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December, 2010:

207

Dec 31st, 2010
by Jodie.
1 comment

I haven’t talked much about Brownies this year . . . but yes, I’m leading Princess’ Brownie troop again. We have 15 second graders :-) We’re having a blast so far! Earning try-it badges, going on field trips, attending cookie rally sleepovers – we’ve been working hard and having fun.

But the thing I am most proud of them for? Their food/toy drive for our local small-town food bank. Last year, the girls brought about 15 toys total to the food bank in December. This year, with the girls older, they thought of ways to raise more food, including doing extra chores to earn money to buy food and toys, asking neighbors, and putting boxes out at church, just to name a few.

And what did the girls do this year? They brought 207 pounds of food PLUS 3 large boxes of toys. I. Am. So. Proud. Of. Them!

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They’re already talking about ways they can get even more to donate next year. I have to say that leading the Brownie troop is one of the most fun and rewarding things I’m involved in with my kids :-)

So, Last Week, This Happened

Dec 29th, 2010
by Jodie.
2 comments

My Little Princess . . .

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. . . turned . . .

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EIGHT!

 

Being the Princess that she is, she wanted to have a Spa Sleepover Party. Being the busy busy family that we are lately, she ended up with just the Spa part of the party with four of her best friends :-)

After a morning volleyball game, Princess’ friend from across the street came over to help frost the cupcakes.

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After eating approximately as much frosting as they got on the cupcakes, they made this . . .

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The caterpillars were their idea :-)

 

Finally, the guests arrived! They made glitter lotion and scented bath salts . . .

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Then we soaked our feet in bubblebath water in preparation for pedicures . . .

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. . . while we got manicures, complete with embellishments.

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After everyone got their hair done, complete with curls, glitter hairspray, and headbands, it was time for presents! Princess’ friends know her so well :-)

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This is one of Princess’ oldest friends. They met in preschool when they were 3! 

 

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It was FINALLY time for cupcakes, which ALWAYS requires actually climbing on the table.

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The girls had a blast running around playing, jumping on the trampoline, and working off their cupcakes before making mini pizzas for dinner – YUMMY!

The final task for the day was to decorate bags. Afterall, a girl’s gotta have a fashionable shoulder bag to carry headbands, glitter lotion, and scented bath salts home in :-)

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PRINCESS!

The Day My 10 Year Old Son Made Me Cry

Dec 24th, 2010
by Jodie.
2 comments

Me: Hey Dude. It’s time for spring sign-up. Have you decided yet?
Dude: I wish I didn’t have to decide and that they were at different times of the year.
Me: I know, Dude. But they’re not at different times, and sign-ups for both of them are now.
Dude: It’s just so hard.
Me: I know. I don’t care which one you do, but you just need to choose.

I’m such a good liar, right?

Dude: OK. I think I’ll play soccer.

Sounds of Common Mom sobbing because she ABSOLUTELY LOVES BASEBALL AND CAN’T IMAGINE HER SUMMERS NOT FILLED WITH HOURS UPON HOURS UPON HOURS OF WATCHING LITTLE BOYS PLAY BASEBALL.

I seriously didn’t think I’d really care what he chose – I’m just happy he’s choosing something. Afterall, him playing soccer means that I will quit the Little League Board of Directors and have one less fairly time-consuming thing on my plate. 

But I actually cried (by myself in my own room, of course).

I’ll get over it – and start learning something about a game I have no interest in – because it’s the game he wants to play.

But it sure will be painful!

That’ll Be $15 Please

Dec 16th, 2010
by Jodie.
3 comments

My little Princess . . .

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She likes to go here with me . . .

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She turns on those big blue eyes of hers and says with full confidence . . .

“Can I pwese have a tall double chocolate chip cweme fwapaccino with whipped cweme and carmel dwizzle on top?”

The barista smiles and melts . . .

Then my Princess gets this . . .

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And I hand over her college fund to pay for it. Not really, but sometimes it feels like it!

I need to get them back to McD’s for a $2 chocolate shake!

Boedie Battery Battle

Dec 10th, 2010
by Jodie.
1 comment

Much to our surprise, Dude and Princess decided they wanted to participate in the elementary science fair this year – they even decided to do a project together as a team!

After much discussion, they decided to see which battery would light a lightbulb the longest. Wow did we all learn a lot while they did this experiment! Did you know that you can’t light a regular lightbulb with batteries? We didn’t – I guess if we’d thought about it, we could’ve figured it out, but not something we knew off the top of our heads. They ended up using flashlight batteries.

They were also stunned when NONE of the batteries lit the lightbulb for an entire day – even the battery that said it lasts 8x longer than the rest! As a result, all the lightbulbs were out and batteries drained during the night while we slept. So, they set up the experiment again, early in the morning, to make sure they could document the brightness of each bulb on the hour and note when the batteries ran out of juice.

Much to their surprise, the most economical battery was the one that lasted the shortest amount of time! We were really proud of the kids 1) for working together and 2) for coming up with awesome ideas for their presentation. We helped them follow-through on those ideas, but they were the minds behind the design.

Everyone at the fair said their project was the most useful and that they were very impressed that they did the project together. They got a 2nd place ribbon and are already talking about what they might want to do next year :-)

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You Don’t Have To go To The Forest To Get A Tree

Dec 9th, 2010
by Jodie.
1 comment

It’s more fun to go to the forest to get a Christmas tree, but when you look at your calendar on Turkey Day and see that the soonest you can make it up to the forest to get a tree is December 12th and then only if you skip a day on the slopes snowboarding with the family, you make some choices.

This year, the Boedies decided to the good half day weekend only tree hunt off the calendar and go to a local tree farm that opened again after being closed for a few years. We wanted to enjoy our tree for more than 14 days!

The bummer about that decision?
No snow.
Not the best selection of trees.
No hot chocolate.
No wandering around the forest looking for the perfect tree.
No Duma with us.

The good thing about that decision?
We get to enjoy our tree for over a month!
We still had a great time picking out the tree.
We love our tree.
We didn’t spend an entire day getting a tree when we really didn’t have that time available.
I still got to see my kiddos being goofy telling us “Hey – come here! I found the perfect tree!” while they were standing next to something like this…

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(apparently she didn’t believe us when we said it was warm out!)

I got to see my kiddos help Hubby cut down the perfect tree:

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I got to watch Princess and Dude as they insisted they were going to carry the tree to the Jeep:

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 I got to see them finally admit that the needles on that tree are extra pokey and could Daddy please help them carry the tree:

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I got to see the look of horror on Hubby’s face when we heard the twine snap and watched helplessly as the tree flew off the roof of the Jeep on the highway.

I got to smile as I listened to Princess say “OK. Now THAT was funny!” while Hubby cursed his way down the ditch to the tree.

I got to see Dude feel so important when he got to crawl on top of the Jeep right on the highway to hold the tree while Hubby tied it down.

I got to LMAO silently when Princess said “at least part of it’s stuck in Dude’s door this time in case it wants to fly off again” after she saw Dude shut a branch in his door.

I got to watch my family decorate the perfect Christmas tree before Hubby had to head off to work for a week.

Even though we didn’t take our annual trip up to the forest to find a tree “in the wild,” we did still find the perfect tree and add one more Christmas tree memory to our long list of tree memories – the duct taped trees, the tree that was wider than it was tall, the Charlie Brown tree . . . it doesn’t get better than family time, no matter where you are.

The Girl Boards

Dec 7th, 2010
by Jodie.
2 comments

Princess decided that she wanted to try snowboarding again this year now that she’s a couple years older, bigger, and stronger. Dude, Princess, and I met some friends up in Breckenridge last weekend and had a BLAST! Dude and I hung out all day on the slopes while Princess took a lesson all day. She totally rocked her board!

In no time at all, she was a pro at taking her board off…

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She really liked her instructor – Peet. He was great with the kids! Anyone who knows Princess knows that this whole helping hand holding stuff didn’t last long because “I can do it by myself!”

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After a morning practicing in the lesson area, they actually got on the lift in the afternoon!

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Dude and I had gone over to the little hill near the end of the day to see how she was doing, and her instructor sent her up the lift with me since she was doing so well.

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Anyone else think it’s funny they made her put sunblock on when this is what she always looks like on the slopes? Wouldn’t want her to look like Rudolph, I guess :-)

 

She was a little apprehensive her first time down the mountain. But she made it in one piece, even after getting rammed into by one of the other kids in her class (she was in class with 2 other kids – a 10 year old boy and a 12 year old girl)

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Her second time down, she looked like a pro – a falling leaf pro anyway :-) Still not making any S-turns, but she made it down the hill in record time with no huge wipeouts. She even did well when she had to skate and had just one foot in her bindings.

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Isn’t she just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen on a snowboard! She loved it so much that she gave it a thumbs-up – she would’ve given it 2 thumbs up if “you didn’t make me carry my own board!”

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When we returned her rental board, we took her skis and ski boots with and traded them in for a snowboard and boots – gotta love the Junior Trade program at Colorado Ski and Golf! We’re headed back up this weekend, with Hubby (yay!), so she can have another lesson and we can play some more. Oh how I love snow and family time!

I Like Her Confidence

Dec 4th, 2010
by Jodie.
1 comment

I found this on the counter when I got home the other day . . .

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Princess’ response when I mentioned that it was only November and possibly a bit early for a thank you note to Santa… “I’m crazy busy and I wanted to get this done while I had a minute.”

I have no idea where she’s heard that :-)

While I like her confidence that Santa will indeed visit the House of Boedie, if her behavior this morning was any indication of the next 3 weeks, she may be sorely disappointed.

*** I also like that she’s actually thinking about thank you notes on her own now – yay!

Not So Random Numbers

Dec 3rd, 2010
by Jodie.
1 comment

44 – hours I worked this week at the end of Thursday.

6 – Brownies I’ll be taking to a Cookie Rally Sleepover tonight.

0 – Nights I’ll sleep in my own bed this weekend.

48 – Hours until I hit the slopes for a day of boarding with my Dude.

7 – Hours Dude and I will have to hang out on the slopes while Princess takes her first snowboarding lesson.

14 – Days until the in-laws come for Christmas.

6 – Days my in-laws will be here.

43 – Days until I get on a plane to Italy.

8 – Days I get to spend in Italy for work.

6 – Hours per day I get to spend in the simulator watching pilots test the Emergency Procedures we wrote.

12 – Bottles of wine I intend to “sample”.

31 – Days I have to create the online registration form for Little League before it’s posted.

0 – Things I know about creating the online registration form.

8 – Days until Princess’ birthday party.

6 – Girls that will be here for a Spa Day birthday party.

4 – Hours the girls will be here for a Spa Day birthday party.

60 – Fingers and toes that will be painted for the birthday party.

4 – Kids we adopted and bought presents for for Christmas.

1000 – Approximate number of times I had to explain to Princess that we didn’t actually “adopt” kids and that they would not be coming to live with us.

75 – Dollars Princess and Dude each earned doing extra chores that past few weeks to earn money to buy food and gifts for our Brownie Troop’s annual food/toy drive.

22 – Days until Christmas.

1 – Giant box I found outside my front door, delivered from Amazon. I wonder how long it’s been there?

Bazillion – Things on my to do list today before the kiddos get home from school.

5 – Hours before Dude and Princess get off the bus.

Happy Friday Everyone!