Quick 5

We made it!

1. Today is the last day of school. Alaina gets to enjoy a picnic lunch, an ice cream party, and an early dismissal. I well remember the feeling on the last day of school, and I very much enjoy watching her brimming with excitement. She rocked 2nd grade.

2. Watching the personalities of my three girls emerge is fun to watch and frustrating to manage. Alaina loves to pretend. Joya would rather create art. The downside to the creation of art is the negotiation of what stays and what goes. Sometimes taking a picture of her art is good enough. Sometimes throwing away a colored picture out of a coloring book is like removing a piece of her soul. It's a crap shoot when it comes to how she feels about each piece of art.

A rainbow ukulele

Playing the rainbow ukulele

3.  Alaina's birthday is in two weeks. She's already checking the mailbox for birthday surprises, so clearly it's going to be a long two weeks. She typed up her birthday list for us:

Sword/shield   

Magic Tree House Books #s 6,7,8

Stuffed Dragon 

More G-2 pens 

a NINJAGO Lego set 

THEME:

Horses

TREAT:

ICE CREAM!

She's a woman of few wants. She also stumbled across a G-2 pen a while back, and has decided she needs more of those in her life. Clearly G-2 pens are something that should be on every almost-8-year-old's birthday list.

4. Did you know that they have dark chocolate peanut butter cups at Trader Joe's? Well, you should. Lee LOVES peanut butter. I'm okay with it sometimes. It's fine, but I don't need it. But these things, man. Next time you're there, find them. Or make a special trip, if you don't go that often.

5. This is what Bria said to me as I was getting her dressed this morning:

"I'm awesome! Feel my muscles!"

Self-esteem: check.

Happy 4th Birthday to my niece Tegan! We love you!

Quick Update

The days are long, but the weeks are fast.

This has been a busy, but mostly unremarkable week. The Big Event was Alaina's annual school music program. We're pros at sitting through the middle/high school portion of the program. But the true gem of the night was the K-2 program. The kids all dressed as woodland creatures and did A Race to the Finish, the story of the tortoise and the hare. Alaina was given the role of the Fox, who refereed the race. She had a solo and a few lines, and she did an amazing job.

 It is also noteworthy to mention that Bria did an amazing job sitting through the program too. No screaming. No fussing. Just eating her sucker and chilling out. That was as joyous to us as Alaina's performance.

One more week of school, then we'll be in summer mode. We have a Big Summer ahead of us.

Quick 5

Whew.

1. We decided to try out a new hiking place a couple of weeks ago. There is a lovely little river close by, so we donned our shoes and took the girls. It was crazy windy, but the girls had tons of fun throwing rocks into the river.

2. This is the face Bria made the minute we said it was time to leave, and this face stayed this way for a good hour after. YES, I gave her fair warning. Sometimes a warning means nothing to a three-year-old. (It is my kindness to you and me that this is a picture and not a video.)

3. Last weekend was the Great Tulsa Trip of 2016. Driving two 12 hour days in four days was kind of a butt-kicker, but it was worth it to see my baby brother take the walk from college student to college graduate. We are crazy proud of him. Also, I have no pictures of him, but he was there. Anyway, we stayed in a house with the rest of our family, and the kids seemed to have a lovely time hanging out and playing at a park together.

4. The girls handled the graduation ceremony like champs. We won't speak of what happened at Ben's hooding ceremony the night before.

5. We also celebrated at the AWANA awards ceremony this week. Joya got to hold the Bible for the pledge to the Bible, and Alaina and Joya both successfully completed their books, and their times in Sparks and Cubbies. Next year Alaina will be in T&T, Joya will be in Sparks, and Bria is finally going to be in Cubbies.

 Only two weeks left of school! Summer, here we come!

Quick 5

The 17 inches of snow we got last week have created Lake Kimble in the backyard. Also, our new sump pump was a good investment.

1. These are the times of kids being raised early in the 21st century:

2. The girls had fun in the snow. Not as much as their dad, who actually made a snow man. But Bria enjoyed doing face plants. I have no idea what Joya and Alaina did. Snow time is their time.

3. One quirk of a newly potty-trained kid is the distraction factor. Sometimes it takes Bria up to three minutes to actually go in the potty. She'll sit there and mess around before she gets down to concentrating on the job at hand. I found a way to speed the process up, though. And it's this:

Do you see all the gold doubloons in my hand? All I have to do is ask her to hand me her gold doubloons. Then I hold on to them until she's done. When I'm holding her gold doubloons she gets down to business rather quickly, because she wants them back. I think I'll try that technique with other things I want her to do quickly.

4. We're gearing up for our trip to Tulsa. I'm actually feeling good about the road trip. I think I know enough about what the girls will actually do in the car and what they won't. I'm armed with Adventures in Odyssey and a few audio books from the library. And of course, the barf boxes.

5. Alaina is home sick today. She is in good spirits, but is running a temp. She's sad to miss out on all the Earth Day festivities her class has planned, but what can you do?

This Quick 5 was brought to you by the word "actually."

Quick 5

Yesterday my girls wore shorts. Tomorrow they will need snow boots. Dear Spring: your fickle moods are less than charming.

1. Lee has found some good hiking/camping buddies, and they went on their first hike of the season last week. The hike was filled with crisp, cool air, a quiet sunrise, and a herd of deer. All the makings of a good hike.

 2. We drove to Colorado Springs to celebrate my sister's birthday last Saturday. We really don't drive far too often, so I thought the hour drive would be a good tiny test run for our road trip in two weeks. Bria and Joya waited a whole 20 minutes before they started the every five minute "Are we there yet??" routine. Our drive to Tulsa should be a good time.

3. Grammy found a lovely fluffy vest for our household. I think it's for Bria, although all the girls have been seen wearing it. However, none of them wear it as fashionable outerwear. Nope, it's turned into a bear/kitty costume. I do agree that it is super fluffy and fun to pet. This is what happens when you don't have a real cat to pet.

4. Alaina received another character award at school. This one was for perseverance, as she worked really hard to learn the sign language for the Ellis Island Day program. We're very proud of her.

5. We've begun the Great Weaning Bria From Her Sleepsack Tribulation. That thing is her woobie. So instead of putting her in it, we just gave it to her to sleep with. Last night was her first night not wearing it, and she only lost it four times before falling asleep, and woke up twice moaning. Hopefully the worst is over. She was pretty excited to wake up wearing just her jammies, and not the sleep sack. She's practically a full grown kid now.

Stay dry, friends!

Quick 5

1. Last Friday, Joya was dying to be pranked. Last year I froze their milk on April Fool's Day, and they were hoping for the same thing this year. I maintain that it's not a good prank if they are expecting it. But I couldn't think of anything else to do. Until I realized that we were having hamburgers for dinner. So I prepared their plates as usual, had them sit down, and then I served Joya this:

That is a plastic toy hamburger. It was a perfect prank. And she was happy. (Don't worry, I have a good idea for next year.)

2. I'm not too big of a fan of spring because early spring is still pretty barren. The trees are all naked and it just looks sad around here. But the warm weather is so refreshing. Sunday was a perfect day to introduce popsicles to 2016.

 3. This week was Crazy Hair/Hat day at Awana. Alaina stayed true to form and really resisted participating. She had fun talking and planning it a dinner, but when it came time for execution she totally chickened out. She finally just wore a regular hat. But Joya was totally game for the fun.

4. Our most exciting discovery this week was Trader Joe's. There has never been one close by, and I also thought it was one of those trendy things that I should stay away from just because everyone else goes there. But since one opened in our area, we decided to check it out. I will definitely be visiting there quite frequently.

5. We attempted a family hike last Saturday. What we failed to remember is that just because it is nice outside doesn't mean it's nice to hike in the mountains. The trail was totally muddy. And we were so ill-equipped for that. All we had on were our normal, every day shoes. So we had to cut the hike short pretty quick. But the girls loved the idea, and so we decided to buy shoes for hiking for all of us; shoes that we won't be sad if they get muddy. We are now prepared to get out there, come mud or shine.

Happy Birthday to my big sis Jamie! Hope your day is filled with happy, compliant children!

Quick 6

Doesn't it feel good to be out of March?

1. Our final Spring Break event involved livestock. We got to go to our friend's house to hold baby chicks. The girls had been talking about it for weeks. They loved it and Bria still wants to go back. Even Bria held the chicks, although she had to be closely monitored and reminded to hold them gently every time she squeezed their little necks. Bria also got very comfortable with helping them fly, by tossing them into the room or back in their little cage. We put a stop to that as much as we could too. And there was only one incident of Bria sitting in chicken poop. But it was fun to see animals they have never seen before. Maybe we can go back this summer to see what those little fluff balls look like grown up.

2. Alaina and Joya got to have donuts with Daddy on Saturday. Bria got to stay home and play on Mommy's tablet. A good time was had by all.

3. Our Easter celebration was a quiet affair. We didn't have an egg hunt due to the foot of snow on the ground, but we will probably have one in a week or so, when everything dries out. My girls looked...special. But it's not about how you look, is it?

4. We had a fun mail week this week. We got the title to our van. I got the materials for a writing course I am taking. And we got a big box of clothes for the girls from a high school friend of mine. It's been like Christmas around here.

5. We're about a month away from the anniversary of our basement flooding. I've been having hard core flashbacks with all the wet, heavy snow we've had lately. But our sump pump is working like a champ. Our backyard looks like a lake, but I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing that lake inside this year.

6. April Fool's! There is no number 6. I'm hilarious, aren't I?

Onward!