Lolly's 6th Birthday Frozen Party

Yesterday my little Lolly Bolly turned six. SIX. My little cheeky monkey turned SIX.

This kid.


This kid.


This kid.




Happy birthday, crazy girl.


She had her birthday party last weekend. She wanted a Frozen party, of course. We wanted to have it in the gym hall where I work so they could have a bouncy house, but there were basketball games scheduled for that day. I booked it for the fitness room instead where we do classes. When I told Lolly we'd have it in the room where I do Zumba, she asked "Are we doing Zumba at my party?!" Hmmm, I thought. I suppose we could! So we planned a Frozen Zumba party.

I spent weeks beforehand on Pinterest getting ideas. I designed some invitations on Photoshop.


I wanted the theme colors to be all teal/blue and white. Food and everything. After seeing a million cool ideas, I stuck with a general snowflake theme for decor, and for food, I went with white powdered donuts (Lolly's request), popcorn, white covered pretzels, blue jello, Hershey's Hugs, white cheese dip with blue tortilla chips, blue punch (which turned out green, oops) and a bucket full of water bottles ("melted snow" right?). And of course a cake. Chocolate on the inside but with teal "ombre" icing.



I planned some crafts and games too, to entertain them before Zumba. We never got around to the games, but the crafts went well. They made toilet paper roll snowmen and cut snowflakes out of coffee filters.



We were going to play a Do You Want To Build a Snowman? game where the kids teamed up in twos or threes and wrapped one kid up in toilet paper, then finished by putting a scarf and hat on the wrapped up kid. It never happened though, because they were just happy doing their crafts and running around the room like crazy!



The kids had a snack, and then Kristy arrived to do the Zumba class. She was fantastic! She did songs like "What Did the Fox Say?" and the Gummy Bear song. We tried to get the parents to join in with the dancing, but until she got to the last song, the only parents dancing were those of us who go to/teach Zumba anyway!

(For the record, Zumba Kidz isn't the same as Zumba for kids. No twerking for tots. No popping for pre-schoolers.)

The kids loved it!




I've never seen so many Elsas in one room before.

The last song was "Let It Go". For that song, it began to snow. Thank you, Sarah, for letting us borrow your snow machine!!




With the last thirty minutes, we cut the cake and opened presents. Disney make a KILLING off of all the Frozen paraphernalia Lolly received for her birthday!






I toyed with all kinds of ideas for party favors to send home with the kids. I originally considered little bags of Hershey's Hugs with an Olaf tag saying "I like warm hugs!" But then I saw an idea (on Pinterest of course) for making little jars of homemade gak, and I just had to try it. I had a box full of jars in the garage that I've been trying to find a use for for over a year. I figured if I haven't used them yet, I probably never will! So I made fifteen or so jars of teal and purple gak. Scott told me I was an awful woman for sending gak home with other people's kids, and maybe I am! But I can bet the kids loved it. I know my kids did!


The party was so much fun. And as a mother, it was actually pretty stress free! It certainly helps to have a husband who will run back home for you to pick up the things you forgot and a friend to take all the pictures for you. Thank you, Elizabeth, for all these great pictures you took!

One more very happy birthday under my baby girl's belt.




Previous Parties:
1st - Rocking Horse/ Carousel
2nd - Clicky Shoes
3rd - Dora the Explorer
4th - Wizard of Oz
5th - Powerpuff Girls/ Superhero
6th - Frozen

Spooky Saturday

I love Halloween!

I'm a little late to the game this October, but finally today we got some decorations out. And by "got some decorations out", I mean I pulled the three items from last year out of the cupboard and that is all we had. So I hit the Dollar Tree, Walmart and Hobby Lobby and bought some cheap decorations to spookify our house.

I'm actually not a big fan of decking out the entire house with holiday decorations. I definitely prefer small, subtle touches. Even for Christmas, all I have is one box. I don't like clutter at the worst of times, but since moving from Scotland and streamlining everything, I've tried even harder to keep the clutter to a minimum. But three Halloween items - a plastic skull, a pumpkin Fifi made in pottery a few years ago and an orange and black cup made by my potter friend Maria - were really not enough.

I started out with the mantel. I put my new window frame up, which I haven't done anything to yet (and anyway the old, battered look totally works for Halloween) and strung cobweb over it. I added a black spider web, a hologram "old fashioned" photo (one angle, two men in sepia smiling, another angle, monster faces) and my three aforementioned items. Simple yet spooky. Makes me smile.

Before I remembered the stuff in the cupboard...

And after.

For my door, I wanted a Halloween, or at least a Fall, wreath, but it turns out that wreaths are ridiculously expensive. I should probably learn to make my own. So I just have a cute wooden sign.

No mention of the ogre who pays the bills though... sorry, Scott!

For some time I've been wanting a little graveyard for my garden, the kind with skeleton bones coming up out of the ground. So today, the girls and I set up our spooky graveyard. I wanted the bones to look more haphazard and disheveled, but they insisted on them being orderly. I let them win.

I later found them outside, reading a book to the skeleton, whom they named Mr Demon... Apparently Mr Demon has a whole backstory and has died three times in three different ways. Fifirst, from old age, since he was 100 and "had run out of life". Second, from sunbathing in the street and getting hit by a car. Third, from amnesia. As you do. I'm not sure if I should be amused by this or disconcerted. As my friend Kate said tonight, as long as they don't start telling me that it was actually Mr Demon who told them these stories, it's probably okay...


And I've gotten myself kind of Halloweeny too. I painted my nails black and orange. And today for the October Dress Project I wore The Dress (which is black) with orange shoes, necklace and bracelet. (For the interested: I picked up the shoes at a cancer research charity shop in Greenock, the necklace was a gift from one of my mom's friends and I bought the bracelet at a Craft Fair at the Old Gourock and Ashton Parish. I think it was made by either Lynda or Sylvia.) The Dress was worn as one of those asymmetrical shirts, the kind that are short in the front and long in the back. I wore a white long-sleeved shrug over it. And my hair pulled into a messy, not-fixed bun and no make-up. Scary!

Yes, that's my senior class ring. I still wear it occasionally. 

Fellow ODPer, Kate wearing her dress as a shirt too!

And while not Halloweeny, I went to a craft night tonight at said Kate's house, where I worked on some Christmas cards. I should have worked on Halloween cards I guess, but there you go. Kate was making Halloween - or rather, Harvest - decorations for their church Harvest Fest (cute bats and green monsters), and Lindsay was making her daughter's Halloween costume (Elsa out of many miles of tulle). So there was some Halloween fun going on there,. despite my Christmas season highjacking. Laura, the quilter of the bunch, brought a delicious pumpkin dip for us to enjoy, so all in all, it was a fairly good Halloweeny way to end a Halloweeny day.

I love Halloween!

In the Immortal Words of Ice Cube...

Today Was a Good Day.


Well, except for the very beginning. Jaguar woke me up at 4am, and I spent the next two hours putting him back into his bed over and over. Eventually I had to lay in bed with him and hold him in my arms until we both finally drifted off to sleep around 6am. I know it was around 6, because just as I was finally dozing off, Lolly came into Jaguar's room to announce (loudly) that my alarm was going off. I told her to be quiet and go tell Daddy to deal with it. I then went off to sleep, and no one in the house woke up again until 7. Scott and the kids leave the house at 7.30, so we basically all overslept. Or rather, THEY overslept, I barely got any!

So the morning was rushed, getting kids fed, dressed and out the door on time, but then Jaguar and I chilled until we left the house at 9 to go to our first ever MOPS meeting. I knew very little about MOPS except that the kids go into a nursery while the mums go do... mum stuff, I guess. And I knew it was Christian-based. My new friend Victoria wanted to try it out, and I've thought about it in the past, so we decided yesterday we'd try it out today. I arrived at the church at the same time as Victoria, but we were parked in two different parking lots, so I took Jaguar inside by myself, unsure of what I was supposed to do or where we were supposed to go. I followed some girls with kids and found the nursery rooms. Jaguar took one look inside the 2-year old room and darted right past me to start playing. When I tried to say goodbye, he never even turned to look at me, just kept playing with the toy kitchen he'd found.  (When I came to pick him up, I peeked through the window, and he saw me. He pointed me out to his teacher, saying, "Mama!" but didn't run to the door or anything - he just kept playing!)

I followed a girl with no kids to the grown-up area and walked into a huge room full of unfamiliar faces. I'm not usually one to be shy or lacking in confidence, but I will admit something welled up in my chest that was akin to terror. I guess I've become so out of practice with meeting new people in large groups that I almost felt like crying, the way I used to feel in Junior High when it was nearing my turn to give a presentation to the whole class. I spoke to one of the girls with an official-looking t-shirt while I waited for my friend. Fifinally she arrived, and I was relieved. She knew a few people (it is based in her church), so she found us a table to sit at, saving me the awkwardness of having to ask a total stranger, "Is this seat taken?" (and having them say "Yes"). The project today was - get this - window decorating! Everyone had brought all kinds of amazing craft materials with which to decorate their windows - scrapbook paper, paint, stencils, chicken wire, burlap, wreaths, ribbons, wooden letters, even MOSS - and everyone had a paned window frame to work with. I've never felt so un-crafty in my life, seeing the amazing ideas all these girls had. Victoria and I, it being our first time and therefore not having reserved a window, discussed excitedly what we'd do with a window if we had one. Lucky for us, there were several spare, so we both got one! (I felt bad that we hadn't paid for one, surely we were supposed to? But no one said anything about it...)

Anyway, we walked around looking at everyone's work, gathering ideas for our own windows, and having just a really good time. Another friend, Monique, was there, one of the moms from Lolly's soccer team, so I got to chat with her too. I was surprised by how much fun I had; I guess I hadn't really expected to. I think today may have been a special day; I think usually it's more a discussion time rather than a craft time, and my guess is that it'll be Christian-based discussion, but I'm really excited about trying it again next time again anyway. Even if it's fairly religious, I'm Down For Whatever.

(The little treats on the tables. How freaking cute are these?!)

Before I move on, today, I wore The Dress very half-heartedly... it's that mid-month lull where I'm running out of ideas, before a new wave of ideas crashes over me. I wore The Dress tied up on the side underneath a white sweatshirt with a very cheesy gold, sparkly skull screenprinted on the front and a pair of jeans. I wore my favorite red tartan sneakers and some amber drop-shaped earrings that were, once again, a gift from Rebekkah. (I've noticed my sister-in-law has given me a lot of accessories that I love!) I felt the outfit was a little blah, though, so I threw on a black pinstriped hat too. I have a wonderful selection of hats; it's one of the perks of having been in the Brethren church all those years! I'll have to pull more out for the remainder of the month.

So after MOPS, I went to finish the grocery shopping that I never finished yesterday. Victoria told me that - get this - a local supermarket sells Pataks Indian curry sauces! I didn't believe her and had to see for myself. Sure enough, the local Harps sells Pataks! You cannot KNOW how thrilled this has made me. I have been driving thirty-five minutes into town to go to the one Kroger that sells Indian curry sauce, when they've been five minutes away all this time! I bought one or two to tide us over for a couple of weeks. (They also had naan bread!)


After having saved myself a trip into town, I finished my grocery shopping at the local Kroger. I got everything I needed (except frozen cauliflower, why no frozen cauliflower, Kroger?) and when I checked out, I was still under budget! I Got a $100 Dollar Bill Ya'll. Well, in the bank.

Jaguar and I came home, put away all the groceries, cleaned out the refrigerator, watched some Gilmore Girls and put some Indian curry in the Crockpot. The girls came home from school, and a couple of hours later I took them back to the school for our Parent-Teacher conferences.

*BRAGGING ALERT* If you don't want to read full-on Mummy Boasting, skip on down, because I am just going to brag here for a minute or two, because my girls totally deserve it. We got absolutely glowing reports on both girls. Lolly's teacher told us how well-behaved, smart, helpful, obedient, social, well-liked and artistic she is. She told us how Lolly is a delight to have in the classroom and never gets into trouble. I kept smiling, because I could hardly believe it! I told her how I was a little worried about her starting school, worried about her focus and her following instructions. The teacher was surprised. She said Lolly is perfect in class and such a relief, a model student. She told me she knew this conference would be an easy one, because she had no concerns whatsoever about Lolly. I left that conference beaming. I was so proud of my little hooligan. Who'd have thought that our little bohemian wild child would be so well-behaved in school?! The teacher thinks the structure has been exactly what she needed, which is what Scott had been saying to me all along. Seems he was right. So proud.

Then I went to Fifi's class. Her teacher said many of the same things, how she loves having Fifi in her class, how she's so smart, well-behaved, helpful, obedient, kind and studious. Other than the fact that Fifi talks too much (wonder who she gets that from?) and whistles while she works (that's all her dad), she had no complaints. She praised her for being such a fantastic reader and commented on how she always finishes her work early and immediately pulls out a book to pass the rest of the time. She also said Fifi was a relief to have in class. By this time I was beaming from ear to ear. Such glowing reports from both teachers. I am so incredibly proud of my little girls.

I also loved the artwork on the walls outside the classrooms. This was what Fifi had written for Grandparents' Day a couple of weeks ago. They had to write about a grandparent, and Fifi chose my dad, her "Musha". Could my kid be any cooler?

My Mushou [Musha] is fit and thin. Mushou is warm and frendly. Mushou talk's nicely and sweetly. Me and Mushou ador bikeing. I love when we bake cookies for nena [Neena]. Me and Moshou love to read long nonficshin book's together are faverit is world war book's. Are faverit bit is the end becase nena make's treat's!

And before I finish bragging, I was also really proud of myself and Scott. We don't get everything right as parents, but after those two meetings, I felt justified in thinking we've obviously done pretty well. Still grinning. *BRAGGING COMPLETE* For now.

We came home from the school and met Scott. He hadn't gotten home from work in time for the conferences, so I sent him out with Lolly to get some celebration ice cream, while I finished up the dinner. We had chicken Tikka Masala with tumeric rice and naan, and Diet Irn Bru, followed by cookie dough ice cream. We were all on cloud nine. Jaguar went to bed no problem after dinner, and I'm soon on my way to bed too. Going into work at 5am tomorrow, so I can't afford a late night!

Seriously, I had a really great day today, one of the best I've had in ages, and with the kids and Scott off work tomorrow, tomorrow's going to be great too, Fool, 'Cause It's Friday.

Spray Painting and a "Shelfie"

Fifirst of all, I stole the word and concept "shelfie" from a Chris Gavin, because I think "shelfies" are going to be the next big thing, and I am determined to help Chris make it a thing and get him an article on Wikipedia.


Secondly, I am very excited to show that we have accumulated enough books to half-fill an actual (small) bookshelf!! This is big. If you've been following our story, you will likely know that we had to give away almost all of our books when we moved. And we had lots and lots of books. We both love to read, so this was pretty much the saddest part of moving, except for the people we had to leave. So actually having a little bookshelf makes me very happy, even if we don't have enough books to fill it up yet.

Some of our old books

My lovely friend and neighbor Amy gave us this little old bookshelf, which I've put in our living room behind my trusy rocking chair. I want to paint it, but here's the question: Do I paint it a fun color or a normal color?

I bought two spray paint colors, pink and brown. Pink was for my desk chair. Brown was for the shelf.

I personally prefer Rust-oleum to Krylon.

I just want to cuddle it, it's so cute!

But after painting this chair and loving the bubble gum pink color so much, I'm wondering, should I do the shelf pink too? It would match the bright chair cushions...


However, the rest of the furniture in the living room are brown, so I should probably keep it matchy, shouldn't I?

Anyway, I have a bookshelf. I'm happy. I shall continue my quest to fill it.

Keeping Busy, With This and That

For someone who has taken a back seat to getting involved in too many things - and I've taken, like, the very back seat of the megabus here - I've managed to still get myself very busy lately. However, this time I'm doing things I love, not things that I'm obligated to do, and oh, man that kind of makes me sound like a spoiled, pampered upper class housewife, so let me start over...

Last year's theme was Simplicity. This year's themes are Satisfaction and Motivation. I started 'theming' my years last year with my annual 40 Questions. Simplicity was the year I really needed to streamline my life - in both material possessions and in activities. I had gotten myself involved in far too much, which meant I couldn't actually give any one thing enough care and attention to do it properly. It also meant I was away from home so much, I felt I couldn't keep housework under control or spend enough time with my kids and husband. It was the year we moved from Scotland to the US, so I really had no choice but to simplify my commitments and my belongings.

In doing all that, and then moving across the pond, I realized I had simplified so much that I owned practically nothing, which I perceived as a bad thing, and moving to a new place meant I had very few friends and no activities to get involved with. Thus Satisfaction (and subsequently Motivation) were introduced as my 2014 themes. Can I be satisfied with what I have? Can I be satisfied with this new laid-back - super laid-back - lifestyle, with not being involved in anything? The answer seemed to be that I needed to learn what I can or can't live without and to be satisfied with that. And as for not having friends or things to do, that was going to require a little motivation on my part to achieve.

And in all honesty, I've not done well on either of those challenges.

We have accumulated a lot of stuff that we don't need and don't satisfy me to have. I still haven't been very motivated to get outside my comfort zone and get involved with anything or anyone. It's still very depressing for me. I know I don't want to live here in Arkansas long term, and that's keeping me from making the effort to make close friends or get involved with anything. It's pretty much entirely my own fault that I have very little life outside my home right now.

Soooooo, having laid all that out there, what I meant to say was, for someone who is no longer childminding full time, teaching baby signing, running an online shop, volunteering on committees, rehearsing for musicals, leading worship at church, studying Gaelic, and juggling kids' ballet, football, drama and tennis schedules, I've been a pretty busy lady lately. Mostly from home. And what I'm finding is, it's kind of satisfying. For now at least.

Working
I have my one business. Just one. It isn't extremely busy, it doesn't take very much planning, and the actual work involved is fun and energizing. Having my own Pampered Chef business has been perfect. It gets me out of the house to parties (I love that my job is all about partying), makes us a little extra money and gives me something to be excited about. It does require me to work at getting parties lined up, which is the hard part, but everything else about it is really easy and fun. My goal is six parties a month, though lately it's been only two to four, but those parties, plus holding booths at vendors' events, keeps me fairly busy.



I get to make and eat things like this for money!
Reading
I've joined a book club. Two, actually, though I've only been to one meeting of either... However, I have actually bought and am reading the book for Book Club #2 (which is named "Velociraptors in an Opium Den" which I guess I'll understand the context of some day) and have the next meeting on my calendar... I intend to go, having read the entire book, and I'll even bring some food. That's involvement, people! That's a pretty big step for me at this pathetic stage of my life. We are reading An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke; I'm halfway through. It's good to have a book in my hands again. We sold/gave away almost all of our books when we moved. Not having a bookshelf in my new house makes me feel uneducated, nonintellectual, and dare I say it, unsatisfied. I have a series of books on my 'to read' list and in my Amazon cart, for after pay day. Next two books on the purchase list: Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream and Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama. As a Christian, I was always reading theology. It appears that now as a post-Christian, I still like the same genre! Politics, however, are my new interest. Religion and politics. The two things you should never talk about in polite company.



It was this book that got me interested in Obama's autobiographies...
Sidebar: You may wonder why I want to purchase books instead of check them out of the library or read them on a Kindle. Three reasons:
1) I want to build back up a collection of books. I re-read books all the time and love having them at my fingertips. I have books I re-read practically once a year. I don't want to go back to the library to check out a book multiple times. I also love having my own home library which leads me to...
2) I already said I feel uneducated, nonintellectual and unsatisfied with no books in my house. I want my kids to grow up surrounded by books. I want them to have books they can pull off the shelf at any time if they look interesting to them. I grew up surrounded by books - theology, biographies, fiction, encyclopedias - and I want my kids to do the same. Scott is also a reader - he's into early sci-fi - and together, we had a pretty fantastic library until we - sob, hiccup - had to part with them all. Damn, I miss my books.



All my books fit in this one shelf. Waaaah!
Oh yeah, and 3) I hate e-readers. I like real live books with paper pages.

Writing
I'm writing a book. I'm not ready yet to talk about what I'm writing or let anyone read it, but it does fill my time, and it's something I've always wanted - nay, needed - to do. I've been writing since I was old enough to print. I've been writing stories as far back as I can remember. I wrote a book in fifth grade titled Boys R Poo and if only I could get my hands on that incredible piece of literature... I'm sure I'd cry with horror over how embarrassing it is. I graduated college with a degree in English, with an emphasis in Creative Writing. I've written a book of poetry and self-published it as an eBook (which by all means, go buy. Right now.) But a book, writing an actual book, has always been on my bucket list. It's getting to the awful stage right now, the 'this is so not f***ing worth it, why am I wasting my time?, oh this is going to be terrible, I have to finish it though, I've come so far, but oh no one is ever going to want to read this drivel!' stage. Which, since I've never written a whole book before, may or may not be something like transition in childbirth. I don't know.




My e-book had to count as satisfying the 'before 30' part.

Sewing
Now that I have my new sewing machine, the thing I missed most after my books, I've started making stuff again. It's hard to find the time sometimes, but when I do get a few scraps of free time, I've been on my machine. I made another Jaguarator and I've started making taggie blankets. I'm even considering making some taggies to sell. Ohhhh I can see myself slipping into that second home business trap again, but I can guarantee it won't become an online shop! I also want to make some new clothes. I've got a couple of peasant skirts I want to make myself in time for summer (if summer ever comes to this god-forsaken cold town - this cold weather is NOT what I signed up for when we moved back to the South) and some dresses for the girls. I love having a sewing machine again!



Because babies love chewing on the tags.
Mummying
Not to be confused with the practice of wrapping dead bodies in cloths and embalming oils, though at times I feel like a dead person being kept preserved by another person's will, mummying keeps me fairly busy. Lolly starts kindergarten in only four and a half months, but until then, she and Jaguar keep me going full steam most days.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Having her home with me again after a year and a half of her being in nursery (pre-school) has been tough, but it's been amazing for our relationship. She's a tough cookie to get to close to. This year has been really special for us, as a mummy and daughter. The child I thought I'd never understand, the child who kept me at a slight emotional distance, even as a toddler, has welcomed me into her inner lair and shared her little soul with me this year. We have become best friends through this unexpected year off. She drives me insane, and some days I'm pretty sure drugs wouldn't be such a terrible thing to get into after all, but it's worth it. Like taking her to her homeschool group's Box Car Derby this morning. She painted and decorated her own car, which I'm not going to lie, was one of those 'Anyone got any heroin?' experiences, but at the derby, she was so proud of her beautiful car and so excited to be in a race.



She told me, 'Mummy, I promise you I'll win.' And she did. That's my girl!
Extracurricular activities keep me mummying too. Soccer has started up again, too, so on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I'm hitting the soccer fields again for two hours of watching Fifi then Lolly practice. Fifi is in Girl Scouts as well which is every other Thursday night. So those are my social nights, sitting on the bleachers with the other soccer moms and dads, cheering on our little tripping, bumbling wonders of biology and nature.



Selling the crap out of some cookies.



I've started calling it 'soccer' instead of 'football'. Waaaah!
Exercising
Fifinally, how could I forget? My least favourite but most rewarding hours of the week? Here's where motivation really comes into play - the gym. I try to go at least twice a week, if not three times. This is my other social outlet, though I don't really socialize very much while I'm there. I'm too out of breath to try talking. I'm still going to my fitness classes while Lolly goes to hers, and today I had a little epiphany. Or maybe it was less an epiphany but a kick up the backside. Instead of hating every moment of these classes (I just frickin' hate cardio!), I realized I needed to pace myself. Once again, a little like childbirth. If you go into a work out (or childbirth) already defeated, already ready to be miserable, then you will have a hard time getting through it. But if you pace yourself mentally, beginning with, 'Okay, I can do this, I'm feeling good, I'm working' then graduate to 'Whew, yep, I'm working all right, but I can maintain this, I can keep going' to finally, 'Right, now it's getting hard, I will keep going but this really is getting tough now', you'll get through it a lot more easily. And surprisingly, at the end of the work out today, I didn't feel like I was going to die or cry, because I'd mentally paced myself. I realized I was actually in good enough shape that if forced (and only if forced) I could keep going. Unfortunately, this is where the childbirth illustration breaks down, because in childbirth, when you hit the 'F*** this, I can't do this anymore!', well, hello, baby, is that a head I see? And you don't have the luxury of stopping any time soon, you just gotta keep working through that mess.