Quick 5

It's nice to see everyone's lily white arms again.

1.  Apparently yesterday was National Sibling Day.  I'm not convinced it's actually a real thing, but whatever.  Here is my tribute to my siblings:

Disneyland, 2002

2.  This beautiful weather definitely has my girls fooled.  Every day they ask if they can wear tank tops or sandals or swimsuits.  Every day I try to explain to them that they need to wear jackets and shoes first thing in the morning because it's still chilly and that it is going to snow on Sunday so it's not time to get out the pool yet.  Spring can be tricky.

3.  I know this is a totally uncool thing to admit, but I'm not an outdoor person.  I'm just not.  I wish I were, but I'm not.  And I think I may have passed on that trait to my daughters.  At first I thought they were going to be outside people, because they ask to go outside all the time, but they have NO stamina.  They last about 15 minutes before they want to come back inside.  I finally set a timer outside and told them they could come in when it went off and not to ask me again.  Just know that every time you mention how your kids LOVE outside and just LIVE out there all summer, I feel like you're saying it AT me.  Even though I know you aren't.

4.  Joya is three and talks the way a three-year-old talks.  But her daddy does a good job of trying to teach her how to say words correctly.  Sometimes it's futile, though.  Example: Joya LOVES peanut butter and "schwaberry" (strawberry jelly) sandwiches.  So Lee was trying to teach her how to say "strawberry."  She kept getting caught up on the "straw" part.  Thinking he had a stroke of brilliance, he went and got a straw and held it up for her to see.

"What's this?" he asked.
"A schwa," Joya insisted. 

In her defense, the STR sound really is kind of tricky.

5.  I'm starting to stress out about Alaina's birthday.  You know her; the girl loves to party.  And she thinks that the whole world will be invited.  And you know me; I could do without parties.  So how do I balance her expectations (the world is NOT coming) with mine (I really do want to celebrate her somehow)?  I don't know what to do.  I feel like we need to do more than we usually do, or at least something different, but we're also a low budget family.  Entertaining small children is not my strong point, nor is it my idea of fun.  I have about four weeks to figure it out, especially if we are going to be inviting people over.

Happy Friday!