Just my funny girl

I found this the other day while I was doing some organizing.  Maren presented this to me in 2010.

It says "Dear mom, thank you for all the things you do for us. you will find a penny taped to the paper.  yes, it is mine.  I thought you needed more help paying! Love, Maren"

I think the "yes, it is mine" is my favorite part.  

Back to School Party 2012 - Kid Style

Just so you know, this isn't a post about some cute over-the-top back to school party I threw for my kids.  It doesn't have any cute decorations or fancy treats.  Just so you know.

The day before school started, I was doing things around the house while the kids had a special secret meeting up in Joshua's room.  Occasionally Joshua would come down and ask me to write something for him, and then he'd disappear again.  Some time later, I received an invitation to a back to school party.  How exciting!

The party began with the guests sitting on the bed in Joshua's room as he and Maren explained how you played each game.  There were also prizes for each game, and at the end of the party, everyone would receive a back to school present from a collection of odds and ends the kids had rounded up in their rooms.  The presents were nicely displayed on a pillow.

fancy presents

The games included the "Angry Bird Toss" where we tried to knock down towers with an angry bird, "Tower Falls" where we tried to see who could build the tallest tower in a minute without it falling over, and "Penguin Pop" where we used a penguin ball shooter to try and get a ball in a container.  I thought it was quite cute and clever of them, but I didn't get many pictures since I was too busy playing the games.

Joshua playing penguin pop.  

After the party was over, and the presents were distributed, I offered to take the kids to get cupcakes and go to a fun indoor playground, since I was feeling bad that I hadn't planned any back to school party things.  Sadly, every other parent decided to take their kids to the same place for day before school fun.  But the kids still had fun, even though it was crowded.

Yay for cupcakes!

Busy Busy Busy

Even though we homeschool, the end of the school year brings about all sorts of busy-ness, as the kids perform in programs and say goodbye to their teachers from outside activities.  We might have been doing a little it too much, but the kids enjoyed it all.  Maren was doing sewing, gymnastics, drama, violin, piano, choir, and soccer.  Next year she is starting at a fine arts magnet school and we've been discussing which things she is going to drop.  Joshua was involved in gymnastics, drama, piano, choir, and soccer.  Christopher was just doing preschool and soccer.  Nathan was doing a lot of sitting in the car.  Poor neglected 4th child.

And we are trying to sell our house.  Things have been a bit stressful of late.

Here are some pictures.  Just skip them if it bores you, but I tell you, these kids are pretty cute.

Maren and Joshua were in a production of Suessical Jr.
Joshua was Max the Dog, and Maren was a Who.  I love their
facial expressions in this one.  You can tell Maren's just feeling it.   

piano recital

Maren got her braces off this spring too.  Very exciting.
And no, she is not an orphan, her mother just lets her go out looking like one.

The 3 older kids loved playing soccer.

The youngest one was not as much of a fan.

This cute kid finished up preschool and gets to start Kindergarten with mommy in the fall!

Now aren't you glad you looked through all of those?

Nathan's Education

As I'm working with the older kids on their schoolwork, Nathan (age 2.4) is often on his own.  I try to keep track of where he is and watch what he's doing, but he often gets into things I'd rather he didn't. . .

like the marshmallows

and the toilet paper

Or sometimes we find him playing with his siblings' toys . . .

like Maren's American Girl dolls

and Joshua's  playmobil

But most often we find him here:

playing the iPad without permission

But don't worry.  Even though it seems like I don't have a lot of time to teach Nathan things, he is learning plenty from his brothers and sisters, as evidenced by the following video:

See?  Nothing to worry about.

Funny Four year old

My Christopher is just the sweetest little boy.  He is so funny and so sincere that he just makes me smile.  These are some things about him that I've written down over the last little while that I just didn't want to forget, and I thought they might make you smile too.

One time around 3 in the morning he woke up screaming because his foot hurt (He sometimes has growing pains). After a long while, I finally got him to calm down and I tucked him back in bed.  I leaned over to tell him good night and that I loved him but he shushed me.  He said he was worried I was going to wake up his stuffed animals.  How thoughtless of me.

Last night he came into our room crying because he had had a scary dream about a giant.  He cuddled with me for a while, and then I took him back into his room and tucked him in.  He was still worried about dreaming about the giant, so I told him that maybe he could dream that a fairy came and shrank the giant so he was really really small.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said "Mom, I only dream about boy things, not girl things like fairies."  We decided a wizard could probably do the job just as well, and that was more acceptable to him.

Once I had to carry him up to his room while he was kicking and screaming to put him in time out for a while.  I don't remember what he did, but he was mad.  It was during Nathan's nap time, and as I was leaving, Christopher stopped his fit and told me in a very serious voice to make sure I closed his door so he wouldn't wake up Nathan.  I closed the door and then he started screaming and crying again.

Once he told me that he wanted to be a hockey goalie, but then changed his mind and said he wanted to be a dad instead, but he wanted to ride a motorcycle.

He doesn't quite understand the meaning of "yeah right" when said with the sarcastic inflection.  (Did that make sense?) So he'll often say "yeah right" in a way that sounds like he's saying it meaning "you've got to be kidding me" when he really does mean "yes".  It's just really funny to ask him if he wants a bowl of ice cream or something and hear him respond "yeah right" in that tone of voice.  Maren and Joshua have been trying to get him to say "right-o" instead, which also is very funny.

During the summer, when I would ask the kids to put their shoes on and get in the car, I would often find him buckled into his seat with no shoes on his feet.  When asked about it, he would respond "I'm wearing my secret shoes."  Usually I caught him before we left the house, but a couple of times I arrived at the grocery store only to turn around because he wasn't wearing shoes.  I had to be very careful to say "Everyone get their shoes on and get in the car. And that means real shoes not secret shoes." And he would say "Ah man."

Sometimes we have apples and peanut butter at snack time.  He often asks for extra peanut butter, even when his apples are gone, "for his finger".

I take my boys to speech therapy and it's connected to the hospital.  Sometimes we see these robots that deliver things to different labs as we're walking to and from our appointment.  The first time we saw them, the kids were all really excited, or at least I thought they were.  We saw one as we were walking to our appointment and passed another on our way out.  Christopher whimpered, grabbed my hand, then looked at me and said "Mommy, how are we going to get out of here?" Confused, I responded "the same way we always do, through those doors to the parking garage."  He replied "I mean how are we going to get out of here with those bad robots following us?"  Apparently he thought they were evil robots intent on keeping us in the building.  I don't know where he got that idea, but he was so scared and sincere it made me laugh and cry at the same time.  Sweet funny boy.

Today I was unwrapping a fruit roll up for him, and apparently Christopher was quite impressed with how quickly I was able to get it open.  He told me that I was "as fast as a pickle herding peacock."

Yup. That is my sweet funny Christopher.

My Creative Daughter

My daughter loves to make dresses for her little dolls.  She's been doing it for a couple of years.  And although I have given her scraps of fabric to work with, her preferred medium is toilet paper.  She's such a goofball.  

The last couple of months she has really stepped up the quality of her outfits, and not only has she added colorful designs to the toilet paper, but has given up the usual tape to hold them together in favor of needle and thread.  

I thought I would share some of her creations, because I find them delightful.  

the green polka dot shirt is my favorite

this is a doll apron, with a sewn on pocket

toilet paper pillow with toilet paper blanket

Here she has colored and cut out the imprinted rose from the toilet paper to decorate
a birthday card for her cousin.  Seriously, why haven't other crafters
picked up on this yet?  So many possibilities.  

I'll let you all know when her Etsy shop opens. 

She was very excited when I told her she was going to start sewing lessons today with some friends. I sure love that girl.