The Cinderella Ball

G-man's 1st grade class had a Cinderella Ball for their end of year celebration. Earlier in the year they read different Cinderella stories. The stories came from different cultures and Cinderella was not necessarily a girl. The compared and contrasted and wrote about the stories they read. For the Cinderella Ball they chose a character from one of the stories and dressed up as that character.Gregory dressed up as the Irish Cinderlad. He chose this character because the cinderlad has a sword and slays a dragon. Now I need to find the book at the library and read it. A lot of the boys dressed up as Joe Cinders, which is a character in a Cowboy version of the story. This is his class all dressed up before the festivities began.
They taught the kids the box step and the sidestep in preparation for the night. The even learned how to twirl the girls. Here is G-man trying to show Kiwi the box step. At one point he gave her quite the shove to get her to twirl like he wanted.
Chad had to come over to help G-man figure out how to end a dance with a girl. He danced with this little girl for quite a while. She's quite shy and I don't think she knew how to move to another partner, and neither did G. It's a lesson every person must learn at one point in their lives. I thought this was an excellent end of year activity. The parents went crazy taking pictures as the kids danced. It was so much fun to see them dressed up and I loved that they actually taught the kids how to dance. It will be interesting to see if his 2nd grade teacher can top this one. G-man will have all the same kids in his class next year, so expectation will be high.

We're Seeing Blue

We opened the package. This is what we found:Actually, this is what Chad wrapped and gave to me before we opened the package. He claimed he found out the gender from my sister and bought these at the store. White socks. Sure honey. You're funny.

This is the kid's reaction to opening the box:This is what we found:It is a boy. Although Ruth didn't send the proof picture. I hope she can find it amongst her moving stuff. Not that I don't believe her or anything. Boy gender pictures are the funnest to see since they're pretty unmistakable.

A little brother to keep S company and keep me running for a while. Now I wonder what these little brothers will be like together. I guess Chad will have to start getting used to doing boy things. Camping, scouts, sports. They may even convince him to get a dog...Oh, I laugh to think about it.

I'm still not anxious for this little guy to be here. The longer I can delay being a mother of four, the better.

And here's a picture of me and my girl. I love taking pictures with her. She's so photogenic, and I think it rubs off a bit.

The Package Has Arrived

I'm going crazy. I'm incredibly busy but insanely bored at the same time. This is what happens to me when I'm waiting for things. This is what I do when I'm pregnant:
For the past three pregnancies I've actually cross-stitched giant works of art to pass the time. I have finished two and a half of them. For some reason this time around I didn't even have the patience to do that. Now I have one and a half cross stitch patterns to finish before my children marry so I can pass them on as family heirlooms to be hid away in basements and closets.

But now, after a crazy trip to meet my sister half way, the package has arrived. After tomorrow I can focus my torment on picking names and imagining the change that will be coming. And I will finally know what color to buy for the new car seat. Because that's the most important thing.

Having a wheel-y bad day

The plan: drive two and a half hours to visit Luann's brother to attend his daughter's baby blessing.
The result: a wheel-y bad day.



As we were leaving Sunday morning, a short minute after getting onto the interstate, I hear this horrible noise. There wasn't anyone around us at the time, so Luann pulls to the side of the road. The right rear tire is totally flat (check out the slash on the tire). We pull off the read to get the spare on. I think that Dodge cut a few corners on the build of the van, since the cord that was to let the tire out from under the car wasn't nearly long enough to get it out.

After fighting with it for 45 minutes, and trying to find a tow company that was open on Sunday (no luck with that one), some random guy stops and helps me get it out. A moment later, we were on our way home. Once we told the kids that we weren't going to visit their cousins, there was lots and lots of crying. To help ease the pain, we promised all sorts of fun at home. The highlight was making pretzels with the kids.

And there was Light (and air movement)

With the weather being just perfect, I finally got to the project that we really needed in the front room. We now are the proud owns of a full set of bucket lights and fan. I spent a few nights up in the attic running wires, cutting holes, installing lights, fan, and switches. The front room was always so dark, even with the four floor lamps that we had just didn't cut it. Now, with the lights on, we can actually see things. And, no reaching up to change the fan speed! I love the easy-to-install fan switches. Even a "special" person like me can do it! :)

Post Script: It seems that back in 1964 they thought that insulation meant that a thin layer of fiberglass was sufficient. Now I see why the house gets hot in the summer. I need insulation, and lot of it.

Mr S is Two!

Mr S finally turned two years old. We had a combined birthday party with another family whose daughter turned three. Since they hosted, it was a Hello Kitty birthday. Mr S didn't mind, since he got a Basketball cake, and cars and shovels for gifts.

I Love Two Year Olds

There is something about this age that is so precious. Everything they say is adorable. Even the temper tantrums can be comical at times. Our little S turned two on Tuesday and I can't get enough of this kid. As he is sitting in his bed screaming about something that upset him, I have to wonder why I love two year olds so much. So here's a list of some of the things that make this age so cool.

1. The way the talk is so funny. Usually they leave off multiple sounds from their words and often the sounds they can say are a bit off. It makes most common phrases hilarious. We say "pwease" and "fank you", we get "biaper" changes and we eat lots of "cwackews."

2. 2 year olds have no idea what the difference between loud and soft is. And mostly it's just loud. S yells "hi" and "bye" to any stranger he meets and at any car passing by the front of our house. Oh, and all the birds and various animal/plant life that can be seen from the front window. This becomes slightly problematic in settings that require silence, so we generally avoid those areas.

3. Kids this age are expert imitators. You begin to realize what your favorite catch phrase is from them. When G-man was 2, we said "dude" a lot. When Kiwi was 2 we said "ah man" a lot. S has picked up "holy cow" and occasionally "holy crap." Which is one of the lesser cuss words in the mormon lexicon. I'd hate to have him shocking the nursery leader with that one.

The other day Kiwi asked "Are me and G going to the store?" S promptly started saying "mean G-man". Because that's what it sounded like to him. So I instructed Kiwi to say "Are G-man and I going to the store." S chimed in and said "G-man nice" Apparently both phrases are confusing. And since he likes to label everyone he knows as mean or nice, he was easily confused by it.

4. 2 year olds are easily obsessed with things. Mr. S is obsessed with trash cans and garbage trucks. Tuesdays are the best days of his life. He can't wait to take the can to the curb Monday night and most of Tuesday breakfast is spent at the front window watching the garbage truck go by. If he sees a trash can that has fallen over, you hear about it all day and he will try to convince you to go back and pick it up. He has learned what the color blue is from the recycling bin.

There is much more I could list. There are also some definite downsides the the age that I could list like the tantrums, the screaming, the frustration when misunderstood, the inability to share, etc, etc. I like to say the difference between two and two and a half is these two year olds still seem so innocent and haven't quite gained the attitude that comes in another six months. And then the "crap" will hit the fan.

A few videos to illustrate.