Work At Home Musings

I am always amazed at how quickly my children are growing up! My oldest daughter just turned 16 and it is not just her age that happened so fast, she also grew very tall. Of course, this has caused her some joint pain, especially around the knees and back and it only makes matters worse that she plays three different sports - soccer, basketball and track. She is not thrilled to be so tall (she is 5′9″ now), but she is thinking that maybe she could fall back on a modeling career if the sports thing doesn’t work out!

So after scrubbing my ceramic tiles in the kitchen today, I had to cancel my son’s birthday party anyway. There is supposed to be a snow storm headed our way and I had to make the decision to cancel before I get stuck with food that won’t be eaten. Hopefully, next weekend will be good. Unfortunately, my little boy is a tad bit disappointment. Maybe we will go see a movie to cheer him up!

I was hoping to see Finian’s Rainbow on Broadway this year and was disappointed to find out that the play is closing on Sunday! I quickly hopped on the internet and was able to obtain two tickets for Saturday evening for myself and my ten year old daughter. I think she will thoroughly enjoy it!

If you haven’t heard of Finian’s Rainbow, the play is about an Irish man who steals a pot of gold from a leprechaun. Finian, hopes to cash in on all the gold coins, but the leprechaun is fast on his trail. The story involves a fictional state called Missitucky and there are lessons learned about love and racism. The music is wonderful!

If you think you might be interested, rent the movie starring Fred Astaire as Finian. You won’t be disappointed. Here is a peek of one of the scenes from the Broadway musical:

This year, my middle daughter decided to go as a 50s girl Fortunately, I had made a skirt a few years ago. I found a Hannah Montana black leather jacket at WalMart for only $20 to complete the outfit.

Yesterday was our first day of school. My children seem to be pleased with their new teachers, but my high schooler is a little worried that this year is going to be tough.

My daughter insisted on making a funny face. This is her last year at the elementary school and she is excited to be the “BMOC”. My son is now a first grader and is hoping that this year will be as fun as Kindergarten!

Ten year old girls have very loud voices! We just had a gaggle of them over for a sleep over for my daughter’s 10th birthday. The plan was for them to sleep outside in a tent. I knew I should have installed video surveillance equipment before the sleepover, because the girls were all concerned that someone was looking over the fence at 11:00pm at night. They decided that the noises and potentially stalkers were too much for them and ended up sleeping inside.

They didn’t get to sleep until at least 2:30am and were up the next morning at 8:00am. I think there were a few crabby girls that afternoon and my daughter was one of them.

Happy Birthday!

My daughter’s birthday party is in only two weeks and I have a lot of work to do. Since she has a summer birthday, we have a big BBQ bash at our home. This year, she is also inviting some friends over for a campout/sleepover in our backyard. The things I have left to do are:

• Send out party invitations to family and friends
• Clean up the entire house - uggh!
• Make a menu and shop for food
• Clean up the backyard
• Shop for an outdoor fire pit
• Plan games and fun things for the kids to do
• Shop for party favors

I guess I have a lot to do in a little time!

This year, we are not traveling far for vacation, instead we are taking a few mini vacations. We just returned from Virginia where we stayed at The Great Wolf Lodge. I will be posting a review of the Lodge soon! We had a blast there and found plenty to keep us occupied. After spending a few days in a bathing suit, I think I need to figure out how to lose belly fat quickly before our next trip!

Our next mini vacation will probably be down to the Jersey shore. I haven’t decided on a place yet, but we will be going sometime in August.

Don’t forget to check out all of my giveaways on my other blog!

Fortunately, children forgive all your faults. While I am thinking about how I hate having my picture taken and I need to figure out a fast weight loss program, my son, on the other hand, loves to sneak the camera and take lots of closeup pictures of himself, me, and various other things which I sometimes can not figure out.

I recently downloaded the pictures from my camera and found these pictures that my son had taken without my knowledge:

There is nothing better than a six year old’s perspective on the world!

We took a number of pictures from my daughter’s band and chorus concert last night and also a good number of videos. What I didn’t realize was that those videos sure take up a lot of memory. Next time I will come better prepared with extra flash memory drives for my camera.

Here is my daughter hiding from the camera:

My son is waiting patiently for the concert to begin:

Playing the trumpet:

Singing in the Choir: