Daddy's Girls

Our busy weekend didn’t stop yesterday. On top of DI from 9 AM to 8 PM Saturday, we went to church from 8:30-10:45, cookie booth at Super 1 from 12:00-2:00, and then I showed houses/wrote a contract from 2:00-7:00 on Sunday. I.Was.Tired! When I got in to this I knew it would be nights and weekends but most don’t have so much kid stuff with it. Oh well.. the flip side is I didn’t have to get up and go to work this morning and pretty much took the day off. 😊 But on to the cookie booth... a lot of people don’t think about what a great experience selling cookies is for these girls. Yes, I’ve had to do a lot of prep to divide them and deliver but they didn’t get off with not doing anything. They went door to door to get orders a few weeks ago. They had to know the products and prices and also be ok with people saying no. Then, once they were in, they wrote thank you notes to each person that ordered and helped deliver them. But I thought the two hours at the cookie booth was the biggest le

Today was the big State tournament Lilli and her DI team have been preparing for all school year. She was on the Improv team which meant they didn’t know what their skit would be about or the characters in it until they walked in the room. They had two minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to perform. The only prep they had was researching the historical figures that were a possibility as characters and also doing practice skits during their weekly practices but never on this particular scenario.  To be honest, as a Mom it was kind of hard to judge how well they did because preparing for everything had been pretty secretive and I wasn’t sure what the judges were looking for. The whole point of DI is working independently (no grownup help) as a team and creative thinking. Their coaches can guide during practice but no help at all today. And parents are not supposed to help at all, even with all the research they did throughout the year. But as you can see everyone was really proud to watch. 

Last night was the night they had been looking forward to for weeks- Apollo’s Daddy Daughter Dance. It was Katie’s first one so she was probably the most excited but it’s always one of Lilli’s favorite nights of the year too. I had to show a house yesterday evening so Yaya picked them up from school and got them ready for me. Leading up to it she kept saying she knew nothing about little girls hair, but I think she did a better job than I ever had! Lillian said she curled it and I can’t use the curling iron to save my life. Luckily I made it back in time for pictures.  Matt “picked them up” at the door with flowers and asked them to the dance.  And then they were off to eat at Uneeda Taco And “dance the night away” at Apollo.  They were home by 7:45. They were ready to go and both asleep by 8:30. (Katie was half asleep in the car- I know it doesn’t work for everyone but I love that my kids go to bed so early.) Matt definitely wasn’t complaining I am sure 😉. But he is such a good daddy

We’re back to routine today after a 4 day weekend. (Matt says he feels like they never go to school!) Monday was President’s Day and they were out yesterday for a teacher in-service. Saturday we celebrated Valentine’s Day again with our first date night since hunting season.  We had a delicious dinner at Superior Steakhouse and the kids had fun playing with Ragan. Everyone was happy. Monday I let them have a play date with some friends. I had five kids in my house (The neighbor joined too) for about six hours and it was a great way to spend the day out of school. Tuesday was pretty boring (to them) with a dentist appointment, delivering Girl Scout cookies and then some showings. But it was nice to have some time at home and such a long holiday. Not related, but Lillian’s Art Workz teacher posted pictures on Facebook yesterday. We love this class because she does so many different things and never gets bored. She’s been very busy! I think all of these are since Christmas. I hate that sh

I know I say it all of the time but I am constantly amazed at our kids’ talents. Lillian performed at the Bossier Art Expo today at the Civic Center with her talented theatre group. She played Annie and I was impressed. She does all the rehearsals on her own and I didn’t even know she was singing in it until today!  We knew she had art work in it too but couldn’t find it. It wasn’t on the Apollo wall so we were thinking maybe her teacher pulled her piece at the last minute. Well this afternoon I got this picture from her 2nd grade teacher She was just showing me how proud she was and didn’t know we hadn’t seen it. It turns out her had been pulled out to be judged. To say I’m proud would be an understatement! 

Well, it turned out that Lillian’s sickness on Monday was a fluke 24 hour bug and she was back on Tuesday. She didn’t really feel great that day but no fever so she had to go back. It’s a good thing because she had play practice for the play she’s in tomorrow and also DI practice before the State competition next week. And I had to get back to work! I think it was only the 2nd time I had been to my office since her birthday. The rest of the week was all about Apollo. I’ve already posted pics of the parties but I worked book fair Wednesday and Friday and got to shop with the girls too.  Apparently Lillian is getting too cool for selfies with Mom at school. 😢 Katie also won the raffle book basket so she was super excited!  Lillian was jealous because it’s the basket she wanted but KatieJane said she would share. So glad to be able to be so involved with the school and fingers crossed everyone stays well. It’s time for spring!!

We’ve had a really nice Valentine’s Day that started with waking up to flowers and a sweet card from Matt As I’m reading this romantic card, he walks over and wipea all the glitter from that it in my lap, LOL. He knows I hate that! But that kind of stuff is one of the many reasons I love him. I also started a new tradition this year of putting a note on the kids wall each day from February 1 until now. They loved that!   I worked the food pantry at the church for a few hours and then went to the school for the girls Valentine’s Day parties. The school finally got it together and it staggered party time so that I was able to go to both. Lillian got a stuffed animal from a secret admirer and I think it about gave Matt a heart attack. I thought it was cute, but apparently I am naïve. Even Shanon was ready to drive up here to talk to this kid. Hopefully were still pretty safe for at least a few more years. 😊 tonight is steaks for us and pizza for the kids and we have Ragan coming to babys

Lillian woke up this morning with a temp of 102 so back to the doctor we went. Flu test was negative but blood work shows it is viral so the doctor wants to retest tomorrow if she’s not feeling better. I’ve only had both kids at school at the same time for 4 days since Lilli’s birthday and now I’m home again tomorrow. Obviously the most important thing is getting her better but it sure is frustrating and I’m venting. I know I am lucky I can do some work from home... but not nearly what I’ve been trying to do. And she’s just going to have to sit in the car while KJ goes to gymnastics because she hasn’t been in 3 weeks either. Please say prayers everyone is back healthy in the next few days.  I hate seeing my baby feel bad and I don’t know how much more I can take!  During those days she felt better we did have some fun. We went to Altitude for Claire and Remi’s Birthday party We went to see the new LEGO Movie yesterday morning After that we did some shopping for Mexico before going to L

Ms. Kathleen sure is having a good week! She got home yesterday with this in her hand Student of the month! Definitely an accomplishment and well deserved. She’s never had to “clip down” a color at school and she’s above standards in all of her lessons. So proud! She was recognized over the intercom, gets to sit with a friend at a separate table for lunch each Friday (normally they are supposed to not talk) and gets an extra recess with a friend of her choice next week. Plus free dress at some point.  She also got a free pass to the bowling alley that we’ll have to use soon.  And let’s not forget about Lilli Leigh. She may have not had any school recognitions this week but I’m constantly amazed at her talent. This is her art from class at Art Workz she brought home yesterday  And this was just for fun.  And she and I are reading that 300 page book together. Her first long book like that and I finally found something that holds her interest. She’s really in to dragons right now. Both my

Tonight was round two of the American heritage competition. Two weeks ago Katie won the kindergarten level at her school and made it to this Parish round. The whole thing was completely voluntary so I was excited that she decided to do it. This was a big auditorium! It was at Airline High so she was NERVOUS. She honestly didn’t let on before. She was all smiles when I left her to go sit with Matt and Lillian but as soon as she got up there we could tell. She said her name and then she froze. The whole thing probably lasted less than 10 seconds but Matt and I both felt our hearts sink and I think Matt was more worried about her than she was. We thought she was about to walk off stage without doing it but she fully recovered. She walked back up to the MC and had her call her name again and started from scratch. Then recited it perfectly. It a lot of courage and we were so proud of her. Honestly probably even more so than if it had just been natural from the get go. She didn’t win a troph

What a week it’s been in the McCormick house. It started Monday with Lillian calling me to check her out from school with a stomach virus and fever. Katie stayed all day but was hit with it soon after getting home. The next day we went to the doc for Lilli but Katie seemed fine, she was only home because of the 24 hour rule. Lillian couldn’t kick it. Each day I thought she was getting better but she couldn’t keep food in her (and had no appetite anyway) and fever would spike again every afternoon. So she missed all 5 days. Katie (who seemed fine Tuesday to Thursday, went to school and even a cheer camp Thursday night) woke up with stomach bug again on Friday. The doc wanted to see them back and it turns out Katie has strep throat on top of it.  Most days she would be happy to miss school but not today. Instead of celebrating the 100th day of school with an all day fun day with her class and cheering at Airline’s basketball game tonight she was doing this (Showing her teacher the book s