Lorelai's PJ Party

My little baby girl Lorelai is six years old now! Also, I've been a mother for 6 years already. How time flies.

Our big gift to Lorelai this year was a new bicycle...

I had searched for a bike at the last community yard sale, but couldn't find a new one. However, one family had an old bike frame that they gave us for free! A few trips to the store later, we had a set of tires, a kickstand, and a new seat & handlebars.

As you can see, the bike is quite sturdy, but the parts don't match each other all that well. We have christened it "Franken-Bike," due to its mongrel nature. Lorelai loves it anyway!
On the night of Aug. 12th, we had a small family affair with cake, ice cream, and presents. Lorelai got several presents she really enjoyed, including this lovely lightsaber...

...and a dinosaur encyclopedia! With just this one book, Grandma & Grandma Barrett have transformed Lorelai's career ambitions. Now, instead of a screenwriter, she wants to be a paleontologist!!

The next day, it was party time! Lorelai had been bugging me since January--literally--for a "pajama movie party." So finally, this summer, I thought, "Why not? She hasn't had a party since she was three, and she's been remarkably consistent in her request." So I searched online for a few ideas, and got everything ready.

Everyone showed up in their pajamas and brought their sleeping bags too. We piled everyone into the living room and put on a movie, while a friend's mother made balloon animals for everyone.

Throughout the movie, we had craft time; I bought fabric markers & paint, as well as a few large decorative stamps. Then all the kids (including Lorelai) were able to decorate their own pillowcases to take home!

Ehh, it's not fine art...but they had lots of fun doing it! We also had a large brunch for everyone...

...complete with waffles, eggs, sausages, juice...the whole works!! It was a tasty (and messy) affair.
And of course, no birthday party (at least around here) is complete without a pinata...

The kids all had a great time beating it into submission, then scrambling for the candy afterwards:

As the party wound to a close, it was time to open presents:

including this game of Twister, which the girls are all thrilled to own!!

Lorelai also got lots of art supplies, some jewelry kits, and a glow-in-the-dark art pack (complete with laser pen!). After the party was done, we crashed pretty hard; I don't think any of us left the house for the remainder of that day. I had lots of fun planning Lorelai's party, but I am also glad I don't have to do another birthday party again for a while...it takes a lot out of you! I am really glad, though, that my eldest child (along with the rest of us) had such a great time.

First Day of (Pre)School

Believe it or not, I have always been afraid of teaching children...usually because I think there are many many people out there who could do a better job than myself, and enjoy it more to boot. And yet, this last Tuesday, August 9, 2011, there I was...getting my house ready for Celeste's first day of preschool.


 
It's still two more years until Celeste starts kindergarten, and boy, is she going to be bored by the time that blessed day finally comes. She's already pretty advanced for her age socially--it must come from playing with older kids so often. So, I decided that it would be good for her if we could get her started in preschool. This year, we're participating in a co-op preschool; there are 6 kids and their moms are all on teaching rotation. Guess who drew the first teaching spot?

That's right...yours truly. Plus, I just used that segue as a transparent excuse to post a picture of my new, shorter haircut. I'm loving it! But back to preschool...

As you can see by the topmost picture, each kid had their own little "mat" upon which to sit for the opening & closing segments of preschool. In the opening segment, we do a roll call, check our calendar, say the Pledge of Allegiance, and sing a couple of "getting to know you" songs. After that, it was time for the craft.

We used tempura paint to decorate each child's tote bag (another mom had generously stitched each child's name onto their tote bag). We poured the paint into paper plates, then had each child make a colored handprint on their bag. Then everybody used colored sponges in our preschool craft bin to make a variety of cute designs on the rest of the bag.

Neat! Also, not my idea, I must add...see the previous blog entry regarding my lack of craft skills! We left the bags to dry off while the kids had snacks & played upstairs. Why don't I have any pictures of the kids themselves, you may ask? Well, because I was trying to be a good teacher and pay attention to the kids, not follow them everywhere with a camera.

All that was Tuesday...Thursday was more of the same, except that the craft was good old fashioned coloring pages, and the kids made each other cry a few times (and I made one kid cry as well...see what I mean? I'm not the most patient teacher). We all survived, though, and lived to see another day.

Needless to say, it was a learning experience for both me and the kids. I have already thought of several ways I can do this "teaching" thing better when my turn comes around again in late September. I know the kids will get more comfortable with this as well...it will just take some time. Celeste still had fun, though, so I suppose that's the most important thing for now. In the meantime, I will work on building up my patience, enthusiasm, and sweet craft-making skills. My theme next time is "trains"--does anybody have a good train craft for preschoolers? Inquiring minds want to know!

This Is How I Painted A Dresser

I am not a "crafty" person. Whenever a Relief Society "Super Saturday" event rolls around (in other words, an hours-long arts & crafts marathon for women of the LDS Church), I make plans to be elsewhere. When it's craft time at school, church, wherever...my eyes start to glaze over and my interest wanes.

However...I've discovered that sometimes, I can handle projects if they're completely on my terms. Does this mean they'll turn out well? Maybe, maybe not...but at least I am working with my hands, creating "stuff" that will benefit my family and my home!

This is a long way of introducing my most recent home-improvement project: getting a clothes dresser for Lorelai & Celeste's room. Up until now, our children haven't ever used clothes dressers; instead, we've been buying cheap plastic storage bins from Target & stacking them in our closets, like so:

The brown-bags up top are also full of clothes; as you can see my "system" is a bit haphazard! Our reasons for using the storage bins were mostly space-related; we lived in an apartment for several years, and for a while, all three girls were sharing a bedroom in our rental home. However, we have our own (much bigger!) house now. In addition, our girls are getting bigger, and Lorelai's clothes in particular don't fit well in the storage bins anymore. So, it was time to get a dresser!

I found a used wood dresser at the Rancho Sahuarita community-wide yard sale in June. It was an older dresser, but fairly sturdy and roomy; best of all, it would fit perfectly into the girls' closet (all 4 of our bedrooms have walk-in closets; yay!). However, the dresser was in desperate need of a new paint job:

In addition, it had lots of rough/chipped edges:

So, I squared my shoulders, and declared I would sand & paint the thing MYSELF! Thus began my first foray into furniture renovation.

When I asked the girls what color they wanted their dresser to be, they both insisted, "Fire-engine red!" Hmmm...in a pink bedroom? Oh well, it was worth a try. After all, since this dresser would be spending most of its time in their closet, I figured the color wasn't a matter of life and death.

 

First, via the suggestions of other trusted homemakers, I bought some spray paint, which they assured me would work well on wood. I also bought primer, to smooth out the weathered textures of the drawers.

Finally, I bought some sandpaper, and spent the first day or so rubbing it vigorously along the edges of the dresser, and the edges of each individual drawer. I did most of the sanding up in our spare bedroom, which is currently uninhabited.

I actually primed & painted the dresser itself inside the spare bedroom:

However, it was pretty messy; even with a tarp down, there were paint particles floating all around the room. Even with a window open, I was worried everything in the room would take on a permanent greyish/reddish tinge. So I decided to move the rest of the operation out to our garage:

Once I moved the drawers downstairs, I sprayed them all with primer...

 ...and let them sit overnight to dry off.

 The following day, I sprayed all the drawers red...

...and once again, let them sit in the garage to dry.

This was an important step, since I probably "over-painted" the drawers (I told you I'm not very crafty; this first try was bound to be full of missteps):

Look at all the "ripples" of unevenly applied paint! I got too enthusiastic at times, during my spraying:

There were also lots of drips along the sides. I rationalized that most of the time, nobody would be looking for things like that once the dresser was in use. I hope I was right about that; if not, does anyone out there with more experience than me want to tell me how to avoid this problem in the future?

After everything was completely dry, we reassembled the dresser and moved it into the girls' closet:

Just a couple more quick touch-ups, and then...voila! A big, bright new dresser for the girls...and it holds lots more clothes than those old storage bins ever did. The only slight hiccup I've noticed so far is that occasionally, an article of clothing will come out of the drawer with a slight red smear across it. Yikes! On those occasions, I've found that the smear vanishes quickly with just a little rubbing. I hope this is something that will eventually cease over time, as the paint "settles"--if not, can anyone tell me what I can to to prevent it from happening?

So...my first big renovation project. All told, I used up about two spray-cans of primer, and two and a half cans of paint. It was work, but the "fun" kind. Maybe I will get the itch to do this again, and go seeking another dresser for Aurora's room sometime soon!

What A Loong Month July Was...

(I am trying to follow the lead of other bloggers and blog more often, with shorter blogs. We'll see how long this trend continues. Hopefully it will be easier to do this than to upload the equivalent of a photo album each time I make a blog post).

Anyway, for your amusement...a piece of performance art by my youngest child. I call it "You Look Just Like I Feel":

It was a busy July. Since the last time I wrote, we have spent most of our time adjusting to the many changes in our lives. Lorelai seems to really enjoy 1st grade so far. She loves her new teacher, and has lots of friends in her class from last year. Lorelai (and Mommy) are going to have to get used to the new load of homework, and coping with new & terrible things like spelling tests and handwriting practice. Lorelai's reading comprehension is pretty high for her age, but spelling & writing will be our next big hurdles; well, that and mathematics---the bane of our entire household.

So far, Nathan is enjoying his new job with PAG. His commute is about 10-12 minutes longer than it used to be, which means our gasoline bill may be going up. He also has to pay for parking in downtown Tucson (although he's mostly reimbursed by PAG for that). As far as health coverage goes, our family is venturing into the realm of HSAs (health savings accounts) for the first time. We'll see how it works out for us.

Otherwise, Nate's enjoying his new coworkers; he feels like he has a lot in common with many of them. Some of the projects to which he's assigned require new skills and knowledge that he's just beginning to apply; however, his supervisors are confident in his ability to succeed...and so am I, for that matter! Day by day he is growing more confident and comfortable.

As for myself, it has been a pretty crazy few weeks, including two Bishop's Council meetings, two presidency meetings, and an orientation with the Stake Primary presidency. There have also been many hours poring over spreadsheets and rosters, and many more phone calls to get substitute teachers. There has also been one Sharing Time taught by me, and two Sundays in which we are at church until 6:30pm, trying to keep all the Primary children calm & reverent. Luckily, most of the empty teacher positions have been filled, and the ward is starting to right itself after the split. Maybe I can survive this "Primary president" gig...as long as I get acclimated to more meetings.

In August, my piano students start coming in the afternoons, so that time of day will be pretty packed. I also have a birthday party to plan; Lorelai has been insisting on a "pajama/movie" birthday party since January, so I finally gave in and let her invite several friends over for a 6-year-old birthday bash. I'm also teaching the first week of Celeste's co-op preschool next week. My expectations are low; I expect most of the kids to be pretty wiggly and inattentive this first week. Hopefully I can keep them entertained for the full amount of time! And finally, Lorelai and Celeste are both starting their dance classes next week; it will be fun to see them twirling around the house!