Quick 5

I have a terrorist in my family.  Her name is Mindy.  She threatens to do nasty things, like buy my children loud, obnoxious toys if I don't do a Quick 5, even if my day might be crazy.  The worst part is she doesn't have children, so I have no way to retaliate.

1.  Alaina loved her first ride-the-bus field trip.  She called it the Luckiest Day in Her Whole Life.  We went to the Wildlife Experience, which was okay.  I was bummed we didn't get to go to the zoo, but apparently the kindergarten class went last year and I don't blame the teacher one bit for wanting to do different things.  Anyway, the Wildlife Experience is a museum of animals, with animal statues and robots.  Then we watched a 3-D movie about the arctic.  Then we had a picnic outside.  It was a dream come true for a five and a half year old. (My apologies for the shoddy photography.)

First bus ride

First 3-D movie

Picnic in the wind

2.  For quite awhile now, bedtime has gone like this: Bria in bed by 6:45, Joya to bed at 7:30, Alaina to bed at 8:00. We staggered the bedtimes way back when we first moved the girls into the same room so they would fall asleep, but they grow and change.  Now, more often than not, Joya is still awake when I put Alaina to bed, which probably means that she could handle an 8:00 bedtime.  However, she tries to fake being asleep.  She's terrible at it.  She squeezes her eyes shut tight and has the biggest grin on her face so obviously she's not asleep.  Unfortunately I think she faked me out last night, because I thought she was asleep, but then about 30 minutes later I heard enough to go check on them and found that Joya was out of bed, bothering Alaina.  Now that school is out I'll probably move her to the 8:00 bedtime, but I anticipate a Summer of Consequences as the girls learn to just go to sleep when I put them to bed.

3.  Bria is a chatterbox.  Not only does she chatter all day, but if you ask her a question she'll answer.  She'll not only answer, but she'll answer in a paragraph.  A huge long string of meaningless baby babble.  Last night she talked all through dinner, including while eating her food.  I always thought that since Alaina was so outgoing then perhaps one of the other girls would be quiet and reflective.  Nope.  Not in this family.

4.  All my girls have rest time/nap time in the afternoon.  I put them all in their rooms at 12:30.  Bria will sleep until 2:30 or 3:00.  Joya naps but pops out of her room at 2:00 (when the cow clock lights up.)  Alaina actually hangs out in our room.  She actually still naps about three or four days a week, but just plays or reads the other days.  She's supposed to stay in the room until 2:00.  On the days that she doesn't nap, she pops out of that room the second the clock hits 2:00.  Lee asked her about that the other day.  This is what she said:

"Well, I start cleaning up around 1:57 or 1:56.  Then I stand in the bathroom and watch the clock and when it turns to 2:00 I open the door."

Lee's response:

"Hmm...you might just be my child."

5.  Today is Kindergarten graduation.  Which means, thanks to Mindy, you'll have to wait until next week to get a report on that.  I was going to add it in later today, but Mindy insisted on it this morning and apparently Mindy holds all the cards in our relationship.

Happy last day of school!