More Birthday Prep

I thought we had been doing so well with Keree sleeping in till 7a or later. I mean it's been almost 2 weeks of all that extra sleep. I was in denial the last 3 days thinking that it was just a fluke because her allergies are hay-wire because of the weather change. But this morning, I faced the fact that we are back to super early morning wake-ups. I don't think I would have been so upset over the sleep but in the last week, I've gotten use to working in to the wee hours and I really appreciate even that extra half-hour of sleep. This morning, I was lucky enough that my Mom made Keree breakfast because unlike most every night, I didn't have Keree's clothes laid out. So as I searched her closet for something to wear in this cold (it's was 30 this morning)/warm (it reached 67 this afternoon) snap, Keree happily crunched on cereal. We headed to school and as now has become usual, only the Asst Teacher acknowledges Keree. I mean, I keep trying to figure out why the Main Teacher is being such a witch. Keree says she won't speak to her at all during class. It's one thing to be mad at my Mom and I because of the comment my Mom made at parent-teacher conference but you don't take it out on the kid. And then I was thinking maybe she's not talking to Keree because we didn't buy her a present for her baby. But hey, we did give her a Christmas ornament and we never did get a Thank you card from her for that either. Sorry, it's just really bugging me. Otherwise, while Keree was in school, I did a little running. I picked up a few more things for the boy treat bags because they seemed to be getting jipped a little compared to the girls bags. After I got home, I worked on printing up the last of the birthday stuff before heading to pick Keree up. We usually meet with the Homeschool teacher today but she never did call. In my experience so far, if they don't call, they don't show up. Because of this, we headed home instead of to the library. A little after 11a, my phone rings and it's the Homeschool teacher. She goes "I'm at the library, where are you?" Umm, you didn't call, so I assumed you won't show up and I'm not going to waste gas with gas prices reaching almost $3.25 a gallon. She was miffed but I really don't care. Keree is way above their current curriculum and though they promised me that they would advance the curriculum, they haven't. The only reason we are still participating is because Keree does enjoy it. Keree did get to play outside for a short time, she enjoyed riding her bike up and down the sidewalk before we headed inside. Our afternoon and into the evening was filled with Birthday preparations. I figured out that this party is costing me around $157 but you also have to consider that so far we have over 52 confirmed people being there. So that's about $3 a person. Which in the ground scheme, that's pretty cheap. I was hoping for around $1.50 a person but I did splurge on a couple of things that I thought was cool like Tangled candy and all of the girls are getting a handful of bows made by me. Which I guess if I did my calculations on how much they actually cost me to make instead of the price I charge, I would probably be close to $2 a person. We ended our evening by calling my Brother. He's coming in this weekend for Keree's birthday. The main reason I called was to remind him to bring his camera (also good to have another person taking pics) and my Dad's will (since I can't find my copy anywhere). Of course, Keree had to get on the phone and talk also. She was telling him all about the crown she made for KittyKitty. Which cracked me up because up until now, Keree says Kitty Kitty is her son but since he was wearing a princess crown, he is now a girl. I know a few people who wish it was that easy to change your gender. I'm off to bed, hoping she'll sleep in but knowing more than likely I'll be up hours before the sun.

RSVP deadline

This morning Keree was up before 5a. I hate waking up before the sun, I tried to convince her to sleep a little longer but no luck. Then when it was time to get dressed and go to school, she grabs her cover and goes "I'm tired." Of course in my infinite Mom wisdom, I go, "too bad, get up now, you know you should have went back to sleep when I told you too." Yep, I was grumpy and tired. I dropped Keree off at school and then did some birthday running. I decided to peruse the Valentine's day clearance to see what I could find for the treat bags. I was surprised that I did find a few things but then I decided to venture into the Birthday aisle. I was shocked to find, they actually had Tangled plates, cups and plates (I went with plain white and pink/yellow/green napkins because it was cheaper). There was nothing else Tangled except on the bottom shelf was a bag of candy. It was to be used to fill a pinata but everything was branded with Tangled, Rapunzel, Flynn, Pascal and Maximus. I was so excited and then I spotted the price. WOW! Now so far, I've been super frugal with the whole party. Everything I have bought besides the cakes and drinks were on super clearance. The rest of the stuff, I've been handmaking to put the personalized touches on everything. So I did it, I bought a bag of Tangled candy for $6. In the grand scheme, it's not that bad, each piece of candy is worth 14 cents and seeing Keree's face when she saw the bag of Tangled candy. Well, it was way worth the 600 pennies. After picking Keree up from school, we headed home. Since it was so gorgeous, I decided to open up the garage and get Keree's bike out. She was giddy with excitement, I'm not sure how many times she went up and down the sidewalk but eventually she stopped because she said her foot hurt. I'm know this cold weather has been rough on her polio because she's just not using her leg as much as she does when it's warm. During the winter, I can stretch her foot and we can exercise but it's just not as good as being outside and playing all day. Once we headed inside, of course we worked on Birthday stuff. I really wasn't in the mood, so I wasn't being that productive. Today was also the RSVP deadline. So far we have 23 kids and 26 adults, for a grand total of 49. We also have 16 kids we haven't heard from so don't know if they will show up or not. Now, I did decide to make up a few extra bags of treats. The extra bags don't have hardly anything in them but hey at least they are getting something. Now those who RSVP'd there bags are packed with tons and tons of fun goodies and treats. Otherwise, we ended our evening with Wednesday night tv. Keree was so excited to see baby Lily's birthday on Modern family tonight because "that means we were both born in February and we were both born in Vietnam." Oh and I almost forgot today Keree got her Valentine's day card from her YeYe and Great-Great. Inside the card was a red balloon, which she enjoyed so much blowing it up and then letting the air out.

Happy Friend Day

Oh, I mean Happy Valentine's day. Keree's school is a little crazy and they don't believe in Valentine's day, so they call it Friend day. Yet, they exchange a single Valentine with another child in the school. I have to say I'm a little sad that there is no making valentine day cards, making treats or even a school party. I have to say I'm looking forward to her trying at least Kindergarten in a public school just for the parties. Anyway, it was the first day back for the Main Teacher from maternity leave. When we walked in, Keree looked at me and whispered "there's the main teacher" and she grabbed onto my leg. I told her that it was ok, how fun that the main teacher was back but she was still apprehensive about me leaving. I know she would be ok because Asst Teacher was there and of course I knew they had their Valentine, I mean Friend day cards to find. Each child gets to hide their Friend card they make (Keree hid hers in the puzzle rack). Then they go into a different classroom and search for a Friend card. Which ever one you find, that is your card. Keree's card was from a little girl in the red room. Since I got my errands done early, I decided to pick Keree up early from school just because I could. When we got home, we took a few pictures outside (can't believe it's in the 50's, it's so warm). My Mom and I then gave Keree her Valentine's day presents from us and she gave us the heart shaped cards she made at school. We headed inside for a short time and I got to work on Keree's Valentine's Muffin tin. In the first cup, I tried to make some cherry tomato hearts, needless to say they didn't work out. Then next cup is cherry yogurt, again I tried to make a heart shape with the sprinkles but when it didn't work, I just added more sprinkles. By the way, I love these sprinkles. When I was in the Netherlands, anytime breakfast was served, so were the sprinkles. You place them on buttered toast. They are so flavorful and I was so thankful to have found them at Jungle Jims, the last time I was visiting my Brother. In the next cup is some Star fruit. This is the first time we had tried it and it was so good. We will be buying it again. In the start of the second row, the first cup holds some venison beef sticks. My plan was to make them into hearts but when that didn't happen, I just tossed them in there. The second cup is a hunk of muenster cheese, that I shaped into a heart. I thought for sure I had a heart shaped cutter but no such luck, so free hand it was. The final cup is some cherries. Keree loves cherries and they are red, so they were perfect for Valentine's day. After Keree devoured her entire tin, she laid down for a nap. While she was napping, I worked on stuff for her Birthday. Which is a whole 'nother post of why I feel I need to over-achieve when it comes to Keree's Birthday parties but I am do some awesome things. After she got up, we made a few calls and wished family Happy Valentine's day. Then it was off to cheerleading practice. I have to say I've had some really mixed feelings with this league. Because of that, I'm seriously considering letting her start in Competition Cheerleading next year. The only reason I've held off before now is because of the financial aspects of it. But I also know how incredible happy it would make her....Decisions, Decisions.

Ruined Head

Our day was pretty plain and lazy. It was super cold yet again, so we spent the majority of our day in our pajamas. Heck, I didn't even get the camera out the entire time. I spent my afternoon and evening working on stuff for Keree's birthday party which is next Saturday (her actual birthday is on the 28th). So while I was working on some of the stuff on the computer, Keree was standing in her chair right next to me. She asked me when was her party and I say "It's on Sunday." I stop and pause and go "that's not right, I mean Saturday. Your party is on Saturday." Keree looks at me with pity, starts patting my head and goes "that's ok Momma, I know you ruined your brain a long time ago." Oh, my dear, sweet daughter.

Start of a new week

Keree didn't want to get up this morning and neither did I but since it's been over a week since she was at school, I decided we really needed to get up and go. When we got there, everyone was happy to see her back. Which I found funny because they had been out for 3 days because of the weather and we only missed one day because of her Doctor's appointments. After stuffing her coat in her backpack (a new drop-off rule), I helped her climb up the steps to the sink and wash her hands. While she was at school, I headed home to work on a few things. I also had to get an order sent. When I picked Keree up, the summary said that the Assistant Teacher weighed the children and the kids tried to guess how much they weighed before they stepped on the scale. The Asst. Teacher told me that when Keree stepped on the scale, she was too light and it refused to register her weight. So after the teacher checking to see if it was working. They devised a plan to weigh Keree. The Asst Teacher picked up Keree and then they both stepped on the scale. They then subtracted the Asst Teacher weight and came up with Keree's. She weighed 25 lbs and she weighs less than everyone in her class. Which actually surprised the Teacher's because there is another little girl who is Asian in her class and she was 5lbs heavier than Keree and that little girl has been sick for almost a month. Once we had lunch, Keree took a short nap and then it was time for Cheer practice. Of course, right before we headed out it started to snow. I was so thankful they didn't cancel it because they have only had 2 practice (we missed one during my Grandma's death) and this was practice #3. They learned 4 new cheers and 2 new chants. They decided that at this weeks game all the little ones will stand in the back. Seriously, I mean you can see from the picture that Keree's a good foot or more shorter than the rest of the girls. How am I even going to see my daughter during the game on Saturday? After practice was finished, Keree then handed out birthday invitation to all the girls on her squad. It was so adorable seeing her pass them out and I really wish I would have thought about snapping a picture of it. Once we got home, Keree was ready for bed and I worked on the computer till it was later than I expected. I'm really starting to think that having a computer in the bedroom isn't a good thing because I want to stay up.

Super Bowl Sunday

I woke up this morning, super excited. Of course in my house, I'm the only one who was thrilled that today was the Super Bowl. Yes, I wish my hometown team would have been one of the teams playing but instead I was just as excited to watch the Packers and Steelers. I have to say I was torn, I have loved the Packers for as long as I can remember (I even own a cheese wedge hat and yes I do sometime wear it) but the Steelers had also over the years grabbed a piece of my heart. And as long as they weren't playing my Team, I rooted for them. So I decided I would be happy with whoever won. Now my Mom, there was no way she was going to watch the game and so she went upstairs to work. But Keree, she was old enough to watch the game this year with me and she did. Now I did occasionally flip up to animal planet and let her watch a few seconds of the Puppy bowl and because of her love of kittys, we did watch the Kitty Half-time show. But all in all, she watched the game, she asked questions and I'm thinking next year, she'll be just as excited as me for the Super Bowl. Now every year, we usually have a host of dips and chips to eat for lunch and dinner but this year I decided I wanted pizza. So Keree and I made a pizza and then decided to make a dessert pizza to enjoy during the game. I gotta say our s'mores pizza was awesome. We made a basic pizza crust, I then mixed a half-stick of butter, graham crackers and a little brown sugar together and spread it on the crust. I then added chocolate chips, which since I didn't have enough added a few cherry chips too. Then topped it all off with mini-marshmallows. Baked at 425 and presto! It was so good, a little sweeter than I really wanted but it was nice and ooeey and gooey. After we watched the Packers win the Super bowl and the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. We finished our evening by watching Cars before heading to bed.

Snow Again

This morning, we woke to it snowing, yet again. The weather people last night said it would be maybe nothing to a dusting. Well when I opened my eyes and checked outside, we already had 7" and it was still snowing heavily. Keree spent her morning watching Saturday morning cartoons and I watched the snow fall outside the window. I was pretty sure that they would be calling off the games today and it took till almost 945am for the Coach to call and say it was canceled. I told her that I had already assumed it was because how much snow we had and how it hadn't stopped. What I didn't say was and you guys cancel even at the mention of bad weather, when it's still perfectly nice outside. Needless to say, it continued to snow all day. We pretty much stayed in our pajamas all day long. We watched movies, worked in some workbooks, read a few books and just relaxed. Heck, I didn't even take any pictures today. Even though I enjoyed today getting to cuddle with my Keree, I really am looking forward to some warmer weather.