Rolling With Laughter

Update

2011-10-19T19:26:00.002-05:00

So here's the scoop...I have a legitimate reason for not posting. So much has been happening around these parts and I haven't had the time. Honestly.

Why? What's going on? What is keeping you so dang busy that you can't be bothered to pop on here to tell us all about it?

Glad you asked.

I got a job. That's right. A J-O-B. I think y'all know that I graduated library school a couple of years ago and have been (halfheartedly) looking for a job. Well, we figured Chloe was old enough not to spend all of her time with me anymore (and really, she cheered the loudest of any of us when I got the job offer because it means she gets to go to big girl school). And we also want to get our house done at some point before our kids are in high school. And if I didn't start using my library skills, I may as well never mind ever using them.

Plus the right job came along.

I was hired to be the library media specialist (though I prefer the term librarian) for a small private school that services special needs children in grades K-12. I started the end of September and have been B-U-S-Y at work. This school has never had a "real" librarian before. They had a very nice woman who would read books to the kids, diligently kept up a paper card catalog, and kept her circulation records in a spiral bound notebook. She retired last year. Then, over the summer, they decided to move the IT guy into the library, building a cubicle for him in the corner. To make it fit, they took out two walls worth of floor to almost ceiling shelving. Unfortunately, the left all of the books in piles on the floor for me to sort through when I started.

I spent the first week throwing out books. I'm talking English textbooks older than me, math textbooks from the 80s, books that were literally falling apart at the seams. Then I spent the next week or so shelving the nonfiction, then the fiction, weeping and wailing when I ran out of shelf space. (Okay, I didn't actually weep and wail, but I did run out of shelf space. They had to make me six more shelves for my wall unit...hopefully that should take care of most of the ones still in boxes.)

Once all of those books were shelved, I had to do something with the dozen or so boxes of books that were not cataloged or labeled in any way. I spent the last week or so looking up the Dewey Decimal numbers for these books, creating spine labels for them, and then shelving them.

It's a night and day difference in the library. But I'm not done yet. Our school got a grant they didn't expect to receive and are funneling it into the library. What does that mean? It means I was able to submit (and have approved) my wish list - new tables and chairs, a really cool circulation desk, new bookshelves, posters, a rug, and - are you ready for this? - BOOK REPAIR SUPPLIES! The previous librarian left me with three rolls of book tape. That's it. No book jacket covers. No glue. No paper tape. Just three rolls of clear tape. You can do a lot with clear tape, but you can't do everything.

I am particularly excited to start receiving my two favorite publications - School Library Journal and Booklist. Why are they my favorite? They contain reviews of new materials so I can continue to add books to my to-read list. It's just about the next best thing to reading a good book - reading about good books to add to the list.

But don't think I've been just sitting around admiring my beautiful new library. I've also been busy with classes - today I convinced a group of fifth graders to sit and enjoy being read to. We read Hooway for Wodney Wat. Caleb recommended it to me after they read it in his classroom. Several other classes came in to check out books. Once all of the books are in their permanent home, I need to start teaching library orientation courses to the kids so they know where to find the materials they need.

Want to hear a horror story? It's almost Halloween, so you may be in the mood. The other day I overheard a staff member (a man in his mid-20s) explain to a student that all of the books in the library are stored in alphabetical order so to find a book on trains, just head to the T section on the nonfiction shelves. What? No! Only the fiction is shelved alphabetically! Nonfiction is all by Dewey Decimal Number, ordered by subject. Yikes! I have a lot of work to do!

So what does the rest of my family do when I'm working? Good question. Rob was able to rearrange his work schedule so that he works twelve hour shifts three days a week. That means he is home every morning to put our kids on the school bus. Chloe goes to a day care (big girl school) a mile or two up the street. We love her teachers, we love the facility, and we couldn't be happier. Chloe likes everything except nap time, though she actually does sleep about half of the time. The big kids get home from school about an hour before I'm able to be home, so we have a teenage girl we know from church come over after she gets out of school and keep the kids for an hour or so. She's really great. She makes sure they have their homework done and then she gives them a snack and plays games with them.

And I still get to do most of the grocery shopping, the meal making, the housecleaning and laundry so I stay pretty busy. Don't worry...Rob's not totally slack...he's been working like mad on the house. Our master bathroom is almost done - we just need to put in a light switch and hook it up to the circuit box in the basement, our kitchen now has a beautiful new back splash, and the trim is just about all painted. He's making really great progress on the house, especially now that he has two solid days to work on it without anyone else around.

The kids are staying busy too. Chloe loves going to school. She's making friends, doing lots of art, and playing hard. She's definitely ready for bed by the time bedtime rolls around.

Caleb started cub scouts this year, so every week I get to haul all three kids to scouts since Rob works on scout night. This last week they met in the school library, so while they had their meeting I busied myself by straightening books on their shelves. The librarian in me can't stand looking at jumbled bookshelves.

Caleb also started playing an instrument this year. Each week he gets to haul his trombone to music lessons. I'm hoping this next week is the week he really figures out how to play a note or two. In the meantime, I console myself by thinking "at least it's not the oboe!"

Camille remains our little artist. The art teacher at school let me borrow some big art coffee table books for her to look at over the weekend. Before I returned them, I asked Camille if she had a favorite artist. She thought really hard and then replied, "Yes, I do. I'm my favorite artist!" I'm so glad she has such good self-esteem. She's doing well in school and loves to read. She's currently reading Swiss Family Robinson and has read more than 100 pages!

Well, that's about it for now. I actually have some work I took home that I have to finish before I go to bed tonight. Plus, we're having a bake-off at church tomorrow and I need to make sure I tuck away my pumpkin pie cake so that no one gets into it. I do have pictures of Chloe's first day of school that I'll post sometime when I can make time to do it. Maybe this weekend.

Maybe next time I'll tell you about our whirlwind trip to Baltimore. Or about the conference I get to go to next week. Or about the fun Halloween costumes I made my kids if I can just make the time to actually do it!

Report to My Office

2011-09-10T22:07:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I set Chloe up at the desk with some paper and markers so she could make some cards for her friends. Before long, though, I heard her calling me:

"Amanda, please report to my office. Amanda, please report to my office."

I don't know where she got that from, but I got a kick out of it.

What a little stinker!

First Day of School

2011-08-30T19:51:00.008-05:00

So the kids went back to school today. Can I just say how much I love the first day of school? Everyone woke up happy this morning, got ready with minimal fighting (though I did have to threaten to take away a Nerf gun when a perpetrator kept aiming it at a sister), and was out the door in plenty of time to take pictures before the school bus arrived. Here are some quick snaps from this morning.

Our Second Grader (minus a couple of teeth)

She picked out her own outfit for today. She's digging her pink fishnets.

The Fourth Grader (and all of his new freckles).

The school kids. I told them to show me how happy they were to go to school. You can see who's trying not to show his excitement.

These smiles are a little better.

The cute little one who can't wait for kindergarten next year.

And again.

All three crazies being crazy!

Back

2011-08-30T19:49:00.001-05:00

So after a rather lengthy hiatus (we'll blame it on the house, feeling sick and general craziness around here) we're back! We've nixed the idea of starting the blog all over and transferred those posts here so everything is in one place for your convenience. (We're so nice, aren't we!)

The big kids started school this morning and life is (kind of) back to (almost) normal around here!

Chloe and I are going to play a game of cards (she found Daddy's old baseball cards in the attic and now we need to play some kind of game with them that seems to be similar to Go Fish crossed with "these guys look funny because they have funny looking mustaches."

We'll post pictures later!

Housecleaning - Or What My Children Really Think of Me - 2/4/11

2011-08-30T19:48:00.002-05:00

We have had several snow days in the past couple of weeks (Read: at least six, not counting holidays and teacher work days).

We have taken the opportunity to spent a lot of mother-children time. The other day, I helped the children clean their room. And by cleaning, I mean I put everything that was on the floor in a box and carted it out of there while they fussed and hollered. (Don't worry, I did give them plenty of notice that they were to pick up the things they wanted to keep. The things they didn't want to pick up, I would happily take care of for them. Those are on their way to the attic this afternoon.)

Believe it or not, my kids were not very thrilled about this and took the opportunity to tell me just what they thought.

Child 1: You're so mean! You're the meanest mom ever!

Child 2: I know why you wanted to have children. You wanted to have children so you could torture us!

Child 3: I know you're not even our real mother. I remember being two years old in the orphanage before we came here. I wish we were still there.

Maybe we should screen Annie one more time if one of mine truly thinks it's better to live in an orphanage than to pick up a few things off their floor.

Kitchen Photos - 1/27/11

2011-08-30T19:48:00.001-05:00

I'm putting up some recent pictures of our kitchen on our house blog.

http://yellowfarmhouse.wordpress.com

Enjoy!

Who's Confused? 1/27/11

2011-08-30T19:47:00.002-05:00

The other day I walked into the kitchen to find this:

While they scrubbed, I could hear them sing:

It's a hard-knock life for us.
It's a hard-knock life for us.
Instead of treating we get tricked
Instead of kisses we get kicked
It's a hard-knock life.

So I foolishly said, "I know what you're playing. Which one of you is Annie?"

Chloe looks at me like that was the stupidest thing she's ever heard and said (and picture her saying this as if she's a teenager)

"No, we're playing Harry Potter."

"You're playing Harry Potter cleaning?"

"No, we're playing Harry Potter workshop."

Of course. There are tons of scenes in Harry Potter where Hermione and Ginny are scrubbing floors. I should have noticed the tie Chloe was wearing. It'd have clued me in since everyone at Hogwarts wears ties. Especially when they clean or act out Annie.

1/17/11

2011-08-30T19:47:00.001-05:00

Know how some days don't seem to turn out the way you plan? Today was one of those days for us. It seemed like it'd be straightforward: take Caleb to a play date, come home in time for the insulation folks to finish insulating our house, do some housework, maybe bake a treat or two in my new kitchen.

Unfortunately, that's not how things worked for us.

On the way out the door to take Caleb to his friends' house, I realized I didn't have my keys. It would have been great if I had realized it before the door latched behind me. It's such a tease to look through the window and see my keys but have no way to get them. Of course I'm extra careful about keeping doors and windows locked so there was no way to even pry open a window. Luckily I had a spare car key in my purse so I was able to get Caleb to his play date. Then I was able to find Rob's new work phone number from our GPS (he can't use his cell phone in the OR and I didn't have the new number in my phone yet) and was able to let him know I'd be over to grab his house key. Things were pretty uneventful on the drive over, except for Chloe's begging to eat lunch with her dad. Never mind that it wasn't lunchtime or that we had people waiting for us at our house because by this time the insulation guys were waiting for us. We drive straight home and that ride was pretty uneventful too, except for a bout of motion sickness. Fortunately Chloe has gotten pretty good at throwing up into a cup. Unfortunately we didn't have a cup, only a small baby bottle Chloe had brought with her for who knows what reason. Anyway, I got home with a load of laundry to wash. Lucky me.

We got the insulation folks all set (they had come out last week to insulate and got almost half of the house done before realizing they didn't have the right amount of insulation listed in their paperwork, so they had to come out and finish today) and then I got to clean up the mess from yesterday's daddy-kid cookie baking adventure. I busied myself making a big batch of marinara sauce (too bad I didn't have any mozzarella cheese in the fridge) and thought about baking a treat. I did some shoveling (I figured I'd better shovel a path to the side door and one from the front door to the street so the kids don't have to tromp through the snow to get to the bus before it ices over tomorrow).

(Did I mention that I certainly hope there's school tomorrow? They had a snow day on Wednesday, another one on Thursday, a teacher work day on Friday, the weekend and then today's holiday. That was a surprise six day vacation. Wish I had known in advance - I'd have taken the kids out of town or at least planned something fun to do. There are rumors spreading that we'll have another snow day tomorrow...sure hope not!)

Anyway, the girls kept themselves busy today.

They turned a half a loaf of bread into PB&J sandwiches, cut into star shapes with a cookie cutter they found.

Camille "organized" our pantry. I did explain to her that we are going to put up shelves before we really put food in there, but she wanted to do this anyway.

Chloe took a well-deserved nap.

That gave her enough energy to do some art on the wall. This is after I told her she couldn't write her name on the wall again.

The Sun Came Out Today -1/15/11

2011-08-30T19:45:00.002-05:00

Today we had a ladies' day out. My little ladies and I got dressed up and went to see a performance of Annie. We had such a great time. My sister and brother-in-law gave us the Annie Broadway soundtrack a couple of months ago, so we spent the drive up and back singing our favorite songs from the musical. I especially enjoyed listening to the girls sing along to the music.

After the performance we went to our favorite diner for lunch. It was so fun to spend a day doing girl things with my girls.

Here's a few pictures of the girls after we got home (I didn't want to bring my big camera with us to the show and I couldn't find the charger cord for the small camera).

Where Has Our Little Cat Gone - 1/10/11

2011-08-30T19:45:00.001-05:00

After years of swearing we'd never be pet owners (dogs need too much attention and Rob's allergic to cats) we broke down. Maybe it was the day I stepped on the mouse outside on the front porch. Or maybe it was the day we discovered a mouse chewed its way into our van. Or maybe it was the first day we heard critters inside our walls (they turned out to be chipmunks, not mice). At some point Rob decided we needed a pet. Something low maintenance. Something that could earn its keep.

So we start looking around for a cat. I had lots of cats growing up and come from the school of thought that cats shouldn't really cost anything. Sure you have to feed them and get them their shots, but they're pretty inexpensive as far as pets go. We looked at the humane society, but thought maybe the perfect situation would be to find someone with a young cat (not kitten) that they just needed to find a new home for. We got so lucky.

We found a guy on craigslist who fosters cats. He had a couple of them, but the one who seemed best for us was a two year old black and white cat he called Oreo. He was all up to date on his shots and had a sweet temperament. We were sold.

When we went to pick him up, this cat ran right over to me to say hello. I'm not a cat person, but he showed his sweet personality from the beginning. The kids were so excited that not only were we finally getting a pet, but we were getting one that was named after junk food! At home the kids were so excited to show Oreo his new home: one of the kids shared Oreo's bowl of cat food. Another followed the cat around with his scratching post, calling "Here's your scratching post Oreo. Don't you want your scratching post?"

Oreo seemed happy to be with us, though he showed an obvious preference for Rob. He would jump onto our bed at night, crawl onto Rob's chest and stick his little kitty nose right into Rob's face in an Eskimo kiss. We loved that cat more than we thought.

About a month after we got him, the cat (who insisted he be an outdoor/indoor cat) got hit by a car. He then took off, hiding in the woods nearby. We figured he had gone off to die, but he came limping home around dinner time, obviously very hurt. We took him to the vet the next morning, anticipating that Oreo had a broken hip or internal bleeding or something. Nope. That lucky cat was just banged up and the vet sent us home with a bottle of kitty Advil. Less than a week later, you'd never know that anything had happened to him.

Typically Rob lets Oreo outside when he leaves for work in the morning. Today I was up earlier and let him out, so he came back inside when Rob left for the day. The big kids went to school a couple of hours later and I assumed Oreo had sneaked out the door. There was no sign of him around lunchtime or even when the kids came home from school. When he didn't come home at dinner, I started to worry. We kept whistling out the door for him throughout the evening, but he didn't come. Finally I went upstairs to put on my pajamas and looked for a fresh pair in the dryer.

And guess who popped out?

Our cat spent the day in the dryer. Caleb had opened the dryer to get a pair of jeans and the cat must have gone in there while the door was open.

It must have been cozy and snug in there, but I certainly am glad no one turned the dryer on today!

Soldiers - 1/5/11

2011-08-30T19:44:00.002-05:00

This afternoon Rob was home with our big one and little one while I had the one in the middle. They kept themselves busy playing war.

They built a fort out of paint a friend had given us (he's a painter and had tons of leftover paint - much of it not even opened - in his basement that his wife wanted him to get rid of so she could have the basement back!) and the cans that I haven't gotten to putting in the basement yet. They took turns guarding the fort.

Caleb either took a break or is using the clementine in his hand as a grenade.

Chloe had much success guarding the fort with her caulk gun. No one dared mess with her.

What's My Name? - 1/5/11

2011-08-30T19:44:00.001-05:00

Since I changed my name when I got married, I have adopted the habit of spelling my last name to ensure it's spelled correctly. My brother-in-law usually says, "Rollins. It's like Collins, but with an R." Maybe I should try that more often because I get our name spelled incorrectly all the time.

Usually I get Rawlins, Rawlings, Rollings. Today when our new sink came, my name was written on the packing slip in a manner I've not seen before.

Yes. You are reading that correctly. Roloins.

As you can probably well imagine, I've been snickering at this all day. If you're going to misspell someone's name, you may as well make it entertaining!

House Blog - 1/4/11

2011-08-30T19:43:00.000-05:00

New photos are up on our house blog: a couple of the outside and a few snaps of our kitchen-in-progress.

Enjoy!

http://yellowfarmhouse.wordpress.com/

Kitchen - 1/4/11

2011-08-30T19:42:00.001-05:00

When people find out that we're doing this major home renovation project, one of the first things they usually ask is what I am doing for a kitchen. For those of you who have wondered, here's your answer:

We have a refrigerator, a microwave, a toaster oven, several crockpots, and more small appliances than necessary. In the fall, we had all of this stationed downstairs in the room that is now almost a kitchen. However, when we began hanging drywall, we moved all of this kitchen paraphernalia to our upstairs hallway. (To recap: We are currently living in half of the upstairs. We have two bedrooms, a bathroom,a laundry closet, and a large hallway.)

It's not ideal, but for now it works - as long as I don't want to make anything in a 9x13 pan. (Our toaster oven isn't that big.)

So without further ado, here are a couple of snaps of our "kitchen" this evening.

So spacious, I know!

What's for dinner?

We had salad, pork loin and sweet potatoes. With Easy Bake Oven brownies for dessert, courtesy of Camille's culinary skills.

If I could make lemon meringue pie in my dorm microwave freshman year, this is cake!

Back to the Old Grind - 1/3/11

2011-08-30T19:40:00.001-05:00

Vacation is (finally) over and things are starting to get back to normal. I love Christmas, but this year I am especially glad that all of the festivities are over. Now we can get back to school schedules, regular sleep schedules, and the like.

The kids went back to school this morning. Rob started his new job this morning. He's been working in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for the past two years and is moving to a different hospital in the Operating Room. I'm hopeful that he'll enjoy this position more since he liked working in the OR as a surgical tech before he got his nursing degree. I'm especially excited that he will be working eight hour days, from 7-3, so he'll be home every night for dinner. And he'll be home to help put the kids to bed every night. And he'll be around so if I want to sneak off somewhere in the evening, I can do so without dragging the kids with me or arranging for a babysitter. I know Rob will really miss his whole days off so he can work on the house, but we'll have to just chip away at it a little at a time.

Speaking of the house, now that our walls are up, finished and primed, we can start working on cosmetic things - work that other people can identify as progress. Chloe and I are heading to the granite place in a little while to put in our order for counter tops. Our stove is supposed to be in this week, so in theory we may actually have a functional kitchen within the next couple of weeks. Hooray!

Too Strong - 1/3/11

2011-08-30T19:39:00.003-05:00

This morning Chloe asked for a banana with peanut butter. I was in the middle of something, so I told her she could pick out her own banana. A minute later, she comes in the room, frustrated.

"I'm trying to get my banana off, but it's just too strong!"

At the Beach - 1/1/11

2011-08-30T19:38:00.002-05:00

We were out and about this week and found ourselves at the beach, of all places! I love the beach more in the non-summer seasons, I think. It was cold and very windy and we only stayed a few minutes, but the kids had a great time.

See, look! They're all smiling!

That's better!

The girls really liked watching these ducks.

Caleb was more interested in climbing these slippery rocks.

Everyone had fun hunting for shells. I tried to convince them to skip the ones that were all sandy and to really look for just one or two special shells. The kids had a different theory: the more shells you have, the more special they are. Now ask me what my poor car thinks. On the agenda this week: clean out the sand and shells!

New Blog

2011-01-01T17:07:00.003-05:00

So I figure that since it's a new year, maybe everyone can forget what lame bloggers we've been if we start over with a clean slate and a new blog.

From now on, check us out here:

rollingwithlaughter.blogspot.com

Over the next while, we'll also be updating our house blog. When we do, we'll link it again from the new blog.

See you over there!

2010-09-22T20:08:00.003-05:00

This is the fun critter I get to spend all day with while the big kids are at school!

HWs?

2010-09-22T19:48:00.003-05:00

Tonight we took Caleb to his first day of karate. The girls and I were sitting in some chairs on the side of the room when Camille spied a kid from her class.

"Hey, that's B! He's in my class!"

A few minutes later, the girls had to use the bathroom, so we passed the kid on our way. After we shut the door behind us, Camille exclaims, "I can't believe B. actually smiled at me! For the very first time. We're almost BFFs!"

Trying not to laugh, I asked her if she knew what BFF means.

"Yeah, Best Friends Forever."

********
Later, at dinner, the kids were talking about friends they saw at the karate school, Camille shared how excited she was to see B. I informed everyone that they're BFFs. Camille felt the need to correct me in her sassy valley girl voice:

"We're practically HWs!"

"HWs?"

"Husband and Wife!"

**********
Oh dear. It's started already!

We're Back!

2010-09-18T05:47:00.008-05:00

Life has been B-U-S-Y for our family. We bought the yellow house in June and Rob has spent pretty much all of his non-working time working on the house. Caleb was his biggest helper since he's big enough and strong enough to carry wood, hammer nails and such. They enjoyed lots of man time at the house - and that Daddy would usually take him out to lunch at one of the fine fast food establishments near our house didn't hurt anything either!

The kids were able to go on vacation this summer. They took turns in Vermont visiting Nana and Papa. Caleb and Camille took swimming lessons for a couple of weeks. Caleb is a little fish, able to swim the pool the long way. Camille has finally progressed to putting her face in the water so we're looking forward to seeing what she will learn next year! Chloe is excited to turn four next spring because "when I turn fo-ah, I can take fwimming lessons too!"

We are now pretending that things are slowing down here a little bit for us. School started the last week of August, so both big kids are gone from 8 - 4 every day. In the middle of getting ready for a new school year, we also packed up our rental house, moved all of our belongings into the attic of our new house (we couldn't move all of our stuff in yet because we were waiting for the drywall guy to finish our sheet rock so we could clean up the mess and throw on a coat of primer before moving in), stayed in a hotel for a week (there's nothing like the excitement of having two beds for five people...no matter how you do the math, no one sleeps well - but at least we did get a continental breakfast every morning), and finally moved into half of the upstairs of our new house. We are currently have two bedrooms, a bathroom and a laundry room. We have a makeshift kitchen downstairs where we've been getting along pretty well with a microwave, toaster oven and crock pot. It's slightly more glamorous than camping, as far as our cooking set up is concerned. We do have running water (in the downstairs bathtub which is set up as our "kitchen sink" only).

We are enjoying our new neighborhood. There are lots of kids for mine to play with. Caleb is in boy heaven since most of the kids are boys. Camille is a little put out still that there is only one girl her age on the street (that she hasn't even been able to play with yet because the girl was gone all summer) but we're sure she'll be making lots of friends at school before too long.

We are thrilled to report that we now have Internet access at our house. We had been sharing an internet connection with our neighbors until our neighbors packed up and moved a month before we did. So we did a complete computer detox, only checking our e-mail at the library a couple of times a week. It was kind of nice not being tied to a computer, though a bit disabling when we needed to find information. Thanks to those of you kind enough to look up things for us. We do appreciate it!

That's as good a post as y'all are going to get right now. The kids' movie is almost over (they had the nerve to get up at 6:00 this morning, before there were any kid shows on tv so they've been watching the Wiggles - it was Chloe's turn to choose) so I should start thinking about breakfast. Not that any of them should be hungry. I gave them each a banana for snack and then they found my secret candy stash. (It's hard to keep secrets when all of your living is done in two rooms.)

He's got the moves!

2010-06-25T22:23:00.004-05:00

My brother got married a couple of weeks ago and we had a blast at their reception. They had this crazy DJ who stopped all of the dancing for a hula hoop competition. The bride and groom each chose 10 people to be on their team and we faced off with the hoops. I say "we" when I got out pretty much scott free. Once I figured out what was going on, I made Caleb take my place on my brother's team. As you can see in the video, he made us all proud!

See that man in the background with the white shirt and orange tie cheering for Caleb? That's my dad. My new sister-in-law was smart enough and quick enough to nab him for her team. We don't have video of him hula hooping (though I'm sure he's the only one who's disappointed). Anyway, as we were leaving the wedding, Caleb pulled me aside and told me he needed a hula hoop. Why? "Because Papa challenged me to a hula hoop contest, just the two of us, and I need to practice so I can beat him!"

We're visiting them for the weekend and this may the chance to see who's got the best moves! If we're lucky maybe we can get that on video!

Big News

2010-06-17T22:53:00.003-05:00

We have news everyone! As of this morning, we are now the proud owners of an 1880s farmhouse. It's big, it's beautiful (or will be when it's finished), it's going to be a labor of love.

You can read all about it here: http://yellowfarmhouse.wordpress.com/ We'll try to keep it updated with all of the spare time we'll (wish we) have this summer!

Daddy and the kids

2010-06-09T20:55:00.000-05:00

The other night I snapped a few cute pictures of Rob and the kids.

Something was apparently pretty funny here!

New Do

2010-06-09T20:50:00.003-05:00

Since summer weather has arrived (mostly), Camille decided it was time for a summer hair cut. I took her to the hair place and this was the result.

Isn't she darling?

While we were at it, I gave Chloe a little trim.

Don't you just love this face? We get it all the time around here.

Beauty Queens

2010-06-09T20:44:00.002-05:00

Rob's family came to visit a couple of weeks ago and left Camille with a makeup set. It was actually a pretty great kit where it teaches you how to put on makeup. It even came with a sketch pad so you could draw out your makeup designs before trying them on a real face. The girls loved it!

Aren't they lovely?

Playing Hooky

2010-04-10T21:07:00.004-05:00

This post is totally out of order, but I just pulled the pictures off the little digital camera and thought I'd pop 'em up here too while I was at it.

Back in March we took a family day, pulling the kids out of school early and took them to a children's museum nearby. We were able to check out a pass from our library (love our library here!) so we got in for free - what a deal!

They had this great water room.

Camille painted me a love note on the wall.

Chloe pumped water into the water table.

Caleb caught a fish.

The kids enjoyed building with various construction toys, petting a bearded dragon, learning about plants, dancing, doing virtual sports, playing computer games, shopping for food...we could have stayed all day.

Here's Caleb hard at work building with K'nex toys.

After the children's museum, we grabbed a late lunch at a pizza place nearby. I tried to post the pictures but I can't seem to get them sized correctly. I'll have to try again another time.

Playing Outside

2010-04-10T20:56:00.003-05:00

Spring has sprung! We are so glad spring is finally here, so we've spent lots of time outside over the past couple of weeks.

Isn't this the cutest boy?

He's pretty serious sometimes. (I'd put up pictures of him playing ball, only he was moving too quickly for me to snap a good shot.)

Camille had a blast swinging on her belly.

Such fun!

Chloe decides to belly swing too.

What a sassy kid.

Kids and Daddy.

Egg Hunt

2010-04-10T20:38:00.004-05:00

Because Rob had to work all of Easter weekend, we requested the Easter Bunny come on Monday so we could have an Easter Egg hunt in our back yard.

Caleb helped Chloe find some eggs.

Caleb ponders the contents of one of his eggs (jelly beans and chocolate eggs)

Camille found another egg for her basket.

Chloe looks for eggs.

Camille's so excited to hunt for eggs.

Chloe loves jelly beans so much she's drooling!

Easter

2010-04-10T20:34:00.004-05:00

Rob had to work all of Easter weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) so we kept our Easter festivities at a minimum this year.

Here are the kids and Dad checking out what the Easter Bunny brought before work. (And since Rob has to be out of the house at 6:20, it was E-A-R-L-Y at our house!)

I wonder when the day will come when our children figure the Easter Bunny brings other children candy. Hopefully for now they'll be too distracted with glow sticks, stickers, puzzles, giant pencils, fancy bath puffs, cereal and juice boxes.

Sweet Sisters

2010-04-10T20:28:00.001-05:00

Narnia

2010-04-10T20:20:00.002-05:00

Our library here has a pretty large selection of movies that we can borrow, so we've done a fair share of movie viewing this winter. A couple of months ago we let the children watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I should not have been surprised when our youngest refused to answer to her real name for weeks, preferring alternately Lucy, Susan, Peter or Edmund.

One day the girls made some Narnia art. This sign translated:
Dear Aslan,
Peter and Susan made the sculpture.

Trying to display both the sign and the handiwork.

Peter and Susan (Chloe and Camille) pose by their sculpture of Aslan. If you look carefully, this old banana box has a face drawn on it and two plastic ice cream cones sticking out of the top for ears.

Looks pretty lionish to me!

Lego Fun

2010-04-10T20:12:00.002-05:00

Caleb has been very interested in building with the new Legos he got for Christmas. While he sometimes likes to build elaborate ships or planes, sometimes we get this:

A band of Lego swimmers!

So proud of his handiwork!

Bibliotherapy

2010-02-19T20:07:00.002-05:00

I think just about everyone who reads this little blog of ours knows that I recently graduated from library school. I'm particularly interested in is the topic of bibliotherapy and resiliency. The big idea is that if you expose children and young adults, in particular, to fiction in which characters deal with issues they may face in real life, it can give them a point of reference to fall back on when they may later encounter these issues.

For example, a teenage girl who cuts (or has a friend who does) may read Willow, a book in which the main character uses cutting to help her deal with other issues in her life, although through the course of the book she tries to find ways to overcome this challenge. This book is clearly a work of fiction, but the reader may relate to and learn from the experiences of the characters.

I remember in junior high reading a bunch of books about anorexia around the time a friend of mine was diagnosed with it.

The School Library Journal just came out with an article that talks about how reading fiction can help combat obesity. It's an interesting read.

Click Here

Harry Potter

2010-02-19T19:56:00.002-05:00

Some weeks ago we decided to let the kids watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The kids weren't too interested in watching it at first, but soon grew really interested in it. So we let them watch the second and third movies. All three kids really liked them, but it was Chloe who seemed to like them best.

Why do I say that? Only because Chloe has been playing Harry Potter for the last month and a half. It's pretty funny actually. It goes something like this:

Chloe: Let's play Harry Potter. I'll be Ron Weasley. Camille, you can be Hermione. Caleb, you can be Harry Potter. Mom, you can be Moaning Myrtle. You say, "Harry, if you die, you can share my toilet."

Or like this:

Chloe: Do you want to play Harry Potter with me? I'll be baby Harry Potter. Mommy, you can be Hagrid. Hold me while we ride on Sirius Black's flying motorcycle.

It's particularly amusing to me when the other kids get into the game too. One day I caught the girls (Hermione and Ron Weasley, actually) with their wands (made from pencils) practicing their spells. Camille would point her wand at the door, give it a wave, say "Alohamora" and then open the door, turn around and proclaim, "See, it works!" Camille got so into it the other day, she busted out a pseudo-British accent and decided she was going to "talk like Hermione" the rest of the afternoon. It really lasted about 20 minutes, but it sure made me laugh!

Chloe, though, can turn anything into something Harry Potter related. One particular morning she got dressed by herself. She came down the stairs, so proud of herself and explained, "I'm Harry Potter. I have my purple pants and my orange shirt and even I have my glasses."

See for yourself. This picture was taken after "Harry" finished "swimming" on our front hall rug.

Camille

2010-02-19T19:54:00.001-05:00

Cute Camille playing in the snow.

Sledding

2010-02-19T19:44:00.003-05:00

We received nearly a foot of snow this week and I remembered to bring my camera outside while the girls were playing.

Here Chloe demonstrates how to sled.

First you put down your sled.

Then you think really hard about getting in.

Once you're sitting, wait to see if someone is going to give you a starter push.

When no one steps up to help, you make yourself go. Sometimes you tip over.

But then you get back on.

You may tip again, but it's okay. You're having fun now.

Especially when you see someone's there at the bottom waiting to catch you.

It's nice to have a sister to help you walk back up the hill.

Then you can sled down together.

Snow Day

2010-01-28T21:27:00.004-05:00

Today it snowed enough that they let school out a couple of hours early and Camille didn't have to go to afternoon kindergarten. I felt like I had all of the time in the world since I didn't have to get her ready and out to the bus after lunch. I pulled out our wheat grinder and made whole wheat flour, oat flour, buckwheat flour and 7-grain flour. We have some heavy-duty baking to do now!

After Caleb came home from school, we all put on our snow clothes (including my pink snowpants left over from sixth grade) to shovel the driveway and play.

Chloe was hard at work. As she shoveled, she sang a song: "I love shoveling! I have a shovel! I love shoveling!"

Camille loves the snow.

The big kids head to the sledding hill next door.

Playing in the snow is hard work.

Sister Fun

2010-01-28T21:25:00.002-05:00

The other day the girls played outside in the snow and then warmed up inside with some hot cocoa.

Later they were so warm they pretended they were at the beach! Here they are in a "boat" we picked up at the store.

It's so fun to see the girls getting along.

Mama's Helper

2010-01-28T21:21:00.001-05:00

Chloe helped me make some cookies the other day. Here she is - hard at work.

Barbecue

2010-01-24T23:47:00.002-05:00

One of the few things I will admit to missing about North Carolina is the food. Not all of the food, but definitely barbecue. I was in college the first time someone told me about it and I didn't get what the fuss was about. When I thought "barbecue" I thought of hamburgers and hot dogs as in we're having a barbecue. I couldn't have been more wrong.

There's nothing like a big plate of Eastern North Carolina barbecue - smoked pulled pork with a vinegar based barbecue sauce - with some slaw and hush puppies.

Rob found an oil drum last spring and had these grand plans to make a pig cooker so we could have a big pig pickin' for his 30th birthday. That hasn't happened yet, but I did pick up a big hunk of pork at the store this week and decided to surprise Rob with some barbecue.

Before we left NC our friends gave us a cookbook featuring the best recipes from NC. We busted it out today to see how we could make barbecue sans pig cooker and were excited to find we could make it in the crock pot. It's not quite the same, but pretty close.

Tomorrow my mission is to make it to the store for a head of cabbage so I can make slaw to go with it for dinner tomorrow. We're going to consider this a test run for the next time we have company over for dinner.

In the spirit of barbecue, I'll leave you with a little video. This was the song Rob and I were singing as we worked in the kitchen today. Enjoy!

Cute kid

2010-01-22T14:30:00.003-05:00

There has been a distinct lack of Caleb on this blog lately (not that I've been a prolific blogger by any stretch of the imagination), so I thought I'd remedy that with this gem.

Enjoy!

Our Latest Drama or How We Almost Could Have Died

2010-01-15T22:23:00.003-05:00

So Thursday morning I woke up with a headache. I'm not prone to headaches, but I had felt a sore throat coming on the day before and assumed that I was coming down with something. Considering I had had a particularly poor night of sleep, with more than one child waking me up, I was not surprised to feel so poorly.

I didn't get a chance to mention it to Rob before he mentioned he had a headache. I thought that was a weird coincidence and figured we were coming down with the same bug. Then Caleb woke up not feeling well, also claiming a headache.

I figured the best thing for all of us would be to go back upstairs and spend the day in bed. At the very last second (literally), Caleb decided he really, really wanted to go to school. I'm so glad that he did. It wasn't until re-entering my house that I realized we had a problem.

I made my neighbor come to the door and sniff - she confirmed my suspicions. We had a gas leak of some sort in our house.

The source of the headaches? Carbon monoxide poisoning. Awesome, right? (By the way, we did have a carbon monoxide detector in the house...it just didn't go off.)

Anyway, I called the gas company who sent someone out to check. He came in with his gas reader machine thingamajig and said, "Yup. You have a problem." The CO levels were reading 60 in our kitchen and 200 down in the basement by the furnace. (Anything over 50 will make a healthy adult sick from what I read.) He figured the problem was a cracked furnace and suggested that it be replaced since it was more than 20 years old. The nice part about renting is that we don't have to worry about fixing things like this when they break.

Our landlord got a furnace guy to come out to check out the situation that afternoon. The furnace guy decided it needed to be replaced and said it might not be able to be replaced until Monday. (Remember it's January in New England...Brrr!) We took the landlord up on his offer to pay for a hotel room for us.

We spent the night at a pretty nice little extended stay place not far from where Rob works and the kids were thrilled to get to go on "cation", as Chloe puts it.

The good news is that the furnace guy was able to get and install a new furnace Friday. I spent the day at our neighbors' house but was excited to come home to a warm house.

So, there you have it. The short version of the story since I think I'm getting carpal tunnel.

Be sure to check your carbon monoxide detectors. We'll be getting new ones ASAP!

Chloe

2009-12-23T17:04:00.002-05:00

Chloe really wasn't feeling well yesterday. She wanted to be held or snuggled all day, with the exception of about an hour when she perked up and decided she needed her picture taken too.

It tired her out, though, and she soon crashed. She slept from 4 - 11 pm and then was wide awake and feeling much better.

She's still not herself but he's better already.

Christmas Camille

2009-12-23T16:51:00.002-05:00

Who is this cute little girl in the Christmas dress?

Here's a little clue...

It's Camille!

Being sassy!

She wore her Christmas dress to school for their holiday concert.

She has discovered one of the joys of living in New England - sitting on the vent when the air is on so the hot air fills your dress. I think I'm going to use this pattern to make her some flannel nightgowns.

Ear Trouble

2009-12-22T14:20:00.002-05:00

Everyone in my house has been sharing colds back and forth over the last few weeks. Aside from being all snotty and gross, Chloe woke up this morning a little extra whiny. When I asked her what the matter was, she replied with the following:

"My ear hurt. Someone poke it with a stick."

She hadn't been out of my line of sight so far that morning, plus she was clingier than usual, so I figured it was probably a genuine problem.

Fortunately the doctor was able to fit us in early and Chloe was right. Her ear did hurt. Both of her ears are infected. We got her medicine from the pharmacy and have spent the day at home snuggling on the couch.

Hopefully she'll feel better soon!

Chloe's Baby

2009-12-18T14:39:00.003-05:00

Lately Chloe is very into playing baby. She's also into playing pretend friend - so far there have been Sarah (who is our most frequent visitor), two little teeny, tiny boys, and Moe from the Doodlebops. It's pretty entertaining to watch her interact with these friends.

Here is Chloe after Camille's party with the little doll that she commandeered from her sister. You can tell she's using her to play baby!

(She is also sporting "mermaid eyes" courtesy of Auntie Su.)

Birthday Fun

2009-12-18T14:24:00.003-05:00

Camille celebrated her fifth birthday a couple of weeks early with a tea party with her friends from kindergarten.

Here are the girls all dressed up in their party finery.

Camille is wearing a dress I made for her. I was going to make a pinafore to go over the top, but she decided she'd rather have the sash instead.

Her friends brought her some makeup, books, toys and really great art kits.

We had star shaped cupcakes with shiny silver sprinkles on them.

The girls also ate a tea party lunch (with finger sandwiches, fruit, vegetable sticks, pretzels and two kinds of juice), decorated canvas tote bags with fabric markers and played numerous games of musical chairs. Camille had a great time!

After the party, Auntie Su pulled out her makeup and gave the girls pretty eyes. Here Camille is sporting "mermaid eyes."

Where did she learn about vanity?

More pictures coming

2009-11-30T14:57:00.001-05:00

We have had the busiest fall ever. Between the kids going back to school, me doing an internship at the local high school library, Rob working and the miscellaneous craziness that comes near the end of the year, we've been swamped. That's my excuse for not posting pictures and I'm sticking to it!

I have a couple of big projects left to do for school so I can graduate and once those are done I'll be back to posting with some semblance of regularity.

Cute New 'Do

2009-11-30T14:46:00.001-05:00

Camille has been growing her hair out for the longest time and today we finally decided it was time to do something new. We went to the hairdresser where she got most of her hair cut off into this cute new 'do! She's going to send the hair we got cut off to Locks of Love so some little girl can have her pretty hair. She was really excited about it and I'm really excited about how cute her hair looks now!

Back to School

2009-09-09T19:44:00.004-05:00

We went on vacation the last couple of weeks in August and got back the day before school started. Things have been extra-crazy at our house since then - Rob is back to work, I started my internship a couple of days a week at the local high school library and the big kids are in school. Chloe is enjoying having a little alone with mom or dad time, or at least she would if we didn't insist that she take a nap!

Here's a few snaps of the kids on the first days of school.

Caleb wasn't too keen on getting his picture taken that morning and made a game out of being as grumpy as possible for me. I did catch him laughing in his attempt to thwart the camera.

We did have a good chuckle over Chloe who decided "Me go school too. Me ride bus." She put on her shoes (on the wrong feet) and grabbed her backpack and jacket (over her jammies) and she was ready to go!

Camille, on the other hand, was happy to oblige the photographer. I was at my internship that day so I missed her big send-off, though I was there to greet her when she got off the bus. (She goes to school from 12-3:30.)

Chloe apparently tried to catch the bus on Camille's first day too!

Here is Camille with her neighborhood friends. All four of them catch the kindergarten bus together.

A cute picture of the girls and their daddy.

Makeup Artist for Hire

2009-08-13T19:34:00.004-05:00

She has lots of experience and her rates are very reasonable. Really.

What?
Not interested?
She'll be so disappointed when she hears the news.

(Note to me: the bedroom shelf is not high enough apparently. From now on, makeup goes in the closet with the door latched. Heaven help us all when she learns to turn the doorknob.)

Eating a Popsicle is Serious Business

2009-08-13T19:20:00.002-05:00

But don't take my word for it...take his!

Chloe at the Park

2009-08-04T15:40:00.003-05:00

The last time we went to the little splash park, Chloe did not want to spend any time under the sprinklers. We got lost getting there (though technically we weren't lost, we just didn't know how to get where we were supposed to be. I knew where I was the entire time, just not quite where it was that we wanted to go.) so by the time we got there and changed her into her swim suit, it wasn't really worth the trip to spend 20 seconds under the sprinklers.

Today, however, she did not let me down. It was all I could do to get her OUT of the water! How cute is she?

Caleb at the Park

2009-08-04T15:33:00.005-05:00

Caleb was really fun to take pictures of today. Usually he sees the camera and runs the other direction (I have a lot pictures of the back of his head) but today he was so busy I snapped some fun shots. He makes the greatest faces. I love his freckled face!

Camille at the Park

2009-08-04T15:20:00.003-05:00

This morning we went to a park that had a little splash pad. The kids had a blast! Here's Camille:

The Other Big Mess

2009-08-03T19:00:00.002-05:00

Today seemed to be one big mess to clean up after another. This was today's final mess (knock on wood). I ran upstairs to brush my teeth after dinner and came back to find this:

Chloe had decided to "cook" with this bag of cornmeal she managed to weasel out of the pantry. Nice. Not pictured is the pile of crackers on the dining room floor. Apparently she thought they were animal crackers (she says them "amiels. cackers.") and when she realized she grabbed the wrong box it was a much better solution to dump the whole box on the floor than to simply put them back in the pantry or on the counter.

Is it rude to say I was a happy mother when bedtime rolled around tonight?

Just Like Mom??

2009-08-03T18:51:00.002-05:00

Chloe, for the little tomboy that she seems to be, is pretty crazy about makeup. If she happens to be in the room when I'm putting makeup on, she begs and pleads to have some too. I usually give in and (pretend) give her some too. This morning she was using some pretty advanced two-year old logic to try to convince me to let her use my eyelash curler.

C: What dat?
M: This? It's called an eyelash curler.
C: Me. Eyeash cuwler?
M: No, sorry. It's just for mommies.
C: Me, mommy.
M: Are you a mommy?
C: Yeah, me mommy. Mommy baby. Eyeash cuwler pease?

I made the mistake this afternoon of leaving both my makeup bag out on the counter and my bedroom door unlatched. The kids were playing upstairs while I was industriously cleaning the house (mmmm hmmmm). After a while I realized I hadn't heard Chloe for a few minutes, so I went up to take a peek. It took me a minute to find her - I think she was thinking invisible, making it tough to see her. When I did find her, though, this is what I saw.

You can't see it all here, but she helped herself to face powder, some moisturizer and lipstick. While I'm grateful she did not manage to open my new eye shadow, I am now in the market for a new tube of lipstick.

Needless to say, she was very proud of herself.

Public Service Announcement

2009-08-03T16:31:00.004-05:00

If you ever get the great idea to throw some bacon on the grill while you're making chicken for dinner, don't neglect to put it in a pan.

And be sure to have a fire extinguisher handy to put out the fire that will certainly occur if you don't.

Also be sure you clean the grease and extinguisher gunk off the grill while your husband is still at work so that he'll never know. If you're feeling really ambitious, you can clean the house really well so if he does notice that the grill is awfully clean he'll think that you did it because you ran out of things to do inside the house.

Not that I would know anything about this, of course!

Bump what?

2009-08-02T21:58:00.004-05:00

My kids' fascination with infomercials continues.

The other night I was getting the kids all showered, Camille was combing her hair in front of the mirror. "Mom," she said. "I think you need to get some bump its."

M: "What are bump its?"
C: "They're these things that you stick underneath your hair so your hair sticks all poofy and not flat to your head. Then you'd be so beautiful."

Maybe I should look into them...

They have a great commercial here: https://www.bumpits.com/

You know, Christmas is right around the corner. I need to start getting serious about Christmas shopping, especially if I'm going to do all my shopping from infomericals...

Summer Fun

2009-08-02T21:29:00.013-05:00

A quick picture update.

Playing in the pool.

Eating chives from the herb garden.

Someone's sassy.

Don't you just love these freckles?

Chloe gets ready to mow the lawn.

Playing bubbles

Caleb's pet moth

What is Chloe looking at here?

An extra friend to play with in the pool. The kids found this frog and thought he'd like a swim.

He was much more interested in making a lily pad out of Caleb's swim trunks.

A silly little girl.

Rock Star, Roll Star, Baby

2009-06-16T21:26:00.002-05:00

This morning Camille and I enjoyed some time by ourselves. Caleb was at school and Rob took Chloe with him to run errands. When I put her hair in a ponytail, she told me she wanted a high ponytail so she could be a rock star. Since she thought she looked like a rock star, she needed to act like one too. She grabbed this toy guitar we have kicking around (the guitar, plus the battery-powered amp and a microphone, came from a yard sale a few weeks ago for $4) and started acting like one. She likes to make up her own songs. This one went something like this:

I'm a rock star, I'm a roll star, baby. Can't take me away. I'm a rock star, I'm a roll star, baby. Can't take me away. I gave her a brief lesson on components of a good song - you need both the chorus and several verses to really make the song work. We spent some additional time writing some lyrics to the song. It's really quite a lovely one.

Without further ado, here is our rock star, roll star, baby!

She was so cute that I had her call my sister and sing to her. Auntie Su told her that she was so good that she should go to NYC and sing with her band. Camille told her that she needed to practice first so she'd be ready!

Playdates

2009-06-16T21:24:00.002-05:00

This weekend Caleb had a friend over to play. The kids had a blast. Now we're so ready for summer and the opportunities to spend time with friends during the week.

Picking Flowers

2009-06-16T21:20:00.002-05:00

Camille is our resident floral arranger. She is always finding flowers and other foliage in the yard to make pretty bouquets for us to enjoy. Here she is picking flowers with our neighbor.

Tip toeing through the tulips. Or maybe just some clovers.

Who's So Cute?

2009-06-16T21:19:00.001-05:00

India?

2009-06-13T21:01:00.004-05:00

This week was very rainy so I got a bunch of movies from the library for the kids to watch. One of the videos was from the Kidz Bop series. I guess I thought my kids (who like to dance) would dance along with the music from the movie. Yeah. Not so much. They enjoyed watching it, but it wasn't the active experience I had anticipated. Anyway, the video had the song lyrics running across the bottom of the screen so Caleb - who can read - could learn the words. One of the songs was that one that goes "I'm coming up so you'd better get the party started." There's a line that says "I'll be your operator - you can call anytime - I'll be your connection to the party line."

Tonight while the kids were eating dinner I was singing that part of the song - which, unfortunately, was the only part of the song that I could remember. Caleb wanted to know what an operator was so I tried to explain about old fashioned telephone systems needing an operator to physically connect the wires to connect the call. I explained that we don't really have operators like that anymore.

Camille: There are operators.
Me: There are?
Camille: Yes. They live in India.
Me: India? How do you know?
Camille: I went there.
Me: You did?
Camille: Yes. With my Nana and Papa. When I went to stay with Nana and Papa we took a really fast train all the way to India and I didn't even have to sit in my car seat!
Me: Really? What was your favorite part? The food?
Camille: No. They didn't feed us any food.
Me: How come?
Camille: They were too busy chasing us.
Me: Who was chasing you?
Camille: The Indians. (*Miming being chased by someone with a bow and arrow*)
Me: Why were they chasing you?
Camille: Because they could tell we weren't Indian.
Me: How could they tell you weren't Indian.
Camille: (*looking at me like I'm absolutely stupid*) Because we weren't wearing Indian clothes.

I just love what Camille comes up with...she says the funniest things. She just about had me in stitches with that first part. "There are operators. They live in India." She just might be right, though it sounds like we need to have some discussion to explain the difference between Indians from India and Indians who are really Native Americans.

2009-05-24T06:35:00.002-05:00

I've mentioned before how much my kids love informercials and always want to get products they see on infomercials...

This morning Caleb turns the channel off PBS and onto some random channel, stopping once he recognized an infomercial on the screen. He sat and watched for a few minutes about Cindy Crawford and why her skin looked so good, even at age 41. (Apparently the secret is some fancy skin doctor and a brand of skin care products called Miraculous Beauty.)

The next thing I know, Caleb's asking me, "Can boys use that stuff?"

So we are continuing to compile our list of tv products for our kids for Christmas - Camille will get her Snuggie, Caleb will get his Miraculous Beauty products (since he's getting older, he apparently wants to retain his youthful complexion) OR Hip Hop Abs. (He saw the infomercial and learned to do one of the exercises and now does it all the time.)...Chloe has not as yet chosen a favorite, but rest assured - we'll keep our television on until she does!

Information

2009-05-23T20:17:00.002-05:00

This morning Rob was out and about and happened to stop by some yard sales and pick up some treasures for the kids. Among the treasures was an Easy Bake Oven. After Rob brought it out for them, he stood outside talking to the neighbors while the kids rushed up to Caleb's room to inspect the goods. I was working on a birthday cake in the kitchen and didn't realize what was going on until Camille came down asking for my phone.

C: I am just going to use your phone for a minute, okay Mommy?
M: Why do you need my phone Camille?
C: I have to call somebody.
M: Who do you need to call?
C: There's a number on the box that says if you have questions call.

Apparently my children couldn't figure out how to open the oven to put the cake inside (not that they had cake ready to bake...they were just scoping things out) so they were going to call the company to ask. Fortunately I ran interception and got them to bring the oven back downstairs (they had to make a second trip upstairs for the manuals). I explained that you don't open the Easy Bake oven, you just stick the baking pan in the hole in the side with the purple handle that they were using for sword fighting. (They didn't believe me, however, until their dad came in and told them the exact same thing. Apparently Daddy knows much more than Mommy does about toy cookery.)

We mixed up some cake batter, stuck it in the oven and twelve minutes later had the smallest cake known to man. We divided it up (almost) evenly between my three children and the two little neighbor kids (so everyone pretty much got one small bite). Delicious!

Playing in the Back Yard

2009-05-21T20:23:00.002-05:00

Just a few pictures from this afternoon...

Camille swinging

Chloe riding on the big swing

Chloe stood on one end of the yard and kept calling out to Rob - "Daaa-dee! Daaa-dee!"

Oh dear!

At the Beach

2009-05-21T20:20:00.001-05:00

The other day I didn't want the girls to watch tv in the morning so they found their bathing suits and pretended they were at the beach.

Looking at her sunglasses (right before they broke).

A pretty smile.

Our hike

2009-05-21T20:12:00.003-05:00

The other day we took the kids for a hike up a trail in one of the local state parks.

Here Caleb is thrilled to hike.

What a cute smile!

Checking out some trees.

This is the tower at the top of the trail.

My family on top of the tower.

Caleb thought that since we were in a tower, they should do some fighting.

The girls played a few rounds of Ring Around the Rosies.

And Camille did a little dancing.

It was certainly a hike we'll have to repeat. Everyone had a blast!

You're How Old?

2009-05-19T06:11:00.002-05:00

This morning Camille comes out with this little gem:

"Mommy! It's your birthday! You're 81!"

Me: "Thanks, Camille, but I'm 31."
Camille: "Yeah. That's what I meant. Happy Birthday!"

Nothing like really feeling old before my time!

Sharing a birthday is really fun, especially when I get to share it with my mom and my daughter. We're lucky enough to live close enough now to get together to celebrate!

I'll give a report later...maybe some pictures.

Sewing, sewing

2009-04-22T20:08:00.002-05:00

I spent yesterday and today making this quilt top. Not bad for working without a pattern.

Tomorrow we're taking a trip to go pick up Camille from my mom's house. (We're actually going to split the difference and meet at the mall.) She had a fun time, but we're looking forward to having her home again. It's been a little too quiet without her! Hopefully we'll have time to run by my favorite fabric store to get some backing fabric for this quilt - and whatever other treasures I see!

A little bit of everyone

2009-04-19T20:14:00.003-05:00

The cutest messy face on the block!

Chloe in an outfit I made for her this week.

I made the outfit Camille is wearing and Caleb's shorts too.

We enjoyed a fun visit with Grandma this week!

While she was here, she made me this dress. Camille told me I looked so pretty. Isn't she so sweet? (Ask her and she'll tell you!)

She's spending a few days this week at "Camp Nana" so it's going to be quiet at our house!

The Swinger

2009-04-19T19:54:00.003-05:00

Camille has finally learned how to swing on her own! This is a big deal at our house, so we celebrated by taking a sequence of pictures to commemorate the occasion!

All Dressed Up

2009-04-12T18:45:00.002-05:00

Here are my three, all dressed up in their Easter clothes. These were taken after church, which gave Chloe enough time to pull out her bow and break Camille's, and Caleb enough time to break his tie. Despite that, they pulled off probably the best Easter pictures yet. We didn't even have to force them to pretend they like each other!

Happy Easter!

Easter Fun

2009-04-12T18:28:00.004-05:00

This has been a fun week, gearing up for Easter.

One morning, the girls and I made these.

Camille and Chloe had a fun time gluing and sticking to make these little puppets. This is when I discovered Chloe has a favorite color. Every time I gave her a color choice, she would inevitably choose "purple, purple." (Camille's favorite, unsurprisingly, is pink.)

Camille was so proud of her creations.

I think Chloe is using hers to cover her eye to read an eye chart!

Another day, Camille and Chloe helped me make an Easter cake.

This little guy, Mr. Funny Bunny, was fun to make. The girls helped me mix the cake (we used a mix because it was faster and required fewer steps) and later that day Camille helped me make cream cheese frosting (from scratch since I only had two extra hands in the kitchen, not two...plus I didn't have any frosting in my house). Camille was so excited about our little creation. We filled up on the test cake (we baked two cakes - a very good idea since one of the cakes fell apart when we tried to get it out of the pan) so we gave Mr. Funny Bunny to our neighbors.

This morning the kids woke up to find the Easter Bunny had been to our house and had left baskets of goodies - books, flash cards, frisbees, bubbles, sunglasses, toothbrushes, notebooks, fruit snacks and granola bars. Everyone also got three Hershey's kisses - enough to satisfy their cravings for sweets until after church when they could go find the eggs the Easter Bunny left behind.

Here's Caleb, obviously loving his new Mad Libs book.

And Camille loved her Snow White sunglasses.

Chloe was so excited to find fruit snacks in her basket that it took her a while to notice she had anything else! When she did notice them, she was particularly enthralled with her "Dado" (Dora) sunglasses. (They are not pictured here because she had her eyes closed in every other picture I took of her this morning. Maybe she wasn't awake after all.)

After church today, we did get to do some Easter egg hunting. Camille was super excited about it this year.

Look at all the eggs she found!

Caleb had a blast too. Next year we're going to have to make it harder for him. He was way too quick.

This one was more than happy to go slowly, eating the candy out of each egg and dropping the empty plastic shell back on the ground! We had to intercede and insist that she stick the eggs in her basket before she eat the candy.

Easter Bunny Wish List

2009-04-05T20:25:00.002-05:00

Can you guess what Caleb wants the Easter Bunny to bring him this year? Hopefully he won't have to wait long enough to ask Santa!

Dangerous hobby

2009-03-30T20:10:00.001-05:00

I am typing this one handed. Read why here.

The Fiber Show

2009-03-25T07:28:00.003-05:00

This morning the girls and I took Caleb out to catch the bus. After he left, we stayed outside talking to my neighbor until the girls got cold and went in. I followed Camille in about three minutes later to find she had turned on the TV and made herself a snack.

When I saw she was eating sliced almonds out of a plastic bag, I nicely requested she eat them at the table. "But Mom!" she exclaimed. "The TV is on."

M: We can turn the TV off and then you won't miss anything.
C: But it's the fiber show! I love the fiber show!

I peeked at the TV and saw she was watching an episode of Good Morning America (or some other morning talk news show) and they were comparing different breakfast cereals to see which ones had the most fiber.

That led to a lovely conversation about the importance of fiber and how people who don't eat enough of it have trouble pooping.

"I'm going to eat my fiber," Camille decided. "I love fiber!"

Photos

2009-03-24T22:07:00.004-05:00

Here are some quick photos of the last week or so.

Chloe wearing the green for St. Patrick's Day.

Camille and Chloe having a picnic together in the living room.

Camille was sick one day. I knew it only because she put herself down for a nap at rest time.

Caleb has been big into writing in his little notebooks these days.

Chloe holding Baby Elephant and the little doll quilt I made for her.

A sweet picture of Camille and Daddy.

Starting Over

2009-03-11T19:42:00.002-05:00

So Rob and I took Chloe this afternoon to the children's hospital to have a renal ultrasound and a VCUG. At four months she was diagnosed with urinary reflux and since it worsened during the next year, she had a procedure done in October to correct it. Today's appointment was to check and see if the procedure worked.

The good news:
The staff at the hospital were super great. (Probably what happens because we were at a children's hospital versus a regular we-serve-everyone hospital.) Chloe did great. She didn't cry at all during the ultrasound and was super cooperative, and tolerated at least half of the VCUG well. The super great news is that the procedure worked and the reflux on her left side is completely gone.

The bad news:
She now is refluxing on the right side. We now have to follow up with a busy pediatric urology office here who sent me a letter this week saying our April 21 appointment was rescheduled for May 19. Nice. It looks like once we get in to the doctor we'll be starting all over again to fix the new reflux problem.

I think for the next round of VCUGs, I'll send Rob with Chloe and stay home. They're awful to watch and I anticipate they'll only get worse as she gets bigger. Here's hoping we never have to have one done on the other two kids - what a nightmare!

Fabric Store

2009-03-09T18:59:00.002-05:00

We had a rainy day today so everyone had to play inside. Camille had friends over to play for a while this afternoon while Caleb was at school - we have three other kids Camille's age on our little street. It's so awesome for her to have friends to play with, especially since we don't have her in preschool. After Caleb got home from school and Chloe got up from her nap, the three Cs played Fabric Store. They raided my fabric bins for fun pieces of fabric, hung them around the living room and took turns being the customers.

Then they decided to use the fabrics as blankets while they all snuggled up for an episode of Dora the Explorer.

When they were done playing with the fabric, I made them fold it the best they could, then put it in a bag so it can be their special fabric collection. Hopefully this will keep them out of my good fabric!

DMV Satisfaction

2009-03-07T13:01:00.002-05:00

So this morning we (finally) hit up the DMV for some new driver's licenses. They have Saturday hours so I figured that would be the easiest for us (not to mention the last day we could do it before we have to register Camille for kindergarten, for which we need a current photo ID). They are open from 8 am - 12:30 pm, so I thought we'd be really smart and get there for eight so we could be in and out. Sounds simple, right? Wrong.

Apparently half of Connecticut had that same idea, but they were smart enough not to bring their kids! Since there were two of us, I waited in line while Rob took the kids outside for a walk. He came back in when we were close to the front of the line. Then, as we sat and waited for our names to be called to take our eye exams (CT doesn't require a written or driving test, only an eye exam which took all of thirty-four seconds...they just want a lot of money!) where we read books to the kids and bribed them with leftover SweeTart hearts (nothing like candy at nine in the morning).

Fortunately the line moved pretty quickly and we were soon called back for our photos and signatures. That station was manned by the nicest DMV employee I've ever encountered. Not only did she let me re-do my signature because it was too sloppy (not that it could be anything but on those electronic touch pads...so much for the beautiful signature I've practiced for years) but she also re-did my picture a couple of times until she thought it looked decent.

Three minutes later, new licenses in hand, we were out the door. I looked at Rob's license picture first. Poor man. He'll be spending the next six years with a license picture that could almost be confused for a mug shot. Then I looked at mine. In comparison, it looks like a glamor shot. It's far from the best picture I've seen of myself, but it is certainly the best DMV photo I've ever taken.

Rob was telling me about some study he heard that was done in CT to see what could be done to increase customer satisfaction with the DMV. They tried shorter lines, and some other things I can't remember. What did the trick was allowing a retake of the license photo. People who had a decent photo apparently reported 50% greater satisfaction than those who were not allowed a retake. Or something like that. Interesting.

It may have cost us an arm and a leg, but for the next five years, I'll be sporting a fairly decent photo ID. Happy day!

New Duds

2009-03-05T20:12:00.002-05:00

I spent the morning working on some sewing projects. In addition to my wonky pinwheel blocks that I was able to finish today, I created these.

Look who's so cute!

Modeling for the camera.

Sweet sisters.

Someone wants to be a movie star.

Glamorous.

Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get the house cleaned!

Playing at the Park

2009-03-01T19:41:00.005-05:00

****WARNING: SUPER PICTURE OVERLOAD****

It was so gorgeous here on Friday - temperatures were in the high 50s. It was cloudy and threatened to rain that night, but compared to the 30 degree temperatures we've had here, it was so lovely. We decided to head to the park once Caleb got home from school. We discovered this great park a few miles from our house - it has this enormous sledding hill, a kid playground, a basketball court, a volleyball court, picnic areas and a little beach. The ground was all soggy and wet when we went there, which limited the number of things we could do, but we are so excited to go back and visit as spring arrives and the weather gets nicer.

Here Rob helps Chloe over a puddle.

It was so windy - just look at Chloe's pigtails!

Rob was so happy to have a "warm" day to go outside and play. I think of all of us, he's having the hardest time adjusting to the cold!

Climbing up the net.

Hanging out on the bridge.

Swinging from the monkey bars.

Chloe excited about something.

Caleb and Camille watching the geese on the pond.

Camille climbs.

And slides.

Chloe tries to climb, but doesn't get very far!

Caleb slides.

Chloe pretends to sleep.

Caleb and Camille sneak up on the ducks.

Look at them go!

What did we do???

Clowning Around

2009-03-01T19:22:00.003-05:00

Today after church we took a drive down to New Haven to pick up some fabric a lady had for me. On the way, we passed this car with stickers on it advertising this web site: tailstheclown.com. I glanced over as we drove, and there was Tails herself, all decked out in her clown regalia. It was so unexpected - how often do you see a clown on the road? - so I did a double take. She smiled. I wanted to be sure the kids saw her, so I had Rob slow the van down so they could catch up to us. They did, and she smiled and waved at the kids. So nice!

Maybe we'll hire her as entertainment for Rob's big 3-0 birthday bash this spring! He'd totally love it, don't you think?

The Big Cheese

2009-02-26T19:41:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Chloe climbed into this bin to play. She played car for about 30 seconds before she decided she wanted to read.

She was so cute, crammed into this little bin with her books that I had to take a picture. You can tell she wasn't prepared for the first shot.

But she certainly turned on the charm for the next one!

I absolutely love that she knows how to cheese smile for the camera!

Finished Project

2009-02-24T20:09:00.002-05:00

I think pretty much everyone I talk to on at least a semi-regular basis knows that I've been working on a quilt for my sister as a wedding present. I have finally finished it, only five months late!

For pictures, see here.

Good Books

2009-02-24T19:43:00.001-05:00

Today the girls both wanted to read Superhero ABCs, so I suggested they sit and read it together.

Aren't these sweet sister moments the best?

Our Little Movie Star

2009-02-24T19:40:00.003-05:00

All dressed up and packing her purse for a night out on the town.

Signing her autograph for one of her fans.

For her latest movie role, she played an artist who got her start creating bathtub art.

This little girl just makes us laugh!

There once was a little girl...

2009-02-10T19:48:00.002-05:00

Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good
She was very, very good.

And when she was bad
She was horrid.

Enough said.

Outdoor Fun

2009-02-08T20:16:00.004-05:00

Today was the most beautiful day - fifty degrees and sunny. Caleb was not feeling well so we sent Rob and the girls off to church and stayed home so he wouldn't share his germs with anyone else. I convinced him to get dressed and go outside for a while, figuring some fresh air would do both of us some good. He wore a jacket since he was sick, but I was comfortable in just a sweatshirt and jeans. Love it!

We brought out the recycling and Caleb realized that some of the items in the recycling bin would make great snow tools.

He wasn't sure about me taking his picture, though.

Caleb filled all of these cans with snow and was preparing to build a snow castle.

He started stacking them in the driveway until I pointed out that Daddy would probably run them over with the van when they all got back from church, not realizing that it was something special Caleb had made.

Then he decided he'd be better off making it off in front of the house where the rest of the snow is.

Once he was done, he thought it would be great fun to pitch snowballs at his mother. I think this one was taken when I told him it was time to go back inside.

This warm weather was a nice reprieve from all the cold and snow we've had this winter. It is making all of us yearn for spring.

"Arrgh!" Caleb exclaimed while we were outside. "There are still five more weeks of winter."

Yes, but there are only five more weeks of winter!

Daddy's Little Girl

2009-02-06T16:47:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning Camille requested I snap this photo.

Camille's Favorite Things

2009-02-04T00:56:00.002-05:00

Tonight we had our friend Melanee over for dinner. I made black bean soup and an had little Mexican nacho bar so the kids could fix what they wanted. I took the time to cut up some black olives because I knew the kids liked them.

As she was eating some olives, Camille informed us that "Olives are my favorite black thing."

After we chuckled for a minute, Melanee asked Camille what some of her other favorites are. The conversation went a little something like this:

M: What is your favorite red thing?
C: Tomatoes! I love tomatoes! My brother doesn't like tomatoes.
M: What is your favorite yellow thing?
C: Hmmm...let me think about it for a minute. I know! Chips! (Tortilla chips were sitting in front of her on the table.)

I thought the conversation was just about over when Camille proclaimed, "Know what my favorite brown thing is?"
M: What is your favorite brown thing?
C: My MOM! And my dad!

We laughed and laughed. I never would have categorized myself as such, but she explained later as she put on her pajamas - "Your skin is kind of tan brown and your hair is brown."

Makes sense to me now, but it was so funny then!

Caleb's letter to the president

2009-02-03T10:43:00.004-05:00

I am not one to discuss anything remotely political if I can help it, but I thought this paper Caleb came home with yesterday was definitely worth sharing.

I am keeping all of his spelling as he wrote it. I'm sure you can appreciate the joy of a six year old's writing.

Dear Presint Obama,
good luck.
macks good choys's.
no fiting.
mack peise.
dont giv up.
kep the world clenr.

Love,
Caleb

Good advice if I ever heard it. How did my kid get to be so smart?

Crazy in Jammies

2009-02-02T19:50:00.001-05:00

My kids were a mess last night. Caleb keeps squeezing into these pajamas that are WAY too small - he keeps sneaking them back in his drawer before I can toss them. Camille ended up in Chloe's nightgown (it wandered to her side of the drawer and because of that she was convinced it was hers, despite the fact it barely covered her bottom). Chloe spent most of the evening running around in this little t-shirt until I chased her down and wrestled her into some real pajamas.

Enjoy the craziness!

It's Out!

2009-01-31T07:49:00.002-05:00

Phew!

He did come home from school yesterday with it dangling, but before dinner he wiggled it front and wiggled it back and then it popped out! It's so funny how different Caleb looks without that tooth. But so cute!

The Tooth Fairy did come last night and left a whole dollar. Caleb told me just what he thinks he could use the dollar for: "Ice cream money!" (They sell ice cream during lunch one day a week and he's always itching to get one.)

I told him he could maybe save up all of his Tooth Fairy money and buy something good. He thought about it for a second before replying, "Nah! Ice cream money!" and dancing around the kitchen while his sister cried that she didn't get a dollar from the Tooth Fairy! But that's a whole other post in itself...

Pretty Things

2009-01-30T14:44:00.003-05:00

I finished this little quilt top today while the girls were resting.

This pattern was so easy to do. I may make another one sometime.

Will it ever happen?

2009-01-30T14:35:00.004-05:00

Caleb has a loose tooth. He lost two teeth last year (both bottom middle ones) and neither of them were a big deal. The first one came out when he was vacationing at Nana's and he didn't realize it fell out until it disappeared - they never found the tooth. The second one he let me yank. This third one is a different story.

The thing has been wiggly for a few weeks at least but no one has paid attention to it until recently. Last week in P.E., Caleb fell and bonked his mouth on the floor, loosening his already loose tooth. Since then, he's been wiggling and wiggling it and the stubborn tooth won't come out. And Caleb refuses to let anyone yank it out for him (even though after I pulled the last one he told me it didn't hurt at all).

It's so loose, the thing is hanging on by half a root.

Here's a close up. Not for the faint of heart.

Here he is last night, doing his best to get it out. I'm so ready for this tooth to be out that I promised him a dollar in addition to what the Tooth Fairy brings if he could get it out before bed. No deal. My mom promised him a "golden dollar coin" (his coinage of choice) if he could get it out before bed. Two bucks in addition to the Tooth Fairy's loot. It would have persuaded me, but didn't work for Caleb.

Here he is looking worried that I might yank the tooth out for him. (Or sad when I broke the news that it was bedtime and his chance to pull it out was over, along with the extra money incentives.)

He went to school this morning with the tooth dangling. I hope he doesn't gross out his teacher! He'll be home soon. I wonder if he'll still be sporting his tooth when he gets home...