Overheard

It is Teacher Appreciation Week and we sent along the first part of our present to the teachers along on Monday. Michael had his own ideas last night for his teacher.

Michael: I want to get Mrs. C a box of chocolate.

Hannah: She can't have chocolate. It's not good for us. Hey, how about a box of cheese?

Michael: A box of cheese? That would be embarassing!

Ella is getting tubes

May 7th.

Finally.

The JOY of Spring!

It is finally warm! We went out and played and of course I took pictures. Hannah was the most willing to hang out with me and play. The others ran and ran and ran. It is supposed to get cold again this weekend, so I am glad we got to play in the sun for a bit.

Yeah, this is why there aren't lots of pictures of these two together. They are each other's best friends, but they also pick on each other mercilessly.

If only this perfect weather could hang around awhile longer....

Possibly helpful tip

I'm just gonna pass this along, in case any of you ever need it.

One of the kids got my point and shoot and was playing with it. (I really don't know which.) They took it into the bathroom. By the time I found it, it had aparantly been dropped in the tub and retrieved and put on the counter. Most of the water had drained out, but the lens did have some water sitting in the bottom.

When I picked it up, it kept slowly leaking water.

So I took out the battery and the memory card and put everything into a bucket of rice (we have a bucket the kids play in) and left it there for over a week.

When I pulled it back out and put it back together, it worked like a charm.

So, just passing that along, but hope you never need it.

Made me smile yesterday

On the Fourth Day of Spring Break

SNOW!

Snow?!?

Yep.

Snow.

That is also my bush cherry. It is usually taller than I am, but with the blossoms and wet snow, it was squished about 18 inches high. Don't worry, it's rebounded as the snow has melted off of it.

Overheard

Scene: Hannah and Garrett playing.

Hannah: Garrett, you're such a nice boy. One day I'll have a son your age, and I'll let him play with you.

Awwwww. Such a sweet sentiment. The math is a little fuzzy, but the thought's there.

On the third day of Spring Break

We went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum with the kids. We spent about 5 hours inside playing. Mom and Dad were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day.

Michael ran from exhibit to exhibit. At first we tried to keep him in the sightline the entire time, but that became absolutely impossible and we gave him a little leeway to do his own thing, checking in on him every 20 minutes or so, and he did really well. I was VERY impressed with his ability to be deferential and sharing with others. He certainly did me proud. It was not the order of the day with lots of the kids, so I was very impressed that he kept his head and manners, even when others around him were not.

Hannah also ran off and played with little friends she met along the way. We also kept an eye on her, but it was pretty easy. She stayed in the little playhouse, grocery store, farm, and water area almost exclusively. She was extremely social and made so many little new friends all day long.

Garrett and McKay proved to be a little more tricky to contain. They were the ones we followed and kept close tabs on. (McKay kept wanting to go into the gift shop to play. He was having a hard time drawing a line with what toys were there to be played with and which were there to be purchased.) This will also explain why most of the pictures are of those two and Ella. Ella was content to be carried around and then play with whatever the others were playing with.

Overall, it was a very fun afternoon and the kids did a great job of playing nicely within boundries with a little bit of independence.

McKay LOVED this ball area. Especially this little lift system. He always came back here. He would venture to visit the other exhibits, but he would check back over and over.

Ella just happily played with whatever the other kids were interested in, and didn't complain when it was time to move on.

Garrett loved making BIG sounds on the HUGE xylophone.

Hannah socializing. This pretty much sums up Hannah's whole day.

Michael and McKay sending messages across the atrium.

Cartooning.

So, if we divide X by the square root of pi....

In the doghouse...

This is one reason we don't let Garrett drive the car.

He's a grocery pro.

Amazing Spiderman

Peek-a-boo!

On the Second Day of Spring Break...

We went to visit the Cabella's aquarium. McKay had been dying to go visit "the cave," as he calls it. Grandma Rehart came with us and we spent a good couple hours looking around. The kids really enjoyed it all. McKay was just entralled with the fish.

It was so much fun. On the way home, Garrett declared, "Our grandma is a good grandma." I wholeheartedly agree.

It's hard to tell in the above pic, but if you look closely you can see Mckay looking at the fish eagerly, and the fish looking back at McKay just as interestedly. There was always a whole bunch of fish regarding McKay with interest.

Bibbity-Bobbity-Shoe!

Ella has this little problem. Her feet and ankles are rather skinny, so all of she shoes slip off except the Robeez shoes. Even the Robeez shoes can be pulled off pretty easily, which is no mean feat.

As a result, Ella constantly is missing one shoe. Sometimes we find it again, sometimes we don't. We frequent Target's infant shoe aisle quite often.

But then I stopped and pondered on the "one shoe" antics of my littlest sweetie, and really...I should have seen this coming. The only way it would have been more obvious that she would have this proclivity would have been if her MIDDLE name was Ella and her first name was Cinder. ;)

An impressive report

I've been meaning to post this for a bit.

In Michael's class they have 5 stars that they get at the beginning of the day. They lose a star if the don't listen, wander off, or disobey any other class rules. If they have a star at the end of the day, they get to participate in the Super Surprise--which is a fun motivator and reward for good behavior.

Well, for the 3rd term, Michael kept every. single. star. ALL TERM LONG. He never even lost one.

I just thought that was pretty impressive. He's such a good boy.

Perhaps a long zoom lens would be a good idea?

It might be easier.

But it was fun to sit outside with the kids today. It ALMOST looks like spring. Just a *little* more sun, and we'll be set.

Overheard

It's a laugh-a-minute around here.

Poor Garrett's been having allergies for the last month or so and has had a constant runny nose. So today...

Garrett (trying to sniff): Hey! I smell something. It smells like....boogers.

Overheard and another sickness

Last night Ella and Garrett were playing with their Little People sets and being kind of wild about it, and McKay walked past them on the way upstairs and intoned the following.

McKay: Caution, rogue robots. Caution, rogue robots. Caution, rogue robots.

And poor Hannah got sick over the weekend and then Ella got sick on Sunday and Monday. I really hope this darn winter is done and we can all go back to being healthy. I think Ella has been sick enough. She catches everything the kids bring home, and with 4 siblings bringing stuff home, she's had a lot to catch. (Plus she makes every cold more dramatic by turning it into an ear infection.)

Just in case you forgot how many brothers Ella has...

Her newest word is Ei-ya! (Um, yeah, you know...that karate chop word?)

She does it really well with a pirate sword in one hand. Yes, I shall try to get it on video soon.

Just my new camera HAS a video camera, but the files are frighteningly large and I have not charged the battery on my point and shoot in awhile.

But yes, Ei-ya!

Overheard

McKay, upon walking down the stairs and seeing the snow alllllll over the ground outside.

McKay: This is not spring! Spring is green and has leaves all over it!

The Daddy-Daughter sock hop

So I planned to get more pictures. These were just as we were getting Hannah ready and waiting for Darwin to come home. But, sadly, things just went crazy around this time. Garrett's been a little sick and was very whiny and sad around this time. Ella was fussy and crying and McKay kept wanting to run away to "the cave" (we've yet to find out what that is) and so soon extra time for pictures dissolved into just rushing Darwin and Hannah out the door to the dance at the school a couple minutes late.

Hannah really has been looking forward to the dance. She's been asking for weeks.

She loved dressing up.

She always loves posing for pictures.

Quite the cutie, no?

Waiting for dad...

Where could he be?

Never fear, he came along shortly after this. They had a great time and Hannah enjoyed herself quite a lot.

Mea Culpa

Ok, so it was totally not McKay's teachers who taught him.

I didn't think they would teach him to say a weird name, per se. They are totally humorous, but they really would not teach him something WRONG just to be funny. But since it was April Fools' Day I thought perhaps they were supplying him with a cute April Fools' joke.

Still...the mystery remains. Where, oh where did McKay learn who Englebert Humperdink is?

Where does he GET this stuff??

So McKay was lying up in bed after school (he said he was taking a beauty nap) and he said to me, clear as a bell:

"Hi, I'm Englebert Humperdink."

Ummmm. Huh?

Where does he GET this stuff? Where did he hear about Englebert Humperdink?

My only conclusion is his teachers maybe taught him this as an April Fools' joke?? (They ARE funny like that.)