Oy vey, it has been a busy ... well, it's been busy for weeks! I have a trillion and one things to do, and I feel like I'm way behind on everything. Rob told me to take a break from blogging, but you know what? I really don't want to miss the show-and-tell about some of the fun and important things we've done as a family lately, so the answer to that is a big, fat NO!
On Thursday, we had Chloë's regular Brownies meeting. Nikki, their Troop Leader, had them making "people" out of different toy foods, as part of their learning that day about nutrition and the different food groups. They probably had the most fun doing this out of any activity I've seen them do all year! They were so lively and engaged; it was a lot of fun for them.
Chloë and Meighan's "food person"
She had a lot of fun with this activity!
I think everyone appreciated the portable DVD player that day! Jack and Sophia, who normally run around like hooligans during the Brownies meetings, sat there and watched Ponyo, quietly on the sidelines, for the entire time. It was such a relief! But now, it won't play... we'll definitely have to get that fixed before the next meeting!
On Friday night, we were supposed to have a cookie booth sale at Kroger. However, it was Bingo Night at the kids' school, and I'd asked for and received permission from the administration and the PTA to have a cookie table there, instead! I asked for permission from the booth coordinator to do this, and she made lots of excuses and it was this whole big ordeal, but in the end, we were able to go and have our table at the Bingo Night. The Littles were babysat by Nikki's two older children, while she and G. were at the cookie sale with Chloë and me.
At first, I didn't think we were going to sell much at all, but in the end, the girls managed to unload 32 boxes, which is almost 3 cases. It's not fabulous, but like Nikki said, it's probably about what we would have done at Kroger, plus we were INSIDE and WARM. And we were so grateful to the school for letting us be there!
Saturday was a nutso day.
We had to get the kids up early, so we get Jack checked in for the Pinewood Derby District races by 0830. The Tigers raced starting at 0900. Unfortunately, Jack didn't feel well that morning, and he was over-tired and hungry, so he was quite the miserable little chap. He kept saying he didn't want to be there, poor thing. Can you find my little guy in the middle of the back row?
There he is!!
The boys had to hold their cars and listen for an extended period of time as the long-winded announcer explained everything to the crowd and tried to hype us up. The parents all cringed as the boys played with, fought with, dropped, and otherwise molested their somewhat delicate little cars! Rob commented that in his day, the boys weren't allowed to touch them at all, lest something happened to them. At the pack races last month, they didn't handle them. Shoulda kept it the same at Districts!
Finally, Jack's car was up. I think each car had to race twice in six or eight different heats. Something like that. It was a long morning, therefore! That's Jack's car up in the middle.
The girls, Rob and I whooped and hollered for Jack and his car, but he was so not enthused. Here he is, whining that he wanted to come sit with us. Poor guy. And yes, he's missing his neckerchief slide; we've since found it, but now I can't find the shirt!
Poor Jack zoned out between his car's races. He went home later and had a good, long nap.
Oh, so how did Jack's car do? Well, it just wasn't the same fast car after its accident at the pack races. It came in last for most of its heats, although it did come in first on this one and one other, I think.
In the end, Jack came in 9th out of all the Tigers at Districts. (I'm not sure how many there were, since there were a lot of ties.) I was actually kind of glad he didn't continue on, because we had so much else to do that day! And he didn't seem disappointed any, either.
At the end, he shook the announcer - Mike's - hand, as well as the Boy Scout who helped with the races, and we left. It was fun and exciting, but he didn't place in the top three. There's always next year!
A few hours later, we were scheduled for another cookie booth sale at the store Torrid, in a local mall. No one else signed up with us, and Nikki had tried to convince me to cancel it because she knew I was burned out... and I almost did. But then, I was picking up my cookie order from the cookie cupboard on Friday, and I heard that Torrid was a goldmine from another lady who was also there to get cookies. My ears perked up, and I decided to go after all, no matter what.
Well, that lady had been right!! I brought Sophia along again, as an honorary Daisy, but she was intimidated by all the mall shoppers and hid under the table the entire time. Rob and Jack helped us load all the cookies from the van, into our wagon, through the mall, and at the store. We only brought half the stash because of our Walk-About event on Sunday. However, on her own, Chloë was quite the little saleswoman, and she brought so many customers to our table! We had beenn warned that she could not go past the Torrid sales line or else mall security would come and yell at us, but they walked past three times, looked at her, and didn't say a darn thing. Hehe.
Halfway through, I had to page Rob to bring us the rest of our stash, because we were selling out of everything! Chloë started to peter out after the first hour, telling me she was hungry. So to boost her back up again, I said I would buy her a box of whatever kind of cookies she wanted, if she sold at least 75 boxes. That brought a huge smile to her face, a burst of energy to her step, and back out she went. In the end, she managed to sell 98 boxes of cookies in two hours! I wish I'd known she'd do so well there; I'd have booked two or three more Torried booths. Next year, I'll know...
In the evening, Chloë and I took a break from scouting activities to go to the Music in Motion Dance Company show in downtown Norfolk. I try to take her every year, so she can see what the talented older dancers are doing. Before this, she has been so young, but I think this year she really got into it. She has been dancing ever since, and she was so excited throughout the show, telling me how "cool" and "awesome" all the dances were. We had a great time on our Girls' Night Out, as she likes to call any outing with Mom. She'd already eaten dinner, or I'd have taken her for a bite to eat, too; however, it was late, and I still had a lot of work to do at home to get ready for Sunday.
Rob had been helping to clean up at home while Chloë and I were at the dance show, because I didn't have time to do it. He fell asleep as soon as we came home, leaving me alone to get everything else done. I baked three dozen cupcakes long into the night, from scratch. Vanilla and chocolate, with yummy Wilton candies on top. The girls really liked them when they received them the next day. Chloë even said they were the best cupcakes ever!
On Sunday, Chloë helped me get all the prizes separated into each girl's gift bags. Between the cupcakes and all the loot in their prize bags, I figured each girl would be happy after doing a great job at the sale. Chlo sure was excited to receive hers, in spite of - or because of? - knowing what was inside.
Later, we ran to the Dollar Tree to pick up balloons and things for decorating her cookie wagon for the Walk-About. She chose four balloons, a pinwheel, two huge green bows, and pink and purple leis. She thought she was going to get to ride in the wagon, so she was a tad bit disappointed when I told her it was for carting the cookies around!
Nikki showed up early with L. and G. to decorate their team's wagon.
When (almost) everyone got there, we all posed with M's grandmother, who was our contact for the Samaritan House, our Gift of Caring organization this year. We were able to give them 24 boxes of donated cookies! Way to go, girls! (The dad who took this picture took a second one, and Sophia snuck her little self right in there. It was funny... wanna see? Okay.)
Can you find her? She ALWAYS does this!! Funny girl. :P
I wish I could say that our first Walk-About went off without a hitch, but there were a few snags along the way. I had planned everything carefully, down to the letter, for the past several weeks, but people started complaining about everything as soon as I explained how it was going to go. I was so frustrated and almost started yelling, but I held back, thankfully! Once everyone got going, they were happy and had fun for the most part, I think. I asked for feedback, but no one's been brave enough to give me any - yet. In the end, the girls sold a total of 115 boxes in just over an hour, and they raked in the moolah! We just have one weekend left to sell the rest of our boxes, so I hope we're able to do just that. I'll be so thankful when it's all over for another year!
On Mondays, we have Jack's Tiger den meeting. He came home from school in a terribly cranky mood, so I sent him to his room until he could come down and be more pleasant. It was no surprise, though, when he ended up falling asleep. He came down a half-hour before Cub Scouts in an unusually fantastic mood, so I was glad for that!
At the meeting, the little sister of one of the other Tigers had a game with her that Sophia and Chloë were interested in. Chloë had also brought her gift bag from the Walk-About to keep them busy, so she played with that while Sophia made fast friends with little J. They were so cute together!
Their activity tonight was making fish snacks. Leader Beth gave each of the boys - and the sisters - a graham cracker with blue vanilla frosting on top. They all received a bunch of S'mores goldfish crackers and flower sprinkles to decorate their "tanks." Everyone had a lot of fun making and eating their crafts tonight. And as always, they were careful to "leave no trace."
The boy-child with his, uh, rather busy masterpiece!
The girls were so thrilled to be included in this activity! Sometimes they don't get to participate - which is fine, it's not for them - but when they do, yay!
Back to J's game after their snack...
At the end of tonight's blessedly short meeting, Jack earned six more beads for his shirty-beady thing! Just three more to earn and then he gets what? His Tiger award? Or his yellow beads? I don't know; I'm confused, a little. But yay for more beads! I'll take a decent picture as soon as we find the darned shirt.
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And now back to work for me. I'm excited to report that I've received my official "you're a Va Beach substitute" letter in the mail, so I can begin getting assignments! The first day I have available if Friday, so I'm hoping to get something for then. I plan on taking every Wednesday off so I can get the little girl to her dance class on time and maybe help out in the kids' classrooms more than I have... or just to relax. I'm excited to get started!
Fin.
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