rock, paper, ?

The girls have devised their own additions to the game. Annika does rock paper dynamite (and puts out her middle finger and then blows it up) or smoke bomb (a fist that "fizzles and smokes"). Phoebe, not to be outdone by her sister, does rock paper chainsaw (holding her forearm and wiggling the loose fingers).

Annika filled an empty apple juice bottle with water and I let her dump in rice to make a "snowglobe." We forgot about it. And then we opened it several days ago to discover it was fermenting, just like Daddy's wine. So she wanted to let it go a little further. Tonight she reopened what Phoebe immediately dubbed "the fart bomb." As the lid came off it literally made a blasting noise, a slight fog escaped, along with a horrendous smell. It is now in the trash, experiment over, girls happily giggling, lessons learned.

Super May Post

I thought I would better at blogging while Jeff was gone. I don't know why. The past month had me on my toes. Thank goodness for friends and Carmen, our trusty babysitter. Our life seemed to go crazy last fall. And I kept thinking, in two weeks this will be over and then there will be a lull. I have finally accepted the fact that that is never coming. I am starting to look at my own choices and am realizing I need to start pulling back. Yes, I could probably handle all of the things I have volunteered for and would enjoy it. But I am also realizing I am not doing my best, and I am letting things fall through the cracks. So we will see if I get better at saying no. ;)

So here is May in pictures... Annika is on her first "real" softball team. She has enjoyed it for the most part. She is learning and likes when she actually gets to play. We have been a little frustrated with her coaches this year, but at the same time, she is already losing steam and we still have three weeks left. She is the youngest on the team and can out slug and catch a bunch of the girls. You go girl!
The ducks moved back in on the neighbor's pool. We got a huge kick out of watching them.

I have been watching too much Clean House and Hoarders: Buried Alive and went on a purging spree. Which is always bittersweet. Needed to make room. We can actually put away toys now and walk through the laundry and storage room. But after it is done, I always miss a couple things. But it felt good to donate all of this. And I talked the girls into taking the toys to Once Upon a Child and they each earned $20. Those items are not pictured, and I took three tubs of clothes back to Iowa to hand down to cousins. All in all a big project that was worth it.

Our Brookfield Zoo membership ran out. I am a little zooed out, and think we will do other memberships this year. So we went one last time with Daddy. Of course I forgot to take pictures of our picnic or of the kids and Jeff together. But I did get this picture of Phoebe before bedtime with her facepaint. (And Annika is mad that I am posting it because I wasn't supposed to take any pics according to her.) The new bear wilderness is pretty cool.

We spend every morning outside so the boys can play and run. They are at the door at 7:30 banging and yelling , "OUTSIDE!" Annika and I have been playing a lot of catch while the 3 little ones dig in the sand. One day I got her to practice some of her gymnastics moves and she just flipped over backwards right into this backbend. No warm up, no fear, just blip and over she went. Oh to be that limber! Now she is doing it all the time. The Easter bunny brought a trapeze for the swingset, so both girls are spending a great deal of time upside down as well.

Tanner loves his dirt. He will spend an hour filling the "digger" and then dumping it into his semi truck so he can move the dirt to other piles. I love that it keeps him busy, and really, considering he spends that much time in dirt, he isn't that filthy.

And Miss Phoebe turned 7! I had way too much fun decorating and both girls helped make most of the food for her fancy tea party. I can't believe she is getting so big! She has grown into such a sweet and wonderful little thing.

The birthday girl and a few of her close friends had a lovely time sipping raspberry lemonade, eating cucumber sandwiches and fruit salad with whipped cream, and polished off quite a few candy dipped pretzels topped with molded almond bark butterflies and ladybugs. Then they made a little craft and played with their American Girl dolls. Phoebe got several new sets of clothes for Molly and is saving for furniture for Molly.

And Annika graduated from preschool! They had the cutest little program with songs and awards for each child. Annika was best leader...5 going on 25 and always ready to lead you how to do something the right way. That's our girl!

2 Telling Moments

Tanner's Moment, but more Mine: At lunch today he says to the other boys, "Me had it! Had it! Had it! You push my buttons too much! Keep pushing and pushing 'til me had it!" hmmm. Wonder where he heard that?

Phoebe's Moment: It is crazy socks day for school. We pick her outfit and leave her to make the big decision on socks. She comes to me and says, "Look, (the socks are both white) one has a light pink toe and one has a light blue toe." I ask her, "Don't you want to go crazier? Maybe a Hello Kitty sock that is red and one that is sparkly green Halloween?" She looks at me in HORROR. "Mom, that would just be too crazy. This is silly enough." Going out on a limb there Phebes.

friends

Just a few quick thoughts on friends. All of our moves have brought lots of different people and kinds of friends into my life. So here's my thinking today and my giving thanks for:
How easy to see ones every day and chat quickly at carpools and kid activities, etc.
How good it is to sit and have coffee with ones that I can see weekly.
How nice to get phone calls and chat with ones even if it is only monthly.
How I love blogs and facebook to keep up with friends far away that otherwise it gets hard to keep up with.
How unexpected and fun to see friends that we may see every few years, if that.

I love talking with friends. So thanks to all of you who like talking to me too!

Black bean soup

So to preface this video you need to know a few things:

1. The girls REALLY wanted a video too after I posted Tanner's.

2. This was a perfect opportunity because they were already doing this...I just made them redo for the camera and it only got better.

3. We watch too much Food Network.

4. The recipe: 1 can black beans, 1 can refried beans, 1 can chicken stock, 1 can Rotel tomatoes. Dump all in a pan and bring to a boil. Garnish with chips, shredded cheddar, and cilantro. My kids LOVE it. As you will see here...

So Her

Twins ball cap on backwards. Orange jacket. Shirt with a lizard. New Polo jeans (that fit her long skinny legs and teeny tiny tush that I would never even get over my knees if I tried Polo). And new blue and orange velcro tennis shoes because she ripped a hole the length of one side of her old pair. All from the little boy section. All sports and science. And soooooo ANNIKA!

Notice the facial expressions...

Also notice just how much he is moving around. Hence the nickname Mr. Wigglebuns. And jabberbox. His lips are moving as much as the rest of him lately. I can barely keep up with what he is saying and learning.