Muffins, Muffins and More Muffins

When Andy started public school I avoided the PTO like the plague.  I wanted nothing to do with it.  I was happy to help whenever asked and volunteer for different jobs around the school, bring things needed in the classrooms for the teachers and even split the job of room mom one year, but was never, ever going to join the PTO.

I would have been perfectly happy with my elementary school career if we had continued like that, but then we moved.  Nothing wrong with moving, but all the friends I first met when we moved here were very active in the PTO.  We have over 600 kids in our school and there are only about 10 people on the PTO and I happened to make friends with all of them.  Okay, one or two, but that was enough.  So, I started feeling like I needed to get involved and go to the meetings and here I am, a member of the PTO.  Just one of many reasons you should never say never.

Anyway, I was a pretty low key member and couldn't even make it to most meetings because they were at the same time we have a Spanish tutor come to the house for the kids, until the PTO President, who is also one of the moms in Sarah's Brownie Troop, asked me if I would head up "Muffins With Mom".  I had already told her I wouldn't be in charge of some other event, so I felt guilty and said yes.

Muffins With Mom is something that we do the Friday before Mother's Day.  The kids come in before school with their mom and have muffins, coffee, juice and a little fruit.  There's a tiny craft and it's all put on by the PTO.  Apparently last year's event was a total disaster because they underestimated how many people would be there and ran out of muffins and people had to wait 45 minutes in the rain before they found out they wouldn't be getting a muffin.  Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

So there was a little bit of pressure not to screw this one up and to do it right this year.  There were already people saying they weren't going to come and a handful of people cornered me asking what we were going to do differently to prevent a repeat of last year.  I'll tell you what we did.  We ordered the equivalent of 2000 muffins, split up the line so that people could get through it faster, lengthened the time of the event and had a kick ass craft for the kids to do after they ate their muffins.  I came up with a really cute paper flower craft for the kids to do so they could give it to their mom, but it was super labor intensive and I spent most of the week punching out paper flowers on my Sizzix machine.

It probably all would have worked out fine except that Charlie was gone the entire week on business and everything that could have possibly been scheduled on our calendar that week was as well as some things that never are on our calendar.  They say it takes a village to raise a child, and my village decreased exponentially when we moved.  Every single person in my new village was called upon last week so I could get everything done.

I ended up staying up until 2 a.m. every night and finally caught up on my sleep by this Tuesday.  I didn't even get to eat a muffin with my kids at the Muffins With Mom event, but I did get to see something wonderful.  I dragged the three kids out of bed at 6 a.m. on Friday so we could be to the school by 7 a.m., and all three of them pitched in and helped set up for the event.  Even Amanda.  They did not whine or complain and did what was asked and even asked how they could help.  They forfeited a lot of my time last week as I got ready and tried to prepare a craft for 400 kids (that was our estimate) and they didn't complain when several kids made seven or eight flowers and they got to make one.  I was so, so proud of them.

In the end we had a lot of muffins left over, but everybody said the event was a huge success and I think most of the bad feelings from the year before are gone.  Plus, if I need to do it again next year it will be a ton easier because I know exactly what needs to be done.  I'm still not super gung ho about being involved with the PTO, but at least now I know I can survive when called upon.

Mother's Day

Every few years Sarah's birthday falls on Mother's Day.  This year was one of them.  She figured out months ago that her birthday was the same as Mother's Day and she was really excited about it.  Until a few days ago, when she realized that sharing the day with me meant that it wasn't all about her.  Except that she was wrong.  Well, mostly wrong.

The kids did give me some lovely cards and crafts that they made in school, except for Andy who gave me some lame excuse about accidentally throwing a poem away and then not rewriting it (totally the dog ate my homework excuse) which really was fine for an 11 year old boy.  Charlie made me an awesome breakfast and that was about it.  Which is fine, really.  We don't really celebrate ourselves that much.  We go all out for the kids, but we are pretty low key when it comes to Mother's/Father's Day, our birthdays, our anniversary, and anything else.  In fact last week we were wondering if we should actually make a bigger deal about things so the kids realize that it is important to celebrate us.

Anyway, when I became a mom and had Andy I pretty much realized that I wasn't going to come first anymore and it was rarely going to be about me.  But that's okay, that's what motherhood is.  That's why we do this.  If it was about me I probably would have given up and left a long time ago.  Because this is the hardest job I will ever do, want it or not.  There are mornings like today when the kids are sweet and wonderful and tell me how much they love me and give me big hugs and there are evenings like today when Amanda was screaming through her bath and telling me she didn't want me to give it to her she wanted Daddy.  And there are days when your kid tells you they want it all to be about them no matter how much it should be about you as well.

I'm not whining or complaining or really making myself clear at all, I'm just saying today was exactly what it should have been.  A day I spent with my sweet little girl who is growing up so fast and was a little bit angry that it snowed on her birthday but still had a wonderful day with friends and family and a big pink cake.  Because if it hadn't been spent that way, then I wouldn't be much of a mother, would I?  Isn't that what this day is all about?

Happy Mother's Day to my mother, mother-in-law, sister, sisters-in-law, friends and anyone else who had shaped me into the mother I am today.  I love you all more than you know!

Kid Quote of the Day

"I'm glad he didn't pick Fred!"

-Amanda, when we were telling the story about how Charlie picked her name.

A New PR

Last Friday the kids had a "Run4Funds" event at school.  It's a big fundraiser done by the PTO to raise money for the school.  This year all the money will go to update the library and the plans are pretty cool.  I've never been a big fan of this fundraiser, but it's growing on me and the kids love it.  Basically, the kids are supposed to get people to sponsor them and give them money for each lap they do around a very small track.  Each lap is 1/16th of a mile.  I didn't realize this the first year that Andy did Run4Funds and I tought that each lap was the size of a lap on a normal track.  I sponsored him $2 a lap and I owed sixty-something dollars by the end of the run.  I was not happy.

Fast forward a few years and both of the kids are doing it.  Last year I didn't go and the kids weren't very happy with me so this year not only did I go but I ran with them.  That may not sound like a big deal, but in both grades I was the only parent running with their kid.  I wasn't the only adult because some of the teachers ran too, but I was the only parent (except the art teacher did run with her daughter who is in Andy's grade).

Sarah's grade was the first group to go and we ran for 30 minutes around the track.  She ran as much as she could but Sarah can't run that well so we walked about half of it.  She did end up doing 17 laps, which was a new PR (that's runner lingo for Personal Record) from the 12 she did last year.  I did help with the last half of laps 16 and 17 by carrying her on my back, but she was so, so happy that she completed a mile and I was pretty proud of her as well.

I got an hour break and then came back to run with Andy.  I wasn't so sure that he would really want his mom there with him, but he seemed cool with it.  He wanted me to pace him, but my pace was a little fast so I just did what he did.  There was one lap where he sprinted as fast as he could and I barely kept up with him.  Pretty impressive since he looks like he runs really slow.  In the end he had a new PR too and he thanked me for coming out to run with him.

In the end I was so glad I did it with them and hope that they remember it as fondly as I do.  I guess we're starting a new tradition!

Inside Joke

This evening after the kids went to bed I was sitting in the office, which is at the bottom of the stairs, doing something on the computer when I heard Amanda laughing.  She had been asleep for over an hour so I sort of ignored it at first but listened to make sure she wasn't actually crying.  After a bit I went upstairs to check on her and confirm that everything was okay.

Her eyes were open when I walked in the room.  I asked her if she had a funny dream and she gave me a little smile and said yes.  The I told her to go back to sleep and gave her a kiss and she very simply said "ok" and closed her eyes.  So much easier the the hundreds of other times I have been in her room late at night.

There's no better sound that a young child laughing, especially when it's not expected.  It reminds me of how little she still is, and how I get to keep her that way for a bit longer, even though she's starting to grow up.

Two Minutes of Fame

Last week Andy, and about 100+ of his fellow 5th graders, got to sing the National Anthem at the Rockies game.  Apparently they beat out 200 other applicants in being chosen.  It was a logistical nightmare, because Charlie was out of town and there was no way I was taking the girls to a 6:40 p.m. baseball game when I usually try to get them in bed around 7:30 p.m. and they have no interest whatsoever in baseball.  We were only given about two weeks notice but I was able to procure a fantastic babysitter and get Andy a ride to the game while I picked up and introduced said babysitter to the girls.

The kids had to be at the game at 5:30 p.m., but at that time of day it can take over an hour to get to downtown Denver and for some people it took over 1.5 hours.  So there were a lot of stressed out parents but I think everybody who wanted to sing, there were a couple of kids who decline due to other commitments and/or stage fright, got there in time and was able to sing.

Unfortunately while the singing was going on I was not in an extreme parenting mindset because I only took one horrible picture from my phone and I didn't video tape any of it.  Not even the big screen.  In fact, since at first they only had the flag on the big screen I wasn't even looking at it and am pretty sure I missed the shot with Andy in it.  Oh well, at least he remembers being there and thinks it was totally awesome.  Short, but awesome.

Not many people can say that they sang at a professional baseball game.  Now my kid can!

Kid Quote of the Day

Me:  Do you know what day it is?

Andy:  It's Earth Day.  To celebrate I'm going to throw this trash on the floor.


In his defense, we were at a baseball game and that's kind of what you do with your trash at a baseball game.