Mother's Tea

The Friday before Mother's Day the preschool has a "Mother's Tea." All the mom's come for the last 45 minutes of class, dress-up and get to be treated like a queen by their children. The kids/moms usually do a small activity, we eat a snack, and then we go down to a large room where the art teachers have on display artwork they have saved. Each classroom has 2-3 different "walls of artwork."

Emily made a sash for me to wear, a crown, a beautiful heart pin, and her class sang a great little song about Mothers. We also got to eat a snack together. Their class made cinnamon crunch muffins for the treat - each child had a job; Emily put in one egg, but she was quick to explain that Mrs. Kelly cracked the egg for her. Emily kept telling me that when we were done eating our snack, she would take our trash to the trash can. She was so excited to perform that little act of service!

Diane went with Rebecca, since I got to go with her last year. Their class made placemates and little fruit pizzas - Rebecca's was plain of course, but Grandma's had mandrine oranges, strawberries, grapes and kiwi.

It's so fun to look at all the children's artwork, and see it once it's sent home.

Emily's flower watercolor is the one to her right. You can see the crown she made for me (says MOM with jewels), the sash refused to stay on my shoulder, the pin is next to Emily's elbow, and I'm holding a cup of handprint flowers, and a cute laminated poem with Emily's handprints.


Rebecca is holding her Alphabet notebook. The children focused on a different letter of the alphabet each week of school and made a special page for each letter. She's also holding a frog she covered in different colors of green tissue paper, and Diane has her toliet paper roll frog on a construction paper lily pad - so cute!

Child labor

We needed a fast solution for dinner last night. We all got home about the same time (5:30pm) and everyone was tired and hungry and wanted to eat NOW! So I let the kids make dinner, pretty much, all by themselves.



I should probably clarify that Sam didn't participate until the last minute or so ... he was so hungry when we got home, that while Rebecca and Emily made the pizza, I gave him a banana and good size bunch of grapes to eat and he polished them both off pretty quickly. Once the pizzas were ready, Sam then ate most of his pizza.

Now I understand

Per tradition, children at preschool get to bring the snack on their birthday. And since it's a birthday celebration, they get to bring a non-healthy snack. Rebecca choose chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting.

She has 16 students in her class plus 2 teachers making 18 cupcakes. She also wanted to take one to the other adults at the school - an additional 11, bring the grand total to 29 cupcakes. One cake mix makes 24 if you're lucky.

Knowing I couldn't do it all Monday morning, but still wanting the cupcakes to be somewhat fresh, I made them Sunday night, let them cool and covered them for the night. While I was cleaning upstairs this morning, Sam walked in carrying half a cupcake in his hand, crumbs all over his mouth and tummy. Good thing I had 36 cupcakes.

About 10am I started making the frosting... Sam tried to stick anything and everything around him and me in the frosting... he managed to unlatch the bowl from the mixer and now knows how to lock and unlock the kitchenaid's neck.

Then he wanted to help me frost the cupcakes. By this time, my patience was fairly thin. In his effort to find a knife to help me frost, he must have gotten distracted. 10 cupcakes into the frosting process I noticed he was 'cleaning' out the silverware drawer. Once he was satisfied he got everything out of the drawer, he closed it (leaving everything on the counter) and moved on to playing with Playdough (Rebecca and Emily had been doing so this entire time).

Now I understand the wisdom in opting for store bought cupcakes.

A birthday dress

Wednesday night I decided it might be fun to make Rebecca a birthday dress using some of the fabric I wrote about in my 'Obsession' post. I showed Rebecca the pattern I was considering, she picked the style she liked and approved the fabric, and I started cutting and sewing. By the time Mom and Dad arrived Friday night I had the bodice together, and ready to put the sleeves in. Mom took over and thanks to her, Rebecca was able to wear the dress to church! and plans to wear it to preschool tomorrow. It really turned out well and she loves the dress. She was so cute about it ... Mom I love the green around the neck, and the hem is beautiful, make sure the tails on the bow aren't too long. Thank you Grandma Mutti for sewing my dress for me, I love it.

Another birthday wish

Rebecca has been asking to have her room painted pink for a very long time. I reluctantly agreed, and thankfully she picked a paint chip card with a really pretty selection of pinks to choose from. We (Emily, Rebecca and I) choose 'Petal Pink' for the walls, and 'Watermelon Slice' for a border... I'll post pictures of the completed room once I get it put together the way I want it.

The girls really wanted to help with the painting and we decided to let them do as much as they wanted. The rules - stayed on the drop cloth, keep the roller on the wall. If they wanted to put the roller down, they had to have help. They did an amazing job of keeping everything clean. No major paint spills or drips (by the girls - the adults (GR - love you honey!) on the other hand... well let's just say I'm grateful Emily's dresser is getting moved). They did a great job of painting their section of the wall. Is anyone surprised that it doesn't need a second coat of paint?!

Daddy, GR and I got the walls painted Friday night and the border painted Saturday. This week, we're having an artist friend come and paint their names above their beds, I have some stamping to try on the walls and shelves to hang for their treasures and stuffed animals to be displayed, and I'm still working out the window treatments.