A New Way to Communicate

We have been working with Cade on spelling words and reading. And he is starting to pick up on quite a bit.

One day Cade got in trouble because I caught him hitting Jack with a small block of wood. Lest you think our house is violent, it was a very soft hit on the arm. And Jack didn't even wince. Anyway, I made Cade sit in his room while I thought about whether I should spank him (lying and hitting usually results in a spanking at our house). While contemplating his sin, Cade wrote the following to me. In Cadeland, one reads from left to right, bottom to top. See if you can read what he was trying to communicate (the heart is just for decoration; and the answer is below the picture):

I am sorry.

They CAN Get Along!

Here is proof that my kids can get along (when they choose to!) If you look closely, I believe you can see evidence of Claire crying right before the picture was taken. Jack was probably responsible for her sadness. Doesn't he look guilty? Cade, the ever-fantastic big brother, is trying to get Claire to be happy. I think he had retrieved Claire's Abby Cadabby doll for her because it always makes her smile.

Claire Bear a'Climbing

Claire is a busy busy little girl. She is constantly crawling, pulling up on things, trying to stand on things (including her brothers)... you get the idea. She is constantly on the move. I walked into her room where she was playing and caught this:

VBS

Volatile Bottles of Sewage? No.
Vintage Brown Socks? No.
Very Boisterous Sessions? Possibly.
Vacation Bible School? Definitely!

VBS, for the childrens ministry impaired, is a week-long program at churches throughout the summertime that consists of music, games, crafts, stories, snacks, and general craziness and chaos. This is our first foray into VBS; Cade is finally old enough to participate in our church's VBS program. And since our church provides childcare for VBS volunteers with young children not able to participate, I signed up to help!

This was the first day of VBS. And boy am I exhausted. I'm leading the 4th graders (mostly giggly girls; there's a small gaggle of boys) from activity to activity. Herding 30 nine year olds around (and trying to dodge 30 eight year olds at the same time without confusing the groups) is challenging. But it's fun! I can have conversations with these kids. Conversations that don't revolve around dirty diapers, Lightning McQueen, or apple juice. I even think a couple of the girls like me. One sweet little girl named Logan (yes, a girl named Logan) gave me a hug before she left. So cute!

Cade had a fantastic time at his first VBS. He's such a big boy now. It's fun to watch him hang out with his friends. He's grown up with these kids, and it's neat to know that none of them remember life without each other.

The B3

My Mom and I are in the process of selling off all of Dad's vintage music equipment. Their house was always like a keyboard musuem; Dad kept all the old relics of the 60s and 70s with absolutely no intention of ever parting with them. Several of these large and ugly pieces became albatrosses around my Mom's neck!

After hounding and begging my Dad to sell the equipment for years, my Mom sadly has the ability to do so now. One of Dad's prized pieces was his Hammond B3 organ. A guy who works for NASA is opening up a blues club at the beginning of next year in Clear Lake and is the proud new owner of Dad's B3.

Here is the website for the club and a little blurb about the new acquisition.

Locks

We have some new neighbors a few houses down. Young couple, probably mid 20s. And we found out that she is a kindergarten teacher at Cade's new school! So we were talking about this neat fact at dinner, and Scott was asking Cade if it would be cool if his teacher lived just down the street.

Cade's response: That would be cool. And if she has nice hair.

New Tricks

Claire is a busy busy busy little girl. She crawls all over the place and pulls up on anything that seems remotely stable. One of her favorite things to do is to walk behind a push toy. She thinks she is big stuff. And of course, she is.

In this first pic, she is giving us her squinty smile. Click on the image so you can see a bigger resolution and you'll find yourself grinning at just how darn cute this kid is.

It's been a long few weeks...

It's been quite a few long weeks for us. Scott's been uber-busy at work. And when Scott is really busy at work and working longer hours, that means it's long days for me. Long days turn into long weeks. Hopefully that should be ending soon.

These long weeks are pretty rough on me (cue the sad, poor-me violin solo now.) Now don't get me wrong. I love my kids. They are precious gifts from God. But three kids that are aged five and under is pretty exhausting. It's pretty much non-stop, someone always needing something, someone crying... from the time Jack trots into our room bright and early in the morning ("ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-time for breakfast, mommy!") until I threaten the boys at night to stay in bed. By 8:30 PM (when all the kids are in bed, if not asleep), I am ready and happy to collapse anywhere, including my apple juice-encrusted kitchen floor.

What gets me the most is the constant talking. The constant, ever-present, talking.

Mommy, watch this!
Mommy, can I watch a show?
Mommy, Cade took my Dinoco blue Lighting McQueen!
Mommy, can I watch a show?
Mommy, Claire is in my way.
Mommy, can I watch a show?
Mommy, why can't I have more apple juice?
Mommy, can I watch a show?
Mommy, Jack is throwing things. (side note: Jack throws things when he's happy
and when he's angry or frustrated.)

This morning, I could feel my patience wearing dangerously thin as I fielded all kinds of Mommy statements. requests and questions at breakfast. So I decided to design a scientific test: exactly how many times would I hear "Mommy" in the next ten minutes? If I kept track correctly, which I probably didn't since I was also doing 8 other things at the same time, I heard my name 33 times. That's 3.3 times per minute. It might not seem like such a large number when looking at it on a computer screen. But man. When it's all day, every day, it's a lot.

OK. I'm done having my self-pity party. Carry on with your day!

Congratulations, Scott!

Just had to brag on my awesome, stud-of-a-husband (yes, this is also the man that wore the princess earrings -- see this post). Scott got a promotion at work. Yea Scotty! We're proud of you!

Miss Claire's Very First Birthday Party

The day after Jack Jack's party, we had a celebration for Claire's first birthday. Very, very small affair.

Of course our little princess had to have a tiara. So i purchased a small set at Party City that had a tiara, a boa, and some clip-on earrings. The boa would have probably wrapped around Claire and frustrated her, and there was no way I was going to pinch her tiny ears with garish clip-on earrings. So the tiara made it's appearance at the party. The earrings also made an appearance, but you can see that a little later in this post.



Claire hadn't seen so many helium balloons before and she was absolutely smitten with them.




Enough being a princess. Time to go play tinker toys with the boys.



OK. So here is where the earrings make their appearance. Scott, ever the trooper, decided to try one on for size. The earring matched great with his camo shorts, but for some reason, Scott decided not to wear the earring for the rest of the party.




Once again, the cheap-o cake. At least this one has a little bit more decoration than Jack's cake!

Claire still isn't interested in table food. She is mesmerized watching us eat, but when we encourage her to try a bite, she turns her head in disgust. Surprisingly, she had this reaction with her cake too. I even tried putting a little taste of the icing on her lips, but she wasn't having it. Too bad for Claire. More cake for me.

Jack-a-Doodles' 3rd Birthday Party

We had Jack's 3rd birthday party a few weeks ago, and it was a lot of fun! It was a low-key affair: several friends at our house; cake; presents; general madness.


Here are some of the party revelers on top of Cade and Jack's bunk bed: from left to right, Marshall, Gage, Collin and Cade.




Scott being incredibly excited that I'm taking his picture.



Finishing up a delicious pizza dinner. Anxiously waiting for cake.


Alyssio and Diego, brothers with whom Cade and Jack go to school. Cade & Alyssio have been in the same class for the last 3 years, and they will both be going to kindergarten at Marion this fall!


Jack getting very excited about the imminent candle-blowing-out process and the subsequent pigging out on cake.


Just how cheap am I? I am so cheap that, when someone pushes our doorbell, I make our kids yell, "Ding dong!" And I also make my own birthday cakes. Now before you go begging me to make one for your kids' birthday, take a look at my fantastic creation. A Lightning McQueen candle and three already used candles. Ta-da!


Jack was SO incredibly excited about blowing out his candles. It was such a joy to see his face bubbling over with excitement at something so simple.




Jack was also very proud of himself that he was able to blow out all his candles. He was squealing and giggling by this point. Note: Jack had not ingested any sugar yet by this point in the party.

Claire wasn't too interested in the cake festivities, so she tooled around on her littler scooter (helped by MawMaw of course).


Ah. Present time. Of course Cade was involved with all the unwrapping of the presents. Jack didn't seem to mind.




You'd think that Jack had just unwrapped an alien or broccoli or something. A hush came over the tiny tot crowd as the Little Einsteins Rocket was unveiled.

Ye Olde Pond

We took another walk to the pond to see if we could feed the ducks. Again, no dice. But it was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed relaxing by the pond.


Miss Claire, with her cute hat on.



Scotty and the boys, watching the ducks and trying to coax them nearer.


Scotty and Cade, hanging.



Cade, completely relaxed.