What we've been up to...

All dressed up for our Christmas program. 

Annie's having a particularly hard morning.

And no one understands her!

At all. 

Ashley rubber-necks for the camera and gets that smile back on quick!  In between shots, she kept staring at Annie like she was an alien.  But as soon as that camera started to click, she flips on like a lightbulb.

"If you don't come and smile right now, I'm going to send this to Grandma to see what you are really like..."

"Put on your big-girl pants." 
"I DID!"

Fine.  I'm smiling  See?  (See Ashley, too?)
Through the whole thing, Alex just held perfectly still and waited for it to be over. 

I love these kids so very very much!

First Day of School

Halloween 2010

Want to laugh?

We taught the kids to play Charades.  It was funny.  I wrote out cards like "washing your hair" and "Cinderella".  Alex got the card that said "ballerina" and decided to dance an arm-flailing head-shaking dance.  Amazingly, no one could guess what he was.  When I suggested he could end the charade by doing some of the "right" dance moves, he put his hands above his head and spun in circles.  Right away the girls knew he was a ballerina. 
Ashley got "Cinderella".  After 5 full minutes of prop planning and putting on her "fancy" shoes, she walked from the kitchen to the living room, kicked one of her shoes off, and kept going.  She was utterly successful which was made even more perfect by the fact that our friend, Rob, had already drawn that card and didn't know how to do it.  Way to show up the grown ups, Squeak!
Annie was fantastic in the entire game.  She remembered the rules of no talking, she acted with ease and flair, and she guessed right off the bat and with gusto.  We may be finding ourselves with an actress on our hands.  Keep your eyes peeled for Annie starring on the silver screen.

a super quick update

Things have been crazy in every one's neck of the woods. Life is great down here in Swine Flu-Ville. There's rumored to be about 2500 kids who have had or do have it but it has not yet touched this house. yay!!

The kids are back in school, Alex got his first male teacher, Mr. Church, who is fantastic. They put him in the 5th grade math class since he was the top scoring student in his grade last year in the math section of the WASL but it's proving to be a harder challenge than it should be so we're emailing Mr. Church to get him moved back to 4th grade math. I just can't see how he is supposed to spend 4 hours a night on homework for just math and keep his love of math alive. He's missing part of the foundation that he should have learned in 4th grade math so this should help a lot.

Annie got Mrs. Koerner for 1st grade. This was her teacher for K, too. She had a baby this summer and will officially join her class in the end of October. For now she has Mr. Mcaffrey (or something like that) who she is loving also. Mrs. Koerner was great for Annie's personality so I'm not sad to see her have her again this year at all. Annie is all kinds of smart, too, and is doing great!

Ashley just started preschool again yesterday and is in a class with Miss Molly and Miss Stephanie has her teachers. She has a couple of kids from her class last year and a whole lot of kids she knows from our apartment complex. The downside is there are 15 boys and only 5 girls. Miss Molly had a similar class last year and said it can get crazy really fast. But I think it will be fantastic for her. She continues to struggle with transition times by throwing fits are bedtime. We have learned a fairly effective way to deal with them, though, and until she figures out how to outsmart us with the current tactic, it seems to be working and curbing the duration.

School for me is going fast and crazy but really good. I should graduate in May and then have 2 summer courses to officially finish my course load. Or something. Maybe I'll just graduate in August and not deal with the funky graduation stuff by walking early.

Aiden's doing his stay at home dad thing again this year and seems to be enjoying it. Today is only the second day of Ashley being gone and him being alone for the morning so we'll see how he holds out.

That's life for now. Gotta run to class again so hope everything is great for you guys.

Time for another photo update!!!

In absolutely no particular order comes these pictures to you. Enjoy viewing our recent weeks of summer!

This is Ashley and I having a kiss.
Annie and I hugging after an exceptionally long afternoon of just getting home from Brandon's for 2 weeks and breaking down a bazillion times. You can see the sleepiness all over her eyes!

The swings were not up on our new playground-of-death before they left so the first thing they did was get on and swing!

I went through this phase. There's multiple close-ups of my face or pieces in here. Whatever, I think it's fun.

Brandon's girlfriend's parents have this truck. Minus the tow part, it's Tow-Mater from Cars. So the kids HAD to climb in and get a picture in Mater.

He must be blinking but he's so serious looking up there. He's turned out to be quite a little gymnast on that bar!

Just getting up. Or down. Whatever. From the other side you can see his fully formed 6 pack!

Annie ready to get off now. She was trying to convince the big kid who got her up to get her down but I wanted a picture first.

She did like it before she didn't.

Ashley is trying to see what Annie's doing. I think it's such an Ashley picture.

Alex trying to figure out the crossword puzzle at Shari's. It's cute because he hasn't figured out the answers are on the sheet so he's always impressed when I know exactly the right word to try in the spaces. Sometimes it's really not what you'd think so I'm glad they have the answers there!

Ashley was counting for hide and seek but was so excited by her warped face in the doorknob she could barely remember to count. She still got to 10 before I got the picture framed. I still like how this turned out.

A Mom and Ashley hug.

This is totally an Ashley face. Mostly it's an "I caught you doing something" face. You can almost hear the "ooooohhhhh ho ho!" come out of her mouth!

There's her cheese ball smile!

Annie wanted a kiss picture. So she made her eyes all big (it's a long story). It looks like I'm pinching her or something but I'm not. I swear, it's all on her own.

Ashley suckered me into helping her hang. The look on her face is annoyance with me as I was just then told to take my hands off so she could do it by herself!

But I didn't go far!

Alex is just cute. And somehow I don't get enough pictures of him. So I post the ones I get.

He's just so damned handsome!

And we have Annie's goofball face. She's actually hamming it up about something else right here but I don't care. I'm letting you draw your own assumptions. Because I love this face when she makes it.

I also love the heck out of this face!

And we're back to Ashley swinging. It's what she would do all day every day if we let her. The best part is she knows how to pump but she gets tired and starts asking us to push her. So the little boys come over and push her gently. One in particular is really sweet about it. They were in pre-school together and are just sweet friends.

And my giant close-up smile. There's eyeball pictures too, somewhere on facebook. But I'll let you find those on your own.

Last but certainly not least is Aiden. While the kids were gone we spent a lot of time with Goretti's family. This is her kids' guitar. Aiden put the strap on and played. So I took a blackmail picture that is just really cute.

And a video of Alex on the bar.

The kids are back

Alex lived through his concert experience, and we got the kids back yesterday around noon. It was 11:23 to be exact but who's paying that much attention?

We plopped them in the car and drove home. We played outside, checked on our garden (I should post a picture of the amazing amount of peas we have picked!), and then decided to set up our pool.

Brandon has a big deal pool at his trailer space so the kids were used to playing in that, NOT in the $13 pre-formed plastic thing at our backyard. It did not take long for Bossy Annie to make an appearance. She turned into Pouty Annie when she was called on it.

Shortly afterward, Tearful Ashley also showed up.

Alex was the most well behaved of the bunch. And by far.

Bedtime was a thought in the back of my mind until Annie lost it later that night for the 14th time since getting home.

I asked if she was tired and she was positive she was NOT tired. It's just that Grandma Laura, with whom they stayed for the last weekend before coming home (with Brandon) babysat them on Friday night so Brandon could go out with his brother and sis in law.
"And she made us go to bed at 11:30!!!"

Yup, it was bedtime.

But in all seriousness, I'm so glad they are home. I didn't post much while they were gone because I don't think anyone wants to read about how I cried myself to sleep every night for the first week and then just stayed up so late the second week I would eventually just pass out from exhaustion. It's about all I did. Depression is not so very blog worthy.

But today I got woken up at 7 in the morning by Ashley yelling down the hall for me to come here. I found her in the bathroom, she wanted me to see her poop and check her butt. I guess they didn't eat much corn at her dad's house. It's her favorite and she ate A LOT during dinner last night. And it showed this morning. y'know? It freaked her out a bit.

Then we watched Strawberry Shortcake and now we're going outside to play.

Life is so good.

Music calms the savage MONKEYS

These are our two favorite bedtime songs. The Pony Man is a Gordon Lightfoot song but the best video I could find on youtube is these two guys doing a cover. But you get the idea.

Water Balloons

While we were waiting for a large thunderstorm to arrive on Sunday, Goretti brought out some water balloons and we let the kids go at each other with them.

Mostly they wanted to attack Darrin, the only adult dumb enough to get in the section of grass the kids had been banished to with said balloons. Which ended up making Darrin the hero of all the other adults who didn't want to go over and supervise the fight. We were trying to make it fair between the 9 year old and the 3 year old and everyone in between. I love the look of sheer joy on Ashley's face.
As we were filling up the balloons, there was a misunderstanding which led to this picture. Maybe someone should remember who has the hose before she tries to empty a water balloon on someone next time. hmmmm?

What We Did with NO PLAYGROUND

While waiting for the awesome men to build the playground (we couldn't help due to liability, I guess) we played Transformers and Little People for a LOT of the day Saturday.
There is a good amount of kids in this complex so we shared our toys with everyone who cared to come out and play. Heaven knows we have more than enough Little People to go around!

Santiago must be in that age where trains are the coolest thing ever. Especially this Little People one that can be set to go around, pull the cart, and come back to you! It really just does a circle but Santo played with that thing for HOURS! When we finally made it go straight for him today he took it really far down the sidewalk. Who knows how many times the button on that thing has been activated by him this weekend, but I am tempted to give it to him. Except I still love Little People. We played them A LOT when we were kids.

The boredom eventually took over and even Aiden was hit. He was showing off his Little People girl with the bird seed. OOOOkaaaaayyy, Aiden. (clap for him so he's not embarrassed!)

Little People, though, can only hold your attention for so long in one day. The kids abandoned the toys for something more fun. I don't remember what it was, probably Popsicles or "water pops". Either way, the carnage left behind was entertaining to us.

After I took this picture I realized the plane looks like it dumped all the people out of it before it crashed into the city. Fear not, no one was hurt in the making of this photo.

We got a new Playground

Since the playground that was here was 11 years old (and to celebrate the neighbors from hell moving, at least in my mind), Christa talked her boss into letting us get a new one. It was on order for a few weeks (or so) and arrived on Friday. The old one was being taken to her house as a perk for doing such a great job but the new one was not going to be built until the middle of next week.
I don't know what exactly caused these great guys (and daddies!) of the complex to volunteer their time but they are both maintenance workers for the complex and spent Friday evening starting to build. They worked so late they ended up working by headlight from one of their's cars. They worked on it again most of the day Saturday again ending in a headlight work zone. Late last night the last screw went in and the kids of the complex awoke to the completed project. Except the swings which are on order, from what I'm told.

Thanks for putting it up guys! There are cookies in your futures for saving all the mommies from dealing with a week of no playground.

Here deleted by request, along with photo... and Daniel are putting it up on Saturday. When they had to break for lunch (or something) the kids could NOT wait to get at it. The problem is the slide wasn't up so there was a big gaping hole on the back side. This was all they got for Saturday.They christened it this morning by playing pirate ship and house and making up clubs for the clubhouse. It was welcome by all.Alex had to take a break in all the enjoyment and reflect, I guess.

And Amadeo was just a nut ball, as usual.

In which I am amazed by my kids' random knowledge

We keep having game night with Goretti and Darrin (and Salma) on Saturday nights. The game of late is Cranium and the kids have been hounding us to let them play it with us. But I'm SO not up for sitting through that much fun. Remember Sorry? I still do.

So because playing games with the kids is so much fun we decided to get Alex a copy of Trivial Pursuit Junior for his birthday present. We went to Wal-Mart the weekend before the big day and searched for it.

Nope.

So we went to Shopko. Nope, again.

Since that sufficiently exhausted our choice of stores around here that might have it, I turned to Amazon.com. I found an edition for 10 bucks that is not the most current but still current enough to be fun. And the price was way the heck better than the newest edition.

It finally came on Monday so Tuesday we busted it out and played. Annie and Ashley got to team up with me and Aiden since we thought NO WAY would they be able to answer enough questions are their own to make it fair.

The game is for ages 8 and up and is for 4 players. Alex's friend Brady was over so he was the fourth spot.

Some of the questions are ridiculously hard for a kids' game but we figure it's so someone else gets a turn. Some of them, though, are so easy it's almost embarrassing.

Brady doesn't get a lot of exposure to things so it was harder for him to know a lot of the answers. And that was understandable. Although he did know what sport begins with "En Garde".

But Alex knows that Medusa has snakes instead of hair. Ashley knows the national bird is the bald eagle. And Annie knows so much stuff she actually got all of her pie wedges first only to lose by not being able to get back to the middle quick enough for her final question. (We think that's karma since she is kind of a snotty winner)

Because it's midnight, I cannot think of the other stuff the kids knew that was so amazing. But it was a lot. Lyrics to songs, things about games, random history and mythology questions, all were answered without a ton of parental help.

Sometimes we turned the questions into multiple choice stuff to help them out, but really, my kids are so smart!

Okay, I just realized I crossed the line into braggy. That's not cool. Mostly I just wanted to record how impressed I am with their vast knowledge of trivial stuff.

We are SO turning them into mini versions of us.

Maybe one of us WILL make it on Jeopardy some day.

LIAR!

Alex went through the lying phase. I may have blocked it out but I don't remember it being really long. Maybe I was just too tired from having the girls around that I just don't remember or didn't notice it happening. But he's always been the kid most concerned with fairness and equality. Except when he throws caution to the wind and tries to get a little more than everyone else... but at games and life in general, he's my most honest and equal child.

Annie can't lie for anything. This does NOT mean she doesn't try, it just means she does it SO badly.

"How badly does she do it?" you ask?

You can tell she's going to lie to you from the minute she walks into the room. Before she opens her mouth you know you're about to hear a bunch of malarkey. Occasionally she'll get me to believe her but Aiden can see right through and fairly quickly we can get to the actual truth.

This is somewhat helped along by Ashley who is faithfully following behind Annie making sure she is telling the real story.

Ashley isn't a liar very often. And she doesn't give it away with her face. Her tactic is to use some 4 year old form of reverse psychology. For example, the other day she came wandering out to the living room with a connector from the glow stick necklace she'd had for the 4th of July.

"I didn't put this in my butt" she informed us.***

Riiiight. After some further questioning and a lot of tears we finally got her to realize we know what the real "truff" is and she should just tell it to us.

Later that same day we were coming in from outside and walked past a stroller we have procured. It's been a favorite pastime for the girls to push it around with baby dolls and occasionally Goretti's baby in it. This makes them feel VERY important. And I guess they are in their mommy phases. Especially Annie. But I digress...

"I did not sit in that stroller" Ashley told me.

I did not have the energy to deal with it right then so I played along. "Oh good," I told her, "because that stroller is for babies and little kids not little BIG kids. If you sat in it you might not get to push Salma around in it anymore."

"Oh."

I think she learned her lesson.

***This sparked a whole lot of terror on my part (where would she come up with this idea!??!) and led to a lot of worries, phone calls for advice, and tears that someone had hurt her... in the end (no pun intended) we have decided it's one of the benign things kids do.

4th of July

We have what is now our "tradition" (because is it a TRADITION after 2 years?) for the 4th of July while living in Pullman.
It starts with eating yummy BBQ food (Aiden made some fiery hot homemade BBQ sauce to put over chicken legs. we also had hot dogs for the kids, baked beans, corn on the cob done in foil on the grill with butter, pepper, and garlic salt (mmmm!) in the foil with them).
Then we get up to the hill where the fireworks are NOT being done by the city to watch the fireworks done by the city on another hill ridiculously early. We let the kids play on the playground, bring bags of candy, poppers, pop-its, sparklers, and glow sticks.
Last year we went with some friends who decided to go to the city's shebang this this year. So we had lots of fun with Goretti and her kids.
My friend Rob also came and reminded me that I might want a picture of the kids all together for the blog. So here's the picture I got from that.After Aiden pointed out that the caption for it could read "and then when we get home we'll kill the puppy" we took another picture. MUCH better.

Then I realized it was too fun to take pictures of the kids on the night portrait setting since the glow sticks kept moving (and my hands were moving and I had not brought my tri-pod). So I took an insane amount of those pictures. But I think they are fun.

The boys of the group kept saying it looked like the kids were taken to a rave. Whatever.

Just to prove we were there. Yep, that is the best picture of me we could get in the 2 shots. Trust me. I was that hot/tired/sweaty.

Finally the moon came up and was gorgeous in it's cloud cover. And then the big show started.

Again, I didn't have my tri-pod because I always think I can hold my hands perfectly still for the whole time the shutter is open. Turns out not. I'm sure if you want to know what those would have looked like you can just google fireworks pictures and get some wavy lined things that might have been fireworks before the drunken effect was added by the wiggling photographer's hands.

So, Happy Birthday, USA! We had a great time.