I got tired of seeing the post about my kid mooning people, so I had to post something else.
This is the second year that I have done a Halloween recital, and I love doing it. It gives the kids an extra chance to wear their Halloween costumes! We do the recital at an assisted living home in the area, and the residents love seeing the kids dressed up and hearing them perform. I even found some spooky Halloween songs for most of them to play.
Here we are, all the kids minus one, plus me and two stowaways:
And of course, we have to have the silly picture. This is how we look at the end of a lesson:
I am really having a lot of fun teaching this year - probably my favorite out of all the years I've taught so far. The kids are great and most of them are doing a good job of practicing, which makes lessons so much more fun. This year I'm teaching not one but two of my own kids - Thing 2 started lessons. You would think that teaching my own kids would be horrendous, but we actually have a good time. Plus, that's two students out of my twelve that I don't have to wonder about how their practicing is going - I'm all for less mystery!
Um... what do you do when you see your three year old mooning his brothers with glee? I'm pretty sure the proper response is not to laugh, but I just couldn't keep it in. Both big brothers were completely offended. Where the heck did he get the idea to do this? And, more importantly, is this a one time thing, or am I going to get a phone call from the preschool telling me to come pick up my wayward child?
A few weeks ago we had Thing 2's birthday party. The guest list kept getting longer and longer as we got closer to the party, but I thought, no big deal. Not everyone will come. Oh, Fireball. So naive. Everyone came but one. We had 16 kids at our house. My friends all told me I was insane, and in the back of my mind I agreed with them. Here is a picture of the whole crew: a pilot, a wizard, Cleopatra, a ghost who didn't want to wear his costume, a cat, a pioneer, a police officer with his arm around a ninja, Boba Fett and Jango Fett, a robot, a 10 year old friend to torment the little kids, a skeleton who didn't want to wear his mask because it was too scratchy, two more ninjas, and Indiana Jones (or as Thing 3 says, India Jones).
We decorated ghost cookies and bat cookies.
There were so many kids that everyone had to stand around the table so all the kids could fit!
Here we are at the start of the treasure hunt. I have a funny look on my face because I'm pretending I lost the party bags. "Help me kids! Here is my only clue to where I put them." After looking in the flower beds, the play house, the basketball court, the truck, the mailbox, and Sparky's shoe, the kids discover that I had them with me in the house all along. Silly mom!
All in all, it wasn't too bad. The kids were good, and I didn't crawl into my bed and pull the covers over my head when they left.
Today is Sparky day. He turned... well, I don't know if he wants me to say. I think he sometimes reads my blog, but who knows. I've mentioned before that he thinks he's old, but I discovered this week that he doesn't like me saying that he's old. Whatever.
Despite his quirkiness, or maybe because of it, I love him. This weekend I got to see him in his element at Thing 1's end of the season soccer party, where as the coach he got to hand out medals and talk about each kid individually - what they did to contribute to the team this year and things he liked about them personally. He loves coaching, and he loves the kids he coaches. We talked in the car about how we didn't realize what we were getting into when he started coaching that first team 5 or 6 years ago, but how we wouldn't change anything. I don't like being apart from him, but I love that he enjoys volunteering in the community. I love that he is a good dad to our boys. I love that he makes me laugh and he still lets me beat him at Dr. Mario. I love that he is fantastically brilliant, but spells like a third grader. And I love that out of all the presents I got him this year, his favorite is the college basketball preview magazine that I got for 5 bucks. I told him it's like babies ignoring their presents and playing with the wrapping paper.
Anyway, happy birthday, Sparky!
