Riverwoods Splash Pad

I think we're finally getting well. I hope so. We've spent the last two days almost entirely outside. Wednesday morning we met up with our friends the Shaws at our old neighborhood park. Then in the afternoon we went to clubs with our homeschool group and played some soccer and on the play ground.

This afternoon we went up to the splash pad in the Riverwoods shopping complex in Orem and met our friends from Provo there. We had a great time. Adelia was all over the fountain. The boys played in it a little bit and then decided they were cold, so they spent the rest of our time there laying on the hot cement. (It was almost 90 degrees outside, so they couldn't have been that cold.) And I just enjoyed being out of my house with other adults.

It's great to be healthy!

What Have I Been Doing?

Don't worry, I'm not dead. Almost, but not quite. We've had a little visit from the black plague at our house these last few weeks. Throw in some allergies to top it off, and mostly we've been miserable slugs lying about on the couch. Not all at once, just two or three of us at a time dragged out for 2 weeks. We're still coughing and sniffling, but we've been fever free for 3 days now, so I think we might pull through. Praise the heavens above. If one more member of this family even thinks about getting sick in the next year, they're going to be banished.

So, ya, I haven't been blogging. Why? Well, because there hasn't been anything going on to blog about. I've been wiping noses, parceling out medicine, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning...and not to make my house look nice, because it hasn't once been clean in the last 2 weeks, but cleaning up cups, and tissues, and blankets and stuffed animals, etc. that get used and left out and dragged around. It's been a long two weeks. I've been snuggling a lot of children, watching a lot of kid movies, and reading, reading, reading. (As you might have noticed from the plethora of book reviews that I published before this.) Good thing we have books, so that we can escape when we can't escape, right?

Yesterday was Memorial Day, and I think we felt fairly decent. Everyone is still coughing, and Aaron has really bad chest and sinus congestion, BUT we ventured out into the populated world yesterday to buy some more trees! Yay! Happy late Mother's Day present to me. I got two new trees. Of the 6 that I got for my birthday, 2 of them died. So I no longer have a pear tree or a plum tree. We checked as Lowes, when we returned the dead pear tree, but they didn't have anymore pear trees, or anything that we wanted. So we went to Home Depot and found a couple of shade trees. In the front yard we planted a purple flowering plum tree. It has purple leaves and gets little pink flowers in the spring. We also decided we need a shade tree in the back yard too, so we have a shady place to play in the hot summer time. We bought a Little Leaf Linden for that. It'll get about 50 ft tall at some far away future point in it's existence. It will also screen us a little from the houses that will eventually be built behind us. So that's nice. 

Hopefully things will start to pick up this week and get back to normal. I have big plans for June and need everyone to be healthy!

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. It's the first one in the series that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I read it in about a day and a half. I probably would have read it faster, if I hadn't had to take breaks to be a responsible adult. :) I thought this book was fast paced and moved along well. Meaning, I thought that one thing lead to the next smoothly. I like that the characters are developing in personality as well as in their relationships with one another. Rowling did an awesome job of creating suspense throughout the book. I think maybe that was helped along by the three tasks being spread out evenly, and the fact that there was very little quiddach to read about. I guess I'm not a fan of quiddach. I liked that the story didn't wrap itself up into a neat little package, even though Harry wins the cup. I guess I like that the story is starting to get a little complicated. I'm dying to find out more about Snape and what his story is all about. The writing really isn't improving, but the story has gotten intense enough that I'm not noticing it as much as I did with the other three books. Book 5 won't be here until Thursday, which is probably good, because I need to get some stuff done.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one is back down to 2 and a half stars. The first half of this book dragged on and on for me. Too much quiddach maybe? That being said, once things started to pick up with Sirius Black the book got really interesting. So I really enjoyed the last 5 or so chapters of the book.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked this one a lot better than book one. I thought the story really picked up and had some interesting things in the plot. I liked the idea of Tom Riddle's diary. The writing still isn't great. There was never any part in the book where I stopped and thought, "wow what a beautifully constructed sentence" or anything like that. But the story was good, and held my attention.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone

by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If it were possible, I'd give this book 2 and a half stars. I'll admit, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Aaron and I read the first 6 chapters or so together, and then he got busy doing other things, so I kept going. It was a cute story. And interesting. The writing is not top-notch, but I think Rowling makes up for that in story-telling. The story is good, the writing is mediocre at best. I think I'll read the second one.

Book Review: Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been on a Congo/Colonial Africa reading kick, since I reread The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver a little while ago. I remember reading Things Fall Apart in high school almost 10 years ago and not liking it at all. But, I don't think I was mature enough to understand it just yet. Our teacher didn't give us any background information on it whatsoever, so not only had I never heard of colonial Africa, but I had no knowledge of the author, who he was, or why he wrote the book. 

Needless to say, I liked the book much better this time. And even though I didn't particularly like, or relate to the character Okonkwo, (he and his clan and their culture were really foreign to me) what I keep coming back to is that these people had an established culture/government/way of life. And even though this way of life was very different from western culture, it was still there. And as a reader, I didn't like the white men, or their religion, or their government coming in and assuming superiority, without even caring to try and learn about the peoples and tribes they were taking over.

I think Christianity is good. And I think democracy is good. But I read this book and it occurs to me that you can't ramrod either of those things down peoples' throats, because the thing that makes Christianity and democracy good, are people deciding for themselves to follow that way of life.

Anyways, this review is coming out all in a jumble, but my Africa kick has really gotten me thinking. I wonder if I assert myself and my beliefs on others without meaning to because of differences I don't understand. I wonder if I ever think less of people because I haven't taken the time to learn about their way of life or ideology. Not that I feel a need to change my own ideology, I can still have my own beliefs and value system, etc. But maybe what I need to think about changing is the way I treat other people who differ from me in that regard.

So yes, lots to think about coming out of this book. I recommend reading it, but do a little research (Wikipedia would probably enough sufficient info) on colonial Africa and Chinua Achebe before diving in.

Solar Eclipse

Yesterday we took a picnic blanket and our awesome eye protection outside after dinner so we could watch the solar eclipse. The article I read in the paper said that the solar eclipse happens every year, but that we haven't been able to see it happen in UT in 18 years. I don't remember the last one. So I'm glad we heard about this one in time to be prepared to watch it. It was pretty cool to see.

 This is what the eclipse looked like without the special glasses

This is a picture Aaron took through the lens of the special glasses. Pretty cool, eh?

Things I've Been Meaning to Blog About

Mother's Day. The kids helped Aaron make me egg-in-a-frames for breakfast and brought it to me in bed. Then when I got out of the shower, I found this card/sign they had made. It says, "We love mom" they each made the letter they're sitting under. After church we went up to Salt Lake and had Mother's Day dinner with Aaron's mom, and Aaron sister Stacey and her family, and Aaron's brother Kelly and his family.

Letter Day. Boy am I behind in blogging about letter day. For letter T we talked about trains and teeth.

For letter U we did a bunch of "under" activities. We looked at things that go under water vs what stays on top. We did an obstacle course where the kids had to go under a string, hide under a laundry basket, go up the stairs, etc. And we made these cool underwater pictures, using food coloring and bubble solution. The fish hook is a U.

For V we made vases for violets. The violets are made out of crepe paper and poms.

Suzy did a lot of great water activities for W. We played pin the teeth on the walrus. And using a spray bottle painted hands and feet with water on the cement wall outside. Then the kids tried their best to play water balloon volleyball. :)

For X we talked about x-rays. I had the kids play an x-ray matching game, where they had to take a picture of an x-ray and glue it to the correct body part. I also had them make their own x-ray using black paper and chalk, they traced their hands and drew the bones inside.

We only have 2 letters left and then we'll be done with another round of letter days. I can hardly believe it.

Here is another fun art project I did with the kids. Hand print flowers, which we've done before, but this time I decided to try something a little different than the traditional tulips. Every flower is made using some part of the hand, either the whole hand, just the side of it, 1 finger, or thumb prints. Here are Ivan's and Lincoln's.

Adelia's turned out so well, that we made it into a card to congratulate Stacey and Rob on their brand new twins! A boy, Samuel, and a girl, Claire. Samuel is at Primary Children's in the NICU, because he has a hole in his diaphragm. They have him hooked up to a lot of different machines, but he is making progress towards having an operation later this week. We are keeping our thoughts and prayers with him and his family. Here is a picture of them together that I stole off facebook...aren't they adorable? We got to go down the day they were born and hold Claire, and Aaron got to help give Samuel a blessing.

Also, the last couple of weeks, I've gotten really into freezer meals. My friend Suzy and I got together one afternoon and made a couple together. And Aaron and I did about 10 more one night. So far we've eaten 2 of them, the Chicken Curry, and the Hot and Spicy Braised Peanut Chicken. The Peanut Chicken was excellent, the Curry was not bad, but a little dry. I think when I cook the other packages of that I will add some kind of sauce.

I found these recipes on the Internet, on pinterest. I'll let you know when I try the others and if they're any good.


Hot and Spicy Braised Peanut Chicken
IN THE BAG- 2 cups onions, 2 cups carrots, 2 cups zucchini, 1 red pepper, 1/2 t grated lime peel, 2 T lime juice, 2 T soy sauce, 2 T flour, 4 garlic cloves, 2 lbs. cubed boneless, skinless chicken breast.
TO COOK- Dump contents of bag in slow cooker. Cover with 3/4 cup chicken broth and 3 T peanut butter (whisked together). Cook on low for 5-6 hours. For the last five minutes, add in 1 can of coconut milk and 1 bag of frozen peas.
TO SERVE- To make it spicy, add 1/2 teaspoon of red curry paste before serving (I kept our unspicy for the kiddos). Garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro. Serve over rice.

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken
3 medium unpeeled  sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, about 2 cups.
2 large green pepper, cut into strips or cubes, about  2 cups.
1 large red pepper, cut into strips or cubes, about 1 cup.
2 zucchini, chopped, about 2 cups.
2 cups chopped onion.
2 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca (or flour, or some other thickening agent).
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks.
2 15-ounce can of tomato sauce.
4 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoon ground yellow mustard.
2 clove garlic, finely minced, about 2 tablespoons.
1 teaspoon salt
Divide everything into two, one gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.  Day of cooking, dump it into your slow cooker and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours, or low 6-8 hours, depending on your specific slow cooker.

Chicken Curry
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons curry powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1.5-2 pounds chicken thighs, or breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces.
2 cups chopped peeled sweet potatoes.
2 cups baby carrots.
2 cup coarsely chopped mango.  Or 2 cans of chopped mango.
1 cup chopped onion.
1 zucchini chopped, about one cup.
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 chicken bouillon, one per bag.
.5 cup raisins (for garnish)
.5 cup peanuts or cashews (for garnish)
Divide everything into two, one gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freeze. 
To cook, take out of freezer and set on counter for about 30 minutes, then dump contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.

Orange Chicken
IN THE BAG- 2 cups carrots, 2 cups bell peppers, 1 lb cubed boneless skinless chicken breasts, 3 cloves garlic, 1 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, 8 oz. orange juice concentrate (orange pineapple will work as well)
TO COOK- Cook on low in crock pot, 4 to 6 hours
TO SERVE- Garnish with clementine slices (use 4 clementines) or mandarin oranges (two cans) and green onions (two, chopped). Serve on rice. Stir fried veggies make a great side.

Coconut Chicken Curry by Martha Stewart
IN THE BAG- 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 2 lbs. of chopped butternut squash, 2 medium onions,chopped, 8 minced garlic cloves, 1 oz fresh ginger, 2 T curry powder,1 t ground coriander, 1 t ground cumin, coarse salt
TO COOK- Add the contents of the bag and a can of coconut milk to a slow cooker and cook on low all day. 25 minutes before serving, add another can of coconut milk and a bag of frozen peas.
TO SERVE- Garnish with chopped cashews and cilantro

Inspired by Tindy

So this post was inspired by my great friend Tindy. She emailed me and asked me for an educational book list of the things I am doing, and have done, in the past with my kids, as well as the books that helped me to acquire my personal philosophy on education. I have no idea if this list is what she was looking for, but I do get people asking me that question, or a similar question, a lot, so I thought I'd make a nice list for reference. :)  

This is what I'm using with Lincoln right now (Kindergarten):
-Math U See- http://store.mathusee.com/catalog/general-math/primer/
-AIMS books- http://store.aimsedu.org/aims_store/books/math-activity-books-k-2/
-Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons- http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985
-Explode the Code- http://www.amazon.com/Explode-Code-1-Nancy-Hall/dp/0838814603/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337627317&sr=1-1
-Handwriting Without Tears- http://shopping.hwtears.com/product/LN/HWT
-Writing with Ease- http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/the-complete-writer-writing-with-ease-instructor-text.html
-BOB Books
-The Story of the World by Suan Wise Bauer (We are listening to the CDs in the car)

These are books that I have read that helped me decide that I definitely wanted to homeschool:
-Creative Homeschooling by Lisa Rivero
-A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille
-Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax
-Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax
-Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
-Why Parents Matter by Nigel Barber
-Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein
-Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka

Here are books I've used before, and still use bits and pieces of, and love:
-Marshmallow Math by Trevor Schindeler (math games for little kids)
-Unplugged Play by Bobbi Conner (things to do for all ages that don't involve electricity or batteries)
-Science is Simple by Peggy Ashbrook (pre K and K science activities)
-The Absolute Best Play Days by Pamela Waterman (fun theme days for preschool and older)
- Peak With Books by Marjorie R Nelsen (pre-k and K reading activities)
-The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease (list of great read alouds for toddlers-9th graders)
-Everything Your Preschooler Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr.
-Everything Your Kindergarten Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr.

Books I plan on reading in the near future:
-Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence Goldstone
-A Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer
-Why Johnny Can't Read by Rudolf Franz Flesch
-Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv


**This is my disclaimer, especially for the books that helped me decide to homeschool, I don't agree with everything in them whole heartedly. Mostly, I just take and use the bits that I like, or that apply well to my family, and forget the rest. **

Book Review: The Read Aloud Hanbook

By Jim Trelease

rated: 5 out of 5 stars

I bought this book mostly because the back half of it has a long list of recommendations of books to read a loud and each listing comes with an appropriate listening age range. Which is exactly what I've been looking for so I can get some new ideas about which books would be appropriate to read to Lincoln.

And if that were all that was in the book, it would have been well worth the $9 dollars I spent on it. The selections will keep us in reading material for a LONG time. :)

But I also really enjoyed the rest of the book. It's nothing too unpredictable. Mostly he just uses a lot of research and real life experiences to back up his belief that reading aloud to kids is the best, most efficient, and cheapest way to give them an educational boost. And he has tons of stats to back up his claims. Which, I think is pretty cool, because it's something I've always known intuitively, but I had no idea that the actual numbers would stack so highly in favor of reading aloud as a family. Not only does it create positive family bonding time, but across all ages and grades levels, kids who are read aloud to do better in school and on tests than those who aren't.

I've always loved reading, and I was always read to as a child, so this wasn't a very hard concept for me to absorb, but I think everyone, whether they like reading or not, could really benefit from some of the ideas in this book. And like I mentioned earlier, the book is worth it even if you only use it as a reference for it's list of books that make good read alouds.

“Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

I'm Going to Run Away

I seriously need a girls' weekend away somewhere...anyone want to plan one? I've been feeling a lot boxed in. Maybe it's too much going on, too many time commitments, too much on my social calendar, or something. Maybe I feel boxed in because everywhere I go, my darling children come too. That must be it. They need to learn how to mind, or even listen, or at least, if they can't listen, just acknowledge the fact that I have spoken sometimes. I swear I walk around the house all day sounding like a raving lunatic and repeating myself over and over and over and over and over. I feel like I have no control. And motherhood seriously requires too much energy most days. I had a fun day planned today. Some great active/outside school activities, a bike ride, an art project, sitting and reading quietly together....and nada. Not a one of those things was done happily by my children. They whined, cried, and complained about EVERYTHING we did today. But I couldn't let them just have free play time, because they kept fighting and making each other cry. I should have duct taped them all to the ceiling and read my book. 

By the time bed time comes around I've pretty much had it. Aaron keeps reminding me to be nice to them, and I swear if I have to hear it one more time I might throw something at him. A gal can only take so much in a 24 hour period. Why can't they be nice to me once in awhile? Why do I have to beg and threaten and bribe and cheat my way through the entire bedtime process every single night? Why can't everyone just calmly get their pajamas on when asked, and brush their teeth without getting water all over the bathroom? Why can't we just pick a freaking story and have everyone hold still and listen while we read it? Why can't we all just agree on the song we want to sing? And why can't they just lie down and be quiet and go to sleep when they're supposed to? They are exhausted. I know they are, they've been cranky all day. But oh, no...they'll be up laughing and rough housing and playing in their room until I go to bed. And they'll be up early in the morning and crabby as ever.

And so I want to run away. Not permanently, just for a little while. Take a breather and a shower without being interrupted. Avoid any kind of activity that might lead to having more children. Oh, and an uninterrupted adult conversation would be nice as well. It's website season again, so I keep company with people under 4 during the day, and books at night. Sometimes I wonder if I could even have an intelligent conversation if the opportunity presented itself. I'm so out of practice. And I seem to be incapable of a complete audible thought.

That's how I know I'm getting dumber. Or maybe I'm just too tired to care. I don't know. But I do know, that if this head cold/allergies doesn't go away and let me breath, I might hurt someone. I am soooooo done today.

Can I Tell You Something Without You Thinking Less of Me?

"Can I tell you something without you thinking less of me?" I asked Aaron the other night after the kids went to bed. A little too reluctantly he said, "I'll do my best not to think less of you?" To which I admitted, "I think I might read the Harry Potter books." And Aaron burst out laughing.

I think he was expecting something more serious. But in a way, it is serious. I have boycotted reading Harry Potter for years. I've seen 2 or 3 of the movies (one of which was all in German), and thought they were dumb. But the biggest reason I haven't ever read Harry Potter is mostly just because everyone under the sun and their dog told me I just HAD to read Harry Potter because it was the BEST book ever. I'm not one to read a book just because it's the latest craze. In fact, I usually purposely avoid the latest reading crazes. And I highly doubt that I'll think Harry Potter is the best book ever. Besides, there are WAY too many titles on my list of to-reads that I would consider to be of a higher quality than Harry Potter, so why waste my limited amount of reading time on that, when I could be using that time to read other things?

And my above stated positions mostly still stand. I think I might mildly enjoy Harry Potter, but I think it will be a brainless, lite, fluffly read. I usually like to read something that leaves me thinking hard about it after I walk away from it. The kinds of books that don't wrap themselves up into neat little packages at the end. Ya, I'm that nerdy kid whose most favorite books include Lord of the Flies, The Grapes of Wrath, and Frankenstein.

 But it did occur to me the other day that, although it probably won't qualify as classic literature any time soon, there might be some kind of historical merit to reading the series. Harry Potter has caused a pretty big stir, and inspired lots and lots of other series of the same kind. I like the idea that the author wrote the books at a level that matured with it's audience. I don't know if that's ever been done before, so that's a point in it's favor. Not to mention that Harry Potter has inspired a lot of people, who normally wouldn't be caught dead reading a book, to read thousands of pages, and that's a pretty big feat. In other words...

My jury is still out...so be prepared, I might be doing the unthinkable one of these days. :)

6th Year Postcard

Every year since our honeymoon, we've taken a "postcard" picture of what we do to celebrate our anniversary. Every post card is of our feet in front of whatever we did that year. It's fun to flip through all the years and see the different things we've done.

 Here's this year's postcard at the Salt Lake Bees game:

And here are all of our other postcards from years past:

Happy 6th

On May 6th Aaron and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Yay. Actually, if you want to be technical, we didn't do much celebrating on the actual 6th, because it was Sunday. But last night Aaron surprised me by having Ryan and Melissa watch our kids, and he took me to Salt Lake, out to eat at Olive Garden, and then to a Salt Lake Bees game.

Dinner was really good, and the baseball game was excellent. The Bees came back from being behind by 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win it. It was intense. :) And I always love to relive the good 'ol days, which I get to do because Aaron asks me all kinds of questions about the game and the rules, and what's going on. I think he does it more because he knows I like to talk about it and less because he cares what's going on, but that's ok, because that just means he loves me.

We walked through the Galivan Center on our way from the restaurant to the car before the game.

It was really nice to be away without the kids. I love Aaron, and I'm glad we've had 6 very happy years together.

Cinco De Mayo - Mom's Birthday Fiesta

I have the best mother in the world, and that is a fact. One of her main goals in life is to make sure that our family stays close and connected. And she has her job cut our for her, let me just tell you. Some of us are more or less cooperative than others at times in helping Mom with her goal.

Last year, when Mom turned 50, no one really made a fuss over it or her like they should have. As the oldest child, I'll take the responsibility for that one. My bad. So, I tried to make up for it this year. And I thought thing that my mom would want the most for her birthday was to have her family all around celebrating with her. So we siblings planned a party. And since Mom's big day also happens to be Cinco De Mayo and my mom's favorite food happens to be Mexican, it wasn't very hard to come up with a theme for the party :)

Everyone pitched in a brought something, we had fresh mango salsa, Hispanic music galore, awesome decorations, 7 layer bean dip, Cafe Rio pulled pork burritos, and the most delectable dessert I've ever tasted in my life, but can't remember the name of, but basically it's fried tortillas sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and boiled sweetened condensed milk on top. It was to die for. All the food was. It was grand fiesta, and I may never need to eat again.

We also had a pinata...to spice things up a bit. :)

And the big boys enjoyed helping Gramma Tam blow out the candles on her cake.

Ivan, Gramma Tam, Graham, Lincoln

Happy 51 Mom! Here's to 51 more.

Lincoln Liners and Ivan-isms Return

It's been a long time since I posted these. I've been really bad at keeping track of them, but here on the ones I have written down in the last, oh, six months or more. :)

Lincoln Liners

"Mom! Daddy bought you a Sprote (Sprite) to make you feel better!"

Aaron: "Linc, what do you want to talk about for family home evening?"

L: "How about evil men? Can we talk about evil men?

I: "I'm super fast!"

L: "Um, Ivan, actually, I'm the fastest in the world."

Me: "Linc, you're kind of a silly boy, ya know?"

L: "Nope. I'm a man child."

 "My mouth, it can't get unspiced!"

"Lotion stays on for a long long long long time. Like 30 minutes."

"Ivan, stop it! You're being disastrous!"

"Mom, did you know what? I keep secrets!"

"Mom can you read this? It says Ppaglio. Ppaglio is another word for table."

"I don't want to take a bath! I took a bath last year!" 

“I wish the lettuce was yellow…or purple.” 

Ivan-isms

"I love cameras and new diapers."

"Oh, I live on Earth, and Lincoln does and Daddy does and Delia does."

Every time I drain the bathtub, I: "The water's going down, it's going down!" I'm sure that's from Nemo.

Me: "Ivan, what should we have for dinner?"
I: "Adelia Mae Swan."

"Oh no! A big monster's coming and it's gonna eat us up for supper! Get in the cave!"

Me: "Ivan why are you crying?"
I: "I don't know!"

"Oh, my pumpkin turned into a quesadilla."

One morning, Aaron and I woke up to Lincoln yelling, "Dad, we're afraid!"
I: "We're afraid of the wolf!" And then they both giggled their little heads off for a minute, and then
L: "Dad, we're afraid!"
I: "We're afraid of the wolf! It's going to eat us!" More giggling. They kept up more of the same for about 10 minutes.

"At least no tears got on my sunglasses."

"Stop acting like an alien."

"Mom! Don't ever talk to me again while I'm drinking my milk!"

"Watch. If I take a bite of spaghetti, it makes my eyes blink."

I: “Mom will you make me some lunch?

Me: “It’s almost 5:00pm we already had lunch!”

I, sagging his shoulders and sticking his lip out really far:”I just don’t have enough food to grow big like you.”

I: “Mom I don’t like this Salmon. It makes my eyes shut and open.”

I: “Mom what day is it?”

Me: “Wednesday.”

I: “C’mon! Let’s get ready for Wednesday!”

Me: “Ivan what can you see out the window?”

I: “Letters, and numbers, and *gasp* a food place! Look Mom, it’s a food place! Where we can get food!”

“Mommy, I won’t cut myself in the hair.”

“I can eat a whole pickle, with a zebra in it!”