Alert!

Today the kids had no school.  And they showed their creative and wonderful sides and I was glad to have them home.

Amelia hauled an old latch hook kit out of the garage and her hands are now nimble enough to manage it herself.

James and Jonny decided they would like to be in a marching band and made construction paper instruments for themselves- a saxophone and a drum.  James also made a mace.  Amelia turned up her nose at the affair as the instruments were not real and James already had the best part.  I offered to make a flute for her out of a few toilet paper tubes and she thought that could really work, so I set off to make her one.  I was denied the hole puncher by Simon.  He was sitting on the floor with a sheet of yellow construction paper on his lap that he was steadily destroying with a hole puncher.

  Can I use that?  I asked.  “No.”  I was told “I am in a hole punching club and I need it.”  Well.  I was not about to interfere with his club activities, so I used something else to make my holes.  The kids dinked around with their make shift instruments for a while and I forgot all about it. 

Then, when I was giving Simon a bath, Jonny poked his head in the bathroom.  “There are blankets in the hall.  When you get out of the tub, don’t let your feet touch the floor or you could get mad chicken disease- that’s on all the yellow dots.” (Oh yes- the holes from Simon’s hole punching club.)  Simon was concerned.  “mad chicken duh- zeez?”  He dutifully stayed on the blankets.  When I came out of the bathroom, Jonny and Amelia were at the table, making surgical masks and feet protectors, to combat the spread of disease.  So get your blankets.  Don’t let your feet touch the floor.   Mad chicken duh- zeez may be coming to your house next. 

Home Movies!

All right.  I might start doing this chant any moment because it's snowing, it's late and I'd like to sleep in tomorrow.  Thankfully, the snowing started after the kids were in bed.  This is good news for the following reason: local tradition is that children can flush ice down the toilet to make it snow and cancel school. After the last storm, Amelia grabbed a seriously huge icicle and stuck it in the freezer.  She has been waiting for her chance to flush it ever since.  I think it would damage the plumbing.  I am willing to let said icicle thaw in the toilet, but would rather not have that discussion tonight.   

Gary gave James a few pointers, and next thing you know, he was honking out a tune!  This saxophone was purchased at a local pawn shop a few weeks ago and it sure is fun.

Rachel will peek a boo with anything. Her funniest was (clean) underpants. She will do anything for a smile and gives them easily in return.

I tried to upload James' Lollipop Guild number a few times and it hasn't worked yet.  Hopefully coming soon.

Pictures!

Gary helped me find the cord to connect the camera to the computer, so here are a few pictures I promised.

Christmas was a quiet affair, sandwiched between episodes of the “erp disease.”

The reason I put this on here is that Jonny has the same expression that Gary had as a little boy, in a photo of him feeding a goat in a petting zoo. 

 

I decided to reuse a few of the Christmas decorations for Gary’s special day.  I thought it was funny.  He thought it was a little sacrilegious.  It’s not like I put him in the manger!

Here’s the birthday boy, handsome as ever!

Below you will find my new team of Sumo Wrestlers. 

Rachel, admiring herself in the mirror.

Amelia, displaying her handiwork.  Snow days can be fun!

Jonny shows off his cupcakes.  We did a science experiment where we made cupcakes missing key ingredients, so see what would happen.  The ones in the blue feet were normal.  And they were the only ones that tasted good. 

The next post will feature James heavily.  He wasn’t in any recent pictures, but he’s the star of a few good home movies!

What You Almost Got to See

Rachel is learning and growing in so many ways.  She's 8 months and almost 20 pounds by now- that's huge for someone whose growth and digestion was so slow she was referred to a specialist last year. 
In the last week, she has started giving me and Gary love pats on the arm or back when we pick her up.   Too sweet!  The other night, she was sitting on Gary's lap during family night playing with her pacifier.  I leaned over to her and opened my mouth (just to see what she would do) and she almost popped her pacifier in my mouth, but not for lack of trying, I didn't want to share the germs.   She's got 4 teeth- two that are long enough to see.  And when I find the cable to connect the camera to the computer, you'll be able to see too!

Here's another thing you'll be seeing soon- it's a video of the kiddodiddos doing their most recent chant "No school! No school! Another day of Weekend-ness!"  (I totally thought the last word was "wickedness" until they explained.)  They have been doing this chant a lot- 4 snow days last week and one yesterday for "ice" (that's in quotes because that was the reason, but the weather didn't live up to it.)

While on snow holiday, Amelia got bored and asked if I had a bag of scrap fabric.  I pulled out a bag that was left to me by a moving friend and handed it over.  She cut and sewed her own little quilt top- one row of huge squares, one of medium sized and one of small.  I think she did great and you will too, once you see it.  The only help she wanted was at the end, pinning the rows together to make the top.  I think she should keep sewing, she's good at it.  (she used my machine)

During the snow break, Amelia made a card board car for Rachel out of an old pull ups box.  All the kids took turns sliding Rachel around in it for hours.  She was so happy.  Every time she whizzed past me, she had this grin on her face that seemed to say "See me having fun?"  No pictures from that one, you'll have to use your imagination. 

Also in the camera is a picture of my cute hubby diddo, on his 34th birthday.  I think you'll like that one, he's cute!

The other night as I was helping the kids dress for bed, James came in to complain that Jonny had locked their bedroom door and wouldn't let him in.  That's kind of weird.  Then he called up "It's easier with a zipper!"  What the heck does that mean?  We weren't kept waiting long.  He came parading in, fat as a sumo wrestler.  He had stuffed every last article of clothing in his dresser into the batman zipper pajamas he was wearing.  I died laughing, then I took a picture.  Coming soon!

Here's one you won't see: Jonny's latest extermination attempt.  (We did end up hiring an exterminator to be rid of the ants last year, in case you were wondering.)  The other day we saw a stray stink bug in the kitchen.  "Don't worry" Jonny told me.  "My friend told me stink bugs are scared of spanish."  Then he proceeded to yell spanish words at it (hola como estas, etc) until he got bored.  Apparently, stink bugs are not scared of spanish after all.  They should be scared of the toilet though.  We flushed it in the end.

We went to the Jazz game a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't hear it first hand, but Gary told me later that Simon was surprised that the cheerleaders were "only wearing socks and underpants."  (they were wearing more than that, but it was not easy to see.)  The Jazz didn't win that time, but we love to go see them when they come East.