When You Dream, Dream Big

That's a quote from Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Bands song.

Here is a quote from Maddie, "When I grow up I want to paint roads. Not really the lines, the arrows. The lines go everywhere." Almost as an afterthought, "Plus I might get squished by a car."

Then Brian explained they paint things differently here in Singapore rather than in Utah. Here it is by hand run machine applying a thick plastic strip. In Utah they use "a paint machine and spray a sparkly dust on top to dry it quickly." I'm 99% sure he just cemented her future. Telling a girly artist that career choice involves spraying "SPARKLY DUST." What was he thinking? Kiss college goodbye.

Lego Man

Jake has been really into Legos lately. Big duplos and the small ones too. He can play for hours and is getting quite good at making great creations now. This one is a horse trailer with a horse living inside.

Watermelon

Ashlyn had fun playing ball on Saturday. Then she really had a great time discovering watermelon after t-ball. She ate a bunch and got super sticky!

Lentils

My kids would eat a lot more lentils if this is what I bought for them. Some things are just different here like food labels. I never expected to see candy coated chocolates marked as "lentils."

Angry Bird Cake Pops

Happy birthday Ben!! Brian was a huge help making this dream a reality. Still not sure how to keep some from falling off the sticks but we are getting better.

We made Angry Bird cake pops for his class treat tomorrow. The head spike is a quartered Oreo cookie, beak a quartered candy melt disc and I bought candy eyes. They look awesome for home made!

We love you Ben!!

Growing Like A Weed

Maddie told me on Thursday, "Mom, I am really growing fast since Tuesday." I smiled and questioned how she knew it was happening THIS week. "Well, on Tuesday my backpack was hitting against the back of my knees when I walked but now it's hitting my butt."

Then I told her I tightened her straps.

Our Growing Trophy Collection

Jake was so upset that only cub scouts got a trophy at the pinewood derby. The patch and ribbon I provided siblings didn't cut it for him. He was ready to cry so I told him that he would get a trophy for playing t-ball in a few weeks. I hate all the silly trophies we are accumulating in our house and I think in general so does Brian.

Brian had a work team building dinner and bowling last night. When he came to bed after 10:00 I asked how it went. He proudly told me he won the game. And he got a trophy. Yippee kio kia. More trophies for the house. I think maybe that one should be proudly displayed at work.

Phishing but Not Catching Anything

I don't read many of the phishing attempts that come through my inbox but I caught this one.

"Your friend Jamie (Jamie's supposed email address) wants you to watch this Dr.Oz video on weightloss: (link to site)"

Seriously? First I don't think I currently have a friend named Jamie. Second, if I did, I think I'd be plum offended if she out of the blue started sending me email links on how to lose weight. This spammer has really gotta up their game if they ever wanna screw people up.

Ashlyn's First Whale Spout

Today was the big day. Maddie was home from school sick so when we finally got around to doing her hair around 10:00 I had no distractions and all the hair fixing gear. Ashlyn got her first whale spout. It was the thinnest little spout I ever did see but sort of have me hope that some day maybe we can actually do something with her.

Calendaring

When you get a beautiful day like this first picture, doesn't it seem to end up like the second one?

Good Day for Mom

Today I did not submit insurance claims.

I did not attach the mountain of mess in the office.

 

Instead I went to yoga. Came home and played with Ashlyn for about two hours and had her giggling and read her a book or two and played quiz games about her feet and nose and ears and such. She's such a delightful smiley little bundle of happiness.

I repaired a high heel shoe at school with masking tape when the entire bottom came unglued then went to lunch in the cafeteria with my style conscious Madison Mae.

Went to recess and played basketball with Maddie and her cute little girl friends.

Walked her to music class where I joined Ben in his lunchroom. He told me about his day and explained what kind of cards the boys were trading at the lunch tables. Then I arm wrestled some darn strong third grade boys.

Visited Ben's art room to see his cool bowl project he's been working on for a while and telling me all about so I could tell it was a big deal. It really does look awesome.

Then I told him I could play tag with him at recess because I played basketball with Maddie and he laughed at me. Silly Mom, he doesn't play tag anymore, that's so last month. He practices soccer by kicking a ball against the kindergarten wall. Since I only had flip flops on today, we settled for a game of ping pong in the Intermediate School Lobby. Someone came by near the end of recess and asked who was winning...we both laughed, "We don't know!" We hadn't even thought to keep score. We were having such a great time.

When the bell rang he went off to art class to finish his African bowl and I headed home. Jake arrived shortly after my return from a play date with his best buddy. The mom warned me he was getting cranky and just wanted to lay on the couch. She said he reported about school, "I had a good day at the start, but then it got bad at the end part."

So I cuddled my little boy who is not so little anymore and asked him about his day. The first part was good, but then Kaiden called him "stinky" and the day was bad after that. His lip puckered out and his head sunk down as his shoulders did his classic sad posture. I assured him that he wasn't stinky and that I loved him lots and lots. Keeping his body slumped in the deflated position he looked up at me, thoughtfully, over the rim of his glasses and after a minute he asked, "Do you love all of me, even every single one of my teeth?" Then the smile broke through.

I tickled his tummy and we counted every single one of his teeth to which he proclaimed, "That's a lot of teeth! You love me a lot!"

Then I took my cute little man upstairs and snuggled him on the futon couch while he drifted off to sleep to rest his body so he wouldn't be sad anymore. And I drifted off too for about ten minutes of a power nap.

Not so very long later it was time for a surprisingly pleasant day of homework with Ben at the kitchen table, then pickup Madison from swimming and hear all about how tiring it is to swim from one side of the pool all the way to the other side. We got her a snack and headed to her second violin lesson.

Violin I thought went well, but she said it was worse than last week because the teacher made her work. Go figure. She's seeming to enjoy it most of the time though so I'm not worried.

After dinner everyone changed into pajamas and brushed their teeth and came to family scripture time and prayers and then even tidied up the play room without a single tear.

Oh yeah, Brian is good too. He helped the kids put the wheels on their pinewood derby cars and held down the fort while I was at violin and tutored the neighbor in chemistry for a test tomorrow and got the kids dressed this morning and breakfast. Super dad is now, at 10pm, prepping for a birthday party magic show he donated to the school auction for the PTA.

It was a great day today with my cute family. So grateful they are mine. Each one is such a blessing and a joy.

General Conference Conversations

Today on the drive home from church I made the announcement that we would have lunch, for those not fasting, then an hour to play. After the play time we'd start listening to the first session of LDS General Conference because we will be at the Pinewood Derby during the time we normally should be listening. I was blown away when Ben and Maddie both gave an energetic "Okay!" I was so taken back, I asked Ben why he was so happy. His reply surprised me, "I'm trying to have a better attitude about stuff." Awesome!!

Then silly mom fell asleep and slept almost three long, wonderful hours so our schedule was shifted a bit (thank you baby Ashlyn and her teething for the exhaustion). We ended up eating dinner and while we waited for the computer to reboot I asked Maddie, the musical talent in the group, if some day she would like to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She asked if they always get to wear purple. Brian and I told her sometimes they wear white clothes, sometimes red clothes, sometimes black clothes whereon everyone chimed in with colors they may all wear. Jacob said, "And sometimes they wear see-thru clothes." I heard it but didn't process his comment until Brian got my attenttion and asked if I had heard him. Hilarious!

Farewell Snickers

Today is April Fools Day so when I picked up Jacob from preschool I asked his teacher if they had done anything fun to celebrate it. Nope. They did something else. Their classroom pet, Snickers the Guinea Pig, passed away Saturday night. Ms. Jennifer and her three children came up to school and buried him in a quiet spot Sunday afternoon.

During class today they read a story about a dog that gets old and his body is tired and he dies. Then the children gathered leave and little flowers from the school grounds nearby and took them and decorated his grave. Jacob was fine when I picked him up until I asked the question of his teacher and he was reminded of poor Snickers. He asked Jennifer to show him how to find it so he could show me.

We went out and he showed me and burst into sobs. Poor Jacob was so terribly sad. I did my best to give him hugs and reassure him it would be okay while juggling shoeless Ashlyn who wanted to attack the flowers on the grave and walk all over it. I wish there was something I could do to make it better. I know it's hard for kids. Ben still sobs over each fish he loses.

Good call by Ms. Jennifer not to do April Fools on a day like today. It would just be way too confusing.

April Fools Intermediate School!

Today after Jacob got on the bus I had to deliver a cub scout badge to one of my bears. That meant I was wandering around the intermediate school as the morning announcements were being broadcast. The started out with an energetic welcome back from spring break and an announcement that there would be no homework today as the kids eased back into school again.

 

Cheers of jubilation were heard ripping through every one of the 13 classrooms on all three levels of the school. I heard their excitement as I was crossing the open air space with all the doors facing me. I thought it was a bit of weakling move by the school, but at least I wouldn’t have to arm wrestle Ben over rechecking the answers on his math assignments tonight.

 

I found Gabriel and as I left I heard the final announcement of the day. April Fools!! What did you think? You silly students, that no homework thing was a joke. There was no cheers over that message, but I was laughing out in the hallways.  Well played, Administrators. You got me too.