Weekends are busy

This weekend was no different than most. Fifty things to do, most of them fun. 

I ran another race with the BRPE , AKA crazy running maniac:

 Darci went with us to be our "Running Mom." You can't run a race without someone being willing to hold your kleenex and take pictures of you in a state of distress at the finish line.

 Then I raced home from Dallas to host the annual small group minute-to-win-it Christmas party. 

 Nothing is cuter than this:

 Except maybe this:

 When you get 18 kids and 10 adults together things get loud - like, ears ringing, can't hear yourself think loud.

 I love the background of this picture. A dad changing a diaper, junk strewn everywhere, and toddlers running:

Thankfully, the mothers aren't concerned with winning at all. We just want the kids to have a good time:

The tall dude in the middle started chemo today at 8 AM. Pray for Drew. He has four precious kids and a wonderful wife. We have been so blessed to have their family in our small group.

Mia blew off the Christmas party to see a broadway show with her Uncle Lucas. They are kind of the same person.

Band concerts are long, and other stuff

At Oakdale, all 5th graders have to be in band. I'll let that sink in for a minute.  

That includes 5th graders who have never so much as looked at an instrument before. It also includes 5th graders who have no interest or musical talent whatsoever. Which is why I love it. They have to stretch themselves and sometimes they have to do hard things. 

And like I tell Mia all the time, it's good for you to hate something and have to do it anyway. It gives you a tiny little glimpse into adulthood. 

Also, the teacher is a saint sent straight from the heavens. Whatever pitiful salary they pay him should be multiplied by one million. 

Notice the looks of sheer joy on their faces:

 Mia rocked it on the chimes.

 When she told me she was moved to chimes for the concert I thought it was some sort of consolation for being the worst trumpet player or something. However, if it's possible for 5th grade band to have a cool instrument, this was it. She beat those things like an African tribal dancer. I was so proud.

In other news, Andy had a birthday. 

 It was a school morning, so there was no time for posed photos. I basically gave him a look that said, "I hope you can blow those out in one breath because that's all the time I am allowing for this nonsense."

I hope my warmth and charm have inspired you.

Thanksgiving, Day in the City Style

This is the only thing you need to know about the Sehon Thanksgiving at my house (and the only picture I bothered to take):

The baby stole the show, which is as it should be.

If you want to know where we will be every Thanksgiving day it is alway, always at Day in the City. It's the highlight of our holiday every single year. 

1,752 meals later we were covered in rain and gravy, and yet, it was still so. Much. Fun.

 And it doesn't hurt that it's the perfect excuse to have Thanksgiving with your besties.

The boys are more entertainment than help. This year it was all about the Whip and Nae Nae, which I certainly can't criticize since I am a child of the 90s. I can still perform the Electric Slide, Macrana, The Hammer, The Carlton, The Tootise Roll, and The Roger Rabbit on command. Or not on command. I happen to be doing my junior high cheerleader try-out dance to Paula Abdul's Straight Up right now as I'm typing this. I'm kind of a multi-tasker.

 This girl can stack tiny little containers of cranberry sauce like a boss:

 The best part is setting up the room for our own meal after the deliveries are made.

 If you ever want something to do on Thanksgiving day, let me know. I will put you right to work (ask all the students that I have roped into helping every year, they will confirm this.)

And finally, no Thanksgiving weekend is complete without a Lashley family game night (AKA bludgeoning match). Bode finally took the lead in Farkle and was terrified that someone might take him down.

Happy Thanksgiving, from our little snot rocket to yours!

The only reason I can think of to clean the floors

I was actually sweeping my floors the other day and swept this little nugget out from under that little toe space under the kitchen cabinets. Best. Surprise. Ever.

And to think, all these years I've only ever found cereal crumbs and the occasional dead bug. If Andy was smart, he'd sprinkle these babies all over the dirtiest parts of our house. On second thought, I'll just do it myself. Self-motivation is one of my strong points. 

This is Bode

This is Bode in the morning. 

This is Bode in the afternoon.

And this is Bode in the evening.

This kid never. Stops. Moving. Ever. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.

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.