Everyday Stuff - March 2013 Edition

What do you get when you make a ball of discarded masking tape?
A bunny tail!  Add a pair of ears from preschool, and you're hooppin' to go. 

   

When Cat started doing my hair one night, Jack decided to join in the fun. 

First, the box was a house for Eliza.  When Jack wanted to come in, she told
him to take his shoes off, which he did. Then they both enjoyed
the house for a while, until Eliza decided the box was better suited to be a bed. 

Cat worked really hard and earned her Cursive License this month!  She was so proud
to be the first one in her class to complete her cursive workbook and earn the right to
do future assignments in cursive.  She's been talking about learning to write in cursive since
she was 4, but back then, it was "cur-fish." 

When Jack requested a "Figure 8" track, this was the best I could come up with
using the pieces we have on hand.  He had a good time with it, but didn't appreciate
Eliza trying to let the giant Thomas drive on it, or Eliza acting as a human tunnel.

Saturday morning fun ... play dough ... aka making cookies

When Jack brought the toy Parasaurolophus to school for Show & Teach, his teacher
was impressed that he knew how to pronounce it.  She wrote the name on the board so that
all of the kids could help her count the number of letters.

I could hardly believe Eliza actually contorted enough to fit completely inside this box. 

One day during quiet time Jack made a Diaper Forest in the hallway.
He used about 120 diapers from an almost-new Costco pack.
On the left you see him halfway through the deforestation process.
On the right are all of the diapers, after they were "put away." 

tired (adj) - falling asleep on the living room floor with the lights on

Jack has had a hard time with the fact that he isn't playing soccer right now.  The league he played in during the fall was free, and I haven't wanted to sign him up for a rec league team at such a young age.  During Cat's first soccer practice of the Spring season, I was with Jack and Eliza while they played on a nearby playground.  Jack suddenly started running to the practice and I could not get him to stop.  He said he just wanted to watch, but he ran all the way into the practice.  The coach told him that he could help, so he did.  For the rest of the practice.  And he loved it.

I think he might have been hoping for a similar opportunity during Cat's first soccer game.
He wore his soccer socks with the built in shin guards...under his cowboy boots.

When Cat found some fake flowers sitting around the house, she decided to plant them in the flower bed.

After watching 'The Adventures of Tin Tin" Saturday morning, Jack decided to get
dressed for an adventure.  (I like that his Adventure Pants are backwards.  It was easy for me
to tell because there were no holes in the knees...on the front.) 

Adventure #1:
Helping Mommy make sloppy joes by mixing two bowls at a time.

Eliza insisted on cleaning the toilet one afternoon.
Apparently the lid was the dirtiest part, because that's what she spent
almost all of her time cleaning.

Jack was obsessed with this Little People Pirate Ship for several days this month.
He asked to sleep with it.  And he wanted to bring it to Church.  We let him take it in the car,
but he was distraught when we wouldn't let him bring it into Sacrament Meeting.

Cat's definition and drawing of a peninsula in her book of land formations.
Yep.  And she was born in Florida.  I think we'll practice the drawing part.

T-Ball in the front yard on a warm day in March. 

When Eliza and her friend were drawing with sidewalk chalk, they
decided to draw on themselves as well.  It's kind of hard to see in the shady picture,
but their faces are streaked with green and purple sidewalk chalk.

Jack enjoyed seeing his reflection in the produce section of the grocery store.
Of course he's holding on tight to his bag of tomatoes.

Alternative use for Easter Baskets: Helmets
I think Eliza was mad in this picture because Jack wasn't sitting in the seat she'd assigned him. 

Where do you keep your monster truck??

Eliza's been doing a lot of writing like this lately.
I'm thinking she needs to start learning the alphabet..?

Jack has been playing in the dirt a lot lately.
Here he is after he washed his face.

Cat practiced using watercolor pencils after watching an instructional YouTube video. 

Jack is more picky about music than I thought.

It's hard to tell, but here Jack is sleeping with a punching ball Mema sent in a package for the kids. 

Spring?

We had some nice warm days in February, but spring really began springing up in these parts in mid-March.  Until the day after the actual beginning of Spring.  It got cold.  And in case you're wondering what happened on Day #3... it snowed.  We're talking big beautiful flakes that made it hard for me to get good pictures.

We originally had plans that morning, but ended up staying home unexpectedly.  I was so glad to not have to be out in the snow for once, and to enjoy it from a comfortable vantage point.  When I first called Jack and Eliza's attention to the snow, Jack asked me if it was Christmas?  Then the two of them watched the snow while balancing on soccer balls...

Once I managed to get the soccer balls away from them, we all just enjoyed watching the incredible animal show in the front yard.  A bunch of red-bellied birds (robins, I'm guessing?) came and hung out in the front yard for a while.  I guessed that they were playing in the snow, but Cat thinks these birds eat the snow.  Whatever the reason, they would peck around in the ground for a while, then fly up into a tree, then come back down, back and forth.  After a few minutes of watching the red-bellied birds, a woodpecker came out and started looking for a snack in the tree right in front of the house.  It was really fun to watch.

The snow was all melted by that afternoon, but it didn't warm up very much.  In fact, Cat's first soccer game of the Spring was supposed to be the following day, and it ended up being postponed because of more cold, snowy weather.  But since the birds came out again the next afternoon, Jack and Eliza spent their entire quiet time - about an hour - standing on a chair in Jack's room watching the birds in the front yard.

Thankfully, the weather has started warming up again.  We were in short-sleeved t-shirts today and loving it.  Maybe Spring will stick around now?

Mini Me

Recently Cat has been doing some things that remind me of me and it makes me laugh a little.

The first two have to do with my inner-OCD-record-keeper.  This is a trait I've learned to minimize over the last several years, so hopefully you don't know about it, but it's still there, buried deep in my brain.

Cat loves to write things down in the same manner, and has even arranged an office space where she contentedly plays by herself, doing all kinds of administrative tasks.  The other day I noticed this taped to the bookshelf she uses as her desk:

Then a couple of weeks ago I taught her how to make friendship bracelets the way I did when I was a kid.  We used three colors of embroidery floss and I told her we'd make 10 knots of each color.  I showed her a few knots, then let her try.  We were trying to count the knots and she was frustrated with having to remember.  So what did she do?  She got out a piece of paper and started making tally marks for each knot under its designated color column.  After a few minutes of that, I gave her the tip that if she counted out loud she was more likely to remember the number she was on.  So she began doing that instead, and the bracelet-making went much faster!  The tally marks cracked me up, though.  That's something I can easily see my 7-year-old self doing.

On Saturday evening, I had just finished up a big sewing project when the girls came down to the basement to hang out with me.  Cat saw my bucket-o-trash and immediately wanted to use the tiny scraps in there to make something.  I agreed, and before I knew it she'd made a headband for Eliza gluing (and stapling!) together the selvage edges of some fabric.

Cat's been wanting to do more sewing with me lately and I need to come up with another good project we can work on together.  A friend pinned this blog post with printable sewing activity sheets for kids, and I'm thinking we might start with that.  If I can help Cat gain more accuracy, I'm thinking we can make teacher gifts together. Friday afternoons are the perfect time to work on these things with her because Jack is at school and Eliza is either napping or having quiet time.  So.  We'll see.

But do you know what the most surprising discovery about my Mini Me is?  She kinda looks like me!  Yesterday the kids found a VHS of a couple of my elementary school drama performances, where I'm in 4th and 5th grade.  I could hardly believe how much Cat looks like me when I was 9 and 10.  Don't get me wrong, I still think she favors Ben more than me, but I like that she resembles me somewhat.

St. Patrick's Day

I went all out on St. Patrick's Day.

I turned the entire house green.

And my family.

Okay, not really.  Actually, St. Patrick's Day was pretty low-key this year.  For breakfast, my kids were absolutely thrilled to get to eat Lucky Charms.  (Sugary cereal!  What's going on?  This must be an important holiday!)  And while we enjoyed our bowls of sugar wholesome processed goodness for breakfast, we talked about what we would wish for if we caught a leprechaun.

Eliza - for a car she can use to drive the baby around

Jack - for a playset in the back yard

Cat - for Daddy to get a job

Mom - for all of us to continue to be blessed with good health

Dad - for lots and lots of money

She still looks cute, even as an evil witch.  Don't you think??

Then we had a normal Sunday, except for our dinner, which starred our traditional St. Patrick's Day dish - green shamrock waffles.  Ben even made green smoothies for everyone this year, but went a little overboard with the berries, so our festive green smoothies were actually purple, haha.

I'm thinking next year will be a bit more exciting on the Day O' Green, but I guess we'll just have to see!

Preschool Poster

In Jack's preschool class, each child may bring a poster of him or herself to be displayed in the classroom for a week.  The teacher encouraged us to sign up for the week of our child's birthday, but when I went to sign up, Jack's birthday week was already taken.  I later realized that was probably for the best, considering his birthday will be shortly after we have the baby.  So we chose to bring in a poster for him last week.  (Unfortunately, since the other kids have been bringing in their posters around their birthdays, this has caused some confusion as to how soon we will be celebrating Jack's birthday...)

Jack helped me choose the pictures to include, we had them printed, then I cut out the papers one evening.  Together we glued the pictures on to the colored papers and arranged them on the poster.  Then he wrote his name.  Done.

He was SO excited to bring this in to school and even used it as his "Show & Teach" that week.  It is now displayed in a place of honor - on the wall over his bed.  And I admit, it makes me pretty happy when I look at it, too.

The Fire Department

Our ward playgroup recently organized a tour of our local fire station.  I knew Jack and Eliza would love it, and they really did.  We even learned a few things too.

First we watched a cartoon called "The ABCs of Fire Safety."  Then we watched our guide put
on all of his fire safety gear and talked about how kids should never run away or hide form a
firefighter.  They also practiced stop, drop, and roll.

Then the kids practiced waking up in the middle of the night and going out of the window to get away from a fire when the door feels hot.  We also learned about how to prevent fires in the different rooms of the house.

Out in the big garage, we learned more about what firefighters do and what
the different emergency vehicles are for. 

And we heard how loud the siren sounds when you're in an enclosed, echo-y room.

The kids walked through the cab of the fire engine.

And posed for a few pictures.

Here's Jack with our neighbor, who's hat he is holding.

Jack did include Firefighter on his list of future jobs.  I think the hat suits him quite well.

The whole crew.