Date Night....

Chris and I have a date night once in a blue moon.

But when we do, the kids get just as excited as we do.

Perhaps they get excited because they are parent free for a few hours.

Perhaps it's because they are allowed to watch tv & play video games while we're gone.

But I seriously think it's all about the photo ops!

Ways to promote literacy...

A coin drive to raise money for books.

A Book Fair to buy the books.

Giving the kids a reason to read.

These past few weeks I've been a busy beaver trying to infect the school with my love of reading.  We have a yearly book fair but I wanted to shake things up a bit by adding a coin drive & reading challenge.

The coin drive was a huge success. It was enough that we were able to give teachers extra support to purchase books for their classroom libraries. These purchases just added to the overall book fair totals which meant more cash back for our school's library!

The reading challenge was more complicated then I expected. I gathered the tracking sheets at the end of each day and posted the totals on a banner the next morning. It was slow going at first, but by the end we were oh so close to our goal of 100,000 minutes read. I am still very happy with the results and I know that when we do this again, we will bust through that total!

The funny part of all of this? I've been so busy I haven't been able to read. Thankfully Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

Ghostly pursuits & soccer fun

This past week we saw the end of the Fall Soccer Season.

When asked if she wanted to do this again, Blake said "meh".

For Halloween Blake busted out as Lady Liberty! She ended every trick or treat with "FREEDOM!"

For an overnight party time, Chris constructed this cardboard fort.

But it just ended up being a life-sized game of whack-a-mole. 

And we ended the most amazingly dryish weekend with a walk in the park.

Life is good.

Before Blake started school I told Chris I wanted to volunteer and be active in her school community. He laughed and said "Volunteer once and the PTA will have their claws in you. You'll never be able to get away."

Four years later I am now the PTA president. To say I'm busy is an understatement. And when I feel like slowing down or not caring as much, Blake reminds me why I work so hard with each smile when we talk about events at her school.

Last Friday we held our annual fall dance.

 There was hair painting and spray tattooing....

A few games and lots of dancing....

But best of all there were tons of smiles!

It Works

As crazy as it gets I have to thank my lucky stars to work for such a great company.

Just yesterday I saw this as I was running to a meeting....

And the group from my old position was gracious enough to donate swag for a basket auction at Blake's school!

And since it was a late start for our schools in Portland, I was able to stay home and work from home so I could make sure they made it to class.

As with any job I'm sure I would be singing a different tune depending on the day. But at this moment I am a happy camper.

Kickin' It & Goolish Fun

This weekend I was determined to take this cold and shove it, but it ended up just shoving back harder. I was feeling much better but come Saturday I suddenly felt drained. I spent most of the morning/afternoon feeling worse then ever. It was like the snot trolls saw this opportunity to really hit me where it counts...my weekend! But that didn't stop our family from having fun and doing our thing. 

On Saturday night a few of the designers I know had a showing at Gallery 135. It was part of "Nike Graphic Studio Art Show: Outside the Box" where proceeds went to the Girl Effect, a movement to support adolescent girls worldwide. We were all in awe at the AMAZING art.

Sunday the rains stayed away long enough for our crew to get to work. We spookified the house!

..... carved some pumpkins (that we grew ourselves).....

... and ended the weekend feeling accomplished!

Everything Shine

Blake wanted to sing.

She wanted to either be in a choir or take singing lessons so Chris did some research and found a fabulous choir group here in Portland called Shine Children's Chorus. They have a wonderfully talented director and they happen to sing modern music.

At their first concert of the season they sang Time After Time by the fabulous Cyndi Lauper and Wake Up by Arcade Fire among other wonderful songs. The kids did great! Mom was oh so proud! (can you tell?)

Blake is in the front row, second from the left. Enjoy!

On the need to share.

Looking back on my posts was like looking at amplified snapshots of what my life was like; the silliness and the good. It made me laugh and cry to see how much and our lives have changed in just the past two years. How quickly time flies and it seems to be going faster now that I find my wee little ones becoming tweens.

Years ago I would be looking at the weekends as family time. Looking for events in the summer and craft projects to do with the kids in the winter. The past few months our weekends have been juggling social calendars, choir practice/concerts, soccer games, and everything else.

When I do have some free time, I tend to fold into myself either with a good book or making plans for PTA events. I'll openly admit I haven't knitted anything in weeks and my bathroom could use a good scrub. So I guess that leaves me with the overall question. How long will it take to burn my candle if the wick is lit from both ends? I have a feeling I will know soon enough.

So if you happen to see a women with messy hair and a slight twitch in her eye, please be kind because it might just be me.