julia's pick

This is one of Julia's favorite books, given to her a couple of Christmases back. The title is "Adele & Simon" and it was written and illustrated by Barbara McClintock. It's a sort of "Where's Waldo" set back in 19th century Paris and is just adorable.

Adele is charged with picking up Simon and school and getting him home. However, much to her chagrin, in the process Simon is wont to leave his various possessions all over Paris! The reader must search the illustrations to find each particular item left behind by the hapless Simon. It's extremely fun to see all the different landmarks and locales of the City of Light along the way. All's well that ends well, since Simon manages to end up with all of his belongings--but you'll just have to read the book to find out how!

little bitty gets glasses

A couple of weeks ago I took Julia in for her scheduled eye exam. She hadn't mentioned any vision problems to anyone, but it soon became obvious during her exam that she was having trouble seeing the smaller letters! Sure enough, Julia is following in her parents' and older brother's footsteps and is myopic just like them! I was about the same age as Julia when I started wearing glasses, so it shouldn't have been such a surprise. She was really excited about wearing glasses and picked out her favorite pair at the doctor's office. For the next few days, every time the phone rang she asked me if it was the eye doctor, telling her that her glasses were ready! I'm really glad that she is excited about wearing them. It sure makes my job as the mom that much easier. Now my biggest concern is that these glasses stay intact until our insurance pays for another pair: she's been wearing them for almost a week now and we've already had one repair made on them!

girl's night out

Last night was girl's night out!

Julia, Libby, and I headed over to catch the Hannah Montana concert movie. Here are the girls in their humungous 3D glasses. Yes, I wore them, too. And it was pretty darn cool!

proud mama alert

Here's an update on some of the fun things the kids have been up to lately!

Last week, all of the 4th graders took a huge spelling test to find out who the best spellers are. The top two spellers win a trip to the spelling bee held at the end of this month to prepare them for entering the bee next year [they have to be in 5th grade to enter]. Libby was one of the top two and is going on the trip! They also go out to lunch afterwards, so she is thrilled at missing basically the whole day to have fun outside of school. The other top speller is also in Libby's class and is a friend of hers, as well as being LDS [although we're in different wards]. It will be a fun day for both of them!

In other news, this past Sunday was Bailey's first time playing the piano in Priesthood. He has been working on several hymns during the last few weeks and is really sounding good. He has played for opening exercises in Mutual a few times, but yesterday was his first time in Priesthood. He played [very fittingly, I thought] "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet." We're already putting those piano lessons to work! A special thanks to Grammie, who is Bailey's piano teacher [and the girls' as well]!

And here is an amusing incident from today involving Collin. This morning I was watching BYU-TV to hear the announcement of the new First Presidency. Collin was playing nearby. The name "Thomas" was being mentioned repeatedly as Thomas S. Monson had been called as the new president of the church. Everytime he heard the name, Collin would perk up, because for him the name Thomas is all about Thomas the Tank Engine. He kept asking me if Thomas was on TV. I told him that Thomas S. Monson the prophet was on TV and showed him the picture from our conference Ensign. He looked at it and repeated the name "Thomas S. Monson" with me several times, then seemed content with this particular Thomas. Funny little guy.

Julia has a performance tomorrow night at the school for Founder's Day. This being our first ever Founder's Day, I'm still not sure what it's all about, but as she has been learning a patriotic song, it's sure to be patriotic! Will have to let you know how it goes!

american idol revamped

Webkinz American Idol [by Libby and Julia]

A couple of days ago Libby asked to borrow the camera to shoot a movie. I just downloaded them today [there were about fifteen!] and I promised her that I would post one for your viewing pleasure.

Some background: In case you don't have kids that use the internet yet, Webkinz are wildly popular stuffed animals that come with a web account when you buy them. You enter a code online and it brings your Webkin to life in a virtual world, where they eat, play games, buy stuff, etc. Libby decided it would be fun to film a video in which her Webkinz are, in fact, the hosts of American Idol [which, by the way, she has never seen]. She got the idea when she stayed the night at a friend's house and they watched some on YouTube.

Anyway, this is the kind of stuff we're up to on this our final week of Christmas vacation! Although it I must confess that I look forward to resuming a normal schedule, I am savoring our last days of relaxation and sleeping in. Because let me warn you now: when your kids start school, your life is no longer your own!

happy 7th birthday julia!

Our little bitty Julia is 7 now! Here she is, gearing up for the big blow-out. We had chocolate cake and cake batter ice cream from Coldstone to mark the big day. Plus, I brought one of Julia's favorite snacks for her class today: chocolate chip cookies and milk! The kids really seemd to enjoy it. After school we headed over to the mall so she could redeem her Build-a-Bear gift cards! It was our first experience with Build-a-Bear and it was fun! We may have to do it again!

Step one: Choose your bear! Julia immediately fell in love with the koala bear-there was really no contest as to what the bear would be!

Step two: Stuff your bear! She even got to put a special red heart inside her bear that she kissed and made a wish on. Very cute. Then comes the fluff, and you can fluff as little or as much as you desire.

Step three: Dress your bear! Julia enlists Libby's fashion advice and selects an outfit, shoes, pajamas, and accessories for her bear.

And here's the finished product, all ready for Christmas! Her name is Alaa. You know, as in Ko-ala, and also the name of a friend in her class. [At least she didn't spell it a certain, ah, Islamic way and get herself in trouble with the government. Oh, that's right. We live in America!] Julia had a fun 7th birthday, spent just the way she likes! Except for the fact that she did in fact have to go to school and do her homework. I guess there are some advantages to summer birthdays after all. . .

rogue grasshopper

One day after school we were sitting outside of Julia's classroom to work on some homework when all of a sudden she let out this extraordinarily shrill shriek. I turned to her to see what was up when she motioned to her jacket and screamed, "Get it off!" about a dozen times. "It" turned out to be this rather innocent looking grasshopper! He really scared Julia! I quickly brushed him off and we turned to the pavement to examine him. I, of course, had my trusty camera on handy and so we got a cool shot of him to share with you!

punk'd

girls getting their punk on

Every year, the last week of October is Red Ribbon Week, the anti-drug campaign, at all the schools in our area [and it may be in yours as well]. Both the kids and their teachers have dress-up days for fun during this week to help them remember to stay away from drugs. Yesterday was Pajama Day, so the girls wore their matching pink heart pj's to school. Since I worked at the school yesterday, I got to see some of the teachers as well, and some of them really got into it! So much fun for the kids.

Today is Punk Day. At first I had my doubts that we had anything around that would work, but as I began to rummage about I got a few ideas. So, this is what we came up with! It has a kind of 80's vibe, and I think it works for the girls. I had even picked up glow bracelets at Michael's dollar section awhile ago, so we broke those out and added them for more punk effect. I've never seen them more excited about getting dressed on a school morning! And tomorrow is crazy hair day. . .

Did I ever tell you about the time a couple of years ago that I wrote crazy hair day on the wrong Friday on my calendar and sent Libby to school with her crazy hair? She didn't really mind, but I was mortified! I think we'll get it right this year.

character counts

Julia with her certificate and gift cards

certificate detail

Every month at school, each teacher selects a student in their class that best represents the character trait in focus for that month. Last week Julia was thrilled to be nominated for Character Counts by her teacher for Trustworthiness! She was very excited, especially because she received two gift cards as part of the nomination-one for Toys R Us and one for Blockbuster. She was over the moon about the gift cards! She had a good time picking out some Littlest Pet Shop toys and a movie to share with the family. She also gets to attend a special luncheon at school with her parents this week! We're all very proud of JuLiA!

julia and uno

A short movie featuring Julia with her baby hamster, Uno. [By the way, Uno is a month old now.] During the editing process, I played this movie over and over while fine tuning some bits. Collin busted up laughing every time he watched my finger get bitten. Every. Single. Time.

quiet moments

Julia reading aloud. . .

We have a routine we follow every day. When I pick up the kids from school, Julia gets out first. We then have an hour to work on homework, read, and if time allows, go to the playground while we wait for Libby and Julia. If the weather is nice, we like to sit outside at a table somewhere and do homework and reading. Today was just lovely. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, the sky was a brilliant blue and the clouds were amazing in their size and variety. It was such a pleasant day altogether that, while Julia was reading to Collin and I, I took some shots of our quiet moments together.

. . . and Collin listening and watching quietly