Two Year Olds Matter, Too...

Today we went to see the orchestra at an educational outreach program at a local theater.  We have been buying tickets for events like this for the past 5 ½ years.  I love taking the kids to these events.  Today’s show had a $1.00 ticket price, so in addition to the big kids… and even the little kids…  I took Miah.  She was very good, although she did talk quietly to me several times during the one hour performance. 

At some point, an usher came to me and whispered that the people sitting in front of us were contributors to the venue and that they are really into “this kind of music”, so I needed to keep Miah quiet.  Uh… seriously? 

Now please don’t misunderstand.  When I pay $40.00-$100.00 per head for tickets at this place, I don’t take my toddler.  This is a matter of practicality… a matter of wanting to enjoy an interruption free show… and a matter of respect for all of the other patrons who have purchased high priced tickets!

But…  when you purchase a ticket for $1.00 to a performance that is geared toward children (many local schools bus kids in for field trips, and I would say that 90% of the theater was full of elementary school aged kids today); you cannot expect it to be silent.  If Miah had been truly disruptive (crying, yelling, shrieking, kicking the seats in front of us, running up and down the aisles, etc.); no one would have needed to tell me to keep her quiet.  I would have been quick to correct the situation myself.  But she wasn’t.  She was simply being two… and a pretty darn good “two”, at that…

Further…  I felt out of sorts at the comment about “this kind of music”.  What?  The orchestra?  Classical music?  We’re pretty “into” it, ourselves.  As a matter of fact, Grace was transfixed the entire time, and Seth and Caleb didn’t move much, either, except to give each other sideways glances when the first notes of music they recognized (which included most of the selections) were played.  Admittedly, Ian flopped around on his seat like a fish out of water for most of the performance, but we were in a row by ourselves, with no one behind us.  The only person this irritated was me.

We love music at this house.  I think it’s really important to give children every opportunity possible to love music… music of all kinds… and this certainly includes the orchestra.  If a theater is going to advertise an event as educational and an orchestra is going to take time out of its performance to talk about the different types of instruments and the definitions of melody, harmony, and rhythm; I think it should be pretty obvious that this is not a posh, five star, suit jacket and fur coat event… especially at 9:30 on a Wednesday morning…  

When we got home, Miah ran into the living room to play the piano…  We win…

In my defense, I took all of these pictures before the program began, so we were not in additional trouble for using flash photography or anything silly like that:

Admittedly, Miah does look like she could cause some trouble here:

 She actually just loves to make silly faces for the camera...

This one is much more sweet:

 But... yeah...  We all know where she gets it:

 The Orchestra:

 L.

I Love A Good Deal...

Our local Dairy Queen offers ½ off everything on Tuesday!

Our kids got Dairy Queen gift cards for Christmas, and every time the ask to use them, I remind them about ½ off Tuesdays.  Except none of us can seem to remember to put the two together… gift cards and Tuesday, that is…

Well, this morning Seth greeted me with something like, “Good morning, Mom.  I love you.  It’s Tuesday.  Can we go to Dairy Queen?”  Ignoring the sub-zero temperatures and freezing winds, I told him that we could, indeed.

As it turned out, I decided to just take orders and go pick it up.  It tends to be a little crowded on Tuesdays, and… well…  it’s flu season and I didn’t particularly want anyone sneezing in my Blizzard.

I walked out of there (well, actually I walked out of there twice, and the second time I had the help of an employee) with two grilled cheese kids meals, two hot dog kids meals, one chicken strips kids meal, five chocolate milks, three chocolate extreme blizzards, two cookie dough blizzards, one chocolate covered strawberry blizzard (Miah ordered “pink” ice cream, thank goodness they had some), and an ice cream cake for a little over $5.00.  The kids still have $6.00 each on their gift cards.  I almost feel like an extreme couponer or something!

Getting Ready to Eat:

 Ice Cream Does Something to This Child:

 Thanks for the Reminder that it's Tuesday, Seth:

 L.

More Than I Wanted To Handle…

I have come to a realization.  I almost lied about it, but I’m not going to do that.  I almost said, “I’ve taken on more than I can handle,” in this current influx of kids’ activities and scheduling, but anyone who knows me also knows that I thrive on stress and deadlines and schedules that don’t humanly work.  I didn’t take on more than I can handle, but I did take on more than I wanted to handle, and that might be a more significant problem.

Today was rough.  Part of our family went in one direction for the Sterling Invitational and the rest of us stayed home to participate in Upward.  And this is probably going to be harder to explain than I thought, because the problem wasn’t really that we were separated.  We’re a family of seven.  We do a lot of things in “groups”.  It’s not a separation anxiety thing, either.  Although I love being with my whole family, the best; I actually enjoy being away from them on occasion, as well.  When I can get away for an entire weekend, alone; I do it.  When Phil and I can get away, just the two of us; we treasure that time.  Grace and I went to Florida, by ourselves, for a week once.  And I’ve always been really big on having special “date nights” with each of the kids so they can have my undivided attention at least some of the time.  So…  it wasn’t that we weren’t together.  It was that I wanted to be where I wasn’t…

Hmmm…  I’m almost tempted to write an analogy… almost, but not quite…

I’m not exactly sure what this means for us in the upcoming years.  We’re not going to be able to limit the kids to activities that never conflict with one another.  But I think we are going to have to limit them to things they’re good at… things they love… and (most importantly) things they legitimately should be doing…  uh… things that have purpose?  Sounds just awful, right?

I don’t ever again want to find myself in the midst of one of my children’s activities thinking, “I really wish I wasn’t here right now”.  There’s something wrong about that.  I’m not saying that you can go through life doing only the things you want to do, either, but I do think there comes a point when you have to choose what is best.  We’re at that point.

L. 

PS  Despite how I felt about this day, Ian is awfully cute:

Strange Day...

... all around.

It's Phil's birthday.  We are not, however, going to celebrate today, because he, Seth, and Grace are headed to Sterling for the quiz this weekend.  I am staying home with Miah, Ian, and Caleb in order to run the boys to their Upward games tomorrow.

I used to be creative when it came to spending time with my kids...  stage shows... trips to the zoo... or the science center... or the children's museum... or even just the park.  Lately it's more like, "Hey!  Who wants to have movie night?"  Sort of pathetic, but I don't expect it to be this way forever...

So tonight Caleb, Ian, Miah and I watched "Tangled" (Miah's current "fraverit"), while we consumed an entire bag of Hershey's Nuggets...

Then I put Miah to bed and Caleb, Ian, and I watched "Day of the Diesals" (Ian's choice), while we (and by "we" I mostly mean "they") taste tested several different varieties of popcorn (kettle, caramel, movie theater butter)...

Then Caleb and I tricked Ian into going to bed and proceeded to order a pizza and bread bites, which we consumed while watching "Jump In", after playing a couple of levels of "Peggle".  At some point, Caleb turned to me and whispered, "Mommy, I hope nobody finds out we did this.  We are up really late eating pizza and watching movies!"  I honestly think he thought it bordered on illegal activity, because when there was a siren he jumped and asked, "Was that real or in the movie?"  I guess I just blew our cover...

Caleb went to bed shortly after midnight, telling me, "Good morning," since technically, it was.

I never sleep well when Phil is away, so I finally drifted off a little before 2:00am...  When the alarm is set for 6:00am on Saturday, that's not so good...

L.

Happy Card Holiday...

I stink at Valentine's Day.  Since this is a "back blog", I should probably admit that I bought Phil's card on the 15th this year...  the day after V-Day (and also, his birthday, which... you know... means I went through the check-out lane with two cards...  I went through the self check-out, because it was so embarrassing...)

He, of course, came home with a beautiful card... and flowers... and gifts for the children...

At first I was a little surprised when he called just Grace and Miah into the kitchen and presented Grace with flowers and both of the them with candy (Miah knows how to eat her candy, let me tell ya.  She was like, "I sit on the chair.  Open it.  I eat chocolate!").  Then, however, he called the boys in and gave them each a two liter of pop.  He's probably crazy, but they thought it was the best Valentine's Day gift possible!

So...  "Daddy" is the only Valentine she's ever going to need, right?

"Oh my goodness...  I'm so excited...

I've eaten eight Hershey's Kisses

and no one is trying to stop me!"

 

 Yeah...  It's gonna be a long night:

I did make heart shaped pizza... and cheese and bacon stuffed breadsticks...  I guess that counts for something!

L.

Funniest...

Baby... Ever...

Miah and I were just trsting the lighting for an upcoming photo shoot, this morning.  Obviously I don't have the light quite right yet in this shot, but I couldn't pass on this amazing Miah face:

As a side note...  I am so used to seeing Miah's grin that I sometimes forget about that missing front tooth!  The dentist still thinks it's up there... somewhere...

L.

I Take A Lot Of Pictures...

... during the Upward season.

I take a lot of pictures of my kids...

I take a lot of pictures of other people's kids...

Many of them are "action shots"...

But this one is sure to be a favorite for a long, long time...

Brothers...

As Different As Night and Day...

Sometimes Worst Enemies...

Sometimes Best Friends...

I Love These Guys...

L.

Rivaling Tuesday…

Wow… what a Friday!

On the way out the door for Ian’s music class, I suddenly remembered that I had volunteered to bring my clarinet… My 20+ year old clarinet that thankfully had some cork grease and a whole box of new reeds stuffed in the case.  Upon quickly reviewing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” part of “If I were a Rich Man,” and half a chromatic scale… we got in the van.  By the time we got to class I could only remember “Twinkle, Twinkle”.  Part of “The Overture of 1812” came back to me later in the day.  I should probably actually purchase some music and play again…

 Ian was the only one of the kids who could actually produce a real note...

Just ignore the hand position...

When we arrived home, I instructed the kids to play and not make a mess.  Why I ever issue such instructions is completely beyond me.  You cannot both play and not make a mess!  I threw a variety of frozen foods into the over and deep fryer and proceeded to create the Upward flyer for this week… and to go over the Upward cheerleading devotional for practice later in the day.

And then it was playdate time…

One of these weeks, the kids’ BFFs are going to be the picture of the day for Friday, but it sure wasn’t this week, and it won’t be next week, either!

Dropped the boys and Miah off at home and headed to cheerleading with Grace, who was just a little bit irritated with me, because she apparently thought ice cream for dinner on Friday nights was going to become a tradition…

Got a phone call from Phil on the way home.  Turns out no one had eaten dinner, so he ordered pizza and Grace and I picked it up… along with some ice cream, after all, and then we proceeded to eat and watch “Bambi”.

 Mmmm...  Pizza Time:

None of the kids had ever seen “Bambi”.  It was a Christmas present for someone (I think Ian), two Christmases ago…  Miah was way too into it, and I was second guessing myself because I didn’t think she was going to handle Bambi’s mother’s demise too well.  Thankfully, she fell asleep before the gun shot… even in the midst of my spilling a whole cup of Wild Cherry Pepsi on the futon, soaking both myself and Phil…

Our weekends are so hectic right now, so I’m glad we had the chance to have some family time tonight… even if we are going to be tired in the morning…

L.        

Happy Pancake Day...

... and Music Day... and Basketball Day... and Movie Day...

The kids actually reminded me, the other day, that National Pancake Day is in February.  Sure am glad someone mentioned it before lunch time on Facebook!  This resulted in pumpkin pancakes for lunch and dinner.

Here they are...

Well, some of them...

I quadrupled the recipe:

Since it's also Tuesday, we spent a lot of time at the piano!  I always wish that I had taken some shots of Grace, early on, because she has grown so much over the course of the past 5 years of piano lessons! 

At any rate, here's the view I have every Tuesday afternoon 

of Caleb & Mrs. Spahr:

And here's Grace:

And then there's Grace and Mrs. Spahr

Practicing the duos that Grace will be performing with Anastasia

at Junior Festival this year:

Caleb got in some computer time, too...

Gotta love Music Maestro... Fantastico!

Phil took Caleb and Ian to basketball tonight and apparently got them something to munch on at Little Caesar's, because they brought back some cheese for me...  as if I have anything to dip in it!  Where's my Crazy Bread?   Somehow I don't think leftover pumpkin pancakes and cheese make for a good match... (and yes, there are still some leftovers)...

I enjoyed watching Aladdin with my girls, and then Miah went off to bed and Grace and I caught a couple of episodes of Saved By the Bell.

Seth has been sporaddically working on homework tonight, even though we're on Winter Break...  Get it done already!

And that's life on this typical Tuesday in February...

L.