go texan day and rodeo art

it's co-op day.  that means that i get to spend from 12:00-4:00 teaching three 3 year olds (one of them being my spunky flicka)...one 4 year old...and two 5 year olds.

we are in the middle of a space unit.  because i say so.

i am currently wasting time until chad can find a new ink cartridge for the printer so that my planet printables will continue printing.  we are making a planet diagram today.  oooooooorrrrrr...if chad doesn't have more ink for the printer...playing with play dough.  i've found that play dough can go a long way.

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friday was go texan day.  i've written about my love for go texan day and all things "rodeo related" before...but i really can't get enough.  my love affair with go texan day stems back to my early elementary school days and spans well into adulthood.  we even had it in high school...where we got to rock the rocky mountain jeans and ropers and feel cool about doing so.

back in the day...your coolness factor was directly related to how many rodeo performances you were attending.

some of my most favorite rodeo's over the course of my 38 years include:

the statler brothers

anne murray

george strait

alabama

clint black

john mayer

and

miranda lambert

there are so many more...but those are my favorites.  my parents even saw elvis the year i was born.

it always begins with the trail ride coming into houston.  and that day...

well...

that's GO TEXAN day!

this is the day that all little boys and girls transform into real cowboys and cowgirls.  everywhere you look, you see boots and hats and pearl snapped shirts.

2013:

2012:

2011:

 

i've noticed over the years that once the boys hit around 4th grade...they stop participating for a while.  you maaaay be able to convince them to wear a plaid shirt and jeans...but that's about it.

don't even get me started on rodeo art and how i never won.  every year...i sketched horses in pencil and colors with great concentration and precision...sure that it would be my year.  and i always fell short...losing out to some artistic abstract of boots and a hat. oooohhhhh how i wanted my horses to win.

i just can't believe they don't still have rodeo art in elementary schools.  it's a crying shame.  i mean...i'm fairly certain i could take over one of the kids and win.  i mean...it couldn't be aiden's because she really enjoys art and would be all insistent in doing her own...blah...blah...blah...

but chase????  now...he's a realistic option for me.  he's not into art at all.  i'm pretty sure i could convince him.  i'm not above cheating at this point.  this girl needs a rodeo art blue ribbon.

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yesterday...i pulled an old bookcase off the wall and decided, on a whim, to distress it.  it's old...and doesn't hold any kind of family pass-down value...so i wasn't too worried about ruining it.  i even let annslee do some sanding...which meant that the scratch lines didn't always end up going in the same direction...but her enjoyment in helping was totally worth it.

i wasn't even sure where i was gonna let that shelf live...or what purpose it was going to serve until i was finished.

turns out...it makes a really good art shelf.

a few glass jars and baskets of coloring books and construction paper later...and we have a quaint little place by the table to create.

it makes me pretty happy.

Make happiness...

God love this child.  After I tucked her in the other night...she looked around her messy room and begged,

"Will you pleeeeeeaaaaassssse leave the tooth fairy a note...telling her that I am in the middle of cleaning my room?  I don't want her to think that I leave it like this!"

I replied,

"Don't you think she will see through that?  Besides...I think she would be more concerned with if you brushed your teeth or not."

She darted her eyes to the side...remembering that she had, indeed, forgotten to brush her teeth...and jumped up, skirted to the bathroom, and got the job done at break necking pace.  She even brushed the one that fell out.

I tucked her in...promised to write the note...and kissed her goodnight.

And I almost forgot.

To write the note, that is.

I mean...it's not like I would have gone to bed...without checking to make sure the tooth fairy had come.  I've never done that before. I've never had to pretend the money had fallen behind the bed in the middle of the night and had been there all along to quiet the sobs of a small boy who thought the tooth fairy had totally forgotten about him.  No sirree, bob.

Anyway...I carefully scribed the note...and walked it upstairs to her room.

That child had spent...who knows how long*...cleaning her room. She even set her doll up with her toy toothbrush and toothpaste.  Just for good measure.

*(except now i do know how long...because i opened her closet door the next morning to get her school clothes out and the entire contents of her room was shoved inside that tiny closet.  so...technically...not that long.)

I left the note.

And the tooth fairy left a buck...

...and was very impressed with Aiden's clean room and her doll...who...apparently...brushes her own teeth.

She was never the wiser.

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We recently celebrated this pretty lady's 92nd Birthday.  This is Honey.  She's my grandmother.  And boy...do I love this woman.

We also set out to draw the longest picture in the world.

Soooo...maybe we've been watching a little too much of Ramona and Beezus lately.  Although...I'm not sure that's possible.  It is one of my favorites.

We also had a day of Valentine crafting that turned into a whole weekend.

We sent a super secret Valentine to our best babysitter in the world, J.B.  She's away at school and we miss that girl.

The baby got her very first Valentine box of her own.

And a special little girl turned 4.  She has had a rough year this year and has endured things that nobody...much less a child...should have to endure.  She wanted flowers for her room.  And...she should have them.

Now...she does.

We had a 50's style, Valentine's Ice Cream Social and Sock Hop.

You can only imagine my thrill to pull out my old poodle skirt (that my mom made me when I was little) for the girl to wear.

I adore this picture.  I really don't think I could love it any more.

And I find it hilarious that she gave her big brother the shaft...like...

"You interrupted my date!!!!"

And in case you thought that I didn't pull out my poodle skirt from my Senior Musical days.......

............you'd be mistaken!

I should have been Sandy.  No question about it!!

So...clearly the thing to do...is pretend to be her now.  At 38.  I think that it's completely rational and acceptable behavior for a grown mother of 4 that chickened out of her call back for the lead role back in the day.

And in case you thought that I forgot to teach them the twist...

fear not.

Oh yeah........

we played with a monkey at Gallery Furniture.

and that sentence did seem just as weird when I typed it as it did in my head.

He tried to swipe some things out of my camera case.

and the gum out of my purse.

We capped it off by jumping on the biggest bed in the world...right in front of Mattress Mack, himself.

and you're just going to have to trust me on that one...

because I was not about to put a camera in that man's face right after he saw me jumping on the bed.

I do have to draw the "crazy" line somewhere.

Happy middle of the week.  Now...go...

Make happiness.