The day the kids went back to school Ryan and Annie got their second covid shot, so they got to stay home from school on Tuesday. Annie felt fine but Ryan definitely felt the side effects and ibuprofen was needed to help him feel halfway decent. By the next day they were back to feeling fine and back at school. And thus began a crazy intense week and a half. Wednesday at the PTA meeting I was officially elected as the new PTA president. I went from that meeting to a stake YW service project where the girls could choose between painting rocks for a nursing home, making cards or writing jokes for the nursing home, making dog toys for an animal shelter, finishing little libraries that have been in the works for a while, or sorting clothes everyone brought for donation to refugees.
It was a great night and a lot was accomplished.
We had to fit about half the stack of clothes into my car, besides taking 5 girls home. The car was kind of packed. (In this picture Eliza is actually sitting on the pile of clothes before I made her move to the seat between Zula and Chelsea.)
The next day we had to set up after school for the Kids' Korner store that the PTA was running the following week. I was worried it would take a long time because only one person signed up to help, but luckily 5 people who hadn't signed up just showed up to pitch in and made a huge difference!
Friday was the calm before the storm. I knew that the following week would be packed and busy because of the Kids' Korner store so I tried to get everything done that I needed to. That night I got to take a friend break and go to the ornament exchange hosted by Brittany Bell. It was fun to get a chance to chat with friends.
The following day Annie got it in her head that she wanted to feed the ducks. The kids got their jobs done and we headed to Lakeside Park. Before we could make it to the lake they were distracted by the playground. Since merry-go-rounds are mostly banned from playgrounds these days, the kids were excited to find this mini merry-go-round and make themselves super dizzy almost (but not quite) to the point of puking.
We did visit the ducks, but there were signs up prohibiting actually feeding them, so the kids just tricked them by throwing pebbles which got them to come close for a few minutes before giving up on the fake food.
Though the mini-merry-go-round looks to be designed for 2 people, the kids managed to get 4 people on at a time.
That weekend was also stake conference. Jacob and I made a date out of the adult session Saturday night, going to Chipotle to celebrate the raise he earned. It was a good weekend of good talks shared at stake conference.
Monday morning kicked of the crazy of Kids' Korner. We had all sorts of products ranging from $0.25 to $10 that kids could come buy as gifts.
It was great for the kids to get to shop without mom or dad having to take them somewhere and the kids were super excited about it. But it took a lot of hands to make it work efficiently. By Tuesday we had things figured out a little better and it ran a little more smoothly the rest of the week, but I was basically there most of the time M-Th, and some of Friday, too. Thankfully the other PTA board members stepped up and we had some volunteers that helped out a ton.
Thursday Megan got her second covid shot, so she got to stay home from school on Friday. Since I knew she would be home that day I planned to use that time with Grandma to do our annual candy making. Megan really felt the side effects and did not feel well except for when ibuprofen was doing its job. Poor kid.
The benefits of staying home "sick" but not really being sick was being able to eat ice cream for lunch. :)
Grandma and I were super efficient and made 4 batches each of fudge and caramel, 3 batches of candied pecans, and lots of dipped pretzels.
It still wasn't quite enough, especially for my kids who were offended that I didn't make extras just for them. So I've made a few more batches of pretzels and fudge since then. I'm grateful to have my mom so close so we can do this every year. It's a great tradition.
Friday afternoon I left Megan with Grandpa until the other kids got home from school and went to the school to help with Kids' Korner and to set up for Cookies with Santa that was that night.
The cookies for Santa turned out great and went pretty smoothly. Kids got pictures with Santa, got hot chocolate and a cookie, did a craft and got to shop at Kids' Korner one last time if they wanted to. There were a ton of people--I think we estimated 350 based on how many cookies we gave out. Megan was sad that I abandoned her all afternoon so she convinced Jacob to bring them. Ryan didn't want a picture with Santa, but the other two agreed to one.
It was super nice to come home and be done with that crazy week. I slept so well that night.
Unfortunately we couldn't sleep in the next morning because it was the Jingle Trail Run that Ryan had signed up to do the 5k along with Grandma, and Megan and Annie had signed up for the 1k.
The runners:
We thought the 1k was starting at a different place, so by the time we got to the right starting line the pack was already a quarter mile into the race. Even starting so far behind the girls did great and passed a ton of people. Megan is fast! She was probably in the top 20, maybe even top 10, even after starting so late.
And Annie wasn't too far behind that.
After the 1k, the 5k runners were getting ready. Ryan and Grandma started together.
I was so impressed with Ryan. He's going to be a cross country runner for sure.
His time was 31.08, which is just barely over a 10 minute mile--not a bad pace for a 9 year old that doesn't train regularly.
Grandma did great, too, and won 2nd in her age group.
That week at Young Women Rachel got to work on her artistic talents as they did a painting night. She painted this snowman:
It reminded me of a painting of Grandma Jolley's that I inherited:
Nice to see the artistic gene has been passed down. :)
