Kansas City

Since I'm currently in the middle of another road trip I should probably hurry and get some posts up about our past few road adventures. Way way back (in April) we joined up with a handful of other families and headed to MO to go to the open house for the new Kansas City temple.

 Click here for more information on LDS temples. 

 

Since the kids aren't old enough to attend the temple with us once it's been dedicated we thought we'd take the opportunity for them to be able to see what one looks like on the inside.  It was wonderful to share the experience with them (even if Miss A managed to make a little scene by knocking a panel off the wall-- so much for the "don't touch anything" rule) 

 

 

as well as the 6 other families (14 adults, 26 kids)

 

While we were in the area we headed over to Liberty to check out some church historical sites.  It was crazy to think of the men, including the prophet Joseph Smith being unjustly imprisoned in the tiny jail during the cold of winter.

We also spent a little time seeing the sites in the city--visiting the crown center, eating BBQ, driving around lots of pretty neighborhoods (code for getting lost A LOT) and swimming. The most memorable part of our adventures around the city (aside from the sodeepi we won't talk about during the aforementioned getting lost in the neighborhoods) was probably eating at Fritz's where your waiter is a little electric train. 

Even with all it's ups and downs, I'm glad we went on our little adventure.

The comings and goings of May

So it's probably pretty obvious that I'm a little behind on my posting.  May kept us busy with end of the school year stuff, teacher gifts, and prep for Miss A's 3rd birthday (to come as soon as I get some pictures). We had some adventures like finding handfuls of Miss A's hair in her closet which lead to me wanting to rearrange her room, leading to finally painting the walls, followed closely with the opportunity to clean dark teal paint out of the light cream carpet.  I've spent the first 10 days of June catching up on everything I ignored trying to prep for Miss A's party. So in short, here is the long-awaited and really poorly recorded comings and goings of May.

While watching a commercial E announced--"I hate car insurance.  They just take all your money!" Amen to that little dude!

After his hair cut E commented, "My hair looks like daddy's except that he has more black and gray." 

E's Sunday School teacher was telling the story about how Christ called to his disciples and they immediately dropped their nets and followed him.  She tried to liken it to them by saying, "If you are doing something and your mommy asks you to do something else, what should you do?" Of course, most kids said, "Stop what you are doing and do what she is asking". E's response was "Yeah but my mom is so annoying.  She's always telling me to stop playing Legos because it's time to go to school.  She is trying to annoy me so I don't do it." 

E's teacher this year has been teaching for many many many years and has had many many students (40 of them this year alone). She usually has funny stories to tell me about his antics at school such as trying to lead her in an aerobics class at recess or randomly calling her out, saying "I'm watching you" with an appropriate gesture pointing with two fingers to his eyes than to her.  In any event, this sweet woman with A LOT of teaching experience reported to me one day that "All kids are different, but I can say that I've never taught a kid quite like E before.  Sometimes I am at home and think about him and just start laughing." Heaven help his next teacher. 

I obviously need to step up my blogging game. 

The comings and goings of April

This month's reflection is dedicated to my parents.  I have a feeling they are really going to enjoy it.

E has met the love of his life.  She is the older sister of a girl in his pre-K class.  He hopped in the car after getting a hug from her in the carpool line and she says. "I love her so much."

Me-"You don't even know her name" 

He and his teacher in unison-"But I (he) love(s) her" 

E-"I want to get her a special prize.  I want to get her a ring" 

Me-What kind of ring "A sparkly ring"

I told him that he'd have to learn her name before we could discuss buying her "special prize"

The older girl who has no name is not his only love.  One day, while we were waiting for our order at Sonic, E told me that he loved popcorn so much he was going to marry it.  Then he described the whole marriage ceremony and how he'd probably eat her after. Then he said, "This story gives me the giggles."

On another day after school, our conversation was about his order for his ice cream sundae for the class party the following day. 

Me-"what did you ask for on your ice cream?" 

E-"Just vanilla and cherries. I didn't want to get a tummy ache."

Me-" Oh so you wanted to make sure you had fun and didn't get sick."

E-"yeah and my friends who are getting candy and stuff are going to throw up and that's going to be sad."

Indeed it would be sad

Then one day after school I was helping him build a little Lego car.

E--"I love you so much. You're the best mommy ever because you are the best builder in the whole world."

Me-"Would you still love me if I couldn't build Legos."

E- "mmmm probably not"

I guess getting degrees in engineering has helped me in the mothering department.

Out of the blue-

E--"Daddy loves me too much.  He takes up all of my heart. But I want a little bit of my hearts for my friends."

Randomly-

E--"Mommy, how did you get best friends?"

Me-"I guess I just make friends with people"

E-"Oh, I just make up friends."

I'm not sure exactly what I did to deserve this but Miss A came into the living room nearly crying and said-"Mommy you took my special heart and you broke it." 

Yesterday I turned the TV to Babe--one of my favorite movies.  Miss A sat and watched it for a second and said. "Hey.  This not make sense. Ducks don't talk.  They say 'quack quack'".  Then a few minutes later when the sheep was talking. "Hey. He's supposed to say "Maaaaaa".  Apparently, she doesn't appreciate the timeless story of a selfless and nonjudgmental talking pig. 

Then at church, I took her to the bathroom right before her class.  She headed into a stall then demanded I go into one as well and "go potty". As I was washing my hand I heard a little Miss A voice singing "I did it, uhuh, I did it, Oh yeah!!!"

I think my parents have gotten what I can imagine they always wished for me. When I was a kid I always thought I was smarter than my parents because I felt like my justification when disagreeing with them was always very rational. I didn't get why they didn't get it.  Well, I finally get it. I have a daughter who must ALWAYS be right and comes up with a very valid reason why she is right.  I think she thinks I'm an idiot.  Cases in point.

• Miss A came out with thick fleece footie pjs when it was getting a little warm and I told her that she should change since those jammies were probably going to be too hot.  Her response "I'll just unzip it a little"
• We got out of the car on a crisp morning and she wasn't wearing a jacket. "Oh I'm not cold" " I love being warm"
• We were at Braums eating ice cream and she insisted on shaking salt into her ice cream.  After putting quite a bit I took it from her and told her that was enough. She took a big bite with a smile on her face and said: "Mmmm I love it".  On an unrelated note, she didn't eat anymore. 
• When I was changing for my aquatic bootcamp Miss A came in and pleaded to go with me (like usual). When I told her it was swimming for exercise not for playing she said. "It's okay.  I swim fast".
• We've been changing Miss A's room from a baby room into a princess room.  Immediately after I showed her the new vanity she said, "Okay now we paint my room".  I told her we couldn't because we didn't have paint. "Let's go buy paint". I told her we had to get E from school first. "Then let's go get E". I told her school wasn't over yet. So she yelled at me for the 20 minutes we had left before carpool time about how we needed to go get E so we could go buy paint so we could paint her room.  On the way home, she fell asleep.  The second she woke up she came out and said, "we need to go buy paint now so we can paint my room".  Unfortunately in the meantime, a storm had rolled in that was expected to have large hail.  Not wanting to risk dimpling my car I told her we couldn't go out because it was raining. "That's okay, we have jackets". When I tried to explain that the rain was more than jacket weather, she said: "Then we'll wear hats".

I can't wait til she hits the teen years. 

I find myself trying to figure out where in the world this little girly girl came from.  I know it's weird, but I sometimes think of her as Br's daughter and forget she's mine too.  But then there are days like today where I hear the door chime that tells me she's let herself out of the house again and then look out the window and see her just hanging out on the bench outside by herself and flashback to my memories as a kids escaping to the backyard hiding in the bushes, looking for bugs, imagining little adventures.  Aside from the all-pink outfit, including the skirt with "tights" (leggings) she demanded and sparkly shoes I would have never been caught dead in, it could have just as easily been me out there on the bench.  Then when she came back into the house, went to the silverware drawer, grabbed a spoon, and when I said those don't belong outside, and she assured me it was okay because "I'm not taking them all" so she could ladle water into her pretend lawnmower because "it was out of gas", I couldn't deny that she is me mine.

Somedays...

... you wake up feeling a little super.

You spend the morning being a superhero who uses his hammer to fix things. Or being a supervillain that is really sticky and goes by the name Super Yucky. 

Other days you wake up feeling royal.

So head downtown with another little princess where your carriage awaits to take you through town and you can wave and blow kisses to your adoring public.

Eggstravaganza?

Last week was filled with a playgroup party, chocolate egg topiary, Easter-themed desserts, community Easter party, 2000 eggs being collected by masses of kids in under 1 minute, and WAY too much candy.  To be honest, I really really enjoyed spending some great time with friends and family but didn't really get into it like I usually do. 

I did however really appreciate the opportunity to reflect on the sacrifice and Atonement of Jesus Christ and the blessings that come from His Gospel. I'm grateful for His plan for me that includes the fun times I get to spend with the precious gifts I call E and A. I'm so grateful for the true reasons for Easter.

The comings and the goings of Marchish

I'm going to make an attempt to capture my favorite moments into a monthly post. Don't expect them to be profound, or all that amusing.  It's just a few little things I want to remember. Here's my first attempt.

One afternoon it was a really nice day and we had nothing to do so we headed to the zoo.  After staying until closing, I turned to the kids and said, "I had a really fun time with you guys". A was a little confused at how I was able to have a good time because "Um but you didn't actually play".

E stopped to lick the fingers on his left hand while he flipped the pages of his Lego instructions with his right.  When I asked him what why he was doing that he said "cuz that what daddy does"

On two separate nights, Miss A expressed to me that she really wants to be bigger like me.  On the first night she said, "so that I can take big bites of my apple like you". On the second, "So I don't destroy the house anymore."

E got a little game in him Chick fil A meal where you are given cards with things to act out (Finally not just a book he wants to exchange for an ice cream cone).  We were eating with some friends and one by one he acting them out.  We'd almost immediately guess correctly.  EVERY time we got the same response. He would jump up with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face while throwing his arms up in the air and yell "Correct!" with the enthusiasm the SNL Target lady says "Approved!".

Last week there was a particularly gloomy day where is rained off and on.  My kids were perfect for brightening it up.  When I was coming out of Target with just E, I picked him up so he could avoid the puddles and he said, "It's raining now.  I'll be our umbrella".  I held him up high as and held his arms out as we laughed the whole way to the car. Later in the day, I was picking Miss A up from class.  When she walked outside and saw that is was raining she yanked her hand out of mine and refused to give it back.  Right before I started to reprimand her for not holding my hand in the parking lot she explained, "I'm holding my umbrella". And she was-- hold a little invisible umbrella very daintily with both hands as she sang "Chim chimney" while strolling in the rain to the car.  Totally worth getting a little wet.

Roughing it with the kids...

...at Rough Creek Lodge. After our 12th annual Fry-day Friday celebration and a quick and fun visit with family at the beginning of spring break, our next little adventure took us south into TX.  Br and I thought it was a place that we could relax a little and the kids would have a good time.  I secretly think Br only agreed to let us go because he knew they would watch and feed out kids while we were at our delicious 3-course meal (this is where I threw my diet out the window and still haven't really gotten back on track).

Upon arriving we were welcomed with a bag of goodies which included kites for the kids.  We'd barely brought the suitcases into the room when the kids were already running outside to try them out.  It was a fantastic start to our escape.  I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, Miss A's squeals or E singing "Let's go fly a kite". 

 

After running around a bit, we headed to the lake to "fish" and boat.  I say "fish" because we didn't bring extra bait on the boat so we were pretty much just casting out hooks after the first few minutes. Surprisingly we did not catch anything. 

Per A's request, we rode the pony. Despite his insistence that he didn't want to ride it, you can tell by his smile that E enjoyed it too.

 Then we just played for a little while waiting around for the hayride before dinner.   

 

 We finished the night off by making smores.  Before movies in their beds, the kids washed off the smell of hickory smoke by "swimming" in the bathtub (who said you can't go swimming when it's cold outside?).  

The next morning we had a superb breakfast.  Miss A was worrying me a little with how comfortably she was enjoying/fitting into the posh environment of the dining room where she was personally assisted in making her selections from the buffet and then carefully helped to her over-sized armchair (complete with back pillows).  We are going to have to keep an eye on that girl. 

By the time we were finished eating the blue sky had chased the gloomy clouds away and so the kids and I went out to enjoy it while daddy packed up the room.  The one thing the kids kept going back to was the teeter-totter.  At one point all rode it (talk about a leg workout).  The kids even made up a little song they would sing to the rhythm of going up and down "Teeter Totter, Teeter Totter, Lets. Have. Fun!"

 

   We may have checked out of out room, but our visit was far from over.  We went on a little hike/bike ride to a fossil hunt (Please ignore the first show of questionable parenting--- my two-year-old with a real rock hammer/mini pickaxe).

We just happened to walk past the driving range on our way back, so we stopped there and hit a few balls/played games with golf equipment/used the ball collector as a purse/collected broken tees/rode clubs like hobby horses/whatever else our little minds could come up with to keep us entertained.

We had just a few minuted to teeter totter again before our archery and tomahawk lesson. (More photographic documentation of questionable parenting.)

 

Take note of the future Katniss Everdeen (all of the attitude but without the whole being sent off to kill other kids for show stuff.)

We played around a little more before heading back to reality DFW to hang out with friends and family.

Experiencing Oklahoma

It's been a month, so I guess it's time for me to download pictures from the camera, do a little photo editing and attempt to catch up on my posting.  I guess I'll begin with our little trip north.

We've recently made an effort to take advantage of the things only Oklahoma has to offer.  Our first adventure took us to Tulsa.  We found an inexpensive yet nice hotel with a little water park, so some friends (the Stewarts) joined up while we tired our kids out, sliding, splashing, and jumping at Leapin' Louie's Lagoon.

The next morning we headed to Jenks (no need to break out the map--it's pretty much Tulsa too) to check out the aquarium. We saw lots of aquatic creatures.

Touched a few

Fed some 

And tried to avoid being feed for others. 

And of course, tried to capture the memories.

But let's be honest, when you are dealing with 5 kids under 6 the more accurate captures of memories look like these...

On a side note--Miss A was a good sport hanging with all the boys our whole trip.  Right before heading back home, she did take a moment to have a little tea party with some imaginary friends at a little bistro table outside an uber girly boutique in downtown Jenks.

Look what Miss A finally talked me in signing her up for

Look for these pictures to resurface when she's on So You Think You Can Dance Season 27.

Snow morning

 

 With the beautiful weather that rolled in right on its tail, I'd almost forgotten that we finally got a nice little snowfall a couple weeks ago.  I don't call it a snow day because it was pretty much gone by the time E got home from school, but it did make for a fun winterish morning. 

Building the perfect celebration

One huge thing I've failed to mention was that E turned 5 at the beginning of the month--- an event that in and of itself is slightly miraculous.  I mean there were times over the last 5 years that were iffy (if I would strangle him or not, if we should have called poison control but didn't when he put random things in his mouth if his impulse to run into parking lots would have finally caught up with him, if he would ever be let out in public again after an eventful outing, etc.)  In all seriousness, it's been a very exciting and enjoyable 5 years.

E's current OBSESSION is building with Legos.  We flirted with a few different party ideas but settled on a Lego party at our house.  Essentially EVERYONE is his best friend, so (despite my offer to take him and a few friends to the Legoland Discovery Center in Dallas to avoid a big party at my house) we ended up with 20 of his closest friends (ages 2-6) gathered in our living room (never say I don't love you kid).

   

We invited our guests with little individual homemade building sets.  

E's favorite part of the invite was the little Minifigure we made of him.  He insisted on holding a little bomb so our catchphrase ended up being "Come to my party. It's going to be a blast!". 

 I had visions of turning everyone into one of the characters from E's favorite Lego video games and coming up with a real-life adventure with elements from each of the games.  I think I'd decided that after the kids completed their adventure to find the Lego Arc of the Covenant they would board the Lego Black Pearl and sail to Lego Hogwarts to play a quick round of quidditch in our Lego stadium, but when I found out that the working Lego Nimbus 2000's I was planning on getting were on backorder, I decided to ditch that whole idea and go with a more traditional birthday party approach.  We went with a red, yellow, and blue Minifigure theme.  E requested "BIG" legos and some "Lego guys", so a couple rolls of wrapping paper, a bunch of boxes, cups and plates and lots of cans of spray paint later, we had our decor.

  Once our guests arrived we tried to keep the chaos to a minimum with some classic party games.

We created our own minifigure (on paper as well as with all the Lego body parts I've collected after stepping on them in various parts of the house).

 

I made a little Lego toss game.  My fatal error was that I used clear cups on a white board and placed it on my white tile, so it really just ended up being a Lego step on.  I think the kids had fun with it anyway.

What's a kid's party without a little pin the head on the minifigure? (the tilt of E's head indicates he found the weakness in the "blindfold")

 

We also played a little game I decided to call "punch and build".  The game is sort of self-explanatory.  They took turns punching out the pegs of our giant lego block and then used the pieces they found inside to add on to the group's creation. 

 

The kids had a little time to just play with Legos before they all got a bag of the edible Legos that fell from the feet of our minifigure pinata (please overlook the fact that the proportions of his facial features are a little off).  

Next was present opening (quick side note- Miss A was so sweet and decided that she wanted me to use the money that was earmarked for a "dolly" to buy E a present. When I asked her what she wanted to get him all on her own she decided "Lego Batman.  He will like that", and he did.)

 

We ended the festivities with a little cake and ice cream cupcakes and Lego Pizza slices. One of these days my kids are going to get a real cake for their party (and no, I didn't figure out the correct facial feature proportions for the "cake" either, but I did fix the order of "Birthday Happy" before we lit the candles).

After we got the kids all hopped up on sugar we sent them back home with a little bag of Lego goodies (coloring book, homemade minifigure crayons --not to be confused with the chocolate minifigures on top of the cupcakes-- and a small party pack building set). 

 

A big thanks to my mom for all her help in putting my vision together.  Without her help, I wouldn't have had the energy left to sit down lay on the floor after the party and help E put together all the Lego sets he got from his generous friend. Thank you to Br for just going with it. Thanks to all the parents who stuck around during the party to help keep Lego Lord of the Flies from making its debut.  And thanks to the birthday boy himself for all his good ideas. Thanks for letting us celebrate with you!