Buzz Cuts

Last week GR cut the boys hair. They have been begging for buzz cuts for a very, very long time. I'm not a huge fan, but relented when GR said it was High School before his mother finally gave up on the hair cut issue and I remember that my father got this cut every summer. It is, after all only hair.

When Bob saw Alex a few days after his hair cut, he didn't recognize him - he does look so different, more than one person has done a double take. And I'm getting use to Sam without hair on his forehead. They both look so cute.

For days after getting his buzz cut, Alex would ask you if you liked his hair, or he run past you running his hands through his hair and pausing to look at his reflection in every mirror. It was pretty sweet to watch how pleased he was.

From the time Alley was a little baby people who know my dad have said the two look a lot a like. You tell me, Daddy is pictured on the far left and they are almost the same age, both nearly six.

I think it's possible they have the same hair line ... 

Last Day of School

Emily, Sam and Alex after their last day of school.  They each had a very successful academic year

Alex's class had a fiesta on the last day of school ... so much fun, and so amazed at the great school year he had! 

Alex with his classmates from his table this school year.

Alex and Mrs. C - We're 4 for 4, and love her!

Alex with classmates K and A.

Emily, as an outgoing 5th grader got spent the day playing with friends at PTA sponsored activities.  They bowled, ate pizza for lunch and played basketball and in the rec room at a local community center.  We got word last night that Emily scored high enough on her state assessment test to be in the advanced 7th grade math class next year.  She is so excited and so are we!   

Playdate

Alex didn't have school today (Kindergarten Roundup for the incoming Kindergarten students) and Anna had her standing day with Grandma.  So it was just me and Alex.  He wanted to have a friend spend the day with us.  Alex spends an hour after school on Thursday's with this friend while Sam and Emily and his sister are at Math and Chess Club.  It's been so nice to have this option for Alex after school, and I was glad we had a chance to do a little something in return.  

I took the boys a children's museum and they had a great time!  They want to go back and I'm convinced they would spend all day there and not get bored.  Here are pictures from our visit of some of the things they did: 

They have an awesome construction zone with real tools.  The boys spent so much time sawing, drilling and hammering to make their car and truck and were so proud of their creations.   

Sidenote: I don't remember much of what the Magic House was like years ago when I first went as a kid -- when it was just a magic house ... no grand new expansion with a three story bean pole, no bump out the back with the store/tree house/fishing pond, etc. This Children's Museum has only been open a year and is small; one very large open room with a dozen or so stations.  I'm really looking forward to watching it grow, expand and develop over the next 30 years as we have the Magic House, and maybe even take my grandchildren there for a day...

Overheard via the phone:

GR:: Alexander, ladies first, step back and let Anna in the car.
Alex:: What?! That isn’t fair.
GR:: Yes it is.
Alex:: It isn’t a rule in our family.

In a phone call to me, “I have failed as a father to my youngest son.”

Happy Birthday Alexander!

This cute sweet boy turns five today. F.I.V.E!

To celebrate we went to an exhibit of LEGO sculptures by the artist Nathan Sawaya.  So many amazing structures!  The museum had a children's hands-on art room set up in the basement.  They had thousands of LEGOs set out on tables for kids to create their own sculptures.  We spent ages in there, building and building with the available LEGOs, then went to Stake-n-Shake for lunch. 

I made Angry Bird's cupcakes.  At first he wanted an Angry Bird's cake like his friend Andrew, but since fondant is not something I'm familiar with, I went a different route.  I'm really pleased with how well they turned out, and Alexander was very gracious to love them too.  The rope black licorice was really hard to find.  And absolutely makes or breaks the cupcakes.  Without the licorice, they look like Sesame Street characters.  Thankfully, Diane was able to find some for me at our favorite candy shop. 

The candles are held up with playdough. 

Hard to believe this boy will be heading off to Kindergarten in a few short weeks.  That is going to be so different for all of us.  He's terribly excited and while I'm looking forward to it, Anna and I are going to miss him at home.   

End of the Season

Today marked the end of the Spring Soccer season.  Each of the kids gave their coaches this little thank you.  I'm totally doing this again, and again, and again.  Simple, thoughtful, and not such that you can do it and still contribute to the gift card for the coach or whatever one of the other mom's wants to organize.  

 

Emily and Sam worked really hard this season and are starting to take their interest in the game more seriously.  Both are still working on their endurance, ball skills, and being more aggressive on the field.  Sam's team had a little tournament this week.  They played Wednesday and Friday evenings and then Saturday morning.  They did well, but lost Saturday's game to a team they beat easily earlier in the season.  When we learned that it was that teams first win, we all felt much better about the loss and were able to shift our focus to celebrating their victory. 

Sam did some goalie training this season to better understand the position and hopefully help the team out.  While it was a good learning experience for him, there were two other boys on the team (one being the coaches son) who were also interested in being goalie.  While he held his own in the box during the game, we've talked about how it's important to recognize our strengths and weaknesses when we're on a team and recognize when someone else plays a position better than we do and graciously bow out for the good of the team.  The jury is still out on whether or not Sam or either of the other boys has the talent to be goalie.  We'll see what happens in the seasons to come.

Mom's Playdate and Art Show

I got to have an early Mother's Day with Alex today at preschool.  We had a little playdate together at school along with an art show of some of the work they've done this past year.  It's one of my favorite things to do with the kids.  Here are pictures of Alex with some of his art projects. 

I love these three art projects.  The children studied three artists and their works and then created a piece inspired by each of the artists.  Can you name the three artists and or the piece the children had as their inspiration? 

Alex was so proud of his pinch pot.  It's for candy ... he was very careful to explain that we would need to put candy in the dish. 

Once school is out, I need to find more opportunities for him to paint and be artistically creative.  Although he isn't as drawn to it as the girls, he enjoys art.  

The poor boy needs a hair cut desperately.  His art teachers did double take when the saw him.  They didn't recognized him because I kept standing with him combing his hair to the side with my fingers - apparently not the look he typically sports at school. 

Candle Shop Tour w/Preschool

Today, Anna and I joined Alex and his preschool friends on an excellent tour of the local candle shop.  The kids learned how candles are made, and lots of great information about the different kinds of materials they use to make candles.  And most important of all ... there was a hands-on experience.  The kids got to dip a votive candle in colored wax.  Quick, simple and fun!  They loved it.  Alex choose to dip his votive in the purple (lilac) wax and Anna choose pink.

P.S. The Candle Shop owner's name is Bob too, and he's just as good as Baker Bob.  I think it's in the name.

RR 3.0

At preschool today we celebrated Alex's 1/2 birthday (his 4 years and 7 month birthday) with mini pumpkin muffins frosted with cream cheese frosting. He came home with a very cute book that his classmates create for him. They each drew him a special picture and dictated a birthday message for him. He has such a sweet class.

They also started "R" week and over the long weekend built Recycled Robots to share with the class today. Alex and Papa even got out the power tools Sunday night to put this guy together. Like the others, Alex had very definite ideas on how this guy should go together and it was neat to watch him create the robot he had pictured in his mind.

Here's Rebecca's Robot, and Emily's Robot from their preschool years. 

Brotherhood

Preschool Music Program

This continues to be my favorite event of the season, and we have missed it so for the last two years.

Alex choose to wear his suit and his gray sweater vest, he has a thing for sweater vests, loves them!  We laid out a couple of shirt/tie options and this is what he choose.  Once we got everything on, he looked at me and earnestly asked, "Do I look sharp, mom?"   Absolutely!  By the time he went through three hours of church, lunch in the car, and walking in to the preschool, he was done with the jacket, which made him look a little more like all the other kids up on the stage.  


He did a fantastic job.  This little kids LOVES to sing.  He and Anna both love music.  Alex learns lyrics really quickly.  Anna's been going to a music class once a week with Grandma.  I took both kids when she was out of town back in October and he's still singing some of the songs he learned in that one class.  

I had hoped to get video, but discovered minutes before the program that my video camera "magically" went from full battery to no battery overnight.  And I couldn't remember how to get my new camera to take video, so I have a couple of cute pictures of the program and that's it.

I did manage to get a couple of pictures of all five kids ... I was hoping for a Christmas card photo, but I'm going to try again when the lighting is better and when there aren't rows and rows of people behind me making for a very captive audience to perform for.  Although this picture does capture each of them, perfectly giving the viewer a hint of their personalities. 

Poor GR missed the entire program because of tithing settlement. I didn't consult all of my calendars when he ran tithing settlement dates passed me and once I realized the conflict, it was too late.  He's trying a new option this year to be more efficient with his time. He's only offering tithing settlement on a couple of days during the month; two Saturdays and a Sunday with huge blocks of time on each day.  If that doesn't work into peoples schedules they can schedule something independently. We're hoping this will allow him to help me pull of Christmas and celebrate the holiday with us rather than spending hours and hours and hours spread over four weeks at the church.  

Thankfully none of his appointments canceled or didn't show during Alex's performance.  Though if they had, I don't think he would have told me.  He teases that the only time you can really see his wife get frustrated is during tithing settlement.  I am amazed that people aren't more considerate of his time ... no shows/last minute reschedules, not signing up at all, or choosing a time that is convenient for them but leaves large gaps in his schedule.  It isn't intentional, they just don't think or realize what it means for the bishop and his family.  

I'm working this week at the campus bookstore buying text books back.  It's my second buy back and I'm excited.  The money is decent (as long as I don't compare it to what GR makes) and I get to work with fun people.  Mom's here to help with the kids.  We've got major home work projects due this week, holiday parties on Friday and holiday gifts for the teachers.  Busy week!

All His Own

A certain someone started soccer this season with his older siblings.  He's really, really excited.  Papa came home Wednesday night with new shin guards, which he presented to Alex Thursday morning.  They didn't come off all day.  He wore them to playgroup (note the "shorts" ... they look a lot like Anna's cropped pants don't they), and all through his late afternoon crash on our bed.  Friday he wore them to preschool in flip flops.  I love it. 

Giggles ...

All the grandparents are in desperate need new "school" pictures of the kids.  This year I will likely take the kids pictures we have printed and hang in the house.  I'm tired of spending $35/kid to get pictures of them when they are hardly ever captured at their very best.  

I took pictures of Alex and Anna this morning ... in the middle of our little photo shoot, they started kissing each other on the cheek, giggling all the while.  Ahh so cute!!  It took us quite a while to get back into doing the individual shots I wanted, but I got them and am about to send them off to be printed while I run some much needed errands - pray for me, will you?

 

I hope to be back soon to post about our summer, and yes I will be post dating things so I can maintain my flawless image with future generations - ha!

Back to the Earth

The snows nearly gone and things are starting to warm up again. We've got garden plans on the brain and are slowly working our way to making those dreams a reality.

Indoor Water Fun for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Have you seen the water tables some preschools have? It's basically a table with a deep basin they can fill with water, sand, oatmeal or an assortment of beans to serve as a tactile station. At every station like this, kids typically have to be pried away and told to do something else, or they get squeeze out by other kids who want to play too.

Today was my day to host and teach preschool again. Our topic was rain, snow, wind and water. We didn't have any snow, so we focused on the other three elements. Our free play was my own "mom" version of a water table. Had I had enough sink space, we'd have just all pushed chairs up to the sink and played there (Anna and Alex will never tire of this - thank heavens for double sinks and tile floors!).

I used two under bed storage bins, filled them 1/3 full with warm tap water, had a plastic watering can for each child, plastic cups in different sizes and measuring cups.

Since I wanted the kids to make it home somewhat dry, I used plastic grocery bags to make 'smocks' for each of them. I flattened out the bag and cut out the middle of the bottom 'seam' of the bag. Leave 3 inches of the seam on both ends, these will be the shoulders of the smock. Next cut open both sides of the plastic bag all the way to the bottom seam. Snip the handles apart to create ties. This should resemble something like a scrimmage jersey.

Slip their head through the opening in the bottom of the bag, and tie the handles securely at their hips.

If the child is wearing long sleeves, you'll want to push them up well past their elbows to keep them dry.

Keep a stack of towels on hand, because try as they might, water will get on the floor and you'll want to wipe it up periodically so your feet don't get cold and wet.

These kids played with this set up for a 30-45 minutes, with no sign of getting bored.

Had the weather been better, this would have been perfect to do outside. Prop the storage bins up on buckets or set up two folding chairs facing each other, using the seats to set the water bin on, making it accessible from both sides and would allow up to four kids to participate.

Contract Pending

Yesterday the Realtor called with TWO offers on the house. Both offers were for about the same ... less than the asking price, $$$ for closing costs, closing dates in May and one wanted home insurance. I have to say this was discouraging, that we got two offers wasn't discouraging, but that they were asking for SO much. We worked so hard on that house, putting a lot of time and money in it, and then we were very careful in how we priced it. We did not over price the home because of the work we put into it. We priced it dead on, to sell quickly, and yet no one has offered full price, and everyone is asking US to pay for lots of additional costs.

Our Realtor told us not to feel like we had to settle. Counter with what was best for us. And so we countered, and countered hard to both parties telling them whoever responded first would get the contract. We countered with full price, 1/2 their request for closing costs, no home insurance, and upped the closing date to April 1st. Very quickly we got an acceptance to our terms and last night we signed the papers to make it official!!

What a blessing. The house is going to a really nice couple from NE with three boys. They are all older (college aged) which I'm sad about (really changes the dynamics of that little end of our street), but hopefully that will mean grandchildren in the coming years.

* * * * *

Some of you asked if I had before pictures of the house ... I don't really, other than pictures we've taken of the kids in the house. You should be able to just browse through the blog to find pictures of the 2 red accent walls in the dining room, the pale sun yellow on the rest of the walls on the main floor, the horrid gray carpeting, the bluish gray tile in the entry way and around the fireplace, the old whitish cream counter tops in the kitchen and the white, stained cream vinyl flooring in the kitchen. It was a cute house, that was well loved and worn by out little family that nearly doubled in our 7 years there.

* * * * *

Yesterday afternoon Alexander christened the new house with our first accident. The kids were playing a rousing game of hide and seek in my bedroom. All of a sudden Alex comes running to me in the kitchen holding his palm and screaming. He had tripped and his hand ran down the edge of an unfinished square of colored glass used in stained glass work. It had been left behind by Grandma and Grandpa, and not knowing if they needed it or intended it for something specific, I moved it out of the general path of daily activity until I could ask and "deal with it." The glass did not break, it was not jagged, but the cut was deep and ugly (be grateful I didn't photograph it - :).

Poor kid, he wasn't doing anything wrong, he wasn't being silly or making poor decisions, he just tripped, and his hand touched the wrong then when trying to brace his fall. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of blood! Monday night we couldn't tell if it needed stitches or not, so clean it, and bandage it ourselves ... this morning when GR was helping Alex get ready and the cut broke open and started bleeding again. GR took him to work for a couple of stitches to keep the skin flaps together, and insure the cut would heal correctly. Anna and I were right behind him, meeting up with them at the ER just before the stitches. He was so brave!

So his left hand (his dominate hand) is pretty thoroughly bandaged in an effort to keep the stitches covered and clean, nearly impossible when you're a 3.5 year old who now lives in the land of mud and shovels. We also discovered a good sized wart on his right pinky during all of this yesterday. So like his left hand, his pinky is also bandaged ... it all looks so much worse than it really is! He's getting lots of sympathy from people at the store!

ETA 4/6: Alex's hand took a while, but it's finally healed. We had the stitches taken out a week later during Sam's quarterly ENT check-up. It still wasn't completely healed, but the skin was getting irritated by the stitches, so they definitely had to come out. We kept it bandaged for an additional week using the sticky ace bandage type stuff -- that is fantastic stuff! So wish we'd had something like that with the stitches. Instead we were using masking tape - such a nuance for Alex and after a week, it started to really irritate his skin. The other stuff is now permanently in our first aid kit! The wart ... well we're going to start a second round of treatment. We didn't get all of it the first time, so it's come back.

And the closure on the green house went off without a hitch on Friday!! GR's had a couple of conversations with the couple who bought the house and really likes them ... so much so he invited them to Easter dinner. They ended up declining, but it feels good knowing we're passing on that home to good people.

Twins & Moving Week

Tuesday morning was my day to teach preschool. As luck would have it, I had zero voice. Whispering was a bit of a stretch. Mom was here and had a voice and that was a good thing. This same thing happened to me in December the last time it was my turn to teach ... typically this only happens once a year. Sunday night a little tickle in my throat started and by Monday morning my voice was completely gone.

My little preschool group is a lot of fun. Today we talked about 'Where we Live' which worked out perfectly because Kansas Day was just a couple of days ago. We did some crafts, read a story or two and talked and played with the doll house. When Alex's good friend showed up for preschool wearing a new shirt and brown pants, Alex exclaimed, "I have that shirt!" and ran up stairs. 2 minutes later he came down stairs wearing his matching shirt and a pair of brown pants so he and his friend could match! They thought that was just the greatest thing and "posed" for pictures at the end of class:


Update on Mom and the Moving process continues ... Monday Mom felt so much better. Not up for running a marathon, but well enough to take care of Alex and Anna so I could move boxes for Bob and Diane. Bob, Brent and I took 9 truck/van loads of boxes on Monday. Tuesday, they moved more boxes, but I was only able to help in the afternoon after preschool and before the big kids got out of school. Tuesday night GR and I, with the help of good friends who heeded our desperate call for able bodied men, came and helped us move all of Bob and Diane's furniture out of "the farm house" and into the "townhouse." We started at 6pm and finished at 11pm, taking two loads. Today my whole body aches. My visiting teacher talked me into letting people bring us dinner tonight. To lesson the burden on any one sister, three sisters are bringing a different element tonight. I'm grateful she finally convinced me to accept that offer of help - everything is packed. Tomorrow, as soon as the kids are done with school, they are heading to St. Louis with my Mom in our van to spend the weekend with my Dad while we move all the furniture and set up their bedrooms.
[Anna now knows exactly what to do with a box at every stage - assembly, packing, and lifting. Her Grandpa would be so proud!]

In other news, I have a new calling. I'm sad to be saying good-bye to my primary councilor responsibilities which I've only had since April, and will sorely miss working so closely with the children and their dedicated teachers. But as it is with all new callings, I'm excited and looking forward to being back in Relief Society working so closely with our new president as her first councilor. Although it hasn't been very long since I was released from serving in my stake Relief Society calling, there is still lots to learn and do, and we're looking forward to the challenge and to working with the great sisters in our ward.

Today's adventure

We had little friends at our house today and despite chilly temperatures and the threat of afternoon rain we headed to the library for a special story hour with miniature ponies. The two big kids got to feed and brush the ponies, made a stick horse using a paper horse head and yard stick, and each had a big bag of popcorn and apple juice. Alex and Maeve had a great time, each totally content to do things at their own pace and given the weather, the lack of a crowd allowed them to do just that. I even got to pick up some books I had waiting for me on hold and dash into the children's section to pick up some American Girl mystery books for the girls. I also put the rest of the Rebecca AG books on hold so the girls can finish reading the series.





I have decided I am glad the Lord did not see fit to send me two sets of twins, three and one. While doable for a 90 minute visit to the library, when it was all over, we were all very ready to go home and chill out.