Little House in Suburbia

Sometimes my girls remind me of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, the way they love adventure and love to use their imaginations. I almost laughed out loud when we were at Silver Dollar City and the Tom Sawyer area had a big bucket labeled, "for washing rocks." My kids ask me to send a bowl out with them nearly every time they're outside playing. The bowl has to have warm water with 3 squirts of soap so they can wash rocks for their collection.

Lately, though, we've been more of a Little House on the Prairie family. I started reading the series with Big Sissy a couple of months ago, and she has added some additional pioneer stories to the mix that we borrowed from a friend. I think we've gotten a little confused about where they end and we begin, though. For example, the other morning I woke up to find Big Sissy in my bed. Since that is unusual at our house, I probed until she told me that she dreamed that she was being chased by a pack of wolves (sound like Pa Ingalls?). Another day Little Sissy told me to stop talking about Indians because she didn't want them to hear us and come in our house. That led to a long discussion about not judging people, even though Caroline Ingalls did. Another time she spontaneously burst into tears. When I asked what was wrong, she said, "Mommy, I don't want you to churn all of our milk into butter. I really really love milk." The funniest so far, though, was this morning when I was giving the kids a bath. Since Big Sissy is the oldest, I'm ready for her to start doing more by herself. I was drying off Little Sissy and I told Big Sissy to drain the water and dry off. Pretty soon I heard her yell, "Mommy, can you bring me my towel? I'm freezing cold in this CIVILIZATION bathtub!" I'm sure she would have been much warmer sitting in a bucket filled with water heated over the wood stove, but I'm doing my best. I better go google how to make lye soap.

Say What You Need To Say

In contrast with our girls, our boy has NOT talked early. In fact, he's always just on the cusp of needing some kind of speech intervention. That is why I'm THRILLED when he says something I can understand--especially when it's two or more words hooked together. This clip is of Little Buddy, who finally decided he has something worth saying. He says it the same way every night, and always with the same deadpan expression. Since it still makes me laugh, I thought it might make you smile too.

Born to Argue

I've always said that Big Sissy would be a great lawyer. She's articulate, she's smart, and she loves to argue. She's good at it, actually. While we were in Branson our friends kept the kids one night while we went on a date. They started jumping on the bed, and Mr. Nathan told them he didn't think they were allowed to jump on beds.

"Mommy says it's OK, but only in hotels. Never at home," she replied.

Not sure if she was telling the truth (but knowing it sounds like something I probably would say), he tried another tactic. "I just don't want you to fall off and get hurt."

Big Sissy looked at him, looked at the king-sized bed (which seemed HUGE to us), and said, "I think this bed is far too wide for that to happen."

Shrugging, Mr. Nathan gave in. "You can't argue with logic," he conceded.

Now that Little Sissy is getting a little older, I think I have 2 lawyers in our midst. We had 2 incidents with her today. First we were having a discussion about something in the van and not seeing eye to eye. Finally in frustration she said, "Well, I said what I said and you should mean what I said." That just made me laugh and the tension was over.

Then tonight after singing the color song for about a million times while they were in bed (Orange, orange, orange, who is wearing orange today?....pink, pink, pink, who is wearing pink today?...), I finally told them it was time to stop singing and go to sleep. Little Sissy said, "Mommy, here are your choices. You sing the color song again or I'm dying or I'm not talking to you for 15 years." Whoa. This language skill that seems like such a gift to girls is their biggest downfall. I'm the first to admit it. We learn to manipulate early!!

Ballet Recital

The girls had their first ballet recital this week. They were ADORABLE! I can't get the videos to upload for some reason, but here are a few snapshots. Little Sissy was in the 2-3's class, and they wore sunshine yellow. Big Sissy was in the 4-5's class, and they were in blue. They performed in the seminary chapel, but they did not dance to "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" (to answer my dad's question). They danced to princess music.

Happy Mother's Day!

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Who Let the Bug In?

This past weekend was monumental in several ways. The girls' friend Avery had a bike parade birthday party, which forced us to get on the ball with getting training wheels connected to a bike for Big Sissy. She is way too big to still be on a tricycle, and we were lax about teaching her to ride a bike because we had to hold on every time. First we couldn't find training wheels, then we found some but they were acting as a brake against the tires...FINALLY hubby had an epiphany the day of the party. He reassembled some things, and presto perfecto. Worked like a charm. So Big Sissy had her first day of riding a bike independently (with training wheels, of course). She felt like big stuff and had sooo much fun.

Little Sissy got to decorate her tricycle at the party and be part of the parade too!

I didn't have my camera at the actual party because Little Buddy had his first campout with Daddy. The church group went on Friday night but because it was storming and I had a 31 party that night, they waited until Saturday to go. They had some good male bonding time--nothing pink, nothing frilly, nothing sparkly. It was man paradise. They hiked, they threw rocks in the river, they slept in a tent. Nobody even saw the bug that sneaked in.

It wasn't a spider. It wasn't a June bug. It was the kind of bug that makes sweet little boys on their first campout VOMIT all over the inside of the tent.

And apparently the same bug hit our sweet little fancy tricycle girl the same night. No one even saw it coming. Sunday was spent resting, washing sheets and sleeping bags, airing out the tent, and making sure the bug was gone. It is. Thankfully it was short-lived and we can still enjoy our precious memories.

Everything's Sweeter with Honey

Ever since we were shopping for Easter clothes and Big Sissy spotted this cute golden retriever at the department store, she has been obsessed with "Honey." I'm not one to buy everything the children want, but she reeeeeeeaaaaallly wanted Honey. So I told her she would need to start doing some chores to earn some money. She's 5, so it's time, right? Two months, two lost teeth, lots of bed making, and some benevolent donations from grandparents later, Honey became part of our family today. She feels proud of her hard work, and I'm proud of her for hanging in there. Honey is welcomed by proud W*bkinz siblings Lila and Grassy. Welcome to the family!