Blue Ribbons, Organization and Freezer Meals

Amy's school was awarded as a National Blue Ribbon School. It's a big honor as only 6 schools from each state are awarded it each year. Today they held a celebration day. It was lucky that it was on a Thursday as that means Lee got to come to! (He stays home on Thursdays)

They had a "pep" rally, complete with the MTSU's pep band playing. It was fun. I love a live band.

I think it was a bit loud for Amy- she sat the entire time with her hands over her ears. (It was hard to get a picture of her). Will was kind of rambunctious at first, but once the band started playing... he was mesmerized. We think he's going to be our musician.

Afterwards they had a kickball game with the teachers vs the 6th graders. The teachers were all cute- they were dressed in athletic shorts, knee-high socks, their school tshirts and their hair in pigtails or some other fun way. I saw Amy's teacher like that this morning and had to laugh.

Amy, Dallin and Will at the kickball game. (She's not wearing lipstick, it just looks like it). Amy said the teachers won the game. (We left early so we could get Will down for a nap.) They also had a pizza party afterwards.

Amy loved showing her friends Baby Tyler.

We just love this school. Granted, we haven't been here long but so far we just really love it. They do a lot of fun events, different things in the classroom and the teachers and staff are also so fun and kind. We are so blessed to live in such a great place!

Remember how I said that Will likes to read Amy's schoolwork? Well, apparently Tyler likes to eat it! Amy's poor work- devoured (in some way) everyday.

Speaking of Tyler- we caught him doing this last night....

Apparently he no longer likes lounging back in his chair. No, in fact, we have to make sure to strap him down as he tries to get out of it all the time.

(He's trying to crawl out of it)

Yesterday I embarked on a task... organizing the hall closet! It's one of those places that "I'll get to it when I get to it." But when we couldn't find the nose zapper the other night (when Will stuck the popcorn kernel up his nose) and I was weeding through the chaos... I decided it was time.

This is the before.... (the things on the floor were shoved into the bottom)

And now, this is the after. Woohoo!!!

I like to coupon and find deals on toiletries- since you can get them for free, or basically free, if you know how to coupon. It's also my way of "toiletry food storage" so to speak.... Everyone's bedroom closet is big- so I moved spare sheet sets in there and there rest of the stuff just needed to be tossed or put where it belongs. Good thing I did- I didn't know that I had 27 tubes of toothpaste, 35 bars of soap and almost no deodorant. Time to start stocking up on certain items again!

I've also been doing a little meal planning ahead. Not really 'family' freezer meals, but instead frozen in individual portions for Lee to take for lunch. I made 3 different meals... enchiladas, chicken strips and lasagna. I also made a large batch of biscuits, cookies and mini-cupcakes- for Amy's lunch and snacks. We are so blessed to have a deep freeze in the garage, so that means I can just keep all this stuff in the main house and everything else in the garage. It's worked out great! And loved that I have one big cooking day (Monday) and we benefit for weeks afterwards because of it!

Last night, all of the kids were piled on me. Which made me laugh because Lee was sitting all by himself on the other couch. I kept saying, "I'm with you all day! You haven't seen Daddy in 2 days (because he teaches nights classes)... go to him!" But no, Mommy rules. I'm not really complaining, I just found it funny.

That's all that we've had going on. Isn't that enough?? haha.