All's Well that ends Well

It started with Sunday - we decided this year to combine Alex's family party with Father's Day.  For those of you who know me, you know that this results in an entire day (or more) of planning, cleaning, prepping, cooking, etc.  Josh made me swear that for just one party we could get it catered.  I still haven't agreed.  Anyway...yes, it was a lot of work, but it ended up being a nice day and a great celebration of both the dads and the Al-Man.

Alex's "Fig Newton" birthday cake.  Don't worry - all other guests got my Chocolate Killer Cake. 

This year, I took on the job of putting together the end of the year gift for Alex's teacher, which included a framed poem with all of the kids' signatures on the mat and then 2 flower pots that said "Thank you for helping us grow" on the top (thank you, pinterest) and then had all of the kids' signatures on the pot (you'll see the point of me telling you this in a bit).  Thankfully, I was helping with Avery's field trip that Wednesday before, so I was able to sneak in and get all of the signatures that day (after dropping her off at school, racing to Michaels to be there right when they opened, buying all of the materials I needed (and spending $60 on said materials...ugh!) and then racing back to school to meet the bus for the field trip).  But, of course, the pots needed to be assembled and the cute "helping us grow" phrase still needed to be written.  So, in the middle of prepping for this party, I ran out to our local greenhouse, bought some plants and soil, planted them and wrote the freaking saying on the pots.  Of course, it took forever to plant the flowers because 2 weren't enough and 3 was too many, so they ended up really not looking all that great, which is why you don't see them in this picture.    But, whatever.  The pot turned out looking pretty cute. 

Now, we get to Monday.  And, what a Monday it was.  As I mentioned, Sunday was spent prepping for the party and not really much else (except of course for making the pots above).  Which, of course meant that Monday morning was going to be a total s-show.  I mean, I wouldn't be me if I actually had everything organized and ready to go.  Here's how it went down:

1. Woke up with a panic attack at approximately 3 AM thinking about everything that I had to get done that morning before leaving.  Stayed awake until approximately 5 AM. Alarm went off at 5:50 AM. Awesome. 

2.  Finally dragged my butt out of bed at around 6:20 AM - 30 mins later than I wanted to and went to put the poem into the frame that I had bought.  Only to find out.  It.  Didn't.  Fit.  Of course it didn't!  And, of course, the first time I attempted to put it in the frame was Monday morning about 3 hours prior to giving it to the teacher. 

3.  Spend the next 30 mins writing the class name and date on the bottom of the mat.  This of course, required me measuring to make sure I got it in the middle and writing it in pencil about 30 times before I got it to the point where it was at least legible (we all know my handwriting is atrocious) and then tracing over that with a pen and then erasing like hell the pencil marks.  All for a picture that doesn't even fit the f'ing frame, mind you.

4.  Fight with Alex over wearing normal looking shoes vs. his navy blue sneakers with a fluorescent orange stripe on them with his "Sunday Best" outfit for his Pre-K performance that day. 

5.  Win the battle.

6.  Race like hell to get to school on time (now a good 45 mins later than I had planned) - the whole time listening to Alex yelling at me for going too fast, Avery yelling at me for the windows being down and being too loud, and the f'ing pots of f'ing flowers that looked like crap in the first place flying around the car and getting dirt all over the place.

7.  Drop the kids off and race like hell to get to the closest CVS so that I can get cards for the teachers, a gift bag for the frame with the picture that doesn't fit and the crappy handwriting on the bottom, and 2 gift cards for each teacher with the money that I received from the parents.  Why didn't I do this a week earlier, you ask?  Because this is the way I roll. 

8.  Race like hell to get back to the school in order to get there in time to get a good seat to watch Al-Man's Pre-K performance....which brings us to this...

 

Mind you - Avery's Pre-K performance?  We heard about it for DAYS.  And, knew every song that she was going to perform. Alex's?  We didn't even know he had one until about a week before when an email came out.  In fact, I'm not even sure Alex knew he had it until the day of...too funny the differences between the two. 

 

That said, Alex did such a great job! He even had a part where he got to speak into the microphone (was one of about 5 kids who got to do this).  Of course, he didn't even mention this until Sunday and when asked what he was going to say, he couldn't remember.  As you can see with the third picture down, he didn't remember that day either. But, it didn't phase him a bit.  He just waited until the teacher whispered it into his ear.  :)  Oh - and, just a note on the first picture.  Every kid walked down the aisle holding hands with a friend.  All of the pairs were boy/girl...until Alex and Jacob.  They could have cared less.  But, just before walking down the aisle, the teacher stepped in the middle of them with a look on her face like, "uh oh!" and walked with each of them holding one of her hands.  Yet another one of those classic "Catholic School" moments. 

 

It was a bittersweet day knowing that we wouldn't have another kid go through the Pre-K program.  Alex has done so well there and the teachers just adore him.  As it turns out, not only is he a sweet, kind, caring kid, but he's also really smart!  We were told he is one of the top boys in his class!  So, although it was a hectic couple of days, it was all worth it to see him do his thing...