Archive for the ‘Extra Curricular Activities’ Category

It was a BIG WEEKEND here at Casa de Lessa, folks, dominated by the PreTeen and her cousins and the Big Swim Meet in Soldotna. Oh yes, there was kids to wake up early, early, the buglet to be dropped off here with Peppermist, the others to get to the pool, dressed in swim gear and on deck by 9am for warm-ups for the meet to start at 10:15.

That’s stupid early for a Saturday, ya’ll.

But there we were, our collective four kids on deck, on time, with our spot in the bleachers staked out, programs and highlighters and cameras and sharpies in hand – the later gets a real workout, see the picture to the left, ready for five hours of cheering on The Pup, Ladybug, Bug, Dman and all their teammates. (Why yes, I am the crazy cheering mom. Why do you ask?)

It was an especially nervewracking day for the pup, as she had decided to swim a brand new event: The 100yd Individual medly. She knows all the strokes, of course, but there’s the ORDER to remember, and TWO HAND WALL TOUCHES, and DON’T DQ and OMG MOM I’M SO NERVOUS! Peppermist, loving big sister that she is, told the pup an “easy” way to remember the stroke order: just remember that you can BUTTER the BACK of your BREASTs, FREEly. This, naturally, spread through the team like wildfire, and MUCH laughter resulted – including laughter DURING THE BACKSTROKE LEG by the pup AS SHE SWAM.

INORITE?

All our kids had a VERY successful meet, though. Not only did the Pup swim that IM, but it got her her very first DUCKY! The winner of each heat gets a little rubber ducky as a prize, and the pup has been sure she’d NEVER win one – and then she did! VERY happy Pup – in fact, they handed it to her, she looked up to find us in the stands and held that ducky high in the air as we all cheered VERY LOUDLY for her. She could have fallen off the blocks in every race thereafter and not cared. She had a Ducky. A PRINCESS ducky, even, with a PURPLE crown.

She didn’t fall off the blocks though – in fact, she pulled out a 3rd place heat finish and a 2nd place heat finish as well, and improved on all of her times. The Ladybug swam her first 50yd Freestyle (She’s a wee bit of a thing, and usually swims 25s) AND she also won a ducky for herself! All Bug’s hard work paid off and he got to swim the Freestyle relay with the BIG BOYS – including his teammate who recently got the chance to swim with Michael Phelps. There is no SMALL amount of hero worship going on THERE, I’ll tell ya!

And then, Dman, my 13 year old nephew, he tells me “I’m never gonna win a ducky, you know.” I, of course, reminded him that the Pup felt the very same way and today was her day. His day was coming. NOT TEN MINUTES LATER – GUESS WHAT HE DID? That’s right, Dman came away from the pool with his very first Ducky too!

And in between it all, there was Dman and his Girlfriend, who also happens to be the Coach’s daughter. There’s nothing quite as fun as teasing two thirteen year olds as they follow each other around the pool. There were a lot of “Remember! 6inchs of light between you!” and nudges and winks, and chuckling. And then? We spotted them waaaaaaaaaaay across the pool, sitting in folding chairs under the yellow sign, waiting for Dman’s next event. I looked at Mama, and Nana, because I saw them first.

Me: That’s NOT 6 inches…
Mama: oooooooh HELL NAW.
Nana: BUSTED!

So we yelled the girls name across the pool, to get her attention – we knew Dman would just ignore us, and she’d answer – and followed it by “THAT’S NOT 6 INCHES!” complete with gestures demonstrating the proper distance between them, and were rewarded by them jumping apart, BRIGHT RED BLUSHING, and looks that could kill.

God, I love teenagers!

Needless to say, we spent the weekend pretty well pumped. The Boy even showered the Pup with affection and attention, and took her out to breakfast Sunday morning to celebrate. If you’d like to see the Pup – here’s her video of all her events. Note that she beat that girl for her ducky by a FULL POOL LENGTH. Yeaaaaaaaaaah, baby! Way to do it in STYLE, baby girl!

So how was YOUR weekend?

Dude, I ALWAYS wanted to do this. Alas, I’m several years too old to be Stuck at Prom! However, this years contest is gearing up, and starts March 1st! What contest, you say?

The one where you and you’re prom date make your prom outfits entirely from Duck Tape! INORITE?! Here in Alaska the joke is we can fix anything with duct tape and bailing wire, though shockingly the entries from Alaska for Stuck At Prom are few and far between!

Check out the gallery! There are some AMAZING outfits (that’s last year’s winner on the left here)! And it’s not all just for fun and giggles, oh no – they’re giving away 20 Scholarships to celebrate their 10th Anniversary!

It’s really very simple! Here are the rules, and then it’s just four steps, really. Create an outfit, Make the top 10, Earn Votes/Survive each Week/Win Scholarships! This year the first place winners receive a $3000 scholarship, second place will receive $2000, and third $1000. Runner’s up get $500.

If nothing else, if you enter, you KNOW that you’ll have the most unique prom outfit at your school – so there’s nothing to lose! So, what’re you waiting for? break out the Duck Tape and design away!

Wonder if THIS would convince my boy to go to prom this year…

Now that Christmas is over, many of us are fearing opening our credit card bills as they come due this month – making smart money choices isn’t something many of us grew up with – or if we did, sometimes it’s simply hard to remember when it comes time for the holidays. And when your teenager asks for $10 bucks for this, for that, and it adds up… suddenly the thought of teaching them to make smart money choices might be a good idea!

And you’re not alone. Experts agree that starting early is a major key to later financial successes – and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling has recently announced their 2010 Poster contest to get kids involved and give them a head start toward a smart financial future.

The ever lovely Julie dropped me a note not long ago to make sure I knew about the contest, and now I’m passing that information on to you. This years theme is “$mart Money Choices = A Brighter Future” and in an effort to increase interest in financial literacy in our nation’s youth, they NFCC is sponsoring the Be Money Wi$e National Financial Literacy Poster Contest. Here are some of the details:

The contest is designed to get young students thinking about how to manage money efficiently and offers them a creative outlet to demonstrate their knowledge. It also provides the opportunity for local and national recognition for student artwork. All finalists will receive a commemorative t-shirt, and each national grade category winner will receive an award plaque and a $100 savings bond. In addition, the National Winner will be given an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., with a parent or guardian and will be given official recognition in April as part of the Financial Literacy Month on Capitol Hill!

Who can enter? All school-aged children grades 3-12 are eligible, and there will be local and national winners chosen from three grade categories. The entries will be judged by expression of the theme, artistic style, creativity and need to be submitted through an NFCC Member Agency for judging. The deadlines are all in February 2010, so be sure to check out MoneyWisePOsterContest.org to get more detailed information, rules, entry forms, and find out where to submit!

So what are you waiting for? Get your kiddo creating and learning today!

…not Sandra Dee…

We’ve had a bit of disappointment on the Grease stage. It seems that, although every other school trip is planned over Spring Break, the Band trip that Peppermist is going on, is in FEBRUARY. The week before Grease hits the stage. Unfortunately, this conflict was too big of one to overcome, and Peppermist had to drop out of the chorus.

I’m bummed.
Peppermist is completely ok with this, however.

She was still feeling pretty lonely without her friends there to enjoy the experience with her. Friends that are scared to come into my house right now because they read the previous post about my being Not. Happy about them ditching Peppermist at the auditions. Hahah! They came bearing cookies yesterday to bribe their way back into my good graces. Smart girls…

So, while we’re disappointed, Peppermist is clearly looking at the bright side of things. “This means I get to WATCH it! Which is TOTALLY what I’d rather do than just be in the CHORUS.” So, when she returns from her Band Trip, all flush with excitement and new experiences, she and I have a date to watch the play – and sing along from the audience.

And that’s just fine for the both of us.
(And it makes it safe for her friends to come around again. Bonus! )

Oh what a long weekend! While the little stabby dudes of doom are still stabbitying my lower back, it didn’t stop me from doing the Proud Mama thing all weekend long. Because that’s simply how I roll… (…I’m such a gangsta, yo!)

Saturday was the first swim meet of the season for the Pup, The Candy Cane Splash, which meant hopping into Nana’s car at the bright and early and happy hour of 5am – after having slept about 2 hours myself – and heading north to Seward. Papa offered us some cash if we “needed it” and we decided we “needed breakfast and coffee” so that worked out well too.

We got to the pool right at 8am, where the kids all hopped into the pool for warmups to get ready for the day. And what a successful day it was! All of our kids did well – the Pup, and my niece and two of my nephews (the third stayed at home to play with Peppermist and the puppies), and The Pup is EXTREMELY proud that along with destroying some of her times from last year, she also never once came in last in any of her heats! For a girl who struggled last year to get the strokes down, not DQ, and simply finish a little better than she had the time before, this was a HUGE moral boost for our waterbaby! Even the coach commented that she was a LOT stronger this year, and all her work during the off season paid off for her big time.

So for those who’d like to share a little bit of the day – here’s my Pup in all her swimming glory, in 5 events. I have videos of all our kids, of course, and you can click through to see how AMAZING they are too if you like!

Just ignore the crazy lady shouting encouragements in the background. I have NO idea who she is – someone really aughta gag her…

We arrived back into town in the early evening, and all the kids collapsed for some sleep. And by “all the kids” I totally mean me, as I pretended to watch a movie with the Pup and instead got yelled at for snoring. WHATEVER.

The fun wasn’t over yet though, as yesterday was the Annual December Band Concert for the high school and junior high bands. Peppermist has been in band since the 5th grade, so we’re getting quite used to all of these concerts, and measuring just how much improvement the kids have from concert to concert, year to year.

Yesterday’s concert was amazing – with only a few bobbles here and there, and some really good solos as well – which made it an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

One of the best parts about it though is the Charlie Brown Tree in front. APPARENTLY Charlie Brown is “cool” again, and I simply didn’t know it.

Peppermist: Charlie Brown is AWESOME. Charlie Brown is ALWAYS cool.
Me: … you kids gotta TELL me these things!
Peppermist: pfft. Some things you just know. Gawd, Mom.

So that was my weekend – How was YOURS?!

Could someone message the little ice-pick wielding dudes currently stabbing me in the lower back and tell them to knock it off? I appreciate it! I meant to let you all know some things yesterday, but then ice-pick wielding dudes, and I sooooooooorta lost focus! Haha! But I’m soldiering through today, for I know you can’t live without my special brand of snarkitude, right? Right!

No snarking necessary here though – because it’s all about Congrats!

1. Peppermist got a part in Grease! While she was certain that everyone who auditioned got a part in the Chorus like she did, I know for a fact that they did NOT, which means she beat out quite a few in order to snag her spot! And the Chorus for this show is HUGE, with MANY songs, and a LOT of stage time!

Her friends all bailed on her – which makes me wanna wap ‘em in the head – and as a result Peppermist is a little nervous with each rehersal, but she can’t deny that she comes home with a smile. They’ve worked with her one scheduling conflict (tap dance on tuesdays) and are genuinely thrilled to have her.

And it gets conversations like this:

Me: How was practice?
Peppermist: Awkward! We learned the rest of the choreography for “We Go Together” – which is partner work! I was standing there sorta like “Hm, Ihave no partner, I’ll just stand here, embarrassed” and then there was a guy next to me who was sorta like “Hm, I have no partner, I’ll just stand here, embarrassed” and lo, we became partners.
Me: OH OH OH! WAS HE CUTE?
Peppermist: OMG MOM.
Me: WAS HE?
Peppermist: I guess.
Me: What’s his name?
Peppermist: I don’t know! What, you expected us to TALK?!
Me:…no. of course not, child. That’d be INSANITY right there…

So she’s, ya know, making friends and influencing people, just as she should.

2. The always lovely Deana dropped me a note this morning to let me know who won the GE Strong as Steel Sweepstakes! Congrats go to Katie H. from Fort Worth, TX (who’s chosen a fridge!) who won through Bargain Hunting Moms! We’re so happy for you both – and only a TEENY TINY LITTLE BIT TOTALLY OMG JEALOUS.

3. Watch this space, cuz guess what? it’s SWIM TEAM TIME! First meet on Saturday in Seward, which means Nana, the pup and I, along with Auntie and her kiddos will be carpooling up that direction WAY early on Saturday morning. So if you hear many cheers wafting your way from up north? It’s the crazy lady with the camera, screamin like crazy for all my Swim Team kiddos.

And now I’m gonna go curl up against my hot water bottle and listen to GLEE sountrack for a while. Have a great day, ya’ll!

And no, this time I don’t mean “Holidays”! No, this time it’s all about the Pre-Teen Pup, and her swimming. For the next six months she will be in the pool, thinking about the pool, talking about the pool, dreaming about the pool, and working her hardest to shave time off her her best race each and every time she gets in the pool and competes. It’ll be all backstroke this, and breaststroke that and freestyle splash n dash and omg the butterfly my poor shoulders, block starts, flip turns and streamline, streamline, streamline! It’ll be new suits, team suits, goggles that fall off in the middle of races, adjustments, cheers and even some tears. It’ll be fights with coach and adoration of coach and promises of ice cream for all DQs. (In our family, a DQ – disqualification, gets DQ – Dairy Queen!) It’ll be sauna like temperatures in the pool, videos and pictures, tired swimmers and exhausted mommies.

In short? It’ll be a blast!
(…mostly… ha!)

I’ve been doing this Swimmer Support role since my sister was on the High School swim team. I was down on deck, counting down the endless laps for the 500 freestyle for her, delivering her inhaler, and wearing a shirt that declared me “J’s sister!” next to my mom who wore a shirt that said “J’s mom!” while she ran around in a shirt over her suit that said “I’m J!”

Her heart was broken when my older two showed zero interest in swimming other than for fun. Then came the Pup, who dove in last year with Auntie and all the cousins and hasn’t looked back – much to my sister’s delight. It just wasn’t quite right without my being in the stands, apparently!

Last year The Pup wanted to beat her cousin in just ONE THING – though he had a year’s previous experience and as a male tends to just be stronger and faster. In the end, though, she prevailed. She got an “Honor Time” certificate for her backstroke – which is a 4th place team finish. Her cousin got several good times and medals, but they were in his SECOND year, not his first like the Pups, so that satisfied that goal.

This year, her goals are all about times. She has an AMAZING breaststroke, which is something that just sort of clicked for her toward the end of last season, and her backstroke is still very strong. Freestyle is strong, her butterfly is coming along, and we’re all about beating last years times for personal best. She also has her eyes on the times of the High School Champ of my Sister’s generation – who FINALLY saw one of her records come down just this year! She knows she won’t be able to hit those until High School, but she’s DETERMINED to be ready to destroy the record board by then.

I believe she can do it.

But most importantly – SHE believes she can do it, and I’ll sit in the uncomfortable bleachers, sweating like a pig in the humid 12930182 heat for the next 6 months and all the years following, and cheer myself hoarse for hours on end to help her get there. After all, lookit that face – could YOU resist?

Yeah, no.
Me either.

GO PIRANHAS!

In August, Peppermist turned 15. Her birthday was on a week when we had zero cash flow, and she – being the most awesome of awesomeness – accepted that I had a gift in mind, but it would need to wait a bit. I promised I’d surprise her with it soon…ish. That’s not to say we didn’t have us a family party with friends and family and cake and gifts – because we totally did! But she knew there was something coming for her still, and I kept reminding myself to get something awesome.

Problem was – I’d picked something already, and then lost the bookmark, and couldn’t remember what/where it was exactly, and OMG I’m the WORST MOTHER in the WORLD, right? RIGHT. I needed something to remind me, maybe an old fashioned string around the finger would help…

WAIT. THAT WAS IT! I REMEMBERED!

I don’t remember where I first saw the String Ring, exactly, but I remember loving the idea, and wanting to get one for Peppermist for her birthday. The String Ring takes memory one step farther – as it’s built around Remembering to be Kind. It’s a “cue to remind yourself, and those who notice it, to be kind to one another. To do a kind act, or even think something kind.” It comes with colored string, which signify different things from culture to culture – and they even have a handy list of what each color means, for you to chose your favorite one to thread your ring with.

It’s a beautiful ring – and two months later, my daughter is finally wearing one. And she “SQUEE”d when she opened it – so I knew I’d done good! It’s a beautiful ring – and VERY shiny, and we all know Peppermist LOVES the shiny!

This week is Random Act of Kindness week – surrounding World Kindness Day on November 13th. As part of the celebration – I have decided to give one of you lucky readers a gift! That’s right – FREE STUFF! For one lucky reader/commenter on this here blog entry, I’ll purchase and send you a String-Ring of your very own. Keep it, give it to another as a gift, remember to be Kind – it’s up to you!

So, hit up the comment section on THIS ENTRY ONLY, tell me about a Random Act Of Kindness you have done, plan to do, or experienced yourself, and I will enter you into random drawing for a String-Ring of your very own. Entries accepted until 11:59pm, Alaska time, on World Kindness Day, November 13th, I’ll announce the winner on Saturday, November 14th. Please make sure to use a valid email, so that I can contact the winner and get the necessary details for the ordering of your ring.

And today? Try this simple RAK: Say hello to a stranger – and smile.

We’re not a football family. I know, I know – get out the pitchforks and such now, but it mainly stems from being in a state that doesn’t HAVE it’s own football (or any real sports) team. Sure, we have collegiate baseball, and I think in Anchorage they still have some inside flag football thing, but whatever – we’re just not that into it. Except for the whole Superbowl sunday, and that’s all about the commercials.

But even though we’re just not that into it? This past weekend was all about the kids’ Homecoming Weekend – mostly because the colorguard and drumline were performing, and well – could the team break the Homecoming Curse?

What curse? The one where they win every other game in the year, and then bomb on homecoming because they get cocky. Did they break the curse? No, of course not! It was a slaughter – but that didn’t stop MY kids from having fun.

First off, Friday night, it was the bonfire. Now, you may THINK you’re school has the biggest and baddest bonfire ever (I’m looking at you ‘we do everything bigger in Texas’!) but you ain’t seen NOTHING yet. When someone started the fire early, they turned to our local home depot, and they came through in a BIG way. Check out the before:

Oh yeah. And yes, one of our boys climbed to the top to put the opposing teems banner up there. So after the parade through town – which Peppermist and her colorguard and drumline buds walked in – they lit that badboy up, and within about 30 minutes, the flag was gone and the bonfire settled into something that resembled the surface of the SUN.

Now THAT’S a bonfire!

The boy made his Papa proud – but filling up a large container full of ice, buying a couple cases of soda, and setting up a tailgate party in his truck. He had all his friends, his sisters friends and a bunch of random strangers hanging around – and by the time I left, it seemed he was having quite a bit of fun.

On Saturday, it was the games, and at halftime – the Girl’s colorguard performance!

And of course, the crowning jewel of the weekend, the Homecoming Dance. My son didn’t go, nor did many of his friends, so it was Pizza Party in the Manspace with them. Peppermist, on the other hand, is firmly in the camp of “Date? who needs a date?! I’m going with my GIRLFRIENDS!” And their group of 8 hit the dancefloor together, looking stunning, as usual!

Peppermist knew she looked pretty good when her brother and his best friend took one look and just went “NO! You cannot leave the house looking like that.” Undeterred, she and her friends danced the night away (though she DID forget her jewelry, and I being the nice mom that I am, made a second trip to bring it to her so that her look would be complete. Inorite?!). They even took their pictures together, and the photographer there worked out a special package so that each of the 8 girls would get a 5×7 and 3 wallets, which was pretty damn nice of him since his standard price of $10 per extra person would have cost them $80 and was way to expensive for any of the girls, and the package wouldn’t have divided up right. So good on ya, photographer dude!

By all reports, the dance was a huge success, though there were some confusion with the girls. They had an assembly, and reminded everyone that the same dress code was in effect for dances – which meant no spaghetti straps or
strapless dresses. This is why Peppermist wore a wrap all evening (and also because she’s more comfortable that way.) – but there were some dresses? Woooooooooooahboy. I don’t think I saw ANY with actual sleeves! And a couple elicited one reaction from me: “Hooker, stay away from MY son.” Who the HELL let their daughter wear a strapless SOCK that barely covered her ass, with thigh high hooker boots?! Harumph.

But they had fun anyway, Peppermist and her crew, while dressed APPROPRIATELY, even.

So that’s what we did with OUR weekend. How was YOURS?

(and I’m so gonna get smacked for that title when she sees this one. )

Peppermist loves to dance.

She loves it so much that she doesn’t even mind that she’s a poor lil white baby with her Daddy’s (lack of) rhythm coupled with her mama’s (lack of) gracefulness. Hey, I married a guy with great HAIR, not great DANCE MOVES! Some things are just more important when it comes to genepool, ya know?

Give her a song with a beat or happy feet and she’ll bebop all over the house – right up until I get my camera out, of course.

Because when the camera gets out – we get this:

Cute – but not… exactly… dancing. She is an animated little darling though, isn’t she? ANYWAY – we were talking about dancing.

APPARENTLY – I am the worst mother in all the world because Peppermist has ALWAYS and FOREVER wanted to take dance lessons like her BFF Micky and it’s so CRUEL that i never let her do ANYTHING she wants SOB SNIFFLE SLAM. That last one is the door, naturally. This is also – how do they say it – not an actual representation of the event in question, but dramatized for television the internets. Yes.

She didn’t want to take regular dance though – and through some fabulously generous folks, (THANKS PAPA and B!) Peppermist is now spending two hours a week taking tap lessons – one hour “helping” the younger class so that she and her BFF can get ‘caught up’ on the basics, and a second hour with their age group, where they put it all into play.

Also, APPARENTLY, this means that you must have tap shoes, and MY idea of nailing old diet coke cans to her feet wasn’t good enough. I was just trying to be good and RECYCLE you know, but she had to shoot me down. She also insisted on using her own horded babysitting cash to pay for said shoes, so other than taking away all my fun, I really didn’t have a reason to say “no, do it MY way” which is also known as the “fun for MOM” way.

Psssht. Whatever.

So her shoes arrived before last week’s practice, and Peppermist, she was so giddy she let me take pictures. WILLINGLY. While she bemoaned the fact we had no hardwood to make the taps REALLY sing.

To that, I just have one thing to say:

Dear 70s construction crew that chose cheap ass linoleum vs. hardwood,

Thank you.