Stuffs

So the other night I was doing dishes while Max was diligently working on a writing assignment for English.  Out of the blue, this is what he said:

"I don't know why, Mom, but when I hear my voice inside my head while I'm writing, it sounds like the voice of a British woman."

There are no words.  This little man keeps me laughing through life.

And this tiny lady too.  Here's what she showed me a couple nights ago, then performed a song and a dance in honor of her newly created animal:

Maybe one of these will show up around Jo Jo's house sometime?!

Here she is leaving for Science Camp for 4 days with all the 5th graders, teachers, and NO parents!  She was so excited for this moment that she started packing 10 days before.  She had a blast. And didn't miss us at all (OK, maybe for just a second).  I, on the other hand, paced around my house for 4 days straight and couldn't wait for her to return to me!

And then there's this guy, who had a birthday recently.

It so happened that his special day coincided with MY special day (Mother's Day), which made his and my special days not so super special since we were deciding who should pitch it on the couch relaxing while everyone else did everything.  Ha ha!  We actually both had a nice day while the kids made the food and cleaned.

But what has really taken over my life is this:

Are you asking yourself, "Why would Legos sorted by color and type be taking over your life, Bethanie?"  Trust me, I'm asking myself the same question.  Turns out, you can sell old Lego sets for sweet, sweet cash, IF you have complete sets, that is.  So we're on a quest.  Max (and Lily) are both done with Legos and would much rather replace all these colorful, sharp, and fun bits o' plastic with cold, hard cash (of which I will be taking a nice percentage).  The picture above represents about 1/4 of the collection.  Sheesh.

In other news, PK and I did a bit of this:

 Before

 During

After

"New" nightstands!  We shopped forever for new ones, but honestly, we just weren't willing to shell out $1000+ per nightstand for the ones we liked.  So we bought the shapes we wanted at HomeGoods, and a light sanding, a little paint, and new knobs later, voila!  It was such a fun project, and it's so nice to have a nightstand again (I gave my old one to Max when we moved).  Paul's started out green with flowers (ew), but is now a very lovely and masculine dark metallic grey, like mine.

Before

After

And he's no longer using an African drum for a nightstand.  The two are the same color, just look different because of the lighting.  We love them!

And as always in our house, there's usually a little something like this:

Happy biannual Kloepfer family blog post to all!  Muah!

Yum

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  We had a fun day, just the 4 of us, cooking and eating.  Everything turned out delicious and pretty, even without our fancy table things (didn't want to unpack them since we're moving soon).  It was a great day just being together!  And I really need to take more photos of life . . . .

Welcome Aboard!

This weekend was our friends' annual Halloween party, and the theme was Classic TV.  We went with one of my favorite shows, The Love Boat.  Enjoy our prize-winning ensembles, your Cruise Director, Julie McCoy and Captain Stubing!

Love, exciting and new.  Come aboard, we're expecting you!!!!!!

A "model" of health

So, hi again, by the way.

A couple weeks ago, Paul and I got our blood tests done, just being proactive about our health, you know.  Actually, his company offered a special $50 gift card if we did it, so that's the real reason.  Anyway, yesterday we got the results in the mail in these nice brochures from Aetna, our health insurance company.

Nice right?  It was a six page, four color deal, with explanations of each test and what the results mean.  I'm in the healthy range for everything (yay, 'cause I'm old and I had no idea.  Phew!).  So we were going through each section, one by one, comparing Paul's and mine, looking back and forth from his report to mine, going through all the pages.  This went on for about 15 minutes.  Then all of a sudden he gasped, "Oh my gosh!"  I instantly thought there was some super scary result on his health summary and said, "What?  What?!"  He just pointed to the top of the page:


[a pause for effect]

Paul is the model.  On every page.  The perfect picture of health.

We had a good long laugh over that one.

Lasts

Six years is a long time when you're 11. Six years is how long Max spent in school at Oso Grande Elementary. And those are six years he won't soon be missing.

Here is Max on his last day of Kindergarten:


Here is Max on his last day of 5th Grade:


We are so proud of you, Max! You had a fantastic year and we know you are ready for middle school (yikes!) and all of the adventures that come with that.

Check out what a fun day he had on his last day of elementary school last Thursday, June 23, 2011!

Hanging out with his buddy, Jack.


His teacher, Mrs. Haupt. She said to me about a month ago, "I love Max. If I could adopt a child, I would want to adopt him." She made all the difference in the world for him.


The 5th Grad Clap-Out, a tradition for graduating 5th graders at Oso.


We celebrated with sushi for lunch.


The 5th grader's parents threw those kids quite a bash that night called "Midnight Luau," which actually ended at 9:00 pm. There was a DJ, dancing, photo booth, candy "bar", barbeque dinner, cake and general craziness. They had a blast and it was a fun chance for them to be together one last time before all the elementary schools pool into one middle school this fall.


Goodbye, Oso Grande. Well, not quite. We still have two more years with this peanut. Good job in 3rd grade, Lily! Here she is with her teachers, Mrs. Griffin and Mrs. Tonai.


P.S. It was my last day working as a student supervisor at the school. Four years. It was a good run. I won't miss my neon yellow vest.

Sac Town

Always fun to head up to Fair Oaks/Roseville/Rocklin for a weekend. We went over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate Paul's parents' 50th wedding anniversary!

Gelato with Paul's sister Julie and her daughter Alexa:

Alexa is off to college soon! She's going to FIDM in Irvine, so we'll get to see a lot more of her. Yay!

PF Changs with some Slade crazies. Always good to get together, but I didn't get any pictues of cute Sam and Jake.


Sara, my Sara:


Uncle Johnny and Lily bonded:


The anniversary festivities began with a picnic in the park in Fair Oaks. Here are the boys digging up a squirrel hole because a little ball from a game fell down there. They never did get it back. But good times!


Fun with cousins! Ashley and Lily:


Beautiful Samantha:


Sweet Jessie:


That night we had a nice dinner at the Kloepfer's, then wedding cake! How cute are my in-laws?!


They cut the cake with a sword, just like they did at their wedding in 1960:

Happy 50 Years Together, Ron and Connie! We love you!

Then Lily got sick that night. No need to get all the cousins sick too, so she and I spent the whole next day just chilling out at Julie's house with Lily's favorite dog, Junior.


It was a quick trip, but so fun!

Say cheese!

Easter Day, April 24, 2011

What we go through to get a nice picture of these crazies . . . .

I'm Procrastinating

I've been telling myself to go to bed, but I just can't. You see, tomorrow just can't come yet. I'm not ready. I'm not ready for my boy to be finished with elementary school. I'm not ready to watch him say goodbye to the teachers and principal who have been there for him for the last 6 years. He has come so far. From hiding under the table in Kindergarten to writing poignant and humorous prose in 5th grade, from tears of frustration to tears of pride, the changes have come, and they are vast. I am such a lucky mother to have been able to witness and share in his progress all these years. He has overcome so many challenges that life has dealt him, and I am so proud of this young man. But still . . . .

Tomorrow, can you wait just one more day? I'm not ready. Even though he is.

Phew, that was close

Recently, my Mac decided to close it's doors on iPhoto because it was mad at me for taking up so much memory with my pictures. I had no access to the last 3 years of photographic documentation. Panic set in, but the geniuses were there to rescue me. Two trips to the mall and a couple of hours of waiting had us (Mac and I) all patched up. So here are a couple of highlights that have transpired since the last post!

I had a birthday! No need to discuss numbers. It was a quiet affair, just how I like it when the numbers are, you know, where they are these days. Dinner and presents.



Unbeknownst to me, Paul had gotten me something I've wanted forever. The look on my face when I opened the box and discovered a Blendtec in there!! Total surprise. I love that guy.


And I LOVE my Blentec! I use it at least twice a day. Yum, yum, yumminess.


Another exciting event--we had a blowout on the freeway.


Just the kids and I, in Paul's car. Here's how I felt about it:


Here's how the kids felt about it.


Moving on. Max earned his Arrow of Light award!


We are so proud of him! Do we look proud?


It's the good kind of proud. He worked so hard and is a full-fledged Boy Scout now. Awesome. He had the coolest arrow too because his dad made it special.


OK, now I can download the rest of the pictures from the camera since I have enough memory. Let's see if there are any more goodies on there to share.