High of the Day

Every night when we gather around the table for dinner, we each go around and share with the family our High of the Day, Low of the Day, Act of Service and Something we Learned.  We've been doing this for a long time now, probably at least a year or more.  I love this little daily family tradition and hope to keep it going for years to come.  

We've had snow on and off and FREEZING weather the last few weeks, school cancellations and delays.  But, today was our first real snow dump.  Lacey and Tanner raced outside with their sleds and started racing down the hill in the backyard.  I looked out the back window and watched them whizzing down the hill with grins on their faces and laughing and giggling as they hopped on each others sleds and played with each other in the snow.  I grabbed my camera and just sat there and soaked it all in.  And I thought to myself, "This is definitely my high of the day."

Happy 283rd Birthday, Mr. Washington

Today is Presidents Day.  It also happens to be a whopping 9 degrees outside.  At 23 degrees below freezing, Dave thought I was absolutely nuts to head out on a family excursion to Mount Vernon.  But I was determined to spend Presidents Day teaching my children about one of the greatest there ever was.  I've taken them there at least three times before, but it's been a few years and when we talked about, they said they didn't remember it.  So, we decided to have Dave stay home with the two "little ones" and I braved the frigid temps with the "older two."

Beautiful Mount Vernon.

The kids loved touring the house and seeing George Washington's bedroom where he died at age 67.

L and T looking at the tombs of George and Martha Washington.

T was very excited to run into a Revolutionary War soldier

Learning about the French and Indian War

Seeing the actual sword that George Washington used in battle.

Uh.... yeah.  I can relate to this! Wonder what he would think of our ridiculous taxes now!

After touring the house, the tomb, the grounds and Education Center, we topped off the day with a delicious meal at the Mount Vernon Inn. What a great day learning about this incredible man.  I was reflecting on George Washington on our way home and it struck me that he was an absolutely one a kind fearless leader, but also a man of deep humility completely devoted to God and to his family and to a greater cause.  That of freedom.  I think it is so incredible that after he won the Revolutionary War, an absolutely miraculous feat, he was in a position of such power.... and yet, he humbly relinquished that power and gave it back to the people.  It is such a rare combination to find a strong, courageous, humble leader.  But that is what he was.  I hope my children grow up to appreciate and respect and admire him as much as their mama does!

Casey at the Bat

My Grandpa John was hands down, one of the greatest men who ever lived.  He was honest and kind.  He loved God and his family.  He was intelligent and hard working.  He loved animals and he loved children.  Especially his own, making him one of the most amazing fathers and grandfathers ever.  Even though he lived across the country, he was well known in my neighborhood as the "Magic Grandpa" for his "Hocus Pocus" which made candy magically appear.  And he was famous for memorizing and reciting poems and other well known short stories and such.  He was the best story teller ever, using the best facial expressions, voice inflection, etc.  And one of my favorite poems I remember him saying (by memory! - it's 13 stanzas/52 lines long!) was Casey at the Bat, the single most famous baseball poem ever written (by Ernest Lawrence Thayer in 1888).  

So, when I heard "Casey at the Bat" was going to be performed at The Kennedy Center, I immediately bought tickets determined to keep my Grandpa's legacy alive by teaching my kids about this poem and how much their Great Grandpa loved it.  

The three of us dressed up in our baseball jerseys and headed to DC.  And I pointed out the Washington Monument, the WW II Memorial, The Jefferson and Lincoln memorials en route.  The fact that I can do that is one of my very favorite parts about living here!

Lacey and Tanner's first time at the Kennedy Center

The National Symphony Orchestra offers a few "Family Concerts" per year and really try to make introducing the symphony fun for the kids.  For starters, before the symphony starts, they have a "petting zoo" of all the instruments that the kids can touch, hold and try to play.

Checking out the harp...

It was a huge concert hall and we ended up in the 8th row!  I was thrilled!  Because the program was entitled "Casey at the Bat",  the symphony was sports-themed playing pieces from the Olympics, Chariots of Fire, Rocky, Take me Out to the Ball Game, The Star-Spangled Banner, etc.  The second to last piece was Casey at the Bat.  While the symphony played, F.P. Santangelo (broadcaster of Nationals games on MASN) read the famous poem.  He had nothing on Grandpa John, but I loved hearing it, especially set to beautiful symphony music and loved introducing it to my children.  

They ended the performance with Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever.

"Love has its sonnets galore.  War has its epics in heroic verse.  Tragedy its somber story in measured lines.  Baseball has Casey at the Bat."

Love you Grandpa John.  

Feelin' the Love

Look at the creative hairstyle styled by the least creative person ever!  Thank you Instagram (and creative friends I follow on Instagram:))

So, with the V-day hairstyle complete, I rushed L and T off to school yesterday.

And then I picked them up a few hours later and we had fun going through their class (treat-free (Boo!!)) valentines.  

Just so Tanner knows how much I love him when he reads this 20 years from now, I am going to post what my original plan for the day was.  In a nutshell, over the past year or two, all the fun (imo) has been starting to be phased out of my kids elementary school.  It all started with birthday treats... you couldn't bring homemade birthday treats.  They had to be store bought with the ingredient label on them citing "safety" reasons.  Then, by last year, birthday celebrations and treat were totally banned.  Classroom parties soon followed and by the beginning of this year, it was announced, there would only be two classroom parties for the entire year:  Halloween and Valentines Day.  BUT, the classroom parties would be activities/games only - no food or beverage of any kind.  Absolutely ridiculous.   They said that it was to protect kids with allergies.  First of all, there are only a small handful of kids with allergies in this school of 300+ kids and secondly, this can be alleviated by simply having a conversation with mother of allergy student and room mom so allergies are communicated.  Just like it has always been done.... with absolutely no problems whatsoever!  But a few hyper parents and administrators swung the pendulum to the opposite extreme and before you know it, literally everything that used to be fun in school is now banned except for those two classroom parties without food.  So, I hurriedly signed up to be a volunteer at the beginning of the year and I was chosen to host the V-day party for T's classroom.  He was thrilled.  ALL year, he has been begging me to volunteer for Guest Reader, Field Trip chaperone, etc.  But inevitably, these opportunities always fell on a day I had to work and/or couldn't find childcare for my younger two kids.  But I always knew I had the V-day party, and I kept reminding T of that over and over again.  I arranged my childcare months in advance.  Then, LAST WEEK, I got an email from the room mom stating that all V-day classroom parties had been canceled.  BOO!  It was so sad telling T I wouldn't be volunteering after all because of some ridiculous decision someone/group of people was making.  I was furious.  So, for the record, I was on the phone with your principal giving him a (cordial and civil) piece of my mind about the whole thing and I started a FB thread on the School's (unofficial) fb page that illicited over 40 comments and was read by 178 people.  So, for what it's worth, T, I tried.  And I promise I'll make it up to you somehow.  I'll come surprise you with lunch one day at school and it will be great and you will feel loved :)

The night did end on a high though.  Dave and I decided to celebrate our V-day a night early.  We got a baby-sitter and went out and got full body massages (finally cashing in a gift card from my sister that she gave us over a year ago!) and out to a nice dinner.  Our first V-day together was in 2005, so we've hit our decade mark of Valentines Days.

Happy V-day!  We started off the day eating pink, heart-shaped pancakes.

Bon Appetite!

Waiting patiently for pancakes.

I love this picture... she looks upset, but she is happy as a clam squinting her little face together trying to say "cheese" for the camera.  And it also shows perfectly her current phase of finding everything in the house that could remotely pass as a necklace and draping it around her neck.  

Riley Jane slept in, so we started breakfast without her and started off by opening our V-day cards from our 95-year old Great Grandma (GG).  This dear woman send each of my children a hand-written individual card for EVERY SINGLE HOLIDAY.  It is amazing.  We always talk about her when they open their cards.  I love that she has been able to be a part of their lives this way even though she lives on the opposite side of the country.

Lacey helping Ella with her card.

And then it was time for V-day baskets!

Riley J made sure to wake up for this part!

I figured last night was "our" V-day and today it was all about the kids.  But when I ran out grocery shopping, I found this sweet surprise on my car seat.

And to top off a great morning, Lacey gathered everyone together and told us that she had created a family Valentines Day card and wanted to present it to us.

To My Family

Happy V-day.  

I will always Love You.

Right back at you, baby girl.  Right back at you.

We're famous :)

Okay, well that may be a bit of a stretch, but I can now say I'm published :)  A few months ago, I was perusing through BYU Magazine and saw a section on Learning for Life, where alumni wrote in about how they have used their degrees outside of their professional lives.

Aside from a 6 month hiatus after having my first child, I have worked professionally ever since I graduated.  But even so, with a degree in Dietetics (Nutrition), I could immediately think of countless ways I have been able to use my degree outside of my profession, so I sat down one night and sent off a little blurb.  Several weeks later, I heard back that I had been selected to be published in their quarterly publication and it came out this past week. Kinda fun :)

And then, that same week, Lacey was chosen as the Writer of the Week for her Elementary School.  She wrote a short piece (about how her grandparents need to set a New Years Resolution to stop going on vacation so that "we can enjoy having fun with each other in Maryland and they can explore more in Maryland" and how she can "give them more love and they can be happy").  It was actually quite funny/adorable.  Anyway, if you are selected as Writer of the Week, they have you arrive half an hour early to school the next day and rehearse your piece so that you can then read it over the intercom to the whole school during morning announcements.  She was thrilled!

So, it was a "Week of Writing" for the Strom Women :)