Ali’s First Sleepover

Sarah spent Sunday night at her friend Zoe’s house. Zoe and her were planning Zoe’s sister’s birthday party this coming weekend. Alison came with and as we were driving home she asked me when she could have a sleepover because she had never had one before. When she got home she asked Kris as well. Alison ended up asking Olivia (Zoe’s sister) to sleepover last night. I think she was so happy to have a friend sleep over, but she was also worried because she wanted it to be perfect. They (Ali & Olivia) were up late playing games and watching movies, and actually went to bed sooner than I would have thought. They came up to say goodnight around 10:30. I was happy that Ali had a good time.

Papercuts

Is there anything worse than a papercut? I am in my office this morning shredding all sort of papers that I don’t need anymore and I was tearing up my 2009 wall calendar. I have a cross cut shredder and it wasn’t “grabbing” the paper. This is a very heavy grade of paper, I would call it poster quality. So when the shredder finally grabbed it, I wasn’t ready and the edge of the paper cut into my pinky. What is worse, is that as I tried to pull my finger away, the paper cut in deeper. I shook my hand right away and sprayed blood on my pants and desk, Not a whole lot, but enough. I wrapped it in a tissue and went to get a band aid. Well the stupid thing bled for almost an hour! Who would have thought that a papercut would have done that?

The Princess and the Frog

We got to go to The Princess and the Frog today. The Packers spanked the Seahawks so I skipped watching the second half and got some things done around the house which freed us up to go to the late afternoon showing.

Both the girls liked the movie. It was a typical Disney princess story, so if you were expecting any surprises, sorry to tell you there aren’t any. The story was cute. It was set in early 20th century New Orleans (I would put it in the middle of the roaring 20s) and centers around a young girl who is a waitress, but dreams of owning her own restaurant someday. She is persuaded to kiss a frog, who is really Prince Naveen, who has been transformed by an evil voodoo witch doctor. But instead of making the prince human again, she is transformed into a frog also. With the help of a jazz loving alligator and a cajun firefly, they set out to find a way to become human again before it is too late. I enjoyed the jazz music and the songs were very good.

I remember seeing something when they first announced this movie a couple of years ago about it being Disney’s first “black princess”. However, I think that unless you go into the movie with some sort of preconceived notion of what to expect from the characters, you don’t even notice it. I know that I didn’t, and I was aware of all the buzz around it.

I will give the movie a good A-.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 has come and gone. Alison started out the holiday sick. She had a fever of 101 on Christmas Eve and we ended up having to stay home and cancel our plans to go over the Kris’ parents’ house. We felt bad, but we didn’t want to go over there and then possibly contribute to Kris’s mom or dad getting sick. All in all it was OK, since Kris had to work Christmas Eve this year and would have been rushing to get over there after she got home.

It really was a crummy Christmas too as far as the weather goes. It was rainy and just generally dreary outside. The kind of day you would just rather stay in bed under the nice, warm blankets and sleep. Ali was up early and was eager to get started on opening the gifts that Santa had brought, but we waited until Sarah finally woke up. The girls got games for their DS’s and the Wii. I think Band Hero was their favorite, but Sports Resort was also a pretty good one. Ali got Connect 4 x 4 and Sarah got books #2 and #3 in the Twilight series. She was very excited when she opened those. The rest of the day was spent opening boxes and reading directions to make sure that we knew how to play all the games. Band Hero took me forever to figure out since the directions were really pretty bad for how to hook everything up.

Kris wasn’t feeling well in the afternoon so we decided to skip the traditional Christmas Day family movie. We were planning on heading out to see the new Disney movie, the Princess and the Frog. The updated plan is to go after the Packers game on Sunday. My review will follow (assuming we go).

It's Official

We received an automated call from the School District superintendent tonight about a couple of things, but most import was the announcement that the School District Board has approved redistricting plans. This of course officially means that Ali will not be going to Riverside next year. Alison was in tears when we told her. I think it is more the fact that the majority of her friends will not be going with her. On top of that, Ali’s Brownie Troop will also be split in half.

We aren’t sure about how she will get to school, but I know that I don’t want her walking. Right now we are approximately 1 mile from (3) schools. We are able to bus Alison because she would have to cross (2) major streets (so we are told). With Shady Lane, she will have to cross one major road, Main Street, which has a stop light as well as a crossing guard I believe. So I don’t know if bussing will be an option.

We’ll see how things shake out in the coming months. If we have to drive her to school every day anyway, then I would rather take her to Riverside. We were told that open enrollment wasn’t an option, so it may not make any difference, but we still want to make sure that we fight for what we think is best for Ali.

Trip Home

Sarah was feeling better Saturday so we drove up to visit my brother and his girlfriend for Christmas this weekend. I don’t get a chance to make it home very often, especially since my folks made the defection to Florida, so it was nice to finally get back. We got up there a little earlier than planned so I took the girls on a sight seeing trip around Neenah and Menasha. I took a route through town that I haven’t taken in a long time, and boy, have there been changes. Bergstrom Paper is gone, and there is all sorts of other buildings that have been knocked down and replaced. We took a drive past the sledding hill at Clovis Grove and I remarked, apparently as I always do, that the hill looks much smaller than it did 30 years ago when I was sledding down it on a regular basis (FYI, my brother has confirmed that the hill was indeed larger when we were kids). Kris was making fun of me for sounding old driving around and pointing out “that was so-and-so’s house” or “that’s where I went to school, or when I pointed out the window in the St. Mary’s clock tower where I climbed to in HS.

All in all it was a fun trip. It was nice to be able to spend some time with my brother. The girls love going up to visit. The only drawback was not getting over to see my other brother since he was gone all day coaching at a basketball game. Maybe next time.

Puking

Wed. night Sarah went to bed saying she wasn’t feeling real well. I told her to go to bed and get some rest and she would feel better in the morning. Well she was up around midnight complaining about her stomach hurting. About 45 minutes later she was tossing her cookies all over. Then Ali woke up and had to get put back to bed. Sarah ended up throwing up at 2:50 and at 4:50. It was strange that is was almost 2 hours exactly in between vomiting episodes. So when I had to get up for work, I told her just to stay in bed and sleep. We are hoping that she gets better because we have plans to go visit my brother back home in Menasha this weekend and would hate to have to cancel.