Train & The Black Widows

Facebook does it again!!

A few months ago, my friend Robin posted on her FB that Train was coming into town and she would love to go if someone had an extra ticket. I piped in that I'd willingly take a ticket too. So instead of just waiting around for someone to invite us, we decided that we'd get our own tickets and make a girls night of it.

It was great! We had dinner downtown at Joe's Crab Shack (which was fabulous!).

We made sure to leave enough room for some really yummy carmel cheesecake.

We walked from Joe's to the Ryman (which is just as beautiful as you'd imagine.... I love the architecture and interior of such an old, historic building). We got there just at Butch Walker and The Black Widows started their set. For a band I've never heard of, their music was really good.

Butch Walker and The Black Widows

Robin and I waiting for Train to come out

When Train finally came out, it was insane! The energy in the crowd was amazing and since it's such a small auditorium, it felt very intimate as well. They sang some of their new songs that I love (Save me San Francisco, Soul Sister, Marry Me) as well as some of their old hits (Meet Virginia, Calling All Angels, SuperMan, I Look to the Sky). They even threw in a Van Halen song!

Isn't Train amazing!?

The last time I saw Train in concert, I was 6 months pregnant with Brennan and they were opening for Matchbox 20. No one had heard of them at that point, but everyone knows them now. And just for future reference, at the time of this concert, Train's single "Hey, Soul Sister" is #3 on the Hot 100 and the #1 downloaded song on itunes.

Thank you Robin for such a great evening~ It was an AWESOME!!

2nd Grade Egg Hunt

2000 eggs? Check. 100 eager 2nd graders? check. Total Chaos? check

Part of celebrating spring break/Easter at the school involved having an egg hunt. It wasn't really a "hunt" in that they were covering a small area and could be seen very easily and that each student could only pick up 20 eggs and then have to stop. With the help of a few other moms, it took us about 20 minutes to lay out the eggs and about 4 minutes for the students to pick them up. Was it chaos? Totally. Was it fun? Judging by the looks on the kids faces, I'd go with yes.

Lining up at the start of the hunt

Don't they look super eager to get some of that candy?!?

And the race is on!

For once, the clean-up went much faster than the set-up.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Have you ever taken on a job that when offer you thought "Oh, I could totally do that. I'll show everyone how great I can be" and then realized that you'd gotten in WAY over your head? Being a room parent has been like that all year for me. I have these fabulous ideas that seem super quick and easy, but end up turning into craziness.

Take for example this year's Teacher Appreciation Week. We were told by the PTO that we could do something small for the teacher every day as long as we didn't ask for monetary donations. Working with Darlene, we came up with what I thought would be sweet and simple projects for the kids make in class or at home to let Mrs. Huey know how much they loved having her as their teacher. Keep in mind, everything had to be approved nearly a month in advance by the school secretary, so I didn't really know what the kids would be working on in class at this time, nor did I realize that it was also the week before spring break.

Here comes the craziness! Not only were we (Darlene and I) at the school everyday for teacher appreciation, we were also there for class projects, parties, pictures, and scholar dollar. And that's not mentioning the reports that the kids were working on at home. Please believe me when I say that it was a crazy week!

Our Teacher Appreciation week consisted of:

Monday~ "Thanks for Helping Us Bloom" where the students made flowers for Mrs. Huey.

I think the student bouquet turned out pretty cute!

Tuesday~ "Everything You Wanted to Know About Mrs. Huey" Scrapbook where the students completed a survey about what they thought about Mrs. Huey.

The cover page for the scrapbook

I know the print is small, but you've got to read some of B's answers!

Wednesday~ "Favorite Recipes for My Favorite Teacher" had the students baking their favorite recipe at home and sending in a sample along with the recipe for Mrs. Huey to try. I didn't get a picture of that, but it was a hit with her husband and son (who was home from college for a break).

Thursday~ "My Teacher Deserves a Little Pampering" got Mrs. Huey a basket of pampering items such as candles, soaps, lotions, and (from me) monogrammed towels. It turned out sooooo adorable! I couldn't have planned it any better!

Most of the items from Teacher Appreciation Week

On Friday, the students also made homemade cards for her to keep in her scrapbook to remember these students in the future

All in all, I think that Teacher Appreciation Week went over very well. While it was a lot of hard work, I know that Mrs. Huey appreciated everything that was done for her.

Now the question for you... what do you think?

Brennan's School Projects

For the past few weeks, the 2nd grade has been learning about Tennessee at school. For a conclusion project, B had to put together a poster at home about Tennessee showing what he'd learned. He amazed me with his ability to remember the details about the state we currently call home. Do I have any idea what our state flower is? No. Tree? Nope. Gem? Not a chance. But does Brennan? Oh yeah. Quiz him. He'll surprise you.

Along with learning about Tennessee, he also had to study a famous Tennessean. Of all of the famous people from here, you'd have thought he'd pick someone in the music industry or a historical figure... but no. He picked Albert Gore Jr. Not that I have anything against him personally, he's just not really that interesting of a character. The reason we needed character is because along with the report, Brennan had to make a character poster that he could wear and be recognized as that person. How interesting is a suit and tie? Not very. I'd say he did the best he could with what he had.

Got to love the cheering arms!

Scrapbook USA

It's that time of year~ Girl's Weekend in Utah at Scrapbook USA!

Though the trip was short (flew in Thursday night and out Sunday afternoon) and sweet (saw some family), it was extremely rejuvenating and fun!

Here's the quick run-down of my weekend: saw Anne, shopped and scrapbooked with Tammy & Steph, yummy Cafe Rio, ran into random people from my past, completed 14 pages, yummy Tempanyaki, shopped for friends in TN, dessert and games with Brian and Family, breakfast with Jessica, Kaci & boyfriend, and church with Tammy. Lots to cram into a weekend, but well worth the time.

Waiting in line for Scrapbook USA to start!

Still waiting...

Tammy working hard (she finished 15 pages)

Steph's super intense... because she had to beat everyone with 16 pages done

Me and Best Friends

Can I just say that I have the best hubby in the world!?! He's the one that made the trip happen and stayed home with the cute crazies all weekend. Thank you honey!

Storytime at the Library

So I've started to feel like we are in a rut. Doing the same things everyday and not really having fun or enjoying it. So when one of our friends invited us to story time at the library, we decided to see what it was all about.

When we got there, I remembered why I didn't go to story time.... my children have such short attention spans and Nolan doesn't really like large groups. It ended up that we sat outside the reading room playing with the wooden train (which made Nolan and Ian very happy) while Dylan sat with the group.

Judging by the hats on the kids when they came out of the room, they read a book about firemen and their dogs. What was great about this was that there was a real firetruck outside for the kids to explore.

Nolan LOVED it!! He wanted to drive the truck so much that he kept cutting in line and I'd have to pull him back. We even waited until the very end after everyone else had left so that both Nolan and Dylan could drive the truck again!

Doesn't he make a cute little fireman?

RainForest Cafe & Glow Golf

One of our favorite places to take the kids is the Rain Forest Cafe. If you've never been, you need to go, just to experience it at least once. We are lucky enough to live so close to one here in Nashville that we've become frequent guests when we are trying to find somewhere to go that's fun and yummy.

Sorry the pictures are that great.... it's super dark there and the flash kept throwing everyone for a loop.

The other surprise for the day was to take the kids miniature golfing at Glow Golf. It is exactly what it sounds like~ golfing in the dark. Brennan and Dylan thought they were in heaven while Nolan just liked climbing and throwing the ball.

Rub a Dub Dub

4 boys in a tub!!!

Who'd have thought they'd all fit in together? Though Ian had to stand the entire time and didn't really like the bubbles, the boys had fun playing pirates and turtles (go figure) in the tub.

Acting Silly

Sorry. I couldn't help but post these pictures. Though there's no real story behind them other than they are just cute playing as little boys do.

Even with snot running down his face, isn't he just the cutest chunk you've ever seen?!

Got the Nerf gun and glasses... where did Dad go?

One of my favorite pictures of Nolan ever

And what are the big boys doing while the little ones are crazy? Playing with their DS's, of course!

Silly Brothers!

During nap time, the house is supposed to be quiet, right? Try telling that to these silly boys~

About halfway through nap time, I could hear giggling down the hall. When I went to investigate, I found that Nolan had climbed into Ian's bed and they were both jumping like little monkeys, just laughing and playing like they'd finally figured out what the bed was for.

Such Silly (and Cute) Brothers!

Valentine's Day 2010

I've decided that you may notice a trend in our blog: We tend to celebrate every holiday with something~ parties, presents, games~ something fun for the kids to get in to. It's kind of our tradition. Since Valentine's Day is about love (all types, not just romantic), we always celebrate with gifts of love to the kids (big and little).

Toys and suckers were the theme this year. Legos and video games for Don and Brennan, balls and cars for Ian and Nolan, and sparkly jewelry for me. As always, packaging is half the fun, along with wanting whatever your brother got.

Nolan got through his present extremely quickly

Yet Nolan only wanted to play with Ian's toy

Ian wanted to eat the tissue paper and bag and just forget about the toy

While daddy wasn't looking, Ian tried to steal some chocolate fortune cookies and popcorn.

Along with our family celebration, Don and I celebrated in our special way: dinner at The Melting Pot and a Broadway Play of "The Drowsy Chaperone", planned out by the hubby. I love you Don!

Valentine Wreath

As I was browsing the Internet last weekend, I came across this:

Photo courtesy of JustForRachel.com

On her site, she gave a very good tutorial on how to make it. Here's the link:

http://www.justforrachel.com/2010/01/valentines-wreath.html

Following her directions for a basis were great, but there were a few things that I changed that made things move along much quicker.

* Don't worry about looking all over Kalamazoo to find the heart shape. I just cut one side out of 8.5 X 11 paper, then traced and cut it out of another. I taped the two sides together to make a great heart cutout that fit the Styrofoam perfectly.

* While she says she used a tulle material, I tried with tulle and organza. Neither wanted to stick because they were too thin for the glue. I ended up gluing a lot of material to my table that way. Stick with 5 good cottons (or material like cotton). I used 2 prints, 1 solid pink, 1 solid white, & 1 sparkly white material. After I completed the entire wreath, I went back and glued in about 10 squares of organza to make it more girlie.

* I liked the look of everything squished together, so I kept them pretty close. I also didn't just glue on the top of the foam. Because my door is glass and I can see through, I had to make sure to cover the top, back, and sides as well. That added a lot of material and made it look super full :)

* I also found it much easier to lay out between 10-12 squares and apply the hot glue to them, allowing them to cool down enough so I wouldn't burn my fingers when I stuck them to the form.

* When she says you can make your own tulle ribbon to hang it from, don't believe her. I tried and failed miserably! I ended up buying a roll of organza ribbon and folding it a few times to make it thick enough that it would hold the weight of all of the material.

* To make both large hearts, I ended up using about 3/4 yard of each of the material cut into 2-2.5 inch squares.

What do you think? I like them so much, I've already bought the material and boards to make a couple of St. Patrick's Day wreaths!

Brennan's Birthday Bash

To Celebrate Brennan's 8th Birthday, he decided that he wanted a party at our local bounce house company, Monkey Joe's. Brennan's Birthday Bash at Monkey Joe's was supposed to include 16 friends from school and the neighborhoods, but due to Mother Nature's desire to dump a few inches on Nashville, only the truly brave dared to go out in it. That's the sad thing about it. The good? We had the entire place to ourselves!! Soooo quiet and lots of room to run and jump around, which I think made for a more enjoyable party.

The first hour was dedicated to letting the kids wear themselves out. Nolan was in HEAVEN running and playing with the few kids that were there. Ian was just content to walk around with Dad or Brande and take in all the fun.

Pretty much the only picture that turned out alright of him because I couldn't get the little stinker to hold still!!

Brande walking around with Ian

After the kids had their fill of fun, we corralled them into the party room, where Brennan had a blow-up king's throne to sit in. As you can tell by the picture, it was big enough to hold both Brennan and Gabe.

After dining on pizza and soda, the cake was brought out. Now, I have to talk about the cake. Brennan saw this cake at Publix about 6 months ago and when I asked him which cake he'd like for the party, he told me from memory the Publix SpongeBob Cake. Isn't it cute?

I didn't get a good picture before the cake was cut!

Brennan also mentioned a long time ago that he wanted to have the candles that re lit after you blew them out. I couldn't help but agree. It was so funny when he realized that I actually got the right ones and he had to keep blowing and blowing to get his wish!

Cake and Ice Cream were followed by the opening of presents, after which Brennan would say thank you and I'd say let's take a picture. For some unknown reason, Brennan kept flashing the peace sign.

With Brooklyn... Who does B think he is!?!?

After the presents, Monkey Joe came to visit everyone. He even brought Brennan his own special shirt to wear. The big kids thought he was great; Nolan couldn't care one way or the other.

Ian, on the other hand, thought he was going to DIE!! Isn't his face sooo sad?

To the Hansen's, Rippy's, Brande, and Brenna: Thanks for trekking through the snow to celebrate with us!