Easter pictures

Sarah got ahold of our camera and changed the settings for us. Sweet child:) Paul said the flowers behind the children were beautiful though. I guess we'll just have to take his word for it.

4-H Winner

Eliza recently won first place in our county 4-H club for her radon poster. Have you had your home checked for radon?

Opening ceremonies

Here are my girls. This is Eliza's first year in fast pitch. Her first game is tomorrow morning. We look forward to watching her and her teammates walk around the bases all season. I do have confidence that if a pitch should cross the plate Eliza could hit it. I just don't have any confidence that the ball will actually reach the strike zone.

Sarah's team might actually win a game this year. Sarah is very aggressive when she plays. She likes to play, and she likes to play well.

Vocabulary

Luke has been catching us off guard lately. As most of you well know, he took his sweet time before speaking. At two and a half he was still grunting and pointing for what he wanted. His only word was "Mam." We were told by the speech therapist that with children's growth around age three, their brains grow rapidly and generally their speech improves as a result. This held true for Luke. This is what he surprised us with lately.

Upon entering his grandmother's home where a room had been painted that day he said, "Mom, it smells interesting in here."

After clearing his throat he pointed to it and said, "Mom, I have an injury."

"You have an injury?" I replied.

"Ya, an injury. Here," he said pointing again to his throat.

At school, Miss Nicole called on him to go to the letter wall to find the first letter of his name. 

He pointed to it and said, "L." 

"L is for what?" Miss Nicole asked.

Luke just looked at her pondering his reply.

"L is for Luke," she said. 

Then Luke finally responded. 

"L is for Luke Benjamin actually."

A Rare Finding

I caught one of those rare moments on "film" this week. Three out of four kids doing their chores dutifully. 

I had only asked Luke to remove the dry clothes from the dryer. He went above and beyond though. When I found him, he had already gotten a stool and removed some wet clothes from the washer. He even thought to remove the dryer lint and add a sheet of fabric softener. I know! I was in shock. I had to take pictures as proof.

This week Eliza's chore is to help prepare dinner.

Leah's chore is emptying the dishwasher. I love the person who invented this miraculous machine. By the way, Sarah had already done her chore. She had cleaned off and set the table for dinner. By the time I got out the camera, she was outside riding her bike.

What a boy! What a mother!

We did well tonight and had all the kids in bed by 8:15. A few moments ago, about 9:25, as I was finishing up my computer related activities, Sarah came into my office.

Sarah: Mom, Luke just sprayed me in the ear with a water bottle.

Me: He sprayed you in the ear? Weren't you sleeping?

Sarah: Yes.

Me: (Giggle. Smile.) Okay, come on, but try not to smile.

Sarah and I then hunted Luke down only to find him with the water bottle still in hand. I thought to myself, "I'll teach him a lesson." I grabbed the water bottle and sprayed him in the ear. Unfortunately I didn't consider that my aim is a bit better than his and my grip is stronger too. I also didn't notice that he had filled the bottle with hand soap as well. Wow, I'm a good mom! 

The poor boy started crying of course, and we went to the bathroom to rinse his ear out. It didn't occur to me that the faucet water might also be a little cool to put in his ear, so he cried more. After we dried him off, I reviewed the happenings with him.

Me: Luke, was it nice for mommy to spray your ear?

Luke: (still crying) Nooooo.

Me: Was it nice for you to spray sister in the ear when she was sleeping?

Luke: Nooooo.

Me: I'm sorry I sprayed you. Are you sorry for spraying sister in the ear?

Luke: Yes.

Me: I love you. Do you still love me? 

Luke: (still crying) Yes.

Drive-in

I finally talked Paul into going to a drive-in movie. We saw Monster vs. Aliens. Paul and I sat outside for a little while, but then it got too chilly even with a blanket. We sat squished behind the children in very awkward positions for the rest of the movie. Paul kept asking, "It's about making memories, right?" 

The movie was really funny by the way. I give it two thumbs up! 

(The pictures posted backwards again. Sorry. Just view them from the bottom up.)

Fun times!

Eliza and Sarah recently came home from their piano lessons with a paper that said, "Piano Musicale." I dutifully made the girls practice, and then the day arrived. I forced Eliza to change out of her boy shorts into something a little nicer, not a dress mind you, and then the entire family went to the "Musicale." At the beginning the teacher announced that there would be a recital at the end of May. "If there will be a recital in May, what are we attending now?" I thought to myself.  

The girls performed well and then we all enjoyed some refreshments. As we were finishing up, the mother of one of the other girls poked her head in the door and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Was I supposed to stay? Jenny said that parents weren't invited." The teacher avoided answering the question directly, but after being asked a second time, she answered, "Actually . . . no." NO!? I was a little embarrassed as I watched my husband and children wolf down cookies, chips and candy. Luckily for me, there was another family of six who also misunderstood, and they were wolfing down the goodies too. 

This photo is from our family party. Do you ever feel like your tired of the same old, same old, and you just don't want to prepare a meal. Well it hit me one Friday night. I decided that we would have finger foods for dinner and turn the night into a party. The kids really got into it. They helped wash and peel veggies, make Rotel & Velveeta cheese dip, and bake pizza bites. After we ate our finger foods we danced around the house and then had a Mario Cart tournament. Sweet!