Gingerbread HOUSES

We went to the Union downtown to make gingerbread houses with the Seiser family.  The kids made their own houses and got to visit Santa...  Madison made a MSU house!!!  They did a great job.  Christmas is a great time for traditions.

This is one of my favorite pics of the kids

I love the house at Christmas... so magical

HMMM... What should I make???

Go STATE

Blake and his little BUDDY

Getting too BIG for Santa's lap :)

Our masterpieces

The girls just decided to make their christmas lists...  Good thing Elfie returned with a note!!!!  I did let the girls know that next year they need to send them a little earlier to santa.

Can We Keep Him????

Our crazy ELF left us quite the surprise overnight!!!!  The girls wanted to pick him up and KEEP him...  I thought he was very cute and actually said, "keeping him for a day or two wouldn't be so bad"------  Brett thought very differently.

We fed him peanut butter, caught him in a box, and Brett took him to a field on the way to work.

We still aren't sure how he ended up in MY bathtub...  That would have been a great surprise for the cleaning ladies!!!!

Look at that face...  It is so cute.  I think he has been sharing the rabbit food in the basement.

Goggles

Goggles, goggles, goggles...  Our swim meet this weekend was quite interesting! Goggles caused us some problems, but we learned a lot from it.

This was a big meet.  We were competing against the fastest team in our league.  Madison was feeling a little beat down from a rough practice Thursday night. 

 Our swim team is intense...  Madison is a very talented swimmer and needed to be pushed a little more this year-  I was not going to be that swim mom to move my girl up, but knew she needed to be practicing with the older kids.  Let's just say Thursday night was the night Coach Liz decided to see what Madison was made of.  I couldn't even make eye contact with Madison during practice---  she was NOT enjoying it.  She got put in with the older kids' swim lane.  She was pushed to her max.  On the drive home, she said that she didn't want to swim anymore.  We had a long talk that night before bed.

So, walking into the swim meet Saturday morning Madison wasn't exactly overjoyed to be there.

Madison watched Cait come in first place in backstroke for 8 and unders.  Madison nervously walked out to the blocks.  It was her turn.  She is seeded #1 for this race.  All of a sudden, she freaks out because her goggles broke right then.  My heart was crushed for her.  She quickly looked up in the stands at me with huge tears.  Her coach was yelling at her to just swim without them.  I knew that wouldn't turn out well.  I saw Cait standing nearby.  I yelled for her to give Madison her goggles.  Of course Cait didn't have her goggles with her...  I quickly saw Claire right there with goggles on. 

"Claire, give Madison your goggles"....

She quickly ran them over to Madison.  Madison put them, tried hard to wipe the tears and jumped in the pool.  This all happened in seconds...  Madison did a great job getting it together but was very disappointed with her third place finish.  I couldn't have been more proud of her.  She was amazing---  I talked with her a bit after the race about how things happen and she was amazing for jumping in and racing.  She gave me a little smile and hunted down Blake's extra set of goggles in his swim bag.  She still had two more races.  I kept giving her extra support, but could tell she was still a little rattled.  It wasn't her best times, but she is one tough 9 year old...

On Blake's last relay race he dove in and had his goggles fill with water...  Really?? Their coach drills them about not fixing goggles during the race.  He did great.  He touched them once and then knew to just push them up and swim without them.  He did great---  another lesson learned in the pool today!!!

Caitlin finished strong and is surprising us all at every meet.  I'm thinking that she does have a bit of my competitiveness in her...  

I was AGAIN so proud of my three amazing athletes!!!!

These 4 girls cheered everyone one...  Adorable

Blake rocked his breast stroke.

Caitlin's first time racing breast stroke.  She came in WAY ahead of the others in the 7 year old group.  Looks like she is moving up to the 8's next time!!!

Conferences...

Conferences always make me anxious...  Besides only having 20 minutes with the teacher (and this year only 5 minutes for each of Blake's teachers) and the fact that I take my kids progress very personally just about kills me leading up to the conference.  I can't stop thinking that my kids social and academic performance has to be a HUGE reflection on my mothering skills.  Did I ever mention that I don't like to fail at ANYTHING???

This year was even a little harder because Blake is in middle school and has been struggling with being organized, getting work turned in on time AND with math.  I have been a math nazi lately with him.  Several nights we have both been in tears...  He did rock his current math test though.  Best score ever on a math test!!!!  Way to go Blake...  A huge relief for me as well.

I scheduled the conference so Brett could for sure come with me.  I needed him to be my supporting half.  WOW...  The conferences could not have gone better.  I am still smiling from what I heard.  Grades are important to me, but even more important is the social and "good" person skills.  I know that my kids will be successful in life, but I really stress being a caring, empathetic, responsible, helpful person.  Every teacher commented on what great people my kids are ---  I couldn't be more proud.

Here is a little tid-bit on each:

Caitlin:
* always smiling
* amazing artist
* best handwriting in class
* loves hangin' with her BFF Claire

Madison:
* loving breakfast club every Thursday morning before school
* making lots of new friends - huge for my shy little girl!!!!
* very organized and always the first to turn things in
* A  model student :)

Blake:
* amazing reader - can't keep enough books on hand for him
* super helpful to all teachers
* empathetic and helps other students - even buys cookies for kids at lunch frequently
* science rock star

During the conference, Blake did the sweetest thing.  I will never forget it.  I made a comment to his math teacher about how it makes me feel like a horrible mother when he doesn't do well...  Blake quickly hugged me right there in front of his teacher and said, "You are always a great mom"!!!!

I went to bed that night feeling very blessed...