Tidbits: Slumber parties are fun, dead water heaters are not.

The sleepover went well. We only had 4 girls instead of five, and it was a good number. They ate pizza, watched Ratatoulle, and engaged in lots of girl talk. These are the Girl's closest friends, and they are all very wonderful kids. I really enjoyed having them. Some of them clean up after themselves better than others, but that is to be expected. It was really fun to listen in on their conversations when they thought I wasn't listening, and they proved to me that tween-aged girls can eat just as much as tween-aged boys! We went through a lot of food! The other thing is, I sometimes hear how different and weird it is to have a gaggle of boys, but I have to say, it was just as weird to have a group of girls around. I think we need to do sleepovers more often. (Did I just say that??)

The art part went ok, and the girls enjoyed it, but it didn't go the way I wanted it to. I had to fetch the Dude from the airport while they were in the middle of art (I should have had them just play while I was gone.), so the specific collage project I had in mind kind of turned into them just exploring and having fun, which was super, don't get me wrong, it just wasn't collaged Valentines, which is what I wanted. I learned several things from this besides being there- namely having a sample of each stage of the project, so that your pupils can see exactly what you are talking about. Another thing is to allow some time for free exploration of materials, but not so long that they get bored and just want to be done with it.

I got a lot of work done on my Valentines collage yesterday, and hope to get a bit more added to it today, but I do have to be in the kitchen baking, and we have plans this evening, so I am not sure how much I will get done.

I think the hot water heater is dying, too. I have no hot water. Why is it that things like this don't die in a timely fashion? I just forked out a wad of money for my new car, and not even sure how much a water heater costs. Sigh.

I do love my new car. It's a 99 Mazda Protege', and it is so nice to not have to plan ahead before I get into the car. No more 5 am trips to the airport, no more waiting till the Dude gets home to go to the store, and the Boy doesn't have to take the Metro bus any more, which means he regains about 2 hours of study time daily. Yay! Now to come up with a name for the new car.