Katie wanted Gramma Jean to do Pysanky on her face and Katie REALLY wanted to paint Owen’s face so he reluctantly let her paint Hatty Hattington on him (hilariously yet steadfastly refusing both glitter and sparkles).
And since I had no idea what Hatty Hattington looked like, either… I guess she did okay. 🙂
I brought face paint for Grauntie Marge to give to the kids…she’s much more of an artist then I am!
We don’t always get a chance to stop at Goodale’s, so we took advantage today! And Katie was out of her grouchy phase. 🙂
Each of the kids in Katie’s class gets to bring Traveling Teddy home for the weekend. They have to write a page about what they do and post pictures. I forgot to take a picture of what she wrote, but here are the pics.
When we got there they were all reading a book with the teacher.
Katie had to introduce me.
Decorating a snowman cookie.
The kids loved all the snacks and games and gifts. Katie especially loved being able to go home early with me. 🙂
Katie wanted to dress up for her holiday party and ended up borrowing a dress from her best friend Sophia. Then she wanted to wear her Santa hat…and have her picture taken with Maggie.
Then Maggie watches her buddy go off to school…
I volunteered to bring the goodie bags for Katie’s holiday party. I figured I hate all the cheap crap that comes home that just ends up as clutter so I’d make fun bags. It was harder then I thought, because (long story) we couldn’t do food and it’s expensive to fill 19 bags. I think the class has money for these things but I don’t mind spending some money. So I ended up doing a pencil, a tube of glitter glue, an emoji tattoo, a crazy straw, a color-changing straw, and a glow stick bracelet. Katie helped me pack the bags!
Since the kids got their phones back on a limited basis, we’ve been going out Pokémoning again. We stopped at a park today and went down to a frozen pond. I didn’t want the sun at our backs but it was a little bright.
Fine.
Katie desperately wanted to go shopping with her teacher tonight for “Shopping with the Educators” at Target. To see just how serious she was, I told her she had to spend her own money—and she agreed instantly. So of course I matched her money and had a ball watching her shop with her teacher and a handful of classmates for the local holiday food drive. She loved shopping, ringing everything up, and loading it on the school bus. 💕 Mrs. Glenn is completely awesome and did an amazing job corralling a large handful of kids into buying what they needed.
They were predicting a blizzard Sunday night but we didn’t believe them.
And then it started snowing thick, wet heavy snow.
And then the kids went to bed.
And then school was cancelled Sunday evening.
And then Tom got the call he had a late start.
And then the power flicked off and on about four times over an hour.
And then it went off for good about midnight. Hoo boy.
Katie woke up during one of the brief outages because the backup power supplies were beeping and we were running around trying to turn things off… So we told her there was no school and she could sleep in…and that daddy would be here in the morning.
The power was still off in the morning so Tom built a fire in the fireplace and it did a decent job of keeping the living room comfortable (70°). Unfortunately the fireplace is meant for looks and not heating so the flue doesn’t really work so the fire burns fast and hot and we went through wood like crazy (thankfully we had lots of wood from the free stuff I got this summer). We assumed that everyone was without power, but all our friends had power. Turns out, there were about 250,000 people in the greater metro area that lost power!
I hadn’t seen snow this heavy and wet in a long time—these bushes are normally chest-high and completely away from the sidewalk. This morning? About knee-high and covering most of the sidewalk!
The kids played outside most of the day with friends…moving from yard to yard and house to house. They had to dry their snow gear in front of the fire.
Katie kept trying to use things that needed electricity and wondering why they didn’t work. I cooked on the gas stove. As time wore on, we eventually brought out a cooler to put some of the refrigerator stuff in outside since it was getting warm. (It was freezing outside so the stuff would be just right in a cooler.) The freezers were okay because we hadn’t opened them.
The day wasn’t too bad while it was light out—there was lots of animal cuddling warmth—
but then once it got dark (at 4pm!) we had to go pull out all our candles!
We kept checking our power status on the website and this is the only thing we saw all day:
It was frustrating. But I was glad I was still able to use my phone and stay connected. (Using Low Power Mode and turning the Brightness way down reaaaaally conserves battery life. Plus I used one of our external battery packs.)
You know the animals are desperate for attention (or warmth) when they cuddle together on me. Usually it’s one or the other because one kicks the other one out.
At bedtime it was a chilly 52° upstairs so we got out lots of extra blankets and sent the kids to bed a little early. A friend invited us to her house the following day if the power didn’t come back on. Just as we were getting into bed under our six layers (and me in top and bottom long johns, pants, and a hoodie—complete with the hood up!) the power came back on about 9:30! So we had a mad dash throughout the house to make sure everything was turned off (somehow both of Owen’s bedroom lights were on?!) and the furnace turned on. It had been about 22 hours without power.
I don’t think we’ve ever been without power for that long…and we lived through 25 years of Michigan winters and a few hurricane systems in North Carolina. I don’t want to do it again.
Uncovered. Twisted. Hand in pants. Blanket around neck. Dead asleep.
We had dinner at a friend’s house (they invited anyone who didn’t have anywhere to go—and that’s us!) and then came home for a family cuddle and movie…complete with fire in the fireplace! 🦃👨👩👧👦🐶🐈📺🔥
Everyone is happy and smiling at the beginning… watching a bit of Sesame Street together while we cuddled.
Parent teacher conferences were tonight and both teachers had glowing things to say about the kids! Katie’s teacher was surprised that she balks at reading and doing math homework because she does awesome in class. Owen’s teacher said he really could not be doing better. We are so proud of them!!
The veterans thank you wall at Katie’s school.
And at Owen’s school:
And some of Owen’s work hanging in the hallway (maybe my favorite part of conferences).
And from Katie’s meeting:
I like the sound of the air because it sounds cool. I had pumpkin donuts at the pumpkin patch. I bought pumpkins at a pumpkin patch.
It looked a little better when it was built fresh, but I forgot to get a pic then…so we get this pathetic view.
After last year’s ball (that was 20 minutes away and we were home by 11) we decided to take the kids this year because it would be quick and easy. Ha. HAHA. Of course, best laid plans, right? This year the ball was being held AN HOUR AWAY in Milwaukee! But, we still decided to go through with it. Owen wasn’t thrilled with his new “dress clothes” (really just a nice black shirt and pants…and a bow tie that I bought on our cruise)—and I didn’t even make him wear dress shoes (he got a new pair of Vans!). Oh, he also had to wear a belt. THE HORROR, right? Katie was SUPER excited about the whole thing, but was really VERY excited about the new heels I bought for her, being able to wear a fancy dress, and wearing PANTY HOSE for the first time (I warned her that was not going to be the best part).
Prepping the playing field…
I have to do a before.
And not too terribly long later, the after. Yes, I wore the tiara!
She would have worn her dress and heels in the car on the way there if I’d let her.
I only had one pair of clip on earrings—thankfully they matched, but unfortunately they were too heavy and kept coming off her ears. (I didn’t even THINK about getting her clip-ons before packing for the trip!)
Owen was completely flummoxed at how to put on and fasten a belt. This was the first time he’s ever had to wear one (we borrowed it from a friend!).
Owen not able to get his new shoes tight enough. Poor kid. (That said, I did have to help Katie put the nylons on so she didn’t punch a finger through them in the first three seconds.)
Total cuties.
A quick snap before we got on the elevator. It looks much more striking in black and white so there you go. 🙂
Once we got to the lobby, we grabbed one of Tom’s co-workers to take a quick pic in front of the tree. As it turned out, I am SOOOO glad we did, because the official pics did not turn out well…and this might be one of the best family pics we’ve ever taken!
Open bar! So we got the kids some fancy virgin drinks. Yeah…neither one liked either one we tried. They liked the cherries and that was about it. So much for treating them to something special!
The kids were AMAZING during the ceremony (totally boring speeches to them, I’m sure). Afterwards, before dinner, we went out to use the restrooms and…RAN INTO OUR NEIGHBOR! Ha! She was there for a girls night with her college friends. I mean, what are the odds? Then we took a few pics. Because me.
So, the official pics. Ugh. I totally appreciate that one of the local Marines offered his time and equipment to take photos, but what’s the point when they’re not good? I’d rather pay for a good picture. Remember, the same thing happened last year (with a different photographer). Here’s an edited version (which is better but still not great).
Oh well, right? At least we got our Christmas tree pic.
THAT SAID, the kids were poops. They love dancing at home. They do it all the time. But here? When dancing is expected? Nope. Not happening. To his credit, Owen did eventually go over to a kid his age and they were doing some type of dance off (it was soooo cute and Tom thought he got a video but he didn’t).
We even asked them to dance a slow dance with each of us. Nope. There were lots of kids out dancing. NOPE. We finally told them they had to dance at least one song before we’d go back to the room. Katie seemed to be having a blast doing it so we thought she’d stay out for another song. Nope. Oh well. We likely won’t do this again, so at least we did it once. 🙂
We have taken the kids out Pokémoning a few times but this is what I walked into last night—Katie taking selfies. I wish I would have gotten a video… It was like a mini me. 😂
So, I didn’t go to the event because we were told multiple times that it was for the military member only. I assume due to space limitations. Except of course Tom got there and there were lots of spouses there. That’s what I get for following the rules…
Katie had to go up and give Tom a flower!
When we got home from errands Tom grabbed a beer and I jokingly grabbed the test of my margarita bottle… And took a pic.
Then Owen wanted to photobomb us…so I let him (he thinks he was being sneaky).
And then we got a family pic.
So I let Katie pick my lipstick today and she picked three colors and they had to be applied in a specific order because she’s 6 and HAS OPINIONS, Y’ALL.
She also wanted her blue lipstick today…and because we were just going Pokémoning…no big whoop. But can I just tell you how hard it is to put lipstick on someone else?! Especially someone with such tiny lips? I felt like I had giant man hands with a dangerous tremor. 😂 It was a bit of a hot mess…but she doesn’t care/doesn’t know better and loves it. 💙
This is what Katie’s hair looked like after an after-school playdate today. Love it!
It’s often a fight, and it took two days, but I got her in her new jeans today. She loved that I suggested the sequined tank top and jacket, too. She did end up putting boots on, though, shoved I hadn’t noticed the cuffs were cut short for a more summer look.
No. No no no. NOOOOOOOO!! It’s too early. I mean I really don’t ever want it (maybe two weeks around Christmas and New Year) but 11/9 is way too early.
That said, the kids were EXCITED. Owen woke me up to tell me and when I woke up Katie and told her, she literally jumped out of bed and ran to the window.
If you need me, I’ll be bundled up under blankets on the couch with the dog.
These are all the neighborhood kids. There’s one I’m not sure of but she’s a social butterfly so I know it’s someone. 🦋
Let me translate for you:
Katie
Sophia
Enzo
Owen
Nate
Ethan
Adam
Noah
Teddy
Cherry
???
Romeo
Xavier
Linkin
I was getting rid of some nail strips that I learned weren’t really great for your nails…so I gave them to Katie for her art/sticker box. But this happened.
