Even Big Boys Need Naps Sometimes!

Sissy's Recital

Madeline had her year end dance recital yesterday evening. Earlier in the day had been the dress rehearsal. Maddy did a good job with that, but didn't look super confident and had a couple of mistakes. Of course I thought she was awesome and I was so proud of her, but she was pretty nervous for the big show. Well, once the pressure was poured on she definitely came through! She had great stage presence, was so confident, and remembered her steps and spots. She looked so grown up out there! The pics I took were all during the rehearsal, and the videos were during the recital. You can definitely see how much more 'in her element' she was at the recital! She had her BFF Diana switched dance schools last year, and they've worked SO hard this year. I am so proud of them both!








Videos:
Ballet:

Tap:


Another fun thing about recitals in a small town is that you know a lot of the other dancers' families. One of Carter's BFFs, Abby, had her debut last night. She was D-A-R-L-I-N-G. Carter was so excited to get to see her dance. He kept telling me he didn't know she'd be dancing with the big girls!

It's that time of year again!

Strawberry time! I've noticed lately that my blogs throughout the year repeat themselves (more than) a little bit. So, it's mid-June, which means it's time to pick berries! Today we had Grayson and Molly with us, so the six of us headed out for a half of an hour or so at the berry patch. We had another engagement, so we would have stayed longer- they were doing great! Actually, the 3 big kids were doing great, but Molly and Carter weren't so into filling the buckets. At one point Molly had a few berries bouncing around in there, but pretty soon she was all, "Sarri! There's no berries in my bucket!" (Except in her cute, funny little 3 year old voice.) Carter got about 20 berries, and then decided to go sit in the car.

"Why are you taking pictures right now?!?!"



This angle isn't really fair to Garrett- he, Grayson, and Maddy all had about the same amount. I had the most, and while I know my toughest competition was a 9 year old, this was actually the first time in my life I ended up with the most berries. I'm a terrible picker!

They all ate a bunch, and so far we've enjoyed them fresh and plain, in a milkshake, and I've made some freezer jam. But the best thing was Carter and I sitting in his birthday helicopter eating bowls of fresh strawberries with just a little TJ chocolate syrup on them while we chatted. I have no pictures of that because I was too busy soaking in his little freckles, memorizing the silhouette of his little nose, and listening to him chatter about how good the chocolate was and how he didn't know I was going to put chocolate on it, and wow he really loves chocolate.

I can't really think of anything better than this time of year.

Typos

I am a pretty fast typer. Typist? Fast, but not exactly what you'd call . . . accurate. Now that I do some emailing, texting, and sometimes blogging on my iphone, my typos have increased. I usually correct myself, but sometimes the typos that I send (or recieve) seriously make me "LOL". (I never use that acronym IRL, BTW. (For my parents: IRL= In Real Life and BTW= By The Way and LOL=Laugh out Loud)

Some examples:

• Hey! How's it hoing?
• I've been sooo busty lately! (I wish!)
• If you want the ham to be all sugar this year, I need you to stop at Costco and get the kind I like. (FYI 'ham' was supposed to be 'jam'- because some years I sweeten my jam with honey and Joel likes it better with sugar)
• If she wants to hot a letter, too, I'd live that! (This was one I received from a fellow iphoner- I can't even remember what it was supposed to be!)
  

As much as I'd love to blame it all on the iphone, I've been doing the busty/busy move for years now. That's all I've got right now, but this will probably be a topic that gets updated now and then, because, well, seriously- some stuff just has to be shared.

Conversations at Second Base

Garrett: You know why I HATE t-ball?
Me: You don't hate t-ball! But why?
Garrett: Because when I'm the base runner those other team kids are MEAN they always call me a loser and stuff.
Me: What?!?
Joel (sort of more excited than I liked): That's called trash talking!
Me: Garrett, that's not okay! You just ignore them, that's really naughty.
Garrett (in his super serious Marlboro Man voice): Well. Last time the kid said, 'I know about everything. Even space.' And I said, 'Everyone knows about space.'

Burn!

But seriously, can you believe these six-year-olds trash talk? What?!?

Summer!!

The kids made cards for their teachers. Garrett's says,
From Garrett
To Miz Mowldoon.
Her name is Mrs. Muldoon. Pretty good, huh? I love that he put a period at the end of it all.

Well, school is FINALLY done! I can't believe that my kids are done with kindergarten and third grade. It's unreal how fast this parenting gig goes. I'm big on the last day of school photo shoot- to compare with the first day of school photo shoot and commemorate another year well done. Today all the kids were dressed in their last day of school outfits, looking scrubbed, clean, and oh-so-cute. We were doing great on time (for once), and everyone was happy. Ten minutes before we were going to leave Maddy told me she didn't feel great and 20 seconds after that she emptied her already pretty empty tummy. For like 5 minutes. Poor thing was so heartbroken to miss the last day of school! She's had such a great year. She's grown as a reader, as a writer, and in her second language learning. I'm so proud of her and I felt awful for her having to miss today. She was all amped up for her last day of school cry (it's an annual event!) and our tradition of milkshakes after to numb the pain. (I believe in starting an inappropriate relationship with food at an early age.) After we took G to school I stopped at Walmart and bought her High School Musical 3- which she's had her eye on for months, and I wasn't going to buy until next Christmas. It definitely brought a smile to her face, which was exactly what I was going for.

Never to sick to pose!

Then there is Garrett. He's such a funny boy and so very different than his sister. He has had a good year in kindergarten in a lot of ways. He likes his teacher a lot. He has made new friends and become closer with the friends he already had. He may or may not have his first crush. He is a reader now! And, my favorite thing? His writing went from a page filled with 'O', 'I' and artsy 'G's (traditional 'G' with much swirling within, and sometimes upside down) to a page full of phonetic writing that we can read and makes us laugh a little too. While Maddy generally sobs her eyes out at the end of each school year, Garrett writes "I can't wait for school to be over!" on his memory book page that was supposed to be about his field trip. But who can blame him? Yeah, kindergarten is fun, but funner than jumping on the 'chapolen' (trampoline) with his sister? Not for this six year old! However, he did tell me today that he was sad. He said it with zero emotion though, and promptly changed the subject afterwards, so I am not convinced.

Dear Mis Mowldoon (Dear Mrs. Muldoon)
Dac yuw (Thank you)
For being (for being)
miy techr! (my teacher!)

I love being a mom to these kids.

Compassion Update

When we went back- 15 minutes after we'd just seen him- he was gone. So now there is a white Safeway bag full of Garrett's goodies in our fridge and the plan is to grab it whenever we go out and about- just in case.

We did drive around for a few minutes, hoping we could see him riding off somewhere (probably in the woods behind my house. Ooops did I just type that out loud?) but no luck. Garrett said, "It doesn't have to be THAT poor man, it could be ANY poor man!" Okay then.

Self Portrait

Compassion

Today when we were driving, after I'd stopped and purchased a $2.75 iced coffee, we saw a homeless man with an "Anything Helps" sign. Garrett saw him and asked me to read the sign to him. I did, and he didn't say much for a few minutes. Pretty soon though, the questions started coming. At first they were seemingly unrelated.

"Mom, how big are cars that people live in?"

"So some people live in cars smaller than our van?"

"I guess our van would be okay to live in. You could take these seats out and lay down."

His questions and observations continued as we drove. Eventually he asked if we could give that homeless man some food and money.

What a hard question. I want my kids to be compassionate. I want them to know how fortunate, how blessed we are. I want them to have generous hearts and be empathetic people. But then we also know that those people are often addicts and cons. People who have made their beds, and now have to lie in them. I didn't tell him no, but I talked about soup kitchens and food banks and how many people in those situations know that they can go to safe places to get food. But for some reason, this man has been put on Garrett's heart, and that's who he felt he needed to help.

I must shamefully admit that I hoped when we drove back past that spot on our way home that he'd be gone and the entire topic would be over. There must be a lesson in this for me though, because over an hour later, he was still there.

So we got home and he set to work filling up a grocery bag. Jerky, fruit leather, Diet Coke, Capri Sun, some candy, and a cough drop. And then Garrett, who is diligently saving up for a $185 playmobil castle, went upstairs and counted out 8 quarters and 4 pennies.

I have a knot in my stomach. We are about to leave now for this errand, and I am uncomfortable. It's awkward. It's not unsafe, but I also wouldn't want him to recognize my car or where we live. But wouldn't that be a bigger lesson? Mom wouldn't let me help someone? Mom was too uncomfortable, too nervous?

Garrett just said, "Mom, it's time to go help that man."

Ack.

Happy Little Sock Monkey

When each of my kids have turned 3 (or shortly thereafter), my mom has made them a quilt for their big kid bed. Madeline's is old fashioned pastels, Garrett's is retro transportation, (can also see it partially here) and tonight Carter opened his- sock monkeys, of course! Oh, I love how it turned out, and more importantly, Carter did too. He's always been our little monkey, ever since I was 12 weeks pregnant and the ultra sound tech told us that not only was he healthy (I'd had a scare), but that he was, in fact, a HE.

This picture cracks me up (even though they aren't that great because I miss my 50mm lens SO FREAKING MUCH), because they capture his funny little spirit. His pj shirt that he's had on all day long. ("Do you want to get dressed Carter?" "No Mama, me FINE!"), his backwards unders (he likes the 'show' in the front- makes me laugh every single time), and his 'smile' he breaks out when the camera appears.

He's still my baby, but today I watched an actual baby and I realized how big Carter really is getting. He's older than both the Bigs were when they became Bigs.

Then he opened the second package . . .

A matching pillow sham!

All snuggled in for the night- with Georgie and Pearly, of course.

Thank you Nana, for the awesome quilt! It's so perfect.

Field Trips

Today was G's kindergarten field trip to the Gilbert House in Salem, and also the carousel. Joel went with G's class, and he periodically throughout the day I got texts that said things like, "This is the craziest field trip ever! Kids running everywhere! I lost one for 5 minutes!!!" Aside from losing a child, (don't worry none of yours!), it sounds like they had lots of fun.

Joel isn't as obsessive a photographer as I am, but he did get this cute one of Garrett and 2 of his buddies. I love it, so I didn't complain (too much) about the lack of pictures.

Last week Joel rode the 2 hour bus ride to Newport with Maddy's class. They went to the Marine Science Center, and it sounded like a good time, minus the bus ride with kids throwing up. And yes, I got texts about that too!

My daughter in the 'Crab Lab'. Like Nana, like Mother, like Daughter, much?

I just can't believe my kids are nearly ready for FIRST AND FOURTH grades! What?!?!?

Heat Wave

(click picture to see it bigger)

A couple of weeks ago we had quite the May heat wave. Our kids celebrated by helping Daddy wash the cars and running through the sprinkler. The wet spring combined with the super warm weather has made everything explode in the garden. I love it!

Lemonade

Oh my kids are suckers for a good lemonade stand. Unfortunately, the first one of the season was pretty quiet. Still, they were pretty cute sitting down there while we were working in the garage. (Our house is in a culdesac, so they were on the corner a house down from us.)

Carter was positive that he needed his Mickey Mouse beanbag- not just any chair- so he hauled it down there.
I think they each made $3 or something, but the majority of that was from us and Nana Pam!

Gingerbread Kid

Well, technically Gingerbread "Boy" . . .

Maddy's class put on the Gingerbread Boy play, and Miss Madeline was the Gingerbread boy himself. (Herself?) She was so sassy telling off all those farmers and village people trying to catch her.

And like a true actress she even handled the mortification of having to sit on a boy with true professionalism.

So proud of our girl!

Yes, I videoed it, but can't get it uploaded right now.

Big, Big Dreams!

Can you see him? Sunglasses and swim gear, leaning out looking for someone . . .

Ah, there is really nothing like a bunch of 6 year olds singing. Today Garrett and his classmates had a little spring show/fashion show. It was pretty hilarious for us watching our quirky, funny and downright darling kids spinning on the stage and singing- mostly choruses!

And here is a video that will probably interest no one!