Artistic Expression

The art shows are not the same at Lakeridge since Mrs. Hunter left, but I still always like to see what the kids are creating. Mr. Anderson likes to split the art and have a show in December as well as the Spring. I walked through and took some pictures of pieces I liked and later the girls came and took pictures of ones they liked. I found it humorous that we had no repeats. All the ones we liked were different. I guess we have different taste and that is what makes the world a great place.

You, reader, get to enjoy it all. I like the blog to have fun stuff to look at. So even though none of this art was made by my kids, it is still blog worthy. What tickles your fancy?

This is my favorite by far. So funny and creative.

Wow, the socks...genius.

Spelling errors always make me smile. I hope none of you are griving.

Look closely. This art piece is a bit creepy. The hand hangs over the bed and what a long trip it is to the floor. Past some beasties. Creative though.

Art is so fun. I can't wait for this summer and all the fun art we'll do.

Impromptu Christmas Party

My favorite Christmas Party in December is hands down the Scoresby party. Keri is so creative and comes up with different fun ideas every year and the oldy-wed game and the white elephant gift exchange are always a highlight for me. However, this last year, Keri had work conflicts and the party was canceled. It was such a bummer.

I suddenly had an open evening and a few ideas circulating in my  brain. So at the last minute, I told the girls to each invite a friend (or two) over for an impromptu Christmas party. Some friends could come and others already had plans (it being the Christmas season) but we ended up with a great number.

First, we played the reindeer antler toss. It was actually quite fun and everyone took a turn trying to get a ring on the reindeer. Pearl had a great toss. How do you ring all three?

Tyler decided it wasn't about looping an antler. It was all about making the antlers look good. Ivory looks thrilled.

June had a different approach. She planned on catching the rings instead of sitting there passively. She was pretty good.

Then we did a craft. Ivory found it online and it ended up being so easy and cute. Here are all the supplies. Easy to find. Here is a link since I'm not going into great detail.

Basically loop your yarn around your paper towel roll slice. Cover all the roll with yarn, pull the threads through. Tie the top, stuff a cotton ball inside and trim the excess yarn. Voila. Instant little cotton puff mini beanie. The girls all loved working on it. (Love having a family of crafty girls.)

They didn't take very long and they looked so adorable when they were done.

We had treats somewhere along the way too, but I can't remember what we had. Maybe cider and Stroop waffles. Those are so delicious. Then we ended the evening with a game. We played Candy Cane Spoons. This is a new version of spoons in which you use Candy Canes instead of spoons. In a game of spoons, you try to match four cards, take a spoon, and not be left without one. If you don't get a spoon, you get a letter and spell a word, like...S.P.O.O.N. In Candy Canes spoons, it is much the same. If you don't get a Candy cane, you get a letter. HOWEVER, if you break a candy cane while reaching for it, you get TWO letters. It was really fun to play. Christina smashed a candy cane right away. She got excited and forgot they were fragile. So fun. When you break one, you just put part of the candy cane back on the table. Sometimes you end up with really small pieces.

It was such a fun party. We even remembered to get a group shot. Everyone, put your tiny beanie on your head and show us some jazz hands. Good job.

Gotta love a last minute party and good friends.

Santa or the Grinch?

Tyler has been doing Real Estate for almost two years now. He is part of an awesome collective called The HIVE. They do really cool events whenever they can. They do free firework shows in July. They do a pumpkin patch in October. And for Christmas, they tried something new this year. They did a Christmas party and asked for donations. The HIVE matched every donation that came in and then they went into the community and gave back wherever they could think of to help.

Greg Hansen dressed up like the Grinch and he paid for people's groceries, their gas, and even their fast food. One lady had a broken heater in her car and they gave her money to fix it. It was all about random Christmas cheer. I think it was fantastic idea. Especially coming from the Grinch. He is just so grinchy. It is a little unexpected.

Most of our family was able to attend the Christmas Party. Some of the girls went a little early to help decorate. I thought it looked pretty swanky when they were done.

There were lots of fun activities, like pictures, crafts, and a snowball fight. (Although the Grinch totally cheated...go figure.) We got some pictures with both Santa and the Grinch. The Grinch was a stinker.

Santa was quite the jolly fellow. So sweet and good with all the kids, even the ones screaming on his lap. But I knew he had a sassy side when he photo bombed our photo with Cindy Lou Who. Way to go Santa.

So how about you? Do you have a soft spot in your heart for the Grinch? Or Santa? Or both? I think I can't choose between these two.

I think Tyler's Real Estate Group is a spectacular group. They work hard and love to give back whenever they can. I'm sure they made many people's Christmas Merry and Bright.

Surgery Girls

Ivory was the original Surgery Girl when she got her tonsils out. We haven't had much need for the title since then, but somehow we managed to schedule THREE surgery girls for this last December. It was almost four, but we figured Pearl would feel left out, so Robyn went to Front Site instead of having surgery. Seems like a good trade to me.


Everyone took their turn and had their own unique experience. Let's look back and see how each Surgery Girl did... (fade out music)


Daisy was up first. She had the easiest surgery of the three, but because her procedure was done at the hospital, it was the most structured. You know what I mean, right? There is a certain way to do things at the hospital with the monitors and the number and waiting for your person to come back out. It makes it feel more intense than it might actually be.


Daisy was there to get tubes in her ears. There has been a long history of Daisy and her hearing problems. When she was younger, she stopped being able to hear. You could stand behind her and say her name and she wouldn't respond. We took her in for a hearing test and she failed. She seemed to have an ear infection and they thought that was the problem, so after antibiotics and some healing time we took her back in for another hearing test and she failed. Oddly, we could tell that she could hear again, so even though she failed the test we decided not to worry about it and we moved on with life (yes, we are stellar parents).


Fast forward five or six years and suddenly Daisy couldn't hear again. She had an ear infection, we got her some antibiotics, and the infection improved but the hearing didn't. After two months I decided to take her in to see an ENT. They gave her some hearing tests and sure enough, she failed. She had lost almost 30 decibels of hearing. That means normal speech sounded like a whisper to her. The doctor recommended tubes to get rid of the fluid in her ears. I'd like to think that fluid has not been sitting there for five years.


The procedure to put in tubes is very fast and pretty easy but they still like to put children out because it can be scary for them. We arrived early on a Monday morning and were escorted back to a room. We only had to wait a little while and Daisy spent time talking with us.

Once again, this was at the hospital, so she had to do the whole gown and rigmarole. But she looked very cute in her hospital jams and her finger monitor.

She brought her own blanket but they also gave her another one at the hospital. (Not pictured here.) They wheeled her out after everyone had come to talk to her about the surgery. Daisy didn't seem too worried and luckily she doesn't weigh much so they decided to just give her a gas mask instead of putting a tube down her throat. (Yay!) It didn't take long and she was wheeled back to us curled up and groggy. Everyone reacts to anesthesia differently. The nurse we had said kids come out screaming most of the time. (That sounds so disturbing.) I don't think Daisy did that, but they probably wouldn't tell us if she did. She was rather grumpy as it wore off. She got a slushy which you'd think would make her happy, but she didn't want us taking pictures. Too bad.

Shortly, she was back to herself. Except now she could hear. We stopped to get some real breakfast but she didn't eat much. Not so hungry after the whole ordeal. Daisy's recovery was quick and barely changed anything in her routine. The other girls were not so lucky.

Next up was Ivory. Lucky for the original Surgery girl to go at it again. This time, she was in for some not so fun oral surgery. Ivory has stubborn teeth and to help them move, the doctor planned to drill a ton of holes in the bone under her teeth in hopes that while healing, the teeth would be more willing to adjust. This surgery was easily the most expensive since insurance wouldn't cover it, and there was only an 80% chance that it would work. (Yes, you are reading that correctly. There was a 20% chance that we were not only wasting our money, but also inflicting Ivory to a lot of unnecessary pain. Let's all cross our fingers.) We went to a consult in October to be told all this good news by the doctor. Here we are reading before he came in.

A little over two months later, we were back for the actual surgery, despite the possibility that it was all for naught.

The bone drilling was not the worst part. It was getting to the bone. They had to slice and pull back her gums and they sliced them from mid mouth all the way back to the wisdom tooth. And since they were  back there, they decided to take out her wisdom tooth as well. (Now she is 1/4 less wise.) The coolest part is that they put cadaver bone over the mutilated bone, so it could heal after the surgery. That means Ivory is part Zombie now. How cool is that?


Ivory was such a trooper. Not only did she have this awful surgery, but then she went right over to the orthodontist to get bands put on. They wanted to pull on those teeth right away to get them moving. Unfortunately, she still had bloody gauze in her mouth, so they just gave the bands to me and told me to put them on as soon as I could. (Seriously?? I have to reach into the bleeding maw?)


We had to do a good job keeping on top of her pain. And she had many Jamba juices. I also got the bands on a couple of her brackets, but I couldn't even reach the back one because of swelling. Luckily, she didn't have too many problems with band pain because it was incorporated with regular healing pain. Because she got that wisdom tooth out and the general healing from her operation, she ended up with a really fat cheek. It was a legitimate chipmunk cheek but only on one side. But she was still loved by all through the whole ordeal.

She even ended up with a pretty awesome bruise under her cheek. Can you see it in this picture? 

Finally Ivory was able to get all her bands on where they were supposed to be. And the best news of all, her teeth shifted. The surgery did what it was supposed to do and helped close the gap. I was so happy mostly because it was a hard experience and I' m glad Ivory didn't do it for nothing. And now when she finally gets her wisdom teeth out, she will only have to remove three, which will probably lead to one chipmunk cheek again.

Last up was June with a regular removal of all four of her wisdom teeth. Here she is before her surgery. And then after.

For sure, June was the funniest one while her anesthesia was wearing off. She kept touching her lip and asking if it was her tongue. Then she would do it all over again. (We may have giggled a lot.) June went through a ton of smoothies from Green Me. She liked the Peanut Butter one the most. She must have eaten at least ten. And she watched a LOT of movies. But that didn't bother me. Everyone needs a break when they have surgery.

The head wrap didn't stay cold for very long, so we took the small ice packs that Ivory was given and I put soft fabric on them and made them into more comfortable little packs. June used them a lot. Sometimes she would enlist help from her younger sisters. Contrary to Daisy's face, they were all very happy to help.

The surgical center where she got her wisdom teeth out, sent her flowers. I thought that was a very nice gesture, but I was also a little annoyed because Ivory didn't get anything and her surgery was arguably much worse. Such is life.

June's cheeks never got that big. There was one day they seemed a little more plump but it faded so quickly, it seemed like it was nothing at all. Everyone is happy to have surgery month out of the way.

Robyn is a little sad she didn't get it over with, along with June, but Front Sight was worth it and now, when it is her turn, she won't have to share the couch.