Go, Go, Goers!

G and I had a great time looking at all of the cool LEGO creations at Brick Convention 2024 this past Sunday. We were near the front of the line for our time slot, so we were able to get it and make it through about half of the exhibit before things got really crowded. We really liked the creations that were powered and had moving pieces. I think my favorite was an amusement park display! Waiting in line to get in These were at a really cool Pride exhibit - they are kinda like an "I Spy" game, with so many different pieces making up the various colors of the flags. The best thing to find was all of the frog pieces! G was SO happy to get a few more spacemen for his collection. He now has white, red, yellow, and blue.  Spring allergies are upon us which means G looks like a puffy, red-eyed little man. I had to pre-warn his teacher and YMCA directors that he looks horrible this time of year. Poor kiddo. We started him on OTC allergy meds a few weeks ago, and got some very expens

It was another crazy busy week! I think we were out and about every single night this week, which makes for some very tired parents by the end of the workday on Friday. On Monday we had the usual swimming and TKD. Tuesday was a quick trip to the DMV (and picking up Ava from trumpet choir), Wednesday was PIZZA day, Thursday was so packed full that to recount everything would be tiresome, and then Friday came along...a little slower pace, with a late movie night. G ended up putting himself to bed, while Scott and I were passed out (from exhaustion), with a movie playing in the background. I tried to watch the same scene 10 times before I eventually gave up and just fell asleep for good. The pizza night was insanely busy, but everything went really well. The weather cooperated with us, and we were able to sort and distribute almost 1,800 pizzas within a three hour period. I've got just a few things to wrap up, and then we can consider this fundraiser to be completed! We have a somewha

This week was a tough re-entry back into school and work. We hit the ground running, and didn't get a chance to stop until Friday evening. Even though we had minimal activities each evening, we were still running errands, and eating later at night, so there wasn't a lot of time to chill between dinner and bed. I was in the office two days this week for full-day meetings, and MAN, that was exhausting. I'm not used to being around people that much anymore. I can't believe that used to be the norm! I am very grateful to be working at a company where they allowed us to make the decision to stay at home permanently. I need the time during the day to be just with my Pria, and my coworkers (online.) That aside, we had a great Easter! The kids happily participated in the Easter egg hunt, and then quickly worked their way through the scavenger hunt. G was really, super, extra egg-cited when we found the final gift...the Meta Quest 2! He's been having a blast this week playin

What a low-key and wonderful Spring Break we have had! We've spent a lot of family time together, Ava's been hanging out with friends/boyfriend, and there's been enough time to be both productive AND peaceful. The weather was a little iffy at the beginning of the week (so much snow), but now the sun is out and the sidewalks are clear again so Pria and I can go on walks together. While Pria was getting groomed on Wednesday morning, the kids and I went out for breakfast and Ava got the biggest bagel breakfast sandwich you could imagine! It took her at least 3 different meals to eat the whole thing! G and I managed to finish our (much smaller) meals in one sitting. :)  G and I had a blast seeing the new Ghostbusters movie on Tuesday afternoon, and then we got him the fastest haircut ever (we left the movie theater to head to the salon at 3:02pm, and we were done with the haircut and heading home by 3:16pm!) Plus, on Thursday, my parents and I managed to check off an errand on

This week has been very pizza focused. We're wrapping up the first big fundraiser of the 24/25 RHSMB season and I'm one of the co-leads. I spent quite a bit of time at RHS this week. On Wednesday night, I was there gathering pizza money (so many sold this year!) This helped me to learn that this is the maximum fundraiser leading capacity that I have. I'm happy to help out, but it's been a lot of planning over the last few months, and now I'm super nervous for distribution on April 10. We generally do all of the sorting and distribution outdoors at RHS, and I'm worried about the weather. I know there's nothing that we can do about it, so I just need to come up with an alternate plan in the event of crummy weather. Pizza aside...I also volunteered to measure for MB uniforms this past Monday morning (4 hours), and then was back to the high school that evening for a fundraising meeting. That was a lot of time spent at RHS for 1 week (and not during active MB tim

It was another busy kid-centric week, this time focused on school things. On Monday night, we skipped swimming and taekwondo, so we could attend Ava's spring band concert. It's always neat to see how far the band has come since the previous trimester (when many of them are in marching band, and not in concert band.) There were two other bands that played during that section of the evening, and my favorite piece was played by Ava's bf's band...the band played the soundtrack (live) to an animated comic book. It was really neat and different than what we had seen before. On Thursday night, we headed over to Red Pine for G's 4th grade music concert. He had been having a few G.I. issues during the week, so he was absent from school on Thursday, but felt well enough to go to the concert that evening (and he's been fine since.) After the concert, we made an unplanned stop at a local brewery and played bingo before heading home. We were all wondering what would happen i

Let's see, what happened this past week? Ava earned the first stripe on the purple belt in Taekwondo, Ava had a really cool (and really long) jazz concert at the high school, Ava went out to dinner with friends on Friday night, Ava is going to a friend's 16th birthday party on Saturday night...it's clearly the Ava show around here! :) We are very glad that she's thriving and loving life...lots of friends, doing well in school, participating in activities, etc. 1st stripe on the purple belt! Playin' the bass Probably the biggest thing for Ava this week was that her biology teacher nominated her for the RHS Irish Excellence Award for March. Each teacher only gets to choose one student per YEAR to nominate, and Ava was her choice! We are so excited to celebrate her this coming Friday! G's week wasn't as fun, although they both were off of school on Friday, due to Trimester2 coming to an end. I picked up Shamrock shakes for them to celebrate the end of the tri,

Well, my flu quickly morphed into a sinus infection and a wheezy cough, so once again, I am very thankful for virtual doctor appointments, available 24/7 (my latest one was at 4am on Thursday.) I'm pleased to say that I'm taking the appropriate meds and am healing up nicely. Being sick has made me take it a bit slow, and focus on getting stuff done around the house. I've been able to start doing online training for RHSMB fundraising (working at sporting events/shows), I cleaned up Scott's old laptop and recycled it, and last weekend, G and I checked out a new park, and then I came home and painted a watercolor pic! The kids are back to being busy, of course. Swimming and taekwondo, a field trip for G to the Science Museum (he LOVED it), jazz rehearsal for A (followed up by dinner at her bf's house), and a few slow nights at home. Scott and I even celebrated Leap Day with getting our taxes done (boo! we had to pay in for the first time, but that led to some good disc

I'm not sure what happened this past week. I picked up the flu, and was down for the count for all of Sunday last weekend, and the rest of the week just sorta limped by. I was able to reschedule/cancel a few fun evening events that I had planned, and happily stayed at home and kept my germs to myself. The good news is that no one else in my family got sick. So strange how viruses work... I'm also really glad that virtual dr appointments are easier to come by. On Sunday afternoon, my mom asked if I was going to see a doctor, and get some meds. I hadn't even thought about it, but within 10 minutes, I had met with a nurse, and she had prescribed me some (generic) Tamiflu. Our pharmacy even fulfilled the prescription quickly so I was able to start taking it the same day. And here we are, seven days later, and I'm feeling like a new, healthier person. Glad that's over! Ava had her first job interview this past week, and she got a job! She won't be able to start worki

We had fun snacking our way through the big game last Sunday. We pulled together all sorts of air fryer foods, Scott made wings, and we enjoyed a very casual meal over the course of a few hours. The game was on in the background, and we definitely paid more attention to the commercials. Ha! G was really hoping the 49ers would win, so when I woke him up on Monday morning, I had to tell him that the regular game tied, they went into OT, and the 49ers were ahead until the last 3 seconds. Kinda ruined his Monday, BUT, we were glad to see that he was paying attention to something in the sports realm. G loves to hide footballs around the house for the Super Bowl, and then we have to find them (like Easter eggs.) Ava found 5 of the 6, I found just 1, and Scott didn't find any. Ava's big prize was a check for $1billion! So she ate it. And then G told her it was a trick, and she owed him $1billion. Strange game we had going on! The RHS pep band has been playing at a lot of games for a v

Ava's been busy the past few weeks prepping for a performance for Culture Night at RHS. Her Chinese teacher asked if she would participate with the Lion Dance, so she played the gong (fun!) It required several rehearsals, she met new people, and had fun at Culture Night this past Thursday. I saw a brief video of some of the performance, and heard about all of the wonderful that she had a chance to eat while she was there. She also volunteered on Wednesday after school at a local elementary school to help celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year (which is Feb 10, and it's the Year of the Dragon!) I'm so proud of her for joining the National Chinese Honor Society, and getting involved with events like these. She also played pep band for a basketball game at RHS on Tuesday night, so it was a busy week full of extracurriculars for school. The picture on the left and the one on the top right are Ava's (created for her Drawing class), both currently on display at RHS G tested for

I'm trying to make plans with two friends, and our schedules are so busy that we're almost being pushed out until the end of March. That's craziness! I can't imagine what I'm going to do with all of my free time when there aren't children at home, busy doing everything that they do. This week at TKD, Ava earned her board-breaking stripe, which means she's moved up to the purple belt...way to go, kiddo! The rest of the week was busy with school, work, after school activities, etc. G has been dealing with some insomnia, which the whole house is aware of, as it's happening...so Scott and I have been managing on less sleep than usual. Ugh. On a positive note, we capped the week off with an impromptu happy hour with my parents at a local bar. I pre-ordered pizza to be delivered to the kids at home, so they were set for dinner, and we enjoyed a few hours out, with other adults. Overall, though, we had a low key week (in the evenings), which was needed. (We wer

RHS hosted a cool Jazz and Desserts concert on Monday night. It was very casual, taking place in the Student Center. Each of the 5 (6?) jazz bands performed three-ish songs, while we all browsed the multitude of desserts that were available. It was a really neat, casual format, where we could chat with the people around us, and still be able to enjoy the smooth sounds of jazz in the background. I ended up sitting with the family that we carpooled with for marching band over the last few years. It was nice having a chance to catch up! I wasn't able to see Ava perform (she was tucked behind a pillar that I couldn't see around from my seat), but Jazz Blue (the band she is in) sounded good, and it was great seeing so many band parents again, since we've had a bit of a break since marching band season ended a few months back. I'm already looking forward to this event again next year! There was also pep band, swimming, taekwondo, more jazz rehearsals, dentist, ortho, high sch

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a kid now vs when Scott and I grew up. Not a month goes by where the kids don't have at least one day off of school, and it's usually more. This past week, the kids didn't have school on Monday (I didn't work either, hooray!) and they were both off on Friday. Only three days of school (or work) per week sounds pretty good to me! Monday was an exciting day, though...Ava is officially done with her braces (aligners) and will be getting her retainers next Friday. Woohoo! What was supposed to be an 18-month process ended up taking 30 months instead, so we are all very happy that she's finally done with her aligners. Her retainers are going to be pink and glow-in-the-dark swirls...fun! The kids and I ran a bunch of errands on Monday, and went out to lunch, and by the time the evening rolled around, we were all pretty tired. I made the executive decision to skip both swimming and taekwondo. And we were all happy about that. :

It finally snowed! And now it's chilly. Why were we feeling a little sad that it didn't feel like winter yet?? One good thing about this weather is that it came during the week where Ava was doing her six hours worth of driving with a district instructor. She managed to get in 4 hours in the evening, on decent roads, and then on Saturday morning, she was able to get in around 2 hours on snowy roads. The instructor took her out into a parking lot to get her comfortable with driving while the roads are unpredictable. I'm really glad that she was able to get that professional instruction under her belt. She seems to be making great progress every time she goes out driving...it's awesome! Ava informed us that next year she'll probably do a Zero Hour gym class (before school starts each day) to get it out of the way, and allow her to take the child development classes she wants (since Zero Hour will free up one of her hours during the day.) She'll need her license an

We had a wonderful holiday season, spent with family and friends, eating, drinking, relaxing, being productive...basically, ALL the things! The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed our week off of work/school. I tackled my to-do list, and plowed through a bunch of it, while both kids had the chance to see friends (and also help me around the house.) Scott had to work, but we all enjoyed evenings at home together. On Christmas Eve, we said goodbye to George for this Christmas season...he let us know that "I'm a barbell lifting pro!" Hopefully those muscles will help him get safely to the North Pole with Santa! We spent Christmas Eve and my parent's house, and Deb joined us, as well! It was great being with all of the grandparents, and getting to spend that time together as an extended family. The last Santa sugar cookie...we might be at the end of an era :( After we got home, G and I opened our traditional matching Christmas jammies We read "'Twas the Night Before Ch