Candy Cane Court Part II

Fridays sales for candy cane court didn't go so well.  Everyone wanted to buy Anthony's airplanes but his teacher will only allow him to sell them after school.  There is no time for him to sell them after school and by the end of the day, the kids have spent their money on other things and don't have any left.  He did sell some rice krispie treats Friday during his recess but holding a tote of goodies and trying to deal with money at the same time I'm sure was difficult......But we had a plan.  His teacher let him do a little selling during snack time at class, but again she would allow him to sell his most popular items because she considered them to be either candy or toys, two things she doesn't allow in class.  I understand this, but at the same time, how is he supposed to sell his items if he's not being given the same opportunities as his peers from other classrooms.  Today  I met Anthony at school with a table so he could open his tote and put his items out to display and hang a sign.  He had a lot of traffic, but still most 3rd - 5th graders don't bring money to school.  I kept him company and helped when he had a lot of customers at once.  He did awesome.  He sold some ninja stars that he made, and some snacks and some Lego crayons.  His biggest seller was the soda candy canes.  He sold nine.  On the way home from school I stopped to get another box and some Sour Patch Kids candy canes.  So far Anthony has made $16 for school.  $4 yesterday and $12 today.  I think he was pleased.  Tomorrow Grandma is going to bring the table again and help him sell.  I hope he has a good day again.

Candy Cane Court

Man am I tired.  Anthony asked to volunteer to represent his class in the Candy Cane Court this year.  I agreed.  (before I realized it was a fundraiser)  Then he handed me the permission slip that explained the details.  But how say no.  He's a straight A student and this is a great opportunity to learn responsibility. Anthony made paper airplanes out of colored paper to sell.  (His friends have always asked him to make airplanes for them.  He said it's because his fly the best.)  I made Rice Krispie treats and Lego crayons. Together we peeled crayons while watching Jeopardy and an episode of Yes Dear tonight after the girls went to bed. It's after one in the morning and I just finished wrapping up the crayons so they don't break and packing his box of items to sell tomorrow.  The contest ends and the money is due December 12th  The winners will be announced at his school during Christmas around the world. (I'm not sure what that is.  Last year he missed it because he was sick.)  Each class has one boy and one girl represent the class.  The two students picked are supposed to raise as much money as they can for the school.  The class from each grade that makes the most money will be selected as the winners for their grade and will get to ride on the school float in the Christmas parade. And the overall winners will be announced the King and Queen of the Candy Court.  Anthony is excited about this.  If everything that we made sells tomorrow, he will have made $27.50 for his school in the first day. Then there are eleven more school days to make and sell items before the contest ends. 

He thinks we're just fishing....

Anthony and I seemed to have started a tradition.  For the 3rd night in a row, we've watched Jeopardy together.  I love how his mind is always working.  He loves to have fun, but he loves to learn too.  He's been that way since he was little.  He doesn't know it, but Monday we stumbled across our new Mommy and Anthony time.  I remember watching Jeopardy with my mom as a kid.  It wasn't a planned thing, and I doubt it was often.  But I remember being amazed at how many answers she knew.  I wonder what Anthony thinks of this time together. It's teachers semi finals week. The questions are pretty hard.  Yesterday I knew all five in one of the categories.  Of course the category was gemstones and the answers just happened to be all three of my kids gemstones and my own, plus January's garnet.  Anthony has gotten a few right so far and a some that he didn't, the names and places sound familiar to him, especially the history category.  Tonight there were math questions.  We paused the show with the question on the tv screen so we had more time to figure out the answer.  One was add 1,031 to the year of the first moon landing.  I took this as a learning opportunity.  I taught Anthony how to "google" the answer and then he took a pencil and notebook and did the math to figure out the answer.  One of the questions was a fraction.  What is 1/4 plus 5/12.  The answer is 2/3 by the way.  (Or 8/12)  Anthony had trouble with that one.  One was to add 64 to the number of president Abraham Lincoln was.  Again, we paused the show and went to the computer to "google" a list of presidents to see which president Lincoln was.  Anthony's so funny.  The answer to the question was 100.  Anthony did the math and had the correct answer written down, but couldn't read his own writing and hollered "106" at the tv.  Anthony has no idea that this is and hopefully will continue to be our special time together.  Not only is it time we can spend together just the two of us, but it's also a chance for us bother to learn....

*kids, the title of this post might not make sense to you when you read this, but a country singer named Trace Adkins sings a song called, "She thinks we're just fishing," about spending quality time with his daughter and making memories without her realizing that their time together is special.

Tuesday Aunt Kim and I went to McKay's bookstore.  I found a Star Wars game in the free bin and brought it home for Anthony with the hope that it worked.  I got 3 or 4 random, just because hugs from him yesterday.  He said he loves his new game is so happy I got it for him. He said it's very similar to the "Age of Emipres" game Aunt Kim loaned him last month. I guess one boys trash really is another boys treasure. 

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Emily finally got to go back to school today.  She missed so much time.  First she spent two nights throwing up and now she has a cold with a runny nose.  Normally I wouldn't let her stay home for a cold but she was so miserable.  She was happy to be back.  I asked her who she thought missed her the most while she was gone.  She said Ms. Rachel.  She may be right.  Ms. Rachel loves Emily. 

Emily liked her Stitch picture that was in her lunch box today.  After I had already made her Stitch picture last night, she made another request.  A couple days ago she asked me to make her a beach ball.  She said beach balls had triangles.  I drew her a few and she colored them in.  She asked for another beach ball picture for her lunch.  This was by far the easiest lunch box picture so far.

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Aubrey is getting so big so fast.  She has a cold too and she doesn't like it.  She's pleasant most of the time and she's dealing with it.  She also has new teeth.  There's two new molars on top.  So now she has two teeth on the bottom and six up top. 

She learns so fast.  Every night at dinner we say a silent prayer.  I tell the kids to say their prayers.  Usually Aubrey just watches us and smiles, a couple times last week she put her hands together really quick.  Today when I sat her in her chair for lunch,  I put her plate down on her tray.  She put her head down, put her hands together for just a second and then reached for her fork.  It was the cutest thing. At least there is one thing she's learning by example from her brother and sister that is good.  ;)

Jeopardy

Last night the kids and I ate our dinner in the living room. We couldn't find a show we could all agree on so I put on the end of Wheel of Fortune, thinking that Anthony and I could play and Emily would recognize her letters. Jeopardy came on next and Anthony and I were guessing answers whenever we could.  He was enjoying the Science category, but got mad anytime he got a question wrong.  Then he yelled, "How does this old guy know all the answers?" (meaning the host, Alex Trebek)

Emily's lunch box picture.  I'm really proud of this one.
 It took several tries and several pictures before I finally found one I was able to draw.
He may not look like much, but it took me about an hour and a
 half to make her picture for tomorrows lunchbox.

We made cookies together today. Emily painted Snoopy in the painting book
I got her yesterday while the cookies were in the oven.

Cake, Cub Scouts, and Hero the service dog

Emily's threw up two nights in a row. You would never know by the picture,
but just a few minutes earlier, she got sick.

Wearing themselves out at the den meeting.
  The boys each started with 5 clothespins and chased each
 other around the room trying to steal each others clothes pins.

Anthony and Michael taking a rest after the game.

Emily helped Daddy build a fire while Aubrey swept.

The kids made Aunt Kathy a birthday cake for her 50th birthday
by stacking ginger snap cookies with purple icing.
They sang happy birthday for her and made her a video.

Emily doing her gymnastics with Dora

Emily has such beautiful hair

A man came to the Pack meeting Sunday and brought along a service dog he is training to teach the boys about what he does and to get Hero (the service dog) familiar with being around people.  Hero is one year old.  Derek, his trainer, said that Hero won't graduate until he's 2 1/2 years old.  They train this dogs especially to help veterans.  He said some may have amputations or be in wheelchairs so they teach the dogs the difference between left and right so they know which side of their new owner they will need to stand by. And because isles in stores or other places may room for a dog to walk next to their owner if they are in a wheelchair, she he teaches them to "walk behind."  Derek said that they teach the dogs to pick up things for their owners in case they have trouble bending over to lift things.  The dogs are taught to pick up keys, cell phones, and wallets, and even their own leashes so the owner won't have to reach for them.  They said they are even trying to teach some of the dogs to cook.  He said that one of their dogs they trained is able to cook Ramen noodles.  When Anthony heard that, he whispered to me that he wants a service dog.  (Anthony loves Ramen noodles.) Derek said that most of their dogs are raised in homes with foster families for the first year of their life, but Hero wasn't so he wasn't used to being around children, which is why he choose Hero out of all his dogs to come to our meeting.  He thought it would be a good experience for Hero.  Hero was a sweet but very energetic dog.  He did show a lot of his tricks and skills, but jumped a lot and tried to play with the wooden stand that was holding the flag.  Derek said that was because he was used to being given a wooden block to fetch and play with.  All the scouts brought supplies like paper towels, bleach and Dawn soap to donate to the dogs.  Then awards were given out and the boys got to have pizza and snacks and take turns petting Hero.  Derek said they are always taking volunteers to raise the dogs for families to raise the dogs for the first year.  Anthony wanted us to volunteer.  I explained that we already have a dog and that I was afraid he would get too attached and  would be sad when the dog had to leave.  One of the younger scouts at the meeting tried to donate his own pet dog to become a service dog.

Hero the service dog.

Park

DOLLYWOOD!

 

Our trip to Dollywood started out a little rough.  We got there at 11:30 when the park didn't open until 2pm.  Oops.  We stopped on the way to get extra copies of the newspaper.  Anthony was in it.  We read that the artwork for "Decorate Dollywood" would be scattered thru out the park.  We went in the direction of the roller coasters and there it was.  It was so exciting to see Anthony's work on display for all to see.  Anthony was proud.  I could tell.  Partly I could tell by the proud look on his face, but also because he willingly posed for pictures.  Anthony and Daddy went on what was Anthony's very first roller coaster. It was a wooden one.  Then they got on the Tennessee Tornado.  We got to watch.  It looked scary.  It went upside down several times. When Anthony got off he told me that he was dizzy but that it was a lot of fun.  Then we went to the kiddie section. On the walk to the other side of the park, Aubrey held Grandpa's hand while she rode in her stroller.  It was so adorable. Anthony agreed to ride the pigs so Aubrey could go on too.  (The pigs were also Emily's first ride.)  Anthony and Aubrey both looked a little bored, but Emily had fun.  Then she rode the ducks by herself and the Flying elephants with Daddy.  It got really cold so we left before the park closed.  But Daddy and Anthony's passes don't expire until Christmas and Grandma got herself and Emily season passes so hopefully they can go again on a warmer day before their passes expire.