Art Hour @ Camp Click Clack

Painting time.

Dollar store finds

keeps summer boredom at bay.

Living Long

This carnation was givenvto the girls over 2 weeks ago! Impressive life span.

Glove Girl

Doesn't every girl wear cleaning gloves to pick up their sisters from VBS?!

(Take note she's in a dress!!! For some reason Little L doesn't share her big sisters' affection for fancy frocks. She prefers t-shirts specifically ones with Disney characters plastered on them accompanied by a comfy pair of shorts which she calls pants. I try to honor my children's clothing preferences and their attempt at clothing self expression...to a point. This girl does not like any of the dresses and she has a LOT of them, mostly hand-me-downs from sister 1 and sister 2 and I know this a power struggle issue. So every week or so I give her two dresses to choose from and tell her to pick one. After a little tantrum throwing, I wrangle her into one of them. She needs to remember and often be reminded exactly who's running this show. On this day I gave her two to choose from and she very nicely chose this purple one. She called it the 'pants dress'....it has matching bloomers, works for me!)

Am Vets

Am Vets called the house this evening to ask if we had any unused items we might be interested in leaving at our curb for their donation truck. I asked if they take somewhat neglected German shepherds who in order to gain attention rip up household items and rummage through the trash. She asked if I instead had any old books or waffle makers. I promised her a bag of clothes.

After I got off the phone the girls asked the usual question, "Who was that?!" I explained in detail how it was a group who is interested in helping out soldiers who have been in a war. They take the money from selling things people don't use to help the soldiers.

N perked up and ran to a box of hand me down clothes she had been given. She returns beaming, "I have the perfect thing for the soldiers!"

N's Treasures = My RB of S

Since school got out only 15 days ago I decided it was probably time to empty the girls' backpacks from the last day if school.

Amongst a report card, a tattered name tag and various leftover school supplies were lots RB of S.

[RB of S was coined by my awesome mom friend Maria. It stands for Random Bits of Shit (or Stuff depending on how ever much you like to curse). It's all the junk that ends up in your kid's possession. Happy Meal toys, birthday party gift bag contents, and various other small articles generally created in China fall into this category. Both my older children are experts in accumulating RB of S.]

Back to our regular scheduled program... in the never looked in front pocket of N's backpack was every cupcake topper that she had received during the year long classmate birthday celebrations. I think she thought there would be a prize for keeping them all.

There were also many tiny, shiny or sparkly items. A spare earring, colorful paperclips, a tiny snowman charm, a keyring, various rocks and shells and a few pencils. I ask, "Nat is this all the stuff you pick up and keep from the playground?" Outraged she responds, "NO Mom!!........It's from the floor of the school bus........It's really cool in the afternoon since the middle schoolers ride before us and leave good stuff."

Lovely.

Here is the compromise of what she is allowed to keep somewhere in her room. The rest of it has been sent to where most RB of S live out their lives...in the trash can.

How a Dirty Floor Produces an Afternoon of Train Fun

Today was one of those days when I am proud to be a stay at home mom and why I love the freedom of summer!

It all started innocently enough with finally deciding to mop the floor. I asked the girls to move the 6 chairs from around the table and put them out of the way on the living room rug. This evolved into arranging them in a line with a "driver" and passengers. A train was born!

N soon took it to another level and started making "tickets" for the impending train ride. After lots of cutting and working, she asked for an unused shoe box. I relished in the fact I had listened to the little voice in my head and had put 2 such boxes on a shelf in the garage instead of tossing them. She worked on wrapping them in butcher paper, decorating and producing a box to collect the tickets. I helped by copying a graphic of a train from Google (iphone plug!)

V was apparently inspired by what N was doing and grabbed the leftover paper and a few markers. She returned 10 minutes later with a detailed route map, passenger guidelines and a name for the train.

Since Val had posted snacks and drinks would be served, N raided the pantry and completed the look with personalized napkins. I added the portable microphone as an engineer's PA system and someone found a wooden whistle.

Nat was so excited. All she needed was live passengers. Soon she had Mom, Lauren, Val, our cat and neighbor. She climbed aboard, V was in charge of the PA and we were off!

(Grandma was the cut off age of who is free!)

Amazing how mopping the floor exploded into a few hours of creativity, innovation and imagination. I LOVED IT!!

Wonder what cleaning the windows might inspire tomorrow?!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

N, "Mom, are you and dad secret agents when I'm asleep?"
Me, "If I told you, it wouldn't be a secret!"

V, "Wow Mom, you are in a really good mood today."
Me, "Really? I notice I'm in a better mood when I have a cup of coffee in the morning." V, "You should drink a cup of coffee EVERY morning!"

I've started a new behavior plan with the girls to help eliminate the whines and cattiness between them. They earn pebbles for good behavior and attitudes to fill a jar which equals a reward (it's working like a charm!!) Upon explaining the system N asked me, "Can I earn pebbles for saying funny things and making you laugh?"

N was balancing some toys on her extended arm and I joked to her, "Nat, if you keep practicing we can sign you up & you can work for the circus!" She responds, "Or Red Lobster." Me, "What, why Red Lobster?" Her, "The workers at Red Lobster balance plates on their arms!"

The girls did great at their 2nd swim meet taking 5 or 6 seconds off their previous times. I was told them, "wow, you did much better and really you haven't practiced much since we were away at the beach and you've had VBS and missed a lot of practices." N responds, "Guess we don't really have to practice at all huh mom?!"

My mermaids

Hot Doughnuts Now!!

Such a Sweetie

Dancing Queens

This weekend is a big one for V & N. Tonight they perform in their first dance recital. They have been practicing for months and I have to admit...I had my doubts a few months back, but it has all come together!!

Yesterday was the dress rehearsal and I was able to get video of their dances. They are SO excited and it's neat to see them excited to be a part of a big production. We have no aspirations of applying to Julliard, but they have learned so much and I'm so proud of their efforts. It has been a perfect first experience with dance. We love Cindy's Dance Studio!

Lauren turns 2

We had a fabulous time celebrating Lauren's 2nd birthday on Sunday. We took her for her first spin through the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and she was pretty impressed. She's a big fan of Mickey and Minnie. Later we swam and had pizza & cupcakes with our dear friends the Miller Family who are sadly moving to Salt Lake City. We had lots of fun and think she enjoyed her special day :)

Enjoy these photos of her special day

Click here to view these pictures larger

Super Swimmers

Before Valla could do this...

She had to learn this...


And before Natalie could do this...


She had to learn this...

They have come SO far as swimmers!
Anyone who cares to listen, knows how I LOVE the ISR program. Seeing them be such great swimmers at 5 and 8 is so cool. This summer they've joined a local swim team. It's so laid back, we practice when we can, go to meets if we are in town and they race to beat their previous time. Plus L and I get to play in the pool, catch so rays and be social while they practice. It's a tough life I lead I know.

N not loving the cap going on!
V is at the far end, ready to go

This post is dedicated to Miss Victoria, Miss Yvonne and Miss Kelly Ann, our awesome ISR instructors we've used over the years. THANK YOU!

Natalie the Author

Natalie has finished Kindergarten!!
She has grown by leaps and bounds this year both academically and physically.

Here is her Author's Hour where she's reading a book she wrote, published and illustrated. You have to turn the volume way up to hear her soft reading voice (which is worlds different than her excited outside voice you all know) :)

Stowaways

We went to visit the Wimbledon property which has a swamp for a pool with literally hundreds of tadpoles in it. We walked the property for 10 minutes or so and got back in the car. A few minutes later N asks me "what do baby frogs eat?".

"Why N?" I ask.

V replies, "Mom she has frogs!!"

"How many Nat?" I demand.

"Only 8 or 9, but don't worry they are now in the play kitchen pot."

Lovely

Tadpole update- At around 8pm we were down to 5 living tadpoles. We convinced her to release them into the lake behind our house. Long live the tadpoles.

New (to us) Kitchen Table

We've been a 5 person family for 1 year and 363 days now. In that time we have always had a kitchen table that sat FOUR. Granted LG didn't use a chair for her first 6 months and while in London none of us used our chairs. So it's actually only been an entire full year that we've stolen a chair from our dining set and squeezed it around our 4 top round table. To make matters worse, we're often blessed enough to have my mom eat with us, so of course we move to the 6 foot by 3 foot dining table complete with SIX comfy chairs that aren't so close you are knocking elbows...wrong, we drag ANOTHER dining chair into the eat in kitchen area and shuffle around until we fit!

UNTIL TODAY!

Starting today and thanks to Louise's generosity and the Great Houses Switch aka Too Much Furniture Event of 2010...(drum roll please) we now have a table that seats SIX in our eat in kitchen!

L had the honor of eating the first meal on the new set up. (Please disregard the hideous hanging lamp. Say it with me, "we're just renting, we're just renting")

She also had the honor of christening the set with it's 1st stain- just 13 minutes after it was set up. So proud of her...it's a new 'how long till a new piece of furniture gets a stain' record for our family. Oh and it was "milk"!

Happy Times with the Old Table

Oct 2006

Jan 2007

Oct 2008

June 2009

The beloved four seater will shortly be available on Craigs List... 20 bucks and it can be yours!

'A' Honor Roll

The nagging has paid off!!
Just kidding, Valla is such a self motivated learner and ruler follower (where ever does she get it from?!) She has worked hard and we are VERY proud of her progress and accomplishments in 2nd grade.
Awesome Job Pippa!!

Blind Taste Test

This is from that gourmet dinner of frozen chicken fingers the other night. With those I made frozen fish sticks, (Adding fish sticks REALLY brings it up a notch on the class scale, don't ya think?)

The girls were complaining since they do that about things I cook and I told them "you'll never know the difference!"

To prove it, we had a blind taste test.

They knew the difference...by the smell.

LG's thoughts- "I don't know why the hell they are putting this thing over their eyes, but damned if I'm going to be left out of doing it. MY TURN!!!"