Really?!

Ben came home with a completely unexpected birthday invitation. There is a boy in his class that he has talked about before, but has never gotten together with outside of school. I've never met this boy or his parents.

This was the gist of the invitation:

"Please join us in celebrating (boy's name) birthday by spending the weekend at our family cabin. We will be leaving around 4:30 on Friday and returning around 1:00 on Sunday. Our cabin is a 2 1/2 hour drive from home. (Mentions town in WI where cabin is located, but no address)"

Cell phone numbers listed.

Hmm, let me think about this for a half a second. NO! NO! NO! My goodness, what kind of a parent would I be to send my son away for the weekend, FAR away, with a family I've never met before and who has never met my son?!

I would imagine everything would be just fine, but that's not a gamble I'm willing to take.

Ben initially said he wanted to go, but when I reminded him that I've had to pick him up from sleepovers of boys we do know, and that live a mile from our house, he decided on his own that he wasn't comfortable with this arrangement.

Phew...no fighting him and convincing him about our decision on this one.

Why Do You Love Matt?

Matt is 7 today! Rather than writing a birthday post that would be very similar to last year's , I decided to ask Brian, Ben, Adam and myself this question.

What is something that you love about Matt?

Adam: "I love it when he talks nice to me and gives me hugs."

Ben: "It's easy to make him laugh. He loves it when I say 'undergarments'."

Me: "I love how genuinely concerned about others he can be!"

Brian: "I love how he loves to snuggle with me!"

How about you? What is something you love about our birthday boy?!

Happy Birthday, Matt! You are loved by many!

Olympics

We are Olympic junkies around here. All of us like to watch just about any and every event that's on. It started out tragically and we had to help the boys understand what had happened.

On a very different Olympic note, tonight, while watching pairs figure skating, this was the conversation with Adam:

Adam: "When I grow up I want to be a finger dancer."

Me: "A finger dancer?"

Adam: "Yes!"

Me: "Why do you want to be a finger dancer?"

Adam: "Because they are beautiful."

I'll have to look through the community ed catalog to see when they offer finger dancing lessons for 3 year olds.

100th Day

As a 5th grade teacher, I don't recognize the 100th day of school. Most of my students wouldn't care, and would probably roll their eyes if I asked them to wear a piece of clothing with 100 items on it. Then again, 5th graders are 10-11 years old, maybe they'd love it!

Well, to first graders, the 100th day is a BIG deal! They bring in a collection of 100 items, which they are encouraged to wear. Yes, wear. How do you wear 100 of anything? When Ben was in first grade he took a party hat and stuck 100 stars all over it. Matt didn't want to do that because the chin strap would bug him.

We came up with this instead.

Looks kind of "blingy", don't you think?

Happy Valentine's Day

We don't usually make too big a deal out of Valentine's day. We give the boys a little heart tin with some treats in it, and that's about it. This year, Brian decided to surprise me a couple of days early with a decorated kitchen. I walked in to a sea of helium heart balloons, pink/white/red streamers, and a big banner that said "Happy Valentine's Day". I'm not sure who was more excited about the surprise, Brian or the boys. It was very sweet.

We only had to make one Valentine box this year. Matt's class all made theirs at school out of a bag (thank you, Mrs. Heuser!), and Ben decided to make his look like an IPod. Simple and quick!

Off to eat more chocolate!

Moldy Cheese - Take 2

About 3 1/2 weeks ago, Ben started his "What Cheese Grows Mold the Fastest" science fair project. He carefully measured out 10 g of various cheeses, labeled paper plates and put them in our bathroom to begin growing mold. We still don't have mold. After talking to the science fair guru at my school, I realized that we probably just dried out the cheese because we left it uncovered. Perhaps if I cooked more I would have known this.

Sooooo, last night we sliced off more cheese, labeled baggies and put the cheese inside, and hopefully they'll start growing mold. Fast.

Please pray for mold. Soon. We need to move forward with this science project.

Mid-Life Crises

We have a couple of mid-life crises happening at our house.

One by itself isn't cheap. Two gets a bit ridiculous.
$200 dollars later, this is the damage we did today.

Her Splurge: 8.15.10


His Splurge: 10.03.10

Yes, he signed up for all 26.2 miles.


I guess it could have been worse. It could have been a Porsche and Botox.