Artist

Last week we found out that Emma's art work, "Texture Town," was selected to be entered into a contest. The art teacher at her school could select 10 pieces of art from David Elementary to be entered into the contest. Each school in the district will enter art work and 300 works will be selected to be hung in the district Administration building for next year. She was pretty excited! We are pretty proud of her. I am still a little dumbfounded that an artist came out of me. I think it means that there is more Russell in her than I had thought. Aaron's grandpa Lofgreen was a good artist and Aaron is very good at drawing. The contest will happen in May.

Bravos Bend Camping Trip

We usually go to Brazos Bend State Park every spring time. This time we decided to go camping over the Good Friday break. We invited a bunch of families to go with us and had a great time! We had four campsites all by each other and the kids just ran around everywhere playing with each other.

We were able to see a nest of baby alligators. They were about as cute as baby alligators could be. They just slept and walked all over each other. Turns out that baby alligators aren't much different than human babies in that regard.

We also were able to see a couple of daddy alligators do their mating calls. They stuck their heads up straight in the air and their tails up straight as well and then they made a loud grumbling sound. It was cool. I think they were each staking out their territory.

At one point John had to use the bathroom and we were far away from the bathrooms so Aaron took him out into the trees. Afterward, John said, "I like this!" Emma was also able to experience using the trees as a bathroom and based on the frequency with which she requested to use the bathroom, she liked it too.

In the evening we all sat around the fire and told stories. It got to be late and John begged to go to bed. I was shocked. He didn't want to sleep in the tent by himself though. A short time later he decided that he was that tired and would sleep in the tent on his own. And he did.

At night I learned that John snores like an old man and talks in his sleep.  Overall, sleeping in the tent wasn't so bad. We got about of good of a night's sleep as you can in a tent while camping as a family.

Emma's favorite part of camping was playing with friends. John's favorite part was digging with a camping shovel. Emma also liked the orange soda and John also liked the cheetos.

I learned that I can handle one night of camping and that I am a social camper. It was a ton of fun to camp with a bunch of friends. If anyone forgot something, someone else had it. The kids had a great time running around and it was nice to visit with friends. We lucked out with the weather. There weren't any mosquitos and the weather was perfect. There were little gnats but they didn't bite, they just flew in your face.

We drove home and the kids crashed on the way home. Aaron and I crashed for a few days afterwards.

Resourceful

John brought me a container with trucks and beans and asked me if he could play with them. I was perplexed because I thought I had put them up high but figured I was wrong. Later I went upstairs for something and found this:

I wasn't crazy, John was resourceful.

Esmerelda

We have hit an enormous milestone in our family. Emma lost her first tooth! She had a shark's tooth coming in on her bottom front tooth so we had the dentist pull her tooth out. She was beyond excited! She wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy and put it and her tooth under her pillow.

In the morning she found a note under her pillow and a dollar. She was ecstatic! She was also excited to tell her teacher and get her name on the board at school for having lost a tooth.

Stuck

I was putting the groceries in the back of the van and John was playing around in the car. Suddenly I hear, "Mom! I am stuck!" I look in the car and I see that John had been playing in a carseat that wasn't buckled into the car and it fell in between the third and second row of seats. He was stuck in the carseat in between the seats. Both of us were giggling. I couldn't get him out until I took a picture first. I tried unsuccessfully to lift the carseat up out of the seats. Finally I had him wiggle out backwards to get out.

April Fool's Day

I ran out of steam this year so it was a pretty tame April Fool's Day. I had Aaron pick up some Jello at the store for me so I could trick the kids. I made jello in clear cups so they would think I got them some juice. They tried to drink the jello and of course it didn't work. They were a bit confused. Finally after several attempts to pour the "juice" into their mouths unsuccessfully, we told them that it was jello. They tasted the jello and didn't like it. I thought it was weird that they didn't like jello because surely all kids love jello, right? Well, later when I was cleaning up the kitchen, I found the jello box and Aaron accidentally bought cranberry jello. Who knew that they sold cranberry jello outside of November? It makes me wonder if it is someone's attempt to manage a UTI.

Random Thoughts from the Kids

Here are are variety of conversations I have had with the kids.

Emma: Where is the Silverlicious book? I can't find it.
Me: I will help you find it if you come give me a hug first.
Emma: I will try looking again. [Walks off]
Apparently hugs are that awful.

John and I were having a conversation about being a rocket scientist. He got excited and wanted to be a rocket scientist. He told me that when he was 12 he would be a rocket scientist. I told him he had to finish high school, and college before he could be a rocket scientist so he would probably be almost 30. He didn't like that. He then told me that he wanted to go to haircut school instead. Later that day he changed his mind and decided to be a rocket scientist again.

John: Sometimes stuff get dirty on my bum a little bit. That is why I wear a cape.

Emma: Does John have an allergy?
Me: We don't know yet.
John: Jesus knows.

When John sticks his finger in his nose, and I tell him that it is gross, that is a guarantee that he will keep it there.

John: Can you throw me into the wall?
Aaron: I think that would hurt.
So Aaron threw him up to the ceiling instead. (He didn't actually hit the ceiling, just to be clear.)

Aaron came home from work and was changing his cloths.
John: Those are gigantic shorts!

John: My pet pet dog....
Aaron: What is your dog's name?
John: Lazy Starfish.
Aaron: Your dog's name is Lazy Starfish?
John: Yeah, he doesn't like it.
Aaron: I bet.
John: He wants to be named Starfish John. My cat's name is Special Fart Lick. They are at the vet.
Apparently at the vet they have a big rolling pin that they use to smash off the cat's claws.

During conference we play conference bingo.
John: Gambling with beans is another word for conference bingo.

Easter

Here are pictures from Easter. We were pretty tired from camping this weekend so it was low key. We did an egg hunt for the kids. At church the kids sang with the primary. John was excited for his first time to go up to the stand and sing. Actually he was excited to go up to the stand. Not much in the way of singing going on. Emma sang. At church John gave his first talk in Primary and did well. Emma complimented him on his talk. It was very sweet of her.

Bluebonnet Pictures

Every year we take family pictures at a park that plants a bunch of bluebonnets. Since we do them ourselves, they are hit or miss. This year, was a miss. There were hardly any bluebonnets. But that wasn't the worst of it. The kids just didn't have it in them to have their pictures taken. John immediately rebelled before we even got started. I wish I could say these were the out takes.

Art Work

This week we took a trip to the public library to see a piece of art work that Emma had done and was selected to be hung up in the library. It was entitled "Texture Town." It was something she made in school in art class. She painted paper and then cut it out and glued it on a big piece of paper to make the shapes of things in a town. On our way into the library a bunch of people were walking in and Emma said, "There are a lot of people going to the library! I bet they want to see a lot of art!"

Legos

As it turns out, I like legos. I don't remember having them as a child. I am pretty sure we had at least some because I know what they are but I don't remember playing with them. John has been getting into legos lately. I have been playing legos with him and enjoying it.

I have always wanted to build a lego temple whenever I see pictures of lego temples. I think it would be fun. I decided that it would be a great activity for the kids to do during conference. I asked John's preschool teacher if I could borrow her legos to find the pieces I needed to build a temple. It turns out she has a million legos. I spent the better part of a rainy day searching through legos for white pieces and gray and tan pieces (when it was apparent that I didn't have enough white pieces). And by the better part, I mean several hours. My eyes were having a hard time adjusting to looking at any distance that was longer than about 18 inches from my face. It brought back a ton of memories of my programming days. Even John commented that his eyes were "weird." John's preschool teacher had 3 more bags of legos so if I wanted to, I could spend three more days looking for the right legos.

I decided that it was worth the $45 for a temple lego set. So the Nauvoo temple is coming on Wednesday. The kids have requested the large Salt Lake temple that is supposed to take an adult 6-9 hours to complete. We will have to see how Nauvoo goes.

Competition

My kids are starting to show their competitive natures or the lack thereof depending on the child. Emma comes from the Russell camp. She is totally competitive, even beyond what I could imagine her being. It has surfaced this year I think in part due to recess at school and playing tag with her friends.

John on the other hand, doesn't have a competitive bone in his body. He is Anderson. Yesterday we were trying to herd the cats (read kids) out the door to go to the park. They were not moving. So I tried to get John to race me in getting on our socks. John wasn't quite going to win. He said, "Mom is the first winner, I am the second winner, Emma is the third winner and Daddy is a rotten egg!" There are only winners and rotten eggs. They haven't even conceived yet that there is another option that begins with the letter "l."

Jokes

John told his first joke that he made up that makes sense. Here it is:

John: What is 2+2?
Me: 4
John: No, tooters!
Me: [giggling because tooters are still funny when you are 37]
John: What is 1+1?
Me: 2
John: No, tooters!
Me: [giggling some more]

Clean Up

We are trying something new in our house. Cleaning up for the kids is the equivalent to asking them to move a mountain. Not going to happen unless they are doing it to get screen time. It is extremely frustrating to repeatedly ask them to clean up and to watch the temper tantrums unfold. So Aaron and I came up with a new approach. It is new to our family. My parents did something similar when I was a kid.

At night Aaron and I go around and sweep up all of the things they left out. Then we lock it up. The kids have to do a chore to get the item out. When we explained this to the kids they were excited for a number of reasons. 1. We won't be nagging them to clean up anymore. And 2. they heard "mom and dad are going to clean up for us!"

So far after one day, we have about a third of the toys locked up in grandma's room. At this rate, in two more days, the kids won't have any toys left. I am giggling as I type this. There are some interesting side effect from this. The kids are now playing with tier 2 toys and enjoying them. These are toys that they don't normally play with but since the tier one toys are gone, they don't have much of a choice. Our house gets easier to clean because there are fewer and fewer toys to clean up. And lastly, I am pretty sure this will help us identify what toys can be sold off because if they aren't interested in doing a chore to get the toy back, then they don't need it.

As for my parent's take on this, we had to shoot baskets to get our cloths and toys back. For Aaron, this would have been a reward for not cleaning up. For me, it was torture. I would have rather done a chore to get my stuff back. This was all part of my parents attempt to get us out of the house and learn a sport. Unfortunately for my mom, I never learned to love basketball.

The real challenge today will be getting John dressed for church since I now have his church cloths. It looks like he might be going to church in corduroy pants in warm weather and wearing a polo shirt that bugs him. With any luck he will want to get his church cloths out for next Sunday.

New Friends

I took the kids to the park and a few of the neighbors were there that had kindergarteners as well. I was talking with one mom in an attempt to get to know her. Unfortunately I didn't get her name.

On the way home from the park Emma turned to me and said, "Mom, did you make a new friend?" She said it in the same way that Aaron asks Emma that same question. It was very clear that Emma was my mom at that moment. I giggled and told her "yes." Then Emma said, "What is her name?" (Also in a parenting voice.) I admit, I didn't know. Emma persisted. Finally, I came up with "Trent's mom." Mission accomplished!

Pets

Emma: I like dogs!

Aaron: No you don't. You like bees!

Several of our friends have bees. They make honey. We are tempted to get bees. Several of our friends have dogs. They make poop. We are not tempted to get dogs.

Sick and More Sick

John has taken it in the shorts this year, actually starting in December of last year. He came down with bronchitis and an ear infection. Simultaneously he had a staff infection that we had taken care of in January. Then he needed to get some muluscum taken care of a couple of times because the first time didn't work. The muluscum were the instigator of the staph infection. He had another ear infection where the doctor also scratched the inside of his ear while attempting to clean out some wax and a possible penicillin allergy from the antibiotic from the ear infection. He also tripped an had to get a couple of stitches on his chin. We went in to get his stitches taken out and found out that he had come down with the flu B that afternoon.

John has been a trooper through it all, but just don't try to touch his head. He now accepts medicine droppers in his mouth. Emma believes that all prescriptions are for John.

While John had the flu, he woke up in the night screaming like he was being dismembered. Aaron and I ran up stairs to find out that he couldn't find his jammy shorts. When I offered him some other pants he cried because they didn't match his shirt. I tried to explain that nobody was going to see him and he still wanted to match. Really he needed a drink and had a fever. The next night I heard John wake up so I go up to catch him before he could scream. No luck. This time it was worse than the night before. Aaron jumped up on our bed, but tripped on our covers and landed on our laundry basket. We are now down a laundry basket. We asked John why he was screaming. He was coming to get us to tell us something and got to the stairs and it was dark so he got scared and screamed and ran back into his room. When we asked him what he was going to tell us he said, "I don't know, it left my head." When Aaron told me about the laundry basket, I couldn't stop laughing. In fact I was crying I was laughing so hard. Now, whenever I see the basket I giggle.

John's Birthday

We now have a 4 year old in our family! I woke John up on his birthday and said happy birthday to him but apparently he was still asleep and then I told him that he was 4. He countered with "no I am not!" I counted back like a true 37 year old with "yes you are." This went back and forth for a while and then he caught on and very excitedly asked, "is it my birthday?" That morning he pointed out all of the things he could do now because he was 4 years old and he couldn't do them when he was 3 years old because he is bigger now.

John got to go to preschool on his birthday and he brought fruit snacks for a treat for his friends. There are food allergies so no cupcakes for this class. Then I picked him up from preschool and took him to a PTO meeting - super awesome birthday present, I know. John was a good sport. When I told him what we were doing he said, "for my birthday I just want to go to school and to a PTO meeting." Cue twinge of guilt! However, I let him open his present from Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Keith. They sent him a book about trucks and several little construction trucks. I grabbed a bunch of dried beans and let him play on the floor with the beans and the trucks during my meeting. The funny part was that if you asked him what Grandma and Grandpa gave him, he would reply "beans." I corrected him several times but without much success.

After that, we got to play with Emma after school and thence took Emma to ballet. Aaron picked John up from ballet and took him home and played with him there until Emma and I got home. Then we had mac and cheese for dinner, carrots, and apples. I made chipotle mac and cheese for Aaron and I. Then for dessert, we had John's cake and ice cream. That is a story all by itself.

I haven't made cake for birthday's. I have made cupcakes but no cakes. John requested cake and ice cream and on his cake he requested a picture of a rocket. It morphed into a picture of a turtle with a rocket on its back. I had seen where you put frosting on wax paper over a picture and color the picture with frosting and then transfer it to the cake. Easy Peasy right? So we were looking at pictures of rockets online so he could choose one that he liked. He zeroed in on a picture of a turtle with a rocket on its back. I gave in.

The day before his birthday, I let John pick his cake and frosting out at the store, He chose a tie die cake with bright blue frosting and fish sprinkles. We made the cake that day. As it turns out, this is harder than it looks. We made the cake just fine. Getting it out of the pan was another story. It required a phone call to the cake support line (a.k.a. Grandma Lindy). Unfortunately the cake support line's ultimate answer was summed up with "it is hard to get a cake out of a pan." So the cake came out in chunks. I put them back together as best I could and then proceeded to frost the cake. When it came time to frost the sides, Emma told me to stop and asked what on earth I was doing?? I pointed out that you frost the sides of layer cakes. I showed her pictures on the box because it was then that I realized she had never seen a layered cake. I told her that people normally frost the sides of cakes. She replied, "So you are trying to be normal?" Yup, I am trying to be normal. After the cake was frosted, it fell apart. John said his prayers that night and said thank you for his cake and he was "ok that the cake was cracked."

On his birthday I attempted to do the turtle. When Aaron walked in the house I announced that he should come see my cake because there weren't words to describe it. Then John piped up and said, "It's messed up!" Truer words were never spoken.

John was a good sport about his cake being less than perfect. It tasted just like a store bought cake and frosting should taste and the added bonus was that the blue frosting turned your poop green. That was awesome for the next few days.

For his presents, John wanted a few lego sets. During the time leading up to his birthday, he would tell me all about the sets that he wanted (a wrecking ball and crane, a cement truck, and a pirate ship). He is really into legos these days. That is all that he wants to play with.

Aunt Mary was teasing John that she got him  barbie princess lego set earlier in the day. I had a conversation with John about how no matter what he gets for his birthday, we need to say "thank you." So I made a video of John thanking Aunt Mary for his barbie lego set. I think he is so in love with legos that he wouldn't actually care what the lego set was about as long as it is legos.


Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian got him the wrecking ball set, not the barbie set he was thinking he was getting. When he figured it out, he said, "she didn't get me barbie legos!" Aaron and I got him the cement truck. Grandma Lindy and Grandpa Rich gave him money so he could pick out a present this summer since his birthday and Christmas are so close together he has a present flood and drought.

We have spent the past couple weeks putting together these legos. It stretches John's attention span to work on these but he loves them. I am amazed at the ingenuity of the lego designers. I am finding I love legos and wish I had them as a kid. I wouldn't mind putting together the Sidney Opera House set if I had infinite money to spend on things.

John is a funny kid who has a quick mind and wit. I don't know that I will ever understand how his brain works but thoroughly enjoy it. He loves reading, tools, digging in dirt, helping with projects, helping with cooking, he always is looking for someone to play with him, snacks, carbs, his balance bike, his friends, wrestling, learning about everything, and space.

John doesn't like cooked peppers, loud noises, rides that move, going places (he just wants to be home), and shrimp.

We enjoy having John in our family. He makes us laugh, and have fun, and play, and learn new things.

Bedtime

We put John to bed and then he came downstairs.

John: Mom, I need to tell you something.
Me: What?
John: I have a hard time going to bed because I keep sneaking out.
Me: True. Go back to bed.

Emma

I had my first parent teacher conference with Emma's teacher this week. It went about how I thought it would go. I wasn't really worried that Emma is a trouble maker. The teacher said she has tested for reading at a level 18. That is where kids are supposed to be at the end of first grade. She is probably higher but the teacher can't test for higher because they don't want to expose kids to the content at that level too soon. Apparently it is too mature. I have suspected that she can read at about a second grade level and it was finally confirmed. Mrs. Allen also said that she can do her math just fine. She said that normally kids at that are higher thinkers can't do the math or they can only do the math in their head but can't explain how they got to the answer but Emma doesn't seem to have that problem. She also said that Emma is a rule follower (not terribly shocking) and is good about not talking to others when she isn't supposed to be. She said that she plays with her friends and is doing well socially. Emma loves kindergarten and Mrs. Allen and I told Mrs. Allen that she was so sad when she was out sick for strep. Mrs. Allen said she had missed Emma as well because she uses Emma as an assistant to go run things to the office or different places because she knows Emma will go straight there and come straight back.

The Sunday before my birthday Emma told me that she wanted me to take her to HEB so she could buy a birthday card for me. I told her that they were expensive and that I would love a homemade card from her. She finally agreed and made a card for me and made my present for me. She wrapped it up very nicely. She had asked what I wanted for my birthday and I told her snuggled. She responded with, "no snuggles until your birthday!!"

I finally got to unwrap my birthday present from Emma on my birthday and here is what I got:

I still smile when I see this paper!

Almost but Not Quite

A neighbor of ours is moving and offered us a desk. This desk has a hutch on it with a cork board on the back and a little shelf. We put it in John's room since that is the only place we currently have room for anything.

One day John called me up to his room. He was beyond excited to show me his "shift." He put his pillow and blanket on top of the desk and was pretending to sleep on top of the desk in his "shift." I was confused as to why he was calling the desk a shift. John reminded me that we had read from a book about astronauts that they "slept in shifts" so someone could fly the shuttle at all times. He thought shift was another word for bed. I have tried and tried and tried to explain that a shift means taking turns and is not a bed. He caught on to a shift means taking turns but would not let go of the idea that it is a bed.

He even explained to his sunbeam teacher that astronauts sleep in shifts and that means taking turns and it is also a bed. He had one confused teacher.

Last night John and Aaron got into it over what shift meant. Finally John said, "You are wrong and I am right!" Aaron asked John to put a shift in a tupperware container. John said he couldn't because the tupperware is too small. He also laughed as such silly request. Aaron explained that a shift can't go into a tupperware container because it is something in your head, it isn't an object. John said he got it but I am not convinced.... time will tell.

On the same Sunday that John had taught his primary teacher about shifts he taught me about stuffed animals.

John: Stuffed animals' bodies are too small for a spirit. That is why they aren't alive.
Emma: John, where did you learn that?
John: Primary.

Here is another conversation with John after I had already put him to bed:

John: I need to tell you something.
Me: What do you need to tell me?
John: Wait, I need to look it up in my head....

Interview with John and Emma

Interviewed By Jamie

1. What is something I always say to you?
John: I don't know
Emma: No treats on Thursday

2. What makes me happy?
John: I don't know
Emma: snuggles

3. What make me sad?
John: I don't know
Emma: When I don't listen

4. How do I make you laugh?
John: I don't know
Emma: read the blog story where John says, "Daddy no gonks"

5. What was I like as a child?
John: I don't know
Emma: I don't know

6. How old am I?
John: 6
Emma: 37

7. How tall am I?
John: This tall {using hands}
Emma: 1049 lbs

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
John: tickle
Emma: tickle us

9. What do I do when you are not around?
John: come play with me
Emma: I don't know

10. What am I really good at?
John: ironing
Emma: doing my hair (Emma's)

11. What is something I am not good at?
Perfect Squirt: knitting
Emma: I don't know anything that you are not good at

12. What do I do for a job?
John: clean up
Emma: you take care of us

13. What is my favorite food?
John: carrots
Emma: raviolis

14.What do you enjoy doing with me?
John: playing with me
Emma: Emma daughter dates

Snowflakes

Emma has recently started to make snowflakes out of paper. Yesterday John came running down the stairs and joyfully announced they could sell snowflakes to people for money and be rich! I giggled to myself. Later that day, as I was driving up to the house, I saw Emma and John at a table at the foot of the driveway giving away snowflakes. John apparently wanted to sell them and Emma suggested that they give them away.

They gave three away to the neighbors who were playing outside. Emma was disappointed at the low turn out. I thought it was adorable!

Space

John has been obsessed with space lately. He turned to me and said, "Are we in space?" I answered, "no, we are on the Earth." Then he returned with, "if the Earth is in space, and we are on the Earth, why are we not in space?" Well, when you put it like that, yes we are. So then we got into how you define "space."

Reading

I picked John up from preschool on Tuesday and his teacher said, "So John is learning to read, but you already knew that." I looked at her bewildered and said, "no, I didn't know that." Apparently she was reading Cat in the Hat to the kids and John saw the word p-l-o-p. He sounded it out and arrived at pop. So pretty close, anyway. That morning I had been working with him on a toy that is supposed to help kids with learning to read easy words like cat and hen. Aaron has worked with him in the past to sound out a few words but nothing terribly consistent and after a very short while, John looses interest and doesn't want to do it any more.

Today John told Aaron that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon and that Aaron would help him. I don't know that I would consider that Book of Mormon to be an easy reader type book. Aaron got out the first Bob Book. So today John read the first Bob book. He has a way to go for it to all click together but he was pretty excited at his accomplishment. He also loved that we offer gum as a reward for reading. It is what we would do for Emma when she was learning to read. She would do anything for gum. We'll see if it will work for John. He also got to help Aaron with tools in the garage as a reward. Both were intensely exciting.

Just a Flesh Wound

John has had this little white bump on his head for quite some time now. Just before Christmas it turned into this large goose egg type thing that was red and huge. It was about an inch long and a half inch above his scalp. It was very tender.

Yesterday I finally took him in to the doctor because that was the soonest appointment I could get due to the holidays. It was an abscess. We don't know if it is strep or staph yet but the doctor had to drain it. It was not for the faint of heart. Poor John was screaming and there were three of us holding him down. The kid was a trooper though. He didn't buck at all. When the doctor asked him to stop crying so that his head wouldn't bleed as much and he actually tried and did it. There was no numbing medicine at all - just a straight cutting open. Apparently there was a lot of stuff coming out of it and blood everywhere. It didn't take John long to recover from it though and figure out that he could milk it for all of the Sesame Street and treats he wanted. Other than getting his head cut open, it was a lot like Halloween or an Aunt Mary visit as far as treats are concerned.

Broccoli

John has decided that he likes broccoli with butter and salt and pepper. More accurately, he likes salt and butter. Broccoli is just the agreed upon vehicle for the salt and butter. Tonight he asked to just eat salt. I said no. He asked for some broccoli to go with his salt. I said yes. He also asked if he could eat butter from the knife. I said no. Again, we were back to the broccoli as the vehicle. My kids plowed through a bag of broccoli tonight. I am not yet ready to talk about the butter and salt yet. I will say that he didn't want toast and butter and jam as a method of eating butter.

Shoe Ransom

So I read a friend's blog and she mentioned that she has a shoe ransom basket where left out shoes get put. The owner has to either sing a song and do a dance or they can pick up five things and put them away. I loved this idea. Any and all shoes are fair game - parent's included. I thought that would make the kids excited to put each other's shoes in the basket and Aaron's and my shoes in the basket to witness something humiliating. Aaron was supportive of the idea. The kids were another matter. Emma has a pair of boots in the baskets as I write this. She couldn't bring herself to perform twice for John and me. She then proceeded to tell me how much she dislikes the idea. John was in concurrance.

Being in an exceptionally flexible mood, I told the kids we could have a family council and decide what we should do to help get the shoes cleaned up in our house. Emma had an idea. Her idea was to fold and put away all of the owner's laundry and then read four pages from two different books. I was sure to verify that her idea was better than singing a song and doing a dance or even putting away five things. She assured me that it was. I suspect her boots will be in that basket for a very long time.

More Staycation

Aaron also had this last week off and we have truly enjoyed our family time and having a quieter pace of life.

On Monday we took the kids to a place called Little Beakers with some friends. It is a place where the kids can do science experiments. I still have very fond memories of 8th grade science class where we got to do science experiments. The kids loved it. They got to do the coke and mentor experiment, make snow, make a monster (gooey stuff in a balloon with mesh over it so when you squeeze it, it bubbles out the mesh), and make an alkeselser rocket. Then we went home and made pizzas.

Here they made goo and put it into a ballon with mesh around it. When you squeeze the balloon then it squishes around the mesh.

Here they made blue snow

 Here they did alkaselser  rockets.

On Tuesday we recovered the house from Christmas. It was sad to take everything down but nice to reclaim one third of our living room.

On Wednesday we met some friends for lunch at the Hobbit Cafe. They enjoy science fiction stuff and I enjoy healthy food. It is a bit of a granola place but they also have ridiculous stuff like a burger that is too tall to fit in your mouth because it is loaded with everything delicious and unhealthy. Aaron and Wes split the burger. Then we went to the zoo. We didn't see much in the way of animals because it was a cold day and the zoo here tends toward warm climate animals (no polar bears in Houston) and all the animals went inside if they could or were huddled doing nothing. We were able to feed the giraffes. Giraffes are Emma's favorite animal so she loved it. John did as well and I confess I have always wanted to feed them every time we have been to the zoo so it was a dream come true. We went to the children's portion of the zoo which has a playground and a petting zoo and stuff to climb on. The kids loved it! The adults however, were less enchanted because we kept loosing a kid down some alley. There were no enclosed spaces and the kids kept running everywhere. We decided to head for home when our nerves where shot and the kids were getting tired from running and playing. The traffic was bad so we decided to get dinner and wait for traffic to die down. We ate mediterranean food and I loved it.

On Thursday we had friends over for waffles and ice cream for dinner. The kids were in love. The dads enjoyed it as well. The moms were another story. Hopefully they will still be friends with me. The kids are on my side at least. The adults played a game and the kids kind of watched a movie and played. Overall it was a great evening and the kids in bed by 8:30. Waffles and ice cream comes from Aaron's family tradition. Technically they did chimichangas for dinner and waffles and ice cream at midnight but since we aren't midnight people, and I don't fry stuff, we had waffles for dinner. Believe it or not, I am ok with waffles and ice cream for dinner once a year. The next morning John was beyond sad that he couldn't repeat dinner for breakfast.

On Friday we played with some friends and got stuff done around the house. On Saturday we moved into preparation mode for returning to normal life. We have had a great time the past two weeks playing together and working on projects. I am definitely not quite ready for life as usual.