My Funny Valentines 2013

I believe in letting those you care about and love know how important they are to you throughout the year. I don't buy into the overly commercialized and artificially created romance of Valentine's Day but that doesn't mean I don't like the holiday. What is not to like about love and friendship and CANDY!?!

Of course, the kids are now not allowed to bring sweets to school, so we added pencils to the Valentine cards they passed out in class. I also put together a small bag for each of the kids with a few special treats like a super cute stuffed turtle for Jadyn and a new hot wheel and Halo figure for Jake. Working at the school, I also got to pass out Valentines and received many in return. It was a nice day.

After having this shirt for 2 years now, Jake finally asked me what "most eligible bachelor" meant. I explained to him that it meant he was available to the ladies and he immediately scowled. I then told him that while no one would take the shirt literally, he didn't have to wear it. I am glad he ultimately decided to wear it, but I sure wish he would get passed the awkward smiling for the camera:



Much more natural smiles in this picture:



And because of the no candy at school rule, I was asked to have Jadyn meet a classmate in front of the office before school. A sweet little boy named Jonathan had purchased a giant Hershey kiss for Jadyn with his own money. They were both super shy during the exchange but it really was the cutest thing:




Yes, Jadyn managed to skirt around the no candy at school in more ways than one. The six graders sold candy-grams as a fundraiser. For those not familiar, you pay $1 to have a lollipop attached to a little note delivered to someone in class at school. Jake wasn't interested but Jadyn wanted to send one to her best friend and to her 6th grade reading buddy. She then took the extra $1 Jake didn't want and let a friend borrow it to send a candy-gram too. And guess who that friend sent a candy-gram to? None other than Jadyn! I thought that was a pretty clever way of making sure she got one herself.

That night, opting to spend Valentine's as a family (not to mention the fact that I was nursing a cold), we had a fondue themed dinner complete with chocolate fondue for dessert and snuggled up with a move. Nothing says Valentine like the action super hero flick The Avengers.

I sure do love my Funny Valentine's.

School Nights

Last Thursday was the annual school science fair and Jake was very excited to participate. He choose to do an experiment on the effect of surface texture by rolling a marble down a ramp with different materials to see on which the marble went the furthest. He correctly guessed that the marble would roll the farthest on smoother surfaces. The experiment became a family affair as Joe made the ramp, I helped Jake with the write up and poster board and we all got in on the action during the actual experiment.

Here Jake is showing off his experiment to younger students who came to visit the classroom:



 And at the schoolwide science fair that night with his participation certificate. He was so proud!:



On Friday, Joe and Jadyn attended the father/daugther social at school for the second year in a row. Jadyn had a really good time last year and was very excited to go again this year. Joe is such a good sport for taking her because I know these events are not his cup of tea:





While they were at the social, Jake and I had some bonding time including a car picnic at Sonic and a round of Battleship at home (I won!).

It was a busy week full of fun activities at school.

The Missed Recital

Last weekend Jadyn was supposed to perform with her cheer class in the winter recital for the dance studio she attends. However, let me tell you Jadyn has the worst luck ever when it comes to getting sick. Two years ago we had to cancel her birthday party due to her having a 24 hour stomach bug. This time she came down with a stomach bug at 12 noon on the day of recital. I spent all day taking care of her and holding out hope that it would pass quickly enough for me to take her, have her perform and then bring her home but it just wasn't meant to be. 

Initially she was really, really upset but honestly as the day wore on, she felt so horrible I don't think she could even think about the fact that she was missing her recital. She was miserable. 

I took it hard too. I knew how much work she had put into learning this routine and how excited she was to perform it. Not usually the "glass half full' kind of gal, I did manage to find the bright side of the situation. 1) Jadyn was better the next day. 2) I took pictures and video the night of dress rehearsal so I have Jadyn performing with her class and on the video, she did her best X-jump ever. 3) She is wearing the same costume for spring recital. I might just put her in a bubble the week prior to make sure nothing like this every happens again.

Almost the whole squad before going on stage:

Jadyn in the spotlight:



Hip hop cheer:



Concentrating hard on her "K" move:



Ending pose:

The WHOLE routine. I usually don't post videos and especially ones this long BUT this situation deserves an exception:

AND in other news, Jadyn will be performing quite a bit this spring as not only will she be in the spring dance recital but she was given a minor role (kind of like the chorus) in the school's spring musical "Westward Whoa".

Time to Ketchup!

If there is every a time of year I get behind in blogging, it is usually this time. I am not sure why. I think it is because while we are busy, it is mostly with routine everyday stuff. So here is what is going on with the Funny Noses.

- Last week I started what I hope to be a long term substitute position as an instructional aide for a special education class at the kids' elementary school. I have been working on getting in with the school district since they started the school year back in August and I kept putting off blogging about it because I was kind of hoping to be able to finish with a happy ending. However, for right now this is going to have to suffice as my ending. I am working for 3 hours in the morning on all school days. I really enjoy it and hope to be in a permanent position soon.

- Jake attended baseball tryouts for the upcoming season. The reason they have the players try out is to hopefully make the teams fair (however this doesn't always work out). Jake is nervous about playing in a new division this year but did well at tryouts.

- We have not been to the BMX track for several weeks now. One weekend it was canceled due to rain and then this last week, we hosted a Super Bowl party and he opted not to try and race right before the big game. We are hoping to get him back into the swing of things next week.

- Jake also got his second character counts award at last Friday's weekly flag assembly for exhibiting responsibility by picking up trash in the lunch room that was not his. We have also been working on his first science project and although he did not enjoy the writing portion, he really loved doing the experiment and poster board. He was very proud.

- Jadyn was elected to be class president by her peers. She was so excited. She also tried out for the school play. I don't know if she will get a part as the roles for the younger students are pretty limited but I was still super proud of her for getting up on stage by herself and singing "Happy Birthday". She wanted to try out last year and was too shy so this is progress.

- As for the dance recital she had coming up, I will reserve details for a separate post but suffice to say, she came down with a stomach bug this last weekend and had to miss the recital. It was heartbreaking for her to have to miss it but chalk it up to very poor timing. Classes resume this week and she will be getting ready for spring recital before we even know it.

AND now I believe I am caught up and at least if I miss another week and half again, you can make a reasonable guess as to why.