A couple of things I forgot

Luke's favorite name right now is Michael.  He names things Michael.  He changes things that already have names and renames them Michael.  His superhero name is Michael (not the alias - the actual superhero name - as in, "It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's MICHAEL!").  And Eliza helped him write "Michael" when they were playing school the other day.  Yesterday when we visited Oma, there were several little chicks on display and Luke named two of them.  One was Big Foot and the other was Michael.  (By the way, have you ever heard of Naked Neck Chickens?  Yeah, they're weird.  Oma was afraid they were cold.)

Luke's other favorite word right now is spleen.  He hurts his spleen all the time doing various everyday activities, and he points to a different part of his body every time.  I think this originated from a Studio C sketch but I don't know which one.  I kind of love it.

More From Luke

He's just too fun not to share.

Duplo Antlers

Fast asleep at 7:40 after an exhausting cousin dinner.  Sometimes I forget
that until just a few months ago he took a 2-hour nap every day.

"This is called weight-lifting!"

I walked with Luke while practiced his bike-riding the other day.
He also did this.

Luke tagged along while I was helping a friend organize her basement
and happily enterteined himself with the stash of toys for the grandkids.

Yesterday a friend asked me to go to the BYU Museum of Art to
see the M. C. Escher exhibit in the afternoon.  I was nervous about
bringing Luke, but he was great!  He even told his siblings this morning,
in a slightly braggy tone, "I went to an art show yesterday!"

On Monday morning Luke excitedly reported from the back seat of the van,
"Mom, I can finally roll my eyes!"  And a minute later, "Mom, I pretty much know everything."
If he didn't have teenage tendencies before...

Luke's favorite name right now is Michael.  He names things Michael.  He changes things that already have names and renames them Michael.  His superhero name is Michael (not the alias - the actual superhero name - as in, "It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's MICHAEL!").  And Eliza helped him write "Michael" when they were playing school the other day.  This afternoon when we visited Oma, there were several little chicks on display and Luke named two of them.  One was Big Foot and the other was Michael.  (By the way, have you ever heard of Naked Neck Chickens?  Yeah, they're weird.  Oma was afraid they were cold.)

Luke's other favorite word right now is spleen.  He hurts his spleen all the time doing various everyday activities, and he points to a different part of his body every time.  I think this originated from a Studio C sketch but I don't know which one.  I kind of love it.

Last night the kids were playing Monopoly and every time Luke was paid rent for his property he happily exclaimed, "I have all the monies!"  And when he found out that he would lose the game if he did a certain thing, he confusedly asked, "Wait, this is a loser game?"

Over the weekend Jack really wanted to watch one of the Harry Potter movies, but the rule in our house is that we won't turn one on if Luke is around, so the kids only get to see them if Luke is in bed for the night.  When Jack chose to disregard the rule and ask yet again if we could watch the movie in the afternoon, Luke immediately replied, "That's not an option."

Spello-Tape, Anyone?

This is the official Harry Potter wand Jack bought himself in Orlando in January.

He has played with this thing so much, and now after more than one run-in with

the driveway, we've decided it's time to be finished with it.  The kids weren't surprised

or upset, but it's still kind of sad to have to part with this special momento and toy.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go hot-glue twigs onto a stick

because Jack is really eager to finish his Quidditch broom.

Microeconomics

Cat is responsible for a portion of her soccer fees.  The amount she owes us each month is a little more than what we pay her for her household job every month, so if she doesn't do any extra work outside the house (babysitting, dog sitting, working for Suz, etc.) then she comes up short.

Last month Cat had just enough to make her monthly payment.  She was really sad that she didn't have extra money to go out to lunch with some friends and lamented the fact that she had to pay anything toward soccer at all, and couldn't have lots of money to do with as she pleased.  I agreed.  It would be fun to have tons of money.  But I didn't give her any more money.

Eliza was nearby and quickly offered to give Cat the money she'd need to pay for lunch with her friends.  I was floored by her offer, especially since Eliza loves spending money as much as the other kids.

In the end, Cat decided to use some of her monthly lunch money allocation so that she could eat out with her friends (recognizing that she'd need to pack a couple more lunches for school), and I felt good about her coming up with a solution without having to borrow money from me, or accept a donation from Eliza the Generous.

What's better than playing with a cousin?

Playing with lots of cousins!

From the Mouth of My Babe

The other morning we were driving to school and Jack requested that we listen to "The Greatest Showman" for the 5,298th time.  I suggested we sing a church-y song first.  Luke immediately requested "I Am a Child of God," which is his favorite Primary song right now.  So we sang two verses, then I thought we should talk about the meaning of the song for a minute.  I asked the kids what it means to be a child of God and Luke was the first to answer.

"It means we're very special to Him."

Yes.  It does.

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

Luke's preschool class had fun with St. Patrick's Day activities all week,

including making Leprechaun traps (Jack was so excited because he hadn't

made one this year!) and stringing Froot Loops rainbows with marshmallow

clouds.  They didn't manage to trap a leprechaun, but a leprechaun definitely

visited, moving all the kids' backpacks into the play house, moving around chairs

and books, and even writing "HA HA HA" on the board.  Sneaky trickster.

The kids were surprised to find Lucky Charms on the table when they

woke up Saturday morning.  This is what I heard from my comfy bed:

Jack: A leprechaun brought us Lucky Charms!

Eliza: That was Mom.

Then the kids came into our room and Jack was confused that a

leprechaun hadn't made a mess in the house, as he has in the past.

Me: Maybe he did.  Have you seen the playroom?
Eliza: That was us.

A leprechaun did seem to cause some mischief by dyeing the kids' cereal and milk

green, which completely grossed them out.  Sometimes those guys just go too far.

We did several other non-Irish activities on St. Patrick's Day, eating doughnuts with green sprinkles/frosting, playing at an arcade, renting the new "Ferdinand" movie, and eating (Irish-inspired green four-leaf clover) waffles with bacon and green smoothies.  I'd used enough green food coloring in the waffle batter to dye my finger.  I finally had a green thumb!

In the Thick of It

The other evening a repairman was at our house doing some work in the kitchen while the kids were doing homework at the table.  I was sitting with them, but working on a project of my own.  Jack had finished his homework, but I was having him erase all of the answers on his worksheet and re-write them using better handwriting - something he knows I insist on whenever he brings homework home, but he still gets upset about it every time.

Jack was even more worked up about it than normal.  He had a big fit, clearly unfazed that a perfect stranger was witnessing his behavior.  Meanwhile, I was incredibly embarrassed.

I stayed calm.  I reminded Jack of what I expected and what he needed to do.  I told him for the umpteenth time that he needed to develop good handwriting now if he wanted to have good handwriting as an adult.  I prompted him.  I coaxed him.  But what I really wanted was to crawl away and hide from the repairman who was witnessing this whole episode.

Imagine my surprise when the repairman chimed in with, "You're a good mom.  I wish my mom had been more like that."

I couldn't believe it.  This man got it.  Why had I been so worried about his opinon of me?  Why did that become so important, when I knew I was doing the right thing?

I was so thankful that I hadn't gone so far as to drop the issue with Jack for the sake of saving face.  Often, it's easier to keep kids calm and happy than it is to teach them the lessons they need to learn.  And of course, we need to choose our battles.  But we shouldn't let other people's opinions of our parenting strategies deter us from doing what we feel is best.  And sometimes, we might be surprised to find that when we think other people see us as losing a battle, they're actually cheering us on, recognizing that we're more focused on winning the war, by raising kids who will be great adults.

Pi Day 2018

Yesterday we honored Pi Day by having a shepherd's pie of sorts for dinner (using this recipe, which I loved, but I omitted the corn, added another tbs of ketchup, and cooked it for 45 minutes) and chocolate cream pie for dessert (using this recipe, which I also loved, but next time I need to cook the custard more).  It was so yummy, and I only regretted that just half of the family enjoyed it together.  I love these fun, simple little traditions.

Fun with Luke AND Eliza

Child's Posing

Tea Partying

Since I was already making cupcakes when Eliza and Luke's friend was playing at the house
Saturday morning, I offered to make some minis for them to use in a tea party.  Eliza was excited
to find a rare 2L of soda in the fridge and wanted to use that as the tea.  I was happy to get rid of
the soda, and we poured it in the tea pot.  When her friend found out what the beverage was, she
exclaimed, "My Mom NEVER lets me have SODA!"  Oops.  So I called her mom and sure enough,
the girl had never had soda and doesen't get many sweets.  But she let us give her a little,
and I quickly added some fruit to the tea party menu.  That makes it better, right?

Cross-Dressing.



Pillow Diving

Paper-towel-roll-building

Paper-towel-roll-falling

Fun with Luke

Luke has been a great little buddy this year.  When the other kids are off at school or with friends or whatever, he and I pal around, talking and singing and making jokes and having our own little adventures.  I've really enjoyed this time with him.

Sometimes, visiting Oma means avoiding walking, by riding on a walker.

Luke woke up in the middle of the night and threw up in his bed a few weeks ago.
I stayed home with him while Ben took the kids to church the next day and we had
fun hanging out.  Thankfully, he didn't throw up anymore so we just played.

I took Cat and Luke to lunch at Chick-fil-A when Cat had a day off of school.
Luke really wanted chicken minis but since it was after the breakfast period, they didn't
have any.  He was refusing to eat anything else, so I ordered him an empty bun (definitely
worth the $0.15 it cost) and tore off little pieces for him to have with his chicken nuggets.
He was pleased with the approximation and I was happy because he ate lunch.

I came to Luke's class because he wanted me to watch him do Show & Teach.
They were finishing up their Dr. Seuss centers since it was the week of Dr. Seuss's
birthday, and talking about feet (vis-à-vis The Foot Book).  Luke didn't just want to
draw with his feet, he wanted to draw with his feet while crossing his legs.

"Show & Teach" quickly morphed into "show my kids how I can play with these toys
while crawling around on the floor and making funny sounds."

Luke gave this to Eliza when she was upset one day.

"Mom, my arm is getting a little tired so I'm going to switch to my other arm." 

Taking advantage of the nicer weather to practice numbers in the driveway.

"It's fixed!" Luke proclaimed when he walked in yesterday.
I never found out what was fixed, but I loved the repairman's wardrobe.

Luke wanted to sleep with a lot of stuffed animals last night.
In fact, he wanted to be covered by them.  So I pulled his blankets
over him then piled stuffed animals on top, leaving an opening
for his face.  When I checked on him before going to bed, this
is what it looked like.  Poor Luke had been crowded out of
his own bed by his chosen companions.

Cat - Old & New

I've been sorting through piles of papers and things over the last few weeks and found some things I wanted to share.

Cat wrote journal entries and kept handouts from Activity Days
in this little composition notebook.

The inside of the notebook -

I was touched to see how much thought and effort went into the pot Cat
decorated for me for Mother's Day last year.

Unfortunately, the flowers didn't survive, but I was able to
replace them with the flowers Eliza gave me for Mother's Day.

One of Cat's main responsibilities on the yearbook staff in 6th grade was to provide character drawings to be used in the yearbook.  I mentioned this in a blog post at the beginning of the summer HERE but since I found some original drawings I wanted to share them too.

Cat wrote the following talk on the Young Women Logo for New Beginnings last Sunday. I thought she did a great job and I only made a small suggestion, which she implemented.

President Ezra Taft Benson said, ‘What hopes I have for you young sisters! What hopes our Father in Heaven has for you! You have been born at this time for a sacred and glorious purpose. It is not by chance that you have been reserved to come to earth in this last dispensation of the fulness of times. Your birth at this particular time was foreordained in the eternities. You are to be the royal daughters of the Lord in the last days. You are “youth of the noble birthright” (Hymns, 1985, no. 255).’

On a necklace that you will recieve when you turn 12, is the young women logo. This logo is a torch that is surrounded by the young women motto. The torch represents the light of Christ inviting all to come unto Christ. As President Ezra Taft Benson said, ‘What high hopes our Heavenly Father has for you!’ The torch invites all young women to hold up their light by being an example, and being worthy to make and keep the sacred covenants in the temple. The torch on the necklace symbolizes these things, and it’s a small nice reminder for us of the hopes our Heavenly Father has for us.

“Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations” (Doctrine & Covenants 115:5). The torch is on a necklace so that it can be with us always, or at least often. Let this necklace be a reminder to you to always do your best to be an example. I bear my testimony that Heavenly Father loves all of us and wants us to do our best in life, so he sent us reminders, helpers, examples and friends to help us out. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I was able to accompany Cat and some of the other YW on an
early temple trip this morning.  I love this girl.

Kitchen Magic

On Monday night we went to a science activity at the Orem Library titled "Kitchen Magic."  While some of the materials used can definitely be found in a typical kitchen or household, many of the others belong in a chemistry lab.  But we loved the demonstrations and even learned a few things.  For example, the word exothermic was thrown around quite a bit.  If you know what that means, you'll know why they used that term so often as you look through the pictures and video below.

Blowing bubbles with dish soap and methane gas
means the bubbles go UP.

And guess what happens when those methane-bubbles meet an open flame?

"Elephnt Toothpaste"

Dry ice goes directly from solid to gas when placed in water, and if
you rub the rim of its container with a soapy rag, the gas gets trapped inside
the soapy film on top and forms an enormous bubble.

When you run electricity through a pickle, it glows!
The presenter said he's tried eating the pickle after this experiment, and it tastes
really bad.  (Like a burned pickle.)  The kids wanted him to eat it anyway, though,
so the (huge) crowd chanted "EAT IT!" over and over again until he took a bite.  And
guess what?  It tasted bad.  And that is what we call Peer Pressure.  (Or Kid Pressure?)

Burning Steel Wool

They had three balloons with different gases, all of which they torched.

#1 - Helium - no explosion, just a popped balloon

#2 - Hydrogen - small explosion

#3 - Two parts Hydrogen + One part Oxygen - big explosion (as seen in the above video)

Good times!