Miles' First Christmas Program

Miles had his first Christmas program at school tonight.  It was just the kindergartners. Class of 2028...

I took my zoom lens, which proved to be a good choice. I've never used it before, but I thought we might be too far for good pics without it. Miles is right in the middle with the white shirt...

He was bouncing off the walls before we left the house to go to the school, but he was somewhat indifferent during the program. He sang about half the time and looked around and talked to his friends the other half. He must have liked this song...

...and this one.  He didn't sing with quite this much enthusiasm the whole time.

They sent a note home and asked that the kids dress nicely, preferably in Christmas colors. We happened to have this outfit at home. I threw in the bow tie just to see if he would go for it and surprisingly he didn't put up a fight.

This marks one thing off of the list for the week. Next up, we are having Darrin's team over tomorrow night for a Christmas party. They have finals next week, so we had to squeeze it in while we could. I've been busy cooking poppyseed chicken, rolls, and Butterfinger cake tonight.  Just a few more things to do tomorrow and then we'll be ready for a party.

Friendsgiving & a Rainy Weekend

Saturday night we had our friends, Cliff & Shannon, over for dinner. I told her she couldn't bring anything when we planned this little get together, but then they had a whole turkey left over from Thanksgiving, so they brought it and we made the sides.  It turned out to be Thanksgiving part II.  It was good, but it left all of us completely lethargic for the rest of the night.

Miles got to see what it would be like to have a little brother...

I can't speak for everyone else but I enjoyed just hanging out. We haven't been able to talk much since the move, so I was happy to catch up.

As for the rest of the weekend...it's been raining all day, everyday.  Miles had one of those "off" mornings that came out of nowhere. He cried, screamed, kicked the air, etc...all the way to church all b/c we wouldn't play the question game with him, which is something he likes to do in the car. After church, he was back to his old self.  He found a Lego set that he had never worked and spent most of the afternoon happily playing by himself.

Working on a list of your favorite football teams in the bathroom floor is totally normal, right?

 

It was also the perfect weekend to put up our Christmas decorations & wrap a few presents.  

We have a busy week ahead. Miles' Christmas program at school, Darrin's team is coming over for Christmas dinner, my work Christmas party, and our church's Christmas program. I feel organized and ready for the busyness, so hopefully it won't kick my butt.  Have a good one!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning started with a little Facetiming with Uncle Aaron & Jayci. 

I made my mom's stuffing recipe b/c that's my favorite Thanksgiving food. I vote stuffing over dressing every time. I made it last year and it was pretty good, but it was super dry this year. As I'm typing this, I think I figured out where I went wrong....not enough chicken broth. Better luck next year.

We drove to Darrin's cousin house for lunch.  

 

We hosted the last two years, but the move put us a little farther away from family, so we are going to rotate with her every other year. Sounds like a good plan to me.    

Miles was overwhelmed a little by the crowd. I had to force him to eat at the kid table. He wanted to eat by himself on the stairs leading to the basement :)  

Miles with Keely...the cousin closest to his age....

After dinner, there was a lot of relaxing.  A.K.A. playing on phones....

....and some swinging....

...and posing for pictures...

We also had a little meeting to plan a vacation to the beach next summer, which we have deemed "Cousins Camp".  We think there might be t-shirts involved. We discussed a cruise, but as one of the husband's pointed out, if we all died together on a cruise there wouldn't be any pallbearers. Good thought. We opted for Orange Beach, AL in June instead.  We are going to reconvene at Christmas and firm up our plans.

After a couple of hours of games & cards, we called it a day and headed home.  Crystal came home with us for a little Black Friday shopping with me.  We shopped from 9pm to 1am and then went back for more around 8am on Friday.  We had a carload to show for our efforts.  We may have started a new tradition. It was super fun.

So that was our Thanksgiving. We ate well and had fun visiting with Darrin's side of the family.  Hope your Thanksgiving was a great one!

Making Friends & a Photo Dump

We've been in Medina almost six months now and haven't made any friends.  Honestly we've been too busy to even try.  Miles talks about 3 or 4 boys at school.  His closest friend seems to be a friend in his class named Gaige.  We met Gaige's mom & dad a few times during soccer season.  I told Miles several weeks ago that if he would learn Gaige's last name I would try to friend his mom on FB and get to know her so we could have him over some time.  He came home from school the next day and told me that instead of learning her last name, he memorized her phone number.  Gaige taught him the number during the day and Miles questionably recited it in the car on the way home.  I text the number and asked if it was Gaige's mom & she said yes!  We have text a few times and then we sat together at the Thanksgiving lunch at school last week.

I saw something on FB about the Zoo Lights at the Memphis Zoo and text Gaige's mom, Leslie, to see if they wanted to go.  They said yes & we went last night.  The boys were so excited.  I think the ride to the zoo was half the fun. 

The lights were pretty, but Miles kept asking where all the animals were.  It literally was all about the lights and a few little attractions.  Most of the animals were put away for the night.

I can't tell you how much I love Miles' silly faces {sarcasm}....thank you very much Darrin...

Travis, Leslie, and Gaige...

Riding the Merry Go Round took me back to this memory.

After the Merry Go Round and more lights, we decided to try ice skating.  I told Darrin half way through that I drew the short straw on this one.  

Trying to help Miles was like helping a baby giraffe. His legs were everywhere.

The struggle was real.  After the first time around, I asked him if he hated it. He said, "No. I almost have it." Not at all the case, but we made our way around two more times and called it quits.

We stopped by the reindeer.  Miles was sad that Rudolph was there :)

After a few more lights and a ride on the ferris wheel, we called it a night.  I think our first friend date in Medina was a success.  Lots of laughs and Miles & Gaige got along perfectly.  It's hard to put yourself out there sometimes, but it was worth it.

And now for some randomness.  Darrin & I went to school to eat Thanksgiving lunch with Miles. When they have special meals they eat a little earlier to ensure everyone has time to get through the line & eat. We showed up at the regular time and they were already eating. My heart sank as we walked down to the cafeteria. All I could think is that he thought we stood him up. When we walked in, he smiled and waved from his seat. We didn't have time to eat, but he was still happy we were there.

Our friends, Rachel & Travis, had their baby in dramatic fashion over the weekend, which meant that we got to see our good friends, Aaron & Carrie, and their sweet girls, Ansley & Anna Claire.  I've missed my friend!!!  It was so good to chat with her for a few minutes, even if it was in a freezing cold, dirty Jack in the Box. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.  

I took Miles to the dentist yesterday. I was about to say "If only adults could have a similar set up" but then I remembered that I just made a dentist appointment at a dental spa. Yes! They offer complimentary Paraffin hand treatments, warm herbal neck rolls, neck massages, hand massages, warm blankets, just to name a few.  It also said something about candles and soft music.  I can't wait!  I'll be sure to let you know how this goes.  

My sister in law and I are going to do a little Black Friday shopping tomorrow night.  Unfortunately, Miles gave me a near impossible list.

Baby brother, Wii, dog, new house (b/c he misses his friends), and video games.  Looks like video games for the win!  Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone!

Less Words Wednesday

As soon as next month's school menu comes out, Miles searches for the one day of the month that they serve pizza.  Since when did pizza become a monthly thing instead of a weekly menu staple???

I may or may not have secretly eaten waffles in my bedroom tonight...

...while I fed my child salmon and a baked potato in the kitchen. He loves salmon, but I think he would have protested if I was eating waffles at the same table b/c I don't like salmon.  He surprised me by getting out of the bath tub early, so I quickly retreated to the bedroom while he dried off :)

We are still obsessed with drawing.  We have gone back to our how to draw books from last winter.

On the way home from school today, Miles said that his class made a big "thankful" list. When I asked what he said he was thankful for, he said, "I said our teacher."  I was pondering about how that was an interesting choice for him when he admitted, "I thought maybe if I said that she might move my clip up." Laugh or cry???

Mom Fail

We need a little context before I discuss my major mom fail moment from today.  Two nights ago, we had Chicken Lettuce Wraps for dinner.  We had some chicken left over that I thought would be good for Miles' lunch.  Since I already had his lunch made for the next day, I decided to put the chicken in his lunch container and pack the rest of it later.

Fast forward to this morning. Miles came in my bathroom and told me that he packed his lunch, which amounts to him getting the container out of the frig and putting it in his lunch box with the freezer pack and a water.  I told him I was proud of him for taking care of that himself, since that's something we've been working on, and sent him on his way.

Tonight at dinner I asked how his chicken was at lunch because I had never packed cold left over chicken before....and he said, "ALL I HAD WAS CHICKEN!"  So, this is what my poor child had for lunch...

A completed lunch should have looked like this...

As soon as he said that he only had chicken, I knew exactly what happened.  I apologized and he forgave my mistake.  He actually handled it very well.  We talked about how to handle situations like that when mom messes up, b/c it will happen again.  I gave him permission to do whatever he had to do in the event that I forgot his lunch or a snack in the future.  He has money on his lunch account and carries extra ice cream money at all times.  I obviously feel bad when things like this happen, but I don't beat myself up about it b/c that's just life.  In my opinion, kids must learn that things don't always go perfectly.  People mess up, including moms and dads.

P.S. If you pack lunch for your kids, these containers are the way to go. It has cut my packing time down by a lot because I'm not fooling with a thousand Ziploc bags and plastic containers.  There reason I went to these was b/c Miles was not eating his lunch.  I think opening 5-6 different things was frustrating him, especially in the short amount of time they have to eat.  I highly recommend these and these.

Less Words Wednesday

Miles joined me while I watched the CMAs tonight.  He doesn't know much country music b/c Darrin doesn't listen to it and I typically turn the radio off when he's in the car with me.

Surprisingly, he watched for a while and seemed engrossed in it. He even sang along with Sam Hunt.  Then, he declared that he really likes rock-n-roll, and left me to go hang out with Dad.

Soccer

Miles wrapped up his first soccer season yesterday.  It was actually his first time to play a team sport of any kind.  There were only six kids on the team.  They called themselves the Lions.

During games on Saturday mornings, they played three on three with no goalie.  I think I've mentioned that on here before b/c we didn't know what to think of it at first.  It sounded a little noncompetitive, sissy-ish if you will.

It ended up being a lot of fun to watch b/c they all got to be involved instead of fighting over the ball with their own teammates.  I think the kids learned a lot during the season.

Coaches Josh & Christina were great.  They both worked hard on fundamentals in practice.  Then Josh would push them hard in a game and Christina would sweetly remind him that they were 4-6 year olds.

I liked both of their styles.

Towards the end, he never complained about going, but he seemed to lose a little excitement along the way.

I credit the loss of focus to the Medina Middle School football team.  They came to the elementary school for a homecoming pep rally and football is all Miles has talked about since.

One of the best things about soccer was seeing Miles' friends at the fields on Saturday morning.

One thing that the our soccer league does is standard, reversable jerseys for everyone.  Every age group does this. The jerseys are blue on one side and red on the other.  Each week, the schedule dictates what color you wear.  

Miles was sad to not have a number on his jersey, but I really like this idea. Jerseys can be passed down or sold.

At the beginning of the season, Miles couldn't get enough.  He would practice at home and couldn't wait for the games on Saturday.

  

We used to say before we had kids that we weren't ever going to let them know that soccer was a sport. Soccer just wasn't a thing when Darrin and I were little.  Now, I would be perfectly happy if he played soccer from now on, and nothing else.

Yesterday, they received their dreaded participation medals.  Darrin threatened to pull a James Harrison, but I talked him off the ledge.  Coach Josh made up something for each kid, which was cute. He told Miles that he was getting his medal for the best foot work.

Darrin only got to come to two games and one practice b/c of volleyball.  That's definitely a downside to his job.  I thoroughly enjoyed everything about the season....getting to know the other parents and the coaches, chatting with the moms during practice, cheering like crazy people over six year olds playing soccer, and most importantly watching Miles run, play, and smile.  He's insistent that he's playing football next year. If that's what he wants to do, then we will absolutely let him. But honestly, I hope he changes his mind. I love football, but it's a different story, when you talk about your little baby playing.  I guess we have several years before it gets too rough and knowing his personality, I think it will work itself out if I just give it time.  For now, soccer was great.  Way to go, Lions!