Spring break 2015.

We blew all of our money on Anna's trip to JAPAN...which left us with a pretty simple spring break.  The best kind, really.  We spent a few days in Utah with my side of the family, then came home to spend the remainder with Tim, who had put in insane hours at work while we were gone and was given the rest of the week off.  Unprecedented.  Both vacation and stay-cation worked out perfectly.

Anna;s Japan time was wonderful- until she got food poisoning outside of Tokyo and suffered through two hours of travel back to the home at which they were staying puking into a bag.  Epic travel experience, for sure.

A few of my high school besties reunited.

Eve got to hold some baby chicks at another high school bestie's house.

Awesome museum close to my parents' house - the kids spent hours and hours (and could've spent more hours and hours) there.

The Big Jud burger - Tim and I finally split one.  This picture does not do it's size justice.

Chilling in a Bedouin tent at World Center for Birds of Prey.

Boise is full of all these gems so a staycation is actually a pretty welcome experience.  It was nice to have Tim tag along for it all.  Missed Anna, though.

Got speed.

And then there was that time Anna decided to play basketball.  Her coach was phenomenal, her teammates supportive and fun, and they lost all but three games.  Overall it was a fantastic experience for her.

Art night 2015.

Each year since Anna was in third grade, I've volunteered to be an art parent in at least one(but usually two or three) of my kids' classrooms.  Basically, since our elementary doesn't have an "official" art program, I take the place of art teacher and plan lessons once or twice a month.  It's a truckload of work and by May I kinda wish I'd have signed up to make copies or something, but then when September rolls around again I remember how much fun it is to a celebrity in my kids' classes and I sign myself up for another year of torture...I mean delight.  And it truly is a delight, if you like that sort of thing.  One of these days I will add detailed descriptions of art projects I've done (along with the attending powerpoint presentations) to benefit others but seeing as my last blog post was over six months ago, I think I'll stick to catching up on my pseudo-journal.

Back to art.  Once a year, the students get an opportunity to display their works of art along the hallways of the school.  It is quite a production - like the Met for elementary kids.  The art parents line the hallways with black paper, mount and label all the art work, and invite families to come and see what the kids have been working on all year.  It's a pain in the rear for we volunteers, but ultra-rewarding for the kiddos.  Plus, there's food, so who's gonna complain?

Here are my littles in front of their classroom displays (three of which I put up, thank you very much).

Back to school night rolled around this year and I had to sit on my hands to keep from signing myself up to teach again, but, well, sometimes a girl's gotta say "no".  Like when she's having a baby.

One-on-one.

Anytime I find my kids acting out (beyond the usual, get a good talking to from the firemen, that is), I can typically attribute it to a bit of neglect.  My approach to parenting is largely proactive, but every once in a while I find myself slipping, feeling I've earned that extra bit of privacy at bedtime, or just one more date with dad, etc.  Not that those things are inherently bad, just that they need to be balanced with building relationships with my children.  Invariably, I pay for those periods of "slipping" through my kids behavior and recommit myself to the traditions and routines I've set up to make sure my children are getting the one-on-one time they need.  So what are some of these routines?  I'll list a few of my favorites:

1.  Story time
2. Back scratches
3.  Dates
4.  Piano lessons
5.  Goal-setting

I have friends who make fun of the rigid structure with which I run my household(not in a mean sort of way, just baffled by my compulsive need to "schedule" everything).  Admittedly, it's probably stifling to some.  Truly, though, I am the type that if I do not have a framework in place that guarantees I will spend time with each of my children, it might not happen.  I mean it.  I have the hardest time, and I do mean the hardest time doing nothing.  I'm ALWAYS doing something.  To a fault, perhaps.  Do you know what happens to your relationships when you are always busy?  That is why I schedule time with my children(and my husband, too, incidentally, as unromantic as it is).
And since I've exhausted all the time I have allotted myself to blog today, I'll discuss each of the above "traditions" in detail...in another post.