Going Back A Few Decades

The Jr. High was having an upcoming dance that they were dedicating to a few different decades. The kids were supposed to dress in the decade of their choice to go to the dance. Now, had it just been Tanis in Jr. High - I probably wouldn't have heard a thing about it. But with Shaylyn also in Jr. High, I heard about it almost as soon as they found out about it.

Shaylyn and her best friend, Mikayla already knew they were going to use the 50's/60's for their costumes. These girls talked about the dance constantly. I kept thinking it was weeks and weeks away. 

Next thing I knew I was texting Shaylyn to come home from Mikayla's one night and she told me that they were working on their costumes for the dance that was happening in a couple of days. (Woosh...April flew by) 

When Shaylyn came home with all of her costume I was super thankful that Mikayla has a mom that's on top of things and more often than not includes my kid in that.

Tanis on the other hand wasn't really interested in going. Even up until the day before he said he was just going to come home. Somehow, either Shaylyn and Mikayla talked him into it - or his other friends did, but Tanis actually decided to go to.

We decided the 50's would be easy for him and I was floored when I learned the kid only has 2 pair of long pants and neither were washed. So, I had him wear a white tee and we rolled the sleeves up. We made it work and he had a fun time at the dance.

Because the weather was a bit cold and rainy the kids had me pick them up from the dance, so I made sure I got some great pictures of them in their costumes as soon as we got home.

{...They each chose their favorite number for the back...}

{...They didn't actually find the right shoes, they just had white canvas shoes that they took a sharpie to. Pretty creative!...}

What Happens Next...

Halloween 2013

So with the way October was, I wasn't in my usual Halloween Spirit. Hadn't really thought much about costumes and just prayed the little kids would be okay with stuff we already had. After finding the parts for Shaylyn and Tanis to be Finn and Fionna from Adventure Time at the DI, we just had to scramble and find costumes for the other kids in our collection.

Lex decided to go as Link from The Legend of Zelda again. But this year he had found a little pouch to go with his costume as well that worked wonderfully. Nate was set on being Batman and I prayed we had a costume in his size, thankfully we did. I gave Ailey the choice of being a witch (which is what she said she wanted to be all month long) or Spidergirl. She chose Spidergirl and I was glad after discovering the witch costume was missing its hat.

So everyone was set with their costumes and after having a dinner of whatever we had in the house, we got everyone ready.

We started Trick or Treating around 6:00. Ailey decided she was done after only a few houses, but after getting the stroller she stuck with it for another street, which was when Nate decided he was done. Lex went with his friends and came in about 15 minutes after the little kids were done. We waited another hour or so for Tanis and Shaylyn who went together in a big group of friends.

The kids all had fun trick or treating and Shaylyn was so happy I brought her home so she could go with her friends. While I wasn't in the mood to celebrate anything, I'm glad the kids were able to be kids again and enjoy the holiday for what it is.

What Happens Next...

Indian Princess

Once again we have a 5th grader in our home. That means the Wax Museum. When Shaylyn got the note that it was happening soon and was told to choose a character and stuff, she wanted me to return the note ASAP. There would only be 1 famous person allowed per class and she really wanted to be Pocahontas. When I asked her why she chose Pocahontas she said it was because Pocahontas was her favorite heroine. I was shocked! Big fancy, schmancy words and she was dead set on it. I thought it'd be an easy enough costume to come up with and was all for her being Pocahontas.

Well the days went by and I remembered about a week and half before it was happening that it was happening. I was at my Mom's and asked if she might be able to help us out and make a costume. She went right to work on finding a pattern and left me a message letting me know. The next day we ran to pick up my phone that I left at her house and she showed me the pattern and told me how much fabric we'd need.

A few days later I returned to her house with fabric in hand and 2 days later she brought the costume back to us and it was PERFECT! I don't sew well, but I figured I could take care of a head band and waist band easy enough. It worked together well.

I'd love to say that Shaylyn read her biography and did it all well ahead of time, but no. The book she found at the library wasn't a biography and so I made her Google information and write her report from that. I don't know that the report went together well, but she did it all on her own. I helped out with the poster and one tidbit of information I found out while Googling a picture for Pocahontas: after she was converted to Christianity in England, she changed her name to Rebecca.

Anyway, on May 23, the little kids and I headed over to the school to take a look at our Pocahontas. I wasn't feeling well so we made it short and sweet, but it was nice to see Shaylyn in the setting of the wax museum. (Although the wax museums are always loud.... hahaha)

What Happens Next...

What Kind Of Name Is Amadeus?

Every year the 5th graders at our school do a Wax Museum. Kind of odd, I guess - but I suppose it's to help make history/biographies more fun and real. I've known this day was coming since Tanis started 5th grade, but I was surprised that they were doing it at the end of the year.

Anyway, Tanis got this note at the end of April telling the parents all about the wax museum and what not. The kids were to read some biography, do a 1 page report, make a poster and then dress as whichever person they read about.

I didn't give it a lot of thought and figured it was an easy enough project for Tanis to figure out on his own. Well about 2 weeks before it was due I asked him if he had a person in mind or if he even had a book. He said he had chosen Mozart but no he hadn't read it, but that it was at school. So I told him he needed to bring it home and read it.

-- I still don't know why in the world he chose Mozart. We are so not a classical music family over here in the least, so I'm a bit confused... --

The next week I asked him about it again, and he said he never read it and that he had to return it to the library! UGH! I talked to his teacher when I saw her a few days later and asked her how long the book had to be. She said it didn't really matter as long as they read one. So I went home and scoured the internet.

I found a few books with relatively short enough pages that Tanis wouldn't get too stressed about and then had Tanis tell me what book he had gotten at his library. He pointed out the same book I was looking at. YAY! I then ask Eric to pick it up from the book store on his way home. He agreed but in the mean time actually discovered that the library by his parents house had it. So we borrowed the book instead.

Tanis then spent the next 2 nights reading it. Wednesday night he had to make his poster and his report. I set to work on the poster as he doesn't type very fast and I knew it would take all night for him to write the report. When I finished the poster I looked at his report and saw that he pretty much just plagarized the timeline from the book. Guess he needs more help on how to write a report, eh?

So because this report was due the next day and it was getting late, I took over the report. I made him look through his information while I was doing this to get 10 facts down that he could use when someone came to him.

Because I wrote the report I found out many interesting things about Mozart. Like the fact that he was super close to his Dad and his older sister was also fairly musical, so he spent a lot of time, while he was young travelling with his Dad and sister performing. During his travels he fell in love with some lady, but she didn't feel the same way. Later on during his life he went and stayed with this girls family and then fell for her little sister, whom he then married.

At one point in his life he was trying to get a better job and his Mom had the job of travelling along with him. She got sick and died and then because he felt guilty for her death it drove a wedge in the relationship between him and his Dad. Him and his wife had 6 or 7 (Can't remember the right number at the moment) kids, but only two actually survived for a long while. Most of his kids died within months of being born, and 1 actually died within hours.

It's kind of my opinion that they way he dealt with all this loss and heartache was by throwing himself into his work. He was working so hard and was so busy that he then started to get sick and he eventually died. He died while in the middle of writing a requiem, actually. One of his pupils had to finish is for him.

Okay, sorry for that. I was just amazed at how little I really knew about this guy and then how much I learned by skimming a 70 page book. I have a little bit more respect for Mozart now. LOL!

Anyway, here's my little Mozart. I think he started to feel sick this day (He's been sick off and on for 2 weeks now and has been really sick these past 4 days. So much so I had Eric take him to Instacare on Saturday to see if he had Strep. The rapid stress test came back negative, but they apparently still took samples to send to the lab as his throat is really quite raw) so he's not so smiley in the pictures.

I went to the DI to find clothes to make due. I got lucky. The little necktie thing was a little girls jacket/top that I cut up and sewed onto a piece of another shirt...I made the dang wig out of a scarf and pantyhose. I don't sew real well, but I was able to get this to come together nicely enough.

Okay, enough yammering...Here's MOZART.......For real this time. ;)

What Happens Next...