Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Today was Peanut's last day of school prior to her Thanksgiving break.  She was so excited for "the feast," as it had been referred to all week prior.  They didn't even have to bring lunches today, so it was quite the big deal.  Just ask our 6 year old daughter.

Here she is with her besties.  Ha, ha!  Although, she has never referred to these girls as that, from the way I hear Peanut's tales from school and recess, these three are inseparable and I am so thankful she has made such good little friends just a few months into the year!  

All the children made Pilgrim hats and they did a few recitations and songs for the mommies and daddies in attendance.
 
This is mommy's favorite {a new one for me}:

The turkey is a funny bird
Its head goes bobble-bobble;
And all he knows is just one word...
And that is
GOBBLE-GOBBLE-GOBBLE!

And an old favorite:

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.  Psalm 118:1 

 

Many blessings to each of your families this Thanksgiving.  

 

The Theater

About a year and a half ago, we began a new tradition with our little Peanut--we have been taking her to plays.  

One of my closest friends (her mom matched up the Hubs and I) has a daughter (our flower girl!) that is involved in a Christian theater arts group and I have taken the Peanut to several of their productions.  Of course this is an "amateur" arts group, but I seriously think they put on some really great performances.  Although I've only seen three of them, I have loved each and every one! 

Last year we saw The Little Princess.  Just an FYI, this was the first book that I never finished as a young, avid reader--I thought the story was so sad and depressing--I just hated it as a little girl.  But their performance of it made me love the play, so I really think that says something. 

Earlier this year we saw The Little Mermaid, Jr.   Need I say more.....I mean really, what's not to love??!?  Great characters, great music, great costumes......

And just this past weekend we were able to go see our former flower girl starring as Miss Hannigan in Annie, Jr.  She did SO good!  And this time we were finally able to work it out so the Hubs could come with us.  There might have been some initial arm twisting.  In the end though, I think he had a really good time. 

This is actually how we were able to get the Peanut into her voice lessons.  Her instructor advertises in the play's programs and since the Peanut has always been such a little singer around the house, I thought why not put her in voice lessons?  I mean, I certainly can't instruct her in that area, so why not have a professional do it one day a week?

Anyhow, we had a great time and we can't wait for the next one!

And just like that, the season is over

The season was just eight short weeks and just like that, it's over.  I think the Peanut enjoyed herself playing soccer, but she has some mixed emotions to be sure.  She told me more than once today that she was sad that it was over.  But then when I inferred that she would play again next year, she didn't seem too big on the idea. 

She ended up playing goalie quite a bit throughout the season.  I'd venture to guess probably 85% of the games?  There wasn't hardly any bench time for her and when she was out on the field, she was goalie.  But the thing is, while she did pretty well at it, she didn't like being goalie.  She wanted to be in on the action--part of the fun.  But then today, she got her chance (her first time in several games) to play both offense and defense and she didn't know quite what to do with that.  And in her defense, she didn't have much practice doing playing either position, so what were we expecting really?  I think if she had had more practice in playing those positions, she would definitely have more confidence out on the field.

It really is a bummer too that it was over so fast, because her team really seemed to be finding their groove.  They were really learning to play as a team and passing the ball to teammates to accomplish the goal making efforts as a team--which I think is big for 6-7 year olds!  I'm sure it always seems like that though, right?  Just as the bigger picture is figured out, the season is over. 

They had a pizza party after the game today and they got little certificates for team participation.  Several of the teams from her school went to the same pizza place and one of those teams got trophies for their participation.  I think that the certificates and/or trophies portion was coordinated by the parents of the team and I am glad our team didn't do trophies.  That probably sounds really bad, but this was a soccer league that didn't keep score.  So if they are not keeping score, then there isn't winning or loosing, right?  And to me, trophies indicate that you've won something.  Personally, I am so not in the camp of "not keeping score." 

While I am probably the least competitive person on the planet (according to my husband), I don't think not keeping score is a good idea.  Now, at this age level, it's probably not really that big of a deal.  The purpose of this league is for the kids to learn to play the game and have fun.  And that was definitely accomplished.  But while "score" wasn't kept, most of the kids totally knew which teams won each week.  So whatever "they" were trying to avoid, wasn't really avoided. 

Anyhow, I think Kristen said it very well last spring in this post.  I think in the long run, all these certificates (yes, those too!) and trophies can give today's kids an over inflated sense of self and I think that can be very dangerous, you know?  In the end, loosing can build character and it makes you learn how to do better next time.  Just like in real life, right?  You learn from your mistakes and you move forward and do better next time.  Funny how that works.....? 

There is always room for improvement, am I right? 

But for this time around, I'm glad she had fun (I think she probably enjoys the social interaction the most.....ah, yes, my little social butterfly!) and hopefully when my brother-in-law moves home, he can coach the Peanut and train her and she'll be more confident and want to give it another go next year. 



 

Random Thoughts

Just some of the randomness from the last week:

The Peanut has been asking to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house for several weeks now.  I was on the phone yesterday with my mom and Peanut was waving rather wildly to get my attention.  And who am I kidding, she was whispering RATHER loudly too, about her NEED to talk to Grandma as I was getting ready to hang up.  So Peanut gets on the phone and asks Grandma when she can spend the night and I hear an "uh huh.....okay.....love you too, Grandma" and she hangs up.  I ask her what Grandma said.  Peanut tells me confidently, "Grandma said I can spend the night in the next year."

"The next year? Are you sure it wasn't before the end of the year?" knowing full well my mom would never give Peanut a 365 day window of spending the night--and even just as doubtful that she would even give a 60 day window of time.

"Nope, that's what she said."  And she went back to playing.

So I talked to my mom this morning, "So mom, what exactly did you tell Peanut about spending the night?" {We had just made specific plans for her to spend the night this weekend}  "Oh, I told her we've been really busy, but definitely in the next month or so."

While Peanut's concept of time is getting much better than it used to be, I guess we still need to work on terms like months and years.

♥

The Little Brother's newest phrase any time he sees a picture of him and his sister on the computer, a cell phone, a framed picture, etc?  "Ohhhh, that so CUTE!"

♥ 

My roots grow out is something awful right now and my mama (bless her heart!!!) is going to color those this weekend.  Why, yes, I am still trying to hang on to the vestige of my youth (blond hair).  I've never really felt like myself with the brown hair I developed in my twenties.  That said, the silver lining is that my hair is probably close to 25-30% gray now, so I can confidently say that my hair is actually starting to get lighter again.  Or not--at 35, I am not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

♥ 

I have an awful habit of biting my nails.  Yes, I know.  Tacky.  Gross.  SO unladylike {spell check tells me this is all one word.....who knew?}  It's an awful, nervous habit.  Well, I figured out if I paint my nails, I am much less likely to bite them.  So girlfriend has been keeping her nails painted for the better part of two months and my nails look so much nicer!  But of course, then I have to repaint my nails nearly every week, because while I won't mess with my newly painted nails, once that first nail chips?  All bets are off and I start picking at the polish.  See?  NERVOUS HABIT.

♥ 

The Hubs and my dad felled the two large trees in our front yard this past weekend.  Boy, was that stressful to watch.  It probably would have been a good idea to call in some professionals for peace of mind (mostly mine!), but that just wasn't in the budget and the trees sadly needed to come down.  Why, you ask?  Because we hate the leaves.  I am SO kidding!  No, really there were two major factors.  We have a VERY tiny yard and the trees were just getting to be too big.  Like many people, the prior homeowners didn't account for the fact that trees grow and they get bigger.  When that happens in such a tiny little yard, the root systems can start to cause problems with the foundation as well as any paved surfaces.  Just a couple blocks away from our house, our city went through the neighborhood and highlighted (with hot pink spray paint, no less) any damaged sidewalks from tree roots.  You can guess who gets to pay to have the sidewalks replaced--the homeowner.  Well, we are not in the position to pay $5-10K to have the sidewalks around our home repaired.  While the trees hadn't done any damage just yet, it would have happened in the next couple years, so the trees needed to come down while they were still somewhat manageable to do ourselves {you know I use that term very loosely, right?}.
 

The deer on the right was just a little visitor we had this past summer.  SO NOT normal for our little suburbia!

Anyhow, thanks to my dad's help and Hub's cautiousness (not that my dad is an idiot--he's not at all, I just think they balance each other out in some ways) both trees came down just fine.  Of course, I DIDN'T get a nice before shot to give you an idea of just how big the front tree was, but it was pretty good sized.

Enough to make this mama's heart rate sky rocket and palms sweaty during the cutting process and to make my knees/legs like Jell-O for the better part of 15 minutes after the tree was down.  

We live on a corner, so Hubs played the part of traffic control from both directions in case there were any cars coming at any point during the cutting.  The bigger of the two trees was definitely tall enough to lay across our street, so obviously we didn't want any liabilities from the whole thing.  So Hubs was cautiously darting back and forth across the street to watch for cars (and a falling tree!) while my dad was hopping around the trunk of the tree with the chainsaw going full force, doing his best to "expertly" cut the tree so it fell that way instead of this way. 


Yes, I was a little stressed.

But I couldn't NOT watch, because you know I had the full capability to stop anything bad from happening.  Ahem. 

In the end, things went great (even the weather cooperated! PTL!!)  and Hubs has nearly all the debris hauled off.  Now he gets to work on getting the trunks and roots torn out.

And silly me, I thought the hardest part was over!