Noodle Soup

Family drama

Lots of drama going on in our family yesterday! Take a look…

Kendra performed as Medea in the “Contemporary Comedic Ensemble” category for a big high school theatre festival.

(Pardon the poor videography skills and sound. I can blame the sound on the mic being too far away and the bad acoustics in the room, but the rest is all me. I sometimes get caught up in watching the actual action and forget to look at the screen to make sure there are still people in the frame. And we won’t talk about that one time a while back when I tried to get a wider angle by turning the camera sideways. I’ll never live that one down.)

Meanwhile, Reece and Taite had 2 performances of Promised Land in one day.

Reece knocked it out of the park on his song.

Taite was an adorable little sheep, but by the end of the second show, I think she would have rather been counting sheep than being one.

My little list cadet

I spent this week making a lot of lists. A grocery list for Thanksgiving, wish lists for the kids that I know the relatives will soon be asking for, lists of errands I needed to run and things I needed to get done before the holiday…nothing out of the ordinary for me, really. I am a list person. I have to be. My brain ran out of RAM about 17 years ago, right around the time my 2^nd child was born.

So you can see why it warmed the cockles of my orderly heart to find this on Reece’s bedroom floor:

 

He’s #1 on my list for sure.

Happy Thanksgiving! And if you are crazy enough to brave the crowds this weekend, may you get lots of items checked off your holiday shopping list.

It’s about the process, not the product…

…but as a proud mommy, I have to mention that Reece’s monster doll won first place. How cool is that? The little dude is over the moon. He is seriously telling complete strangers about it.

This is a kid who really needed a win in the school setting. He’s not a disruptive, always-in-trouble kind of kid. He just has no interest whatsoever in memorizing math facts, and spends his class time quietly tuning out the teacher and daydreaming instead of getting his work done. Props to the PTA for offering a creative project that motivated and engaged him so his teachers can see what he is capable of. I know monster-making won’t really help his standardized test scores (which is a rant for another day), but I do think this little victory will give his teachers some valuable insight into what makes him tick.

To celebrate, I took him to the craft store and gave him $5 to spend on felt & embroidery floss in his choice of colors, so he could make monsters for his sisters & cousins for Christmas. He figured out how many pieces of felt he would need if each monster took 2 pieces, added up that cost, and then figured out how much he had left to spend on embroidery floss. I helped him figure the tax, but he made sure he didn’t go over $4.75 so he would have a quarter left over for the big gumball machine. Standardize THAT, State Department of Education!

We’ve created a monster!

The PTA came up with a ping pong ball decorating contest for our school’s fall event. Reece was super psyched to participate, and after brainstorming some ideas, he went with the category which allowed the ball to be part of a larger whole so he could turn it into a gory eyeball. My suggestion was to make a monster face out of a paper plate, but he had loftier plans.

He loves Ugly Dolls, and decided he wanted to make his own. So he dipped into my craft stash, and with very little help from me he created Pong the Monster Doll. (I cut out the body & teeth patterns from his drawings, cut the hole for the eyeball, and stitched the button on for him).

So cool to watch this morph from the idea in his head into a tangible thing…that actually came out looking pretty cool. And now he wants to make more! I’m taking this as proof that MiniMatt does have some of my genes after all.

Happy 8^th birthday to my creative little dude!

Making plans

Reece crawled into bed with me yesterday morning and we had some primo cuddle & chat time before we had to start getting ready for school. He wanted to brainstorm about some birthday party ideas and started listing the kids he wanted to invite. After 7 or 8 names, he said, “Oh, and I am definitely inviting Andrew Jackson.”

Andrew Jackson? There is a kid in his class named Andrew Jackson? Who would do that? 

“Is he in your class?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

“No!” he giggled. “He’s on the twenty! Duh!”

The kid wants cash for his 8^th birthday. The Tooth Fairy has created a monster.

REECE-oning

Reece: Can you take me to Target to get an action figure?

Me: Didn’t you just get a new one a few days ago?

Reece: Yeah, but I earned more money from Dad.

Me: Are you sure you want to spend it all on action figures? You have a lot already.

Reece: Well, I want more.

Me: They’re all over your room. Seems to me you might have enough.

Reece: No, you can never have enough...it’s like scrapbook stuff.

Me: Get in the car.