The Bits: February 7th Through February 23rd

A bit more of the February Bits:

And just like that, it's been 100 days of school.

Well done to Luke and his 5th grade class for their performance of Louis La Grenouille...all en Francais!  It was a charming little play about a music-loving frog looking for a friend, with fun songs and super sweet dance moves.  Love you, Lukey!

The pink was bleeding into the deep blue.

Well, I can check "Do the Running Man while dressed as a giant lynx" off the Bucket List!  Ha!  What?  That's not on everyone's list?  When the PTO needed a last-minute time-filler for our Lynx Laps kick-off assembly because we had a presenter cancellation, guess who stepped up to be Lizzie?  This gal!  Man, that suit is hot.

Luke's first love note that I found in his pocket when doing laundry.  It makes my heart smoosh with its adorableness.  And guuurrrrllll...that is the question women have asked men through the ages: if you like me, why do you run???

Josh tried some new events at the Cheyenne Mountain Valentine Meet: the 200 Breast and 200 IM.  He swam well!  I loved watching him do the IM.  We thought it was cool to see his name up on the timing board.  And we were glad it was nice and warm inside the pool area while the snow came down outside.

A little bit of snow at last!  We've had a few light snowfalls move through in February.  Two inches here, four inches there, nothing big.  I love them.  I love snow.  But I'm also ready for a nice heavy snowfall.  Which will likely come in May.  When I will actually be wishing for winter to be over.

Adam and I have had a great time being part of a monthly "Iron Chef" group.  The hosts pick three ingredients and then we all have to make a dish using one of those ingredients to bring to the party.  After dinner, we vote on our favorite dish and the couple that wins becomes the next host.  Adam and I hosted the February Iron Chef (my Aunt Marianne's recipe for peppermint brownies won in January), and I think we overestimated how much of these California-style-rolls would be consumed based on how much our kids gobble them down.  We made 3 full plates, and just over 1 plate was eaten, plus, these beautiful little rolls received no votes.  For shame! 😊

All I ever wanted.

Dining room table at the end of day: 2 of the most elaborate valentine collection "boxes" ever made, 2 classes worth of valentines in progress, 2 x Pre-Calc homework, Colonel Mustard outfit for Zac's 'Clue' party, Freshman English project on Leonardo DaVinci, 2 dictionaries and a Simon-style sliding puck game.  This is us.

Luke's field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science was a lot of fun--he got an extra hearty belly laugh seeing himself generated into an old man at one of the stations.  He said, "At least I still have good hair!"  (Too bad that isn't going to be his genetic reality!)  Thanks again to the Mom-Squad for sending me pictures when I couldn't be there!

The slowly-flattening Death Star Rice Krispy cake that Adam, Luke and Tommy made for the Blue and Gold Banquet was adorable.  Lesson: Rice Krispy creations need much less marshmallow than when you are making a pan of nice, flat squares--or else they can't hold their shape.  Even though the Death Star was becoming un-round, it tasted delicious; the perfect ratio of mallow to krispy for consumption, if not for building.  It wasn't award-winning (there were some pretty amazing cake masterpieces at the party), but the boys had a lot of fun visualizing it and creating it with their dad.

My Cubs had a phenomenal Star Wars-themed Blue and Gold Banquet.  It was a ton of fun, thanks to some great, creative Cub leaders!

The boys' valentine collection boxes this year were seriously WAY above and beyond any Conlin-boy Valentine's Day box effort.  Luke's "box" was supposed to have a human-body theme, since they were completing that unit in their 5th grade classes.  So he made Jimmy.  Wow.  Never before have we papier-mached!  It was nearly all Luke, too.  I helped paint and made sure the papier-mache strips he was putting on the balloon were consistently thick enough, but he did 90% of the work.  I sure wish he'd put this much effort into all his school work!

Tommy, not to be outdone, created La Tour Eiffel Amor to collect his valentines.  Wow again!

Hooray for Lynx Laps day at the elementary school!  It's the day where the kids get to run laps around the halls to raise money for grants for the school.  It's hard to believe it was Luke's last.  Unfortunately, Luke was not feeling great, so he walked a lot, so both he and Tommy completed 19 laps each.  I am so glad I can share in these memories with them!

While preparing my boys their special Valentine's Day "Cafe Maman Aime" dinner, my heart felt heavy with the weight of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that had killed 17 students upon it.  I squeezed my babies tighter, listened harder to their laughter and conversation, and gazed at them longer, thinking of the parents who will not get to hug, hear or see theirs ever again.   

Real life: Valentine's Day with kids.

My favorite moments from my first timing gig were the girl who had to cut .01 second to get a gold time, and when she saw she had done it, she was so adorably happy.  And then there was the boy that told me, "I bit my coach in practice yesterday."  Me: "Wait...what??  Why would you do that?" Kid: "Just havin' a little fun!"  Me: *stepping away and hoping his heat comes quickly.*

 

Josh's band teacher started a pep band this year and Josh has loved being a part of it!  They played for a few of their middle school interscholastic basketball games, and today they got to play at the AFA Women's basketball game.  I didn't think his love for making music could grow, but today it certainly did.

After a long day of swim meet and AFA basketball, I opted for an afternoon nap, while these boys were taken on a 5-mile bike ride by their awesome dad, whom, it should be noted, also attended the swim meet and basketball game, so he had every excuse for taking a nap like me, but didn't.

A belated Valentine's Day date with my love: Black Panther and P.F. Chang's.  He's my favorite.

Josh finished off the Short Course Season this last weekend with the Falfins Last Chance Meet. He's had a lot of fun swimming with this team, did a lot of hard work and set some good goals for the year ahead.  Up next: Long Course.

Adam, me and our babes getting out some Sunday wiggles after church at the pickleball courts.

Snow outside, cozy inside: it was a lovely do-nothing President's Day holiday.

My pretty Valentine's Day flowers all abloom. 

Subbing at School in the Woods on a lovely snowy day.  Keeping it real: 20 minutes after this photo was taken, a student came in who had barfed all over herself after getting off the school bus.

The Bald for Bucks "before" shots!

Bald for Bucks 2018!  What an incredible community building, community-outreach event this is for these kids.  I love that it gives them the opportunity to serve and provides an opportunity to lift others up at such an age, when their compassion and global awareness is growing.  I feel this is an event that really makes our high school a special place and helps our kids be better people.  Since 2012, Rampart has raised over $250,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, increasing their donation every year.  The assembly is energy-packed and hopeful and there are so many kids, boys and girls, shaving their heads/cutting their locks/donating their time and efforts.  This year, Ben and Tommy represented the Conlin fam, and we are so proud of them! 

This picture is awesome for two reasons.  One, this is Luke with Willa, the girl who wrote him the love note and who oh-so-fantastically shaved her head for Bald For Bucks.  Please note how "fifth-grade-boy" he is--leaning as far from the girl as possible ("I think this girl is cool, and I don't know what to do with those feelings!!!").  Hahaha!  Second, the tee he is wearing was a little brain child of mine for the elementary school.  One of the 5th grade teachers came to me looking for ways to increase the involvement our elementary school in Rampart's Bald For Bucks drive.  So after thinking about it a bit, I proposed a tee shirt competition for the kids--the fifth graders could all draw a Bald For Bucks tee design in art, then the teachers would pick the top 5 designs and the entire school could vote on their favorite.  Then we would sell tees with the winning design, the profits of which could be donated to Bald For Bucks  It would bring awareness to the event, plus it was a way that kids who didn't want to shave or cut their hair could participate in the donation drive.  It all came to fruition, and the tee Luke is wearing (drawn by his classmate, Addison) is the one that won!  We sold them for $15 each, and because we have an awesome supplier, he gave them to us at his cost for the tee and printing.  The tees raised $740 dollars.  Kind of proud of that.

The Bits: January 22nd Through February 6th

Bitsing into 2018.

I've missed this snowy view!  Wish we'd have more.

At the start of the year, Ben was selected to be a student leader for the high school's new Sources of Strength program, a peer-mentoring and outreach program that aims to combat the rise in depression and self-harm among teens in our school district by training kids from many different peer groups to know what "red flags" to look for among their friends.  They also provide little mental "boosts" during the year.  For example, before Thanksgiving they put up a "Thankfulness Tree" that students could write things they are thankful for on a leaf to add to the tree, and they passed out small treats during the testing days of finals week.  We are proud of Ben for being the kind of kid who would be selected for this, and we are hopeful that programs like this can make a difference in kids' lives.

Josh's cute "Q is for Duck"-style cell parts book.

Our favorite soup right now, Thai Chicken Noodle, turned pretty monochromatic in January when all of the healthy-eating-resolutioners bought out all the white cauliflower and red peppers at the grocery.

January was pretty crazy for work--we wrapped up our screening for the year, which was kind of sad because I really enjoy that team, and I also worked for two weeks subbing in the reading support room at a local elementary.  Fortunately, the cute kids...and these adorable little sticky note bookmarks got me through it all!

Church ball: it isn't pretty, but we show up anyway.

So proud of these two hardworking braniacs for making the Dean's List at RHS, both with weighted GPAs above 4.0!

This fella is kicking school's butt too.  Way to go, Josh!

Sunrise, sunset.

So I failed in waking the boys up to see the Super Blood Blue Moon because we all forgot to set an early alarm at bedtime, but I was happy to hear the Super Blood Moon we watched a couple of years ago with Luke's telescope was a better show.  I'll do better in 87 years when the  next one rolls around....

There was no actual consumption of this huge bottle of Baileys' at our PTO Board Meeting, but certain topics we have to discuss do call for huge eyerolls and huge laughs, which is what getting out this huge bottle brought.  I have loved working with this group of ladies this year!  What a support they are in all things big and small.

There was a lot of glum at the Conlin household when Zac and Ben got the final word on casting for the spring musical: The Music Man.  Zac had been prepping and hoping for the part of Professor Harold Hill since fall.  He was a great fit, felt like the director had been hyping him up for the role, and he would have been fabulous, but he was beat out by a friend of his in the final audition, a friend that he encouraged to come out for theatre a year ago--which gave the loss a groan-worthy edge.  Zac was cast as Oliver, the low tenor in the barbershop quartet, which was his second choice, and is understudy to the professor.  Ben, who was hoping for a role as well, simply had a rough callback audition.  His voice has dropped quite a bit over the last couple of months and he just couldn't hit the high notes for Winthrop, plus he got frazzled and forgot part of his song.  To add to his irritation with himself over the audition, the kid who got the role had decided to audition the day of auditions, and had asked Ben to write his name on the sheet--which Ben did.  I love and am proud of my nice boys, who are friends first and competitors second, even if it added an ironic edge to the sadness.  And I am still so amazed at their courage to get up on that stage and try so hard, knowing success isn't guaranteed.  Since then, Zac has fully embraced his role as Oliver and is having a lot of fun with the quartet.  Ben decided it was a sign to focus on track season, and opted out of being part of the chorus.  We were so grateful for our dear friends, the Barkers, who knew of our boys' heartaches that day, and brought them home-baked cookies to brighten the gloom just a bit.        

CrAzY hair day!  Well, so we thought.  It turned out that some of the posters had the date wrong.  Luke, in classic tween hyper-sensitivity to being different from the norm, was mortified when he discovered he was one of only a handful of kids who had noted the wrong date, so he washed his hair out in the bathroom before class, making him late, but free of all embarrassing hair craziness.  Tommy, who is staunchly in 8-year-old black-and-white thinking mode, assumed and asserted that everyone else was incorrect and proudly wore his crazy hair all day.  Then cried when the little boys got home, and Luke wouldn't stop insisting that he was not correct.  So that was fun.

It was 100% surreal taking Zac to the mini-college fair at the high school in early February.  How is this happening?!?!?  I took a million notes on scholarships, the application process, and essay writing.  Zac took pictures of the presenters' slides on his phone.  Haha!  There are definitely differences between our generations!  His top picks right now are BYU (Go, Cougs!), Utah State, and U of Oregon.  As much as Adam and I love our alma mater, BYU, we are also pretty stoked about Utah State.  We will visit a few Washington and Utah schools this summer, and he will probably apply to one Colorado school, too.  I know Zac is going to love college and find success no matter where he ends up.  I'm feeling a combination of excitement and like I'm going to barf.

Proof that I've been a Planet Nerd from day one.  My dad found this adorably dorky, and not too terrible, poem I wrote when I was 12.

In late fall, Josh auditioned on the bari sax, that he had only been playing for a month after switching from alto in October, and was chosen for the Pike's Peak Middle School Honor Band, which covers the 4 school districts in Colorado Springs.  His selection for this group was...well, a HUGE honor!  The kids only had four practices over the course of 2 weeks, and then performed for their families and friends.  They were phenomenal!  The kids in the (unfortunately blurry) photo are the others chosen from Mountain Ridge, Rajeev, Flora and Aiden, and the woman is Claire Glover, Josh's beloved new band teacher who has really encouraged him in his musical endeavors this year.  It was wonderful!  The only drawback is that now that he's played with a group of such talented musicians, Josh says normal band feels a bit flat.   

My France trip obsession is a problem.  I sit down to make "a few reservations" and end up still in my pajamas at the computer at noon.  I'm just not a c'est la vie traveler!  I need to read reviews, crosscheck maps, figure out times, email people who may know more, get every little detail recorded....  It's a problem, but it's going to be an amazing trip!  Hopefully once we land in Paris, I can be a little more c'est la vie.

Tommy loved going to the Denver Zoo with two of his favorite friends, Ike and Dominick, for Dominick's 8th birthday.  Plus, he lost a tooth while at the party, which is just totally cool when you're a kid.

Deeeeelicious food and some great football, representing the teams we wish we were watching, and a not-Patriots win: it was a happy Super Bowl Sunday!  Nice job, Eagles!

The current Conlin-kid favorite board game: The Wizard Always Wins.

We hosted a little Bon Voyage dinner for sweet Mikayla with her mom and sisters and the awesome Barker family.  She is going to be a great missionary! 

Josh had an amazing time at his 7th grade team's field trip to International Towne.  Although it wasn't his first, second or third choice for jobs, he (literally) got his groove on as the President of Brazil, where their "product" was to play FIFA '16 soccer on the X-Box.  He successfully navigated an economic crisis in Ameri-Lat and got to work with two of his closest friends, Radon and Eli, which made the day even better.  I am so thankful for two of the ladies in my awesome Mom Squad, Diane and Alexia, who took pictures for me since I couldn't be there.