I'm Always Amazed...

...at the creative ways the kids come up with to play with toys. It seems like our kids rarely play with toys in the "traditional" sense -- instead they mix them all together and make up all sorts of fun things.

I walked past the game room the other night and saw this sight:

I really have no idea what they were playing except Hayley told me they were playing "ducks" (they got the rubber ducks out of the bathtub toy basket). They had quite the set-up!

And I'm also always amazed at how quickly a clean room can become a giant mess! We try to clean up the game room at least once a week, but it seems like it only takes a few minutes before the floor is a big mess again.

And we have far less toys in the game room now than we used too -- I've sold a bunch, plus packed up several other boxes. I guess this is just proof that we have too many toys!

But it's so fun to watch cute little girls like this play make-believe!

Hair Help!

Okay, I could really use some hair hints or suggestions for my little Hannah's hair -- who is not so little anymore and is getting more opinionated about how to fix (or not fix) her hair. :-)

I am definitely not a hair "expert" by any stretch of the imagination and I've always struggled with how to fix hair (my own and my girl's). With my girls, I eventually defaulted to the little side ponytail just to keep the hair out of their face (since none of them have bangs).

Lately, Hannah has been very resistant to me fixing her hair this way.


She complains that the rubber band is too tight and she doesn't like it.

I realize that she's getting older and should be able to have some say in how to fix her hair. I had bought some little hard headbands (I needed one for a costume) a while ago so she has been wearing those recently. The problem is they really don't keep the hair out of her face very well.

(This picture actually shows it looking a lot better than it frequently does.)

Lately when she wears a headband to school, when she comes home her hair is just a mess. It's all bunched up on top and under the headband and is still falling all over into her face. I bought some fabric headbands once (the kind that wrap all the way around your head) but they seemed to be too big for the kids and wouldn't stay up.

So, HELP! Does anyone have any suggestions for a type of barrette or hairstyle that I might try with her? Whenever I buy a new type of barrette, I always seem to choose ones that just fall out. Hannah's hair is on the thinner, finer side (unlikes Courtney's). Keep in mind that Hannah is fairly sensitive to hair combing/pulling and doesn't have a lot of patience for sitting and getting her hair fixed. Or maybe I should just let it go and have a child with wild messy hair! Has anyone found something that works great for girl's hair?

What was I thinking?

Last Thursday I saw a new listing on the online classifieds (yes, I'm still always checking them!) from a lady who was selling boxes of kid's books for .50 cents each. She said she had over 400 books from preschool to pre-teen. But she was out in Magnolia, so it wasn't really close. I debated and finally decided to go look through what she had on Friday. I couldn't go until the kids got home from school, so they all got to come with me.

She had the books in boxes in her garage (along with other stuff she was selling). I had told the kids before we left that they could each choose 2-3 books. But of course, once they started looking, they each had a huge pile of books that they wanted. McKay found some Magic School Bus books (he specifically asked her if she had non-fiction books), Hannah found a bunch of chapter books about dogs and horses and Courtney & Hayley mostly picked up little Barbie paperback books. I started trying to narrow down their piles when the lady told me she loved to see kids excited about books so we could have them for a quarter each.

So we took all the piles and came home with 44 books! Not that they're great classics or anything -- we have more Barbie books now than I really care to own. And I had just been thinking earlier in the week that I need to start packing up some books because I get so tired of piles of books everywhere I look (that's mostly due to Hayley). But the kids were so excited about the books they'd picked out and I'd rather bring home piles of books than bags of toys, so we got them all. And now they are all over the house! :-)

Reading Restaurant

Yesterday, I was the special guest of Chef Hannah at Eagleton's EatZi's, a unique new restaurant in town.

This was all part of the 1st Grade "Reading Restaurant," the big first grade event every year that parents are invited to. (Unfortunately, Brian had to miss it this time because he was still out of town.)

Each chef brings in their guest and seats them (there are two sessions so it's only half the class at a time) at a special table setting.

Then the chef presents their menu and appetziers (food jokes) are served.

Next is time for the entrees, which are books that each chef reads to their guest.

Save some room for dessert, where the entire group recites some cute memorized poems (one was about cookies and the other was about fudge).

And finally, the chef presents the bill, payable in kisses and hugs and gives the guest their change (chocolate kisses and hugs).

It's a fun event! Hannah had been so excited. She was especially excited for me to bring home the special gift of a jar of layered cookie ingredients. We'll have to bake cookies soon!

"Dog Heaven"

Yesterday after school, Hannah sat down at the kitchen table and started to write a story. She got Courtney to be the illustrator (although it turned out Courtney only drew the first picture). She asked me how to spell several words, but the story was completely her own creation.

Here is her story (the three pictures follow). I’ve tried to type it just as she has it written.

Dog Heaven

ill. By Courtney
written by Hannah

When dogs die there is a place they can go dog heaven. Up there in dog heaven god likes all the dogs there. He likes big ones and small ones. Ones with big ears. And ones with small ears. Ones who like hot dogs and ones who do not. Ones that died in Hawaii and ones that died in Pennsylvania. He likes them all!

But one day on Mars an alien baby was born a bad alien. Who stol all the dogs in dog heaven! God was so sad. Jesus found out that he was sad so he got all the dogs back! God was so happy he gave Jesus a gold medal for it. And they lived happy ever after.


(This is the picture that Courtney drew -- I love the upside-down dog!)

When she read it to McKay, he told her he didn’t think she should use “God” and “Jesus” in her story, and I told her she probably shouldn’t if she wrote a story for school. But after reading her story again, I was quite struck at some of the symbolism and parallels you could make from it!

The Circus Has Arrived

Since Brian is out of town, I told the kids last night that for FHE we could go do something fun -- ice cream cones at Chick-Fil-A. (Of course they were very excited and even motivated enough to clean up the game room before we left!) I had a couple of coupons for ice cream but it turned out that Monday night is kid's night and ice cream is free for everybody!

I noticed several kids with their faces painted and while the kids were playing in the play area (I told them they could play for a minute), and I asked another mom about it. She said there was a guy there doing free face paintings as part of kid’s night. I wasn’t going stay any later, but as soon as Hannah heard that, she was out the play area door and over in the man’s chair. So I gave in and let the girl’s get their faces painted (McKay had absolutely no desire to have his done). I must say this artist was much better than any other face paintings the kids have had done before (usually just by high school students).

So here is the circus that came home last night to our house.

Hannah the ferocious tiger:

She had great fun roaring and trying to scare everybody else.

Courtney the horse:

And Hayley the unicorn (she debated between a kitty and a unicorn and finally went with the unicorn):

And McKay was quite happy to sit and eat a second free ice cream cone while the girls got painted. :-)

Too bad they had to pretty much wash it right off after we got home!

A New Scooter

On Saturday, I was checking the new listings on the on-line classifieds when I noticed one titled "Big Kid's Scooter." It was for a push/kick scooter that had small, bicycle-type wheels (with air in the tires) and also had hand brakes. They were asking $10 for it. I showed it to McKay and he got really excited and wanted me to respond to the ad and see if it was still available. (He had been telling me he was saving his money for another WebKinz, but this was more intriguing to him!)

McKay doesn't have his own scooter and is always riding either Hannah's or Courtney's. (Theirs are the Razor kick scooters with small plastic wheels and only a foot brake on the back.) So we replied and found out it was still available. McKay said he really wanted it, so we loaded everybody up and drove (in the drizzling rain) across town to pick it up. The tires needed air, but he seems to like it.

The handlebars are lower than the Razor scooters, but McKay said he doesn't mind that (and perhaps there's a way to raise them that we haven't figured out yet). But he is happy to have his own scooter!

Little Girl's Dilemma

(I've got several fun pictures to post, but that will have to wait until later. I had to post this quickly, though!)

Last night, Courtney called me into her room (she was supposed to be going to sleep) and said “Mom, we have to figure out which one of us is going to marry McKay because there’s 3 girls and only 1 boy!”. So I tried to explain that you don’t marry your brother but when she gets bigger she will meet a boy and fall in love. She replied, “But I don’t know any boys!” I told her she would when she gets older and goes to college. Hannah piped up from her top bunk, “But boys don’t like girls anyway.” :-)

Early Easter Dresses

I was at Target the other day and saw that they had their girl's Spring/Easter dresses out, so of course I couldn't resist looking. Hannah has been complaining for the last quite a while that she doesn't like any of her dresses. (She is good at finding things to complain about!) A friend in the ward gave me a bunch of hand-me-down dresses that are the more "frilly" and "fancy" dresses and Hannah was so excited, but unfortunately, they are all too big for her still. Every Sunday, Hannah would cry about not being able to wear the "fancy" dresses, so I finally had to move them out of her closet so she wouldn't see them anymore.

I saw some cute chiffon dresses at Target and decided to get them for the girls, thinking they would be their Easter dresses this year. I decided to not get totally matching dresses, but for Hannah & Courtney I got the same style of dress in different colors. Hayley is still in toddler sizes and they had a similar style dress but not in the size I would normally get for her. I ended up getting the next bigger size (5T) and hoped it wouldn't completely drown her. I had my hopes up that Hannah would approve of this dress (she can be quite picky sometimes) because (1) it didn't have a tie in the back, which she always complains about on other dresses and (2) it could be considered "fancy" without being too "poofy" (which she also doesn't like).

I showed the girls the dresses and they were all excited about them. Hannah said she liked hers (I told her she'd better be sure because I didn't want her wearing it once and then telling me she didn't like it, which has happened with other dresses). Now the problem was she didn't want to wait until Easter to wear it! She has been begging me for a new dress for so long that I decided to go ahead and let them wear their new dresses to church today. I don't think Hannah could have lasted until Easter, unless I bought her another new dress in the meantime! And fortunately, Hayley's dress fit her okay. Such cute girls!

P.S. On the way to church, Hannah told me that her dress was really wrinkly. I told her it was supposed to be like that -- that's what the chiffon fabric is like. She said she didn't like the way it felt on her fingers when she rubbed it (I knew she would find something not to like!). Then during church, she told me she didn't like how itchy the zipper was. :-)

Introducing Mario Party... The Board Game

Hannah & Courtney had been playing Nintendo (Mario Party 2) for a little bit this morning and then I noticed that Hannah was busy at work on some project at the kitchen table. A little while later, it was time to go to Courtney's gymnastics class and she protested that she wasn't finished, so she put a bunch of stuff in a plastic bag and brought it with her to work on at the gym. Turns out that gymnastics was cancelled today due to some maintenance problems, so we just turned around and came back home.

Later she asked me if I had some dice she could borrow and was excited to show me her creation -- Mario Party 2 board game!

Now I'll admit I don't know a lot about Mario Party (haven't played that one yet) but I know that it has been one of the kid's favorite games. Here she is showing her Princess Peach figure (she put little stands on them and everything).

The girls all call the "Toad" character "Todd" for some reason (I guess Hannah just initially read it wrong and it has stuck). I tried to correct them, but she told me they think that he looks more like a "Todd" and that's more of a regular person's name, so they wanted to call him "Todd." (I said okay!)

Now I don't think they ever actually played her new game today -- it all got put in a Ziploc and set on the counter. But she sure had a lot of fun making it! (And that might be the extent of it, but that's okay!)

Happy Valentine's!

Well, I meant to post this yesterday on Valentine's Day, but things were just a little crazy around here trying to get Brian ready for his week-long trip to Amarillo. So here it is a day late!

We had a nice Valentine's Day. I was a little worried the night before that Hannah would have to miss school (which would have been the most terrible tragedy in the world to her) because she was running a slight fever (AGAIN!) and complaining that her ear hurt. But she seemed fine in the morning and told me she had the "best Valentine's Day ever" (and I'm so glad she didn't have to miss it).

Courtney had to make her own Valentine "mailbox" to take to preschool. She decorated it herself!


We did get our heart sugar cookies made and frosted. (And I'm ashamed to admit that I've eaten way more than my share!) Here are some pics of the cookie-frosting party:



Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

Valentine Time

The kids have been asking for several days now and today we finally had some time for them to do their class valentines.


They were all SO excited. For some reason, Hannah keeps thinking that Valentine's Day is tomorrow, so she was getting worried that hers wouldn't be ready. Hayley even got to do some for her little preschool friends.

We actually bought their valentines weeks ago when I had the kids at the store with me and while the selection was good. McKay picked Nascar (although later he saw some different ones at another store he wished he would have gotten instead), Hannah picked 3D animal cards (where the picture changes when you tilt the card), and Courtney picked Disney Fairies (Tinkerbell) that even came with their own little candy to put in the envelope. (Hayley got some extras from Courtney's box.) We also bought little valentine gummy packets for the older 2 kids to put with their valentines.

Courtney only had to write her name under "From" on all her valentines since it's easier for the preschool age to distribute them without having to worry about reading who it's to. The other kids went down their class lists, carefully writing each name and crossing it off as they went. Lots of memories for me here! (Although it seems like I would worry more about who was getting which message -- especially the boys in my class -- because heaven forbid they get the idea in their head that I might like them or something!)

Tomorrow is sugar cookie day -- the kids will take a little treat of cookies to their teachers and we'll enjoy the rest!

Through the Eyes of a 9-Year-Old

For lack of something better to post this weekend, I thought I would share a few of the pictures McKay's been taking recently with our old digital camera. When I got my new camera for Christmas, we told him he could use the old one (which is having some battery charging issues). He has taken it around a few times and likes to snap pictures of just "stuff". Today he finally had me transfer over the pictures from the camera so he could start playing with them. (I'm not exactly sure what he's planning to do with them...)

I went through and just picked a handful -- he took a lot more than this! (And many just need to be deleted since they are pictures of things like the carpet or a table.) He took several using the self-timer so he could be in them.

So here is "through the eyes (or lens) of McKay"...