A snow day

Because all is right with the world, we had a snow day today. Last year, if school was closed, I was home alone in the quiet. I napped. Cleaned up. Got things done. It was amazing. Now, Mia is home, too. So is Wren. And by a stroke of good luck, Leigh was here, too. It has a been a loud, loud day. But Leigh took Mia outside to play. Wren and I stayed inside and watched.

If I was in charge of playing outside, it would have been short-lived because the ground was really covered mostly ice with a little snow on top. But Leigh was running the show, so the four-wheeler and sled were involved. And then Leigh had a brilliant idea.

He took Skye outside on a leash. Mia sat on the blue plastic sled and held on to one end, shouting "Hee-yah!" as Skye dragged her around the yard. I would have taken a picture, but I was too busy trying not to wet my pants from laughing.

The Valentine's castle box

Mia's teacher sent home a little note last week about the class Valentine's Day party. Students were tasked with creating their own Valentine's mailboxes. But Mia's teacher didn't want them to just decorate a box. They were supposed to "think like engineers" - come up with a design first and then figure out how to make it. This is Mia's design: 

She decided to make a castle using three boxes, Christmas wrapping paper, duct tape, stickers and markers. She said her box was tied with a classmate's for the biggest mailbox in the room. I'm just glad she was able to carry it into school unassisted.

America!

All right. I'm pretty proud of myself. Please admire this American flag snack tray. It's cheese, strawberries and chocolates. I, too, am impressed.

We hosted a watch party for the U.S.-Ghana soccer game. Aside from a super-exciting game and array of American-themed snacks, the most notable thing was the plethora of babies. There were seven children. SEVEN! We lamented about our past parties, when BYOB meant bring your own beer. Now it means bring your own baby.

Speaking of babies, here is ours. We let her wear the traditional Coppernoll international sporting events hat: a Hog hat with the American flag draped down in the back.

 Then Mia stole Leigh's camera and snapped a few selfies.

Go Greece!

Obviously, our family is a tad excited about the World Cup. Well, imagine our joy when we remembered that Mia has a Greece soccer jersey! My dad and stepmom brought her back a whole kit from their last trip to Greece. It's still a little big for her, so she's only worn it a few times here and there. But today - today! - was the perfect occasion! Things didn't turn out so well for Greece. They lost 3-0 to Colombia. But Mia has at least two more times to sport the white and blue. Opa!

Well then

A lot of change is on the horizon for Mia. She's only got another week of daycare. Then she'll spend the summer at home with me. Then she'll start a new school. And then a few months later, Socks will arrive. Long story short, she's still processing quite a bit of this. Then this happened. 

In a fit of rage, she pulled out every single toy and every single piece of clothing and threw it all on the floor. It was the worst fit of her life. Really. This photo doesn't even really do justice to the craziness. We have started cleaning a bit, but it's a slow, slow process. We are helping her, but she has to do this herself. Maybe she'll be done by the time she goes to college. Let's just hope we can all survive all the change that's ahead.

Ahhhhhhhsemayaaaabodeebesibabaaaaaa

I go to make toast; I come back to Leigh and Mia reenacting the opening of "The Lion King." It was much easier when she was a baby. 

The world's loudest sleepover

Mia and her pal Scout have been having sleepovers for quite a while. They. Love. It. So when Scout's moms went to a concert in Tulsa, it was sleepover time at our house. Here is a video of them during dinner. I thought they were screaming at random. Turns out, they were singing. Sort of.



Lovely, ladies. Lovely.

They acted crazy, played a bunch and stayed up late. I took this photo of them the next morning. So much party. So much happiness. So much passing out.

Senior Walk

This weekend, my Uncle Kelly took us for a trip around campus. I graduated from the University of Arkansas 10 years ago this May. (Um, what? How did that happen?) A lot has changed since I was there, obviously. So many lovely improvements have been made, but there were still many places that were the same. It felt nice to be on campus for the first time in a long time. Of course, we had to stop and see my name on Senior Walk. (For those of you who don't know, Senior Walk is one of the very best traditions at the U of A. The name of every graduate in the history of the school is etched into the sidewalks. No other school does it. It's really special, and something that graduates feel very proud of.) This is Mia and I sitting next to my name - Carrie Rebecca Coppernoll. My name fit in the letter limit by only two letters. Eep!

And here is Mia with my dad's name, which is on the lawn of Old Main. My dad earned his law degree five years before I earned my bachelor's. Two Coppernolls on Senior Walk! And hopefully there will be a couple Coppernoll descendants there some day with the name Jacobs.

That's enough of basketball

 

Welp. Glad that's over. Mia finished up her first season of basketball today. She never scored, and I'm still not quite sure if she ever took a shot. She did, however, have a spectacular time. She had the world's greatest coaches. The Jonses are here with the whole team. They have hearts of gold. God bless them to wrangling all these children this season. We'll see if Leigh and I can be so gracious when we take on Mia's soccer team in a couple weeks.

It's a marshmallow world

Mia has now been in dance class for four months. It's just the cutest darn thing you've ever seen. This half of the year, her class learned lots of basic dance moves and even put together a routine. They performed to "Marshmallow World" by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, who I now realize was probably drunk every single time he was on television. It was impossible to find a video of that song on YouTube where Dean Martin wasn't drunk. But whatever. Leigh and I didn't know it, but it turns out that the last class of the fall semester is the day when the children put on their performance for the parents. I was so unprepared! I would have taken the Canon and the zoom lens to shoot photos from, you know, across the room. Damn it! That's OK. We snapped some photos on our phones, and I shot a short video of a bit of the performance. It was so darn cute. My word. 

Below, Mia is to the right of the little boy in the gold jacket. She was in a make-up class, so she wasn't with her normal group of kiddos. She was feeling a bit shy.

Mia is that little face next to the girl in the back who has her arms out.

And here is Mia performing an arabesque with her teacher, Shannon Calderon Primeau, who is a super impressive woman and an incredible teacher. Mia adores her, and even though she looks totally miserable in this photo, she was quite excited when it was her turn to do a move with Ms. Shannon.

And here's a little snippet. Mia is standing to the left of Ms. Shannon. 

Teeny tiny foot

Mia is growing every day, but this morning I spotted something that made me feel like she's still so small. Her teeny tiny foot was sticking out of the blankets on our bed. She still crawls in with us if she's feeling scared or lonely. She's so big, but she really is still so small.

A tiny astronaut

Mia may become an astronaut some day. Let's hope there isn't a height minimum.

Storage

I'd just like to point out that I can't ever just have a box empty for more than 30 seconds.

I bought this to store some artwork we have, and Mia immediately confiscated it. She and Scout found a new use for it the other night: crib. In this picture, Mia is the baby while Scout is off somewhere being the mommy. I think it's safe to say that neither of them are ready to be mothers.

Sweet, quacky victory!

This is the second summer that we've done the Metro Library's summer reading program. (For kids like Mia who are too young to read, you track how much time you spend reading with them.) Mia met the first goal, which was to read for 3 hours. The prize: a squeaky duck. Jackpot!

You've got a little something there

 

We went to supper with our lovely friends Lauren and Marc and tried out a new restaurant. The review? The wait was long (above) but the food was tasty (below). Um, Mia: you've got a little something right over, uh, there.

Slug hug

Mia and I joined some friends to see Monsters University. (Leigh had softball in 100-degree heat. Who got the better end of that deal?) The movie was great, and Mia especially loved this giant plastic snail in the lobby. Apparently there's a movie coming out about racing snails. So there's that.

A quick trip to the park

Whenever we go to the library, there's a little park right nearby that just can't be ignored. Plus, there are some crazy looking ducks that poke around the pond.

This has lead me to the conclusion that there is never a quick trip to the library.

Swinging

After work, we popped over to the sprayground water park to let Mia play. Oklahoma City has a bunch of them all over the city, and the one we went to this time also happened to have a park. Here's a recap of what happened:

- Splash around in the water park.
- Scurry to the park.
- Go down the slide.
- Scurry to the water park.
- Repeat a million times.

Leigh and I eventually acquiesced and sat at a picnic table in the middle. Then before we left, Leigh taught her how to twist a swing around and around and then let go. Weee!

Go Bokke!

Mia got up early with Leigh to watch some rugby. She's outgrown her last rugby shirt, so he had to outfit her with one of his own.

Happy birthday, Uncle Jason!

Leigh did the writing. Mia did the drawing. This is how you send birthday love all the way from Oklahoma to South Africa.