The Saturday 7

This week was bonkers . . . which I'm realizing I say quite often these days. Is this just my life now? Bonkers? I don't know. This week had a few special caveats that made it more bonkers than usual.

1. We celebrated Lena's birthday with my family on Sunday. She specifically requested a red velvet bundt cake, so I whipped one up for her. 

Don't be too impressed. It was a doctored up box cake (thanks, Pinterest!) and I literally warmed up a can of cream cheese frosting until it became liquid, then poured it over the cake. #worksmarternotharder

2. Most of the reason this week was so crazy was because it was Spirit Week at school. So not only do I have to help my kids come up with outfits and accessories, but it's more work for me at my job as well. Don't get me wrong. I love it all. It's just tiring. Haha. I was impressed with the effort Lucy put in to Spirit Week this year, but she didn't let me take pictures so you'll have to take my word for it. Levi wanted to participate each day, but he did not want to put forth any effort, and almost everything that I set out for him did not meet with his approval. So that was fun. And then there's Lena. This is literally one of her favorite weeks of the year and she goes all out. Every day, the teachers choose two kids from each grade level to represent their grade for the judging. Lena tried so hard to be the best, but was never chosen. 😭 I decided the problem is that I expect my kids to dress up like we did back in the old days - using what you can scrounge up at home or at the thrift store. But these days, the kids just buy legit costumes and accessories from Amazon. I can't even tell you how many pristine gray wigs I saw on "Senior Citizen" day. Oh well. She had a blast anyway.

Career Day: Gymnastics Coach

Senior Citizen day. This was my favorite. 😂

Each class was assigned a country for this year's theme. They had to represent that country on Wednesday. Lena had Papua New Guinea.

Ugly Sweater Day. The kids who got sent down for judging from her class were both wearing store-bought ugly Christmas sweaters. C'mon! Do you know how much time she spent "sewing" those animals on that shirt???

Spirit Day

3. And now for the real reason this week was more bananas than usual . . . on Senior Citizen day Lucy raided my closet (I'm not even 40, thank you very much) for her outfit, including classic old lady pumps. We were late to school that day (#becauseLevi), so she was in a hurry to make it to her first hour class, which is P.E. The gym is directly to the right of the school's entrance doors, and on these snowy, slushy days, it doesn't matter how many fans they have blowing or rugs they have to try and absorb the melting snow, the tile floors are always slippery. Between the rushing and the heels and the wet floor, Lucy slipped and went down. I was still in the car (#becauseLevi) and she was in the gym by the time I made it in. So I didn't know anything happened until she came limping in to my office a few hours later. I offered her ibuprofen, she refused it, so I said, "Sorry!" and sent her on her way. Haha. But by that night when she still wouldn't put any weight on it and it was super swollen, I started to get a little concerned. 

She stayed home from school on Wednesday because it still hurt so bad. But I was watching my nieces all day, so I couldn't take her to Urgent Care until they got picked up around 3. 

Cuteness alert!

We got to Urgent Care around 4, and only waited like 20 minutes. The Dr. asked questions and poked and prodded a bit, then sent her down the hall for an x-ray.

A few minutes later, our suspicions were confirmed: the Dr. said at least one of the metatarsals on the top of her foot is broken, but we'd have to wait for the radiology report for official details. She was sent home with a walking boot and instructions to call the pediatric orthopedist. 

I was so shocked that the first of my kids to break a bone would be Lucy!! Between Levi's general wildness and Lena's crazy gymnastics moves, I definitely would've pinned it on one of them. It just goes to show that heels aren't worth the risk! 

4. We had the orthopedist appointment yesterday morning, and the Dr. confirmed that Lucy actually broke the three top metatarsals of her foot. But she didn't think a cast was necessary. Lucy just has to wear the boot any time she's on her feet for the next 4 weeks! I was surprised it was that long! They're such little bones - it really takes that long for them to heal? But she's having a good attitude about the whole thing. She was actually relieved that it's broken, because she was worried that she's just being a wimp. Lol. And she's thrilled to get out of gym class for the next month. 😂 #kidaftermyownheart 

5. Yesterday was the culmination of this week's craziness. I dropped Lena and Levi off at school at 8 then went back home to pick up Lucy. We went downtown to the children's hospital for her orthopedist appointment, then back to school to drop her off. I stayed for a few minutes to get things organized for the alumni hospitality room I was in charge of for the homecoming game last night. Then I ran to Meijer to get groceries since I hadn't been all week and the pickins' were getting slim! Back home to unload the groceries, then back to school in time to take pictures of the kids sent to the office for judging. I made it to school by 1:00 and didn't go home until 9:00 that night! I stayed to take pictures of the pep rally and games, then had to actually set up the hospitality room once students vacated it for the day to have it ready for the alumni by 5. Thanks to my incredibly amazing sister, the food was easy. She put together a charcuterie board for me, so all I had to do was fill some bowls with dip and pour some crackers on the plate. Look how talented she is:

Then I sat at the admissions table for an hour to check in any alumni, followed by presenting the giveaways between games, followed by checking to see if anything needed to be restocked, followed by eating concessions dinner and sitting by Justin for ten minutes, followed by cleaning everything up! My old lady feet held up well until my final trip of carrying stuff to my van. I felt my bunion pop and it has hurt ever since. Where's my walking boot?!

6. But the craziness didn't stop there! Today, Levi had his first basketball game at 9:00 in the morning. When I told him to start getting ready at 8:15, he exclaimed, "What?! Already! I changed my mind. I don't want to play basketball anymore." 🤦 Unfortunately for him, I already paid the big bucks, so he's playing. I bribed him with the promise of a post-game donut, and he perked right up. It was fun to watch him play today as compared to last season. He's definitely learned a lot and gained some confidence. He even made his first basket today!

With his promised reward. (Don't mind the tattoos leftover from the game last night. They won't come off. Lol.)

Lena had her first game ever at 1:30. She was nervous, but not overly-so (thank you, Prozac!). She's definitely a newbie, but I was impressed by how well she did! She attempted a few shots, stole the ball a couple times, made passes, and got more aggressive as the game went on. I'm excited to watch her grow throughout the season. (Unfortunately her team is horrible and I don't anticipate them winning much. Lol.)

I hustled everyone out of Lena's game as soon as it ended because I had to go get Lucy and bring her to her friend's mom's salon at 3:30. Tonight was her first homecoming dance, and she and her friends made plans to do their hair and makeup together at the salon. But as we were driving home from Lena's game, Lucy texted me that there was a snafu with the salon and they couldn't go there anymore. Plus, her friend who was going to do her hair couldn't do it anymore. 🤦 So for the second time this week, another of my sisters came in clutch. I called Esther and asked if she could do Lucy's hair on short notice, and she changed her evening plans to be at our house within an hour. Family is the best!

Lucy looked beautiful of course, even with the unexpected accessory. 😂

7. Just one meme and a couple pictures:

When I deep cleaned some cupboards last week, I came across my old scrapbooking letter stickers and considered throwing them away. No one has used them in years, and I've given up on scrapbooking. But I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of them. A few days later, Levi was working on some random project and asked me, "Do we have any letter stickers?" Do we ever!!! Hoarding pays off again.

Levi had different dress-up days than the girls. Here's pajama day.

Favorite sports team.

Career Day: He insisted on being an engineer, which is hard to dress up for! Clipboard with some blueprints on it, collared shirt, and pencil behind the ear is the best we could do.

The only perk of winter. And small towns. I left it there for the whole hour-long practice, and it was right where I left it, nice and cold!