Full Day!

Well, as we suspected, Rayna thoroughly enjoyed her first sleep-over away from home (at her friend, Aurora's home). She apparently did not have so much as a moment's homesickness and was quite obviously inconvenienced and mildly annoyed when her father and I called at 9:30pm that night to tell her "Good-night"!

So, it is no surprise that she is more than a little excited that she has yet ANOTHER sleep-over to go to this coming Friday at another friend's home (yet another birthday party sleep-over)! This time it will be with her friend, Lizzie.

Darcy had her first soccer game tonight. Since she wanted to play as many games as possible, she had requested to swing down to J/V as well as playing on the Varsity team. Today's game was with the J/V team. She ended up playing a position she has not traditionally played--that of "sweeper". Apparently, the sweeper gets to yell directives out to all the other players...ummm....loud bossing (at least when done Darcy style!)...which is right down her alley. Even though they lost the game, Darcy still came home pretty elated, just because she had had so much fun playing. We missed her first game...a case of not being able to be in two places at once. She was able to get a ride to and from the game (in Springfield) with someone else on the team...and they stopped for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts on the way home. Darcy was still bubbling when she got home! Evidently she made it over the "bungee" while pole vaulting today in track practice, too. All in all, she had a very good day!

Tonight, Doug's school had their Family Reading Night, which is a huge exstravaganza! I was really trying hard for us to get through all the stations in less than the allotted two hours, but, we barely made it IN the two hours. Doug did EVERYTHING there and Rayna did almost everything. She enjoyed it as much as he did! Doug made a "build-a-bear" ("Reading Buddy") monkey there and picked a cowboy outfit for him. Rayna won a little monkey in the sucker pull. Doug won a nice "Guess Who" game, a lion with stretchy limbs and a star notepad in the sucker pull. (I only spent 50 cents on each of them for the sucker pull, so that was a terrific return on our "investment"!). Doug also won a prize at the ball toss (a free activity). They both got popcicles and kettle corn at the MAP review station. And Doug got to hold the microphone for his group as they sang the Alphabet Song at the karyoke station. Rayna was delighted when a Hannah Montanna song came up at the Karyoke station ("Best of Both Worlds") and she was singing along exuberantly with that one as her brother danced! Doug is by far the most accomplished dancer in this family! He has all the moves! And he LOVES to dance!...so much so that even though he does NOT like seafood and he dearly LOVES Chinese food, he will none-the-less pick Joe's Crab Shack over any Chinese place any day of the week--just because he loves the ambiance of Joe's (with the swirling disco lights and the waiters and waitresses jumping out on the floor every half hour to sing and dance). Doug LOVES that place just because of the excitement and energy and opportunity to dance in the middle of your meal! He still asks for a disco light for his bedroom! (Like I'm going to get bright flashing, swirling, specks of light to fill my ADHD son's bedroom?!)

Grant was busy practicing with his newly forming Bluegrass band tonight.

(Below are pictures of the two younger kids with their new stuffed animals. Doug and Rayna had already gotten into their PJ's for the night. Rayna was wearing the new shawl I just finished making her today, over her PJ's! I wanted to knit a shawl for DARCY, too, but she was vehemently opposed to this!!! I even offered to make a LIME GREEN one, but that didn't even tempt her! She pretty much told me she would not be caught dead wearing a knitted shawl. Evidently her bias against knitting is not yet softening!)