Alexandria says...

"Mama I want to be like you when I grow up...except I don't want to lose my keys all the time."

Alexandria's A+ Project

It is a diorama of the Arctic Tundra. She did every bit of it by herself. I am proud of how creative she got.

Brownies wee no more...

Does anyone else remember that song "Brownies Wee, gay and free, just as happy as can be..." I know Chandra, Toddie and Mom do. Tonight was Alexandria's bridging ceremony for Girl Scouts (she bridged from brownie to junior.) She got a lot of patches and we had a great dinner. But it must be said: Me alone with 4 kids + buffet dinner= :( But all in all we had fun though and Alexandria was excited about all the badges she earned.





Annika was particularly touched by the candle lighting ceremony and had to wipe away her faux tears. Silly girl.

Fun in the garden

See what we did today? Barry was nice enough to come over and make us a little garden area. The kids were so excited to plant their seeds. We planted corn, lettuce, carrots and green beans. We are growing tomatoes inside that we will put out there once it is a little warmer.

Easter Pictures

All drama, all the time

It has come to my attention that perhaps I am a little dramatic. I noticed that everything that goes on around here seems to be an Event. Me taking all the kids by myself anywhere is an Event. Housetraining the dog is an Event. Giving up naps is an Event. I don't recall hearing other people go into such great detail and dramatics over their events. Which I won't capitalize, because clearly they are not as eventful as my Events.
My latest Event was taking all the kids to get their pictures taken. I ironed the girls' fancy sleeveless floor length dresses, got Ian dressed in his suit, curled the girls' hair, tried to flatten Ian's hair down with a variety of hair product. We ended up carrying the girls' dresses with us so they wouldn't get smooshed in the car. I figured they could change in the bathroom once we got there. Out of the stall comes Alexandria with tattoos on both arms. We forgot about said tattoos because she has been wearing long sleeves. Said tattoos did not go very well with fancy satiny floor length dress. We scrubbed as best we could, I think the end result will be that her arms look a little dirty in the pictures, that is all. When we got in the studio Elizabeth was not impressed. She wanted no part of being photographed and kept crying and bolting for the door. So we basically had to stick her in the spot and the photographer took the picture as fast as she could before Elizabeth took off. Which would have been okay but we had three other people who needed to look presentable as well. Annika had some earring issue and her ear was sore so she kept grabbing on to it and cocking her head to one side. Alexandria was getting all dramatic and doing jazz hands and whatnot. And Ian was...a four year old. Actually he did pretty well. All that being said, I think we got one good picture out of the bunch so I was happy. And even more happy that I won't feel obligated to do that again for awhile.
See, I can create drama out of anything. It is a gift.

Silly Girls

Reading time pictures...just because

My favorite time of day...reading time. Annika loves to photo bomb which always cracks me up.

Not much to say, but a lot of pictures

No energy for a real post, so here are just a few random things:

Elizabeth only likes the park when there are no other children there.

I don't have any current pictures of Annika because her eyes are closed in every single one.

My kids are getting really sick of me following them around taking their picture.

Screaming gulls and other nighttime woes

There has been all sorts of nonsense going on around here after I put the kids to bed. There is yelling, fighting, thumping, doors slamming, etc. As far as I can tell the problem is Ian wants the girls to play with him when they are all supposed to be sleeping. They won't and he gets mad, then they get mad, then I get mad. He came to me a while ago to tattle:

Ian: The gulls are going to yell at me and they are going to wake up Elizabeth!!

Me: What are you going to do to the girls that would make them yell?

Ian: NO!! I am not trying to tell you about me I'm trying to tell you about the gulls! They are going to wake Elizabeth up!!

Me(wearily): Please just go to bed and leave the girls alone

In other news, our upstairs bathroom is about to become closed to the general public. The layout of our house is such that all four kids are upstairs with a bathroom for themselves, Karl and my bedroom is downstairs. This would all be well and good if the children would go to bed and stay in bed. But no, they are up until 10 pm getting into all sorts of shenanigans up there, many involving that bathroom. Here are some things I have discovered them doing:

Annika and Ian carrying buckets of water in his room and dumping them on his hardwood floor so they could play 'swimming pool'

Someone put a roll of toilet paper in the sink and got it wet, then tore off little wet pieces to create a sort of paper mache effect all over the toilet, sink, floor.


Smearing toothpaste everywhere (I already blogged about this one)


Pouring water on themselves and each other


Due to all this activity, I have decided that henceforth that bathroom will be closed. Karl is purchasing a lock and it will be installed as soon as possible.

Alexandria and Ella

And at Leandra's party...the girls got to meet their new cousin. Alexandria was absolutely dying to get to hold that baby, you could tell. She finally got a hold of her and did not want to give her up. She told me "No thank you!" when I offered to take Ella off her hands. She is going to make the best babysitter some day.

Homework vent part II

You know that spelling test Alexandria was up until 10pm studying for? She ended up getting a zero because she forgot to write her name on it. I guess that is one way to learn?

Homework vent

I am not pleased. Alexandria has spent five hours tonight (minus a few short breaks) working on homework. Her homework packet was assigned Monday. She worked on it quite a bit on Tuesday night. Wednesday she couldn't because the teacher gave the class yet another homework assignment that was due the next day so she was busy with that. She finally finished the packet tonight at 9:15. She now has to work on her spelling words for her test tomorrow. She is crying because she is tired and didn't get to play tonight. She is NINE! I understand that homework is neccessary but it just seems a little excessive for a third grader. Next week I am going to try to divide up the packet so she is doing an even amount of work every night throughout the week (we probably shouldn't have taken Monday off this week.)And we will quiz spelling words every night. But if it still comes to her spending hours doing homework every night I think I will be talking to her teacher.

One more...

See Ian being attacked by paper reindeer:

I hope you all have a merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Notice Annika. She is a trooper. The show must go on no matter what craziness is happening right next to you.

Per her request: Here is Alexandria

Alexandria would like a post about her, please. Since she has not destroyed anything or had any meltdowns in quite a while, I will just tell a little about her.

Favorite subjects: science, social studies, art

Least Favorite subjects: math, handwriting

Favorite food: Strawberries

Favorite t.v. show: Star Wars the Clone wars

Favorite movie: High School Musical

Favorite books: Mostly non-fiction. She likes books about other countries, astronomy and other science subjects. She checks out the almanac every single week at school.

Hmm...what else? Alexandria has been a night owl since birth. She likes to go on trips. She is the best traveller ever. She has been to San Antonio twice, St. Louis many times and.....to Joplin, MO too!!! She loves being around family, no not Karl and me and the siblings...the fun ones, you know, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. She is a super careful shopper and must look over every single item in the store before she is ready to make a purchase. She is our 'little mama.' She tries to take care of everyone and is super helpful with her siblings and the dog too. She will spend her own money on treats for her sisters and brother. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She likes crafts, putting on plays, singing, dancing and cooking. Oh, and she is left-handed too.

The photo we won't be using for our Christmas cards

Look at that crazy dog. He got himself kicked right out of the Christmas card picture with his foolishness. Like I need one more body to squirm and not look at the camera.

Wait, these are ugly?

See how ugly the girls' shirts are. Today is Ugly Shirt Day at school. Alexandria informed me that she had so many ugly shirts it was hard to choose. So props to Karl and me for providing her with such a hideous wardrobe.

Elf yourself

Cha-Ba sent me an email with this video of the kids as dancing elves. See how Ian can suck on his fingers and do the Charleston simultaneously?

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/IS8tSOkz4MEvizE2OWWo



Ian laughed so hard when he saw it. He then decided we needed one with PaPa, one with the dog, one with Grandma. So we made a few and they were very amusing. I suggest everyone make one for themselves and if you have access to a picture of a crying baby, please use it. It will make you laugh. I happened to have one of a very sad Elizabeth that I used. If there is anything funnier than a crying baby in an elf suit square dancing, I don't know what it would be. Look:

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/OSfxsVOV3QfpBnWVPUHs

She is so sad...but she can't stop clapping and dancing.