Here we are on the eve of a new year already (I sort of skipped Christmas but I’ll get back to it, I promise!).  For many years we’ve had a tradition of going bowling with the Lonergan and Angell families on NYE day.  We really look forward to this outing and even though we always scramble around last minute to find lanes that will accommodate 10 kids, we manage to have a blast every single time!  This year the poor Angell’s were under the weather so they had to pass.  The Conley and Lonergan clans took over Olathe Lanes East and showcased some talent.  Cara always insists they put the bumper rails up even though the rule is you have to be 10 or under.  We joked that we’ll be doing this when our kids are 20 and still trying to pass them off as 10 year olds!  Meet our fierce competitors…

Team “Hot Dog”

These two cuties kept asking for food even though I filled my purse full of candy to try to ward off any kids asking for concessions.  Apparently it didn’t work and Morgan thought she would make up a rule that the winner got a hot dog from the concession stand.  Nice try MoMo 😉

Team “Rigged”

Of course these two ultra competitive boys kept saying the lanes were “rigged” when things didn’t fall their way.  They were masters of splitting the pins.

Team “DJ”

You can’t beat the cuteness of this team DJ (Drew/Joey).  They were giving each other advice, pep talks and cheering each other on…way to go boys!

Team “Jelly Bean”

And last, but certainly not least, team jelly bean (no significance to the name).  We’ve decided she is absolutely the luckiest bowler on the planet.  Just when you think that bowling ball won’t even make it to the end of the lane it’s rolling so slow, she’ll knock out most of the pins!  She proved to be the one to beat in the end.  This girl is a force to be reckoned with!

Congratulations Team Hot Dog on your first place win but this little lady might get you next year!

We managed to get out of there without buying any hot dogs and no money spent in the arcade!!  Now that’s what I call a success!!  Even though Reece flew off the handle when she realized we didn’t bring prizes, we had a blast and next year we’re bringing prizes, we promise!

Happy New Year!

Why do I always have camera problems!?  Tuesday morning I was totally prepared to get to the school first thing to help the 5th graders make gingerbread houses.  This is a tradition at our school and it’s super fun for the kids!  I had my memory card inserted in my camera (unlike when I forgot to put one in for Pittsburg Xmas), I took a shower & put on makeup ;), and had class party treats & gingerbread house supplies in hand by 7:30a.m.  I was really looking forward to this morning as this is Jake’s last year at Manchester Park.  Say it isn’t so!!  I don’t really know what went wrong, but I have no pictures on my memory card to document this event.  grrrrr.  What is it with me and my camera problems!?   So here’s the finished product…pretty great huh!?

The good news is, I had an absolute blast doing this with Jake and his friends.  The entire 5th grade brings in powdered sugar, eggs, graham crackers and tons of candy to decorate. All the volunteer moms frantically make the royal icing while they construct.  It’s pretty impressive!  Somehow I got stuck with the job of separating the egg whites…I’m pretty sure my hands will never be the same.  I don’t think raw eggs are good for the skin.  I managed to escape the eggs to go help Jake even though he really didn’t need it!  When I did this with Morgan 3 years ago, all the girls did such a fabulous job and all the boys were (excuse my language) annoying and had piles of graham crackers and candy with no effort. Here’s a flashback to Morgan’s house…

Isn’t she adorable!?  And awesome job on the house momo!!

I was expecting the boys to be a disaster this year, but to my surprise, they weren’t!!  They were actually trying to get a nice structure together!  I had so much fun and managed to get out of there without eating one morsel of candy!!  This is a major deal for me because I am like a little kid…I love candy!   I don’t think Jake can say the same….he was literally stuffing every pocket full of candy to get him through the rest of the day.  How he got an A on his really difficult dividing decimals math test immediately after remains a mystery! Maybe candy is the secret!?  Don’t even try it Jakers…it’s not happening next test!

I had a short break until I had to be back at the school for winter parties, I guess my laundry will have to wait!  My heart is always so happy when I show up in my kids’ classrooms.  They still get very excited to see me and I will never forget that!  Here are a few winter party photos that actually did make it on my camera memory card…

The 1st graders continued the tradition of wearing PJ’s to school, the principal reads The Polar Express, and they watch the movie together!We made these cute treats for her class.  I was supposed to make these cheese sticks into Santa’s but I decided tying a festive bow on them was just as cute.  Plus, I didn’t really know how I was going to do that anyway.  I’m not a pinterest kind of girl 😉

Here’s my 3rd grader, Drew Boo, who earned the chance to bring a stuffed animal to school. He chose Besler of course!  And I think he wanted to show him off to his ‘girlfriend.’  Girlfriend!?  I feel like this one is going to be girl-crazy….ugh!

Jake’s 5th grade class played a lot of fun games this time!  They played soccer while crab-walking, threw candy into wreaths and got to keep all of the candy, they drew snowmen on top of their heads with no eyesight, snowball bowling, and the famous toilet paper snowman game, super fun right!?  How am I going to follow this kind of fun up during winter break!?  yikes!

Woo hoo…winter break begins!!  I’m so happy this time of the year because sports slow down, I don’t have to quiz anyone on spelling words, or science, or social studies, I don’t have to pack lunches, the kids can sleep in if they want, I don’t have to stress out about bedtime, and Brian usually doesn’t travel much.  Most of all, I just love spending time with my family without a ton of distractions.  It’s by far my favorite part of the season.  I love you guys so much!  cheers to a fun-filled break!

 

This actually has me tearing up already and I haven’t even started my journal!  I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the sweet Peters family is moving to Frisco TX a few days after Christmas.  Morgan considers Ava & Ellie two of her very best friends, so to see them go is really tough!  However, these adorable girls have made the most out of the few days they have left together!  They surprised Ava and Ellie with a fun girls night out to a hibachi restaurant and lots of nice cards and Kansas-themed gifts.  Even Reece made them the cutest card ever!!

Morgan made some very nice heartfelt cards for the girls but she’d probably slap me if I included them, so we’ll just take a look at Reece’s!  Get your thinking caps on…it needs a bit of translation!

There was also a fun family going away gathering over the weekend at Johnny’s Tavern.  So many families came by to wish them well!  We got them some cool things made right here in Kansas City.

The next day they had a bigger party at the bowling alley with many of the 8th grade girls from school and I think it’s safe to say these two girls are absolutely loved to pieces!!

That’s Ellie & Ava at the top!

We absolutely wish them the very best, they are the most positive, kind, and genuine girls you’ll ever meet!  It’s been a very emotional week but we know they are going to make friends right away and Morgan is already looking forward to tagging along on one of Brian’s business trips to Dallas to go see them!

 

 

Reece has been asking to see the nutcracker ballet so I very last minute picked up some tickets to go see it at the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College.  It was a great production!  Ok so maybe Morgan slept through part of it!?  And Reece was trying to fall asleep but I kept nudging her!  She said the music was just too peaceful to stay awake! Either way, I loved every minute of it and being with my beautiful girls makes my heart super happy.  Maybe next time I’ll stuff my purse with candy to keep them alert!  They are not getting upgraded to the Kauffman Center until they can prove to me they can stay awake!  Just kidding…I love you girls to pieces. XOXO, mommy

My aunt Kathy absolutely makes the best fudge in the world!  It might actually be my favorite thing to eat during the holiday season.  In fact, if I could get away with it, I would sit with that famous tin of deliciousness in my lap and eat it all day long.  I remember sneaking it out of the kitchen at my Grammy D’s house when I was a little kid.  We only get it once a year so we have to take full advantage!  Now that I have my own little budding baker, we are trying our hand at making her famous recipe!  This is year #3 on our quest to make the famous fudge…

Between three very toned and muscular arms, we managed to stir that pot and come up with some yummy fudge!  Way to go girls!  By the way it only takes Kathy’s one arm to our three…what the heck!?  We went with a different brand of chocolate this year so we are blaming the consistency on that!

During our constant stirring, Reece was hard at work at making beautiful pretzels for our neighbors and coaches!

And the boys were basically just jacking around as usual 😉

The best part of this fun night is what we accomplished as a family to give to those in need this holiday season!  Each year we adopt a family and provide them with many needs and wants that they would not have the means to provide on their own.  This year, our family was big!  A family of 8 plus three angels off our tree at church.  We shopped as a family and Morgan spent two hours wrapping everything so beautifully.  I’m so excited that we are making this season a little brighter for this family!  Way to go guys…you really picked out some great things and I know it will be appreciated!!  I hope you always remember to spread kindness all year long…it  makes a big difference in the community!

We finished  just in time to brave some terrible winter weather, packed up our fudge, and headed to Pittsburg to celebrate Christmas with Grammy D (we had an extra passenger…thank goodness Sparkles is small!)

All of us look so forward to this special day!  Even though all the kids are growing or maybe Grammy’s house is shrinking!?…my kiddos have been so excited to get there.  Generally all my cousins, aunts, & uncles are there and the kids get a gift and we play games and eat fudge (and other stuff too!).  We have been doing some taste tests to see if our fudge measures up, and so far, Kathy’s still wins!!  Either way, our Grammy makes us super happy and we know she is delighted to have us there.  Merry Christmas Delmez family!

Morgan and I reminisced a little bit about these little treasures!  From the time Morgan was a baby, the minute she would walk into Grammy’s house she would grab these items to play with.  She would swing that cow around for hours!  And place little stuffed animals on this little wooden bench!  I absolutely love that my Grammy still has this sitting out. She may not say this, but I think she keeps these out especially for Morgan.  A wonderful memory for us…thank you Grammy!

And look at this adorable little guy…this is Soloman, the newest member of the Delmez family.  Is he not the most precious thing ever?!  I really want to steal him, and I’m not even kidding!

Jake is part of the Timbernote Singers at Manchester Park Elementary which is a special chorus program for 4th & 5th graders.  He isn’t particularly proud of this, but I think he is a gifted singer (he chooses to think otherwise).  So before I have every family member yelling at me for not informing them of this concert that occurred yesterday, I’m going to defend myself by letting you know that I didn’t know about it either!  In fact, no one really did.  It wasn’t particularly publicized and it happened at 2:00 in the afternoon.  I had to cancel a Dr. appointment last minute to get there!  When I arrived, there were tons of parents, so apparently word got around and thankfully I decided to put on some makeup!

Jake was not super peppy in this performance and I have since discovered he was just annoyed with the music teacher for not getting them better prepared!  I love this!  He is totally his mother’s son!   I have to agree with my little guy – the music teacher is very crazy and fun but she’s a bit of a mess when it comes to organizing performances. And apparently communication too…since I had to call the school to find out about this Christmas performance.  The first time they rehearsed was one hour before the school concert!  yikes!  This is a little too last minute for some of us!

Here’s one little video clip – Jake was “dasher” standing on the back left of the stage.  He’s the one guy wearing a slightly different shirt than anyone else (because I was too cheap to buy him the new one).  Hey-give me a break, she gave us the option of buying it or just wearing last years and he’s going to be out of there in another semester anyway!

And shouldn’t they be dressed like Reindeer and why are they in Santa hats!?  Ok, this is not my program to direct so I will just keep the rest of my comments to myself!

Here’s another cute clip of Jake talking on our North Pole Communicator – so see, he was sort of excited about the performance!  And you can get a little glimpse of Drew’s new shooting shirt for basketball – he’s so proud of it.

Happy Holidays!

Ok I promise to stop talking about Morgan’s basketball team!  This is my last journal, PROMISE!  I might have a slight obsession with it.  I didn’t play school sports so maybe I’m just mesmerized by the comradery.  Or actually I’m just super proud of Morgan for her commitment and growth this season.  MoMo, you are so fun to watch and you have improved exponentially.

At the end of each season, they organize a banquet for the families and athletes of the 7th and 8th grade teams.  This year, Brian was able to come and all the kids (this is an amazing feat)!  The girls dress up, we all share a meal, generally the coaches say a few words about the season and recognize the girls individually, and we watch a video of pictures taken throughout the season.  Mr. Marks, the 8th grade coach, was sick!  WHAT!?  He can’t be sick the night of the banquet!  I was SO looking forward to what he would say about Morgan!  Shoot!  I’m just going to guess it was going to be a lot of awesome things like….she’s a team player, dependable, good listener, super hard worker, and a leader on the team.  Let’s just go with that, shall we!?

 

Since Mr. Marks was gone, the girls got to stand up and say something about the season either funny or not.  Morgan chose to say something funny about Mr. Marks — apparently he had lot’s of goofy and strange analogies he would say in practice and it would crack the girls up.  Such as, “sometimes you’re the bug and sometimes you’re the windshield…”

MoMo, rather you’re the bug or the windshield, I’m just thrilled to be a part of the banquet with you and all of you deserve recognition for your season!  And of course, all of you look ADORABLE!  Soon you will no longer be a PRT Husky but you will always have these fun memories!

 

We love you Morgan!!

Meet “Besler,” he is the newest member of our elf pets family.  He’s a cute little St. Bernard puppy (stuffed animal, thank goodness).  Does it surprise you that they named him after a Sporting KC Soccer player!?  Reece preferred “Peppermint” but Besler won out in the end.  Hopefully Matt is not offended that we named a plush toy after him!

Lets recap our elf family tree:

Sparkles:  our elf joined our family in 2008 and lives with us Dec 1st-Dec 25th. He keeps an eye out for good/bad behavior and reports it back to the North Pole each night.  The drawback of having an elf is you cannot touch him or he loses his magic!

Snowflake:  He is a Reindeer that joined our family in 2014 and he’s loved by all because we can actually touch him without any consequences.  He is Sparkles’ BFF.

Besler: Sparkles surprised us with a gift of a St. Bernard this year.  He is especially loved because these kids adore puppies.  I have to admit he’s pretty cute.  Unfortunately, I know this will shock you that every night, a fight ensues over who gets to sleep with these guys!

Only 11 more days ’til Christmas!

Reece & her sweet little 1st grade Daisy troop had a Christmas party over the weekend. This is really not very exciting except for the fact that Reece wore high heels!  Yep, this little lady strutted right into that party and had every mom smiling from ear to ear.

Lets clear this up.  Reece has been asking me for some shoes with heels so I found a pair of cute boots online at Target and ordered them on sale of course!  When they arrived she was over the moon and has asked me every single day when she can wear them.  I honestly could not come up with an occasion for her to wear them because they are not easy to walk in!  So when this Christmas party came up, I jumped at the chance to put those heeled booties on her. I tried to explain that heels are not all they’re cracked up to be, they hurt your feet!  However, I have had an obsession with shoes my entire life…by far my favorite accessory.  Right mom!?  I used to wear heels around my grammy’s house all the time.

Reece has since told me that “usually you start out wearing wedges, and then move into wearing high heels, but I went right into high heels”…why on earth am I having these kinds of conversations with a 6 year old!?!  I’m in for it…

 

 

Science might be my least favorite subject, but Mrs. Berg asked for volunteers and mom guilt set in.  In 3rd grade Science at Manchester Park, they are studying simple machines.  I conquered my fears of Science and showed up yesterday and surprised Drew!  Brian also volunteered the day prior and basically said his experiment was an epic fail.  Shoot–what have I gotten myself into!?  My job was to reinforce the topic of wheels and axles and help these cuties build cars out of toilet paper rolls and other supplies.  Look what Drew created despite the fact he is not into arts & crafts…  

I especially love how he put seats on his and used his sports numbers to enhance the decor of his car (#16 soccer/#20 baseball).  Isn’t that funny!?  Drewy, I love that you’re proud of your numbers…that’s super cute and awesome.  It always cracks me up when my boys sign cards with their numbers next to their names (I wonder if the recipients even understand what those numbers are!?)  Now you know the secret if you get a number on your card!

Drew Boo, I know I don’t have a future in being a Science teacher, but thank you for helping me not be scared anymore!

You are going to rock that simple machines test Friday!