Halloween

How did this holiday slip by without a picture of my kids in their costumes? Maybe it was Elsie changing her mind 5 minutes before the Halloween party, and frantically trying to pull a princess costume together. I don't think I have a great excuse though. Just picture it in your mind: Elsie as Princess Elsie, Peter as a skeleton, and Kimball as an adorable pumpkin. We did get some excellent pumpkin carving pictures though. Peter did his own pumpkin carving, Elsie was her own designer, and Kimball was a ferocious drawer. Check out the pics.


It was fun and Elsie even won a prize for her pumpkin at our church Halloween party. Peter was about as proud as Elsie was for her. It was a fun holiday with lots of candy!

Our new artist

At the beginning of the school year Peter entered an art contest at his school that represented what diversity meant to him. He drew a pictures of 2 Native American Indians using oil pastels. He did a great job. I liked how colorful and blended their faces were. To our surprise, he ended up getting 1st place. We were all really happy for him. Hopefully this will give him a reason to sit down and challenge his creative skills a little more.

1st: Autumn

I know, I know it's already 2012 but this is my blog and I can write what I want to. It has been ages since I've written anything, so I thought I'd backtrack a bit. Don't worry, you'll love it, I'm sure. I must include some great pictures my talented sister Michelle took when her and Becky and the rest of her family came up to visit in October.
I just love Peter's face in this picture - he's having sooo much fun on this hike and enjoying the company of his totally cool Uncle Micah. Peter was telling Micah-inspired jokes the whole time - i.e. (said in a thick accent) "In the Soviet Russia the sticks walk you."
I had Michelle to help me keep an eye on this little guy. He sure loved the attention as well.
As always, Elsie had a blast with her BF and cousin Eden.


Take a close look at those hands. There was sticky marshmallow EVERYWHERE. I do not advise the extra large marshmallows. They are way too hard to eat and not parent or kid friendly at all.
Can you see the motion in this picture? Our "hike" and campfire were a lot of fun and very beautiful, but as always, a lot of work. In the end though, we made some great memories and was well worth it. Thanks Becky for bringing your family and Michelle up here and having fun times with us!

A Little Girl

As I have watched Peter growing up, Mike and I have been amazed at his fearless attitude. Nothing seems to scare that kid - he's never been afraid of the dark, talking in front of people, making new friends, heights, speed, nothing. Not even several visits to the Instacare and stitches have seemed to hinder him much. Then, along came our darling girl, Elsie.
Elsie is a girl just as Peter is a boy. Every day, she wants to wear a frilly dress, sparkly shoes, and will color and cut-up paper for hours. Just as Peter makes great sound effects for bombs, jets, and machine guns; Elsie makes great sounds for horses, fake laughter and cries, and babies. When Peter plays, he needs good guys and bad guys. When Elsie plays, she needs mommies and babies. I am amazed at the differences between the two.
What's been interesting to me lately is all of Elsie's fears. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised - I was afraid of the dry-wall splotches on my wall growing up, as well as the tooth fairy. Anyhow, here are a few examples. When Elsie hears any kind of rumble, she looks at me with panic and asks, "What was that?"
If I don't have a good enough answer or imply that it might be thunder, she bolts for the house at top speed, yelling, "I don't want to get zapped!" All the while urging the rest of us to follow.
She's also afraid of spiders. Last night I heard her crying in her room, when she was supposed to be sleeping. Annoyed, I went downstairs to tell her to quit whining. When I get there, Peter informs me she's crying because she's afraid of poisonous spiders. OKAY. I reassure her she is very safe in our house, that moms and dads and babysitters are here to protect her. Unconsoled, she responded, "But Mom, they have secret ways of getting in!"
I even have a hard time getting her to play outside sometimes because she's afraid of bees and wasps getting her. Today, she pointed out a fly in our house and said, "A bee was coming to get me, and that fly came and protected me!"
A couple days ago, after a bit of coaxing from me and one of her friends, she decided to go on a bike ride. We donned on her helmet, and she was about ready to take off, when she looked up at me and said, "Mom, will you protect us from PREDATORS?"
I tried not to laugh and said, "Sure."
It's a whole new ballgame - boys versus girls. Sometimes I wonder why we even try to compete with each other. We are such different beings, and that's okay.

Poddy Power!

Well, a couple weekends ago, Mike and I broke down. The cat wasn't using the litter box, so we were cleaning up poop all over the house. This added to our own begrudges of having two little ones in diapers. Elsie was old
enough - past old enough - and we finally put our foot down. Saturday morning we told her, "Nooooo more diapers!" She cried and threw a big fit for about 20 minutes, and then, that was it! For the rest of the day, we hung out at home, reading books and playing in the bathroom. Mike even set-up our portable DVD player in the bathroom and she watched a poddy training moving about having "poddy power!".
The past few months, Mike and I had tried everything to instill in Elsie the desire to do her dirty work in the toilet. This was to no avail. However, once she did her business, she remembered clearly all our bribery. First, she got a cute stuffed animal (Kimball almost got this one, which did help her motivation. We told her whoever went poop on the poddy first, got it. When we started putting Kimball on the poddy and he started grunting, she was frantic). That afternoon we all went to the ice cream shop - and got huge ice cream servings with sprinkles on top.
Elsie loves to be read to on the poddy, but we were all tired of reading to her, so she talked Kimball into reading to her. I thought this was pretty cute!

Now that Elsie wears underwear, she thinks she's all grown up . She tries to pour her own milk, shampoo her own hair, and anything else grown-ups can think of, because in her mind, she has arrived!
I am happy to report, Elsie's doing fairly well, and "cat" is doing great also, thanks to Kitten Attract litter! Ahhh, it feels good.

Little Grey/Princess/Tiger/Chelvin/Sophie

I'm not sure what her name is, even after 3 weeks, but we got a kitten! It all started with school. Peter came home with news of a girl in his class whose cat had baby kittens, and she was giving them away. As soon as Elsie found out, it was an off and on plea for days - could they please please please get a cat? I'm pretty sure they expected the answer to be no, but I had an empty spot in my heart since Peter started school all day. I talked to Mike, and although he really didn't want a cat, he said I could do what I wanted. I snuck out one evening and came home with this little kitten. She is so cute! The kids were very surprised and very excited! It was such a fun evening!
I have been really surprised over how much Kimball loves this kitten. He hoards her, choking her and torturing her in the process. The first night he cried himself to sleep yelling, "My cat, my cat!" because he wanted to sleep with her.
Elsie makes the kitten dance with her, swinging her around everywhere, and sometimes she holds her front paws and makes her do her own solo dance routine.
Peter is pretty good to her though, and claims her right when he gets home from school. This kitten is the most good-natured pet ever, and we all love her. However, we can't decide on a name. We all call her by a different name. I'll let you know when it's officially decided - if it ever is.

1st Grade

My oldest boy started 1st grade. The morning was kind of funny. He had been dying to wear his new clothes, but on the 1st day, for some reason, he picked his worn out pants and year old t-shirt. Who knows, maybe it was something he felt more comfortable in. So, as he headed to class (in his old clothes and long hair), he refused to let us take any pictures. After some coaxing and examples of other kids, Peter let us take a quick shot or two - neither of which were great. Oh well.
He liked his first day, and he still is liking school. He is really excited about math and is asking for extra problems to do on the weekends. He's making new friends and having a fun time.
He has a very small class, currently only16 kids! He also has 2 teachers - one teaches English in the morning and the other math in the afternoon. So far, he loves the set-up. Peter loves to meet new people. One of the few people he knew in his class moved out after a week or so. I asked Peter if that made him sad. He looked kind of perplexed and asked me, "Why Mom??? I already knew him."
Peter sees strangers as an adventure, never a deterrent.
I've also been having a hard time getting him to eat his lunch, because he has figured out that the sooner he finishes, the longer of a recess he has. It only took one day. On the second day of school he said, "Mom, it's great. You can get hot lunch, only eat one bite and throw the rest away, and then you can go outside and play!!" Whoa, hold on there bud! Just today he told me he didn't want a treat in his lunch box because he didn't have time to eat it. He says he's got to hurry so he can go play spy during recess. I guess he's having a fun time!