Party Time

For Paige's birthday, she hosted her first sleepover party and we combined it with our Twister/Bejeweled House Party.  She had 9 friends and we settled in for games and fun.  For dinner they ate Mac n Cheese with carrots and dip.  After dinner, Ashley took the girls downstairs to play games like "killer frog" and "red rover".  By the way, if you can get Ashley to help you with parties I highly recommend it.  This girl was so awesome.  She kept the girls happy and busy, definitely making my life easier.  Plus I think all of Paige's friends thought it was pretty cool to hang out and talk with Ashley.

After game time, they came upstairs for cake and presents.  They were all very excited about this.  It seems like nowadays, birthday parties are so jammed pack with activities, that the birthday kid doesn't even open presents at the party.  I think this is sad.  It's exciting for the birthday person to open presents but the gift givers also enjoy seeing all the presents and knowing the reaction to the gift they have given.  Anyways, Paige got some awesome gifts, including gift cards, games, headphones and crafts!

After this, the girls decided to break into three groups and play games in stations.  They came up with this idea on their own and it worked out pretty nice.  The three stations were playing the Bejeweled board game, making bracelets with the Rainbow Loom and playing the Hexbug game Bugs in the Kitchen.  It was pretty fun.  They liked all the games and activities.

After playing for awhile the girls got into pjs and watched a Monster High movie.  Again Ashley was the superstar chaperone and watched it with the girls so I didn't have to!!  At about 11:30 I told the girls they needed to start settling down for bed.  I think everyone was asleep by 12:30am, not too bad.

In the morning, after breakfast the girls played Twister and Just Dance, then it was time to go home.  Pretty painless party.  Thank goodness Paige has good friends and an awesome big sister!

Halloween

Halloween this year was pretty anticlimactic.  We had been so busy the whole week that Halloween and trick-or-treating just felt like something to check off the list.  Oh yeah, and it was pouring rain that day.  It rained hard all day!  Not really something to get you in the mood to take your kids trick-or-treating.

Dave was working, Ashley went to a friend's house and so I just had Paige to take out.  Of course, we went with Jane and Riley.  The best part was that the rain let up just as trick-or-treating began and that lasted for about one hour before it started up again.  Just enough time to get in trick-or-treating without getting soaked!!  Thank you for tender mercies!  The worst part, was that with Dave stuck at work, there was no one to pass out all the candy we had.  Paige quit a little early so anyone that came to our house and caught us at home got a HUGE handful of candy!

After trick-or-treating with one set of friends, Paige came home and was invited to eat a hot dog dinner with another set of friends.  Dave came home from work to find me home alone in a quiet house eating grilled cheese and tomato soup all by myself---that's a true sign that your kids are growing up.

 
Also we always get a few mystery candies.  The winner this year is:

It is supposed to be a mango sucker but it just doesn't look right.

Choir Concert

Ashley is in her high school Treble Choir.  She wasn't too sure she wanted to continue choir from junior high into high school but I encouraged her to give it a try.  The high school experience is a lot different than middle school and I wanted her to at least give it a chance to see if it was something she would like to pursue.  Plus with all her Honors classes, I figured a choir class would be more manageable with her tough schedule.  Now that we are one quarter into it, she doesn't mind choir but is not too sure she will do it again next year.  She's thinking she would like to use those credits to explore other classes and  interests, which is fine.

Her first concert, was in October.  It was actually very good, there are all kinds of groups and choirs.  Some of them are after-school a capella and jazz groups you audition for, others you can take as a class, so there are lots of options and talent.  Our whole family went to watch and were very entertained.

Mini Golf Party

Paige's class had an indoor mini golf and pizza party with a portion of the costs donated back to the classroom for supplies.  I took Paige, Ashley and Riley.  The little girls were very excited to meet their friends and teacher for an evening of play.  I'm glad we went because it also gave me a chance to visit and meet other parents, that doesn't happen too often.

Did I mention it was glow-in-the-dark golf?

Riley, Paige, and Ms. Bratt

Paige's Birthday

Paige's birthday came as it always does in the midst of a lot of activities.  The week of her birthday we not only had Halloween, class parties and parades, we also had Ashley's choir concert and the Fun Run.  It was a little crazy but we always have time to celebrate the birth of our little spitfire--Paige Carolyn Smith.

On her birthday, Paige took in a little favor to give to all the kids in her class.  Our school has a ban on bringing in treats so you have to bring something like pencils, stickers, etc.  Honestly, it's pretty hard to come up with something small and inexpensive.  A number of times, we have just skipped this tradition because it is so close to Halloween that the kids don't even care about getting something for Paige's birthday when they are going home with tons of Halloween goodies.  This year Paige really wanted to bring something to her class.  Of course, we started discussing this while sitting at Ashley's choir concert around 8pm the night before her birthday.  Fortunately, she decided to make every kid in her class a Rainbow Loom bracelet using her new loom.  Phew!  Saved us a frantic run to the store at 9pm at night!

Here are some of the 24 bracelets she made.  We
stretched them around a cup so they would
keep their shape.

Hot chocolate and powdered donuts with a long candle
for a birthday breakfast.

After a fun day of school, which included the Fun Run, she came home for a family celebration.  She was dying to open her presents, but we told her she had to wait until Daddy got home.  You can imaging how happy she was he came home early that day!  She got a some cute Toms shoes, 2 new outfits for her American Girl dolls, Rainbow Loom bands, and an iTunes gift card.  She was a happy gal.

Paige couldn't decide what she wanted for her birthday dinner.  She did not want to go to a restaurant, but she was torn between Hawaiian haystacks and crepes.  I came up with the perfect solution and suggested we have both---haystacks for dinner and crepes for dessert.  This summer, Kelley gave me a food magazine that featured a "crepe cake."  Now was the perfect opportunity to give it a try and make Paige a crepe birthday cake.  It turned out great.  I stacked a bunch of crepes together layered with pastry cream and raspberry freezer jam.  It was delicious.  Definitely have to make that again.

Happy Birthday Paige!  You are now in the double digits!  The BIG TEN baby!

Pumpkin Math

I got to join Paige's class for a "Pumpkin Math" activity.  Parents are invited to bring a pumpkin to class and work with the kids on math activities.  My group included Paige and two of her best friends.  First we had to weigh our pumpkin.  It was an even 10 pounds.  Then we recorded the weights of the other pumpkins and calculated how much they cost.

Then the fun part came.  We cut open the pumpkin and estimated how many seeds were inside.  The next step was to actually count every seed in the pumpkin.  This can take a while but the girls did a great job scooping out all the seeds and coming up with strategy for counting.  

We did a few other math problems then we got to carve the pumpkin.  Funny thing, this year because Ashley and Paige painted pumpkins, I thought I got out of carving.  But no!  I had to carve anyway.  Oh, well!  At least it was only one.

Boosterthon Fun Run

So the big thing around here now is the Boosterthon Fun Run School Fundraiser.  It's basically a company that comes to the local elementary schools and runs a nine day program that culminates in a Fun Run for the kids.  The kids are supposed to collect pledges from people willing to sponsor their run.  People can pledge a certain amount per lap or give a flat donation.

Because I am a PTA officer at our school, I was pretty involved with the Fun Run.  Of course, it wasn't too bad because Boosterthon sends a team of 3 people to your school and they do most of the work.  This aspect is very appealing to PTA volunteers who are always overwhelmed planning and executing huge events and activities.  I basically had to attend a few meetings and put up posters and bulletin boards.

Anyway, the kids were very, very excited about the Fun Run, Paige included.  She got some pledges from some supportive and generous family members.  Thank you so much!!!

Here are some pictures from the kick-off pep rally.  They do a great job getting the kids excited and involved.

After a week of team huddles and activities the Fun Run arrived.  The weather forecast predicted pouring rain, but fortunately it held off until the evening!  Parents were invited to come cheer their kids on.  They even gave us noise making clappers.  Boosterthon has a huge sound system and inflatable tunnel.  Basically, every class is announced and then they come running through the tunnel--it certainly lends to the excitement.  It was pretty cold, but the kids, who ran a little over 2 miles, felt fine.  The run was very well organized, with water stations, music and certain themes for each lap - such as pretend your in canoe and row yourself around or the superhero lap, put your arms up and fly!  The Fun Run was on October 30th, Paige's favorite lap was the Happy Birthday Lap.  She got called up, her birthday was announced and all the runners shouted, "Happy Birthday Paige!"

My two favorite runners!

Each kid was given a free t-shirt to wear during the run.  On the back of the t-shirt was a track with numbered spaces.  Each time a child finished a lap, their teacher would be there with a magic marker to mark off a space and this was how they kept track of how many laps every kid ran.

I'm sure that school PTA's can organize something like this on their own (pretty sure Dave's sister, Katie has done it.)  But honestly, its a big project and a lot of work and Boosterthon amps it up and has a whole character and fitness program that goes along with it, which makes it worth it to have them do it for us.

Our Fun Run was a huge success!  We earned over $23,000!  Wow!  We also collected over 95% of our pledges on the first request, that's probably a record.