play, they had to count rests, they had to listen for the other parts to come in. Ensemble playing is complicated! But she pulled it out of them.

They don't compete, but they were adjudicated on it at UNLV. The organization wants the kids to have fun and really likes them to dress up for their pieces. The kids were playing Yankee Doodle Noodle by Jeff Shumway (who is a big piano name at BYU). I happened to have these old 4th of July skirts and we pulled everything else together. Willa had to squeeze into a 2T sized skirt and Madeleine into the 4T, but we put some leggings under and it worked just fine. I think they looked so adorable! Willa was the youngest by about a year and a half and you could tell she just loved being with these older kids. At practices, if the teacher had to do something she was just hanging onto every word and action that the older kids were doing. Thankfully they're all good kids!

This first clip is just 30 seconds of the performance. I was in the back holding a sleeping Lars and recording with my phone in the other hand - so I'm lucky to get the video quality that I did. I cut this sample so you could see my favorite part, which is when they do a page turn at the same time and yell "Yankee Doodle flipped his noodle!"

 This second is the full video for anyone who wants to watch it.

First Day of Preschool!

June started preschool at the most darling in-home preschool! I had heard amazing things from a friend of mine, so I signed the girls up for a summer day camp there two summers ago. They LOVED it, and I just really loved Miss Amberley. So way back at the end of summer 2016 I had her add June on her list for Fall 2017. That's how soon she fills up. Then, just to be sure, I called on January 1, 2017 and said, "I want June in your preschool!!!" I'm so so so glad she is in there. It is such a fun and loving place. In fact, I have a little regret because last fall, Miss Amberley called and said she'd had a sudden cancellation and would June want to come for the 3-4 year old preschool too. Well... that was right when we moved in the house and so I chose to send her to the Rec center because it was super cheap. I feel like I was being prudent, but I also wish I would have sent her to Miss Amberley.

Elementary school started quite early, but preschool didn't start until after Labor Day, so June and I had some good times. Carrie came to visit so we went swimming with her at The Trump.

She treated us to a poolside lunch because she's the best.

Finally! First Day of Preschool! Miss Amberley had this adorable little set-up at drop-off. She's such an amazing teacher!

This Chicka Boom Boom Tree is one of the many darling little crafts they have done.

Besides having an amazing teacher, this year ended up being a class of just GIRLS! Imagine eight sweet little girls! Miss Amberley says that they come in and show each other their clothes and say, "Oh, that's cute." "Oh, that's pretty." She also says that they get along well and are mainly all very kind. If any little girl comes and complains that she doesn't have anyone to play with, Miss Amberley will say, "June* needs someone to play with, who can she play with?" And all the little girls will volunteer. I'm so happy to finally have some sweet girls more on our side of town to be friends with.

June has made special friends with one particular little girl named Ava. Her brother has a lot of special needs, so two out of three mornings we pick Ava up for preschool. It's pretty simple and easy because we pass her house as we drive from Willa's school to the preschool, but it helps her mom out a lot.

We took a little field trip to Gilcrease Orchard. Here are some of the girls playing.

 June and Ava

 And by far my most favorite photo. Ava's mom told me that at home she talks non-stop about June and refers to her as "My June" all the hearts and feels!

First Day of First Grade

 Hooray for me for posting these photos before Christmas. Willa was ready for first grade! She has an amazing teacher, Mrs. Murphy. We ordered new school uniforms that have sleeves (no need for white shirt underneath), pockets, and no buttons or snaps! It felt like we won the lottery when we found them.

Here is Willa at Meet the Teacher. It was blurry, but it's also kind of crazy in there.

First Day! There are only four students from her kindergarten class in this new class. However, they are cute kiddos and I was so happy to get this photo of them as the kids lined up on the blacktop. I think my favorite thing about first grade is all the cute Jack-o-lantern smiles!

If you notice, Ryden's arm is on Willa's shoulder and they are "touching" hands. He's quite the Casanova and is regularly asking girls to marry him/be his girlfriend/wear his ring. He keeps everyone laughing and I'm glad they are in the same class again. His mom is the Room Mother and I asked if I could be in charge of decorating the doors for each holiday. I've really enjoyed it and it has been a brilliant way of getting my volunteer hours in! Since it's a charter school, they require about 30 volunteer hours per family. Up to 15 hours can be "bought" by buying supplies or giving money to the school at $5= 1 volunteer hour. But, even if you do all that, you still have 15 hours. It's tricky for me because you can't bring other children in when you volunteer. But by decorating the doors, I can count the time I spend gathering and prepping supplies outside the home, and then I go in after school hours to put the door up and since it's after school I can bring June and Lars with me. Plus, it's a fun and creative goal for me each month and I've been really enjoying it even though I rank my creativity down somewhere between "trace levels" and "non-existent". Thank you Pinterest!

First grade so far as been great! I've been surprised at what a jump it is from kindergarten to the reading and math they are suddenly expected to do. I didn't realize what a big leap it is. But I love her school, it's arts-integrated, so everything relates back to the arts. Or rather, all the art and creativity relates back to math and science. I think it's just such a fun and loving environment. This year they started a school garden. They go out during science and a gardener talks to them and they get to plant seeds and harvest produce (and then they've been selling the produce in a little pop-up Farmer's Market after school). They also have violin class once a week and everyone in the school learns (or attempts to learn) violin in addition to their regular music, dance, and other special classes.

It's also been really fun to be somewhere for a second year because we are getting to know different families and parents. It feels more connected for me. Willa walks out with a few friends to the pick-up each day and we all text each other if one of the kids won't be walking or is sick. I've felt a nice sense of community. We are excited for next year. Willa's kindergarten teacher has already called dibs on June and told me how I can request that we have her again.

Lars 3, 4, 5, 6 months!

Well, I haven't been as good at documenting Lars, which is to be expected. I HAVE been good at enjoying my baby snuggles, kissing his soft skin, and breathing in his good smell, though! He's so sweet! Just the most precious baby!

Since so much time has passed, I can't really remember what different benchmarks he had at each age, but for all his appointments he has been pleasantly plump. He's usually in the 70-80th percentile for weight and 10-20th for height. At his six month exam, he was around 19 lbs and 24 inches, which translated to 75th percentile for weight and 25th for height. So he may be slowly evening out - or it might just be a blip.

Lars does not care to roll over. He didn't roll over until about ten days before he turned six months old, and then it was only in his crib when I was letting him cry and he got so angry. You can imagine that accidentally flipping onto his stomach and getting unexpected tummy time did not help to abate his anger either. He's still only flipped two or three times outside of his crib, but to be fair it might be because he's such a strong sitter now. I rarely lay him down because he can sit so well. My favorite position is sitting him in the corner of the couch with a pile of toys where I can see him while I do housework. He still cannot flip tummy to back consistently. He has done it two, maybe three times in his crib, but I only know that because I've seen him on the monitor on his tummy, and the next time I look he is on his back. I don't think he's aware how this has happened either because he still gets plenty frustrated after accidentally flipping to his tummy during naptime.

Lars is not the great sleeper that Willa was, but he is a little better than June - it just depends. In fairness, our schedule is rarely regular so it's not really his fault. A lot of it is that I'm just enjoying my baby. I like rocking him to sleep and holding him. Normally, once he is swaddled and rocked, he will fall asleep in just a minute or two as a learned response. He's not so great at falling asleep alone in the crib without these cues. I actually kind of like it this way. The girls were so sleep-trained that it was almost impossible for them to fall asleep in my arms. They simply could not do it, they wanted to be left alone in their cribs. But with Lars, he's comfortable falling asleep like that. It makes it SO much easier at church or other activities. I know that if I just wrap a little muslin blanket around him and hold him he will fall asleep instead of just being fussy.

Everyone comments on how smiley Lars is. He is such a smiley, contented baby. You really had to earn Willa's smiles. She was very cautious. June was quite smiley, but I was stressed a lot of the time. With Lars, I can just enjoy it and him. I'll say it again, I'm just enjoying my baby so much more this time around! All those little things (sleeping through the night, nap schedules, etc) those will all come. I've been around now enough that I can see that annoying phases are just phases. Nothing lasts forever, so instead of stressing about it I can just hold on until the next phase. I'm trying to enjoy my little baby phase as long as I can.

As you can see, my photo taking has not been quite as prompt this time around. And of course, he's so cute in all of them that I had to post multiple shots. Other readers can scroll through, these are just for me.

3.5 Months

4.5 Months (sorry about the rotation, I'm just patting myself on the back for posting at all)

 And sometimes I will intersperse monthly progress photos with cute baby wearing a onesie that has sharks eating pizzas on it!

5 Months

 My happy, happy boy!!

Ryan's coworker got him this Under Armour shirt. It's actually a onesie and snaps on the bottom. I forgot to pull it out until it just barely fit. That worked perfectly because now he looks like every other high school or college coach wearing an Under Armour shirt that is tucked in around a fat belly.

We had a park playdate with a preschool friend for June and they had a baby sister who is just one month older than Lars and has matching hair. Twins!

6 Months!