Benjamin's First Day of Preschool

A few weeks ago, Joshua came in the house and asked Luke to buy him a "drump" for his bike. A drump? Sure, but we can just make one. So, five minutes later, Joshua was showing of his skills with a sweet new drump in front of our house. (Yes, that is a girl bike. Yes, he would like a new one. Who wants to be the Christmas hero?)

Sam wanted to get in on the first day of school pictures.

Benjamin, on his first day of preschool!

Awww, all decked out!

With his teacher...Oh, that's me! He is doing great in his "preschool", but is very upset that it's not "real preschool". Sorry bud.

It's October!!!!

Alright, in honor of the playoffs starting (with a Yankee win) yesterday, I decided it's finally time to get the blog updated! So, at long last, here are the first day of school photos! (Sorry about the wierd layout...I'm not sure what's up.) Anyway, first off, we have our healthy, brain enhancing, first day of school breakfast--Crepes with whipped cream and chocolate!

Next, we have EmJ and Willie posing for the camera. Say cheese!

EmJ, in all her new outfit and messenger bag glory. (She just HAD to have that thing, and now she hates it.) I hate the Mr. Rogers sweater, but apparently it's trendy.

And here's Willie, later in the day, all decked out for his first day of PMK. Why do my kids feel the need to, literally, pose for the camera?

And lastly, Willie waiting at the bus stop. The bus was 25 minutes late, and we eventually just drove to school. He was so sad, but recovered when we got there and his teacher declared that the kids would be making a human train to chug to Kindergarten. Human trains make everything better!

Indian Dance

Remember when you took piano lessons when you were a kid, and you got to the end of the first level, and you played this song...

Little Indian, little indian
Round the fire he would dance.
Little Indian, little indian
Do the indian dance.

Best song ever, right? I bet you can still play it by memory.

Weeeeellllll, EmJ is nearing the end of her first piano book, so I checked for the Indian Dance. And to my suprise, political correctness has even entered the realm of piano lessons! It is now called "Tribal Song". I think in the last edition it was "Native American Dance." In the next edition it will simply be "Campfire Celebration."

My, oh my, oh my....

And

Why, oh why, oh why....

Would you pitch to Ichiro with 2 outs in the 9th when first base is open?! Why?!

I was having a perfectly good game up until that point. I was too busy picking my jaw up off the ground to go for Ichiro's homerun ball, which was only three seats over and a row back (I totally could have crushed that Asian lady to get to it). To make matters worse, I could hear Luke cheering from four sections away. (We don't sit near each other when the Yankees are in town.) I should have known, though, in the 6th inning, that things were taking a turn for the worse. It was at that point that Samantha mooched an entire tray of garlic fries from the lady in front of us, and EmJ announced to everyone around us that she was combing Joshua's hair and searching for lice. People cleared out pretty quick.

The end.

Yankees!

*Sam can say "baseball" and "Yankees" (biddeeeeeeeez!). Let the indoctrination begin.

*Benjamin has been working on finding a better outlet for his screaming and tantrums (like throwing sharp objects at the offensive person, food, article of clothing, piece of furniture, etc). Yesterday, I noticed him wiping his eyes on his shirt and muttering to himself, "Stop it! Stop it! No tears! Stop it!"

*Joshua loves Kindergarten, and tells me much more about school and his daily interactions than EmJ ever has. The problem, however, is that he starts talking in the middle of a thought and expects me to understand exactly what he's saying.
"...with the brown shirt" or "...except it wasn't a whole sticker book, just one sticker" or "...and I sat by him on the bus."
So I'll say, "You sat next to someone wearing a brown shirt and they gave you a sticker?"
And Joshua will look at me like I'm an idiot and say, "Just listen next time! The brown shirt guy doesn't even ride on my bus!"

*Also, Joshua has a new friend named Marcelo. He's Italian, and because he's Italian, Joshua feels the need to pronouce his name with a sort of Italian flair..."Today I played with (pause) Ma-chay-lo."

*EmJ refused to do any chores on Friday, because she was the "Helper of the Day" at school, and that's HARD WORK. You have to, like, walk the attendance all the way to the office and make it back without tripping on the sidewalk or missing the Pledge of Allegiance! So, heaven forbid you also sweep my kitchen.

*Samantha threw a deskful of papers into the toilet yesterday. I found her, started taking the papers out, and started scolding..."No, we do not throw anything in the toilet." Sam nodded her head and looked at me with a look that said, "I know, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I can't believe the nerve of some people!" I simultaneously wanted to laugh and throttle her.

*I promise I WILL put first day of school pictures up soon. I just haven't gotten around to unleashing them from the camera!

*EmJ attended a town hall meeting with Luke a few weeks ago. Of her first foray into politics, she said, "There was more stomping, yelling, and clapping than talking." Yep. Accurate. You should have brought the 50,000 tomatoes from our garden to throw at Jay Inslee. Nobody would have suspected the little Aryan girl.

*I roasted a chicken! Well, okay, Luke did all the dirty work...but it was tasty. The next day, I made chicken soup. And it was yummy! I even harvested all our carrots and onions for the soup. I was so proud of my little garden and my little chicken and the fact that I actually cooked two fabulous meals in a row....that's some kind of record, right?!

The End of Summer...

Yep, summer is over. I wish I was sad, but I'm definately not. I'm looking foward to school, jacket weather, the playoffs, and all that good stuff. We decided that, for our last summer hurrah, we'd take a little road trip (well, okay, Luke had to work and we just happened to stow away...). We went to Yakima (blech) to visit some dear friends (hooray). When it came bedtime, I made a little space for Sam on a crib mattress in the dining area. This picture is how I found her in the morning. It was very cute.

On the way home, we stopped at Snoqualmie Falls...it's a lot smaller than I remember...EmJ snapped this cool picture. I think I'm going to suggest that she enter it in the Reflections contest.

Then today, we went to Jetty Island. It's a manmade island in Puget Sound that you take a free ferry ride to get to. Though the ferry ride is all of 30 seconds, my boys thought it was amazing. The beach is fabulous, too. I predict that we will spend quite a bit more time there next summer. Hopefully on days that are not drizzly, windy, and cold.

And so, with summer's end comes Back to School! As you can see, we are all ready! I think I'm more excited than the kids. I can't wait to see Joshua's little face as he gets on the bus tomorrow!

Alright, time to get the kids in bed so they can be ready for school!!!!

Cookie!

The girls and I were at the mall the other day and Sam started yelling, "Cookie, cookie, cookie!" I'm never sure if she's saying real words, or if she means what she says, so I asked her if she wanted a snack. She nodded emphatically, so I whipped out an orange, peeled it, and handed her a slice.

She took one look at it, threw it across the mall, and shouted, "COOKIE!"

I guess she knows what she's saying.

Quiz

A gift certificate to a ritzy salon leads to a serious lapse in hair judgement. You...

a. tell the truth

b. hide under a rock for 3-6 months

c. blame it on your scissor-wielding toddler

Funny

This is hilarious...

www.shannonhaddenphotography.blogspot.com

My sister's family had portraits taken last weekend, and they had a little, um, incident! (Remniscent of the famous Dad vs. the Praying Mantis episode that occurred some 20 years ago...)

Time to Blog

MAJOR BREAKING NEWS!!! EMMELINE LOST HER FIRST TOOTH!!! I figure I'd better match her excitement level. I think that the thrill of losing the tooth is matched by the thrill that EmJ, the wimp of all wimps, pulled it out herself--gore and all. Hooray!! The tooth fairy schedule must have been awry on Friday night because whoever had the early shift only brougth 25 cents, but whomever had the late shift missed the memo, visited EmJ a second time, and left a whole dollar. Dang that undermining toothfairy minion!

Now that the major announcement is taken care of, enjoy the rest of our random summer pictures!!

That's my girl!

My mom and I took the kids to the flight museum last week. It was heaven for Gus..."Look Joshua, it's a gun-sooter, a gun-sooter, Joshua, see it? It's a gun-sooter, Emmeween, a gun-sooter!"

Our first tomato and cucmber from the garden. We've been enjoying beans for a while, and now the tomatoes and cucumbers are ready! Yum!! Our corn is gorgeous and has been fun to watch grow, but I don't think it's going to produce anything. And we're still waiting on carrots.

I found the kids down here one day vacuuming. Love it!

Long story. We took the older kids school shopping for family night a few weeks ago. Distraught that he didn't get anything, Gus picked out a pack of play-doh and insisted that he needed it. He was dead set on getting the play-doh. I sent Luke and the kids to the car while I paid for our merchandise, and, true to form, left the play-doh with the cashier. Benjamin fell asleep on the way home, and I thought I was in the clear. NOT SO! The next morning, he went on a search for his play-doh and upon discovering that it was NOT in the bag became very upset. I, of course, blamed it on the cashier, which caused a string of three-year old insults to spew from Gus' little mouth..."lame-head" "stupid guy" "poop face" "dorky porky"...He even called Luke to complain about his fate (Luke gave him some more name-calling ideas). So, that afternoon, while Sam was asleep, we made play-doh. My penance for shafting my son and letting the unsuspecting cashier take the brunt of his wrath. The end.

Samantha--being sassy.

One hot Saturday, we ended up babysitting most of the cousins at our house. So, I put them to work washing the cars. Yep, I'm the coolest Aunt ever!

Sam's first pigtails--They were adorable, but my attempts to get a picture resulted in pictures of Sam trying to grab the camera.

Sam sat in Primary with me a few weeks ago. She grabbed a Book of Mormon and made herself at home on one of the little chairs. I was so proud! Furthermore, I like this picture because her hair is neat, her clothes are clean, and there is no food on her face. Plus, that wicked farmer tan needs to be showcased!

Did I mention the cherries on the blog? We picked cherries from a neighbors tree (a 5 gallon bucketful). It took three solid days of pitting to work through all the cherries, and I haven't yet been able to stomach the resulting jam or pie filling. This picture is of Benjamin's "cooking" with the cherries. I frequently find random kitchen stuff all over the house because of Benjamin and his projects. In the past few weeks we've also picked blueberries and plums...and our freezer is full to the gills.

And that's it. Maybe in the next few weeks, I'll be a little more diligent about posting our summer adventures!

Beat the Heat

I thought it was high time I post. I have much to say, but not much patience for sitting in the sweltering house to say it...

*Luke and I went on Trek last week. That deserves it's own post, and I'll do one as soon as I get my hands on some pictures.

*"Delicious jams and jellies," is from National Treasure. "Why can't it just say, 'Here's the treasure, spend it wisely?'" Great flick.

*Benjamin went to bed the other day with a bunch of goldfish crackers in the cargo pocket of his shorts. Way to go, Napoleon!

*Yesterday I sat outside in the kiddie pool. All by myself. It's about 4 feet in diameter and 12 inches deep. At one point, a bee was attacking me, so I started shrieking and splashing at it...I'm pretty sure my neighbors have pretty valid concerns about my sanity.

*We have a lovely city councilman running for re-election on an "ecofriendly sidewalks for our city" platform. What? Call me crazy, but I think we have bigger problems.

*I'm starting to lose my faith in public libraries. It started way back when Joshua was a toddler and was pulling board books out of the bin. The librarian said, "Oh, no, we musn't touch the books." It has escalated recently, as the library capped attendance on a magic show. Now, I have no problem with them capping the attendance, but it was a show for kids. So, doesn't it lie to reason that you let the KIDS into the show and ask the parents to wait in the library so more KIDS can enjoy the KIDS show?

*The heat wave is making me insane and grumpy. We have a growing list of home improvements to make, but I just moved A/C to the top of the list. Who cares if the roof leaks, at least I won't be hot for those three days in July...

*Have grocery stores ever considered installing a drive-thru for people who only need to pick up one thing? I may even consider paying a service fee for that.

*Did I mention that we are SWELTERING?!

*I'm going back out to the kiddie pool now. Maybe I'll run through the sprinkler while the kids are napping.

5K

Joshua, my dad, and I ran a 5K yesterday. I am so proud of Joshua! He ran every step of the race and came in first among the 5 year olds (all three of them) and 2nd among 5-6 year olds. In his age division (babes in strollers-13 year olds), he finished 38th with a time of 37:37.

My dad and I didn't fare quite so well. Next time, I'm signing up as a 5 year old!

Joshua, you the man!

Terror

Samantha just emptied my sock drawer. Then she found a pink highlighter and colored a little pink stripe on each sock, telling each one, "thank you," "thank you," "thank you," while stacking them into a nice neat pyramid of pink striped socks.

Aaaaaaaaand, she's disappeared with the highlighter. I guess this is the blog's end for today.

New Title

Hmmm, I've been trying to think of a new title for our blog...something clever, witty, and somewhat more descriptive and less boring than "Our Family."

a. Altogether "-ooky" get it?

b. The Adventures of Willie and Gus

c. Republican Yankee in King Obama's Court

Okay, I'm just kidding on option 3, this is after all a family blog.

Yum!

Here are some highlights of Samantha's short toddler career...

*Insists on using her own utensils. Not baby spoons, either. Both the utensils and the food on her plate have to be identical to the rest of the family.

*Has emptied cartons of eggs on two occassions.

*Took a marker to all the walls and the fridge the other day.

*Takes great pleasure in unrolling toilet paper and putting it all in the toilet.

*Can climb up the bunk beds.

*Loves cars and trains..."dars" and "nays". Sam was screaming while I was putting her in the car the other day, so I said, "No screaming in this house!" Benjamin looked at me and said, "This isn't a house, this is the car." Sam gives me her most precocious glare and finger point and says, "DAR!!"

*Yesterday, we went to a friend's home to pick cherries. I turned my back on Sam for approximately 6.3 seconds, turned back around, and found her on the top of a 6 foot ladder (not at the top, ON the top) with her hands in the air yelling, "So Big!"

What a character she is!

Pride

It's done. The slipcover is finished. Never mind that I started it a year ago. Nevermind that Sam will be moving to the bunk bed in 2 months. Nevermind that I'm not replacing the Mariner's blanket and navy blue sheet with something girly that matches the rest of the room. Nevermind that I'm not going to bother to iron it or fix it's multitude of other problems. Nevermind that I don't know any better now how to use a sewing machine than when I started. It's done. I can maintain my "I finish what I start" mantra. My pride is intact...sort of.

Lazy Eye

This is Lazy Eye....as in "show me your lazy eye"...Sam does it when she smiles, when she's angry, or whenever the kids start pestering her to perform.

I think she looks like you, Lin! Later in life you'll have to give her lessons on how to smile while keeping both eyes open!

Delicious Jams and Jellies?

(Name that movie.)

I've never met anyone who dislikes freezer jam, and, in a fit of domesticity this week, I have learned why. The sugar to fruit ratio in freezer jam is 2:1. Duh, no wonder it's so good.

Now we have at least 2 gallons of strawberry and mango freezer jam. I debated making mango jam because I fervently believe that mangoes taste like dishwater. However, when it's 2/3 sugar anything can happen. I think I'm going to puree some veggies and make veggie freezer jam. I bet my kids would eat it.

P.S. Laura, let's still have a jam making party. I'll be in charge of licking the spoon.

Last Day of School!!!

Well, our little EmJ is officially a second grader! Here she is making her last lunch of the school year...notice the mustard smile?! And, on the last day of school I had her wear the same outfit she wore on the first day, so I could scrapbook a "now and then" type page. (Sorry, I'm not motivated enough to find the first day of school pics, so all you get is Friday's photoshoot....I'm not sure what's up with the peace sign.)

Emmeline's most amazing acheivement this year...to me at least...has been learning how to read. I can't seem to get her to stop reading (making for some tired morning-afters), but if that's my biggest battle, then I really have no worries!

And, Father's Day!! We love Luke so much. Not enough to write something sappy or post a picture on the blog, of course...

Here is the top ten list that EmJ put together for Luke for Father's Day! We all concurred with her sentiments...

10. I love my Dad because he reads me...nothing. (Luke protests. "We've read The Boxcar Children seven times this year!)

9. I love my Dad because he helps me...learn.

8. I love my Dad when he makes me laugh by...saying Gina Bardoo. (Never a dull moment.)

7. I love my Dad because he taught me how to...do math. (This is actually true.)

6. I love to hear my Dad sing...something random. (He writes all his own songs. Most are about Gina Bardoo.)

5. I love my Dad because he finds time to...watch the ballgame. (Priorities.)

4. I know my Dad cares because he...loves me.

3. I know my Dad is smart because he...still goes to school. (I'm not so sure that attending (or rather attempting?) school is "smart" when you've got more than enough of a life, but it sure goes with our love of rice and beans.)

2. I love my Dad because he works hard at...work. (Notice she didn't say what kind of work or where...hmmm.)

1. I love my Dad because he is the BEST DAD EVER!!!

Motherhood Made Perfect

A quick head's up...

Besides being my best friend (which makes her awesome in and of itself), my friend Carly makes beautiful nursing covers! She has decided to start selling them to earn a little bit of money while she stays home with her little Cameron Rose!

Check out www.motherhoodmadeperfect.blogspot.com for yourself or for your next baby shower gift!

If you tell her I sent you maybe she'll make me a free one someday...

Marathon and other goodies...

Our strawberry patch has been providing us with a bowlful of strawberries for breakfast every day!

"Mom, we actually need a new sink now, it's my fault." (Willie)
"The bouncy ball is drowning, save it, save it!" (Benjamin)

Caterpillar torture has become part of the boys' daily routine.


Caterpillars were harmed in the making of this post. (And I never knew until just this moment that caterpillar is spelled with an "r". I thought it was catepillar. Dang, for years I've been wondering why I got cut from that 3rd grade spelling bee.)


And the marathon. I didn't actually run a marathon, nor do I have any desire to ever do so. But I did run a few support miles for my sister-in-law, Mari, last weekend. It's sort of well, not very funny, that my two sister-in-laws held up better than I...one being 30 weeks pregnant, the other having already run 19 miles. Yikes, I'll stick to 5K races! But, like my father-in-law, I get a kick of being able to say, "I participated in a marathon," and let people draw their own conclusions.

Preschool Graduate

Joshua graduated from preschool today! Are you loving the purple and white...how many LW alum are reading the blog right now chanting "Kangaroo Power!"

Receiving his diploma from Miss Vicki. Luke says, "That lady looks the same as she did twenty years ago." Seriously. She's ageless. But, she will be retiring in two years *wipe a tear* just after Benjamin gets to be in her class *yipee*!

Josh and Josh.
When we went for preschool orientation, Joshua (who goes by "Willie" most of the time) insisted that his name was just Josh. Okay. When I go to pick him up, if I ask for Joshua I get funny looks. "Oh, you mean Josh!"
Good thing for "Josh" there was a teacher helper "Josh" as well. They are good buddies...the big Josh even taught my Josh(ua) a super cool manly handshake that I am not permitted to participate in.



The Grandma's came to witness Joshua's "one moment in time"...and started reminiscing about mine and Luke's preschool graduations.

And, one final picture for the scrapbook! Goodbye preschool!

I am sooooooo excited for Kindergarten! (That was Willie speaking, I mean Joshua, I mean Josh...)

Strawberries

You have to agree, that looks pretty tasty. And I grew it all by myself!

Draino vs. The Shamwow

Draino is Victorious