Good Helpers

Oliver and Rachel attempting to vacuum up all of the wheat that I accidentally poured straight out of the bag onto the floor instead of into the bucket I was aiming for.

Rachel's toy popcorn popper vacuum was especially good at spreading all the wheat around.

Oliver's 5th Birthday

Oliver with his dinosaur-volcano cake. The little red dinosaur in the front is not tipped over on accident - Oliver specifically arranged that one so it would be getting destroyed by the river of lava.

Snack Time

My kids are passionate about snack time, particularly Oliver and Rachel. They always ask when it's going to be snack time, and they hate it that I make them wait until 10:00.

Well, today we ate a late breakfast, so 10:00 came around pretty fast and they hadn't asked about it yet. I was just joking around and walked into the kitchen with a sad look on my face. I said in a depressed voice, "well, guys. . I hate to tell you this sad thing, but it looks like we're going to have to have a snack now."

Oliver immediately got it, and started laughing, but Rachel, who was sitting at the table coloring, started scowling and with MUCH disgust said, "JEEZ! It's snack time already? Hmmph." She put down her crayon and sighed and moped over to the counter acting like it was such a burden and what a hard life she had to have snack time right in the middle of her coloring time.

It was funny how much she reacted to the way I presented the snack time announcement - she didn't even stop to think that it was actually a happy thing that I was saying.

"It's a Miracle!"

A few days ago the kids were upstairs playing, and I could hear Rachel running around hollering, "It's a MIRACLE! It's a MIIIIRACLE!" over and over again. Later when we were eating breakfast I asked her what the miracle had been and she refused to tell me.

I'm not sure how she learned that word, because I certainly didn't teach it to her, but it has become quite a favorite. This morning when she woke up, her legs were still really sore from getting her shots yesterday, and she couldn't bend them very well at all. Then after breakfast she was able to climb down off the bench all by herself, and she called out, "Mom! It's a miracle! I bent my legs and got down all by myself!" She continued like that all morning - "Mom, did you see that? It was a miracle! I was able to lean down, even though I got shots yesterday! Oh, this is such a miracle!"

It has just been so funny to me that I haven't sat down with her to talk about what might or might not count as a miracle. I think she did start to wonder a little, because after one of the times, she looked up and asked me quietly, "Was that a miracle?", but I was trying too hard not to laugh to give a good answer - I think I just said something like, "Well, it was sure amazing and I'm really glad you were able to do it. It looks like your legs are starting to get better."

Leftover Yoga

Funny yoga story: Today we were getting ready to go to the pool, and the kids were all waiting for me to finish packing stuff up and get Lizzy changed and all that. And, I don't know about your households, but at mine, when the 3 older are all ready for some event and they're waiting because it's not quite time to go, that's when the trouble starts. It's like they think extra hard to come up with something to entertain themselves in the 5 minute empty time slot, and it always amounts to much goofiness and wildness.

Anyway, today's incident was more funny than stressful to me: I heard lots of laughter and silliness, and looked up and saw Tristan, Oliver, and Rachel doing crazy and wild Yoga poses that I have never seen before. Rachel came running over full of giggles and said, "Mom, we're just doing Leftover Yoga", and then they all busted up laughing and continued with the funny poses.

It turned out that Oliver was entertaining the other two (they give him that job a lot) and he was making up all different kinds of Yoga, each with it's own sort of pose. I guess one of the favorite kinds was Leftover Yoga. I don't know how he came up with that.

Now whenever I'm doing yoga and I can tell I'm not doing a pose quite right, I think to myself that maybe I'm just doing "Leftover Yoga", and then I usually laugh and fall over.

Kiddie Kandid Birthday Pictures

Elizabeth, Rachel, and Oliver all have summer birthdays, so I usually take them all together to get their birthday pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids. Tristan will have to wait until December.


Elizabeth

Rachel

Oliver

IKEA with the Bates

My friend Karen Bates and I took all the kids to IKEA today. I love that store. We ate breakfast, let the kids play around, and had fun looking for things for Karen's new house (the Bates just moved here from Baltimore).


Eating breakfast at IKEA


William Bates, Oliver, and Tristan


Tristan, Cassia, William, and Oliver


Rachel, Jessalyn, Elizabeth, and Dallin