Quick 5

This has to be quick, folks.  We leave in the morning for our annual Trek To Kansas City To Celebrate The Holidays And Be Embarrassed Out Of Our Minds By The Behavior Of Our Toddler excursion, and I have much to do.

1.  Last Saturday we drove through the snow to my parents' house, where they were watching my nieces and nephews.  The cousins needed a play date.  Alaina and Joya were insanely jealous that they got to spend the night at Grammy and Grandad's.  When I told them it was because Aunt Jamie and Uncle Nick had something to do, and that the kids needed to stay with Grammy and Grandad so they could watch them, Joya replied, "I wish YOU AND DAD had something to do!"  Anyway, it was fun to see them and play for a couple of hours.

2.  I love the evolution of kid art.  Joya is in the early stages of drawing people.  She made this picture, and then wanted to throw it away, because she forgot to draw herself in.  Alaina solved the problem by taking another picture that Joya had drawn of herself, cutting it out, and taping it to the picture.  So here is Joya's latest interpretation of our family:

3.  I volunteered at Alaina's school on Monday and Tuesday morning of this week, which meant the two younger ones stayed home with dad.  They played so well together.  Bria is beginning to embrace Joya's love of dress up.  But while Joya will wear her dresses for hours, Bria seems to prefer the putting on/taking off part of the game, which she needs help with over and over and over and over.

4.  On Wednesday I got my first ever call from the school, telling me that Alaina had a fever and needed to go home.  Of course they called at 1:20pm, which is directly in the middle of Bria's nap.  So I swallowed my pride and called my good friend Leah to see if she could bop over and sit at my house while I ran to get Alaina from school.  She could and did and saved my bacon in the process.  So I picked Alaina up.  She had a temp of 101 at school, but seemed fine.  I'm trying desperately to treat the kid and not the fever, but the school has a no-tolerance policy when it comes to fevers.  So I kept her home from school on Thursday, even though her temp never really got above 100.  She was acting fine.  But this morning her temp was 101 again, so she had to stay home and miss Pie Day, where the kids were going to sample all sorts of pies.  She really does love school, so she's pretty bummed.  But she's comforted by the fact that we are going to Gramma's tomorrow, fever or not.

5.  This little girl loves her spaghetti.  There may or may not be a similar picture of me out there when I was around this age:

Happy Thanksgiving week!