Tess's Pre-K Graduation Program

Even though school doesn't end until next week, Tess's Pre-K had their graduation ceremony program today.

If you're a faithful blog reader you might remember my snarkiness concerning a "graduation" from preschool for Cole last year.

My feelings have not changed.

Once again there were families there with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. And I was there alone. And I was, once again, fine with this. Because it's preschool, people. Preschool.

However.

This being the very last preschool graduation I will ever be obligated to attend, it was a little different. Also, Tess was way more entertaining in singing the songs and such than her brothers ever were. Spencer, Josh, and Cole were all more focused on getting through the program so they could have treats. Tess was all about being the star and putting her heart into the songs. It was pretty entertaining.

Instead of keeping programs I now just snap pictures of them. Much easier to keep track of!

I was pretty much in a terrible spot to take pictures of Tess, dang it. There's that mic stand in the way and then this grandma right in front of me kept leaning into my line of sight.

I still got a few good one, though.

Okay, now for the videos. I know most people don't want to watch other people's kids sing, and I get that. But if you're in need of a chuckle, check out the 2nd one. Tess is pretty awesome with the motions.

As you can hear in the songs, Tess is a good little Methodist now. (I'd be worried, but she knows far more primary songs than preschool ones, so I think we're all good.)

Here she is shaking her teacher's hand and getting her diploma.

Not sure what that smile is all about...

So when they announced each child's name to come get their diploma they also announced the superlative they decided to give each child based on their personality. Tess literally BOUNCED down to her teacher and twirled to receive her diploma. I'm kicking myself for not recording it. So her being the "Class Actress"? Not so surprising. (Also, Class Actress = Drama Queen. Also not so surprising.)

We watched a 15 minute slideshow with pictures from throughout the year. They included a section with a picture of each child and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Tess wants to be "A mommy with long hair and a baby". (I actually already knew about this because we had to make a paper doll showing this.) Still, it got a good chuckle and lots of "Awwwws" from the audience. And it made this momma's heart happy. I must be doing something right!

Afterward there were cookies and treats to enjoy, as well as a photo booth with costume props. Tess was, of course, a princess.

And we had to get a picture of Tess with her "besterest friend" Grace. Every day they would show off what they were wearing and compare their haircuts, which were exactly the same.

And here's Tess with her teachers, Mrs. Ford and Ms. Purdue. They were such great teachers and Tess loved them!

I feel really grateful that Tess had such a good experience at preschool. Now, onward to Kindergarten!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Susie?

https://youtu.be/Fxwl6pjWKV0

Your grandchildren. They are punks.

Cute punks.

But punks nonetheless.

(I hope you had a lovely day!)

The School Picture Tradition Continues

Another year, another reason why I never buy school pictures.

Granted, they would probably look better if I actually remembered picture day and chose their clothes. But I still wouldn't buy them, so who cares? Besides, the results this way are a lot more fun.

Josh looks so studious and serene... in his ratty, old Giants hoodie that he wears for weeks on end until I have to literally sneak it out of his room so I can wash it. He literally lives in this thing, and the dirtier it gets the more he loves it. Boys are gross.

Cole looks like a shark about to bite. Perhaps that's what happened to the knee of his pants. And what's with the large, blue, plastic square on his wrist? (Okay, it's a watch he got from the Easter Bunny. It still looks weird.)

More Spring Fever

When it rains it pours in the Madsen household. I thought since Spencer had a concussion scare on Monday he'd be good on the medical front for a while.

Nope.

I was getting into the car with Tess, picking her up from preschool at noon, when I got a phone call from the middle school nurse. Again.

Poor Spencer was running a fever and feeling sick. My heart dropped and pretty much knew right then that it was strep.

So we picked the poor boy up. I could tell he wasn't feeling well, but he certainly wasn't on death's door.

That came a few hours later.

I was able to get him into the pediatrician at 2:40pm. Just getting him there was a production. He was so nauseous he couldn't get his shoes on and he had to ride with a bucket on his lap. I normally wouldn't have forced the issue if it were just the flu, but I KNEW it was strep.

We finally got into an exam room and they elevated the exam table so he could lay down with his head up. The nurse came and took his vitals - fever of 103.9! While we waited for the doctor the poor child got the chills. I didn't have a jacket or blanket or anything. I was just about to get someone when the doctor came in.

It took her about 4.8 seconds to diagnose it as strep, but of course they had to do a swab just to confirm. I had to hold his arms down while the doctor gave him the most vigorous swab I had ever seen. (And I've seen 3 in the last 2 months!) Spencer was pretty upset by this, and it reminded me that despite the growth spurts and the voice changing he's still just a kid. It pretty much broke my heart.

The swab came back positive. Apparently strep is running rampant around town. I'm sure he has the same bug as Tess, he just got lucky and wasn't allergic to the toxin it releases and didn't break into a rash. (I mentioned this to him; he was not consoled.)

While we were waiting the doctor filled out Spencer's physical form for scout camp this summer, which I remembered as we were leaving the house. (This made me unreasonably proud of myself!)

The doctor, who was not our usual doctor but who I love just as much as our usual doctor (side note: I feel so lucky to have a pediatrician office where I love all the doctors and nurses - I know it's unusual!) was so accommodating with the form. She realized Spencer had had his annual in January and was like "We're not even going to file anything with this. Insurance companies charge so much money for things like that and all I really need to do is attach his immunization record and sign this form." Thus earning my love and admiration for ever.

By this point Spencer was so visibly miserable that they gave him some Zofran so he'd be able to keep his prescription down later. It helped quite a bit and the ride home wasn't quite as perilous.

He slept pretty much the rest of the day and played computer games and dozed the next day. And today he's back at school, pretty much back to 100%. Antibiotics are amazing things!

Meanwhile, I have been wiping down all hard surfaces with disinfectant wipes and doing our laundry on the sanitize setting.

Let's hope this is the last of our Spring Fever!

Happy 5th Birthday, Tess!

Oh my goodness. How in the world can the baby of the family be 5 years old?! I feel older each time my kids have a birthday, but there's something about milestone birthdays for your youngest.

So the rule in our house is that you have friend birthdays on the even numbered years. But since we were in UT last year on Tess's birthday she didn't get a friend birthday. But since she was 4 I didn't think she cared. And 4 year old Tess didn't. But 4-almost-5 year old Tess did. So I made a concession and said she could have a small party with friends this year. I specifically had it during school hours so no brothers would be around, which would make it even more of a production.

So get this - we invited 5 girls and 4 RSVP'd that they could come, but only TWO showed up! Isn't that weird? Well, one of the moms called me later and explained that she just completely forgot about the party. Given that she's an OB nurse and worked 2 night shifts in a row right before, I completely understood and forgave her. Also, I've forgotten birthday parties, too, and I don't work the night shift. But the other mom? What the what, lady?

Fortunately, Tess didn't seem to feel slighted in any way. She had a blast! And that made my heart happy.

Tess decided she MUST have a My Little Pony party. The girl is obsessed. So I obliged. (The theme made it easier for the boys to not feel so bad missing out on the festivities!)

I found this awesome Pony Party template online. They were so cute printed out on cardstock!

Tess wanted Pony shaped cupcakes. She obviously has delusions of grandeur concerning my cake decorating skills. So we compromised with rainbow and sprinkle cupcakes. I think they turned out so well!

Yes, I still made a whole batch. I knew some little boys would take care of them over the weekend. They did.

I'm not a huge fan of goodie bags at parties. They're always full of crap and candy that I end up throwing away for the next week. So what did I put in our goodie bags? Crap and candy. It couldn't be helped. The week after Easter I was at WalMart with Tess and we stumbled upon plastic princess jewelry in the Easter clearance for $.49 a package. Sold. (I also found 10 packs of Easter pencils for $.23 each. I bought 6. My kids are set for school. And no, I don't care that they're Easter. Neither will they.) I added to that a $.49 pack of mini bubbles. So I had the crap covered, now I needed candy. Pinterest to the rescue with rainbow airheads and marshmallow clouds. Done.

For lunch we had cheese pizza (Tess's fave), rainbow goldfish crackers, pink lemonade, and rainbow fruit skewers. I almost made cutesy labels for the food but then remembered these were 4 and 5 year olds who couldn't read and wouldn't care.

I was not willing to buy a $25 Pony pinata. Or even a $10 Pony banner. I was, however, willing to scrounge up white balloons and colored streamers that were lurking in my birthday drawer. (Yes, I have a birthday filing cabinet drawer, and it is fabulous.)

Voila! A rainbow and clouds. Tess was very pleased.

Tess's 2 guests arrived and we colored Pony pictures for a while. It was then that I realized what the volume levels might be like if I had 3 daughters instead of 3 sons. With boys the volume gets loud - VERY LOUD - but it's generally in short bursts. With girls it is a CONSTANT AND INCESSANT HUM. Seriously, the three girls chattered the entire time. It was amusing and amazing.

Then we decided to do our craft, because Tess is very much into crafts. This is also different from boys - they NEVER want to do crafts at their parties. I had the girls make rainbow necklaces. Tess and I had painted the beads a few days before. I think they turned out really cute!

Then we played Pin the Cutie Mark on the Pony. My artistic skills know no bounds, right? Um... right.

Ellen is obsessed with Tess's princess hat. It's on her head every time she comes over. And Tess doesn't care about the hat - unless it's on Ellen.

Everyone had a tough time choosing just one cutie mark.

It was actually pretty funny to watch them - they didn't really understand the game. (I kinda misjudged that.)

Each of them cheated and peeked at one point, but no one was sad by this so who cares?

Then we played a game with the punchboard, but I didn't get any pictures. They LOVED this game. We had a dice and if you rolled a 5 you could choose a hole to punch and inside was a little plastic Pony. Well, I don't know what the deal was but no one could roll a 5! It was taking forever. So we changed the rules and said that if anyone rolled a 5 then everyone could make a punch and things picked up from there. They were seriously so happy. Each girl got 4 Ponies and they were in heaven.

We finally had lunch and the chattering continued. Oh my goodness, the chattering. There's Ellen again and the cutie blond is Madi.

Five is such a sweet age. Tess had completely forgotten that friends bring presents to parties; she was just excited to have her friends come over to play! So she was SO HAPPY when she got her gifts!

Ellen gave her a set of nail polish. It was the perfect gift.

Madi made her a pop-up birthday card. I thought it was cute.

Madi gave her a Melissa and Doug Sticker book. Tess likes it, but her brothers love it - they put the stickers in weird spots and doing weird things. (Think: a birthday cake in the potty. That sort of humor.)

After lunch the girls were happy just playing. It was seriously the easiest party ever.

On Monday morning - Tess's actual birthday - I made an early morning run to Mary Lou's for doughnuts, Tess's requested breakfast of choice. It's hard to turn down an excuse to have Mary Lou's for breakfast.

Poor Tess was still feeling a little unwell from the Scarlet Fever and didn't get up until around 10am, after all the boys had gone to school. I thought she would be sad, but she was her excited self and proclaimed I should break out the candles. I obliged.

I love this birthday tradition. Because blowing out candles twice in one day? Magic for a kid.

Since she was still recovering I kept the day pretty low key. We played games and read books. And took pictures of the cake, because it was pretty!

Tess wanted a chocolate flower cake with sprinkles.

Nailed it.

She also wanted a picnic. So we found a spot of shade in the backyard and enjoyed ourselves!

That evening we spent 90 minutes at Armstrong Park while Josh had baseball practice. The weather was GORGEOUS and Tess must've blown at least 46 dandelions. "They make fairies!" I felt hyperventilated just watching her!

After practice we met up with Lance at the new Noodles & Company in front of Target. It was tasty as usual, but I have to say it is getting pricey to go out to eat now that Spencer and Josh don't want kid food.

We finally made it home for cake and ice cream.

And, of course, presents. I had let her open a couple during the day because she was so bored and stuck at home. Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie gave her a fancy Rainbow Dash toy. And Spencer and Josh gave her a Power Ponies set. And Cole - and he was so proud of himself about this - gave her an alarm clock. (I think I know what to get for his birthday next month!)

She got a darling apron and spangled purse from Grandpa Viggo and Grandma Laurie. Oh man, that purse. True love.

I gave her a new backpack for Kindergarten. (It's super cute. I got it on clearance on Land's End 2 years ago and have just been waiting to give it to her!)

She also got Pony underpants from Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie and just giggled and giggled. They're a little big, so we're saving them for her next growth spurt.

She got some more stuffed ponies. (Mysteriously part of the same set the Easter Bunny brought last month... he must shop on ebay, too!)

And then, the coup d'etat... The Equestrian Girls Bedroom Playset she had been begging for for 2 months! I kept going back and forth on whether to get it or not. It was only $20, but still. But then I got such good deals on the other gifts, and she had her heart so set on it.

She was beyond thrilled. It was magic. No seriously - she and COLE were playing together with it this afternoon, and that boy hates ponies and girly stuff. And they were playing nicely and having fun. Magic.

Tess is magic, too. She brings a happy, vibrant spirit into our home. I'm so glad she's a part of our family! Happy 5th birthday, Tessie!