Capturing the Days

Today's Funnies

2012-02-03T12:49:00.002-05:00

Casey coughs. She says, "Jack do you want some of my germs?"

Jack says, "No thanks, I'm fine with the ones I have."

"Whose do you have?", Casey asks.

Jack responds, "I got these from Nana."

Just a matter of fact conversation on the way home from school today...like germs are clothes or something. I don't usually give a lot of thought to germs and they don't come up in normal conversations but when the kids are sick I mention them and tell them they should try not to share them. Now Jack is very aware of Casey's germs and he tries to stay away from them as much as possible. She lavishes them on him anyway :)

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Casey got a tiny little porcelain doll from the treasure chest at school today. (She loves Fridays at school.) While we were at Subway for lunch she said, "This is a Russian doll." I asked her what she meant and she just keeps calling it the Russian doll. Jack claims that an episode of Dora showed the Russian dolls that nest inside each other. I'm not sure how Casey connected the two or if she even did. But the Russian doll is hanging out with the princess royalty at the castle now and I think she's enjoying her new home.

Toy Cabinet Organization

2012-02-01T20:26:00.001-05:00

What follows is the long saga of what I thought would be a simple and quick home improvement project. But I'm proud that I did it all myself.

When we moved into our house, we had built in bookshelves and cabinets installed to either side of the fireplace. They cabinets in the bottom have always been a great place to store a lot of the toys. They each have a cabinet. I've gone through several different ways of organizing things but in the last few months, I decided they needed a shelf to utilize a little more of the vertical space.

I figured I could probably tackle this project myself and some day around New Year's I went to Lowe's and picked out my shelving and had the nice man cut the pieces to my measurements.

The first problem is that the 1x10 boards that I purchased were not really 10 inches wide. More like 9. But I had the ledger boards for support cut to 10 inches. They were an inch too long and I didn't want them sticking out from under the shelf.

Also the shelves were just a bit too snug when I fit them in the cabinet. I did a bunch of sanding and fitting and refitting until I thought they were good. Then I put some satin finish polyurethane on my shelves.

The ledger boards sat there for quite a while, staring at me, waiting for me to find a solution for them. I was hoping I might see my neighbor out who could just take an inch off with his saw really quickly. No luck.

It took a couple weeks but it finally hit me that the simplest thing to do was to go back to Lowe's and just buy another $2.50 1x2 and have the man cut it 9 inches instead of 10. Oh, except this nice guy informed me that they can't do cuts less than 12 inches. That other guy must have been breaking the rules for me.

Plan B - I bought a miter box and saw. I came home and hacked that 1 inch off those 4 ledger boards in about 10 minutes. Kind of proud of myself but it cost more to buy the miter box & saw than it did to just buy a new piece of wood.

But then it got cold and I didn't feel like adding the polyurethane to my ledger boards. For a couple weeks.

It warmed up and I finally finished the polyurethane part. Time to screw those ledger boards in and set up my shelves.

Except I guess the poly added a little too much width back to my shelves and they were too tight again. Or I never sanded them enough in the first place.

I got the circular saw out. Told the kids to cover their ears. Made some horrible cuts...one was very crooked and the other I wasn't holding the saw level and the blade didn't go through the wood all the way so I finished it with the hacksaw. Jack asked me why it smelled like things were burning. I got a little short with him.

They were ugly, which was kind of a disappointment. But then I put them in the cabinets. They fit and no one can see how ugly they are. Case closed. Or cabinet closed. Or project finished. The end.

Pictures...

This is Casey's cabinet beforehand. Not too bad. I bought a bunch of $1 shoe containers just after Christmas to organize all her little things...dolls clothes, doll accessories, princess shoes, etc.

But she also had this bin full of (mostly naked) dolls that didn't fit in the cabinet.

The after - It fits a lot more stuff in there. It bothers me a little that the shelf is slightly too narrow for the four shoeboxes to fit perfectly across. I can't really make the cabinet wider though. Although maybe dollar store has slightly narrower boxes.

Jack's cabinet wasn't really in need of the extra space. It basically looked like this but without the shelf. But now it looks nicer.

And another Aha! moment. These cute little license plates have been floating around inside the cabinets for years. Why did I just figure out that I should stick them on the cabinet doors now? But I'm glad it hit me and I like it!

Thus ends the long saga of my shelving project. It really only took a couple hours of total time, but I managed to spread it out over a month or so and add some obstacles to make it more exciting. And I'm very happy with the final results.

A Winter Trip to the Zoo

2012-01-31T20:21:00.000-05:00

Last week, there was a nice warm afternoon and I asked the kids what they wanted to do. I expected to hear "Play outside" or "Play hockey" but Jack suggested going to the zoo. I was tired and I knew that if I hung around the house nothing would get done anyway, so going to the zoo sounded like a great idea...a real excuse for getting nothing done.

Before we could get out the door, I had to make Jack eat lunch. While I was doing that, I got a phone call from a high school friend. As we were chatting, Jack and Casey were doing their own type of chatting that was more like bickering. Jack was slowing eating his lunch while Casey had already devoured hers. It was taking Jack a while to eat because he kept getting out of his chair to growl at Casey who was (innocently, I'm sure) playing with her baby. She started crying and said, "Jack's trying to eat my baby." And so the next thing that comes out of my mouth (as I'm still on the phone) is, "Jack is not going to eat your baby!" I'm sure it's a rational fear every girl has of her growling brother.

At that point, I was second guessing whether I wanted to take these squabbling kids to the zoo. I didn't want to bring any strollers and Casey was already whining about that. But I finally ushered them to the car with water bottles and snacks and off we went.

It turned out to be so great. They took turns picking which part of the park they wanted to go to next. There were a lot of animals out and about. There was no fighting. They both walked the whole time and there wasn't a single complaint. It was just one of those afternoons where I truly enjoyed spending time with my kids and seeing the zoo from their point of view.

We also saw giraffes trying to mate...can't really top that. Well, actually the male giraffe desperately wanted to top that but she was playing hard to get. At least that prevented anything more than a male anatomy discussion.

I wish I'd had my good camera with me, but the phone pics aren't that bad. Snakes, new red shoes (accidental picture), sibling love, several wooden cutouts to stick your head in and more sibling love. On a sixty degree day in the middle of January. Mating giraffes. What's not to love? (Except I have no pictures of mating giraffes...I was too distracted to take pics I guess.)

Funny Summer Memories

2012-01-19T19:39:00.001-05:00

Last week, we were driving somewhere and it was dark. I don't even remember where we were going but we really don't leave the house much after dark so it made Casey comment about all the pretty lights. She wanted to know if there were pretty lights all over the world like this. I told her there aren't this many streetlights all over the world...places like where Grammie & Grampie live in Maine don't have many lights.

This developed into a conversation about the fact that there aren't many houses by Grammie & Grampie's house because the two buildings on either side of their house are not houses. One is my dad's extra garage. It used to be a fire station and it is still fire station red. Jack wanted to know why there were desks and chairs in the upstairs of the fire station and I told him that it used to be a school house before that. They were kind of fascinated by that for a minute or two and then backtracked a little bit.

Jack said, "There was a fire station when we went to that nut party." What? Nut party? I had no idea what he was talking about but I hoped I hadn't missed out on a fun-sounding party. A nut party and a fire station? After I composed myself I asked him what he was talking about. "You know, that one at the school where we used peanuts and then we got to pick out prizes at the end?"

Ohhh. It made sense to me at that point. It was called the Peanut Fair and it is part of the International Festival when we visit Maine in the summers. We pay a couple dollars for a bag of peanuts and the kids go around and pay a peanut for each game they want to play. After they play the game they get a coin or two and at the end they "buy" prizes with their coins. It's a pretty fun time for the kids.

And yet there is no fire station near across the street from the elementary school where the Peanut Fair was held. There is a big garage across the street that kind of looks like a fire station. And that just makes me marvel at Jack's memory. The fact that he remembered some random building in Maine that looked like a fire station to him and then brought it up six months later.

And because I didn't post any pictures of the peanut fair this summer, I might as well do it now.

Lego City

2012-01-18T20:21:00.000-05:00

I may have mentioned that we have a few Legos lying around the house (here). Christmas added a few items to the collection and I was getting tired of all the houses, spaceships, starfighters, ninjas and pizza shops sitting on the built-in bookshelves. It added a cluttered feel to the living room. When they were all lined up neatly it didn't look too bad, but when I moved them all off the shelf during Christmas decorating I realized how much better it looks without them.

I decided that the kids needed a Lego table. They were setting up cities in the middle of the living room floor and it was getting dangerous to walk into the living room in bare feet. I've probably already invested more time thinking about, planning and executing my Lego storage solutions than most people but I did some more internet research and thinking about the best way to make a Lego table.

All my plans revolved around some surface onto which I could glue a bunch of Lego base boards. I have an extra coffee table but I decided that wasn't big enough. I thought about buying an unfinished table top at Lowe's and gluing the boards on that. It could be shoved under Jack's bed to move it out of the way or it could just be placed on top of an existing table. I looked into buying a used (bigger) coffee table on Craigs List. I thought about gluing boards onto their train table too. I searched Pinterest for "lego table" and saw all kinds of cute solutions.

I thought about all this for a good week. Then the Legos all over the living room got to me one day and I tentatively asked, "Do you guys want to turn your train table into a Lego table instead?" It was an enthusiastic response from both of them and we got to work. Actually, I got to work and they got to playing.

The train table is upstairs in our playroom and it's not really used all that often as a playroom. I was somewhat afraid that if I put all the Legos up there, they wouldn't play with them. But I reminded myself that we could always move them back downstairs if that was the case. Nothing was permanent.

The best part about this train table is that we bought it for $25 off Craigs List 2 1/2 years ago and that's a bargain for a train table that's held up as well as it has. Now that it is living it's second life as a Lego table it makes it even more of a bargain. I think Pat is no longer cursing me for sending him 30 minutes away to the "country" to buy it.

The original owners of the train table told us that train table had two sides to the top surface but that the one with roads, water and land was a little beat up. We've had it on the plain green side since we've owned it. We decided to flip the boards back over and the kids immediately arranged their buildings and space centers and cars within their new city.

It's been almost two weeks since we created our own Lego City up their and the kids have loved playing up there. Of course it requires that I spend a little more time up there too but that's actually been good for our laundry since the laundry room is beside the playroom. I fold and they do city things.

Oh, and it turns out it's totally not necessary to glue any Lego base boards down onto the table. Their bigger sets already come with bases and they enjoy just having a flat surface on which to drive the their cars.

There is also a big bookshelf in the playroom and it has more than enough storage for the sets that are rotating out of "city" duty, the Star Wars Legos that occasionally attack the city, their extra blocks and instructions.

So, here are some pictures...

Minutes after I put all these boxes back on the shelf the kids had pulled them out to create something else. I looked around the room that night and said, "Wow, this place is a disaster. We need to clean it up." Jack said, "No it's not...it's the Lego room! It's supposed to be like this."

They are both really happy up there. Jack continues to amaze me with how well he can follow the directions to put things together and his creativity in designing his own structures. Today he created his own castle complete with a drawbridge. Sometimes Jack likes to brag a little bit about how great he is at following the directions and how he can put anything together, but I put him in his place by reminding him that I am the only one who can put that X-wing back together when it falls apart again after 3 seconds of play. ;)

Casey is also starting to create her own structures and a few days ago she put something together all by herself by following the directions. I was very impressed.

Hopefully the newness doesn't wear off anytime soon, but I think this playroom will get a lot of use for the last few months that we have left in this house before our next move. (It has a future life as a man-cave for Pat, but that is years down the road when we return.)

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-04T20:28:00.001-05:00

Once again, I woke first on Christmas morning. I was pretty thankful that Jack and Casey weren't up at the crazy hour of 4:45am like they were the weekend before in Ocean City. They woke up around 6:45. After that it was pure torture for Jack to wait for Daddy to check and see if Santa came and for Auntie and Wally to show up even though it was only a few minutes. In the days preceding Christmas he kept asking if Daddy really needed to make sure Santa came...couldn't he just go downstairs and see everything himself?

Jack's big present from Santa was a rod hockey game and Casey's was a princess castle. They both loved these gifts and if you ask them what their favorite present is, they'll say hockey game and castle. These gifts were both Daddy Santa's ideas and then there were several other gifts that Mommy Santa procured. I probably put a little too much thought into all these gifts, but I like to get something that they want, something they've never even thought about but that I'm sure they'll like and a game.

Casey spent the morning playing with her princess castle, dressing her paper dolls from Auntie Mary, playing the flute, pushing her babies around in her new double stroller from Auntie Jenn and watching me build her Lego bus and pizza place from Grampie & Grammie. She dressed in her new grey polka dot tutu skirt and a pretty princess shirt.

Jack challenged anyone and everyone to a game of rod hockey while wearing his prison-suit-orange Flyers sweatsuit and his Flyers jersey. He set Pat to work building his Lego jet plane and later his Lego Space Shuttle Launching Station from Grampie & Grammie. He also spent a lot of time with his Action Agent Spy Train and Battleship. Auntie got him some Legos from Cars 2 and Jack intently put all those together himself. (Yes, the house is being taken over by Legos.)

I kind of just wanted to sit and play with the toys, or at least just sit, all afternoon, but Jenn and I got to work preparing our Christmas feast - pancetta wrapped beef tenderloin, delmonico potatoes, green beans and honey glazed carrots. It was all delicious but whatever I make next year is going to be super simple so I can just sit and relax on Christmas day. Oh and I tried a cranberry cream pie that was a big failure...most likely due to my attempt to substitute some flavored jello for a packet of plain gelatin. It tasted all right but it never set and was more of a cranberry cream soup.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas shopping was helping the kids pick out gifts for each other. Casey got Jack a Boba Fett helmet (Star Wars character) and a Lightning McQueen color changer. Jack got Casey her very own nerf gun and some Hello Kitty Legos. Just before bedtime, there was an intense Star Wars battle throughout the house. Casey was Princess Leia which she ~~mentioned~~ YELLED a few dozen times. Jack was Boba Fett and Daddy and Auntie were taking aim at anyone that moved with their nerf guns. It was a good way to work off the pie (and the dinner)!

It was really a great Christmas. The kids were both really excited and they still like and play with everything they received. Plus, it was awesome to have both my parents and my sister and her fiancee here to watch it all unfold.

We also got this great family picture and somehow even Tugger is looking at the camera and smiling!

The Christmas Play

2012-01-03T20:18:00.000-05:00

Everyone else in blog land is talking about their new year's goals and resolutions but since I'm a slacker and haven't written much here since before Christmas, I'm going to back up a little bit and write about Christmas. Maybe I'll get to writing down some of my goals for 2012 on another post.

One of my favorite parts about Christmas and what I was most excited about was the Christmas play in which Jack and Casey sang. Practice started for this play during the last few weeks of summer vacation. It was called drama camp and a couple mornings a week, I dropped the kids off at church for 2 hours. I didn't realize at first that I could just drop them off so it was an unexpected, very pleasant surprise when I realized I had a couple hours to myself. I think I spent them all at Walmart though, preparing for the hurricane.

Starting in November there were practices between the masses on Sunday mornings and practices on Wednesday nights and then some big ones on a couple of Saturday mornings. At first I didn't understand the play. It wasn't the traditional Christmas story that I expected. It was about a group of kids practicing for their Christmas play and they were a little rebellious and didn't want to play the traditional roles of shepherds, sheep and snowflakes. (Although I didn't realize there were a lot of snowflakes in the Christmas story.) They all wanted to be Christmas presents. Eventually it gets sorted out and the true gift of Christmas is all the children and people.

As I watched all these practices and saw the play coming together, I really started to like it. It was a very cute play and all the kids worked so hard. Even when Jack and Casey were sick for the beginning of December, they still practiced singing their song. By the end of all these practices, they knew all of the parts of the play. They can sing (and still do even weeks after) all of the other parts. There were days when the songs were stuck in my head all day.

So, the play was at 3:30pm on Christmas Eve before the 4pm mass. My main goal was to get there early enough to get a good seat to see the kids perform. Last year, we got to church at 3:15 for the 4pm mass and were seated in the lobby so I knew it had to be earlier than that. I talked to the music director and she suggested being there by 2:45 to get parking even though the kids didn't need to get there until 3 for practice. So we got there at 2:40...the parking lot was pretty empty and we got second row seats.

And then I endured wise-cracks, jokes, and sarcastic comments galore about how early we were at church, mostly from my husband. I expected it, especially after we were early for a light show the previous weekend, and I didn't care because I just wanted a good seat to see my kids sing their hearts out in the Christmas show!

The play was really great and the kids were so good and I was so proud of them. Jack sang and did all his choreography and didn't even look too afraid. And Casey was a ham every time she saw us watching her or taking pictures. Hearing the whole church full of people clapping for them was really nice. They all got a great round of applause for delivering a beautiful Christmas play.

Walking around bit before the show

Watching the other group sing and getting ready for their part

Jack in the show

Snowflake Casey

Not a great picture but I love the expression I captured on Casey as she was being a ham!

Casey's Christmas hair bling

Casey pretending to be asleep while they placed a bow on her to turn her into a present.

The Pre-Christmas Plague

2011-12-15T20:10:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, the first three weeks of the Christmas season were a haze of changing sheets and scrubbing carpets in the middle of the night and tending to sick kids all day. I was going to write a post with the stats of this illness the kids had but I didn't have the energy to figure that out. I washed the sheets so many times that I ran out of laundry detergent (which never happens here). I ran out of carpet cleaner and but they still look like they need some professional help. My hands were raw from washing them and scrubbing things. I didn't make dinner for two weeks unless it was pasta or a frozen pizza and I didn't go to the grocery store unless it was for Vitamin Water or popsicles or bananas.

I'm so glad it's over. It was a little bit of a roller coaster. At first I didn't think Casey was going to get it or at least she got a milder version. Then she's throwing up all night. As soon as I thought Jack was better and sent him to school, he was throwing up again and soiling his sheets in the middle of the night. I still cringe when he tells me his belly feels funny even though I'm sure it's from the massive amounts of food I'm feeding him. He lost a little weight but I think he's more than making up for it this week. He's finally eating like I heard boys eat!

We missed a lot of things in the last few weeks - school field trips and birthday parties and holiday parties and church practice. But now everyone is doing well and we're getting really excited for Christmas! I'm so glad I got most of my shopping done early or was able to buy online. We're counting down the days (we have 4 countdown calendars) and I think I might get through this without being too frantic about the things I have left to do. The silver lining of spending so much time at home is that I got to sit down and watch a lot of Christmas shows with the kids and that was kind of fun and brought back good memories. The kids are really into Christmas specials now!

Despite being pretty sick kids, the highlight of each morning was coming downstairs to open their Lego Advent calendar. Each day they pull open a box and there is a Lego figure or car or spaceship they can build. Jack has a Lego Star Wars calendar and Casey's is a Lego City calendar. Jack is already excited about next year.

Here are a few pictures of the first day...

My Favorite Christmas Present

2011-12-04T19:10:00.001-05:00

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went out to dinner with Pat's parents before they left town. We went to Pat and the kids' favorite restaurant which attached to the mall. We go there quite often and then we usually stop by the pet store after dinne to look at all the animals. This time, Nana took the kids into the dollar store as well. Casey desperately needed some pencils I think. And then I guess they decided to do a little Christmas shopping. Both Jack and Casey came out of the store with a bag and a Christmas present they picked out for me.

The first thing Jack wanted to do on Sunday as we were starting our Christmas decorating was to wrap his present. I got all the wrapping paper out for him, tape and scissors and told him to have at it. After a little bit of time he asked if he could use some tissue paper instead because he decided it would be easier to put it in a bag.

After it was in there, I asked if he had labeled it. He got a piece of paper and wrote out his from and to lines. Then he asked me if that was a sentence. I told him it was just a label and he wanted to know what a label was. There was a wine bottle nearby so I tried to explain it with a wine label. I think he was satisfied because he was quiet for a little longer.

Then he showed me his bag and he was very proud of it, even if he isn't smiling in the picture:

He wanted to make sure it had a sentence, so he wrote "You wil like it." And I believe I shall because that is the cutest tag on a present ever and I already like it! Although I'm pretty curious about what's in the bag but that will have to wait a few more days. 21 actually, according to our 4 countdown calendars.

Christmas Decorating

2011-12-01T21:03:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, we started our Christmas decorating. Pat pulled all the boxes out of the attic and brought them downstairs. The kids pulled everything out of the boxes, set them on whatever surface they could find and left the boxes strewn around. I attempted to make our fake Christmas tree presentable by using zip ties to hold branches in place. Casey and Jack asked when they could decorate the tree and where the ornaments were about 45 times. We strung the garland and then it was finally time to decorate!

Actually it was a pretty fun afternoon. I liked that I could let them pull everything out of boxes and not worry about them breaking things (too much.) I loved their excitement. I loved watching them find all their ornaments and remembering when they got them. I love how quickly they decorate a tree. I even love their clumps of ornaments on the tree.

The afternoon's pictures:

Casey never shies from an opportunity to pose.

Jack waits patiently so he can put the first present under the tree.

Casey helps Daddy under the tree. He's turning it to hide the bad spots. Yes, our fake tree has bad spots.

More smiling and posing.

Pulling all the ornaments out and "staging" them for tree decorating.

Casey's clump of special ornaments.

Casey's favorite Cinderella ornament that's lost its wheels from rough handling over the past two years. She kept asking who broke it and denied that she would have done that when we told her she did it.

Jack hanging an ornament.

Jack's turn to put the angel on the tree.

Jack as a human crane.

Almost there.

Casey makes sure the angel looks good.

Casey's Turkey Party

2011-11-23T20:16:00.001-05:00

Today was Casey's Thanksgiving party at school today and Jack's was last Friday. I thought it was nice that they were on different days so I wouldn't have to run back and forth between their parties. Unfortunately, Jack didn't feel well today so he didn't go to school and I couldn't make it to Casey's party. I made a turkey though...a fruit turkey. It looked mostly like this:

Minus the peppers and most of the cheese. It turns out the cheese wants to fall apart when I try to put it on skewers. I also didn't like that you slide the cheese on and then the next set of grapes has to slide through the bits of leftover cheese on the stick. So I made a few with cheese and the rest were just grapes. I should have taken a picture, but you can trust that she was an impressive bird. I scattered the rest of the cheese around the bottom.

When I picked Casey up from school, the cheese was all gone and most of the feathers were still there. I guess it was more of a decorative turkey. Although as I was making it, I questioned whether it was wise to give 3 year olds pointed sticks as part of their snack. I decided an adult could just de-skewer if necessary.

Also while I was making it, Jack was hanging out in the living room and piped up with, "Casey, would love that Mommy!" I thought he was impressed with my fruit turkey making skills. It turns out he was watching a commercial with a 3 story princess dollhouse for the Barbie sized princesses. It's exactly the castle that Pat thought should would love but I may have called it gaudy. It was too plastic-y and purple and pink and fake looking for me. Luckily we've found a compromise castle that maintains the princess part and tones it down a little.

Anyway, back to the party...or the after party...

Casey came home with a couple baggies with the food that I guess she didn't eat, including a turkey sandwich, pumpkin bread and a pumpkin/cream cheese roll. When I asked what she did eat, she said, "A grape. And some jello." A lovely Thanksgiving feast. I'm sure Squanto wishes he'd had Jello at the first Thanksgiving.

Instead of stories tonight, Casey wanted to draw pictures on her erasable sketch pad. She asked me to draw a cornucopia which was pretty funny coming from a three year old. When I asked her to draw a turkey, she started drawing and chatting to herself - "Here's an eye. Here's another eye. This is a grape. This is a piece of cheese. There...it's a turkey! Oh, wait, it needs a wattle." I think she's got her turkey nomenclature a little confused. But hey, she knows what a wattle and a cornucopia are.

Casey is also very excited about the real turkey tomorrow. I just hope she doesn't think it will have grapes on it.

Daddy Date Night

2011-11-15T21:15:00.001-05:00

Last week, Casey went out on a date with Daddy to see the Broadway Production of Beauty and the Beast. Pat called her during the day and told her that if she took a nap, he would take her out on a date. I've never seen her run upstairs and hop into bed so fast!

She was so excited to go out on her date and she had a great time with Daddy. Apparently they were a little early for the show so they went through the car wash. It was one of the highlights of her evening. Other things that she was excited about were the M&Ms she got at intermission and the very special "bottled water." She also liked the show :)

Jack and I also got to do something a little special...we went over to our neighbors house to watch a new movie she had gotten for her birthday. Jack was also enamored with the bottle of water he received. We rarely have bottled water from the store around here so I guess it's a big treat to my kids.

Here are a few pictures from the night...I think you can see how excited Casey was just by looking at her.

The End of an Era

2011-11-12T08:32:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we took this poster down in Jack's room. It's kind of a sad day for me...the end of the Elmo era. Elmo has been living on Jack's closet door since we moved into this house 3 years ago but he's been around for longer than that.

It's been coming for a while. Jack no longer wants to sleep with his super big Elmo that he got when he was 1 1/2. He doesn't even want to play with him. Earlier in the year he gave Casey his very first Elmo, his baby Elmo that he slept with on and off since he was born.

The first video that Jack ever watched was an Elmo video. I had never seen Elmo's World before but I remember after he watched the 3 episodes from his video over and over, I finally realized that they were all the same format.

We had tickets to Elmo Live and it was scheduled very close to my due date. Just two tickets...I figured only Jack and Daddy would go. I thought I was going into labor on Friday night, the day before the show. I think I willed Casey to stay inside until Jack could get to his Elmo show. I so wanted him to be able to go see Elmo. It was his first show and he had a great time with his Daddy. And then he got to meet his new sister the next day.

Elmo was the first Halloween costume that Jack got to help pick out.

But yesterday we took down the Elmo poster and replaced it with a Star Wars poster. I think the only hold-over is that sometimes Jack still talks like Elmo, in the 3rd person. It used to bother me, but now it will probably be a little bittersweet as I remember how much we used to live in Elmo's World and now we don't.

So goodbye Elmo. Thanks for the great memories!

Soccer Season

2011-11-10T21:07:00.001-05:00

Jack's first soccer season has come and gone and I didn't document it very well. I think even the poor quality of the pictures I took is evident of my lack of excitement about it all. Jack, on the other hand, had a great time.

Jack loved putting on his shin pads and his cleats. I can't tell you how many times I had to tie his soccer shoes so he could go out back and practice or how many nights he waited for Daddy to get home to practice with him. Casey would run out and be the cheerleader.

He also loved his team practice before the game...especially when they got to play "Kick the Coach." He loved the games. He ran around and had a great time. He spent most of the first game getting comfortable and then the second game he figured it out and scored his first goal. He is pretty good at figuring out where the ball is going to be and trying to get there, although when there is a gaggle of kids all chasing the ball, it's not all that predictable.

We missed one game a couple weeks ago when we went to Ocean City for the weekend. We had planned to go to his game and then get on the road. The forecast was for rain so they moved the game indoors and it wasn't until 11am. I told Jack his game was cancelled and that we would just go to Ocean City after breakfast. This caused Jack a little concern.

"What about the gym Mommy? I thought they would have it in the gym if it was raining. Remember when we had it in the gym that time? I wonder if there is something wrong with the gym. Maybe there's a leak in the gym and the rain is getting in there. Mommy, do you think there's a leak in the gym? Is that why we're not playing the game? They'll have to get some workers to fix the roof. I wonder if there's another gym we can go to."

Okay, okay, okay! I had to tell the poor boy the truth and tell him that his game was in fact scheduled for the gym and that it was just too late for us to go to his game and Ocean City. I didn't want him having nightmares about the poor gym and it's leaking roof.

Our last game was last week and Jack scored two goals. He was very excited about it and did a great job in the game. The kids all got medals at the end of the game. Jack was sad to see it end but as I mentioned recently, he's already moved on to roller blading and hockey!

A New Hockey Friend

2011-11-08T20:16:00.001-05:00

Now that Jack has mastered his bike, I guess it's time to move on to something new! Pat bought him roller blades on Sunday and he is doing pretty well with them.

A few weeks ago, Jack started playing street hockey with C, the boy next door. He is 8 and just started in a hockey program at the local ice rink not too long ago. One day he saw Jack out with his net and hockey stick and they have been playing street hockey since then. C upped the ante last week though when he came out in roller blades. I think Jack started asking for them after that, but it's also possible that Pat may have been the one to suggest it to Jack.

Jack calls C his "hockey best friend." I heard him saying that across the cul-de-sac last week when they were trying to divide up into teams when there was a group of kids out that day. Jack said, "I'm going to be on C's team because he's my hockey best friend." He doesn't quite get that the two kids who play a lot of hockey probably should be on separate teams to make it even!

It's been cute to watch Jack's friendship blossom with C. C came over last week to tell us when his next hockey game was in case we could get to it. Then at church C came out in the aisle to wave to us, or Jack really. After practice for the Christmas program, Jack walked out with C and then told me, "C and I were talking about when we're going to play hockey next." It sounded so grown up - Jack was making plans with someone and I wasn't needed.

This weekend, I let Jack go out in the cul-de-sac by himself and play with C all afternoon. I kept an eye on them out the window. They played hockey and then moved on to baseball and then Jack came in to get the pool noodle lightsabers and they had a pretty epic battle out there. This is exactly the kind of neighborhood relationships I hoped my kids would make some day. I want them to be able to be outside playing with all the other kids.

Jack now spends his afternoons asking me when C will be home so they can play hockey. Today the poor kid waited 5 hours. He was in his roller blades the whole time. Occasionally he would skate around a little bit or play with Casey. But mostly he sat on the curb, waiting. Then C had to do his homework when he got home and finally...finally, he came out to play. The sad part is after all that waiting they only had about 30 minutes before it got dark. I think they made the most of it though.

Tugger Update

2011-11-02T20:20:00.000-04:00

Did I mention that Tugger only has three legs now? Actually, I know I haven't, but I've been thinking about this post for a while. Then I would remember that I don't have any good pictures of her and I would put it off. But today I got some nice pictures of her on a beautiful fall day.

About a year ago, Tugger started limping one weekend when Pat's brother was visiting. It was only for a weekend and we thought she got a little too excited and hurt herself. Then her limp came back and her "knee" joint on her left front leg started to look swollen. We visited with our veterinarian every two weeks for a while and finally took an x-ray. He recommended we visit an orthopedic surgeon and gave us two to check out.

We went to one surgeon and decided he wasn't the one for us. The other surgeon was further away but we finally visited him. He was pretty sure it was a localized cancer and that about the only solution would be to remove the leg. I was pretty shocked by this...it hadn't really crossed my mind that she was going to lose the leg. I thought he would be able to just remove the tumor but it was eating into the bone and there was no way to take just the tumor.

So, we scheduled the surgery and Tugger officially became a tripod in March. From the time of our initial visit to the vet until the surgery, Tugger's ability to use the leg had become less and less. She was basically hopping around without using it and it was obvious she was in pain if she had to use the leg.

Intently watching the neighbor take down Halloween decorations

The first week post surgery was a little more difficult than I expected. We were trying to keep her quiet and keep her from licking the incision site and fluid was still seeping out of the site. It seemed like it would take forever to heal. Tugger didn't really have any problems getting around but every time she moved she would start leaking fluid. She spent most of the time in the crate and we spent a lot of time saying, "No licking, Tugger." Luckily she couldn't reach all of the incision and would just lick around the edge of it a bit. I tried getting her a cone but when she had it on, she was too active in trying to get it off and she wouldn't settle down. It was easier for her to just stay in her crate and she didn't lick much while she was in there.

After two weeks, the incision was healed and Tugger was getting around fine! She had her energy back and was ready to get out for some walks. It is amazing how well she got around with her three legs. Even after only two weeks, if you saw her from her good side, you wouldn't even know she was missing a leg.

8 months after the surgery, Tugger and I now go for runs together, she has been swimming and she has most of her endurance back from before she started to get sick. Sometimes people will stare at us and I will wonder what they are looking at until I remember that I have a dog with three legs. Other times people will see Tugger and not even notice she's missing a leg until some time has passed and then they'll do a double-take.

I took the picture above not too long after her surgery. I thought it was kind of strangely funny that it looked like she also lost her head. But she didn't...it's just under the bed.

Tugger has only escaped the house without a leash one time since she got sick. She ran around for a minute and then she actually came right back to me. Phew! Hopefully this means there will be no more chases around the neighborhood or calls to animal control. Although it made for an entertaining story, I'd prefer not to do it again. On the other hand, she has gotten so sneaky about trying to get food off the counter. I have to make sure that I have things up on the high portion of the counter or shoved all the way into a corner where she can't reach! She gets right up on her back legs with her front paw on the counter to see what she can get.

Halloween Pictures with Mommy

2011-10-31T21:02:00.000-04:00

Preschool Halloween parties, pumpkin carving and a huge bag of candy equals a pretty successful Halloween. Honestly, I can't believe the amount of candy the kids collected. Pat still thinks he's the one trick or treating and I think he was looking for maximum candy acquisition. Either that or he likes to think of this as a little protest against all the healthy food I try to make them eat or conversations about food in which I say, "Can you even pronounce all those ingredients?"

I also wanted a nice picture with my Tinker Bell and Darth Vader. These pictures are in chronological order. As you can see, I had a little bit of a moment because Jack would not stop moving around and being silly. I told him he was not going anywhere until he stood still for a picture. Then I smiled again.

Candy Bargain

2011-10-30T21:02:00.003-04:00

I suspect that after tomorrow night, I won't hear a conversation like this. I trust that Jack will have plenty of his own candy.

Casey had some candy that Jack wanted a couple days ago and I heard him say, "Casey...Did you know candy gives you sugar bugs? All that candy is going to give you a lot of sugar bugs. Sugar bugs make your teeth rot. You don't want your teeth to rot, do you? Do you want to give that piece to me so you don't get the sugar bugs? Isn't that a good idea?"

Someone has his dad's persuasive side!

Watching Videos in the Car

2011-10-28T21:44:00.000-04:00

Ever since we've gotten our minivan, videos have been playing in the DVD player wherever we go. At times it has seemed a little ridiculous. I remember a Manic Mommies episode that I listened to where the Manic Mommies thought it was a bit much to have it on for the 5 minute ride to school. I agree. I think I heard that episode before I had the DVD system built into my car but even now I still agree. And I still have it on for the 5 minute drive to school.

I've always justified having it on by saying that my kids don't really watch that much tv at home and a little bit in the car will be fine. We usually get our videos at the library and the kids like to pick out new ones every week or two.

I've read blogs or books or articles about the how the car is a good time to talk to your kids because you have their undivided attention. That's probably true. When Jack gets in the car and there is a video on, he puts the headphones on and you've lost him. But since I'm not working and get to spend all day with my kids I don't really need their attention in the car.

In the past I've tried turning the video player off as a punishment. I thought maybe that if they got punished enough, it would wean them off the videos. But usually it was just one child who was in trouble and then I got cries of, "It's not fair!" I also didn't really use this punishment enough for any weaning to occur. Then I would forget my powerful punishment tool for awhile because I don't really have the need to discipline them a lot in the car anyway.

A few weeks ago, Pat mentioned that he is always impressed that the channel is never changed from what we left it on the night before. Meaning we haven't watched any shows (downstairs) all day. (Or we watched something that was DVRed and didn't need to change the channel...but let's just say we didn't turn the tv on. Because we really don't turn it on that much.) Pat also thought that maybe we didn't need to have the DVD player running in the car all the time. I told him I agreed but that I didn't think it was contributing to too much tv and I wasn't ready for the war that might start if we started turning it off.

Recently though, the DVD player isn't the star player anymore...it's on the bench, playing second string. It will be Jack's turn and he'll say he doesn't want anything right then. So it will be off for a few days and then he'll finally ask for something and it will go back on. On one of these days when it was off, we were driving around somewhere with the whole family in the van. At one point, Jack was talking to me, Casey was talking to me and Pat was trying to have a conversation with me. I was going crazy and I wasn't even driving. I said, "This is the reason I have the DVD player on all the time!"

Once upon a time when I was in the Navy and standing watch, I used to have headphones on with different people in each ear and people standing behind me talking to me and I could listen to it all and comprehend it and then respond to all those people. But when two of those people are saying, "Mommy...mommy, mommy...mommy!, mommy!" or whining or crying or repeating themselves it gets to me a little.

So the real reason I don't mind having the DVD player running is because the car is my quiet time! I buckle everyone in, tune the radio to what I want to hear (I'm an AM radio dork usually), pay attention to the road and where I'm going and get there without any stress. The kids watch a few minutes of a show and we're all happy when we get to our destination. Maybe I could even say the DVD player is a safety mechanism...the less I'm trying to arbitrate bickering and answering the same question over and over, the more I'm concentrating on driving. So yeah...it's a safety device. Sort of. But really, I just enjoy my quiet time!

Casey's Official Big Girl Moment

2011-10-27T20:36:00.001-04:00

She's three years old and can ride her bike without training wheels. She's potty trained. She's going to school. I think those all pretty much qualify her as a big girl. But whenever anyone looks at her and says, "You're getting so big Casey!" she tells them, "I got a new carseat!" Besides a few pairs of her shoes, I don't think she's ever been as enthusiastic about something.

It's a booster seat with a high back (that can be removed some day) and you could say it's Casey's prized possession. A couple weeks ago when Pat put her in the car seat he deemed her too big for it and said she needed a new one. Casey didn't need any convincing so we headed out to the store to get one.

She's very happy to have a little more freedom of movement with the shoulder belt instead of the five point harness. She was unbuckling the top of the old one anyway. She's also happy with the cupholders on both sides which recede into the base if she's not using them. And the best part is that she can unbuckle herself when it's time to get out although we've had a few discussions about her not pushing the eject button too early.

I think Casey has mentioned it to at least 15 people that she got a new carseat...family friends, neighbors, teachers at school. The old carseats have been relegated to the attic for now although they'll eventually be purged before we move again. It's a big change from the first three months of her life when it was more likely than not that she was going to cry for the duration of the carride!

Easy Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-26T20:47:00.001-04:00

I found an app last week from Parents Magazine for pumpkin carving. I tried it out by myself one night and "carved" a few pumpkins and then when Pat was out of town on Saturday I let the kids play with it. They love the virtual pumpkin carving and keep asking to do it over and over again. We've replaced our song time, which has really turned into YouTube time, with pumpkin carving. Jack's goal is always make the scariest pumpkins he can. Casey just enjoys playing with the iPad like she's been doing it for years. She's so funny when she scrolls around and picks out her pumpkin parts.

This is my kind of carving...no mess to clean up, no rotting pumpkins on the front porch, no sharp knives and no kids wandering away after 5 minutes leaving the parents to carve. I know a lot of people love the family pumpkin carving tradition, but so far I could do without it. I don't mind letting Pat be the lead pumpkin carver.

With this app, you can pick the color of your pumpkin and then whether you want to freehand carve or pick from the various jack-o-lantern parts that are available. The last thing to do is to pick a background. It's funny hearing Casey say, "And now I need to pick a background."

Here are some of Jack's creations:

I just realized that they're practically the same pumpkin. Jack really likes that mouth and nose. They must be the scariest. And they both feel the need to put hair on the tops of their pumpkins. In the first one it's hand carved and the next ones have a mouth that we turned into hair.

Here are some of Casey's creations:

I kind of like the homely one at the end. Or should I say hole-y one.

More Bike Riding Skills to Celebrate

2011-10-22T20:23:00.000-04:00

In less than a week of riding his bike without training wheels, Jack looked like he had been doing it for years. He was riding off curbs, going across the grass, standing up and looking like a pro. I couldn't believe how fast he picked it up and how good he got in such a short amount of time.

We have been outdoors every single day since the training wheels were left behind. Usually, our neighbor and her daughter, T, are out there too. One of my neighbors thought I had been on a vacation somewhere to get a tan but it's just been afternoons in the sun watching the kids ride their bikes.

A few days ago, another neighbor mentioned that he thought Casey would be riding without training wheels soon too. She kept trying to ride on the grass like Jack and T but the training wheels were slowing her down too much. I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said, "Someday." On the day that Jack learned, I let Casey try it out a couple times and she seemed to have no balance.

Now it's three weeks later. Casey was playing outside while I was making lunch. When I got outside, she had pulled Jack's bike out and told me she was trying to ride it. She asked if I would help her. I did, but I was thinking I was just going to hold her up again.

As soon as she got on there, I barely touched her. She went right down the driveway, circled around both cul-de-sacs and back up the driveway with me just running as close to her as I could. It blew my mind. I couldn't believe she was going to start riding her bike without training wheels at 3 years old!

Later in the afternoon, we took the training wheels off her bike and she hopped on with so much confidence and rode around the cul-de-sacs again much to everyone's amazement. 10 minutes later she was trying to ride it through the grass and keep up with the 5 year olds!

She's had her share of spills and she still needs a little help to get going. The seat is as low as it can go and she can barely touch the ground with her tippy toes. By the end of today she could stop by herself without falling most of the time. It's amazing. Between watching Jack ride without training wheels and all the riding she's been doing to keep up with him, she figured out how to keep her balance.

It's also amazing to see the differences in learning styles between Jack and Casey. I've noticed it before, but this further reinforced what I saw. Jack spent the first ten minutes without training wheels just riding up and down the driveway very carefully, making no turns and going over no bumps. When he was comfortable with that, he decided to try to turn. Then he decided he could do the bump at the end of the driveway. Casey...she jumps in head first and believes she can do it. She jumped on that bike and went straight down the driveway over the bump and started turning.

I'm very proud of both of them and their bike skills this past few weeks. But mostly I can't believe I have a 3 year old without training wheels!

2011 Pumpkin Patch Class Trip

2011-10-17T20:55:00.002-04:00

Bright and early this morning, we headed to another farm for the school pumpkin patch field trip. Casey started whimpering halfway there and told me that she didn't feel good. Eventually she asked for something for the yuckies to go in. Luckily there was a nice little bucket she had gotten at McDonald's this weekend and sure enough, she threw up into it two minutes before we reached the farm. Thankfully, it all went into the bucket and didn't make a mess. And since she had no other illness symptoms, I decided that she got carsick from all the turns and stoplights I manuevered through while trying to avoid traffic and get there on time. She was ready to go into the pumpkin patch as soon as we stopped. Since she threw up all her breakfast, she was hungry all morning but other than that, you would never know she was sick.

We started out with a hayride to the field where the pumpkins were. The kids got to pick a little pumpkin and play in the field. They had a bouncy house, a haystack slide and a teepee out there. The haystack slide was pretty neat and the kids spent most of their time on it.

Jack was a different person from last year to this year. Last year he didn't interact with any of his classmates and he clung to me. I might as well have taken them there by myself for all it felt like a class trip. This year, he found his friends and was pretty happy playing with them. He certainly wasn't concerned about where I was.

The hayride then brought us back to the main area. There were all kinds of wooden structures for the kids to climb and play on and picnic tables galore for snacking. We went into a goat pen and hung out with the goats for a bit too. It was a great area for the kids and they had a great time.

Casey liked pointing out all her classmates to me and I finally have faces to go with the names that she recites every night during snuggle time. Before everyone was about to go home, we did some class pictures. Jack's was fun with all the kids in a wooden train. And Casey's was hilarious. There were at least two temper tantrums occurring and I'm pretty sure there isn't a single picture of them all together, let alone looking at a camera. I think all you could do was laugh, but then it wasn't my child having a tantrum. She was actually sitting with a couple of the other little girls and they acted liked they had no idea there was a tantrum happening right in front of them. They were adorable.

Check your camera settings before taking what would have been a great picture!

Navy jets flying over the pumpkin patch...Jack loved it!

Kindergarten Class

Casey and the girls!

Casey and her teacher

2011 Pumpkin Patch Adventures

2011-10-16T19:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a busy day! We started with soccer pictures, soccer game and then headed to the pumpkin patch. This was our fifth annual trip to the pumpkin patch with the kids and our third to this farm, although it's set up a little differently every year.

We met up with our friend Michelle and Little J and Little P.

We started by searching for the perfect pumpkins to bring home. The farm a wheelbarrow we borrowed for our many pounds of pumpkin and the kids had fun searching and pushing the wheelbarrow. Casey was the first to find hers. But Jack was really looking for the perfect pumpkin. His standards are pretty high. It has to be taller than Casey's but still nice and round and perfectly orange. And he doesn't really want anyone else finding it for him. He wants one that he found so he can decide on its perfection.

Little J supervises as Pat cuts his pumpkin from the vine

I think we arrived at peak pumpkin picking time because there was a little bit of a wait to weigh and purchase our pumpkins. While we were waiting, the kids got to shell and jar their own popcorn with a 100 year old shelling machine. They were very serious about their work! Jack got to carry the jar and he was not interested in letting Daddy take it to the car before the hayride. We haven't tried the popcorn yet but I think that's in the plan for this week.

Our last adventure was a horse-drawn hayride. The horses were Belgian work horses and they are the strongest breed (of 128) horses in the world. It was a nice ride. Michelle stayed back with Little P and was afraid that J might be a little shy and scared on the hayride. It turns out that he was very interested in asking the driver questions and had no problem piping up with an, "Excuse me!! Why did the horses just run?" or "Excuse me!! Why do the horses have bells on them?" He was so funny and cute.

Great picture except the sun and the camera weren't getting along

It was a gorgeous day to get pumpkins and the kids are proud to see their pumpkins on the front steps. Now they're trying to figure out how to carve some sort of Star Wars picture into the pumpkins.

Tomorrow we have the school field trip...more pumpkin adventures to come!

Only Two Wheels!

2011-10-04T21:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday after school, the bickering started and the only way I could stop it was to institute some quiet time. I sent the kids to their rooms and re-arranged my kitchen cabinets in peace. Probably just when I was tossing out old and duplicate spices, I heard the kids yelling to the girl who lives across the street.

Jack asked if they could be done with quiet time (which was more separate time than quiet time) because he wanted to go out and play with T across the street. I was just about done with the cupboards so we headed out.

It turns out that T had her training wheels off and her mom was helping her ride. I asked Jack if he wanted to try it with his bike and at first he said no. Then he watched T for 2 minutes and changed his mind.

He was very cautious about it at first. He only wanted to go up and down the driveway and he didn't want to attempt any turns. We had taken the training wheels off once before and he had a tough time with the turns.

As soon as he tried it, he barely needed me to hang on to him. I think his scooter has helped him work on his balance a lot. He was scared to try a turn at first but once he was comfortable with going straight, he went into the cul-de-sac and had no problem with turning. After about 30 minutes, both he and T were riding from one cul-de-sac to the other. There were some occasional falls, but they both got up again and hopped on their bikes because they loved it so much.

Jack was really excited about it and I think he was very proud of himself. I was pretty bursting with pride too. I was pretty sure we wouldn't be putting the training wheels back on again before he even tried it, but it was great to see how happy he was with his newfound freedom.

Today he spent hours on the bike again and he didn't need my help at all. I knew he could do it but it's still amazing how quickly he picked it up.

Here is a little video from yesterday...Casey indicates a few times that she wants to see the video. She had a great time on her bike yesterday and wanted to try it without the training wheels, but settled for pretending.

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

2011-09-26T20:28:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago, Jack was trying to play cowboy and he announced, "Mommy, while we're at school tomorrow can you go to a cowboy store and get me one of those horse heads on a stick?" If I'd had food in my mouth I would have spit it out laughing. I like that he didn't ask for a toy horse, but for a "horse head on a stick."

I didn't come across any cowboy stores in my travels so he had to rein in (pun intended) his cowboy ambitions for a bit. Luckily for wanna-be cowboys, Nana and Pop Pop came in town this weekend and Nana's friend, Miss Deb, let her know about a potential cowboy store. Sometimes it's called Big Lots and sometimes it's called The Cowboy Store.

After lunch out with Nana, we headed over to the store to see if they had any horse heads for sale. In the meantime, Jack had gotten a little hung up on some Cars 2 toys that he wanted. He's pretty sure that if he talks about something for long enough and is very serious about his "needs" that he will get what he wants. He decided he needed some special Cars 2 Action Agents cars and the Battle Station that they accessorize. Of course this Battle Station can't use the same size cars that we already have. It needs newer, smaller, specially built cars.

It's really my fault that he even knows about the existence of these cars in the first place. I let him watch YouTube videos that review a lot of the toys. It started off with reviews of some of the Lego sets that he likes/has and has moved on to Cars 2 toys. He knows a lot of random facts about toys that he doesn't even own. I think it's safe to say that his letter to Santa might have a long list in it.

Anyway, while Jack was busy searching for Action Agents, Nana found the horse barn and as soon as Jack saw Nana holding his new pet, he forgot all about those cars. The horse heads on sticks turned out to be pretty nice. They even had a pink one for Casey.

The nice lady at checkout spent some time putting the horses in bags and covering them all up so they wouldn't get wet in the walk to the car. Jack and Casey were appreciative but it really was a wasted effort since it took her longer to cover them that it did to walk to the car and rip them out of the bags. These horses had to get saddled up immediately! Or at least get named. There were a few trial names, but I think they've settled on Tipper for Jack and Marley for Casey.

Tired Cowboy

Fashionable Cowgirl

Since then, we've been living all rodeo, all day. I can't buy apples and carrots fast enough. In between watching YouTube videos about toys we don't have, that is.

Jack just figured out that he can record the music he plays on his toy piano and he has composed a special cowboy song. Today they also attached the horse to a storage box that has wheels so that it would be like the horses pulling Cinderella's carriage. I love their imaginations! It never would have crossed my mind that my kids might like one of those horse heads on a stick, but now I'm the proud mama of two little equestrians and I hope they continue to ride the range as far as their imaginations can take them.

Early Christmas Wishes

2011-09-14T13:05:00.001-04:00

Jack and Casey were just talking about some things they would like for Christmas, inspired by the show Max & Ruby. Jack would like a remote controlled crane that is blue. Casey would like a "dancing baby baby doll".

Jack very confidently said, "Santa's going to get that crane for me." Casey echoed Jack.

I decided it was time to remind them that Santa only brings things for good behavior. I asked, "What do you have to do to get presents from Santa?"

Jack said, "Be good."

Casey said, "Never mind. I want to get my baby doll from Auntie."

I'm still laughing!

I ran over to the computer to write that down and Jack came over to say, "If you see a remote controlled crane just get it for me because I want to get it sooner than Christmas. Do you mind if you order it for me?" He is getting a little too wise about internet shopping!

Casey and her Friends

2011-09-13T20:12:00.000-04:00

Casey finally made it back to school yesterday. Poor girl was sick on Friday and missed her second day of school. With my free time yesterday, I made it to three grocery stores and got the groceries put away before I had to pick up the kids. It's amazing how fast I can scoot through the commissary when I'm not driving the big rig that Casey still calls the "car cart." I didn't have to stop numerous times for someone to walk or to get back in the cart or to pick out fruit snacks or to look at all the random crap that only Jack can spy and ask for.

After the commissary I headed to the Natural Heritage Market. I got a groupon for it back in June and was just waiting for school to start so I could look at things at my leisure. I'm pretty sure it was the greenest, crunchiest, granola-iest store I've ever shopped. Any item I've ever come across in a recipe and could never find at any other grocery store is there. I've been looking for months for unsweetened coconut and no other store has it but I finally found it. There is a great collection of bulk items and it's worth shopping for them, but everything else was highly overpriced.

I wasn't really intending to write about grocery stores, but it's already done :) Back to Casey. Unlike Jack, she is more than willing to share with me what she does at school. Unfortunately, I'm trying to figure out how many grains of salt I need with her stories. This summer, she began telling me really nice stories about her "friends." Her friends are named Neela, Keela, Darma, Karma, Katie, and Caroline or maybe its the group with Nasa, Lacey, Meena and Kumba. She starts talking about these girls and the random names just roll off her tongue. If we're driving somewhere, she'll tell me that a friend lives in a house we just passed or down a certain road. She also has a special friend who lives in a house near the beach we visited in Maine. She talks about her a lot. It was too rainy for her friend to come out and say hi while we were there though. Needless to say, all these stories are made up but if you didn't know her and you didn't notice the suspicious names, you might actually believe her.

Now that she's in school and I'm not with her to know exactly what happened, I'll have to decide whether it's a true story or not. Luckily I know the names of a lot of the kids in her class. Hopefully she'll tell me some real stories about them! I'm already trying to figure out if someone gave her a piece of cheese on her first day or she just made that up.

School Days

2011-09-07T20:07:00.000-04:00

Jack started kindergarten yesterday and Casey started preschool today! Jack is liking his class but it's Casey who is very excited. Although I'm not sure if she is more excited or if I am.

Jack is going back to the same preschool he went to last year and has the same teacher for kindergarten as he had for preschool. She moved up with the class. He has several friends back from last year and some new friends to make. He starts 20 minutes earlier than last year so he told Pat he was worried that he might not have time to play in the morning before school. So far that hasn't been a problem.

Casey has been talking about going to school all summer. If ever anyone was ready for school, it was her. I think she would rather have started yesterday when Jack did, but she had her first Little Gym class of the year yesterday and a new haircut and a donut from Dunkin Donuts to make her feel better.

When we met her teacher a few weeks ago, Casey was very shy and wouldn't play with the other children or talk to the teacher. She was so excited today that she just walked into the classroom and couldn't wait for me to leave so she could start school. She practically pushed me out the door and waved goodbye enthusiastically and that was it.

When I picked Casey up, she skipped out the door and was so excited to tell me that she got to go to the playground two times today and she met a girl named Olivia. Interestingly Olivia is not in her class so I guess she met her on the playground. She made a picture of a school house, had snack and someone gave her some cheese. Overall, I think it was everything she had hoped it would be. She can't wait to go back on Friday although she thinks we should go shopping tomorrow while Jack's in school.

And now I have some time to myself for the first time in 5 years! I have a bazillion things planned for all this time - which is really going to be less than 9 hours a week. I plan to make the most of it. Today I did some grocery shopping in peace and went to the dentist without having to ask someone to watch the kids. Boring, but so much easier without kids!

My Hurricane Irene Story

2011-08-29T20:55:00.000-04:00

In case someone ever says, "Where were you during Hurricane Irene back in 2011?"

On Wednesday night, I read that some stores were already out of water as people were preparing for the hurricane. That made me anxious that I hadn't been preparing early enough and I didn't sleep well.

On Thursday morning I was able to drop the kids of at a drama camp at our church and head to Walmart to get all the necessary hurricane supplies. Some food, but not a lot in case we lost our power. A couple jugs of water...there were only about a dozen left on the shelves. I decided it wouldn't hurt to pick up some flashlights. And then a lot of other things that put my total way over $100! I was also buying birthday presents for some upcoming parties and other random things that Walmart entices you to buy. Oh, and a new doorknob for the back door.

I came home and spent all afternoon cleaning the garage. Because you can't put all of your outdoor things in the garage unless it's well organized and clean, right? Or is it just me? Am I the only one fanatically cleaning her garage as part of hurricane preparedness? Then I worried that after all this work, it would get flooded or damaged somehow and it would all have been a waste of time.

Last weekend the doorknob to the back door broke so that's why I bought the new doorknob. I figured it would be a good thing to have a doorknob instead of a hole back there when the hurricane came through. I finally got that installed (such as it is) around 8pm, just as it was getting dark. I still hadn't cleaned up the back porch so I worked on that in the dark and practically got eaten alive by the bugs out there.

As of Thursday night I hadn't decided if I was staying here or leaving. I had everything I needed to stay and I had a friend's house in Fayetteville to go to if I decided to leave. It was such an agonizing decision for me. I really wanted to be here to defend my house, whatever that might entail. If it looked like it was going to flood, I wanted to be able to move things to higher ground. I was a little bit worried about trees falling. The really big ones are pretty far away but it's possible they could reach our house. All of a sudden it seemed like we had way too many windows, too many possibilities that a window could be broken. I also didn't want my kids to be scared out of their minds. I knew that if I stayed calm, they wouldn't be afraid but I didn't really want to take any chances with them.

I kept telling myself I would make a decision after the next storm update, hoping that Irene would stay as far east as possible. After cleaning the garage/outside of the house, I did all the laundry and cleaned the inside of the house. I heard that if your house is clean, the hurricane doesn't bother with you. Right?

Friday morning comes along. House is clean, inside and out. If I'm staying I need to clean the tubs and fill them with water and fill a few more jugs with water. If I'm leaving I need to leave. I do nothing. I can't decide. I really want to stay in my house but I'm not 100% sure that we'll be safe here and the last thing I want to do is endanger the kids. I'm not worried about losing power but I'm worried about trees falling and windows breaking and holes in my house that aren't supposed to be there.

The morning drags on with my indecision. I don't think I've talked on the phone as much as I did on Thursday and Friday, hemming and hawing with friends about what to do. One of my neighbors leaves. Another tells me horror stories about her uncle who was in a hurricane. Pat will be on his ship the whole time and he really wants me to leave. My mother-in-law doesn't tell me she wants me to leave, but I can tell that she does.

Mid-morning I went to the bank and got cash. Then I went to Target to see if they had Diesel 10. Diesel 10 is a train that Jack has been bugging me about for days. He really needs it. My life would be a lot easier if he would just stop talking about it and I decide that Diesel 10 is part of our hurricane prep. It's not in the store, but at least he'll stop talking about it now...as long as I go right home and order it on the internet.

Finally around noon, I decide to leave. But it's a little to late to head to Fayetteville. It looks like the storm has already arrived there. I call around and get a hotel room in Richmond. I really don't want to have to drive too far since I've left it so late. My neighbor was staying at a hotel in Glen Allen, a northwest suburb of Richmond, so I switch to a hotel near her. Pat comes home to help bring the rest of the outdoor items inside before he has to head back to the ship.

I throw a bunch of things in the car. We drive to Richmond. We take a different route than most everyone else is taking. It's slow in parts but I think it was better than the interstate. The hotel is adequate. Not super nice but it will work.

Glen Allen turns out to be really nice. We can walk to a shoe store and a Marshalls. There is a brand new town center only a couple miles away. We meet our neighbor and her daughter out for dinner.

On Saturday morning, the storm starts to whack North Carolina but we still have a little time before we get some rain. The kids and I pass an enjoyable morning at Hobby Lobby. This place is awesome. Everyone who writes a crafty blog has written about some great deal or great something that they've gotten at Hobby Lobby and I was so excited to go there. It's like Michael's and Joann's and Garden Ridge all rolled up in one store.

We each picked out a Christmas ornament. They had such a great selection and the kids passed so much time while they tried to pick out their favorite one. So now we have our 2011 Hurricane ornaments. We wandered through all the aisles. I bought some fabric and tulle. The kids tried to get me to buy every toy they saw. There were a lot of things they "needed." It was a great trip to Hobby Lobby. I just wish I had a list of all the supplies I needed for all the crafts that I've come across in the last year that I thought I wanted to make. It was kind of a letdown to be there and not have any project in mind or any supplies that I knew I wanted.

We grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hotel. I thought we might go out again for dinner. Irene thought otherwise. Turns out that Irene was pretty rough on Richmond too. I could see some young maple trees blowing in the wind from my hotel room. I had the tv on most of the day watching the coverage. At one point 75% of Richmond had lost power. Luckily, we did not. The kids did well. There were no good kids' channels. Cartoon Network is awful. They played with their Legos and some new stickerbooks I thought to bring with me. They played with their new flashlights and pretended they were lightsabers. (A lot less crying than with their real lightsabers.) They jumped on the beds. It was a long afternoon but not awful.

I fanatically checked facebook all day to see how people were doing. The local news was also updating often and other people were posting their pictures on the news facebook page.

By Sunday morning, it was sunny and breezy and the storm was gone. We went to a church in Glen Allen that was only a few minutes away and then headed home. Thankfully there was no damage to our house and our whole neighborhood looked pretty good.

And that's my really long story of Hurricane Irene! In the end it turns out that Richmond wasn't much quieter than home but we felt safe and secure in our hotel room and we didn't lose power and we had a nice little adventure out of it. Jack and Casey really like hotel rooms so it didn't phase them a bit. I was secretly glad that I got to experience a little bit of the storm but that nothing catastrophic happened either home or in Richmond.

Maine: Mornings on the Beach

2011-08-21T15:34:00.000-04:00

I think we're back to normal around here since returning home from our trek to Maine. Everything is unpacked and mostly put away. I've put our pictures on Facebook and Shutterfly. Now I should write a little bit about it.

The kids had a great time on the beach in front of the cottage this year. Another year older means they can climb on the rocks better and explore more and find more treasures. Casey did really well climbing around on the rocks although it's better to not watch her. If you watch her, it looks like she is going to fall at any given point. She doesn't seem to have any intuition that would guide her toward the flatter rocks or a simpler path. And she wasn't interested in me trying to explain that it would be easier if she went for the flatter rocks. She's a girl that's going to blaze her own path. Luckily her path didn't inflict any serious boo-boos this year.

Both Jack and Casey were fascinated by every item that wasn't a rock and some items that were rocks. They collected and collected and collected. No one ever returned from a trip to the beach empty-handed. To me, the best treasure is the sea glass...the sea glass that has been rubbed smooth by the tide and rocks and sand over many years. Jack and Casey collected every bit of glass they found and were working on being able to tell the difference between the sharp (not ready) glass and the smooth glass. They found mussel and clam shells, broken pottery, periwinkles, scallops, urchins and crab shells.

One day when the tide was low, there was a little crab hanging out on the beach. Casey likes her crabs to be already dead so she screamed and panicked about the little guy who was at least 10 feet away from her even as she was backing away. I decided that taking her out in the lobster boat wasn't going to work this year. I thought she might end up swimming trying to get away from the crabs and lobsters in the boat.

The night before we left for Maine, I spread out all the treasures in a couple of boxes and told them to choose their favorites for their summer collection. They each had a bowl and filled them up with various things that I haven't even looked over yet. The rest went back to the beach, probably to be collected again next year!

Quotables

2011-08-09T09:04:00.000-04:00

It seems as though Jack has been talking non stop since we arrived in Maine. Jabber, jabber, jabber! I think it's more than normal because it doesn't seem like he chats this much at home. Maybe it's because he's had more of an audience lately. I should have more funny quotes from him from this trip but he's talking too much for me to remember it all.

This morning while Casey was sleeping, Jack and I were talking about the new model airplanes that Grampie gave him and Casey.  He said, "I'm going to let Casey play with me with my aircraft carrier when we get home because she has jets now too. But only if I'm there with her because I don't want her to do anything foolish if I'm not there."

Casey has been playing shy when she first meets someone but give her a few minutes of your attention and she will start to talk your ear off too. And then she'll give you a hug.  Then she'll give you a kiss. Pretty soon you'll find yourself with a Casey-monkey wrapped around you and she'll be the most affectionate person you've met.

When we were on the beach last week climbing on the rocks and walking through some seaweed, Casey said, "This is junky." I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about but she went on to say, "The seaweed is junky. It's getting my feet all junky."  Maybe slimy was what she was looking for but it was a lot cuter with junky.

2011-08-08T10:22:00.000-04:00

It's raining in Maine and we're a little bored. I have lots of pictures from our fun adventures so far but they're still on the camera. I just killed a little bit of time by asking the kids all their favorites.

Favorites - Casey then Jack

Movie:
Rapunzel
Star Wars: Episode II and III (even though he hasn't watched III yet, he's sure it will be a favorite)

TV Show:
Caillou
Star Wars: Clone Wars, Max & Ruby, Cat in the Hat

Breakfast Food:
Waffles
Yogurt

Food:
Bananas, Cheese
Pizza, Muffins, Pasta

Fruit:
Watermelon
Watermelon

Vegetable:
Zucchini
Zucchini

Dessert:
Chocolate Vanilla Ice Cream
Chocolate Stuff

Ice Cream:
Vanilla
Chocolate

Season:
Fall
Winter

Animal:
Zebra
Elephant, Dog

Color:
Pink
Blue, Green

Toy:
Princess Flashlight
Star Wars Legos, new car

Letter:
A
J

Number:
2
5

Restaurant:
Nana and Pop Pop's Restaurant - "the one where we smashed crabs"
Greene Turtle

Store:
Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's

Jack is now telling me that he is tired of talking about these things.

Jedi Mind Tricks

2011-07-26T17:35:00.000-04:00

I might have mentioned that we have a lot of Legos in this house. A lot of Star Wars Legos. And Luke's helmet went missing! Or Leia's hair is gone! I can't even count the number of times that Jack has asked me where a certain Lego is and I have no idea. Usually I know where things are in this house, but the Legos are getting away from me.

First Luke himself was missing for a week or so. He was found in a box upstairs with a bunch of other Legos - a logical place to look. Jack supposedly searched his room intensely. This week Luke's helmet went missing. Jack accused me of sucking it up in the vacuum but I knew I hadn't. This morning he came running into the bathroom while I was in the shower yelling, "I found it! I found Luke's helmet!" It was stuck in between a couple other Legos on a spaceship that he has been playing with daily.

The new storage containers are helping with the Legos and other Star Wars gear, but Casey is not. Casey has decided to play mind games with Jack. Last week, Jack couldn't find one of the nerf missiles for his gun. Casey told him that she knew where it was. Jack asked her question after question about where it was. First she told him it was in his bedroom. Then she said it was in his closet. He went to look but couldn't find it. He made her come up and show him where it was. She went with him and told him it was on the top shelf in his closet. Jack called downstairs for one of us to help him. When asked if he could actually see the nerf missile, he said no. Then Casey told him it was actually in the playroom. They went to the playroom and he looked around. Then she said it was downstairs.

I figured out early on that Casey was just messing with him. He believed every word she said and when they finally came downstairs he said, "I think Casey's using the force and Jedi mind tricks to move it around!" I just laughed.

At first I felt bad that he was so gullible to her stories, but the next day he was pretending to be a baby and he must have sent Casey upstairs about 5 times to fetch him things that he "needed" because he was a baby. And she went right along with it. I think that was his way of getting even a little bit.

Lego Organization

2011-07-25T17:35:00.012-04:00

About a year ago, I thought I had come up with a great solution for Lego storage. It worked for a while but lately it seems that the Legos have exploded again and I was ready for something new.

First I have to show the solution to Lego storage from 25 years ago! Jenn and I used this box for our Legos when we were little girls. Jack first started playing with Legos a couple years ago when we were in Maine for a couple weeks and I pulled this box out of the attic. Now, he has more Legos as a 5 year old than Jenn and I ever did.

As retro as the box looks and as much nostalgia as there is with it, it's not the greatest storage system. Even as a girl, I remember digging and digging and digging through that box looking for the right pieces. Jack's collection quickly outgrew it so I figured out a new system. I bought the plastic container with drawers on the right. The big bins on the left have some "overflow" Legos and other toys. These drawers kept the toys organized and separated but there was a lot more pulling things out than putting things away on Jack's part.

I bought little containers (at the dollar store) to hold different types of Legos and I divided them all up - wheels, angled pieces, windows, doors, other special pieces in this drawer.

Army guys, minifigures, flat pieces and very small pieces.

Instructions, long bricks and bigger block-shaped bricks.

Creations that were small enough to fit in the drawer

Extra boxes. I used old wipe containers to keep certain sets together and for when we were travelling and I need to throw a bunch in a box.

But, like I said, the Legos were exploding all over the house again. Jack has been building up his Star Wars Legos collection and the house has turned into a galaxy with different pieces of furniture as planets and the floor as space. I did a little Google search and found a blog where she used fishing tackle boxes for Lego storage. I envisioned the typical tackle box that folds out and thought that would be great for Jack's Star Wars Legos - a big area of the bottom for the spaceships and smaller compartments for the little pieces. We left the house that afternoon to find one. I got this big one. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but it was what Jack wanted. The good guys have a shelf, the bad guys have a shelf and the spaceships live on the bottom. (It's a little empty right now...I think there's a battle going on in the dining room.)

I also saw some plastic boxes that looked like they would work and when Casey and I made a trip to Walmart last week, I found exactly what I was looking for: plastic boxes with dividers and handles. These two are for Casey's Legos.

While waiting three hours for new tires last week, I put one of these boxes in my bag and we had instant entertainment. I'm hoping they will play with them in the car next week when we have a long car ride to Maine. I would love to glue one of the flat base boards to the top of them, but the boxes are not quite flat on the top.

I got Jack a bigger one and one the same size as Casey's. I love that the Legos all have their own spaces and they stay in their spaces when you pick them up. For all the Legos they hold, they are pretty compact. These two hold most of Jack's Legos (that aren't being used) but I just bought him another big one because they don't all fit in here. But it still takes up less space than the drawers. Now he can pull out one of these boxes and drag it to wherever he is working and when he's done he can just close the lid and put it away.

In the end, it's really only me who is excited about these containers. And me who organized them all into different sections. And me who will reorganize them when they get messed up. But it makes me happy.

Golf Camp and Children's Museum

2011-07-24T19:34:00.000-04:00

It feels a little like winter here except we're stuck inside because of the heat instead of the cold. Jack had golf camp last week from Monday to Thursday and was outside for most of the time. He was very glad that there was an unlimited supply of lemonade to cool him. He was also very excited about the "twisters" that he got to eat for a snack. I'm pretty sure those were Twizzlers. He helped himself to five of them and was pretty pleased with himself.

On day 2 of golf camp, Jack got a blister but that didn't stop him from hitting all his balls on the driving range. He looked pretty pathetic dragging his golf clubs across the course by the end of camp, but we fixed him up with a bandaid and he was fine.

Overall I think he had a great time at camp. They played a lot of fun games and hit a lot of balls. He was the youngest boy there but he knew what he was doing and listened well to his instructors. The golf pro at the course had seen him out there with Pat before and knew that he would be fine.

On Thursday when I went to pick him up, he was playing tag with some of the other boys...in the 100 degree heat! I had planned to go to the pool in the afternoon but after the awards ceremony I knew that he was completely drained from the heat. Too bad that doesn't mean he's too drained to fight with his sister.

To get out of the house on Friday we headed to the Portsmouth Children's Museum. It's been closed for renovations for about two years and this was our first trip back since the grand re-opening. The kids had a great time...trains, bubbles, arts & crafts, science, shopping market, fire trucks, a miniature house. I don't think they could ask for much more. What's even better is that I remembered by camera and managed to get some decent shots.

Using a rope to pull himself up

T-Ball

2011-07-18T20:03:00.000-04:00

We're already five weeks into it, but Jack is playing on his first sports team this summer. We signed him up for T-ball through the YMCA and he is loving it. He has practice one night a week and a game on Saturday morning.

I completely forgot my camera on his first game, but I've since remembered to bring my camera along. My first impression of 3 to 5 year old T-ball was that it didn't seem very organized but Pat made fun of me and told me this was just what we wanted for Jack's first experience. It was just a little bit like herding cats. I didn't play any sports until 5th grade so there weren't any kids throwing tantrums then because they didn't want to bat.

Jack has been very excited to play and he likes to practice every night in the backyard. When he gets on the field during games, you can tell that he feels nervous. He is uncomfortable when he doesn't know exactly what he is supposed to be doing. (It reminds me of when he first learned to talk - he didn't want to say the word unless he was absolutely sure that he would say it correctly.) I imagine with a bunch of people yelling on any given play that it is a little confusing to figure out what to do. As the weeks go on, he is becoming more comfortable. He has been playing first base and is starting to get the hang of what he needs to do every play. He's also got his Dad's intensity so he's gives it 100% and I think he tries to hit a home run every time. You can see it in his face.

The team has come a long way in just 4 games and 4 practices. I think they've realized that it is not rugby and there is no longer a scrum while everyone tries to get the ball after it is hit. They've figured out the batting order and how the innings work and to throw the ball to first after every hit. They're learning to stand in line and shake hands at the end of the game. And they definitely know to look for a good snack after the game!

What is amazing to me is that the coach's older son is just a couple years older than Jack and he's pretty much got baseball figured out. He stands out there and plays catch with the kids and helps coach and it's pretty amazing what a difference two years will make.

This has been a great experience for Jack. Casey could have played too...I didn't realize that 3 year olds could play, but for now she is Jack's #1 cheerleader and she stays busy during the games by climbing all over Pat and I and moving her water bottle from cup holder to cup holder.

A little coaching before he the inning starts

I don't know how I capture this but his face is weird...and hilarious!

Slugger

Maryland Crabs

2011-07-07T17:20:00.001-04:00

While we were in Ocean City last week, we went to Hooper's so the guys could get crabs one night. Jack was also very excited about getting crabs. He kept saying, "I love crabs! I can't wait to have crabs tonight!" This is the same child who doesn't like chicken or hot dogs or bananas or jelly on his pb&j. But he was thrilled about going to get crabs.

As soon as the waitress brought the mallet and the tray of crabs, Jack was ready to start pounding away. Unfortunately the art of actually getting the crab out of the legs requires a little more finesse than Jack possesses. Much to my surprise, he did eat a couple of bits of crab and said that he liked it. I think it was just taking a little too much time for it to get in front of him.

But when Daddy and Pop Pop were done with their crabs, Jack and Casey did a fine job pounding the bodies to bits with the mallets. And that made for one of the most fun meals they have probably ever had!

Star Wars Birthday Party

2011-07-06T19:55:00.001-04:00

We had a birthday party for Jack on the 3rd and invited all of our friends. My goal was for a simple but mostly homemade party. A lot of the work I wanted to get done a couple weeks before the party didn't happen because I was sick and then we went on vacation. Thankfully, my goal of simple allowed us to get everything done on Saturday and Sunday morning.

Jack originally asked for a Darth Vader cake. I was going to buy the Wilton cake mold but I procrastinated. Every cake I looked at on the internet looked so elaborate and I really didn't want to put a lot of effort into the decorating. While I was looking around the blog world one day, Jack saw some Star Wars cupcakes that had little plastic toppers. I was going to order some but then I found some free printables (at Skip to my Lou) and as soon as he said he liked them, I printed them out and cut out the circles.

Jack asked for strawberry cake with chocolate frosting so I found some recipes. They both turned out pretty to be pretty tasty!

I made lightsabers out of foam pool noodles and some duct tape. Actually, Pat made the lightsabers. I envisioned a big lightsaber battle in the back yard but mostly there were occasional duels. These were also the parting gifts for all the kids along with some Lego shaped candy that I found at a candy store. You can build with it and then eat it!

Lightsaber Arsenal

A couple hours before party, I texted everyone to bring bathing suits. It was really hot so we set up the slip'n'slide.

The boys were having fun with Jack's car wash

Pat worked the grill to cook burgers and dogs. I picked up some fresh corn on the cob from the farmers market, made a broccoli salad, sliced up a watermelon and made some lemonade to complete dinner. Simple, easy and delicious. Especially since Pat did the grilling.

We also had a pinata. I wish I could capture how Jack says it. It's very enunciated - pin - yata. I guess I have no pictures of it. Jack wanted a Death Star. My original plan was to find a soccer ball pinata and paint the white spots grey. But the party store had a disco ball that happened to look like a Death Star...maybe just a little bit shinier! Pat filled it with Star Wars fruit snacks and the kids took turns pulling strings until it spilled its goodies. (I originally had no idea that you have to fill your own pinata.)

We sang a little happy birthday tune and Jack blew out all his candles.

He then proceeded to eat his cake like it was his first birthday instead of his fifth! He said it was too crumbly and that's how he had to eat it.

And I couldn't not post this picture of Casey and her beautiful smile as she gets ready to eat her cupcake.

I was tired (and so was Jack) by the end of it but I told Pat it was my favorite birthday party that we'd had. The next morning Jack said, "I'm really lucky that all my friends got me such great presents! We'll have to send them thank you notes."

Summer Sprinkler

2011-07-05T20:17:00.000-04:00

I am so proud of this project! Today I made a fun sprinkler/bike wash for the kids. Disney's Family Fun magazine had a deluxe version of it but a blog called Simple Simon & Co had a pretty simple version that I copied.

Once I got all the parts I needed, it only took 20 minutes to make. And that was with 2 impatient children trying to "help."

It was the trip to Lowe's that was the hardest part. The lawnmowers were an instant distraction. Jack wanted to sit on them and he wanted me to take pictures. So I did.

Casey likes the pricier one!

I found the pvc piping. They come in 10 foot lengths. I knew they would fit in the car but trying to push them around Lowe's in a cart was no simple task. Jack and Casey were trying to help with the fittings I needed. "How about this one, Mommy?" Jack helped so much that when we checked out, I realized that the T joints that he was in charge of were not in the cart. Instead of pushing my cart with its 10 foot poles around, I elected to take things out to the car and then we headed back into the store.

The second time around I found the correct fitting to connect my pipes to a garden hose. It would have been a sad sad story if I had put this all together and then found out I couldn't connect it to my hose. I also snuck by the plumbing man to grab the pvc pipe cutting tool. Earlier, he was pretty adamant that I didn't need it and I could just use a hacksaw. I decided it was worth the money to buy the tool because I was pretty sure it would make the whole process of creating this easier. I couldn't picture myself trying to use the hacksaw and answer 3000 questions from Jack and Casey and still remain patient and still keep all my fingers.

In the meantime, Jack and Casey turned their T joints into guns and then into microphones and then they wanted to sit in different seats in the cart and then they wanted to go back by the lawnmowers. I was very happy to leave and get home with my parts.

After a little measuring, a little oomph to cut the pipes, some drilling to make holes and a little assembling, I was very happy with the results. The kids were very happy too. They took all their cars, bikes, trikes, scooters and lawnmowers through the car wash. It made the trip to Lowe's worth it and the 90+ degree heat more bearable. And I smile every time I look at my handiwork!

Jack is 5!

2011-07-04T12:08:00.001-04:00

It's been a whirlwind of 5 days since Jack turned 5! (And a little bit of a whirlwind before that too.) When Jack woke up this morning, he said pretty emphatically, "Mommy, I'm 5 now!" The parties are over and the presents are all unwrapped and I think he finally realizes that he is 5. Or "a whole hand" as he told his Nana.

We celebrated his actual birthday in Ocean City with his Nana and Pop Pop. He had some very specific requests for his big day. He wanted us to get up before him and be in the living room ready to surprise him. Since he's been getting up at 6am lately, it was a pretty early morning, but we were happy to oblige the birthday boy. I guess it was a lot like Christmas because we woke up early, opened presents and spent the rest of the morning putting Legos together.

Lightsaber pen

More pieces for his nano/hex bug toy. Casey got her own bug too.

Darth Jack

Jack didn't want to leave the house much because he had new toys but he also requested mini golf so we headed to the one he had picked out. It was the prettiest mini golf course I've seen. The hibiscus were gorgeous. Jack and Casey played 18 and then we had some ice cream and listened to some stories about miraculous frog rescues from the course caretaker. (Some got stuck in the pipes and they survived.)

Jack dined surrounded by his new Legos at lunchtime.

Nana made Jack a very special Star Wars cake with Darth Vader and Luke figures with lightsabers. He also had his dinner of choice - pasta with pesto. Because every really picky 5 year old loves pesto.

The cake was delicious, then we spent a little bit of time at the beach and then Jack fell asleep with his new Legos in hand.

Lightsaber Week

2011-06-25T06:41:00.000-04:00

This is the first time I've started a blog post at 4:45 in the the morning, but I can't sleep! I have been sick with an extremely sore throat for the past week and we're leaving on vacation today. I'm guessing the combination of all the things I still need to do and the medicine I've been taking are not letting me sleep any longer. Which is too bad because I haven't had a good night of sleep in the last week either. It's only been a week of being sick but I've spent a lot of time on the internet looking at what everyone else has been doing and I feel like it's been a month. There are so many projects I could have done last week...not that I probably would have, but I could have!

On Sunday evening, I noticed a sore throat and took some zinc. The sore throat was still around on Monday morning so I decided I better get out and do the grocery shopping while I was still feeling somewhat okay. When Jack heard we were going grocery shopping, he immediately started a new campaign. "Mommy, do you think we should go get lightsabers today? Aren't we going by that store where we saw the lightsabers last week? How about if we are really good at the grocery store and don't fight, we can get lightsabers instead of a donut or fruit snacks?" (The donut or fruit snack bribe is very effective for grocery shopping.)

Jack's final assault in his campaign was, "I don't think we should go look at the jets today. I think it would be more challenging to get lightsabers." More challenging? I love when he tries to use big words. It kind of worked...I had been thinking about getting them lightsabers and I decided it was close enough to his birthday that I could start spoiling him.

Bribing them with food is good, but getting them lightsabers takes it to a whole new level. We bought the lightsabers before the grocery store, we talked about some lightsaber rules and then I let them bring them into the store. It was amazing...I never heard another peep from either of them. I've never been through the commissary so fast. They sat so quietly in the cart and I'm not even sure they moved. It was a little eery.

Jack was so excited to get home and start battling it out with Casey. Unfortunately Casey wasn't feeling so well either and she wasn't much of a sparring partner. I don't think Jack's lightsaber has left his side since he got it. He's had it clipped onto his pants almost everywhere we go and he's been sleeping with it every night. When we went to the doctor, I looked down at Jack and said, "You can have your lightsaber in here but you need to put your blade away!" Although maybe it was a cute scene - miserable mom and little girl being defended by Jedi Jack.

While I layed on the couch feeling pretty miserable all week, Jack spent a lot of time working on his lightsaber skills. "Mommy, do you want to see my skills?" He and Casey have spent hours together pretending to be Jedi and Sith and roaming the galaxy. They also spent a lot of time working on a lightsaber show. Jack wanted more of a duel but mostly it was a solo show while each of them showed me their skills. Jack can even add some Jedi mind tricks into his routine sometimes.

There's got to be some practical use of these "skills" Jack is gaining right? He puts so much effort and thought into it. Turns out that the lightsabers were a good buy this week! Jack keeps telling me it's one of his favorite toys.

Summer Learning

2011-06-14T20:12:00.000-04:00

I decided to try my hand at a little homeschooling this summer. I want to try to keep Jack from losing any of his preschool knowledge and for him to be well prepared for kindergarden. I think he is just on the verge of learning to read and I'm hoping to help him along with that over the summer. But really the catalyst for the homeschooling was that I found a blog called Sun Scholars and she created a great summer program.

This is her description:
Sun Scholars is a fun, simple educational program designed specifically for stay-at-home parents and caregivers to use with their children over the summer months. Use the Sun Scholars Summer Program to enrich your child's summer, for summer school programs, daycare activities, childcare co-ops, and more. This program has been created with primary school children in mind, though you will find that these activities can be altered to fit the needs of all the children in your care. The goal is to keep your child's mind active through the summer, when skills learned in the previous school year are often lost.

So far, I've worked on two weeks of the program and I think the program is great. It's taking a little longer than a week to do each unit because we've been so busy. But I'm struggling a bit to get Jack interested in it. I think sometimes he is just not interested in anything that resembles schoolwork. I've seen him go through learning phases before. Sometimes he wants to sit down and write his letters and make words and sometimes he doesn't. But it's been a little frustrating. I've used the cliched phrase, "Do you listen to Miss H when you're at school? ... Then why don't you listen to me?" I've sent him to time out for not writing a 2 correctly.

I realize that sending him to time out is not exactly an effective way of teaching and is not likely to get him interested in any future learning. So I had to step back a little and try to be a little more creative and decided I don't need to force him to do anything. (Although I know he was refusing to write that 2 just to make me angry.)

One of the projects last week was to draw some numbers out of a bag, count out the same number of beans and then draw another number and add the two numbers. Jack was not at all interested in the numbers in the bag or the beans. But we brought the bean bags with us to the car dealership and while we were waiting, he started tossing the bean bags into a big box. He started telling me how many times (out of three) he was getting it in the box and I started writing it down. After four turns, we took a break and added the numbers together. After another four turns, we compared numbers to see which was bigger. He loved it. He kept wanting me to write down numbers long after it was really necessary. Yesterday we played a ring toss game and as soon as he started playing he asked if I could write the numbers down for him. Later on, while I was cooking dinner he was adding them up on his own.

While I'm very happy to be sending him back to school in the fall, this has already been a learning experience for me and I think he is actually learning too. Casey is also following along a little, doing things her way. I'm looking forward to getting a little more work done before our first trip of the summer but I'm also looking for ways to add some knowledge into our everyday lives. Jack can now read numbers in the 80s, 90s and 100s because we try to guess what the temperature is going to be in the car when we get in it. He's getting pretty good at it!

Bean Bags

2011-06-11T09:53:00.000-04:00

Summer vacation is turning out to be a lot busier than I thought! But I am having a lot of fun and so are the kids. Some days have even been a little too much fun and resulted in a little meltdown by the end of the day.

On Wednesday I was cleaning up my sewing area and Jack was helping/watching. He looked into some drawer and found these:

I made these little beanbags about 8 months ago for Casey. (There used to be three but one is hidden somewhere in this house.) Then I put them away because I didn't have any for Jack. I don't think I had any cute boy fabric at the time.

Jack pulled them out and started playing with them and asking all sorts of questions about who I made them for and why I made them. Eventually I told him I would make him some that night and we picked out the fabrics that he wanted.

Thursday morning started with a little crying...because I totally forgot to make Jack his beanbags. So bright and early, and with a small audience, I made Jack his set.

He was very happy with them. We took them to the car dealership while we waited for an oil change and he had a great time throwing them into a box.

In the afternoon, we went to the gym and the pool. Then we stopped home so I could change, stopped by the ice rink to have a skate fixed for Pat and headed to a little outdoor concert to meet some friends. It was rush hour and it took forever to get there.

We brought some chairs for the concert, got some pizza, had some gelato and then things started to go a little downhill. I brought the beanbags out, hoping it would entertain the boys for a bit. But the long day finally took it's toll on Jack. He wouldn't share the beanbags, he insisted on throwing them too hard and he wouldn't listen to anything I said. I finally had to tell him that we were going home because he couldn't behave. He was just ugly. I can't remember ever having to leave somewhere because of his behavior. But it was really necessary. He ended up crying himself to sleep because he behaved badly at home and lost his stories.

So the beanbags were a blessing and a curse on Thursday. Now they are covered in chocolate gelato fingerprints but Jack is still very happy with them. And I'm trying not to exhaust my children to the point of extreme crankiness any more.

Oh, and the funniest part of this day was in the elevator of the parking garage on the way to the concert. The kids were each carrying their chairs and as soon as the elevator door closed, they both opened them up and sat in them while we descended. It was hilarious and I wish I had a picture, but it was only a few second elevator ride.

New Song in Town

2011-06-02T20:50:00.002-04:00

Since they were babies, Pat and I have sung songs to Jack and Casey after their stories, right before bedtime. From classic bedtime songs like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to patriotic songs like "God Bless America" to sporty songs like "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and the "Eagles Fight Song", we had a pretty decent repertoire. I've sung almost every single children's song I know plus a few that I learned along the way. At one point, I was singing about six songs every night to Jack. Then he started asking for new songs and I started making them up. It's not so easy to make up a new song every night.

About six months ago, I let the kids watch the Wiggles sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on my phone. Every once in a while, if I had my phone upstairs I'd let them watch a few songs. They liked it and I liked that I didn't have to sing Twinkle Twinkle anymore.

With the Star Wars craze that currently has this house in its grips, the kids wanted me to sing a Star Wars song. Humming the Darth Vader theme song wasn't quite enough. So I converted "This Old Man" to suit my needs. The kids call it "This Old Man Star Wars."

It goes a little like this...
"This old man, he played one, he played knick knack on my [insert the name of a Star Wars character here]. With a knick knack paddy whack...."

It no longer rhymes any more and it makes no sense, but the kids love shouting out different characters for me to use on each number. (Leia is always 2.)

But even "This Old Man Star Wars" got old. One night I pulled out the iPad, opened up YouTube and searched for Star Wars songs. We found a few versions of Star Wars theme music with different Star Wars images. But a few nights later, we found our new favorite song. It's sung a cappella, with Star Wars related lyrics, but to the tune of several other movie themes written by John Williams like Jurassic Park, Jaws and Indiana Jones.

(Now that I spent half an hour trying to find this exact version, I'm not sure how we stumbled across it in the first place. It would help if the person who posted it had spelled "cappella" correctly. There are a few other versions out there but this is our favorite.)

It is sung by an a cappella group named Moosebutter. With a little more YouTube searching, we found a video that shows one guy who made it look like he sung all the parts. The screen is split into four parts and he sings/lip syncs all four parts.

Jack loves it. He has the words memorized. I find myself humming random parts of it during the day. Casey sings along too. (Pat is still warming up to it.) Jack even knows which version of the singer (he has different T-shirts on) is singing which part.

And so, bedtime songs have been modernized a little around here. 2011 - the year of bedtime songs on the iPad through YouTube.

New Game in Town

2011-06-01T20:14:00.000-04:00

Jenny (my sister-in-law) had Jack's birthday present already wrapped up to give him this weekend. She thought if he got bored we could open it a little early. But, even though some of Chase and Charlotte's toys might have been a little young for him, he still found them all fascinating. They were all new to him so he took it upon himself to check out each and every toy and figure out how it worked. There was no chance of getting bored, so we just brought the gift home with us.

While we were unpacking the car, Jack spotted the present and immediately wanted to open it. It was already past his bedtime but we had been in the car for 3 hours and he had taken a nap and I didn't feel like telling him he had to wait. He opened the present and was immediately smitten.

It's called Hockey Guys and it's a portable hockey rink with all the "hockey guys" and Jack has been playing with it nonstop in his waking hours. He's created rules for the guys, sent them to the penalty box, cleared the ice for the zamboni, created benches for the extra players and really used his imagination. At one point, he created a big archway for the players to come through as they were announced. He also got upset when I called him to dinner because he was just about to play the "America song." At first, he even included Casey in his games. Now she just likes to come in and knock as many players down in one swipe as she can.

He also takes a few guys to bed with him. Tonight, he called me back up to his room because he took the puck to bed with him and he had lost it. He kept telling me he heard a clinking noise, so it must have fallen against the wall. He thought it was somewhere at the foot of the bed and I kept asking him where exactly it was in his bed the last time he saw it. I looked through sheets, blankets, Elmo, and a stuffed dog named Sid. I looked for this puck for 5 minutes. Then he said, "Oh, I think I left it in your room when I was reading stories with Daddy." When we found it in my room, he said, "Now we just need to figure out what made that clinking noise because I was sure it was my puck."

What a great gift this has been and a breath of fresh air after the non-stop of Star Wars and Star Wars Legos in the last several months. It is fun watching his imagination take off in different ways.

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

2011-05-31T20:37:00.000-04:00

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend in our nation's capitol and surrounding areas! There were lots of "firsts" for all of us I think!

We stayed with Mitch and Jenny; Jack and Casey had a great time with their cousins Charlotte and Chase. However, it was definitely the first time that Jack and Casey have fought over who gets to sleep in the master bedroom closet, on the floor. Jack slept there last time we visited so he naturally assumed that's where he should sleep. But Casey didn't want to miss out on any fun and she wanted to sleep there too. There was room for both of them but Jack didn't want Casey there and eventually she was enough of a bugger that we moved her downstairs to a futon...with her dad for most of one night.

On Sunday morning, we headed into Washington, DC and the kids got their first metro/subway ride! Jack loved it and Casey enjoyed it too.

While switching trains, Jack and Casey had pretend lightsaber battles to pass the time.

We took the metro to the Smithsonian stop at the mall and made our way to the Air and Space Museum. On the way, we saw the Washington Monument aka The Big Pencil, the Smithsonian Castle and the Capitol Building. Pat told Jack that the Capitol Building was where all the Senators worked. He responded with, "Oh, like Padme Amidala?" He's not only learning to wield a lightsaber but he's learning important lessons on government from Star Wars.

We also literally stopped to smell the roses.

I asked Jack to pick between the dinosaur museum and the air & space so this was his choice. It was also his choice to blow through there in under an hour. It's the first time I've gone to a museum and learned nothing. I just followed Jack around. There was a lot to take in at the Air & Space museum and I think he was just a bit young for it so he just wandered through. If you ask him what his favorite part of it was, he'll probably tell you it was the french fries that we had for lunch!

Our second stop of the day was the National Building Museum. A friend had sent some information along about a Lego display there and I thought Jack would enjoy it. After the crowded Air & Space museum the National Building Museum was quiet, beautiful and fun for the kids. The Lego display was pretty interesting but after looking at the "professional" Legos, there was a whole area for kids to create their own masterpiece.

And this is what they came up with...I didn't even know they were familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright.

After the Lego room, there was another room for kids. This time the Lego bricks were life sized bricks and the kids had a lot of fun building a tower taller than Daddy.

Even the outside of the National Building Museum was fun...

After our day in the city, we headed back to Mitch & Jenny's for a barbeque with their friends and neighbors. Pat volunteered to work the grill, which is another first...first time in a few years I would say. And then he told me he enjoys grilling! I had no idea.

On Monday we had big afternoon plans, but the morning involved train rides and carousel rides, so it wasn't too shabby either.

While waiting for the train, I tried to take some picture of the dads and their kids...not a one where they are all looking and smiling but I love what I got instead...

The grand finale of the trip required us to go separate ways. Pat and Jack went to Jack's first Phillies baseball game (at Nationals Stadium) and Casey and I went on our first shopping excursion to Ikea. The whole time they were at the game, we were at Ikea. We spent about 3 1/2 hours there somehow. Casey played around all the furniture displays and then I dropped her off in a child care area and did some more shopping. We loaded up my purchases in the car and Casey wanted ice cream so I decided we might as well go back into Ikea for it. It was a good choice...only $1 for a cone. Casey spent at least 30 minutes eating this ice cream cone and required 8 napkins. But it was apparent that she was enjoying herself.

Pat and Jack had a great time at the game too. It was so hot that Pat didn't think they'd stay very long but their seats were in the shade and they watched most of the game. Jack also got a ride in a rickshaw and another subway ride. In the end though, if you ask both of them what the favorite part of their afternoons was, they both said, "The ice cream!"

End of Year Program

2011-05-24T21:01:00.001-04:00

We just got back from Jack's end of year program. I've been listening to him sing some of the songs for a month or so and I was looking forward to seeing it in concert. We were all very excited about going to the show. Jack started getting ready at 12:30 this afternoon. I had to keep making him take his white shirt off when he was eating. Casey put a dress on around this time too but she must have changed her clothes 5 times before we got back to the dress. At 4:45 this afternoon she decided to put on pajamas. Then she got them wet so she put on a different pair. She also had a dance outfit, a Cinderella dress, and blue polka-dot pants on at various points in the day.

You'd think we'd be quite prepared to get to the show by the time it finally got here, but I got a little distracted by a big storm that blew some crazy winds at us when it rolled into town. I had just gotten out of the shower and noticed that Tugger was acting a little funny and the sky was getting darker. I ran to the front window to see what was going on and trees were bent over and it looked like a big dust cloud out there. I decided I need to throw some clothes on and go close the garage door. Then I started making sure there were no big funnels heading towards us and trying to check the weather. Jack told me, "I don't think there is any hope left for us." Maybe he's watching too many dramatic Star Wars episodes. Thankfully he was wrong and the winds only lasted for about 15 minutes and then a little rain and thunder rumbled through. But it threw off my schedule. I forgot to grab shoes for Pat and forgot the camera. And the kids were being crazy up to the moment we left the house. Luckily Pat had time to get home and grab the camera.

I spent most of Jack's concert trying to figure out the best manual setting to take pictures because I knew from the last time he was one stage that the automatic settings didn't give me great pictures. I eventually figured it out, but long after Jack was on stage. I got some decent pictures of the 2 year olds. Too bad I don't know any of them.

I spent the other time trying not to cry. They had videos with sentimental music and cute little kindergardeners in caps and gowns and I think it was just designed to make mothers cry. I didn't even have someone "graduating." Up on stage one of the kindergardeners was crying and she was even prepared with tissues. It was adorable and made me want to cry. But I didn't let any tears escape and now I'm prepared for next year. So I can try harder not to cry...or bring tissues.

Casey spent the entire show pretending the center aisle was a hopscotch game. She hopped up and then ran back to Pat. Repeat a dozen times. After Jack was done singing though, she was my only photography subject.

It was a great program with a nice little smorgasbord of snacks after the show. I am so proud of Jack for standing up there and singing his heart out. A year ago at the rec center preschool he wasn't sure of himself enough to sing with the group. He has grown so much this year. And next year, both Jack and Casey will be on the stage!

Busy Weekend

2011-05-23T20:03:00.000-04:00

Pat has been really busy with work and had to work on Saturday but I managed to keep us pretty busy. We went to the Stockley Art Festival in Norfolk in the morning. It was a nice time with the kids. We wandered through the art displays. I tried to stop at a couple and Jack said, "I hate going in these things." We had a little talk about using the word hate. I think he was just trying it out but I did not appreciate it and I hope he doesn't continue to use it. We found a craft for the kids and that made Jack happy...until it was over and he immediately wanted to do another craft. (When Jack hears "art and craft fair" I think he imagines table after table of fun craft projects. Anyone know of a fair like this?)

We wandered a little more and ended up at the face painting clown. Jack wanted to be a lion and Casey wanted to be a cat and when the clown was done I thought they were the cutest things ever!

We also happened to come across Cinderella on our travels. Jack was the first one to spot her and when I looked up and saw how amazed Casey was to see Cinderella, I teared up a little. It was such a nice but unexpected surprise and I was so happy for Casey. Although Casey was a bit shy; we said hello, got a card and continued walking. Maybe the addition of whiskers made her braver. After she transformed into a kitty cat, we walked by Cinderella again and Casey wanted a picture with her. I love it!

When we got home, I grabbed the good camera (instead of my phone) and took some more pictures of my cats...

And that was just the first part of the day! We went to the beach with some friends in the afternoon. (Jack kept his mane all day, even at the beach!) I took no pictures though. The kids had a blast. I forgot how much fun they can have in a little water and sand. Nellie has a cute picture of Jack on her blog. He decided he could make a snow angel in the sand...also known as a sand angel. We finished our day with a burger and some fries from Five Guys and a really good shower to get rid of a little sand! It's feeling like summer around here.

Quotes of the Weekend

2011-05-22T22:34:00.000-04:00

We had a busy weekend! I have some pictures of a cute cat and a ferocious lion to post tomorrow. But tonight I was thinking of a couple funny things Jack said and wanted to write them before I forget.

We went to a Norfolk Tides baseball game today but before we left we threw around the option of going to the pool instead. Pat asked Jack which one he would rather do and he wanted to go to the baseball game. Casey, of course, wanted to go to the pool. Jack said, "Daddy, how do you think we should handle this?". To which Pat and I both tried not to burst out laughing. Luckily, Jack thinks he is pretty good at answering his own questions sometimes and he figured that since we talked about going to the baseball game first then that's what we should do. Casey then said the exact same thing about the pool but the pool wasn't the first idea so we convinced her that we could go to the pool a lot this summer. (Or maybe I said if she didn't stop whining about the pool she was going to take a nap and not go anywhere.)

On the way home from the baseball game, Jack said, "Mommy, I think you put too much suntan lotion on my neck because it feels funny now.". I don't know what that was all about but it definitely wasn't a sunburn and that was the goal with the extra dose of lotion I put on as our backs baked in the sun during the game.

Why, You Ask?

2011-05-18T20:28:00.000-04:00

I know I've written a post about Jack asking "Why?" and how it gets difficult to continue explaining things after a certain number of whys. But lately it's just getting annoying. I don't mind explaining something to either Jack or Casey. However, their use of "Why?" has nothing to do with trying to figure out how the world works anymore. It is now something they say almost every single time I tell them something. Jack is even starting to say it before I finish the sentence I'm speaking. But the most annoying time is when I tell them something that includes the why.

Me: We're putting the dishes away because they're all clean.
Casey: Why?
Me: I just told you why.
Casey: Oh. But why?
Me: Are you listening to me?
Casey: Yes.
Me: What did I just say?
Casey: I don't know.
Me: Why don't you know?
Casey: Because.

And you can see how this conversation goes nowhere. I guess it's even more frustrating when I decide to turn it around on Casey and ask her why she did something. She shrugs her shoulders and says she doesn't know 99% of the time.

I think we're in a little bit of a language rut around here. I feel like I keep saying the same things over and over again and never quite getting the response I'd like. I keep asking the kids, "Did you hear what I just said?...Then why didn't you do it?" Half the time when I say something to Casey, she says, "Huh?" I repeat myself and she says, "Huh?" About halfway through the third time I'm repeating myself, I'll stop and say, "Did you hear me?" I know sometimes that I do not speak as loudly as I need to. Part of it is that I've always been like that (mumbling as my mother would say) and the other half is that I feel like I'm answering the most pointless questions and I just don't give it the energy that I should. Other times I know that I'm speaking loudly and she has just developed this habit of saying, "Huh?" Then I realized that I've done this myself. When I was in high school and college and I worked at the family restaurant, my friend Elaine started calling me on it. I would hear what she said to me but I guess in order to give myself a few more seconds to process it, I would say "Huh?" and she would repeat it.

I always thought that I spoke pretty well, but the kids seem to catch on to certain poorer parts of my speech and mannerisms and now I feel like I'm constantly trying to improve myself. I try not to say "like" and I try not to say "Uhhh..." or "Well...." before every question I answer. Sometimes I just need a few seconds to come up with a good answer for the 3 and 4 year old crowd and those words give me a little thinking time. And of course I'm trying not to say, "Huh?" while also trying not to let Casey say it three times in a row.

Certainly this kind of self-improvement is something I never expected to be inspired by motherhood. But 95% of the time I'm speaking to a 3 and 4 year old audience and they are really soaking up everything I say and how I say it so I think it's important to try to say it right.

My Mom and I

2011-05-06T21:11:00.000-04:00

"My Mom and I" is a book that Jack wrote at school for me. He is also the illustrator. I'll put the parts that Jack added in quotations and a description of the picture in brackets.

My mother likes it when "I sleep with no light." [a picture of his bunk bed with him on the top]

My mom and I read "Tangled." [a book with Rapunzel and her long hair on the cover]

My mother is good at "everything." [him with a circle around him]

My mother and I like to "go shopping." [Jack pushing a shopping cart with me behind him]

My mom and I go to "the bounce house." [Jack climbing up a tall slide]

My mother is great because "she gives me candy whenever I ask." [Jack holding his Easter basket]

It's my favorite Mother's Day gift so far!

But I have some comments/rebuttals to some things.

For a couple years, Jack has been sleeping with his lights on at night. It really doesn't bother me since it doesn't seem to bother him but I am proud of him when he turns his lights off.

I think it's funny that he chose Tangled as the book we read because I have been reading Star Wars books to him every day for months. But I think the last time he was practicing his reading, we were using the Tangled book because it's for beginning readers.

I didn't know he likes to go shopping so much. I guess the last few times he's come along to the commissary, we've had a pretty good time. It's more of a novelty for him now that he doesn't go every week. And he gets a donut at the end. That's new since he started school.

The last statement probably surprised me the most because I spend so much time trying to come up with healthy, homemade food that he will eat. But the statement is probably accurate lately because I do give him candy when he asks but that's because we had to get rid of that basket of Easter candy somehow. And he usually only asks when he knows I'll let him, like after lunch or dinner. And today I told him to just finish it! The Easter candy is finally gone.

Mother's Day Preview

2011-05-05T20:35:00.000-04:00

I got a great preview of Mother's Day today. Pat has duty on Sunday and therefore will be at work all day so I asked Jack and Casey if they were going to make it special for me on Sunday.

Casey said that she is going to make me a big card. She is also going to put my hair in ponytails for me and make pancakes.

Jack has quite a list and I think I shall be quite pampered. He started off by saying that he is going to "do the sink" for me. Then he's going to do a lot of cleaning. He's also going to give me the most cards. He will make dinner - he thought a salad would be nice and he would cut the tomatoes. Then he is going to tuck me into bed and he's not going to read me stories but he's going to tell me stories. If I get sick, Jack is going to get out his doctor's kit and take care of me. He will also give me lots of hugs and kisses all day long.

What more could I ask for?

Jack decided he would get a head start on the cleaning today. He ran upstairs, I heard some banging around and down he came with the feather duster. He went all around the downstairs remarking that, "We haven't dusted in a while Mommy!"

He also got to work on his salad tonight. I told him dinner was going to be whatever healthy snacks he wanted and he decided he would make a salad. "What is that stuff you usually put in a salad Mommy?" I told him it was lettuce, but it was up too high for him to reach in the fridge so he decided on a fruit salad instead. He picked out all the fruit, I chopped it up and he put it in the bowl. Then he talked for five minutes about how great his recipe was and wasn't I glad that he had come up with it. I didn't realize how much fruit we had in the house until he started pulling things out of the crisper. He topped it with some vanilla yogurt and that was dinner.

I'm really looking forward to what he comes up with on Sunday!

And here are some random dress up pictures from a few days ago...

Butterfly with an eye patch in the middle of her forehead

That pink guitar is a gun in this situation. I think that's a storm trooper outfit.

Jack's Easter Tie

2011-04-27T20:18:00.000-04:00

Casey had a brand new Easter dress and an Easter bonnet to wear on Sunday, but Jack just had a pair of khakis and a dress shirt. So on Wednesday, when this tie tutorial on the Little Birdie Secrets blog popped up in my Google reader, I decided to make it immediately. Actually, first I asked Jack if he wanted a tie. He was a little ambivalent. Then I showed him some cute owl fabric I bought and he liked the blue and green owls and said I could make it for him.

At this point, it was the day before our 4 day trip to Ocean City for Easter weekend and I had packed nothing. There has been a quilt sitting on my dining room table for ever and I haven't touched it in weeks. But I decided I should make a tie.

Thankfully it was simple and easy to make except for burning my fingers with steam a few times. I called on Jake and the Neverland Pirates to entertain the kids for a bit and created a cute little tie for Jack. The worst part was getting him to try it on. He wasn't completely resistant but he thought it was a good time to be silly and it made buttoning and unbuttoning little buttons and trying to gage how long it should be difficult.

Our modeling session went pretty well though...

And here's the little secret...it goes around his neck with a piece of elastic instead of being tied!

Easter Weekend

2011-04-25T21:27:00.002-04:00

We loaded up the car and headed to Ocean City to join Pat's family for Easter weekend. When we went in February, I packed based on the temperature and failed to factor in the wind and it was so cold there! The fleece wasn't enough - I needed my down jacket. This time, I thought I packed enough warm clothes, adding a cardigan or sweatshirt with every outfit and I was still freezing. I missed my fleece. When I took the kids to the playground on Friday, I had to resort to using the rock climbing wall as a wind break to stay warm. By Sunday it finally warmed up and everyone was asking each other if they had thought to bring sandals or flip flops or shorts.

Thankfully the Easter Bunny knew to look for us in Ocean City. He brought a very Star Wars themed bag of goodies for Jack and some Star Wars and Princess themed items for Casey. I slept awful the night before Easter...kind of reminded me of when I was little and would listen for the Easter bunny or keep waking up and wondering if it was time to get up yet. This time I was worried because I didn't tell Jack and Casey to yell from their bedroom when they were awake. I didn't want them to come out and see their baskets before I could catch their reactions. I also wanted to make sure we were all up early enough to play with toys, eat breakfast and get dressed before Mass at 8:30. So I woke up three times in the night to check the time and then we ended up having to wake Jack and Casey anyway.

Jack was hilarious when he woke up. He was still a little groggy from sleep but so excited because he knew that it was Easter morning. The first thing he said was "I bet the Easter bunny hid something in Brady's stroller for us to find!" Hmmm, the Easter bunny didn't think that that was the first place the kids might look or even think of as a good hiding place.

We all had a wonderful weekend together with delicious food, great company and the entertainment of watching 5 cousins, all under the age of 5 play and interact with each other. It seemed like a pretty relaxing weekend at the time, but when I think about everything we did, it seems it was quite a busy weekend. We went to the playground, got Jack a haircut, snooped around the hardware store, tried to teach Nana about Star Wars, drew a Star Wars character guide for Nana, colored in our new coloring books, went to a children's craft fair, said hi to the Easter bunny a few times, played baseball & soccer, shot discs in the air with our new toys, played with new toys, played with the babies, went to church and sat nicely, went swimming in the pool, played at the beach, rode bikes around the neighborhood, went to an egg hunt, took part in an egg/spoon race, walked around the neighborhood, fought lightsaber battles with Jedi Bob (who apparently knows Yoda), played with bubbles, watched a little tv, watched the Flyers lose and win, cleaned the beach house for the next renters, played hide-and-seek, red light green light, and Simon Says and ate a lot of animal crackers and "dirt". And there was more but I think that pretty much captures the weekend pretty well.

Easter Party

2011-04-18T20:13:00.000-04:00

Since this week is spring break, Jack's Easter party at school was on Friday and I was the party planning mom. I was trying to bookmark ideas I have seen on the internet since Thanksgiving but at the last minute, I just went to Disney's Family Fun website and found everything I needed. It was really 6 days before the party but it felt like last minute to me.

I had to come up with some snacks and a craft and then we had an Easter egg hunt. I made these cute little carrot gardens for the snack. The dirt is pumpkin hummus and I don't think any of the kids ate it. A few ate some of the unadorned carrots that I also brought. To make the carrots, I used a toothpick to put a hole in the top of the carrot and then stuck a sprig of parsley in each one.

This is my favorite part of the snack...the bunny face sandwich. I used sandwich rounds, fluff for the face, peanut butter for the ears, pretzels for the whiskers, a strawberry marshmallow bit for the nose and chocolate chips for the eyes. We had some fruit on the side and carrot cake cupcakes for dessert. The cupcakes were pretty delicious...they were this recipe from the Smitten Kitchen blog.

While I was crafting my sandwiches before the party, Jack's teacher was working on another craft with the kids. She called it a Harry Potter-esque bunny face. The kids looked pretty kooky with their big glasses and big bunny teeth.

For some reason we decided to sneak a learning moment into the egg hunt so I labeled the eggs with numbers and each child was supposed to find one of each number. They were a little too excited to care what numbers they got and started throwing eggs into their basket. Then the parents ended up going around to each other and asking, "Does anyone have a 10...I have to two 8's but we need a 10..." and trying to make sure everyone had the same amount of eggs. Oh, and the craft was the Easter egg basket that they are all holding. We turned green paper bags into baskets and decorated them with stickers.

It was a fun little party but my party planning skills are on break until next year...when I will have two classrooms of opportunity to sign up for parties!

Rotten Eggs and Broken Backs

2011-04-07T19:47:00.000-04:00

Last February, I wrote (here) that Pat had started yelling "Last one up is a rotten egg!" to try to encourage Jack and Casey to get upstairs for bathtime. It's been over a year and it never. gets. old. Especially to Jack. Almost every single time we go up and down the stairs at the same time he has to say it. Most mornings now he says something like, "Mommy, Mommy, you need to hurry or you'll be the rotten egg." Or sometimes he whispers to Casey in a conspiratorial voice to try to encourage her to get down the stairs faster than I do. (Although most of the time I still carry her downstairs in the morning. I guess it's a ritual because I know she knows how to walk.) I guess I can't get over the fact that it is still a fun game despite the 3-4 times a day that we play it.

Another game that doesn't get old started with my mother. She taught Jack and Casey the little saying, "Step on a crack and you'll break your mother's back." There are a lot of cracks in this world. Jack and Casey notice every single one of them and inform me that they are either stepping on them or jumping over them. I'm not sure how they decide whether it's a good day for breaking my back or a generous day of sparing me the pain. When they step on a crack I pretend to cry out in pain and that's hilarious. I suppose that only encourages the game, but it's so much fun for them that I have to play along.

No one tells you about these hazards of parenting...smelling like a rotten egg and broken backs. I'm glad there are no cracks on my steps.

The Star Wars Obsession Continues

2011-04-02T19:57:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I found a book at the library called Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary. It has pictures of every Star Wars Lego set made in the last 10 years. When we first got it from the library it was in really good shape, almost new. Since then, Jack has thumbed through it so many times that it now looks a little "aged." I decided he needed his own copy of the book and when a friend told me they had it at TJ Maxx, I stopped by and picked it up for him.

The book I bought came with a special mini-figure of "Celebration Luke." As soon as he saw the mini-figure, he went crazy. "Mommy! Mommy! It's Luke! It's Celebration Luke! I didn't have that one Mommy! This one came with Celebration Luke! Now I don't have to use the other one that isn't really Luke!" I pretended I didn't know that the book came with Luke and it was a surprise to me and he just kept talking about Celebration Luke. I'm not sure he got that excited on Christmas morning. Pat and I were talking last night about how Jack makes you want to buy him things because he is so excited about them and he loves playing with them. And yet, we don't really need to buy him any of them because he has turned all the other Legos in his collection into intricately built spaceships and is constantly working on a new space creation. He even created his own R2-D2.

Every night we read little tidbits from each page of his book about the different sets or the different mini-figures. The facts and information he has picked up from this book and other Star Wars books we have gotten at the library are incredible. Last week when my parents were in town, I heard him explaining something to Grampie about Star Wars and it was verbatim out of a book we had read. In fact, I'm not sure Jack has talked about anything besides Star Wars in the last few weeks.

But we can't leave Casey out of this obsession either. She's not quite living in a Star Wars world like Jack, but she's absorbing a lot of it too. She started out with a pretty good impersonation of Chewy and now she sings the Darth Vader theme song right along with Jack. They were watching Empire Strikes Back in the car a few days ago and she said, "Mommy - Leia loves Han Solo. But Han Solo is getting frozen now so Leia loves Luke." At which point I made sure she knew Luke and Leia were brother and sister. The cutest thing about Casey though, is listening to her say everyone's name. I love it when she says Padme Amidala. We got a new book at the library today that has a group picture of everyone standing together. Casey can tell you everyone in that picture and it's so cute that I had to get a video of it:

Secret Passageway

2011-03-30T20:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Jack was determined to find a secret passageway through one of our walls. He started by locking me in the bathroom (even though the lock was on my side) and telling me I needed to find a secret passage to get out. When I couldn't find one, he went through the house tapping on walls and asking me if I thought there might be a passage there. "Mommy, the floor is kind of spongy here. Do you think there's a secret passage under the carpet?"

As we went downstairs, he grabbed his toy tools and started tapping and "drilling" on the walls in various places. Casey started to ask me if we could play Candyland but Jack piped up with, "We don't have time for games, Casey! We have to find a secret passage!"

Here is a video of the search:

A Day of Green and Rainbows

2011-03-18T19:21:00.000-04:00

Jack's class had a small party for St. Patrick's Day and I was one of the party planning moms. I guess when I'm not THE party planning mom I'm not as neurotic about it. Also, since I've known for a while that I would be helping out, I was keeping an eye out for good ideas on the world wide web. At One Charming Party, I found a great recipe for green smoothies so I whipped up some of those. I also saw a rainbow fruit platter somewhere (sorry I don't remember where) and I made my own fruit rainbow. The other mom made rainbow cupcakes and brought the craft. I also learned that it's really hard to take pictures of food as you're making it if your kitchen is not clean. I have a whole new level of respect for the food bloggers who take a lot of pictures.

This is O'Jack. The kids were adorable in their leprechaun hats and beards. I thought I took more pictures of all of them but I guess it was the other moms who did that.

Jack was really excited to tell me all about what the leprechaun did to their classroom. He was a pretty tricky and mischievous fellow as he managed to escape the traps that the kids set up and he left a trail of dirty green footprints all over the room. It was so cute to hear Jack explain this all to me. The little leprechaun also stopped by the boys' bathroom and used the urinals.

Last summer when Jack was deep in his "Lucky Charms for breakfast every morning" phase, he wanted to know if leprechaun's were "real in our life." We talked about them for quite a while and I wrote a blog post. At the time I think he was leaning towards no, but after this St. Patrick's Day experience, I think he is a believer. Where else did that green pee come from?

Fashion for the 3 Year Old

2011-03-14T20:00:00.000-04:00

The third part of Casey's two weeks of growing up is that she can now get herself dressed. Strangely, she's spent more time undressed than before she was able to dress herself.

In the mornings after breakfast, I usually send Jack to his room to get dressed and then I either get dressed or help Casey get dressed. One morning while I was brushing my teeth Jack came in and very excitedly told me, "Mommy, Casey can get dressed all by herself!" Sure enough, Casey was wearing some ensemble that she had picked out and I think it actually matched.

Since then, she mostly gets herself dressed. The only thing she can't do is take her shirt off (in preparation for putting on a new one). I try to let her pick out her clothes and she does a decent job. Sometimes I try to guide her a little better and sometimes I let her wear what she wants and ~~laugh at her~~ smile to myself every time I look at her.

Lately, afternoons have turned into dress up time. Casey will usually run to her room to change into a princess dress or dancing dress or her special mermaid garb. Last week, Casey decided that she wanted to be a mermaid and I guess she thinks mermaids don't wear clothes because when Casey is a mermaid she only wears underwear. I'm pretty sure Ariel is clothed in all the books we have of her, but maybe mermaid fin and bikini top are as good as naked in Casey's world. Either way, it can be entertaining to see how Casey's outfits evolve through the afternoon. And there's usually a trail of clothes and shoes throughout the house.

This is one of my favorite outfits that Casey has personally styled. Backwards football jersey over a black Halloween shirt, neon orange skirt over purple leggings, princess socks with pink shoes. Sadly we will never see an exact replica of this outfit again because she got the purple leggings caught in a branch while climbing a tree and they have a big hole in them.

Casey is modeling her new tutu and play ballet shoes in this picture. She accessorized with a headband and beads.

I didn't realize the purple leggings were so popular. This ensemble is for grocery shopping. It's hard to tell but she has a baby carrier in her right hand and the baby is hanging out of it rather precipitously. In her left hand she has her reusable grocery bag with some fresh produce. Princess heels, long white gloves and a pink striped hat are essential for looking good at the grocery store. Jack also chose his own clothing. I'm not too keen on that combination of black and blue but if he gets himself dressed, it's a win for me.

This is my little artist. He put this hat on and told me it was his painting hat. How did he know that he should wear that hat? I haven't a clue.

Casey is an artist as well. She was only wearing underwear before we brought out the easel. That's her painting shirt. I guess she needs painting pants as well.

Potty Training Child #2

2011-03-10T19:00:00.001-05:00

A couple days after I took the front off Casey's crib, she told me she wanted to wear underwear instead of a diaper. I think we had told her that she could get a big-girl bed after she started going on the potty, but it seems like she heard it the other way around.

Back during the first weekend in January, Pat had duty on a Saturday and we had no plans so I decided it would be a good day to start potty training Casey.  8 pairs of wet underwear and 4 pairs of pants later, I think it is safe to call it a potty training failure. Not once did she go on the potty despite all her talk about not peeing on the princesses or Dora (on her undies). I decided to give it a break and try again later. I gave it a few half-hearted attempts in the next few weeks and each time a poor princess would get wet again or Dora would be cursing in Spanish.

I didn't have the highest of hopes when Casey told me she wanted to wear underwear, but I figured it was a good sign. After 5 hours and multiple attempts on the potty, she finally went on the potty and not in her underwear!  And we finally had potty training success just a few weeks shy of her 3rd birthday. In the first week she had a couple of accidents but since then she's been great. We had a few issues with using public bathrooms but I can't really blame her and she was able to hold out until we got home.

Everyone says that girls are so much easier to potty train than boys but I didn't believe that for a while.  I also heard that girls potty train closer to 2 than to 3. I was feeling a little pressure...I think Jack was potty trained earlier than Casey was. But once she decided she was ready to do it, it did turn out to be easier than Jack. It took a good month of me checking to see if Jack had to go to the potty every 3 hours and it took a long time to go #2 on the potty and not in his underwear. Those were some slightly gross days of hoping to get a pull up on him before he went in his underwear.

So now Casey can and does do everything herself. She even sends me out of the room if at first she does ask me for something.  The only thing she has trouble with is turning on the faucet to wash her hands.  We're still in pull-ups for night time but it's so great to say that we are diaper free! And Casey is the new owner of a princess suitcase from her proud Nana.

Casey's New Bed

2011-03-08T20:59:00.000-05:00

More than a month ago, I was planning to write a post about Casey and all her "big girl" accomplishments at the time. So better late than never, and with new and improved big girl-ness I'm finally getting to it.

Basically, within two weeks, (and about two weeks before her 3rd birthday) Casey started sleeping in a big girl bed, potty trained and started dressing herself. At the time, I couldn't believe it was all happening so quickly and it was relatively painless.

One weekend, I just decided it was time to take the front off of her crib thereby turning it into a big-girl bed. I removed a few screws and Casey was so happy and jumped right in her bed.

I thought bedtime was going to turn into a struggle but it really hasn't. She still goes right to bed and even if she needs to come out, she yells for me instead of coming out on her own. Usually she doesn't need to come out as much as she needs me to fetch her hole blankie for her or her pillow pet or a specific baby. Most of the time she still yells for me in the mornings too when she wakes up...although I would rather her just come into my room so I can turn on the tv and lay in bed for a little while longer.

The downside of the big girl bed is that she doesn't nap every day anymore. Ever since we took her pacifier away, her naps haven't been great but now she doesn't take one at all sometimes. I really thought I would be so sad the day that naps went away but I'm finding it gives me a lot more flexibility and time to get errands done if I need to. I'm no longer a slave to being home between 1 and 3 in the afternoon. But, most days I am home and I try to get her to take a nap. Sometimes she's just not going to take one. Usually she has to use the potty 2 or 3 times on those days, spaced out about 20 minutes between each trip. Sometimes I give up at that point and other times I yell at her and she finally takes a nap.

If I think about it too much, I get sad that she's not the amazing sleeper that she used to be. Every since she started sleeping through the night she's been a great napper and for a long time she slept until at least 8am every morning. Lately, she's even been waking up before 7 which was once unheard of with her. But, I'm sure as she gets older she is needing less and less sleep. On days that she doesn't nap though, it gets pretty obvious that she needed one by about 4 or 5pm. She gets dramatic and grabby and cranky and is constantly being a little bug to Jack.

Fast forward to this past weekend and she is now in a really big big-girl bed. The back of her crib is now the headboard to her new bed. She has a pretty purple comforter and some pink sheets and she is a pretty happy girl. Now we just need to work on keeping her in the middle of the bed and not falling on the floor. And I need to recenter those pictures or find something else to put on her walls. The beautiful orange piece of paper on the wall is some original artwork by Jack. It says To Casey From Jack and has a picture of Casey that he drew. As soon as I said I was going to take some pictures he ran to create this because he thought the room needed a little more decorating.

The Star Wars Invasion

2011-02-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

We are in the midst of a full blown obsession with Star Wars. Well, Jack is. Casey follows along a little bit. I've always liked the original Star Wars movies, so I have no problem watching them over and over again. Especially when you watch them with Jack...I tend to miss a lot while I'm answering his questions.

It seems like there has been a resurgence of Star Wars lately. A lot of Jack's friends got light sabers for Christmas and I didn't understand why all the renewed interest. But I've since realized that there is a new Star Wars animated show and it's also the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. And there's probably something about 4 and 5 year old boys that just makes them like Star Wars.

Strangely, Jack's new interest started on New Year's Day. We were watching the Rose Bowl Parade and there were some Storm Troopers marching across the TV screen. Jack wanted to know who they were and what they did so I told him there was a movie called Star Wars. Since he's so interested in space and stars, this piqued his interest and he asked if he could watch the movie.

I thought he might be too young to watch the movies but I bought Episode IV (the first one) and played it one day. He loved it. Upon first viewing, he wasn't as much concerned about the plot but he loved all the creatures and good guys vs. bad guys theme and the fighting and the light sabers. He gets that it's not real and what's not to love about the fantastic feat of imagination needed to create these movies. He thinks Darth Vader is funny in his costume and the Storm Troopers are funny. And he doesn't get the love story or really care.

Then, my sister sent Jack some Star Wars Legos for Valentine's Day. And Jack couldn't have been happier. It was a merge of his two favorite things at the moment - Legos and Star Wars. He got the good guys and was begging and begging for some bad guys so he could set up a proper scene with the Legos. I finally got him some as a gift on Casey's birthday.

So, now we have Legos and we've watched the original movies. The kids go around the house singing the Darth Vader theme. They've turned cardboard boxes into starfighters and police helmets into Jedi helmets. Casey even has a hilarious impression of Chewy. Jack has turned most of his Legos into spacecraft and space stations and death stars. Today he realized he could turn one of his Lego sets into a great hover craft like Luke flies in the first movie.

On Saturday, we went to Target. I let the kids browse the toy aisles and when Jack got to the Star Wars aisle, he said, "Mommy, I got the shakes and shivers when I saw the Star Wars toys." And if that didn't make me want to buy him whatever Star Wars toys he wanted, I don't know what would. But I didn't because he didn't ask...because I told them we weren't getting any toys and if they didn't whine they would get a special treat. (I took them to a Cupcake Truck. Like an ice cream cup, but with cupcakes!)

So far, this has been my favorite interest of Jack's. We've been through cars, dinosaurs and trains (and more) but there's a little bit of a Star Wars dork in me that loves being Mom to a boy who loves Star Wars.

Casey is 3!

2011-02-18T21:42:00.000-05:00

Casey turned 3 yesterday! I was telling Pat that I can vividly remember almost everything about the morning she was born. Hard to believe that was 3 years ago.

After the big festivities of the weekend, Casey's birthday was pretty low key, but we had a nice day. Pat had duty so he gave her the big birthday gift on Wednesday night. Casey now has a big two-wheel bike with training wheels like Jack's. Her reaction to getting the bike was funny. She just sat there and kind of laughed uncertainly for about 5 minutes. Then we went outside for the last few minutes of daylight. She hopped on the bike and rode it like she's been on it for a year already. She and Jack cruised around the cul-de-sacs and then parked them away for the night.

We were up bright and early yesterday and outside on our bikes by 8am. (First they insisted I take a picture of them hugging though...not sure what's up with that.) I am so glad that we had weather where we could do that. It seems a little risky to be buying a bike in February and expecting to be able to ride it but lucky and blessed we have been with beautiful weather the past couple days.

After dropping Jack off at school and going to the gym, I took Casey on a little trip to Toys'r'Us. I let her pick out a couple things for her birthday. (I had never been to a Toys'r'Us until I had kids.) We looked at all the princess stuff and the babies and the ponies and all things pink. I was hoping we would find something a little different from what we already had though. Luckily she found a pink guitar and decided that's what she wanted. And then we found the umbrella section and she was so excited about an umbrella. She walked around the store with it and out to the car. She can't wait for it to rain.

After an unsuccesful attempt at getting Casey to nap, we opened her presents from Maine and a couple other little things I got her.

She was very excited about getting her own scissors...

No cake, but we had some girl scout cookies to round out the day. She was a pretty happy birthday girl and went to sleep in her new Princess sleeping bag.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T20:25:00.000-05:00

My Valentine's Day started off nice and early. For some reason I couldn't sleep so I decided to get up and be crafty at 5am. I made these little heart boxes with my Silhouette cutting machine, added a little note and then put little bags of homemade marshmallows in them for Jack's classmates.

When Jack got up, I had to force him to write his name a few more times on his Valentine's cards. He had already cut out a bunch of hearts and put stickers all over them. He was supposed to write his classmates' names on all of them, but he only got one done. The funny thing is that we started really early with making his valentines. I guess it was too early because he was excited about making them in January and then had no desire to do much more with them in the last couple weeks.

He had a nice little class party. This was the first party where I've actually seen him interact with his classmates. At other times, he was focused on Casey and I being there and not interacting with his friends. Yesterday he was telling jokes and talking to everyone at his table. He actually came up with a pretty funny joke - "Why did the bear cross the fire? He wanted to get fired up."

We worked on valentines for Daddy in the afternoon and played outside. For Pat's valentines we got a little crafty. We taped some heart shapes into baking pans. Then covered some marbles with paint and rolled them around in the paint to make "marbled hearts." It was a cute little craft but didn't take nearly as much time as I wanted it to.

Dinner turned out to be a hit though. We made our own heart shaped ravioli. I got the idea from a blog called little things bring smiles and her Valentine Inspired Dinner Party. I put 1 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of water in some bowls and told the kids to dig in and turn it into dough. After we kneaded it for a while, we rolled it out, cut it into heart shapes and added a little cheese. It wasn't the greatest pasta but the kids liked it, even after it was cooked and they loved making it. I would have liked some pictures but my hands were covered in dough the whole time.

Overall it was a nice Valentine's Day. I wish I had done some Valentine decorating but I just didn't get there this year. I saw so many cute ideas in the blog world. Maybe next year.

Casey's 3rd Birthday Party

2011-02-14T20:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Casey's birthday party. We held it at a place called the Bounce House, which is exactly what it sounds like. The kids run around and bounce on all the big inflatable objects and get all worn out. Then they get very hungry, eat lots of chips and wait ~~patiently~~ for the pizza to arrive. Then they eat pizza and go bounce some more. Then they eat cake and bounce a little more. By the end of the two hours, hopefully they are exhausted and ready for bed!

I struggled with this party a little bit. Pat would have been happy if we'd just ordered pizza and bought a cake. I wanted it a little more personal and homemade. It was also a princess party, but there's not much princess-y when you're at a bounce house and 2/3 of the guests are boys. I wasn't sure what to get/make for party favors that was somewhat gender neutral. So a lot of things ended up being a little more last minute that I would have liked because I simply couldn't make a decision, couldn't find the right balance between getting junky favors and not spending way too much time making something.

Somehow I stumbled onto making homemade marshmallows. I almost didn't make them because everything else I made on Saturday (day before the party) didn't turn out right. I was surprised when the marshmallows turned out to be the easiest thing I made. And they were so cute. I cut heart shaped out of them and put them in little bags.

Leftover marshmallows after I cut out the hearts

Cute little marshmallows

These are the marshmallows all bagged up along with a chocolate covered pretzel. Jack and Casey helped make the pretzels and had a great time. They weren't quite as polished as I might have liked, but I'm guessing they still tasted good with the 3 to 5 year old crowd. Then I added some Play-Do and stickers and put them all in a party favor cup. A cup because that's what I had and I wasn't making another trip to a store.

Pat took Casey to get a princess dress for her party. She was so excited to put it on and put a pretty headband in her hair. She wanted to wear the princess heels but she had to suffice with just bringing them in the car. And that's Jack, who doesn't like you to take a picture of him unless he thinks he being deliberately excluded. Then he jumps right in.

And here is the princess cake. I was terrified to decorate this lady, but I thought she turned out pretty well for my first foray into princess cake decorating. And it turned out to be easier than I thought. As long as you remember to put the decorating tip into the bottom of the piping bag before you put all the icing in there, it's not too bad. Once I started making all those pretty little flower bits, it was kind of fun. Casey was completely confused as to how the doll got clothes and how I made her dress.

Of all the guests at the party, Casey probably spent the least amount of time bouncing. She just wanted to hang out in the party room and look at all the pretty plates and decorations. I guess she was just being a princess. I even brought pants because I wasn't sure she would want to bounce around in her dress but she preferred to stay in character.

There was some intense air hockey. Jack loves this game.

Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Casey, Happy birthday to you!

I had a great time at the party, and Casey did too. It was great to see all our friends and all their children having a fun time.

When we got home, Casey opened her presents and she is one lucky princess who now owns every princess accessory she could want or hope for.

Snow Day, Sick Day, Cleaning Day

2011-02-10T20:22:00.002-05:00

Whew! It's been a long day and somehow it was really productive and fun and a good balance of playing and accomplishing even though we made Jack's first trip to the doctor for illness and it was a snow day.

The day started with Jack's eyes being glued shut from some gunk and 3 inches of snow on the ground. School was cancelled and I managed to get a doctor's appointment at 9:20. We left the house before we usually even leave for school and it was all relatively easy to get the kids out of the house.

Jack actually likes to go to the doctor. I guess he thinks it's a fun trip. We've never really gone there because he was sick so he doesn't have any bad memories. He also thinks doctors can fix anything. He was such a little man today. He didn't say a lot but he did everything they told him told him to. He loved the blood pressure cuff...just sat there and giggled the whole time. While he was sitting up on the table and waiting for the doctor, he said, "Remember when we pretended this was a garbage truck? We're not going to do that this time because we're bigger now and we're just going to wait for the doctor." For the record, I don't remember when they pretended it was a garbage truck, but it was probably a fun game. We were in and out of the doctor's office with a diagnosis of conjuctivitis in both eyes and our prescription eye drops within 20 minutes.

At home, I started the de-germification. I don't usually worry about germs too much. I think the more we're exposed to the more we build up our immune systems and the less sick we actually are. That being said, today I had to play some defense and start a counter attack on these bad-boy germs. Every bit of linen has been washed, surfaces have been wiped, hands have been washed and washed and sanitized and washed. Because THERE IS A BIRTHDAY PARTY IN 4 DAYS and I need the birthday girl to be healthy and not get what Jack has. And I need the birthday girl's mama to be healthy too. My strategy to keep Casey from touching Jack today was to tell her that she couldn't have her birthday party if she got sick. It worked pretty well.

Along with the sanitizing, we made bread, we painted, we made another doll quilt (for Casey), we opened up some early Valentine's presents (thanks Grammie & Auntie), we played Star Wars Legos and discussed Star Wars A LOT. When I walked around the house this afternoon, I had to laugh at the disaster it was and the things I found. It was clean, but certainly not tidy. Toys everywhere...

Legos scattered...

Casey was dressed like this. (She got new underwear and tried them all on at some point in the afternoon. I don't know why she's only wearing one sock. And the t-shirt is actually her painting smock that she didn't take off after painting. At one point she had a scarf wrapped all around her very elegantly.)

I found these two boxes in my closet...

My closet was the bedroom for the babies. They were taking naps in there amongst the shoes. You can even see that Jack's baby had his bedtime story nearby. The shoebox to the left is not actually for my shoes but is a storage unit for Jack's baby's blanket when he is done with it. Originally Jack said, "Mommy, next time Grampie is here I want him to build me a shelf so that I have somewhere to put baby's blanket." Then he decided the shoebox was the perfect place for it.

There ~~were~~ are blocks all over my bedroom floor...

Lego houses dismantled on my windowsill...

Trains on my laundry baskets (at least the baskets weren't full of dirty clothes)...

Easels in the middle of my kitchen...

And a lot of junk on my kitchen table...

But you have to give Casey points for ~~not listening~~ going after what she wants...

I gave an empty tissue box to Jack (for a space station I think). Casey wanted one too, so I told her she could have the next one, when all the tissues were gone. Next thing I know, Jack is saying, "Yay, Casey you have one now too!" and she is holding up an empty box. An empty box that used to be completely full, leaving the pile of tissues on a chair.

Despite the odds (sick kid, snow day, no naps) this day turned out pretty great. Most of the toys are away, Lego land has been restored to order, Casey is fully clothed again, the babies are still napping peacefully, the tissues are so much easier to access, Jack's eyes are better, Casey's eyes are still good, the fourth load of laundry is drying, and there is dough just waiting to be baked for fresh bread tomorrow. It's time for me to go enjoy my own clean sheets I think.

Finally...Baby Gets a Quilt

2011-02-04T14:47:00.002-05:00

Jack is a funny little boy. Just before Christmas, while I was in the middle of furiously trying to finish up some of the quilts that I gifted, Jack was adamant that his baby needed a quilt. He was very persuasive...Casey's babies had blankets and his baby didn't have one. I had just seen a tutorial on how to turn a pillowcase into a blanket for a doll on a blog called MADE and thought it was a cute idea if I were ever in need of making a quick baby blanket. It turns out that I was in need.

After Christmas, when Casey's babies got whole bedding sets (and bunk beds), the pressure was on even more. I told him I would look for a pillowcase that we could turn into a blanket for his baby. After a couple of trips into thrift stores in the last month, I couldn't find any that were suitable for Jack or his baby. But today, I went to a sale at the local quilt shop and they had some Cars fabric. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was just right for Jack's baby's quilt - the right size, the right print and the right price. For the back, I found a piece of red fabric with street signs.

As soon as Jack saw the fabric after school, he was begging me to make the quilt. 30 minutes after Casey went down for her nap, baby had a quilt and Jack was a happy little boy. While I was making it, Jack helped with the pins and also told me his thoughts on blankets - "The hole blankets [crocheted] are the hardest to make because when you're tying it around, it's hard to make the holes with the wool. And the bumpy ones are hard to make too because it's hard to make the bumps." For clarification, his bumpy blankets are just thermal receiving blankets.

After he got baby's quilt, he ran upstairs to get his quilt and actually asked me to take a picture of them together under their quilts. He keeps saying it's a very special day for him. So here they are...nice and comfy.

My Dancing Queen

2011-02-01T20:32:00.001-05:00

Casey started her dance class at the Little Gym today. She is officially a Jazzy Bug. She was very excited this morning as we were getting ready to leave the house and was twirling around and around and doing her interpretation of dance. Jack was not impressed. "I don't think you're going to be doing that at dance class Casey," he told her in his most authoritative voice.

She was a little timid to go into the dance room by herself but once the class started and Miss Sarah gathered all the girls together, she pretty much forgot about me. They started with some tap dancing. All the girls stood in a circle and held hands and tapped their toes into the middle. You could tell Casey was probably the youngest in the class because her balance wasn't as great as the older girls, but she followed along really well.

Then they switched to their ballet shoes. At this point, I knew Casey loved the class. They got pretty little handkerchiefs to wave around and they just stood on their tiptoes and tried to gracefully move around the room. She loved it. She watched herself in the mirror and she waved her arms around and she spun in circles. I think it was exactly what she envisioned a dance class to be.

After dancing they spend the second half of the class in the gymnastics room working on different skills and I was proud of her for following the teachers and staying with her class since this was the first time I wasn't in the room to "guide" her.

Since I have never done anything dance related, I didn't even think about what type of shoes we might need. Luckily the Little Gym had shoes for her to borrow. After class, I took her to the shoe store to get her own tap and ballet shoes and she has been talking about her new shoes all afternoon. I told her she couldn't wear them outside so she has just been carrying her ballet shoes around with her and asking me to retie the bows. She's breaking the tap shoes in now (while she wears an apron and cooks in her toy kitchen.)

So there's been some dancing, some new shoe wearing and some discussion as to whether Casey is a "ballereen" or a "balleriner". Here's a video with some commentary by Jack as Casey showed off her new shoes this afternoon:

Casey has already asked if she can go back tomorrow. Poor thing has to wait a week.

Show Week - Jack

2011-01-31T20:08:00.000-05:00

Jack got to shine at Show Week at the Little Gym last week too. He was in a Sports Skills class with 4-6 year olds. Every few weeks they switched to a different sport - football, basketball, soccer, and a little bowling. He loved going every week and was very excited for Little Gym night. For his show, all the parents went into the gym and he got to show off for us. He started at Little Gym a year and a half ago and it's amazing how much he has grown and improved. Next semester he is going to take a karate class.

Show Week for Casey

2011-01-24T20:36:00.000-05:00

It's Show Week at the Little Gym. Today was the last week of the semester and friends and family were invited to come watch the kids play. For me, it meant that I brought my camera and took lots of pictures of Casey while she was playing and showing off today.

All summer long, Casey said, "I'm going to Little Gym after summer!" She was so excited about starting class and being a Super Beast. Since she started her class I hear, "Is it Little Gym day?" almost every day. Every class is exciting for her and she has so much fun. It is a parent/child class and it's been fun for me to go in and share this with her every week. Plus, I have all the Little Gym songs memorized which is great, especially when they get stuck in your head on other days of the week. Some days I've just "got those veggie blues".

Next week we start a new semester and Casey is going to be a Jazzy Bug and learn some dancing along with the gymnastics. And she's going all by herself. I get to sit out in the lobby and watch.

This is how excited she was to run around the big red mat.

This is actually four different jumps...and each time I caught her at a different point. She was happy to keep jumping for me as I tried to catch her mid-air.

Time for a little break.

Best Day Ever

2011-01-23T20:11:00.000-05:00

For some reason, Jack proclaimed today as "the best day I ever had." I'm not sure how it beats other days but I guess it was pretty good in his book.

We went to church early this morning. Jack solemnly told Auntie, "When we get there Auntie, Casey and I leave and go to a classroom and we stay there for a long time. So we won't stay with you." After the children's liturgy, Jack and Casey came back with cutouts of doves. Jack had stickers on his and some extra stickers and Casey didn't have any stickers on her dove and no extras. I couldn't get any details as to why this happened. When I asked Jack what kind of bird he had, he said, "It's a space bird."

We hung out at home and whined for a while after church. That evolved into some serious Lego playing (we were able to attach a ladder to a house and the workerman got to work) and the whining subsided.

While Casey was napping, I asked Jack if he wanted to watch a movie. "Max and Ruby??" he wanted to know. But instead I told him we could watch Star Wars and he thought that was much better. So we sat on the couch and watched it. Jack asked approximately 532 questions that usually weren't related to the plot and didn't want me to read the scrolling words from the beginning. "What are the names of the Storm Troopers? --- What kind of animal [alien] is that? --- What color are the good guys wearing?" He really just wanted to get to the fight in the desert. I don't even know if it's in Star Wars or one of the other movies or how he even knows about a fight in the desert. Then our fabulous DVD player started skipping and pausing and I had to postpone the rest of the viewing.

After naptime, we headed to the mall and the kids got to play in the playland, also known as germland. I normally don't worry much about germs, but last time we left there I think the kids instantly had a runny nose. But the kids like it and it burns off energy on a cold day. And Jenn got to go look at Vera Bradley purses.

For dinner, we went to the Greene Turtle. Both Jack & Casey were excited to go there. It was when we got our food and Jack started munching on his apples that he said it was the best day ever. It must have been the super special and oh-so-rare treat of sliced apples that tipped the scale and made this the best day. And just to make it better, I let them have the 2 leftover candy canes on our way home.

Church, Legos, Star Wars, Playland at the mall and apples for dinner - best day ever, right?