livin' for the weekend

last Friday: trip to the Zoo and the Aquarium with some Colorado friends



my littlest goddaughter who is ALWAYS smiling.  What a great kid, I am totally smitten.



This was the calmest Zoo visit of all time.  These six kids all stuck together and didn't wander off or get lost, they enjoyed themselves and the animals, and they didn't melt down.  They broke all the rules that day. 

It was downright pleasant, the whole time and not just the beginning part of it.

Saturday: a picnic out in a pinon forest with Daddy and his friend Marc (visiting from Seattle) and a kids' movie night with friends. (no photos of the day, sorry)

Sunday: I did a 4.5 mile trail run with some friends in the early morning and then L. and BR and I participated in a 6-mile hike up to the top of this rock:

There was a rattlesnake right around that next corner.  no photos because I was trying to keep curious kids away from it.  (btw: those things are LOUD; I thought the rattle sound was a filmmaker exaggeration, but no)

(having more than a hundred folks on the peak at the same time made me kind of nervous.  we climbed down as soon as we could)



BR loves to "slide" his way down.  goodbye knee-skin.


Last weekend was awesome.  Great weather, great time outdoors (and I had a nice little nap on Monday to try to recover from all the fun).  So the question is...can this weekend even come close?  I mean, we saw old friends and we made some new ones and it was sunny and--



...what's that? 

                                               

                                                            I can't hear you, speak up...





                         ...that's this weekend?  you're sure?



                                     

                      ...it's a --what?  and it's being held tomorrow, you say?

Aw, yeah.

just when we were feeling nostalgic for the good ol' days in India...

a couple sick kids lead to this:

(laundry literally overflowing from the closet) (thankfully photography captures sights and not smells)

which leads to this:

(we ran out of clean linens and pjs and we don't have a washer or dryer)

which leads to this:

(this is the water in the tub flooding the basement)

what's in your freezer?

Oh kind and generous relatives and friends who recently contributed to L.'s school fundraiser: thank you.  You were very kind and L. is very proud to have done so well as an over-the-phone-salesperson. 

However.  It turns out that when they gave us the order form (with a space to input addresses and phone numbers) what that meant was: "the cookie dough will be dropped off at the school for you to pick up" rather than, "we will deliver orders to the addresses you provided."  (WHY?!?  Why even include addresses and phone numbers if it makes no difference to the company?!?)



So now I have something like 15 boxes of (outrageously expensive) dough in my freezer. You will all be getting a full refund and we will be donating this stuff to an upcoming holiday bazaar so that at least this nonsense can go to some use and benefit a second charitable cause or something.

Well, maybe we'll keep one or two boxes around to benefit our Thanksgiving guests and their tummies.  But the rest needs to get OUT of my refrigerator stat.

construction

BR is only at preschool for a few hours in the morning so there is plenty of time left in the day to entertain himself while his sisters are still away.  For the first few days of the school year, he wasn't used to being alone and had never really learned to entertain himself.  Translation: he wandered aimlessly around the house and followed me from room to room. 

That was pretty fun and all, but we were both much happier when he took to building "trains" of toys or shoes or books (or anything at all).  This keeps him busy for a long, long time and the results are something he can be proud of.

um, very helpful, thank you.

sweet and sour overheard

A.: "BR you are the cutest little brother in the whole world!"

BR: "And my cheeks are the softest in the whole world and very kissable."

_____

L.: "I am the stupidest person in the whole world."

BR: "At least you have the courage to admit it."

no cowboy boots or hat, but...

...about ten days ago we did buy a pickup.  It's a 14 year-old Ford F150 with a manual transmission that drives just as well as you might expect a vehicle of its kind to drive (remember Dan's van in 1997, Kit?).  

Then Jer and I each drove a vehicle into the Big City for the weekend.  He had to fly out to Chicago for his very last Board Exam (last one, woohoo!) and I had to get out of Radiator Springs and also pick up a dining set. 

 A. documented our trip into town. 



we raced Daddy and BR on the way there (no we didn't)



we passed Casa on the way (tee hee)

I loaded up the truck and headed home.  (wow, typing that was so much easier than doing it.)





tada! no more feeding the childrens like they are dogs!



(somewhat ironically, the table and chairs were made in India)



There is another benefit of owning a pickup that we had not foreseen:

the bed provides not only a new place to play but a stage for impromptu street performances!

eh, what's up doc?

(btw, the orange eyeball cut-out on the wall is part of our tradition of putting up paper Halloween decor.  But we had to take down the "I keel you" sign on the front door that L. had hung there.  Creepy pumpkins, yes.  Death threats, no.)

he is learning

BR started preschool.  He goes for less than three hours on weekdays but he is learning a LOT.  He is learning to write his own name and he also is learning to draw (photos to come).  The other day I was commenting about how he is the first of the kids to attend preschool and how well he is doing and blah blah and L. was quick to explain: "We didn't go to preschool because we are smart."

Well, he might not know what some seven year-olds know, but he does love to learn and to share what he has learned. "Mommy, did you know that Santa lives up Papa's nose?"  (Ok so he didn't actually learn that one at school.  He swears that Grandpa Tom told him that while at the beach reunion.)
Me: "Wait, do you think it's called the 'Nose Pole'?"
Him (with a look of utter disdain): "Of COURSE not."

He's got plenty of questions, too.  Like, "Why are pickup trucks so famous?" 
Me:  "Uh, what do you think 'famous' means?"
Him: "That people like it alot."
Me: "Ok. So people like trucks because they are useful.  You can carry lots of heavy loads--"
Him, interrupting: "Oh I know.  It's because they can carry lions and monsters and stuff."

He even knows how to find out the answers to questions you might not know.
Him: "Mommy, where's that weird noise in the kitchen coming from?"
Me: "Uhh...I don't know.  But I can probably figure it out."
Him: "That's okay, just google it."

In other news, he has also been taking a martial arts class.  It meets three times a week and he LOVES it.*  He's not too bad, either, and the other kids seem a little, uh, timid about being paired with him during the sparring sessions.  He's really into it, we'll just say that. 

he earned his belt last week finally and there was a little ceremony when they handed it over.  It was darling, but don't tell him that.  (Tell him he looked tough and awesome.)

Anyway. He loves martial arts and he loves school and between those two, and having a stable place to live at last, he seems to have (finally, finally) grown out of those exceedingly terrible threes (during which he did in fact pretend to be not-so-smart). 

We are very proud. 





* sidenote: the class is held in a rollerskating rink straight from 1987.  It's totally rad.

so much for MY post

The time I had planned to spend writing up a new post is now gone.  I spent all of it laughing my way through a new blog I just discovered (thanks, Maria!).  I especially liked her series on life before-and-after parenting: like this one on waiting alone in waiting rooms. 

Tee hee.

Fall is Fun! (a poem written by L.)

Fall is fun and Summer is done.

Kids outside play football,

Tired trees rest on the wall.

Children jump in the leaves;

Leaves fall off the trees.

Everybody thinks of Halloween,

That is our only dream!

(We also like ice cream.)

We can’t wait to go on skates

As we peer through the drapes

(waiting for snow.)

more poems over at Kris'!

arf

Wild West Day

It's our mayor, playing sheriff for the day.  He's throwing
tomatoes onto the taco from up high in a cherry picker

we got to eat some of the largest taco for lunch!

Billy the Kid

"oh, Mommy, can you buy me some?"

hand-me-downs from P-roc

the girls decided to dress up in BR's pjs one night

look, we have friends!

labor day picnic:



And here's another really fabulous thing: many of us live within walking distance of each other!  We see each other as we walk by on the way to school, on our way downtown to the library or farmer's market...

look at our cute little tiny farmer's market!

...we trade babysitting and produce from our gardens (ok, I am more on the receiving end of that one), and we try to support each other when we model at local Western Wear fashion shows (again: they model and I show up and clap).



this is Amanda.  (she has a very, very cute 8 week old baby)



L. is one of the oldest of the kids.  She keeps an eye out for the littlest ones



Some of the guys are mountain bikers so Jer is in good company. 

He signed a two-year contract at work the other day so it's official: we get to stay here. We are so happy.

an enthusiastic little scholar

A. is still firmly convinced that Kindergarten is the best thing that ever happened to her.  When I go in to wake her in the morning, she leaps out of bed and rushes to get dressed, no matter how sleepy she may be.

We learned today that a spot just opened up for BR for the morning Preschool class.  A. decided it was her job to prep him for his new life as a student.  She sat him down, crosslegged on the bed across from her, then she held up some cut-outs one by one and drilled him on his shapes and colors.  When he lost interest, I overheard her soothing teacher-voice: "Caa-alm and Qui-et."  It didn't work, so she tried again: "Give me five.  (That's when everyone is supposed to hold up their hand and pay attention.)" She carried on with the shapes identification lesson, and then: "It's called a 'trapezoid.'  That can be your Amazing Word, BR!"

At one point later in their conversation, I had to interrupt: "BR, if you say 'poop' one more time I am going to have to give you a consequence."

A.: "Mommy!  You just said 'I am!'  Those are my sight words this week!"

she got to be "Line Leader" one day

the rule is, the rest of the class has to sketch the Line Leader, so A. came back with about 20 of these.