Before we say good-bye to January

Yes, my blogging has been pretty sporadic as of late. January is just such an odd month. You have a perpetual hangover (metaphorically speaking) from the holiday celebrations and abundant time off from work and school. It is one of the slowest times of year for our family - we are in between sports, dance has just wrapped up a recital, work is slow and the weather is usually cold and dreary. That is precisely why I chose January to be recovering from surgery but when you add that to the mix, I am SO ready for January to be over.

Friday was a rare exception from the not so blog-worthy every day that we have been experiencing. Earlier in the week we received the honor of having a Flat Stanley visit us from a friend in North Carolina. Her name is Josie. I am really hoping to show Josie some of our desert landscape but on Friday, I decided that she should accompany the kids and I to school.

First off, Jadyn's kindergarten class was performing their teacher's college cheer (Nova Southeastern University) in front of the entire school during Friday Flag. The college cheer is part of a program called No Excuses University, which is designed to expose kids to the idea of college and college readiness at an earlier age. I was fortunate enough to be volunteering that day and was able to watch and video Jadyn and her classmates perform the cheer - really cute! Here is Josie with Jadyn and her best friend Riley before the performance:

Second of all, the school's production of Tiny Thumbelina was performing a matinee for some of the classes and both Jake and Jadyn's classes were able to attend. I had the chose of getting my volunteer duties done early or stay and watch the show first. I chose to watch the play and was so glad I did because it was really cute. Not to mention that to probably no one's surprise, Jadyn is now claiming she is going to try out for the spring production. As if kindergarten, ballet and t-ball is not enough for her. We will see how that goes, but in the meantime, here is Josie enjoying the production with Jake and some of his classmates:

We had a lot of fun family time in January - we played a lot of board games, adding Jenga to our rotation. We watched a lot of family movies, loved Dolphin Tale, the two Dairy of a Wimpy Kid movies, and give a less enthusiastic thumbs up to Mr. Popper's Penguins and Real Steel. We worked on crafty projects, baked goodies in the Easy Bake oven and I learned how to include myself in Jake's Nerf Wars (more on this in a future post). So January was not all bad but still, I am ready to move on. Good-bye January. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.