A Group Of Stahrs

24 Jan 2012

Ten On Tuesday

1. Last Thursday, Mazie’s fifth grade class did a Stomp program for their music program. It was awesome. Mazie even started one of the songs out…2. It really rocked. They did a great job!3. She was having fun on the stage…

4. Jamie had her first sleepover this weekend. Her best friend was allowed to have one friend over to celebrate her birthday. She invited Jamie and they got all dressed up for dinner and had a blast. She had so much fun!

5. Jeremiah is still at work and it’s 8:45 PM. Boo!

6. I played a 103 point word on Words With Friends. I was pretty proud of myself. Jeremiah wasn’t to pleased, however.

7. We are thinking of our Spring break vacation. It happens to be over a certain boy’s big birthday. It’s going to be fun!

8. Jacob and Dad have a spaghetti dinner at Jacob’s preschool tomorrow night. It’s a Dad and Son thing. Jacob is so excited about it. I’m pretty sure Dad is too!

9. It was 38 for a high today. Tomorrow is supposed to get up to 60! Is it any wonder why it seem like someone is always sniffly in this house?

10. I planned a date start to finish for my husband and I for Saturday. I think we need it after this week (and, yes, I’m aware it’s only Tuesday).

Posted in Random

21 Jan 2012

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Jacob’s Turn

This is about Jacob’s gym class at The Little Gym. Last week was his mid-season show week and he was so excited to show us what he’s learned so far. Since I was making sure girls got home with the right parents, Dad took Jacob and took pictures of the show. Jacob loves this class. He loves the instructor and his friends. We’ll start with the warm up…

Then it was onto the real skills…I love that Jeremiah caught him mid-jump. And Mr. Robert gives a fist bump for to reward Jacob…Check out this arm strength!

and more rolling…And the whole group with silly faces. I think Mr. Robert really is a big kid!Jacob had a great time. I was so glad Jeremiah was able to get the photo that he did. It made me feel like I didn’t miss it at all! Happy Weekend!

Posted in Kids and tagged Jacob

18 Jan 2012

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Wednesday with Jamie

Jamie got a kindle for Christmas. And she loves it.After getting an account all set up, she wanted to try it out. So we downloaded a free book, Fairytales Every Child Should Know. She is currently reading Magic Mirror which is the story Snow White is based on. I love that she loves reading. I also wish I had those lashes and creamy skin…But more importantly I do love that she loves reading. And I love her!

Posted in Kids and tagged Jamie

16 Jan 2012

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Mazie Monday

It’s been a while since I posted a Mazie Monday. Seems right to do one about her big tenth birthday party!

So let’s begin, well, at the beginning. Her banner was hung…and the cake was finished (more on the cake on the business site)Jacob and I surprised Mazie at school by showing up for lunch. There were birthday calls and texts and lots of birthday presents sent from all over. After school, we ordered pizza and waited for friends to arrive for our first slumber party! We had time to get a photo of the birthday girl on her birth minute…When all the girls arrived, we popped in Megamind and had pizza and chatted (mostly chatted!)…There was a lot of chatting the whole night. Loud chatting! Who knew, ten 10-12-year old girls could sound like 100? I have to take a second here to say that Jacob was in heaven. He was the only single boy here and loved the attention from all the girls telling him how cute he was. The girls were awesome about including him and Jamie in the fun. I can’t be sure who was more excited about having a sleepover, Jacob or Mazie!

After pizza and a little time to play, we decided to do the cake and presents. Everyone sang…

and watched patiently as Mazie opened her gifts. Pop Pop even skyped from Pennsylvania to watch Mazie!After a lot more playing and another movie, it was time for bed. I’m pretty sure it was close to 2am when the girls finally were quiet. It was a pretty long night! But they were awake early nonetheless and went right into playing again. After the requested doughnuts for breakfast, the girls and Jacob had fun decorating their own cupcakes. I think they did a pretty good job…All the girls had left by noon and Jeremiah and I raced to bed to recuperate. Just kidding, our kids were still here! 😉 It was a good thing Jeremiah took off on Friday because he didn’t get much sleep either since he and Jacob had a little boys night in Jacob’s room. Overall, the girls were well-behaved and enjoyed themselves. However, I’m glad the next sleepover isn’t for another two years!

On Saturday, Jeremiah and Mazie went on their annual date.Mazie’s choice of restaurants was Zio’s and she had such a good time. She wanted to dress up and asked if I would curl her hair. I obliged without overly jumping up and down like a crazy woman! It took about 30 minutes to do her hair and when we were done she was happy and even let me do a little 10-year-old photo shoot.

We survived the first 10 years. It’s still hard to believe she’s ten. As much as I’m dreading her getting even older, I can’t wait to see what the next few years bring. I’m sure it’s going to be crazy and wonderful, just like the first 10!

Posted in birthdays, Kids and tagged Mazie

13 Jan 2012

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Then and Now

Sometimes you take a picture and it triggers your memory of another photo that you or someone else may have taken in the past. That’s what happened when I took this photo of Mazie yesterday with my iPhone using the instagram app.I just wanted a photo of myself with my big ten year-old girl. Instead, what I got was a wonderful comparison of one of my favorite photos. I took this photo of Mazie with a film camera (I know, do you even remember those?) when she a little one year-old just before we moved from Ohio.I loved this photo the minute I looked at it after getting it back from Wal-Mart’s photo center! The fact that I had no idea Mazie had her little tongue sticking out, the cutie-patootie little face, her expression, just to name a few. It’s been my favorite photo of the two of us for 9 years.

The only thing that would have made the newer photo any better is if Mazie would have stuck her tongue out. But I have to say that this new one is my new favorite of the two of us. I love it because she was willing to take a picture with me, her beautiful face, her big smile (even though she has braces and isn’t too fond of showing them off), just to name a few.

As I struggle with her being 10 years old, I do look forward to all the birthdays and memories we have yet to share. Happy Birthday, Mazie Moo. Thank you for taking pictures with me.

Ten On Tuesday

1. Jacob got Dino Dig for Christmas. It’s basically a block of plaster that holds a dino skeleton that he has to excavate. He loves it!2. While Pop Pop was here in December, Jeremiah and I were able to get away for 4 days! We went to Las Vegas and had a blast.This is the longest I’ve been away from any of the kids besides Mazie when we went to Hawaii and she was 18 months old. The kids had a blast with Pop Pop all to themselves too!

3. Today was Crazy Hair Day for Jacob.He’s not a fan of wearing his hair in spikes but was excited to do something with his hair when he found out other kids in his class were doing it too. He’s one cool little man, I tell you. 4. I’m working on Mazie’s stargazer lilies that she wants on her birthday cake.It takes a little time for all those petals and leaves to dry so I can put them all together. All of that will be put together to make four lilies. I already had one done so she will have 5 on her cake.

5. Jacob is a little excited about having 10 girls (not including myself) in the house Thursday night. He keeps saying things like, “I hope they don’t love me too much” or “I can’t wait until the girly night”. I don’t have the heart to tell him that he will be sleeping with Dad upstairs while I stay with the girls on the main level.

6. Can you believe Mazie will be 10 on Thursday? I can’t. It kind of suffocates me when I think of it. I can’t seem to get over that.

7. She ordered cheese burgers for her birthday dinner on Friday and will be going out with Dad on Saturday.

8. Jamie has been so excited about school lately. This is to say, she comes home from school and actually tells me about her day. It’s nice.

9. Our mailman jammed three boxes in the package bin of our mailbox yesterday. They were our packages. By jammed, I mean that I actually had to practically damage one to get them out. I almost chased him down to make him open the whole thing to get them out. I don’t know why he does that.

10. I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas. I love it! I’ve read 5 books on it so far. I just finished the Hunger Games trilogy and highly recommend it if you haven’t read it already. Anyone got any suggestions on good reads?

Happy Tuesday!

Posted in birthdays, Kids, Random

08 Jan 2012

2 Comments

Happy Birthday to Jeremiah

Today we celebrated Jeremiah’s birthday. We started out with homemade doughnuts. I had never made them before but they were apparently good. Jamie inhaled 3 all by herself and Mazie ordered them for her sleepover party at the end of the week!Sometime in the afternoon, Mazie suggested that Dad open his gifts. So he did just that. The kids love to make homemade gifts. They decided that Dad’s birthday should be a “boys only” party and they made beards and moustaches to wear…

The girls were nice by letting Jacob borrow a moustache for him to wear but he thought it suited him more to be eyebrows instead…Birthday kisses…My new favorite photo…After going out to eat, we came home to have birthday cake. Red velvet with peanut butter icing…And, yes, he is that crazy and not because he is 35 now. Happy Birthday, Jeremiah. We love you!

Posted in birthdays and tagged Jeremiah

03 Jan 2012

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Ten On Tuesday

1. We had a lovely white Christmas here. Just enough snow to play in and warm enough to do so. The kids loved it!

2. Christmas Eve. The kids were so excited about getting to bed but only after setting out goodies for Santa and making the reindeer food and running the train around the tree a few times…

3. Santa and his deer made quite a mess with their goodies! But they did leave a note and some nice gifts under the tree…

4. I was a little surprised that none of the kids got up much before 8am! But they quickly checked out their stash. Even Max took a look…5. The kids read their note from Santa…6. Then went onto their gifts…

7. After a break for food, we quickly were ordered to put it all together and make sure everything worked! That pretty much took the rest of the day. That and cooking our traditional brisket dinner. It really was a lovely Christmas!

8. Jeremiah cleaned out our storage room in the basement. He decided to get out some of his old toys. The kids had fun putting the legos together. Jacob was in heaven with Jeremiah’s old matchbox cars…9. Mazie has been counting down to her birthday for almost a month. Today, instead of saying good morning, she informed me that there are only “9 more days until the big 10”! I’m really not sure if she is excited about turning 10 or that her party happens to be a sleepover this year. I have to say that today (9 days out) I am dreading both…

10. Jacob told me this morning that he can’t wait until Mazie’s birthday because it makes us closer to his birthday. “And since I’m going to be 5 we can to go out on a date” were his words. Again, not really ready for that one.

Happy Tuesday!

Posted in Holidays, Kids, Random

28 Dec 2011

2 Comments

Christmas with Pop Pop

Pop Pop was here for nearly 2 weeks and the only thing I’ve posted so far was of the him at the girls’ choir program. So here is the rest of Pop’s visit.

First when he got here we treated him to a (late) birthday celebration with some shoo fly cake, singing, and presents…

Aside from Christmas shopping, normal errands (such as taking the kids to and from school), and just normal playing with Pop Pop, we also went to Garden of the Gods and walked around for a bit one nice afternoon…Jacob had held, “Goat” and everyone looked like there was really a mountain goat on the rock.

We also had a Christmas celebration. Pop Pop went way overboard but the kids enjoyed everything!

It took Pop Pop almost 5 hours to wrap all of his gifts. But it only took about 10 minutes for the kids to tear it apart. I’m pretty sure this made up the difference in time…We had a lovely time. It was a great visit. We can’t wait until next time!

Posted in Uncategorized

23 Dec 2011

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Christmas Programs

To put a little Christmas cheer out there for you, I’ve decided to blog about the kids’ Christmas programs. First up Jacob’s preschool program.His class was made up of angels and shepherds and Jacob was a shepherd. Doesn’t he look like Linus from the Peanuts Gang?Jacob’s program lasted about 15 minutes but it was so wonderful. The kids told the story of baby Jesus being born, sang some Christmas songs, and “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. Jacob was so excited to be a shepherd. He was told to keep it a secret and, anyone out there who knows Jacob, knows that that was very difficult for him. But he did it and the program was fantastic. I love kids singing!

Next up, the girls’ choir program…Since Pop Pop was here to join us for this program, we had to do the obligatory photos beforehand…I mean, he is their #1 fan (after mom and dad, of course)…First we started with Ursa Minor. I love how the music teacher used both science and music for the names of the choirs. It just fit the school and the kids. The second and third grade choir members were Ursa Minor (Jamie’s on the far right of the picture, in the front)…Jamie even had a speaking part. Can you believe it? Neither could I when she told us that she had a special part a day or two before the program. Yep, that’s right, she didn’t want us to make a big deal about the fact that she would be speaking in front of all these people and end up getting her nervous, so she didn’t even tell us! I have to say that I was so excited about it though. She told the punch line to a joke. What did the one snowman say to the other? Do you smell carrots?The choir also signed a song while singing. It was pretty impressive!Then they took a brief intermission so Ursa Minor could exit the stage and Ursa Major (fourth and fifth grade students) get ready. There was some pretty sharp moves…and kazoos…Mazie was in a smaller group that sang a song that was just simply lovely…When Ursa Major was finished with all their songs, Ursa Minor joined them on stage to sing a couple more songs together. One song was It’s Snow Fun/It’s No Fun. The Major sang about hating snow (gasp, I know) and the Minor sang about how fun the snow is. It kind of reminded me of Frosty Returns when the adults are complaining about shoveling and the kids and excited about the snow.The girls had a great time and the choir sounded awesome. But don’t just take my word for it. You can see Jacob was completely enthralled with the singing…Again, I love kids singing. It’s just about the best sound, in my opinion. It’s right up there with the sound of kids laughing!