Back-to-back party day

On Saturday, Serafina went to her best buddy Millie's house to celebrate Millie's 9th birthday.  It was a tropical themed party so the girls made shell bracelets and tiki masks.  They also had a limbo contest.  

 After Millie's party, her parents had our usual crew of families over for dinner.  The big girls hung out, the boys played video games and the little girls did more playing.  After dinner, the little girls headed to Lizzy's house for a sleepover to celebrate her older daughters' birthdays.

 The girls went to bed really late and started their day with pancakes followed by ice cream sundaes.  The three birthday girls got candles.

 They worked off some of the sugar on the trampoline.

 Serafina had volleyball clinic on Sunday.  While she was there, her dad and brother put the finishing touches on her new desk.  She wanted a desk in her room and when she brought home a good report card, we rewarded her with making that wish come true.  She is so happy with the desk.

 She spent a lot of time in the afternoon organizing and decorating her desk.  Then she spent the evening being a hot mess because of how over tired she was from the prior night's fun.  She was even weepy and exhausted this evening.  I know she loves to have sleep overs with her friends, but the sleep over hang over is rough.

Beautiful ski weekend with friends

Serafina had Friday off of school for a staff development day.  Leo had this Monday off for the same reason.  It was annoying that these didn't sync up but we went ahead and let Leo skip school on Friday so we could head to Tahoe.  This time last year when they had a long weekend, we encounter some of the most serious storms we've experienced.  This year it was clear skis and beautiful sunshine.  

Here are my skiers on Friday at Squaw.  

 Friday night we drove into Tahoe City.  The kids watched a movie at the little art house theater with their friends while the adults headed to a local watering hole across the parking lot.  It was absolutely perfect.  The kids had a blast watching the movie with their friend and we really enjoyed some kid-free adult time.  After the movie, we all had dinner together.  

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 The next day, Tom and the kids skied at Alpine with their friends.

 I went to yoga at Squaw Village and met up with the other moms and non-skiing kids for some people watching in the sunshine.

On Sunday, I took a walk while everyone skied and it was very lovely.

Leo's day off on Monday wasn't as exciting as a day of skiing but we still had some fun together, including a walk to Starbucks.

Dinner with friends and vegan food adventure

We had dinner with friends last night and Leo did a great job entertaining little Halle.  

 When the kids came to the table for dessert, Halle asked that "uncle" sit next to her.  She meant Leo and it was adorable.

 Today while Serafina was at volleyball clinic, Leo, Tom and I went on a vegan adventure.

 A Peruvian vegan chef had a "pop-up" shop inside a vegan donut shop.  Tom and I ate the delicious peruvian food while Leo stuck to the vegan donuts.  All of it was very good.

Serafina's YSI field trip

Serafina's class visited the Youth Science Institute (YSI) today.  I wasn't able to chaperone but I've been there before with both kids for previous field trips.  My friend Kristi joined the class and sent me these pictures.  

Serafina had a whole list of animals she touched during this field trip.  

They also went on a nature hike.  I hope she whined less hiking with her class than she does when she hikes with her parents. 

Good Citizenship and Slime Party

Serafina won the citizenship award at school today.  It was not a surprise since in order for me to make it to school for the ceremony, Tom took her to school while I dropped off Leo at early care.  

Here's her face when Tom and I walked out to the award area.  

All the third grade winners.  She's the tallest and almost as tall as the principal behind her.

 With proud dad.

 And awesome teacher.

 Her class earned a party as a reward for good behavior.  The kids got to suggest different party themes and then vote for the one they wanted.  Serafina suggested a slime party and was thrilled when that theme won.  The teacher was less thrilled.  She sent an email to myself and a couple other moms asking for a recipe.  I gave her a recipe and offered to bring some ingredients.  I also offered to come in and help since it could easily be a messy disaster.
Here's the class getting some instructions.

 Serafina makes lots of slime at home.  She watches YouTube videos about slime making and spends all her allowance on glue and glitter.

 She was able to put all her slime expertise to good use and once her slime was made, she walked around helping the other kids make perfect slime.

Sierra School Spirit Week - day 3 and 5

 Wednesday was "Wacky Wednesday".  He borrowed my tie-dye Bob Marley shirt again and Serafina did his hair.

Thursday was "dress like your favorite animal" which was too tricky since his current favorite animal is a sloth.  I suggested he just do everything very slowly all day, which is probably not the best advice for school.

Today was "dress like your favorite movie/book character" so he wore his Camp Halfblood shirt from the Percy Jackson book series.