Rain, Rain . . . Don't Bother Going Away!

Love them rain boots

I love the action shot Nathan got here!

Dancin' in the rain

Please note the garage door's nastiness. My next post will show it corrected, finally!

Truant

Is it still considered truant if the kids in question are being taken out of school by their parents? So far this school year, our kids have missed over three weeks of school. Not here a day, there a day, but two weeks here, another week there, and soon to be, another three weeks all over the place.

Good thing it's just preschool, right?

In the fall when Megan starts kindergarten, we won't be doing this. That is what we keep telling ourselves, anyway. We missed those first two weeks because I really missed my family in Texas, in particular, my sister. We went for two weeks, because one week just really isn't enough time to make the airfare worth it. Then, last week we went to Salt Lake City. I had a writing conference (which will be in a different post) in Provo and my in-laws were wonderful enough to host us until that started and saintly enough to watch my kids while I was at the conference. Now we will be heading back to Salt Lake for my sister in-law's wedding. It's Nathan's youngest sibling getting married and of course we have to be there. Plus, his other sister will have just had a baby--bonus!

So, pictures will be coming soon. Because I'm lazy like that. The camera is upstairs and I'm downstairs and I have to go get Megan from school (she actually attending this week!) in a few minutes.

Photo Shoot in Kirtland

I had the kids' pictures taken on Monday. I think they turned out really cute. Here are just a few.

(Obviously we need to discuss looking at the camera. Apparently, they understand that cameras have eyes and since all three have trouble making eye contact, it was similarly uncomfortable for them to look directly at the camera.)




Thank you, Katie! I love the pictures!

Brother and Sisters

Jeremy's preschool class does yoga once a week. I knew it was on the schedule for today, so when he got home I asked him, "Jeremy, did you do yoga today?" And he said, "Yes! Mom, this is tree pose!" So this picture is for Grandma Mary.

Blocks and trains are all the rage.


And we are slowly training Megan to smile without tilting her head in the
"Disney Princess Pose."

Emma is still at the age where we can't really get a good picture because she gets too excited, grabs the camera and squints as she yells "Cheese!"

Jeremy is now realizing he is the protector of his sisters. This was the best picture of Emma, but Jeremy was starting to walk away so he could see the last picture I took. Dang digital technology. When I was his age, we not only had no idea if the picture turned out or not, we didn't know if we'd lose the film before we could develop it.

Mothering Internships

I think motherhood should require an internship. For the sanity of the mother and the safety of her future children it should be a requirement before a woman becomes pregnant. And why not? The democrats are already on their way to making life how it is in Lois Lowery's The Giver, so they should be able to manage a motherhood internship soon.

There are internships for most other jobs/careers, or at least a learning period where someone takes you by the hand and shows you what your job entails. Before you teach, you student teach. Before you are left on the sales floor, you shadow someone. Before you get your own medical practice you work with other doctors, learning at their side what the daily grind will be like.

Why wasn't I offered an motherhood internship? I babysat a lot as a preteen and teenager and even did what I would almost consider being a nanny one summer since I was there from sun up past sun down and was expected to teach them Japanese (a language I don't even speak). But still, watching someone's kid for a couple hours, or watching a movie in their house while their kids sleep, or even carting their kids around for a few days a week one summer doesn't compare to actually taking care of with children 24/7 for years.

Maybe we could go with some kind of simulation, like with those video games that make you feel like you're actually in the game. We could create a simulator that makes you feel like you're so tired you could collapse, but have to make oatmeal for three kids who don't want it, get it on their school clothes, and then all over the table, chairs, and floor. Then there could be another one where you are in a relay race to get the kids to school, dance lessons, swimming lessons, and back home in time to make dinner with only two-thirds of the ingredients you need. Is it possible for the simulation to start off making you feel like you've gone through five years of sleep deprivation? I think it should. It would make the whole thing more realistic.

Is it possible to simulate love?

I doubt it. Not love like this.

Life as Labeled

Book Worm

Mischievous

Sweet

Festive

Big Girl

Curious
(This label requires a bit of explanation. Megan's preschool talked about jobs a couple weeks ago and ever since she's talked about going to a florist and asking a florist questions. Today I took her and the florist was awesome. He answered her questions, showed her his favorite flower and gave all the kids a free carnation.)

Happy

Enjoying nature (even Jeremy, not sure what was up when I took this one.)

How to Get Rid of Whinniness

On Friday my dad and I wanted to take the kids to the Kemah Boardwalk. We knew there were rides there and we thought the kids would like them. Plus, it's fun to just be near the water and see the houses on stilts.

When we got there and discovered that the cheapest ride was $3 per person, we ditched the ride idea and started walking around wondering what we were going to do with a couple of whinny kids who were begging for rides we couldn't afford.

Hip hip hurray! We found little fish food machines (they look like gumball machines, but you don't want to blow bubbles with these little brown bits of yumminess--ew). 50 Cents later and we had happy kids and had seen literally thousands of catfish fight over a two handfuls of fish pellets. They completely forgot about the rides.

Then enter the piece de resistance-->

Hey! What's happening here?

Whoa! Cool!
Mom, can we live here?
Dude. I'm in heaven.
I'm wet and lovin' it!
It was awesome. We had happy kids for almost the rest of the day, the whinning was gone, even when it was time to leave--it was great. Thank you Kemah for providing cheap catfish food and an awesome water sprinkler thingy.


And here's just another fun picture. This is what Emma does with Jeremy's undies.

Beach Trip

I haven't been to the beach since my attempt to surf in 2007. And before that, I'm not quite sure when I last embarrassed myself in a swimsuit.

But Friday we were invited to go to a beach at an almost local (took half and hour to get there) State Park. Here are some of our pictures.

Most are of Emma because she's such a water baby. And I had to watch her the closest, she got the most pictures taken. Click on the collage to see those pictures bigger.

Pictures for Nathan with More to Come

One day I kept Jeremy occupied with constructive destructiveness.
It was wonderful. This occupied him for over an hour.
The wall-paper didn't need to come down yet since we haven't even picked out paint for the stairs area yet, but he had a great time, he felt like he was helping, and he got to channel his destructive energy into something good.

I took this picture a couple nights ago.
Megan of late has been sneaking out of bed to get books to read.
I love that she does this! It reminds me of me!
Except I didn't have to sneak out because my bed's headboard had a built in bookshelf and so all I had to sneak was a flashlight!

A friend told us about a great rummage sale put on by a local church. We went to check it out and came home with a bucket full of Lincoln Logs for $2, a wooden snake (Jeremy insisted we buy it for Emma) for 10 cents, and a couple bracelets for 50 cents. It was a pretty good rummage sale and they had an almost new changing table that I thought about getting. But after going home and measuring I found we didn't have room.

I'll post soon some pictures of us at the beach!
We went with the kids I babysit and their mom.

Carved Easter Eggs, Easter Eggland, and Dying Eggs

Late last night Nathan called a friend and asked, "Hey, do you want to go do something stupid?" They then left for the dental school campus where they proceeded to carve hollow eggs with their dental tools--a drill fitted with a diamond bur, to be somewhat exact. Here are most of Nathan's results. We did have a casualty before we could get a picture of all of them.

(Front)
(Back)

Very good for his first time, I think.

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Also this week in Easter News & Events we went to Eggshelland. Check it out.



The same family has been doing this for 54 years. They hollow out the eggs, color them with enamel paint, the grandma draws everything out, and then the grandkids place the eggs on their posts to keep them in place. Isn't that cool? And surprisingly she said it isn't a year round thing for them, but that they start doing everything in January.

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Lots of the moms at Church decided to do an Easter Egg Hunt on Friday. So we all brought a bunch of eggs, hid them, and let the kids go at it.


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And here are Megan and Jeremy dyeing Easter Eggs.



We also learned recently that Jeremy can curl his tongue.
Megan, sadly, cannot. But don't tell her that.


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Easter Morning



Megan found her Easter basket hiding in the fireplace.


Jeremy found his hiding in the shoebox. (It was everything we could do just to get him to go get his shoes so he could find that dang thing.)

When he finally went to get his shoes, he actually got his shoes before bothering to pick up his Easter basket. Funny kid.