Drama Queen and Locks of Love

Drama Queen has been growing out her hair for a couple of years now for Locks of Love.

She is a very decisive kid.  When she wants to do something, she will do it.  Long hair was getting very hard for her to deal with.  She was ready to cut it all off (On February 18th to be exact).  Drama Queen's 10th birthday party was the next day and she wanted to surprise everyone.

Mr. Smith had to come along to watch the process.

  He spent time brushing her long, tangle-filled hair as well as I did.

Drama Queen is so excited to get rid of her long hair. 

She is the only kid I know that really prefers short hair.

 Razor cut rocking short hair!

All styled up of course (won't look like that normally).

3 ounces of pony tail ready to be sent to

 Locks of Love + one happy girl= Priceless.

Not to mention 2 very happy parents!



Snowing in Redding, California

Once in a great while it snows here in Redding.

Today it's very quiet and big flakes are falling.

Kids went to school this morning while it was still raining.

Snow is even thicker now.

It's so pretty.

I'm a Southern California born and raised girl so I don't drive in the snow (only a few times since we lived here and the whole time I was praying that we would make it home from school).

Luckily Mr. Smith is home today.  Since he's been out and about in Minnesota and South Dakota for the last few months, he has loads of practice driving in less than perfect weather.  He is the designated driver today. 

I'm staying home and working....

Oh and taken advantage of the snow....

Going to enjoy a chilly Dr. Pepper. 

Laundry at The Smith Hotel and a curtain rod

Laundry and kids.....it all started back my freshman year in college....

I had guy friends that were sent to college with a list of instructions on how to do their own laundry.

I vowed to myself that if and when I ever had children, they would be able to do their own laundry before they left home.......Fast forward 20 years (ouch that hurts thinking about how long ago I went off to college).

Drama queen will be 10 next week.  She isn't quite tall enough to get the soap down and turn on the machine.  She does bring her laundry basket to the laundry room, sort her lights and darks, load the washer.  She also puts away her own clothes (most of them don't ever seem to make it quite where they really need to go).  This is the sorting process to put her clothes away.  For some reason it's in the hallway today.  Oh, I know why-her bedroom is too messy for her "sorting system" to happen in her room.

Boy Wonder is still at school but his basket of clothes is waiting by his door to be put away.  He even takes the incentive when he starts to run out of clothes to do his own laundry without being told (can I hear an Amen).  He does all of the laundry process himself.  Boy Wonder is 12 years old and has been doing his laundry all by himself for about a year.  Before that Mr. Smith or I would help with the process like we do with Drama Queen.  

Is it perfect? 

Nope.

Concerning the kid's hallway.....

I had to come up with something besides the front of the fridge to put all their school papers on display.  Mr. Smith installed an IKEA wire curtain rod and we use the clips to hold the papers.

The curtain wire rod thingy runs the length of the hallway. The middle connector marks the halfway point for each kid's side to hang their papers. With 2 kids everything has to be divided, of course.

Holidays-Please be on the day you said you were going to be on!

Now as far as being a Mom goes-I'm pretty organized.

I have a calendar that I write in all the important items in-like doctor's appointments,

 haircut appointments, 

my work times,

 when Mr. Smith is out of town

(this is a whole calendar in it's self),

 different times when to pick up the kids from school (both have days that they stay later at school and not the same day for either),

volunteering,

speech therapy for Boy Wonder,

days kids are off of school,

vacations,

etc.

etc.

etc.

Needless to say, my calendar is very full.

If it's not on my calendar it doesn't exist.

Now my organizational skills of my calendar have one flaw-

my neglecting to forget to put an appointment down on the calendar.

Now every since I can remember February 14th is Valentine's Day.  It's Monday this year-kids have the day off of school-I marked that on my calendar.

What I didn't mark is that Friday, February 11th is the day to hand out Valentine's at school.

That just messes with my system.

Luckily Boy Wonder is a 7th grader and doesn't hand out Valentine's any more.

Drama Queen is a 4th grader.  Still at that age where it is sociably acceptable to hand out declarations of love.

Still trying to get back on track from surgery

(6 weeks as of Monday)

-getting organized again takes a little organization.

Luckily Drama Queen and I were at Walmart the other day and we purchased these Valentine's.

Two boxes - she has over 30 kids in her class.

Did she sign them?

Nope.

We are just emptying the boxes into the Walmart bag and she is going to carry them into class-unsigned.

This is what she brought for Valentine's Day last year. 

 

Candy Cane Hearts with white chocolate and sprinkles.

One thing I love about that kid is she goes with the flow.

So moral of this story:

 Mark the day of the school party on calendar.

If not it won't exist!

Chalkboard

While the kids and Mr. Smith were out at Whiskeytown lake canoeing on Sunday afternoon, I did a little redecorating.

I took down the 3 family pictures and replaced it with a chalkboard that I love and never sold (yeah for me). 

 As a mom, I get tired of  constantly repeating myself on a daily basis for the kids to do some basic things.

The kids noticed the chalkboard.  Will it work?

Yeah probably not-I'll be back to repeating myself.

I could have added more things on the list-

 Don't forget your shoes for school (Drama Queen).

Clean your ears (Boy Wonder).

Feed the dog.

Pick up dirty clothes and wet towels.

Hug Mom and tell her you love her.

Wake up and get to the breakfast table in a timely fashion.

Don't bother Mom on Thursday nights while she is watching Vampire Diaries.

Tell Mom that you love all the meals she fixes.

Yeah, I would need a bigger chalkboard for that!