Sibling Sleepovers

When we moved into this house a year ago, we began a new tradition: the Sibling Sleepover.  During the 2 months prior to the move, The Bigs had been camping out in various locations as we traveled across the country, then stayed at my aunt's house while we looked for a place to live.  Living here, where they were separated into different bedrooms, was an adjustment, and they still wanted to be together at least some of the time.

We started having Sibling Sleepovers occasionally, where The Bigs would all sleep in Cat's room, sometimes with the extra sleepover feature of a TV show or movie, but often they simply slept.  This also functioned to fill the desire for sleepovers, since our family doesn't allow the kids to spend the night at friends' houses.

What began as an occasional special evening has recently become a weekend tradition, where everyone sleeps in Cat's room on the nights that are not school nights.  Last weekend they watched a show together on my laptop right before bed and had a great time.  But even better than that for me was when I walked downstairs to get Luke this morning and found all three of the big kids awake in Cat's room, with the lights on, reading their own books.  It was one of those times when I didn't want to ruin the moment by interrupting.

I don't know how long this tradition will last, but I think I'm enjoying it as much as the kids, if not more.

Crazy Hair Day

Today Cat and Jack had their first Spirit Day of the year - Crazy Hair Day.  We had fun getting ready this morning, and I was glad we took some time to do it.  You should see what some of the other kids came up with - we saw hairstyles that were beyond description.  I think we made a good effort, though.

Perhaps I misjudged the boy?

Have I made it clear that Luke is a handful these days?  A screaming, climbing, throwing, spilling, emptying, smearing, coloring mess-maker.  That's what he is.

But the other day I was mopping the kitchen floor - something I'm doing more often these days than I ever even wanted to - when Luke really wanted a turn mopping.  Knowing that he would only hurt himself or something/someone else with the regular mop, I grabbed our old Swiffer that doesn't get used very often and shortened the handle so it was closer to his size.  He thought it was great, and cleaned not only the tile, but some carpeted areas as well.

I like to tell myself that he was doing penance for the other 150 or so days of his life since he turned a year old and became our Generation IV Destructobot.

More Sensory Experiences

My friend Melissa found it funny that I referred to Luke's meal times as sensory experiences.  As luck would have it, we've had even more sensory experiences 'round these parts lately, and these don't even involve food. 

 

Puppet Mania

As I was looking for pictures to post tonight, I noticed that I haven't shared these that I took recently, which happen to involve PUPPETS, haha.

The first two are from our local library, where the girls put on a puppet show after choosing a few books.  Jack preferred to get a head start on his Thomas books.

The next 3 are from a puppet show that The Bigs put on for Luke in our living room, using a coffee table as the stage.  Luke enjoyed watching the show at first, but then he decided to join in.

Puppet Festival

While at the library last week we saw a poster advertising an upcoming "Puppet Festival."  We had no idea what that would include, aside from puppets, but it sounded fun, so we thought we'd try to make it happen this weekend.  After a slow start, we managed to accomplish our Saturday morning cleaning in time to spend some time at this mysterious event and had a great time.

The Puppet Festival really was just All Things Puppets.  We got up close and personal with a variety of puppets and learned about how to make puppets.  I now have a secret desire to turn all of our stuffed animals into puppets.  Cause I could.

We also saw some puppet shows, of course.  One of the shows had a pirate theme, where a boy named Timmy became Tim the Terrible and he learned some good pirate jokes.  I think I should include them here for posterity.

How much did the pirate pay for his earrings?
A buck an ear.

Why couldn't the pirate play cards?
Cause he was standing on the deck.

What has eight legs and eight eyes?
Eight pirates.

How much did the pirate's hook and peg leg cost?
An arm and a leg.

At the For Sale table, Luke enjoyed cuddling with the Orangutan puppet.

It's hard to see, but Cat has the coolest balloon animal ever.
It's a fish on a fishing pole.  Jack was also excited that he not only
got a sword, but a belt where he could stash the sword.

The kids are operating an adult-sized marionete.

The kids were really impressed with this 12-foot parade puppet
built by the puppeteer, who happens to be president of
the Utah Puppetry Guild.

A better view of the parade puppet in action.

Cat and Eliza both made paper bag puppets.

I don't know why, but I've always really enjoyed puppets so it was really fun for me to be at an event devoted solely to this art form.  The fact that the weather was beautiful and the event wasn't crowded made it all the more enjoyable.

Today.