My softball coaches always told me that practice doesn't make perfect, but rather perfect practice makes perfect. If that's the case then we are in big trouble for our camp out tomorrow night.
Aaron decided to set up the tent, to make sure it was in working condition before we left (since we haven't used it since before Lincoln was born). The boys thought the tent was the coolest thing in 12 states. Lincoln decided that they were going to sleep in it tonight. I was pretty sure they wouldn't last very long, so instead of fighting him and listening to him whine all night long, I told them they could sleep in the tent if they wanted to. They were super excited.
Aaron put them to bed in the tent. I was leaving to go to a girls' night out, but from the driveway I could already hear the boys fighting. I predicted they wouldn't last much past dark. I was right. I guess Aaron gave them three warnings to settle down, and then brought them in the house. I hope tomorrow night goes better.
I decided to spice up our back yard a little bit. I've been wanting to get a little swimming pool for the kids, and I found one the other day at the grocery store for a good price. I've also been wanting a slide, so I've been watching KSL like a crazy person to see if I could snag one. I finally found one in American Fork. Aaron and Lincoln went to pick it up. I was really excited, we had a slide like this when I was a kid, and the possibilities are almost endless. We spent many a happy hour while growing up playing with our slide. Needless to say, our kids were thrilled with the slide and the pool. They played separately with each for a few days, and then we decided to combine them for some real fun. I love the picture of Ivan coming down and the water splashing up around him.
So I have to keep myself entertained tonight. :) I feel like my head is floating around with thoughts, and every so often I'll stop and think...I need to remember that...but I don't write it down and it's not very organized inside my head right now, so I think most of those moments are going to get over-looked or not remembered until it's too late. I'm not sure what to do about it either. I am fairly good at coming up with a plan of how to be organized, and yet very terrible at following through with it. I actually think it's fun to try and plan out how to be organized. I can make charts, and lists, and divide up my time into the most ideal little slots, and I feel all happy inside about it...until I try to implement, then I go crazy and feel like my method is too restrictive and confining, or that I have too many extenuating circumstances popping up to stick to the original plan, and then I give up and everything goes into massive chaos until I can't stand that anymore either. Then I sit down and spend several hours happily organizing my life...until it's time to put it to action, then I start all over again. Does this ever happen to you? How do you stay organized? How do you stay sane? How do you remember all the things that need remembering but still feel like you have some freedom to be spontaneous? I would like to develop some sort of track in my life, but avoid having that track turn into a rut. Does this paragraph even make any sense? Who knows.
We are going camping with our homeschool group on Friday night. Saturday we are going to a BBQ at Aaron's aunt and uncle's, they live across the street from the stadium, so we can watch Stadium of Fire from their deck for free. Sunday I am conducting and teaching sharing time in Primary. Monday is the 4th. Tuesday I'll probably have a Primary presidency meeting, and it'll have to be cleaning day since we probably won't have cleaned on Monday. Wednesday is library day and a BBQ at Aaron's work, which I have to make milk-free rolls for. Thursday I am teaching a group of preschoolers at my house, so sometime earlier I need to prepare for that. Friday is Park Day for our homeschool group, and the ward picnic which the Primary is in charge of. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I need to write an article for The Sentinel and submit it, prepare my preschool lessons that I'm doing with Lincoln, work on my summer reading for the library, work on organizing the book club I'm starting in our "neighborhood" (aka Relief Society), and take care of three crazy, energetic, rambunctious, non-self-entertaining children. And none of them even have activities that I have to car them around to. I don't know how moms with older kids who have soccer and piano and cub scouts and on and on do it every day. My brain is going crazy as it is.
Speaking of activities...I did just sign Lincoln up for soccer in the fall. He just barely squeaks by the age limit of being 4. This will be his first season, so it should be hilarious. I have no idea what he'll think of it. Sometimes he has no interest in athletic things, and sometimes he's all over it. So who knows? What I do know is that it will be good for his little extroverted personality to get out there in a social setting with other kids his age and do something active. And it will be especially good for his introverted mother to not have to be the one providing the entertainment or conversation to him for a small period of time each week.
Lincoln refuses to nap. Therefore, almost every day he falls asleep in the car when we go pick up Aaron from work.
It occurs to me more and more that Lincoln is an outgoing kid. He loves to be the center of attention. He loves to be performing on stage, or anywhere that he can convince anyone to watch him. He makes friends easily, and has a lot of them. We just moved here, and already I've had so many other moms tell me how much their son/daughter talks about Lincoln. This is so foreign to me, as I am not an outgoing person and tend to have a little bit more trouble opening up and making friends. Lincoln is rarely shy, he'll talk to anyone who'll talk back, or even pretend to listen. He'd walk off with a complete stranger and not think a thing of it. He thrives on having other people around, which I find to be a little bit exhausting. He does not like to be by himself, and has a hard time entertaining himself for long periods of time. Quiet time is a battle I fight with him every day. He can't stand to be separated and on his own and I need a break to be by myself to regroup for my own sanity. I'm glad he and Ivan are so close in age, because a lot of the time they will play together, which gives Linc the companionship he needs and me the relief of it that I need.
One of Ivan's favorite things in the whole world is fresh fruit. He especially loves blueberries and strawberries.
A week or so ago, one of Ivan's nursery teachers told me that he is the sweetest, most helpful kid, and that they just love him. I was so surprised. Not because I don't think Ivan is sweet. He can be the sweetest little angel there ever was. And he is most definitely helpful, and seems to enjoy helping. So I know very well that those things are absolutely true. But he is my mama's boy, and introverted like me, and so often times he doesn't let the sweetness, or the helpfulness come out because he tends to stand back and observe things quietly. He's also got a pretty quick temper, and I wondered how he'd do in nursery having to share so much and not having me right there with him. But apparently he's doing well. Whenever I ask him what he learned about that week in nursery, he says, "BUBBLES!! and Jesus." I know he loves it, because he comes home and tells me all about it, but that doesn't necessarily mean he tells his teachers how much he enjoys being there. Isn't it funny how different kids are? I find though, that I tend to understand Ivan's way of hanging back in a new situation more than I understand Lincoln's jump-right-in approach.
Adelia is hanging in there too. Although, after this week's round of throwing up and diarrhea, I'm fairly certain that she also has a milk intolerance. Not really sure what to do about it either, at this point. She's on a milk based formula, because she was having issues with the soy based. She'd been doing fine on the milk based until just this last week. And of course this is the week where we can't go see a doctor because Aaron's work insurance doesn't kick in until July. So we're pretty much stuck waiting it out. Adelia is handling it differently than Ivan though. Ivan would eat, then throw it up or poop it out and then eat again. He never had an aversion to eating. But Adelia won't eat. She eats, throws up/poops, then won't eat much of anything, even a bottle, for a whole day, then she'll be starving so she'll eat a lot, and we think she's fine and her appetite is back for a whole day, then the next day she throws up/poops and then refuses to eat. I don't know 100% that it's milk, but that's my best educated guess. So for the next however many days until we can go see a doctor, I am putting her on rice milk instead of formula, and seeing if that will help her have a better appetite for solid foods. I hate the guessing game. I hate racking my brain for every possible thing should could have eaten, or wondering if she just picked up a bug from somewhere, or trying to determine if maybe she's just getting car sick instead or over heated and isn't really intolerant to anything. I just want to know what's wrong, and then I can spend my energy trying to fix it, instead of worrying over every single possibility. Why don't kids come with instruction manuals? We are supposed to be leaving Adelia with Ryan and Melissa Friday night, while we take the boys on the camp out. I'm hesitant to leave her with them anyway because she's always such a pain in the behind for them. They are great babysitters and they stick it out, though after the time Adi cried for 2 hours straight, I'm surprised they volunteer themselves to come back. :) But I feel bad for them when they have to deal with her when she's on her worst behavior, so if she's got some food issues on top of that...I don't know. The wonderful guessing game of motherhood...does it ever end? (If the answer is no, then don't bother answering, ok?)
A few weeks ago, Aaron's cousin Whitney was in town with her husband Kirk and their adorable baby girl, Brooke. Adelia and Brooke are about one month apart. According to Wikipedia Adelia and Brooke are second cousins because they "share a great-grandparent, but not a grandparent or a parent."
Whitney is the one who introduced Aaron and I, and I will always be grateful to her for it. We had dinner at Aunt Karen's house (Whitney's mom) and Adi and Brooke got to meet for the first time. They weigh about they same and have about the same amount of hair, but Brook has dark hair and eyes, and Adi is blonde hair blue eyed. They are both adorable, and had a fun time playing together. I wish they lived closer so we could see more of them.
Aaron got free tickets for the Utah Arts Festival from his work, so on Saturday we invited Kelly and Esther to go with us and we headed down to Salt Lake to check it out. They had a pretty cool kids section. My favorite part was the instrument petting zoo. They had a big table with a whole bunch of instruments laid out on it. When the kids came up they could pick any instrument and the volunteers working the table would help them play it. Lincoln and Ivan both picked the violin, and with a lot of help, played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
They had booths set up, and at each booth was a different sort of art project the kids could do. At one of them they painted scales to put on a large paper mache dragon. At another they did charcoal drawing. And at another they decorated planter boxes and planted melon seeds. At another they stamped little bags full of wildflower seeds.
All over the park they had "random acts of art", we got a picture in from of a Mini Cooper that was covered in knit. They had knitted things all over, just randomly everywhere.
Throughout the park they had stages set up, and every hour there was a different act on each stage. The first one we went to see was a modern dance company that was putting on their interpretation of Lewis Carol's Through the Looking Glass. It was pretty cool. I've alway liked modern dance, even though I think it's kind of weird, but weird in a good way. At one point Esther and I looked over at Aaron and Kelly who were holding Lincoln and Ivan on their shoulders, and we just laughed, and agreed that we needed a picture.
Kelly and Ivan, Aaron and Lincoln
After the dance performance, we left the park for a little bit to go get dinner at Papa Johns. Then we came back and caught the tail end of a fiddle band. It was probably my favorite, I wish we would have seen the whole thing.
My boys got pretty into it too. We had to keep reminding them to not run into the other people sitting on the grass.
After that we went and saw a percussion group who played on every day items like buckets and pots and pans. They were pretty cool too, but not as impressive as I was originally thinking they were going to be. Still worth listening to though.
After that my kids were pretty hot, tired, and squirmy. So we went over to a little fountain they had and let the kids play around in the water. That seemed a good cure, even Adelia was happier afterward.
After that we needed a place to go to strip the kids down and dry their clothes out. We found a nice grassy patch and wrapped them up in blankets while we rung out their clothes. There was salsa music in the background for awhile from one of the stages, and it was fun to listen to and just relax on the grass. We got some great smiles out of Asher too.
We kept the kids up way, way past their bedtimes, so we could see the last show, which was a Brazilian group that did a fire dance as part of their act. The fire part was pretty amazing.
We had a fun day, and I was glad we got to spend it with Kelly and Esther and Asher. I still think the arts festival we went to when we lived in Dallas was better, but this one was fun too, and I'm glad we went.
This is the book the movie October Sky was based off of. Several boys in a mining town in West Virginia, start a rocket club right after the Russians launched Sputnik I. They gain the help of the town, and decide to compete in the National Science Fair.
I thought this book was a great coming of age story. I thought the relationships Sonny had with his family and the people in the town were so interesting. I liked the "follow your dreams" aspect of the book, but I also like that things didn't wrap up nicely into a perfect little package either. It made it feel very real life, which I guess it should feel because it's a memoir, not a fictional story.
I could have done without all the crude 10th grade boy humor, but I suppose since the book was about a group of 10th grade boys, it was probably true to character.
I liked this book alot, and now I want to go watch October Sky again. :)
I love my crockpot. In fact, I love the whole idea behind a crock pot...throw a couple things inside, turn it on, leave it alone, and wha-la! Dinner is ready when you want it with no fuss, and very little mess. The only problem was, the until just recently, I only knew 2 recipes to make...roast/potatoes/carrots and pulled pork. That all changed upon my discovery of crockpot365.blogspot.com. I have made two recipes so far, and both have been amazing. I also love that all the recipes on the sight are gluten free, and she also has quite a few vegetarian recipes. So these are things I can cook when we have family over. (I have family members who have gluten intolerances, and some who are vegetarian.)
Lately, by the time it gets to the end of the day and dinner time, I'm so done. I find that I have very little engery left to come up with something for dinner, and even less energy to clean up after it. Which means, we've been eating whatever I can throw together in ten minutes (we've eaten a lot of spaghetti) and that the dishes stay piled up until the next morning and make me even crankier. The crock pot solves this problem. I still get to "throw" dinner together, but it's usually healthier, and I do it earlier in the day, during nap time when I still have some patience and energy. I can clean it up really quick right then and there. And then dinner is ready when Aaron gets home. It's wonderful. I love my crockpot. I plan on using it a lot more frequently.
Here are two of the recipes I've tried that I love.
--dollop of sour cream and a bit of tabasco sauce (optional)
The Directions.
--wash and chop all of the vegetables, and put into the crock. Add the entire can of tomatoes, the uncooked rice, and the spices.
--pour in the vegetable broth.
--cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for about 4. The soup is done when the onions are fully cooked and are translucent.
--stir in peanut butter, and cook on high for 20-30 minutes, or until fully heated through.
add a dollop of sour cream and a touch of tobasco sauce
Applesauce Chicken --4 frozen chicken breast halves or thighs (I used 2 of each)
--1 1/2 cups of applesauce --1 T dried onion flakes, or 1 yellow onion, chopped finely
--1 T apple cider vinegar
--1/4 tsp cinnamon --1/2 tsp black pepper
--2 cloves garlic, minced--1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional, I used them, and added more to the adult servings) The Directions.
A 3 or 4 quart crockpot is the best size for this, but I did use a 6 quart. If your pot cooks fast, err on the lower end of cooking time.
1. Put the frozen chicken pieces into your crockpot. Add the onion (if you are using the dried onion, wait and add it to the applesauce). In a bowl, mix the applesauce, vinegar, garlic, and spices together. Pour on top of the chicken.
2.Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or on high for 3-4.
We've been working on this ocean unit for a long time because I keep allowing summer to "get in the way". Haha! I told myself we could still do preschool through the summer, as long as we didn't miss the fun summer things because of it. And I'm a-ok with that. So these last few weeks we've done a lot of fun summer stuff, and in between we've been learning about the ocean. This was a fun unit that I put together myself, again modeling off the ones on homeschoolcreations.com. I still have some finishing touches to add to the PDF so it's not quite ready to post yet, but I'll get it up asap, and then those of you interested can print it off. But here are some of the activities we did.
We made ocean scenes. All kinds of ocean scenes. Lincoln had such a fun time doing the desert diorama, that I decided we'd do an ocean one as well. The method was inspired by my sister-in-law Sydni, who did a similar one a few years back for her son Zac. We took a cereal box and taped it shut, and then cut the front out of it. The big piece of cardboard off of the front, I gave to Ivan to use for his ocean scene. Then Lincoln painted the inside of the box light blue. Once that was dry, he took a dark blue and a sponge and sponged some dark blue lightly on top of the light, to give the water some texture. I thought that effect turned out great. Then we spread glue thickly across the bottom and put fake sand on, for the bottom of the sea. You could easily use real sand, I just happened to have some of the fake stuff left over from another project. Then we used green tissue paper to make sea weed. We just cut a rectangular piece and scrunched it together and glued it down. I thought it turned out awesome. Next I let Lincoln pick which sea creatures he wanted, and we cut those out, and poked a hole in the top of the cereal box and ran a string through it and taped the sea creature to the string. This way if you blow on it, it can "swim". Cool. For the finishing touches I let Linc put little fish stickers all over the back ground. Ivan did all the same steps we did, only his was on just a flat piece of cardboard, so we glued his creatures down, but his turned out great too, so either way.
One of the afternoons, Lincoln (with my encouragement while I did dishes) made an ocean scene out of play dough. I had to teach him how to use the cookie cutters, but once he got it he was on a roll. I think there were 5 sharks at one point. :)
We did a lot of practice with letters and writing this unit as well. Not all at once though, just a little bit here and there.
I like to do writing in a lot of different way. Sometimes I have him trace words, or sometimes I call out letters for him to write...but my favorite way is to either have him write with sidewalk chalk, or, on the windows with dry erase markers. Something about both of those just makes it a little bit more fun. This time around we did window markers. He took of his vocabulary cards and looked at each letter in the word and copied them onto the window. It was a bit of a challenge for him, so we'll probably do that activity again. But I like having him see and recognize a letter, and then be able to turn around and reproduce it. We also did a couple of beginning sound activities. On one set of cards he had a picture, and then had to choose from three letters which one made the beginning sound. On anther set of cards, he got to see the picture and the rest of the word, but where the first letter was there was a blank that he had to fill in. Circling the beginning letter was really easy for him, filling in the blank was a little tougher but he did do it, which makes me think that is the perfect activity. It's right at his difficulty level right now.
And even though Lincoln can write all his letters all by himself, there are a few that need some work. So I made up cards in this unit for him to practice C and S capital and lower case. I don't think I took a picture of them though, at least I can't find it. :) Most of our handwriting stuff, I laminate using contact paper, so that we can write with dry erase markers, and wipe it off and do it again if need be. Also, so I don't have to reprint everything for Ivan in a year or so. I should probably just buy a laminater, it would save me a LOT of time.
Lincoln's favorite activity was probably the "Hungry Sharks". I made up cards, and on each card was a shark with a number underneath him. On another sheet were a whole bunch of little fish. Lincoln cut those all out, and then he would look at the card. The number on the card represented how many fish the shark wanted to eat. Lincoln had to count out and glue down the correct number of fish to go with each card. I had enough cards to do 0-10 but I think we're at a point in our counting that I need to start going to at least 12, maybe even 15.
Something new I made for this unit was picking the odd one out. I did three of the same picture, but then one one of them I made something different, like I put shoes on one start fish. Then Lincoln took a wooden clothes pin and had to pin it on the picture that was different.
I also had him do "Ocean Things" and "Non Ocean Things" again, because he had so much fun with it when we did it for our desert unit. He had to cut out different pictures and decide which ones went in the ocean and which ones did not, and then glue them in their appropriate place. I think once we get to the end of all our habitats, I'll put together one where he has to put things in the correct habitat. That will be fun.
We made puppets with cardstock and popcicle sticks again. We made a little play on the book Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carlyle. But instead we did blue whale blue whale, what do you see? I see a dolphin looking at me, and so on down through the sea creature puppets. It was fun.
We were also lucky enough one of the weeks, to score the Under the Sea story kit from the library. One of the books they had was about a submarine, and Lincoln loved it. I hadn't thought to add anything about submarines to our unit, and I wish I had. But I was able to quickly to a google search, and came up with this submarine craft.We made it, and hung it up on the sliding glass door, and then I decided that we needed to make another ocean scene out of it. I got out the dry erase markers again and we went to work. Lincoln drew himself inside the sub, an octopus, a jelly fish, the sun, and a big clown fish. He had me draw a little clown fish, a purple fish, a crab, and a lobster.
One of the activities in the story kit was about submarines. It had us fill up a big container of water, and then use an empty sour cream container as our sub. At first the container floats on the top, so you put a little water inside it and it sinks a little, put a little more water and it sinks a little further, and so on, until you get the sub to stay under water. It explained that real submarines work like this too. They have a compartment that takes in or lets out water depending on how deep they want to be in the water. Lincoln thought this was the most amazing thing. Over the next several days, he showed the trick to anyone who would go in the back yard with him. So I was glad we added a submarine section to our unit.
I did the usual file folder stuff too. Our book reviews, and the papers Lincoln practiced writing his name on, and some extra pictures of the ocean went on the front. Inside is our ocean vocab, the first sounds cards, our sorting of ocean and non ocean things, our tracing sheets and first letter sheets, and our hungry shark cards. On the back is a board game I made. Lincoln loves the board game again, so I'm glad I added it too.
We also read some good books.
Overall, I'd say our ocean unit was a success. I'm still working on the PDF but as soon as I get the finishing touches on it, I'll post the link so that you can see it, and use it if you like.
I haven't gotten around to buying a little swimming pool yet. I guess I'm waiting to see if the weather is really going to stay warm this time around. In the mean time, we've been spending time with our hose and sprinkler and our beloved "water bucket" which was the substitute for the swimming pool when we lived in the apartments and weren't allowed to have a pool. :) I probably took more pictures than necessary, but it was Adelia's first time "running" through the sprinklers. I love her little swim suit. I was glad I found a rash guard in her size, no need for her to get burnt to a crisp just because she's a girl. And I was even more happy that they had one in blue and green flowers, all the others were pink on pink.
My good friend Tindy and her husband own a photography business called Weston Edge Photography. Tindy and Ben also throw an awesome Christmas party every year where there is a ginger bread house building contest. Last year, Aaron and I won the contest, and the prize was a free family photo shoot. Awesome! I love getting our family pictures taken. I'd do it every three months if Aaron would let me. :) We waited until April to take them because I love the tulips the plant on campus. But alas, it snowed that morning, so no tulips. The good news is that the pictures still turned out great. THANK YOU TINDY AND BEN!! Here are my favorites...(P.S. My children were probably thee most uncooperative models on the face of the planet.)
This one is probably my #1 favorite of all the pictures. I'm framing it and putting it in Adi's room.
The glasses are out of Tindy's prize bucket, my kids loved them.
It was pretty cold, so in between shots of Adelia we bundled her up.
Aaron is sitting next to me working on Ryan and Melissa's Flo-Foto website, (for those of you who run the Dirty Dash, they are the company that takes your picture. For those of you who don't run the Dirty Dash, you should.)and I really should be reading my summer reading book so I can get all the points I need to enter the drawing at the library.....BUT.....I feel like blogging instead. It's one of those days where I really don't have anything specific to say, so let's just see what comes out of my head.
-Today was long, and I am exhausted (but not sleepy), and tomorrow's looking to be about the same.
-I tried on a pair of really cute capris that I own that have not fit me since I had children. I really had no hope that they would ever fit again, but was hanging onto them anyway. I try them on every year and they never fit. This has been going on for just about 4 years now. Well, I tried them on the other day and they fit! Woot, woot! I guess the space they've been hogging in my drawer for the last four years has been worth it. (Does that mean it's taken me four years to lose the baby weight from Lincoln, haha! I couldn't really care less about that, but am very excited to have my capris back.)
-Our peas, green beans, and corn (all the plants we planted from seed) are starting to pop up! So excited. And our tomatoes, sunflowers, peppers, and zucchini (all the things we transplanted in) are still alive. Yay!
-I thought I was a genius today, because I let Adelia play in the tub (without water) with the bath toys, while I scrubbed the toilet. Everything was going along fine, until she decided to climb over the edge and bonk her head on the floor. Oops.
-I hate to say it, but my Ivan Boy has entered the realm of the terrible twos, and I'm afraid they'll be no going back.
-Speaking of Ivan, I know you're all dying to know how the binkie ordeal is going. Grrrr... I think I curse Aaron silently just about every night for taking the stupid thing away in the first place. Ivan has stopped asking for the bink, but is now stuck in this overly particular and absolutely ridiculous bedtime routine, and I can't seem to shake it. And, even if I can get out of his room without him screaming bloody murder, he stays up talking and singing to himself, or sometimes yelling for anyone who'll listen, until around 10:00pm. And he's waking up earlier and taking shorter naps. Is it any wonder that the terrible twos have come crashing down upon our heads? The kid needs sleep, and I'm about ready to find a large rock to help him along (ok, not really).
-Pulled out The Wiggles finally, and let the kids watch it this morning. We went through a stage where they'd watched it so much that I was about to lose it if I got the songs stuck in my head one more time. So I put it away for awhile. It was a much needed break. I didn't even cringe while they watched it today. (And for the record, I actually do like The Wiggles, I think it has a lot of educational value, but the songs just stay in my head a little too well.)
-Aaron is making us Margaritas (virgin, obviously). Oh how I do love Margaritas. One of my favorite treats, especially if we have Margarita Salt, and tonight we do. Yippy!
-Aaron also turned in all his paper work today and is officially graduated. The only thing he doesn't have is the letter of completion which will be faxed to him in two days. Hooray for no more school!!
-Tried Magelby's in Springville tonight. It was SO DELICIOUS. Every thing we had was amazing, and I didn't even get to try the chocolate cake this time, but I've heard wonderful things about it. I definitely want to eat there again...next time I'll dress up a bit nicer and leave the kids home with a babysitter though. (When I suggested we go there tonight, I totally though it was a Jason's Deli style place, like super casual. Well, it's not, haha! Was I in for a surprise when I walked through the door and the seating host was in a white shirt and tie.)
-Adelia is too big for her car seat. We need to move her into Ivan's, and get Ivan a bigger one like Lincoln's. Maybe next pay check, because it definitely won't be this one. :) I thought we were supposed to start making money once Aaron finished school, haha!
-Lincoln and I made an ocean scene out of play dough today. It was pretty cool. And he did a lot better with it than I thought he would.
-If I have to read On the Moon by Anne Milbourne or In the Caste by Anne Milbourne, one more time for bedtime I might pull some of my hair out. Both are very good books, both have been read one too many times in a row by me.
-Found the coolest website today completely by accident. It's a crock post recipe website. The lady had a New Year's resolution to only cook out of her crock pot for a whole year, and she has over 365 recipes. Oh, and all her recipes are gluten free. Cool. We are trying the African Peanut Soup tomorrow for dinner. http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ Check it out.
Today I heard Krystal call Adelia: Little Mungus, and I decided it was time to make a list of all the nicknames she (Adelia) has acquired. I particularly like Twirlus Lurpus because I think it sounds like some Latin root describing Adelia. Krystal would like the disclaimer that she is not the only one that gives Adelia all these nick-names.
Here is the list:
Twirpus
Lurpus
Twurpis Lurpus
Twirlus
Delia
Turly Wurpus
Chica
Chica Meeka
Chicklet
Munchkin
Munchkinator
Silly Thing
Chunky Monkey
Adi Girl
Little Miss
Mess Face
Stinker
Stinky Feet
Curly Girly
Spitter Face
Little Girl
Sweetie Weet
Little Chap
Sunshine
Delia Doodle
Chunk-a-monk
Miss Mae
Little Onie-one (won-ee-won)
Krystal would also like to point out that Princess is not, and never will be, on that list.
We had every intention of getting up at the crack of dawn and going to see the balloon festival this morning. Our children had other plans, however. One or the other of them was up every hour all night long. Needless to say, when our alarm clock went off, Aaron and I decided to skip the balloons. But we did make it to the Art City Days Parade. We took the boys in the wagon and Adelia in the stroller. We got a front row seat too, which has never happened to me at a parade before.
It was a pretty good parade, although there weren't as many marching bands in it as I would have liked. The boys thought chasing after the candy was the coolest thing ever. Adelia was pretty good, and then fell asleep in her stroller for most of it (it was her nap time).
The best part was watching Ivan dance while the fiddle players' float went by. What a crack up. And I'll tell you what, I'd rather have my daughter play the fiddle a million times over than be in the skanky dance company that came right behind them. My word. There are just things 12-year-old girls should not do, or wear (or not wear, as the case my be), especially in public. But enough of that, here's a video of Ivan dancing for the fiddles.
