Mia's soccer game

So while Cailey was avoiding stepping on a toad, Mia actually played one of her best games ever. She was really paying attention to the game and strategizing. She decided to plant herself in front of the goal a few times and blocked numerous shots. I was quite proud! Go Mia! However, this might be her last soccer season, as she keeps telling me I MADE her play this year. Totally not the truth, in fact, knowing her past attitude toward soccer, and NOT wanting to waste the $85, I tried to persuade her not to play, but that's not how she remembers it. Anyway, she has informed me that now she wants to do "finger skating," referring to figure skating. There is a camp at the end of August, so maybe we'll try it.

Mia's letters

Mia's teacher is letting them finish out the year writing letters to each other. During center time they get to use envelopes (which are all properly addressed-I'm impressed!) and stationery to write to each other.

I was a little worried the first day when Mia said she didn't get any letters, but today she got something like 6 or 7.

The letters are very cute, telling Mia she is a great writer, "you hardly ever tok", that she's the nicest girl, etc.

Mia did tell me that they aren't allowed to write "boyfriend girlfriend things," but that a boy does like her. His name is Malachi and that when his friend told Mia that Malachi likes her, Malachi chased him around the playground.

Mia didn't really seem interested, just kind of nonchalant, in Mia's matter-of-fact way. I hope she keeps that attitude for a long time!

Luke can read!

I am super excited and proud. Luke learned all of his letters and sounds within a few days after watching The Letter Factory video. So we moved on to the Word Factory video, and wow!

Luke can do a super job blending cvc sounds/letters into words! He can both read ones and make ones.

At this point he is way ahead of where the girls even were, so I'm feeling better about sending him to kindergarten when he'll still just be 4 when school starts.

However, it means he'll barely be 13 when he goes to high school and 16 when he's a senior, and 17 when he goes to college! :( So we'll see.

Hoppy

My children had a pet toad for about an hour Sunday. During the soccer game we suddenly realized Cailey was standing in the middle of the field looking around down by her feet. We hollered at her and got her moving a little, but then she'd be looking by her feet again, even as her team was down on the other end by the goal. This went on for quite a while. We finally asked her what she was looking for. She had seen a toad while playing and was concerned that she would step on it.

Cailey later told me she had decided to avoid this one section all together so she wouldn't accidentally step on him. I had seen her run down the field, stop at the center field line, walk straight down it, and down the sideline at one point.

Towards the end of the game, after she had been benched (not really), she did find the toad. With the help of her coach she gathered him up and brought him over. She had every intention of taking him home and keeping him as a pet. Grandpa cut the top off of a water bottle for his transportation.

As we left, in her sweet Cailey voice, she was holding the bottle towards the creek near the soccer field telling her toad (Hoppy) to "say bye-bye!"

Going home we talked about wanting the best for Hoppy and decided to let him go at the pond by our house. So when we got there we went down to the edge of the pond and told him good-bye. Everytime we pass now, we say "Hi" to Hoppy.

Cailey's Books

Cailey recently read her first chapter book. She was talking about a classmate who was reading "chapter books" and she wanted to also. We went looking and found the "Puppy Place" series. It was cute watching her read it. On the way home she read the first chapter in the van, apparently not inheriting my motion sickness. Then she was walking around Grandma O's yard reading while she walked. She did a great job!

Luke's View of Fetal Development

Luke is waiting for chicks to hatch at preschool. He's very excited. He also has a baby cousin in Aunt Sarah's tummy that he's waiting to "crack open." He's seen pictures of them in side their respective "eggs." He thinks they are an octopus now, "but it will turn to a baby (or a chick)."

Luke's Temper Tantrums

Luke has been a little frustrated by our household rules lately. You know, unreasonable things like, "Don't spit on your sister!"

He's had several time-outs lately. Boy do those make him mad! He doesn't love us, nobody loves him, he's going to live with grandma, he hates our house because it is BROWN....!

That last one made us laugh.

When They Grow Up

The girls are trying to figure out their future together. They asked me if they could live together and I told them sure. Their tentative plan is Mia will have kids and Cailey will help take care of them, but they are trying to figure out how to get the kids in the picture and where a husband would fit in with their family.

Mia asked if she HAD to have a husband to have kids. I told her that was the best plan. So then the other night Cailey thought she could be the kids' step-mom. Mia, using her know-it-all voice, told Cailey that would mean Mia and her husband got divorced, but that Cailey could be the aunt.

Then they wanted to know if a husband could have two wives. Again, I had to break the news that that wouldn't be a suitable arrangement. Seriously, you'd think I was bringing them up in some polygamist compound!

The Post Office

Luke's class walked 5 blocks to the post office at Cap Square. They had been learning about the mail and had "written" letters to us and were going to mail them. The concept was apparently difficult to grasp as many of the kids broke down as their letters were about to go into the mailbox. Also, Luke was very upset because his letter was intended for Daddy and he had to have a Disney Princess stamp. He kept talking about wanting a BOY stamp!! A full blown temper tantrum ensued, with Luke sitting down in the revolving door. He wasn't the only one though, from what Grandma reported.

Luke's teachers report that he still loves building blocks with his friend Sam. When asked to come do an assessment, he balked, until the teacher told him he could use blocks for it. Then he was kind of like, "Okay, lets get this over with" and quickly demonstrated the skills (patterning and counting) so he could get back to his blocks.

Today I sat down to play the Letter Factory game with him and was super pleased and a little shocked to find he knew the sounds to at least 3/4 or more of the letters. He is getting to where he can write L, upside down u, and some lines that will become the k and e in his name!

Farmers

The other day as we drove home from school the girls were talking about being farmers. Cailey decided she was going to be a farmer and Mia decided to join her. They talked about it all the way home. Daddy was going to build them a barn, just like he built their treehouse. I explained that Daddy bought the treehouse as a kit with all the parts cut and ready to go with directions. They thought they could find a barn kit.

At dinner they brought it up again. We were talking about jobs that need a college degree. Cailey thought farming wouldn't need college. We explained that some people did go to college to learn about farming. I also pointed out that since she didn't grow up on a family farm to learn the business that way, she'd need to go to college to learn about it.

David explained learning about how to prepare soil and talked about planting seeds, etc. Then Cailey exclaimed, "I don't want to GROW food. I don't even like that kind of food. Corn... yuck!"
I think Mia piped up that they could grow chickens for chicken nuggets, but then they decided they would just buy their food at the store.

As it turned out, they didn't really want to be farmers, just live on some big open land somewhere and have lots of animals. BUT NOT PIGS! They did not want pigs.

Winter Update

Ok, it is total laziness not to rotate these pictures, but oh well. Christmas came and the kids were very happy. Cailey got her stable she wanted last year for her animal collection, which she continues to add to. Mia got her Kaya American Girl doll. They also got the girl of the year doll, Mia, who they call Tori. They enjoy dressing them up and listening to their stories. I like the lessons about life taught in those books. Lukey got a train table and cars, and Power Ranger he was wanting.

Over Christmas break, the girls got glasses. I had suspected they weren't seeing too well, then at Disney on Ice at Thanksgiving I was quizzing Mia on what some signs said at Wells Fargo and she couldn't see some of the really big letters. Turns out Cailey is at a 1 and Mia is at a 4. I am at 8.5, for comparison. The doctor got a kick out of the girls during their exam. They were getting up out of the chair to try and get closer to the chart, covering the wrong eye to favor the stronger eye, etc. They were pretty funny.

Lukey seems to have warmed up to preschool more and sometimes will tell me about school. They went into the nature section one day and he came home and excitedly told me about the dead badger he saw. Boy did that "dead badger" make an impression on him.

He drew his first real picture at school recently. He had this ghost shape with a little rectangle coming off of it. It was him dressed as a ghost under his blanket with the wind blowing his "taggie." They were doing a unit on weather.

He was very excited at the Tet celebration to see the dragon dance. He was standing on his chair calling to grandma to watch.

He continues to be the flatterer, telling me, "I love you mommy. You're pretty." That is, when he's not telling me he doesn't like me and that I'm "mean."

Cailey will be going to the ear doctor in a couple weeks to talk about getting tubes. She hasn't heard well since at least Christmas. She had wax and an ear infection, so we did a round of antibiotics. She still was blasting the tv and music so I took her back in. She went another round of antibiotics and we added a decongestant. No success.

Mia likes to make doll clothes these days and dress her dolls. While shopping recently she spotted some crocodile high heels she wanted and a pink Coach or Gucci purse. That girl has expensive taste!

I definitely need to write more often so I don't forget all the cute things they all say or do. This blog is a little boring when it is just a summary.