Wrapping Up the School Year

The First Day of School - Sept 2010

This is one of my favourite times of year; we are on the cusp of a new season and with it comes new routines, new opportunities, and new shenanigans.  Suddenly, I find myself with all this extra time to do the things I want to with the kids since our afternoons are no longer filled with the demands of homework and piano practice.  FREEDOM!!

Last night as I was dozing off to sleep, I thought about all the things my children accomplished this year, and I was so proud of them.  Zoe trained with the provincial soccer team throughout the winter, she placed in the top ten for the District 6 math competition, and, just recently, she overcame her fear of performing on the piano in public, which developed after a negative experience at the Music Festival a few years back  . . . eeek!  She was also faced with many decisions that asked her to compromise on her beliefs, but she stood firm and stayed true to herself.  Sometimes, I wish I was as strong as Zoe!  In fact, the other day at the kids' Year-End recital, a friend of mine commented that Zoe is very classy for a thirteen year old and, unlike most children her age, she seems so sure of herself.  I am such a proud mama!

Elliot also had a great year even though it started out a bit rocky.  In the first two weeks of school, Elliot had three different teachers, and for my boy, who thrives on routine, this was a nightmare!  Fortunately, things did eventually settle down and he got back into his groove.  This was the year that Elliot finally received an "A" in reading, accomplished his goal of getting an "A" in math, scored his first goal in a hockey game, which is tricky when you play defence, and mastered the art of drawing ninjas.  Again, I am such a proud mama!

It has been quite the year for Avery as well.  He started out this school year with the goal of not being sent to the Principal's office, and he almost attained it, but he made the unfortunate decision to draw a picture of a graveyard with all of his friends' names on the tombstones, while he was at Friendship Club  . . . ooops!  Avery found it quite funny, but his teacher, whose son's name happened  to be on one of the tombstones, did not.  So just a week after he had won his horny unicorn, or I mean "Horny" the unicorn, in his class' kindness contest, Avery was banned from Friendship Club for the remainder of the year.  There was also that call home from the Principal after Avery was caught making prank phone calls to the school, and then there was . . . oh wait, I am supposed to be listing all of  his accomplishments not his infamous antics.  Let's start over:

Avery had a wonderful year! He lost his first tooth, he learned how to ride a horse, and he became a whiz at reading, writing and math.  There, that wasn't so hard.  I am so proud of my baby boy . . .  tee hee! 

What can I say?  I have great kids!

Anyhoo, with the end of the school year quickly approaching, I always get a little anxious over teacher gifts.  Being a teacher myself, I understand all of the hard work that teachers put into their classes each year.  I also want to recognize the valuable contributions that the principals, the bus drivers, and the teacher assistants make.  The key, though, is doing it without spending a fortune!  Luckily for me, I am a blogger and I love to read blogs because I found a great end-of-the-year gift idea at  http://www.71toes.blogspot.com/ , who found it from another blogger.   Since we bloggers like to share, I am going to share the idea with you.  All you have to do is buy a Chinese food take-out box, fill it with fortune cookies, and anything else you may want, and write a little note saying "I was so fortunate to have you as my teacher, bus driver, principal, etc".  Cute, eh?  The kids really enjoyed making them last night as part of our Family Home Evening. No idea what I am talking about?  Check here.

For the classroom teachers,  I found larger boxes and we included fortune cookies, an Indigo gift card (one of my most favourite gifts to receive), and a fizzy bath bomb.  Everyone else got the same thing but in a smaller box and without the gift card : (  I really wish money wasn't an issue!  The kids then wrote three reasons why they think their teachers are special on the card.

But, I think their favourite part of FHE last night was the HUGE jawbreakers that Elliot picked out earlier in the day for their treat.

And, voila, teacher gifts are done for another year!

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic school year here at Shenanigans Inc, and we are eagerly looking forward to an even more fantastic summer!

Happy Last Tuesday Before Summer Vacation!  Only three more sleeps . . .

I Have a lot of Making Up to Do!

On Monday night, the fam and I sat down to enjoy Family Home Evening (Remember: a fight between two prayers . . . tee hee!)  We each had our assigned tasks, and it was Avery's turn to be in charge of the most covetous assignment: Activity.  This has become a position of power in our household, and Avery, who was drunk with power by this time after spending the afternoon teasing the kids about what activity he was going to choose, was wavering between Pokemon and Clue-Do (From what we can surmise this is the British version of Clue.  Derrick and I bought it in England and have not seen it here in North America before.  Basically, it is the same game so we figure there must be a patent issue surrounding the name of Clue in the UK.  Too much information?  Yeah, sorry about that; I was just having an Angelina Jolie moment there.  You know, we are both super hot mamas with super hot hubbies who love all things British.   I know we could become best friends someday! But I digress . . .)  Anyhoo,  thankfully, we thwarted his attempts to engage the family in a ridiculous game of Pokemon, and he went with Clue, only after we promised him that he did not have to be on anyone else's team, and that he could do it all all on his own.  Yikes!  More on this in a minute.

Elliot was in charge of the treat, and his well-intentioned mom, me, spent the afternoon making cinnamon biscuits to surprise him with because I know how much he loves cinnamon biscuits.  At this point, if you are thinking "wow, what a great mom!", you can just stop now because it turns out that these are Zoe's favourite treat and not Elliot's.  In fact, Elliot doesn't like them at all, and had to have a pre-packaged Rice Krispy square while we indulged in the gooey goodness of homemade buns.  I have some serious making-up to do!

Derrick was in charge of the lesson, and he presented a fantastic one based on a talk about strengthening your family. You can read it here!  For the kids, this is when time slowed to a halt, and every passing second became excruciatingly unbearable.  As Derrick talked about things we can do to strengthen our own family like eating meals together (score one for the Websters) to scheduling individual time with each child (FAIL!), Elliot hung upside down on his chair, Zoe laid on the table and Avery played with the napkins, while taking turns asking "are you done yet?".   I just pray that some small, remote part of their brains allowed this information to nestle in and be safely stored for when they are parents.  But, who knows, with my luck, they will only remember that mom does not know her kids well enough to remember their favourite treats and hey, our parents to do not spend quality, alone time with each of us . . . ugh!  At least we try.  That must count for something!

Finally, (said with the exasperation only a kid can truly master) Derrick said the magic words: "and I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen", and the kids bolted up from their lackadaisical positions, grabbed the game, and started setting up.  It was amazing how much energy they displayed!


After a brief squabble over who was going to be who, the game was on!

It wasn't long before a recurring name and weapon kept popping up, and each of us were anxiously eyeing the centre room to make sure no one else got there first.  Then all of a sudden, Derrick made his move.  Phew!  He did not roll a large enough number to take him there in one move.  Zoe, Elliot and I started to panic.  We needed to beat him!   At this point, Avery appeared to have lost all interest in the game and was playing with his Playmobil action figures:

He played really well for only being seven and for refusing help.  As soon as we saw him pull out his toys, we figured that he had enough.  His turn came around again, he rolled the dice and, surprisingly, he went directly to the center.  We were all shocked! 

"I think it was Draco Malfoy with the portkey in the  . . . ."

Oh, I think I failed to mention in my Jolie-like revelry that this is the Harry Potter version of Clue-do.  AWESOME!

We gasped!  Avery had actually been paying attention.  He could win this!  Derrick looked panic-stricken.

" . . . in the, in the, LIBRARY!"

Each of us frantically looked at our cards.  Oh my goodness, none of us had the library.  He did it!!

Then Mr. Level-Headed spoke up: "Wait a second,  YOU have the library, Avery!"

Ooops!  I guess there was a limit to how much he was paying attention to.

"Okay, then in the Room of Requirements!"

Again, we frantically looked at our cards.  I should mention that we wanted to make sure Avery's guess was a valid one before he opened the envelope because he would need help reading the cards and then, even if he was wrong, the game would have to come to an end since one of us would know the solution.  Yes, we take our games very seriously.

But no one had the cards he mentioned.  He really did it this time!!  Avery won!!

He opened the envelope to flaunt his victory,  but much to his dismay, no, the Room of Requirements was wrong!  It was the Great Hall.

Mr. Level-Headed squealed: "I knew it!  But how could this be?  Is there a card missing?" (Can a manly man like my husband squeal?  I don't know, but that's what it sounded like to me)

We looked under the table, in the game box, and again at the cards in our hands, but the Room of Requirements card was nowhere.

Then I looked down again and noticed that I, in fact, was holding the card in question. 

"Ooops!  I guess I have it!"

"MOM!!!!!"

Tee hee!

So, lesson learned from this weeks' Family Home Evening: in order to build a strong family, you have to recognize that everyone in the family, particularly the parents, will make mistakes no matter how hard they try.

Forgiveness + Love = Strong Family (For Mr. Level-Headed and Zoe, who are mathematically minded!)


Oh, please, Websters, please forgive me for botching up our game the other night!


Tee hee!