Week in Review

This week consisted of theater, 

theater, 

 and more theater.

Mia's theater troupe is traveling all over the city performing at schools and nonprofits, and hospitals. These are Mia's people. She is never happier than when she is performing.

 Mia has worked for months on her recital piece. It payed off yesterday when she owned it on stage. It was the first time she had to have an official "page turner" because her piece was so long. She felt it was a milestone.

 Bode worked for exactly five minutes on his recital piece.

Mia's and Bode's awesome teacher, Emily.

 In case you were wondering, there are no Halloween themed baked goods left in the entire city. Trust me. I've been everywhere. Bode's class will have to settle for plain ole' non-decorated cookies. It's going to be a huge blow, but at the same time an opportunity for growth and possibly even a character building experience. Even so, Bode's going to kill me.

Halloween, I'm already over it.

This year, Mia has entered that tricky place of wanting to trick-or-treat and at the same time feeling ridiculous doing it. Which means that next year she'll be way too cool for it and will opt out - YES!

Halloween annoys me for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. It's definitely not because it's history is rooted in witch craft and blah, blah, blah. I couldn't really care less about all that. And we all know it's not about the candy, because I'm a huge fan. I think it's mainly because of the whining and melt-downs involved in the costuming process and then, inevitably, I'm left at every fall festival holding and keeping up with multiple costumes parts, treat buckets, sweaty socks, and candy wrappers. It turns out that every year I end up dressed as a human garbage can.

 Bode doesn't have a clue what he is. Nor do we.

In other, more interesting news, meet Mia's latest creation - her gourd-child. 

 Her latest book project was to decorate a pumpkin to represent a character in a mystery book. 

 She saw this gourd at the pumpkin patch and immediately saw an infant. 

I saw it and saw....a gourd. 

I allowed her to super glue creepy, plastic doll arms to an American Girl silk doll dress only because it's the most use she's ever gotten out of it.

I love weird kids.

How do you raise a kid who is nothing like you?

I'm actually asking, because I have no idea. 

What I do know, is that this girl would rather be sitting in her favorite chair reading books on her kindle than at the 5th grade school Halloween party. And I don't get it because think of ALL THAT CANDY!!!!

I never want her to change. I never want her to try and be someone that she isn't. And I'm sure sometimes she will, because I don't know a person who got through middle school without pretending to, like, you know, like, totally try and be cool every once in a while.

I know I'm not getting this parenting thing completely right. In fact, I get a lot of it wrong, But I also know that raising a studious, quiet, smart, artsy, reader is kind of awesome. We can listen to the Beatles together while I answer (50 million) emails and she reads. She also hates the mall. And she lets me pass off pretzels and hummus as dinner - no loud, busy restaurants necessary!

Introverts are, seriously, the coolest.

This is all you need to know about fall break:

You won't find me camping out for fall break anytime soon. Or ever.

We did get some good cousin time in Tulsa:

I discovered Andy's frozen custard. Then I discovered how many miles I would have to run to justify Andy's custard. Then I ate it anyway.

Extreme Everything

I am learning that little boys have one speed - extreme. Yesterday, I went with Bode's class on a field trip. Everything Bode did was on an extreme level. Here he is reading something - and it was loud and overly annunciated. 

He and his field trip buddy spent the entire day yelling at each other. One would spot a certain kind of plant and scream the name to the other (IT'S THE HIBISCUS IT'S THE HIBISCUS IT'S THE HIBISCUS). One found the snake cage first and yelled as loud as he could "SNAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE LOCATED THE SNAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IT'S SNAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET OVER HERE AND CHECK OUT THIS SNAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" My ears were ringing by the end of the day.

Notice the girl looking at the water fountain while the boys are almost in it.

 And you can forget about walking. It's physically impossible for little boys to walk.

That poor man.

My dream came true last night when Bode decided to run a 5k with me. He had never run more than a mile in his life so I was explaining to him that I would be way ahead of him and if he just followed the signs and the people he would be fine and I would be waiting for him at the finish line.

 Well, I should have known better because I ended up getting a PR only because I was trying to catch up with him the entire time. The kid was flying.

 Sweet Mia volunteered to watch little kids at the finish line. No running for this one. 

And this kid ran his first 5k in 21 minutes obliterating all other kids (and most adults) in the race. 

He takes everything to an extreme level. He's the most exhausting human I've ever been around. 

He's also one of the funnest. 

School Started, Bode Continues to Play Baseball, Mia Continues to do Theater, Great Trip to Montana, and Mia Turns 11, Among Other Things

The awkward, nervous smiles of the first day of school. Oh how I don't miss those.

 1st day lunchroom selfie:

 My heart stops every time a ball comes flying at that tiny little head.

 Apparently, little boys get pretty obnoxious when they are attempting to show-off in front of "big girls." Clearly, the big girls couldn't care less about these two little stud-muffins.

 Montana is for cousins!

 Picking fresh raspberries (and blackberries, and eggplant, and broccoli, and peppers) for an afternoon snack.

 Meeting the colts:

 If a dog won't look at the camera, just grab his face and squeeze:

 Beautiful Montana:

 Fishing with Uncle Breezy:

 Mia feeding chipmunks (aka glorified rodents) out of her hands:

 They caught our dinner:

 Sweet friends and family

 Mia has now graduated to whiteboard monitor when planning Disney trips (if you know my husband, this is a very big honor):

 Bode is in it for the cheeseburgers:

 Mia's 11th birthday at cheesecake factory:

 Having dinner with tweens always ends up taking a weird turn:

 I'm the mom that terrifies Mia's friends:

 (I'm also the mom that chaperones every minute of a slumber party, including sleeping with the girls - there will be no funny business at my house. At some point this will mortify Mia. I do not care.

 Mia's sweet besties:

 Only the best of friends are willing to get up for early service after a slumber party. There is so much morning breath, frizzy hair, and love represented in this picture:

I can't think of anything catchy/snarky/thought provoking to say to end this post. 

So, this is the end.