Potpourri

Potpourri - as in the Jeopardy! definition which consists of a miscellany of random trivia thrown together in haphazard fashion.  That is the theme of this blog post.  And I've got a whole lot of scraps here for you.  Hahaha. 

Scrap #1 -- Sophie's a Daisy! 

At the beginning of the month, Sophie had her "investiture ceremony" at school where she took the Girl Scout oath, shook hands importantly with her leader, and received the petals she has earned so far along with a real-life daisy.  I brought Alex and Jane along with me to support our little Girl Scout while Ethan and Grace stayed home due to a complete lack of interest in the occasion.  After trying to keep the little ones from running off during a rousing game of "Simon Says" with the Daisies, we finally moved on to the actual ceremony and I managed to snap a few pictures of the girls when I wasn't chasing Alex down every time he ran out the room.  Jane was so awe-inspired by the event that she barely made a peep and hardly moved an inch as she joined Sophie in the ranks and stood with the big girls while their leader presented them with their badges.

 This group of girls is the squealing-est, giggly-est, most high-energy-est group of girls I've ever seen.  They are like Sophie on crack.  

I LOVE this picture.  Hahahaha.  LOVE it.

This one, too.  Jane is absolutely killing me with her sobriety in these pictures.  Hahahaha.

Taking their Oath very seriously.

 {"Chrysanthemum's a daisy, Chrysanthemum's a daisy!"  -- Name that children's book.  Go!}

Scrap #2 -- We've reached the 100th day of school!

 And I just LOVE it when I don't find out about a homework assignment until right before bedtime.  Which is what happened on the 99th day of school when I read an email from Sophie's teacher right after dinner reminding them to be sure and decorate a hat with 100 things to wear to school the next day.  What the bunnysauce???  Do they think hats just grow on trees around here?  Hahaha.  Luckily Grace came to Sophie's rescue by thinking of the crown that Sophie had just gotten in Primary on Sunday for her to use and I found a giant sheet of princess stickers for her to decorate with and was relieved to discover that there were  EXACTLY 100 stickers left on it for her disposal! 

 Grace did some celebrating in her class at school as well.

I didn't get a picture of Sophie wearing her crown, but Alex commandeered it from her when she got home from school and I did get a shot of him.

Scrap #3 -- I'm on track with my goals!

I am baby-stepping my way to being MUCH more on top of things than I have in the past.  Which is a major reason why it's been a while since I've blogged.  Life gets even busier when I actually stop and do all the things that I'm supposed to be doing as well.  And just what are all those things?  Why thank you for asking!  In the past 2 weeks, I have done LOADS and loads of laundry {including FOLDING the stuff AND putting it away}; I have spent hours preparing lessons for my Youth Sunday School class; I've cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more; I've finally started working on my Family History again; I've started making our bread from scratch;  and  I've made REAL meals 5 out of 7 days each week so far this month!  I am on fire.  And will probably burn out by the end of January.  Hahaha.  Oh well -- that's just the way I roll.  To the extreme.

One of the things I decided to do this month to help out in the meal department was to go back to making up a monthly menu.  For the last several months I've been super lax about doing that and the result was that I got super lax about making dinner.  So, I sat down at the beginning of the month and wrote out a master list of every single meal I could think of and got the kids to help.  Then I forced myself to just write out the menu for the month using that master list and a few other tricks to make it all easier for me. "Tricks" is probably not the right word, but I did follow a simple rubric that helped in coming up with what to make each night.  Monday is our "Meatless Monday" meal; Tuesday is Leftovers; Thursday is "Try Something New" night; and Friday is our "Free Space" -- which means whatever is leftover, quick, or easy for the kids to make themselves.  Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday don't have a theme but perhaps by the end of the year I'll have come up with something for those as well!  Hahaha.  All in all, I feel like I've accomplished A LOT so far this year.  And that's a good thing.  :)

Scrap #4 -- It's Pinewood Derby Time!

Ethan competed in his second annual Pinewood Derby on Friday night, and this year we were excited to ALL be in attendance.  I can't remember why we didn't all go last year, but this year I wanted us all to be there to cheer him on in his cool runnings.  Hahaha.  It would have helped, however, if we had read the memo more closely and realized that it actually started at 6 PM and not 7.  Whoops!  It's a good thing my bff, Natalie -- whose husband is the cub scout master -- gave me a call around 6:20 and asked if we were coming.  Scott had already left with Ethan {we decided to take two cars in case we needed to get the little ones home to bed} so I quickly got Alex and the girls ready to go and we were soon on our way as well.  It was a lot of fun to be there and see the Derby and watch all the kids having a blast.  Even though Ethan's car didn't win the race, I think he was pretty happy with his award for "Most Imaginative Car" at the end of the night.

 Can you guess which one is his?

 Yep -- a Wii remote.  Hahahaha.

The whole troop.

Scrap #5 -- I'm a new Aunt! {Again!}

My little sis, Emily, just had her sweet little baby boy on Friday night.  As I was leaving the Pinewood Derby, I kept checking my phone to see if any texts had come through with details but didn't see anything so I called my mom.  She hadn't heard any news either, but while I was on the phone with her an email came through with a picture of little Henry and his stats.

Henry Clyde

January 18, 2013 @ 5:18pm
8 pounds 6 ounces, 21 1/2 inches long

 Is that little face to die for or what???

Presh!

While we were in Utah for Christmas, I was so excited to give Emily the quilt I had made for little baby Henry {and frantically finished up a couple days before we left}.  Our family tends to run towards girls, so it was really fun to make a little BOY quilt.  :)  I wanted to do something modern-ish {like Emily} yet still timeless and whimsical and boyish as well and the final result was even better than I had pictured in my mind.  {And yes -- I do realize that makes me sound rather full of myself.   Hahaha.  Sorry!  I'm really not.  I promise.}

The robot is pieced with the arms embroidered to look like springs and I quilted the background using a 2 inch grid.  I'm in love with the way it turned out!  

Close-up detail of the robot.  I googled a bunch of different images of robots and in the end graphed out my own version and went with it.  I really love the way it turned out.  :)

We are so excited and happy for Emily and Jeremy and for Pearce to be a big sister! 

Scrap #6 -- We've got some dreamers!

And finally, as we were eating dinner tonight, we got around to discussing this year's big dreams with the kids and reviewing last year's lists as well.  Just in case you were wondering what was accomplished and checked off in 2012, here is the short list:

Ethan -- got Just Dance 4;

Grace -- finished the Judy Moody series;

Sophie -- learned to read chapter books;

Jane -- got potty trained; 

Alex -- learned to walk!

Ethan was the only one interested in writing down any of his dreams for this year, and making the list once again in 2013 is finishing the Harry Potter series and running a 5K.  He also tacked on at the end the decision to get better at saving money.  A very worthy goal.  Hahaha.  Grace didn't write anything down -- she was too busy jumping rope --  but she too wants to run a 5K this year and of course, get a dog.  Maybe for Family Home Evening tomorrow night we can get the others to put down some dreams as well, but for now I think 2013 is off to a good start!