The Black Family: December 2017

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Sometimes a Mom’s Got to do what a mom’s got to do

Prepping Thanksgiving dinner and all my children think they need to talk to me at once. I solved it (little bit of packing tape over their mouths goes a long way!)

Symbiotic Relationship??

The tortoise eats all the leaves off my plants and the puppy chews all the leftover branches. It might be a symbiotic relationship for them, but its a parasitic one for me and all of my bushes!!

Thanksgiving Friendship Feast

We had a wonderful Friendship Feast at preschool. We all brought our favorite snacks tons hare, discussed what we're thankful for and feasted together.

Family Pictures

We ran out of time to get family pictures done, so we had a neighbor snap a quick picture for our Christmas Cards. This will just have to be our family picture for the year.

First TBall Game

Collin has been so excited for the season to start. He loves everything about baseball, hitting, catching, running...EVERYTHING!

He's been asking for weeks if it was time for TBall to start and FINALLY it was!

Book Fair Helper

Collin and I worked the school's Book Fair all week. He was such a trooper spending a good chunk of every day working the book fair. He did get to man our prize wheel which he really did enjoy.

Interviewing Collin

Collin was our Student of the Week at preschool this past week and we got to interview him, learn all about his likes and dislikes, and created a book all about Collin!

Our neighborhood gets together and does a variety of service projects. We were lucky enough to be included on a backpack project for Homeless people. We stuffed them full of hygiene products, snacks, and clothing. We stuffed over 100 backpacks!

Tolmachoff Farms Field Trip

Probably one of my last times to Tolmachoff Farms with our preschool field trips. It is such a fun place to go, the kids are all in heaven learning about the farm.

We got to pick vegetables.

We got to have a classroom in the corn and go through the corn maze.

We got to ride the train and play on the farm themed playground.

What a BLAST!

All About Perspective

I went out for a walk early one morning. As I walked in one direction, it looked all dark and gloomy, but when I turned around, it was the most glorious sunrise. So beautiful. It really hit me that it depends on what direction you are looking whether you see and focus on the gloom, or whether you see the glorious sun coming up over the horizon. It's all a matter of perspective.

Cupcake Wars Birthday Party

Our little Izzy-Biz turned 11 and decided to have a Cupcake Wars Birthday Party.

There were 4 rounds each with a theme. The girls would decorate a cupcake and then vote on their favorite (without voting for their own). Each round had a winner. We had a variety of frostings and toppings for them to decorate with.

Work in progress.

Creating a masterpiece.

Our Under the Sea winner.

Our creations.

What a group!

Taking home with winners.

Dad's Buddy

After all the crazy kids go to bed, Wicket can finally relax with Dad on the recliner and take a nap.

First Bath

This guy hasn't finished his vaccinations so he can't go to the groomers yet. But he has 4 willing groomers--so he got his first bath. He's the cutest drowned rat we've ever seen!

Visitors

Collin and Kimmy went outside to play with the puppy, and of course left the door open. Next thing I know, Donnie is traipsing across my family room floor. Just dropping by for a visit.

Pumpkin Project

Bubba's Homework project for the month of October was pumpkin exploration. He had to estimate weight, height, seed count, etc. and then compare two different pumpkins. He wrote up the tables and graphs and presented it all to his class.

Newest Addition: Wicket

So this happened...we finally got a PUPPY! We found the cutest Shitzhu-Poodle Mix and even Shayne couldn't turn him down. We showed up at home with a puppy in tow, and the kids were ECSTATIC! We named him Wicket (an Ewok on Star Wars) and he's won everyone's heart. He's a total maniac, completely puppy, has accidents every single day, multiple times a day, and we are still in love!

Activity Days: Wizard of Oz

Our Activity Day group got to go watch Valley Vista High School put on the Wizard of Oz. What a fun day!

First Softball Game

Izzy has been pretty nervous for this season. It's the first season that Dad isn't her coach, it's the first season that she has to participate in the draft, and it's the first season that her best friend isn't playing with her. She was very nervous to play, but was brave and went ahead anyways.

Shayne said he'd be fine as long as she didn't get one coach--Coach Carlos. Shayne couldn't stand the guy. He's coached against him a couple times and it was pretty brutal.

Guess who drafted Izzy...Coach Carlos. Shayne was upset, and Rich (her other old coach) told her that she'd hate hime as a coach, that he's horrible. So, Izzy was even less excited to start this season. She and I went to her first practice and she was a ball of nerves. By the end of practice, she decided that she didn't like him at all. However, I had a different view. I hadn't coached against him or had any background experience with him, so I wanted to give him a decent try. After the first practice, he chatted with the girls about how he drafted each one specifically because the team needed their skills, that he would help them become the best player he could, that they would work as a team, and that they would have a lot of fun! I was impressed with him, he was serious, and hard core, and really seemed like he knew what he was doing.

The second and third practice were hard for Izzy as well. He is a serious coach, doesn't take nonsense, expects the girls to work hard, and was generally different from her coaches before. But I saw marked improvement in Izzy's skills just in three practices, I was liking Coach Carlos more and more.

We finally got to Izzy's first game, and her team ROCKED it! They played so well together! They worked together as a team and used the skills and plays taught during the practices. Izzy slowly warmed up to his coaching methods, fell in love with the girls on her team, and ended up having a BLAST playing softball this season! Coach Carlos has been a GREAT coach and Izzy is really improving this season.