Just more pics

Every kid of our loves to play puppy. Right now either Sarah and Eli are dogs or Sarah walks around yelling, "dog-gy" and Eli follows her. They were playing school again. They are excited to both have math journals.

Eli is reading a book to Sarah.

Anna & Sarah cuddling this morning while the boys slept. They are really best friends. Now that Sarah gets in trouble when she's naughty, she'll run crying from us and run to Anna for comfort. Then, Anna lectures us because Sarah"is just a baby." She's quite protective, and Sarah loves it.

I was scammed!

So the kids created a game. Here are the hopscotch pillows. Here is the front desk where you check in and pay.

I didn't realize that they were requiring real money until we showed up to play. They were very serious when they said that they were earning money, and Sarah and Eli had to pay to play their game! How could I deny Sarah and Eli a chance to roll around on my bed pillows? So, I paid 50 cents for each of them to play. Anna and Jonah kept my money!

We made a special dessert Thursday night for our family recitation night. Anna & Jonah each recited three poems that they have memorized. Here is Anna (not a great picture):

And here is Jonah. He recited with his dessert in his hand.

They have a list they are memorizing this year. Most of it is poetry and prayers (for Anna's first communion in the spring), but some of it is other stuff like our address, days of the week, etc.

Wow. I just don't know what

to think. I'm ecstatic because yesterday Eli went poop ALL BY HIMSELF while I was upstairs putting Sarah to bed. That was a complete miracle, and I'm hoping it repeats itself again and again and again. If you've potty trained kids, you know how exciting that moment must have been. Well, this morning something completely unexpected happened. I undressed Sarah for a bath and she promptly ran to the bathroom, sat on the kiddie toilet, and urinated. Huh. What do I do with that? She's turning 17 months tomorrow.

Just a little thing,

but yet so gross. I am eager to live in a house where the bathroom sink is not right next to the toilet. Do you know how much stuff ends up on the floor around the toilet? We don't have a dishwasher, so I can't disinfect the toothbrushes every time Sarah drops them on the floor. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Then, if the toilet paper roll isn't on the holder (which happens because only one person in this family seems to know how to put it all together), it gets set on the edge of the sink next to the toilet. Guess where it falls quite regularly and guess who gets to dig it back out? Oh, this is a glamorous job.

Norwegian Folk Dancing

I'm not sure why, but the public school had someone visit and taught the kids Norwegian folk dances and songs. I went to the all-school assembly since the 2nd graders were to perform folk dances for the entire school. It was quite fun. He led songs and even had some dances for all the kids. Here is Anna dancing with her partner. At the end of the 2nd graders' performance, he asked the 2nd graders to pick a 1st grader or Ker to dance with. Guess who Anna picked? Here she is dancing with her little blonde brother.

And more country pics. Here is Eli dancing, singing, and pretending to play a guitar. He's using a shutter from their plastic play house.

Here's Jonah playing fireman with the water hose. He can get a lot of mileage from one hose.

And here is Anna swinging on a rope. Can you tell this is their favorite tree?

Parade

We take what we can from the public school system. First it's music/art/PE, now it's the homecoming parade. Since our high school feeds from five different towns, there isn't an official homecoming parade. Our little town had an elementary parade instead. It was quite cute. They had a police car followed by all 30ish 4th graders, a fire truck, 30ish 3rd graders, a truck of senior citizens, 30ish 2nd graders, 25 first graders, and 20ish kindergarteners. Pretty quick. The parade starts at the grocery store, goes up main street, and ends at the courthouse. There they have a pep rally which is really a few songs by the band and a few yells. Our kids walked with their respective classes and had a blast. Here are the kindergarteners. Jonah is in the second group. He's the blond head next to the boy with the hat. Jonah shared his hat with his little friend Ty. Here are the 2nd graders. Anna is wearing the white hat in the middle. The art/music/PE things is going fine. We laugh at how inefficient everything is. Jonah's been working on a train picture for two art classes. That's 80 minutes of time. The teacher decided they were all making trains, and she decided what color the trains were. I'm not sure what Jonah is getting to do. At least he's happy because he was assigned the color blue. After each art class, Anna has come back to report on the discipline system in the room. I'm not sure that the teacher teaches since I haven't heard any reports of actual art lessons. She has some system where they get points for attending class and then she deducts points for behavior issues. This teacher assigns jobs for the students. One student gets to be the monitor whose job it is to tell other kids to be quiet. If someone is talking, you report that kid to the monitor. The monitor tells that kid to be quiet three times and then the monitor takes it to the teacher. Then, I suppose you get points deducted. I'm thinking - there are 17 kids in the classroom and 2 adults. Surely those 2 adults can keep discipline for 40 minutes without needing assistance from a 7yo? I'm a little torked that she would waste Anna's 40 minutes by making her the disciplinarian for the day. I don't take Anna there to tell other kids to be quiet. I want Anna to work on art projects!!! So, we may have an issue in the near future.

Oh, well. It's all an experiment. I had hoped that the kids would learn something from their time in the public school, but it might just be about becoming familiar faces to the other kids.

I should report, though, that PE has been a great class so far. Well, except for the 40 minute class period they spent weighing and measuring everyone. That was a waste of our day for sure.

The kids love going every day. Their favorite part is walking in line.

House update

The drywall is up!!! We think the taping & mudding guy is coming today. He estimate 2-2.5 weeks for the project. Then, the flooring guy will be spending a week finishing up. We hope Mark can finish the little touches before we move in next month. Yes, yet another month. :( I called or landlord yesterday and extended our stay in town another month. We had hoped to be out of here at the end of this month, but the carpet guy just couldn't get to us quick enough.

Tidbits

They have officially dug up our streets - all three streets around our house. We have to use the alley to get home now. The kids have been enjoying playing hairdresser. It's a game inspired by Eli's imagination and enhanced by Jonah. Their crazy mom even gave them a scissors. We have one of those beginner scissors that only cuts paper. We never use it so I thought it would be perfect for this game. As a side note, don't waste your money on one of those scissors. They don't work. In a few weeks you may tune in to discover that someone used the wrong scissors and gave Sarah her first haircut.

Here is a closeup of Anna's drawing she took to the fair. I still don't know what inspired her to draw it. It just showed up one day.

And the Cloverbud project display. Her basket of veggies is there too.

Oh, my. Poor Jonah.

Jonah is a very private little guy. He is very conscious about dressing modestly, and he is most private about private things. He doesn't like windows in bathrooms, and NEVER try to open the door while he is in a bathroom. He has rituals which must not be disturbed. With that said, here is his experience from tonight. Little Jonah was standing in line for a ride at our fabulous fair. At 3+ feet high, his eyes are just above my waist level. He was in line behind a little girl and her mom. No problemo. Par for the course. I had my eyes on the other offspring and the line was short and safe looking. So, I hadn't given the front of the line detailed observation. I happened to be looking at Jonah when the mom in front of him bent over slightly to talk to her child. I saw the look of disgust on his face so I looked at what he was looking at. Do you know what I saw? I saw a serious plumber situation inches from his eyes. He was so close that he didn't have much choice but to see everything. I don't think he knew what to do to get away from it. So, then I look closer at the woman. I'm thinking, how could a mom have a plumber situation? What is wrong with her? Well, I see that she's wearing a short shirt that doesn't meet the top of her shorts. Her shorts sit low on the waist; the waist which has baby fat rolls. Then, I'm thinking, "Well, she surely wouldn't let her shorts ride down that low again. Right?" Well, she didn't. Instead, she hiked them up a couple times. Not a problem for me. BIG problem for a 5yo with eyes inches from her butt. So, Jonah got to see the goods a couple extra times. I am infinitely grateful that Jonah didn't say a word. From the look on his face, I knew he was thinking: 1) Why is this lady showing her private parts in public? 2) Why is this lady putting her bare butt in my face? 3) Her butt smells.

All in a day's work

Skateboard boy

The fair is in town, and what a fair it is!! Anna has two exhibits in the Cloverbud 4-H area. She drew a picture titled "How the Flower Grows" and she brought in produce from her garden. A nice lady interviewed her, and the lady told Anna that she was impressed since Anna really knew her stuff. Way to go, Anna!

Birthday Boy!!

Eli is 3yo! I think he had a fun birthday. My mom made a cake for him yesterday, and my Uncle Bill stopped by to visit and got in on birthday action too.

What a happy gang.

Eli opened a couple presents after a birthday breakfast at a local cafe. Does this gift look like fun for a little boy? He didn't have to read the directions to figure this one out!

A happy, dirty face at the end of his big day.

Eli doesn't understand birthdays yet, but I think he'll be wondering why he's not getting presents tomorrow. Mark's family gave him presents on Saturday, my mom gave him gifts yesterday, and he received ours this morning. Seems like a pretty full three days.

I'm looking forward to the next year with my little boy. He is turning into a loving, fun, and determined (that's the nice version of stubborn) little boy. We are enjoying our 2nd time through the boy phases, and loving every new minute with Eli while remembering our firsts with Jonah.