The Queen's Rambles

My brain is a blank today. I’ve been working my butt off on Camp Fire and I’m finally free! Free as a bird! At least for a few weeks.

I came up with the idea of joining a club, then realized if I wanted one I’d have to start one myself. I conned a few people into joining me, so I felt very responsible for making sure everything went smoothly at our first meeting, so I was the first leader*. Being first is extra difficult since you have no freakin’ clue what to do. We had a curriculum guide provided by Camp Fire, but a lot of the information was unfamiliar despite our training. We didn’t know the songs very well and we didn’t know what patriotic songs all the kids might know. We are supposed to come up with a club devised opening and closing, which is kind of difficult since all our children are between the ages of 3-6. They don’t know how to create an opening and closing or what the options might be.

In the end it all worked out despite a few stumbles. The kids had a lot of fun, which was the most important thing. The only song all the kids new was “She’s a Grand Old Flag,” so I printed out the lyrics and we all did a great job singing it until the last two lines. It was hilarious to hear us all come to the last two lines and be completely clueless about how to sing them. The grown-ups were laughing pretty hard.

We’re meeting again in a couple of weeks and will do a big ceremony where they get their vests and a few emblems. I just hope our order comes in by then! They are dying to get their first emblems and to start a real camp fire. It’s a good thing the lady who has agreed to host bought a fire escape ladder. We may need it, if these kids have their way.

How about some pictures since my mind is a blank?

Elsa has been very angry about her broken ball popper. I forgot we even had it, but for the past week she’s been pulling it out and trying to make it work. They must have one at the gym.

It needed size D batteries, so I finally bought some at Costco. We’ll have enough to last a few months.

We quickly discovered that it had a too-big ball stuck in the middle, so having a battery didn’t fix the problem. I tried removing the ball with a hanger, but had no luck. Mike got it out by taking a bunch of wiffle balls and shoving them through. It was quite a process. But now the thing is fixed and the girl is beyond thrilled. I chose this picture because her face is happy instead of doing the grimace-y “cheeeeeeese” face that toddlers tend to make.

And this is her other favorite toy. We can’t get a clear picture because she rides at about 100 miles per hour. She really prefers to stand on it, but we don’t allow that. Much. So far she’s only fallen once, but it did involve blood. Poor dear.

I don’t want to leave Erik out, even if he has lost all that toddler cuteness. He’s a handsome devil in his own right, if only he wouldn’t screw up his face any time the camera is pointed his way. He got this little shop for his birthday and totally loves it. We have to go shopping and make up different voices for each customer. This is the problem with having kids almost five years apart. I can’t just throw them together and tell them to play this game together.

You’d think I could take a non-blurry picture of a static item, but I guess not. I barely managed to get a picture at all–I had to pull it out of his backpack at the last minute and snap a pic so I could show you guys our scarecrow that I was complaining about. It turned out to be a fun, cute project. I think the key was ignoring Erik and not asking him to help. He’s such a little turkey sometimes.

At the time I didn’t know that the kindergarten class has a big Thanksgiving feast each year. Now I understand why the teacher wanted these to be fairly nice–they are the decorations for the feast.

I volunteered to do some of the feast shopping and don’t know if I did it right. I was supposed to get 100 juice boxes, 100 plates and 100 napkins. I got the juice boxes at Costco, no problem. But the plates and napkins were my downfall. I could get regular old white napkins and paper plates for less than $10. Or I could get holiday products. What to do? What was the budget? The PTA is paying for all this if we submit receipts, but they didn’t give us a budget to work with. Did they want this to be super fun? Or super cheap?

In the end I went with the middle ground. Holiday plates were $3/10 pack. Cra-azy. I ended up with brown plates and fun holiday napkins for a total of $28. Probably too much, but they are fun. If the PTA says I spent too much, I don’t mind taking the hit. I guess they can pay me what they think is fair. But then again, they didn’t give me a budget or tell me the expectations so who knows. If I was throwing a Thanksgiving feast, I would want the plates and napkins to be festive.

And lastly, no pictures, but I must be crazy. I decided to host a “Left Over Holiday Cheer Party” for a few friends. I told people to bring over their left over goodies a few days after Christmas and we’ll throw on a movie for the kids, sugar every one up, and have a last hurrah. I know we always have way too many cookies, candies and pies left over. I think everyone does. We shall see if anyone can even make it so soon after Christmas. People might actually have families they want to visit. Or maybe they will be tired of parties. I know I will be. Heck, if I was skinny I would buy a pair of adult pajamas and declare it a pajama party for the moms. I don’t want my boobies to be bouncing free around all my friends, so I think giant grown-up pajamas are out.

*Camp Fire clubs can be run in several different ways. We are doing a family club, which means each family supplies a leader (a mom or dad) and we do the whole thing as a co-op.