Liam's Christmas Pageant/School Party

So the week before Christmas Liam's school had a Christmas program. Each class sang two to three songs. There was two to three kindergarten classes that got on stage at a time and sang their songs and then left the stage and the next group got up. Liam's class was in the second group and they sang two songs which I didn't know the tune to and that made it difficult to help him practice. Greg found the songs on ITunes after the show. The songs were It Must Be Santa and Mele Kali. . . something the Hawaiian Christmas song.

Then after each class had their turn everyone got back on the stage and sang Silent Night and Feliz Navidad (two songs I could sort of help him with). Both times Liam was at the front and I got really good video of him, well good for a school production and where we were sitting. Hopefully you can see the videos below. It's my first time posting video to the blog. Oh and being the dork that I am, I teared up when I first saw him on the stage. He is just growing up way too fast for me. And by the way Brianna was a perfect little angle the entire time.

OK, so this first video is taking forever to download - which means you only get this one. I don't have the patience to sit here and wait this long for two more videos. Besides this gives you the idea of how well he did singing. : )

The last day of school before break, Liam's class had a holiday brunch. I volunteered to help out, so I could be there. Santa came in on a fire truck and visited each class handing out candy canes. Oh, you'll notice in the photos that everyone got to wear their PJs. I had to work a few hours that morning, so I didn't wear mine. So after eating their food, it was story time. Mr. Hord is Mrs. Hord's teaching assistant. He still has one more year to go before he can be a teacher in his own right. Anyway, he read The Polar Express to the kids, who were sitting with their stuffed animals listening intently. After the story, Mrs. Hord told the kids that Santa had dropped something off for all the kids. She pulled out a wade of silver sleigh bells. They were all tangled up. So she had the kids move onto the hot chocolate portion of the day while Mr. Bobby (that's what the kids call Mr. Hord) got the bells untangled. After hot chocolate and bell distribution, the kids sat back on their squares and opened their stockings. It was so much fun to be a part of this mini-celebration. The kids had so much fun. It was an early release day, so Liam and I went to the mall and saw the movie Despereau (I can't spell French words), but we both almost fell asleep during it. No reflection on the movie - it was good - we were both just tired from the morning festivities. Typical reaction to the holidays - a ton of fun that leaves you ready for a nap. Enjoy the pictures. (I really need to get better at editing HTML - these photos are in the opposite order than I want them to be)

So Much to Blog and So Little Time

1. So here are some topics I’ve been meaning to blog about and have finally done it. So you’ll see a bunch of new blog entries below.
   
   Halloween
   Cape adventure
   Liam’s Birthday
   Legalizing discrimination
   Baking craziness

Baking Craziness

Some how and I can’t current recollect how at this point, Amanda and I got talked into baking stuff for the DMDC Holiday Craft Fair. Evidently the woman who made jumbo cupcakes each year left DMDC and people were very concerned there wouldn’t be cupcakes to buy. This started our little two week adventure. We spent a week planning what we would make and how to divide it up and then another week actually baking and getting stuff together. Dan, Amanda’s husband, even came up with a really cool logo for stickers we were putting on the packaging. The menu consisted of Red Velvet, Gingerbread, and Mocha Chocolate cupcakes and Peanut butter chocolate chip banana bread, Lemon Almond bread, Apple Spice bread (with and without walnuts), and Pumpkin zucchini bread (with and without pecans). The Red Velvet had white chocolate cream cheese frosting and the other two had this amazing Swiss butter cream frosting that Amanda makes (it takes like an hour at least to make it, but so worth it). Amanda also made these really cute cake toppers to put on some of the cupcakes out of royal icing. Everything looked so professional. We had boxes of three cupcakes, one of each flavor, that we were selling for the highest price of all our baked goods.

Unfortunately when we were setting up the table, the tray of the boxed cupcakes got bumped and they all fell on the floor. We were able to save most of them, but the frosting was either gone or really messed up. So our most expensive item quickly became our cheapest. Amanda was so upset that I quickly calmed down and tried to help her calm down. The joys of being a Libra – I take on the opposite emotion of the person I’m with in order to maintain balance. Had Amanda not been so upset I’m sure I would have been in tears. That was a lot of time and effort down the toilet.
But everyone loved our stuff (except my lemon almond bread – which by the way my Dad loves) and all and all it was a fun time and we may have even broke even on the money front.

Liam’s Birthday

First off, I can’t believe my baby is five already. I really wish there was a way to slow down time. We decided to combine Liam and Dante’s birthday parties again this year, so they are only days apart and have many of the same friends.

Side note: What’s with people not RSVPing anymore? It’s such a pain in the butt, not knowing how many kids are coming.

So we had the party at Jump-N-Around in Salinas. It was fantastic. The kids got to play in a bunch of jump houses for an hour and a half. There were also some token games (both Grandmothers played the spinning wheel of fortune numerous times) that would spit out tickets, ala Chuck E. Cheese. In fact Liam had over 600 tickets by the end of the party thanks in large part to his Grandmothers. Then after the kids were exhausted, we moved into the party room for 45 minutes to pizza and cake -- That part of the party was a little chaotic, but not horrible. We also had the party start at 11:00, so Brianna could take her nap after the party, which worked perfectly.

So we grabbed up Liam’s presents and headed back home to open all his gifts. He loved everything, but loved playing with his Army men gear that he got from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jennifer. It tied in nicely with his new Army cape that Amanda made him. Once Brianna finished her nap and the rest of us recovered/rested, we went out to dinner at our favorite local place, The Village Restaurant. Then we came home to have the birthday cake I made Liam. My mom bought the William Sonoma train cake pan, so Liam had a train cake. It was a pain to decorate it, but it was nice that each person got one train car – no cutting necessary. It did give you about a cupcake and a half’s worth of cake though, so many of us couldn’t eat a whole car.

It was again wonderful for Liam to be able to have both sets of Grandparents at his birthday. Ken and Diana had to leave on Sunday, so it was much too short of a visit.
Oh and I’m so proud of Liam because not only did he write most of each thank you card, but he really enjoyed doing it – well as long as I let him have apple juice breaks.

Cape Adventure

I was telling Amanda about how Liam had a total melt down over Brianna’s cape and how he wanted to know why he didn’t get a special cape too. Not thinking that would guilt her into making him one, but it did. I’m discovering that Amanda has very similar guilt issues as mine. Anyway, Amanda and I spent some time ‘designing’ Liam’s cape. Then she has the bright idea to take Liam to the fabric store, so he can pick out what he wants. I was slightly concerned because I had already picked out what Liam would want (another one of my issues that I’m working on). Our plan was to make the outside black satin and the inside some kind of blue sparkly material and cut it so the bottom looked like bat wings. Well Liam had a slightly different take. He found some camouflage flannel material that he just loved. He wanted an Army man cape. Then we tried to explain how he got to pick another material because there was one color on the inside and another color on the outside. He started talking about how he needed an Army man outfit to wear under the cape and as I was telling him that Amanda was only going to make a cape, he started to have a melt down. I think I was just adding to his frustration, so I walked away with Des and left Amanda to deal with melt down boy. She did a wonderful job. She got him to calm down and look at the pattern and see what we were talking about. I don’t think he truly understood at first the difference between the inside and the outside. So we got the black fabric and the camo fabric and he picked out American flag buttons that he wanted on the shoulders, so he could see them. He also wanted a pocket. Amanda wanted to get the cape finished for his birthday party, which wasn’t that far away. She did an amazing job. She made it reversible, so he can be a bat or an Army man (that’s what Liam calls soldiers) and she made a special secret pocket that she even put some treasure into. He loves it and of course whenever he wears his, Brianna goes running to her closet to put her cape on too.

Legalizing discrimination

So the election brought hope for change in Barack Obama and I believe this country really needs a change at this point. But my excitement about that was overshadowed by my anger/disappointment that a majority of Californian’s decided to legalize discrimination by approving Prop 8. Now I know that many people don’t believe that gays should be allowed to ‘marry’ for religious reasons. That’s fine if that’s your belief, but I don’t agree with the State being able to legalize discrimination. One of the things that Governor Schwartzenagger said stuck in my mind when he was talking about how he wished it didn’t pass, and that was that in the 1940’s it was illegal for bi-racial couples to get married. If that were still the law, then some of my friends would never have been born. I’m sure some of my religious friends will say that is totally different because in the Bible being gay is a sin and we shouldn’t support it. Well, I say, who made this sin hierarchy? Is it more of a sin to be gay than to commit adultery? Is it more of a sin to not honor thy father than to be gay? Last time I checked, all sin was bad. God is the judge, not us. I also know people who truly believe being gay is a choice. Which completely confuses me. I don’t know anyone who would willing choose to be discriminated against, face physical violence from hate mongers, and disownment by their families. I could go on and on, but I won’t. So we took one step forward and two steps back, but at least we took the one step forward.

Halloween

I have to start this off with the fact that I know my children are extremely spoiled and it is something I’m working on. About three weeks before Halloween, my mom and I took Liam shopping with us at Valley Fair. Brianna stayed home with Greg. While we were at Pottery Barn Kids, Liam fell in love with a Robot costume. He just had to have it, so Grandma bought it for him. Then a week before Halloween Liam informs us that he wants to be a Power Ranger Jungle Fury guy. I explained that he had already picked out a robot costume – to which he said, “Mom that was for dress up not for Halloween.” Like I’m some sort of simpleton and should have realized this. I tried to explain that the costume was very expensive and he was going to wear it by golly and some kids don’t even get to have fancy costumes and have to wear paper bags. My son is very logical and pretty good in an argument (future lawyer?). He thinks for a few minutes and then says, “I have idea. This year I’m Power Ranger and next year will be robot.” I tried to explain that everyone will be a Power Ranger and wouldn’t he prefer to be something unique like a Robot. After explain what unique meant, he says, “Mom, Lots of kids will be Robots I just know. This year I should be a Power Ranger.” At this point I’m just tired and we’re almost home. When I tell Greg and my mom about this exchange they both said just get him a cheap Power Ranger costume. It’s not a big deal. Yeah, sure. You didn’t just spend 30 minutes debating the issue with a 4-year-old. So for Halloween Liam was a White Power Ranger Jungle Fury. It turns out his best friend at school, Dante, wore the exact same costumes. So they were Power Ranger brothers (Dante’s idea) and both extremely happy about it.

Brianna’s costume was off the charts. I was talking to my friend Amanda and she was saying that she was making Des (who is 4 months younger than Brianna) a Little Red Riding Hood costume. She was going to be Grandma and her husband, Dan, was the Big Bad Wolf. So we decide in our infinite wisdom (craziness?) that it would be super cute if Des and Brianna had matching costumes. Amanda made two red velvet, red satin lined capes and cute old school aprons. Amanda’s mom made the cutest little green dresses and petticoats for the girls. They were absolutely adorable. Now I want a cape.

Oh and when Liam saw all the attention Brianna’s red cape got, he had a total melt down and wanted to know why he didn’t get one too. More on this subject in the Cape Adventure post.