January 1 - Part 1

January 1, 2006- Part 1
This Holiday vacation has flown by so fast! I didn’t even get a newsletter up last week. I thought I should catch up on all this fun stuff that has been going on here.

First, Marisa was once again accepted into the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Orchestra for middle school. That was exciting news and she looks forward to the performance in February. She has auditions coming up soon for which chair she will be.

As shared with some of you when the event actually occurred, Alayna actually cut off her hair. I will quote my exact thoughts here:

“And the Mother of the Year award goes to...Me!!!! For NOT beating my child when I found her cutting off all her hair!! She was only alone for 5 minutes. She had been playing with daddy and he ran to the bathroom. She did it that fast. Thank heavens, because of years of experience, I didn't beat her, I just screamed in unholy terror at the site before me. A dorky looking boy with a mullet. I have a friend in the ward who was an angel and did a night house call on the spur of the moment. She did a great job fixing it considering the circumstances. It figures- the night before Alayna was to accompany me to help run the medieval fair. Giant- Ugh!!! Wishing me luck raising this kid... PS She keeps crying and saying "I want my hair back!!" Well, tough luck, sista! Should have thought of that instead of your other bright idea. She doesn't want to face people at the fair tomorrow. Instead of a princess, I may just dress her up like a squire!”

She was quite devastated for a while, but then we found her with scissors the next day trying to cut hair off a wig. Ugh!!! We did find some cute headbands and hair bows and calmed down after I reassured her she had NOT turned into a boy just because her hair was short!

Marisa also had her school Medieval Festival that week which I was able to volunteer for. (I was actually the photographer which should scare you all!) Anyway, it was similar to the madrigal dinners we used to do in High School. Marisa played in an orchestra quartet for the Royalty. Alayna was allowed to come too- she heard from Marisa it was a Prince and Princess party so she went all out dressing up for it. I will include some pictures.

That same day, Alayna and I went to Kayla’s classroom to help out with her Winter Party. They made marshmallow igloos, tried to unwrap Hershey kisses with gloves, and had lots of treats. It was so fun to go spend time with her in her classroom.

It did end up being a long week since I worked 3 days and volunteered one. I guess I got a feel for what a full time job/full time mom would be like. Can I just tell you how long I slept in on Saturday?

On Sunday, our family was asked to do a musical number in church. We were asked to sing “I believe in Christ”. Marisa accompanied us on her violin and did an amazing job. We sang in 3 part harmony and I think we did a pretty good job. We had a fun relaxing joyous Christmas Eve that night. Tune in for Part 2 of our holiday vacation!