Nolan's Winter Party

I was really nervous to take on the role as room mom for Nolan's class this year. I have such little experience with kids in grade school and I was really worried about not knowing how to get everything accomplished and set up for the class. Luckily, we have some really great grade level reps that helped all of the room moms figure out and plan a great party for the kids. I spent a few hours making sure that we had everything we would need and drug out everything I had on hand and took it up to the school a few days in advance. We sent a note home to all of the class asking for certain supplies but you never really know until the day of the party if it's all going to arrive. The other co-room mom had to hunt down sugar cookies all the way in Mansfield the day of the party! I sent a email to all the parents from his class asking for additional parent volunteers to help run the party and only a handful of moms responded. I had to call in reinforcements and ask Nana come help out at the party! Everything turned out great! I just love Nolan's teacher Mrs. Ware; she is the sweetest thing - I wish I had gotten a picture of her with Nolan.

On another note... Nolan has only had one "sign" in his folder this whole semester and we have been very proud of his behavior. We all know what a handful he can be and so we really try to work on his listening skills and behavior with positive reinforcement. We told Nolan a few weeks ago that if he continued to be good and not get a sign before the holidays that we would let him pick anywhere he wanted to go the first day of Christmas vacation! (Of course he first asked if we could go to the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans - Right!!!) We had to specify that it would need to be a local place because we are not taking a road trip right before Christmas! Ha ha! Well the day of the party the kids were out in the hall watching a movie waiting for the classrooms to all be set up and Nolan went to the bathroom with some other kids. Not sure what the exact story is but somehow these boys started getting paper towels wet and trowing them at the wall and a teacher caught them! Nolan had to get his folder and have it "signed" right then. The poor guy just let the rowdiness get to him! He was so upset about getting the sign because he knew it meant he lost the "fun day". When he got to the card making station during the party he even made me a card and wrote on the inside "I'm sorry I got in trouble and had my folder signed. Love Nolan". I think he learned his lesson just by feeling like that throughout the whole party...I remember how much it sucked to be a kid and to know you're in trouble and just waiting for the punishment! I really did feel sorry for him because it pretty much ruined the party for him. I just told him we would have to talk to Dad. Even Mrs. Ware felt bad for him and tried to smooth it over by saying she was sure that he just joined in on what the other kids were doing and she wouldn't have signed their folders when it was just minutes before the party. That is such a tough spot to be in as a parent. I knew that he has had a great year and that really this was not typical behavior but that wasn't our deal. Looking back on it - I wish I hadn't even made a "deal" - we don't typically do that but for some reason I just said it one night. Now if we go back on it and let him still have the fun day then what is that teaching him; but what kind of sad memory is that if we are too hard on him? He really did have a great semester even with two signs. Nolan was REALLY sweet and remorseful all night and told Scott about the "incident" the second he got home from work. He had wanted to go to the airplane museum so Scott and I came to "fair" punishment. He wasn't able to watch tv for a for the rest of the week and we would still do something fun on that Saturday but it would not be the airplane museum. He took the punishment really well and was such a big boy about it and didn't throw a fit about missing out on what he wanted to do. Hopefully we did the right thing. Punishment is a hard balancing act!!