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.

My Superheroes

This year the kids all wanted to be superheroes. Mia spearheaded it; she wanted to be pink supergirl. She's planning her birthday party to be pink supergirl already. So Cailey then became the traditional supergirl. Luke is going as Batman and David going as the Joker. Today Lukey whispered menacingly, "My daddy is....the JOKER!"

Today I took some pictures in the yard and tonight we went to Living History Farms family Halloween event. Wow, it was busy. It is well-organized though, so all the people aren't a problem. The kids trick or treat in town, then we rode a horse-drawn wagon, then roasted marshmallows, and listened to a storyteller in the barn. Luke had a blast making mean faces and acting like a superhero; he really gets into the role! The girls enjoyed spending time with Keegan. It was a nice night.

Fall news

Well, every September my photo album, journal entries, and now, blog, get kind of skimpy. It is just so busy.

I've been having a great year at school. I have some of the best kids in years. We are able to do some neat things like blogging and participating in a national penpal cultural awareness project. My students are really enjoying it and so am I. We even had a front page story (that continued to an inside page!) about our blog project. That was really exciting.

The kids are good. Lukey is starting to talk about preschool more, mostly about "Miss Jessica" and "Miss Bessany." Luke hasn't mastered "th" yet, so it is really cute to hear him talk about Miss Bethany. Apparently their first project of the year was "chairs" and Luke should be bringing home a chair project. I'm not sure what to expect. I didn't know they taught shop in preschool! But their project this week was robots and next week it is pumpkins. Luke tends to spend his time in the kitchen center or playing with the toy garage, trucks, and trains.

He's pretty funny. The other day I came home and the first thing he said was, "Mom I want to talk to you a minute." I was hoping to be told he pooped in the potty, but no, he just told me he wanted more Skittles.

This morning David put him in bed with me when he went to go take a shower. I woke up with Luke bear-hugging my back and drawing on it with his finger. He was grinning when I looked at him. It's nice when they are so happy.

Cailey and Mia haven't been so busy with homework this year! Yeah! That means more time to learn the way we want to, reading what we want to. We are reading the Little House books. We've read Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prarie, and are almost done with By the Banks of Plum Creek. It has been really enjoyable reading these to them. I'm picturing a nice little "Little House" road trip visiting Laura Ingalls Wilder sites sometime.

Mia even wrote about it today. In social studies they read a book about passing down culture, traditions, etc. So Mia wrote that I passed down my Cabbage Patch doll to her and passed down reading the Little House books. That was pretty cool.

Cailey has had a fun fall finding caterpillars, leaves, etc. Everyday she tells me what she found at recess. She and Mia also like showing me the new tricks they figured out on the bars at recess. Now that brings back memories!

The tooth fairy has now visited our house a total of 10 times, 5 for each girl. Mia is working on her 6th. The girls have quite a stash of tooth fairy money. Mia has a penchant for Bratz dolls these days. I'm not thrilled, but some of them are ok, so I steer her toward the cuter ones and away from the trashier ones. Also, Mia tends to gravitate toward pricier items. I have to laugh because Mia always wants the $30 playset and Cailey wants a $4 plastic animal. Cailey never minds though.

Tonight the topic of money came up. We were singing some Annie songs and Mia wanted to know why they were trying to kidnap Annie. Cailey explained they wanted money. Mia pipes up, "Why do they wanna be rich? Money doesn't matter... unless you're poor." It was interesting to hear her perspective. Basically we ended up talking about how we have food and a house, so we aren't poor. So there's hope for my little material girl.

I've enjoyed watching the gas prices go down. Unfortunately it appears house values have gone down too. Houses like mine are listed for what we purchased it for 6 years ago, about $30,000 less than what they were going for not to0 long ago. The economy is scary. I have hope though. I really feel that if Obama wins that hope will begin to restore the economy. Much of the economy is just based on faith anyway. I always think of the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."

David and I have cringed while watching Palin give answers to interviews that wouldn't win her Miss America, let alone VP. I had seen the actual interview but David had only seen the SNL version. When I pulled the original up on YouTube, David was shocked it really was that bad. It might be funny if it wasn't so scary.

We went to the Howell Tree Farm last weekend. Totally beautiful weather. We spent the whole day there and we all had a nice time. Jaren got to go for the first time and seemed to enjoy being outside and taking it all in. Above is a scrapbook page my mom did.

We are now gearing up for Halloween. The kids got their pumpkins and then helped David get decorations out. They've got their costumes and are all superheroes this year. Cailey is Supergirl, Mia is Pink Supergirl, Luke is Batman, and David is the Joker. He'd like to see me in a Batgirl costume, but we'll see.

Back to School

Well, it's back to school. Cailey really loved her teacher from the beginning. She's very soft-spoken and gentle. She likes birds and rock climbing, so she's a nature lover like Cailey.

Mia's teacher is really good, though Mia's not quite as attached to her yet. I've been in her class before doing a reading practicum and was impressed by how well her classroom was organized and how the children were busy working. Mia will learn a lot.

Sadly, the girls aren't with their friends from last year. Their best friend moved over the summer. Cailey has a lot of boys in her class that she knows, and that's not a problem for her. Poor Mia has only 5 or so girls and 15+ boys, but one of the girls lives on the street behind us so hopefully she's nice and they can be friends.

This summer the kids in the neighborhood started playing. The other night the kids on the cul de sac called the girls down. They played there for an hour and a half and when I went to get the girls, they came up with us and played for an hour. It was just the perfect night, as Luke was at my mom's and I had the house to my self for an hour. Also the weather was perfect and having the kids run around the neighborhood brought back great childhood memories of doing just that. I worked with David on the rest of the treehouse while the kids played and life was just perfect that night. I'm glad the kids in the neighborhood are becoming friends.

Lukey is at school now. Last week his teacher visited our house. He was super excited and wanted to know where his other "friends" were. He thought they were coming to our house. He brought out several toys to show his teacher and asked her to come back again!

Then we had an hour-long orientation type session. Lukey didn't cling to us or anything, he just went off across the room and played. He was such a good boy; he would touch something and look around like, "Is it ok to play with this?" and when no one said anything he'd start to play. One little boy is kind of all over and grabby and Luke didn't quite know what to make of him. The boy started gnawing on some plastic food Luke was setting on the table. When the boy left Luke picked it up and wiped it off. You could just tell in his head he was trying to figure out why in the world that boy would do something so gross!

Then on his first official day, Grandma had to take a detour due to some road work, and Luke got kind of upset thinking Grandma wasn't taking him to school. They got to school early and he didn't want to sit in the car and wait, he just had to get to school.

I also am having a nice start to the school year. I have very nice kids for the first time in several years. Just as an example of how great these kids are, today we used some books and without me telling them they ALL were put back on the shelf, neatly too. That sounds minor, but the last several years I've had classes that wouldn't do that even IF I told them. It is just fabulous. We also have new administrators who are working to get discipline back in our school. YAY!!!

Also, Happy Birthday, Luke!

Nim's Island

We rented Nim's Island for our family to watch tonight. It was a good movie, though sometimes required a little explanation as several scenes are part of the characters' imaginations. It is a little Swiss Family Robinson, Indiana Jones, Dr. Doolittle, wrapped up in a kid-flick. We all enjoyed it.

Mia though, is bewildered. "WHY would anybody GO there?!? That's like a place where you could DIE!"

All throughout the movie she kept commenting, "She shouldn't have done that! She should tell her dad!"

Guess she's not my adventurer. Cailey, of course, had no problem with it.

Hannah Montana Camp

Well, like I mentioned, July flew by. We finished out the month going to Hannah Montana camp at a local dance studio. The girls made microphones, a frame, and did a photoshoot wearing the Hannah wig. The letter that went home said they'd be wearing a "little" makeup. Well, if that was little, I'd hate to see a "lot." As I told them, it was definitely stage make up! But as you can see from their smiles, they felt beautiful!

Their performance at the Fair today included singing to one song and then dancing to another. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Mia did. She looked pretty confident. Cailey also loosened up more as well, though she'll tell you soccer is more her thing.

Here is a video of their "sneak peek" at the studio I took with my Flip camera. Mia's in yellow and Cailey is in the front in pink. I'll have to finish my disc on the Canon before I can post the one from the Fair today.

Two little girls from the neighborhood were also in the class. The girls played outside for several hours with one of them other night. It was nice to see and reminded me of playing with my neighborhood friends growing up.

Lukey's Summer Activities

Lukey's summer was somewhat less eventful. Used the potty. Played trains. Played cars. Bothered his sisters. Read books. Rode in the van. Watched his sister's perform.



Each day as we drove by his preschool he'd beg me to take him to school. It was hard explaining the concept of summer vacation and that school wouldn't start for several weeks to a child who has no concept of the calender year.



Day after day he'd beg and cry to go. (Didn't help of course that we were driving by it around naptime each day.) Finally I told him his teacher wasn't there and that she was at home with her kids like I was home with him. That seemed to work; though he now keeps asking me if his teacher is still home with her kids. He's excited and ready.



Luke wakes me up each day about 7:30. Usually he wakes my by telling me he's hungry, though he actually doesn't have an appetite until 9:00. But he insists on being fed though it is always thrown away. Then I feed him at 9:00 and he eats. I learned to put a tiny amount of food in the first bowl.



Anyway, some days though, he wakes me up without asking for food. Sometimes he would just "pet" my arm for awhile. One day though, I will always remember, he was just giggling up a storm and "tickling" me, rolling all over me and laughing his head off. It was the most memorable wake-up ever. I told him I liked that and that he'd have to wake me up that way again, but he hasn't.



Luke's favorite things to day these days are, "Okay, okay, okay" when he's giving in to a demand (or giving up on one of his!). Another favorite phrase is, "You can.... if you want to." He uses that to convince you to do something he wants. Quite the tactic, making you think it's your decision. He uses this a lot at night when he wants me to lay down with him. "Mom, you can lay here. I've got a pillow for you. You can lay down if you want to. Here, go ahead." That's another one of his sayings, "Here, go ahead." And when you pause to contemplate it he'll add, "C'mon, just do it" like he knows you really want to. Uncle Mike said he should have Luke answer his calls because he might make more sales. Quite the little negotiator. True, it can be cute, but also having your two year old try and negotiate with you constantly is quite tiring, another real reason I didn't post much in July. It's one of those personality traits that will benefit him in the long run, but has it's drawbacks as a two-year-old. Grandma says he's just like his daddy like that; she said he always had to have the last word too.

Girls' Summer Activities

Wow. I didn't post at all last month. Let me try to catch up.

Cailey participated in the Circus Extravaganza camp at the Playhouse. Her age group was learning about being clowns. To make it extra fun, the teachers dressed as clowns each day. They learned about stage fighting, pretending to stomp on each other's feet, throw punches, and duel with balloon swords. They designed their own clown face on a sheet of paper and the teachers painted it on for them. They made cute little hats and a variety of other props. They sang a clown song and played with a parachute. They told jokes. They had to look through their closets and find articles to make a clown costume out of. Cailey picked a lime and hot pink paisley and polka dot set with heart applique jeans I had made for last Valentine's day because those were the same colors and similar style to her teacher's outfit. The camp was a great chance for Cailey to get to use her creativity. At the end of the week the groups all got together to put on a circus for family and friends. This clip below is just a portion of the circus, with Cailey's group doing the parachute.

A couple weeks later Mia did Broadway Babies camp. They learned 3 songs and choreography. Wow, the sound these kids produced was great! At the end of the week they also got to perform for a packed audience of family and friends.

Click on the video and you will hear "Oh the Thinks You Can Think" from Seussical, followed by "Different" from Honk!, and then, "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" from Annie.

Then they went on vacation with Grandma and Grandpa to South Dakota. As Cailey put it, "We learned a LOT on our trip!" During the week they visited a live archaeological dig where they learned about mammoths. They learned the presidents that are on Mt. Rushmore. They climbed rocks in the Badlands and artistically drew pictures in their sketch journals of the rock formations they saw. They became Junior Park Rangers, which involved taking a test and an oath, so it was very official! They "froze" in Jewel Cave and were active participants in the tour, asking questions. The got to drive through the wildlife loop at Custer and through Bear Country and saw lots of cool animals. Basically it was a more educational than a year's worth of science and geography class!

Of course, any trip with would be incomplete without souvenirs. The girls added to their plastic animal / toy stash. When they came home Cailey spent a lot of time setting up a "museum" with them and then ceremoniously admitting us to it.

The following night they used their new knowledge and skills as Junior Park Rangers to take us on a tour of the "cave" they made in their room. With all the skills of a tour guide, flashlights in hand, we were led around their room as they pointed out the variety of wildlife inhabiting their "cave." Cute little touches included tiny lizards peeking out here and there, and a story accompanied each bat.

The highlight of the trip was surely the hotel swimming pool though! They did a lot of swimming! According to them, this trip was better than New York City, and even Iowa City.

Meeting Jaren

We took the kids up today. They had excited grins on their faces going in and seeing grandma holding him. Then Aunt Sarah changed his diaper and their expressions changed to total awe and adoration. Later Mia held Jaren and was staring intently at him for the longest time. Later she asked if she could hold him again. She just kept saying, "He's so cute." Cailey sat by me and watched him for awhile, but was hesitant to hold him. I don't blame her; he seems so small. Since Jaren was sleeping Lukey wasn't too interested after the diaper change. I was glad he didn't seem to be jealous at all. I know mom got some great pictures of them looking at Jaren, so I'll have to put on on later.

New Cousin!

I got to meet my new nephew today. Jaren was born this morning. When I showed the kids a picture I took, the girls said, "Awwww," and Lukey said, "Awww. That's my baby Jaren. He's sleeping. He's sleeping in his room." Jaren was wide awake at first taking it all in looking intently at his mom and dad. The kids will go up tomorrow to see him. They can't wait! Grandma took these pictures and created the scrapbook layouts.