Those Damn Plastic Gloves

It's taken a week to get back on this blog because I've been so busy with all these activities this week.  There has been SO much talking to other room moms on the phone and trying to collaborate everything.  Between the two grades, I've been talking to about 10 moms and a number of them every day, even a couple of times a day.  One of the sticking points for both grades is that we are having the kids make popcorn gloves for their Fall parties this afternoon.  You have them put candy corn down into the fingers, then they fill the gloves with popcorn.  The result should look like a hand, complete with fingernails.  However, when I tested it with the gloves we had, the fingers were so wide that the candy corn always fell sideways.  I couldn't force the candy corn to stay upright even if I tried shoving popcorn around it.  So I was trying to find other gloves and other moms were trying to figure it out too.  After a whole week of searching, we ended up with the same gloves.  So we all decided it really doesn't matter if the candy corn falls sideways.  The kids don't care.  They'll just have fun making them and then eating them.  So those damn plastic gloves took a lot of unnecessary time and grief this week.  I was just afraid that all the other classes had the right gloves and that our class's would look lame compared to the others and the kids would be bummed.

Well, this busy week is almost over.  The fifth grade and third grade have both had their field trips.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend either of them.  I had a dentist's appointment during the fifth grade field trip and a meeting regarding refinancing our house during the third grade field trip.  The fifth graders also had their DARE graduation yesterday (DARE is explained in the previous blog).  I was able to help set that up and attend.  Also my husband was able to attend because he worked from home yesterday.  That was a lot of fun and it went smoothly and the kids really enjoyed it - the parents did, too.  Then last night we had a couple of the boys' aunts over because we were getting pizza delivered from our local police department.  Our school distrist has a pizza night at the end of DARE and red-ribbon week, where a police car or fire engine will deliver pizza to you with their sirens blaring.  We've never done it before but decided to this year and it was a blast!  The boys loved it!  The sirens and lights were going and making a lot of commotion.  Then the officers let the boys get into the car and look all around.  Some people in the neighborhood came out to see what was going on.  They were probably thinking "well, they seemed like a nice family - why are their kids in the police car?"  I joked with the boys that this would be their first and ONLY time they would be sitting in the back of a police car.

Now today both the 5th grades and 3rd grades are having their Fall parties so I need to run out to get a couple of last-minute things after I write this blog.  I'm a little nervous about the parties because we are doing 3 different activities for the 3rd graders and there are just so many 5th graders (approximately 100).  So it might be a bit difficult to keep everything organized and get the kids the different supplies they need before they start getting impatient.  There should be a lot of help for both parties, though.

One thing I've really enjoyed about this process is getting to know the other room moms better.  I've known many of them before, but some of them I didn't know real well.  Now working with them on these projects, I'm getting to know them much better - so that's really fun.

I'm sure I'll be tired this evening so tonight I'll try to relax a bit to get ready for Halloween tomorrow.  I'm so glad it's on a Saturday.  I'll be making a special breakfast of smiling mouths on top of pink, oozing goop (cut red apples in the shape of lips with yogurt-covered raisins as the teeth on top of strawberry yogurt) and bloody hands (toast cut into the shape of hands with red jam smeared on different areas).  Then I'll be making blood, brains and guts for dinner (meat sauce with spiral noodles).  I have no idea what lunch will be.

Well, have a fun, safe and goulish day and evening tomorrow.  Remember to set your clocks back - yay!  We get an extra hour to sleep in - good timing!

Now the Room Mom Activities Really Start

Now I really start the experience of being room mom in both my sons' classes for the first time.  We have a number of parties and activities happening next week.  The fifth graders have a field trip on Monday, a DARE graduation on Thursday and something happening on Friday for Halloween (although we can't mention Halloween, so we call it a Fall party or celebration).  All the fifth grade classes are supposed to plan these activities together so another room mom wants me to call her this weekend and somehow I guess we'll all get this figured out in the next few days.  If you don't know what DARE is, it is a program where a police officer comes to the fifth grade classes twice a week to teach them about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and to also talk to them about bullying, internet safety and violence.  Next week the whole school will also be participating in DARE week, where all the teachers will touch on these subjects during classtime and they have assemblies for the children.

For the third graders, they have a field trip on Thursday and a Fall party on Friday.  In previous years the classes have just planned their own parties but this year the teachers thought it would be a good idea for the room moms in all four classes to try to plan the parties together.  So we got together this morning to share ideas.  We won't be doing exactly the same thing in each class and each class will hold their party whenever it works best with their schedule, but the treats and activities will be similar.  So now I'll just coordinate with the other room moms in my son's class regarding buying supplies and figuring out who can volunteer at the party.

So next week will be a very busy week and we'll see how it goes.  It looks like it will be a lot of fun, though, and right now nothing is exactly overlapping - I hope it stays that way so I can attend each class's party.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog.  Let me first explain why I decided to start blogging.

First, I was recently reading through books for each of my sons that I wrote detailing when I was pregnant with them and different milestones from their early years.  They are kind of diaries.  I was amazed at what I had forgotten.  I realized how important it was that I had written all this information down.  I started to think that I should do this now, too, or I might forget some of what is currently happening.  I don't have the time or inclination to actually write in a diary now, but I am on the computer a lot and blogging can be a way to document important or interesting events.

Second, I decided to be a room mom in both my sons' classes this year.  I have always volunteered in their classes each week and come to most of their room parties and field trips, so I've always done a lot of what a room mom does (I think) except plan the parties and manage the money.  Also, my oldest son is in 5th grade and I've been told by other moms that you don't volunteer in their classes once they start 6th grade.  So I figured I only have one more year to do this for my oldest son and if I do it for him, I should also do it for my younger son.  Therefore, I decided to just take the plunge and try it this year.  I will be chronicling my adventures in this blog.

Finally, I'm looking forward to the community aspect of blogging.  I will be very interested to see what comments I get.  I'm looking forward to other parents' thoughts, ideas and advice.

So I'm going to have fun with this!  I hope you find this entertaining and fun, too.