Stickin' it to the Man

I have always heard that if you want to have a good conversation with your kids then you should catch them while you are in the car together. Alek usually rides the bus to school but every once in awhile he will miss and we will throw his stuff in the car and drive over. We may not always have the most in depth conversations but most of them are pure fun. This was our conversation today...

Alek (absently looking out the window): Wow look at that big truck. Do you think that's a moving van.
Me: No I think it's a garbage truck.
Alek: Oh, a garbage truck. Pickin' up garbage, going to work, trying to get money, all just workin' for The Man.
Me: Working for what? (Trying not to giggle)
Alek: Oh you know mom, workin' for THE MAN (uses a suave voice for "the man")
Me: The man huh?
Alek: No mom, THE MAN (uses voice again)
Me: Oh, THE MAN (tries to imitate voice)
Alek: Yeah mom, you know what the man is, people in charge that make you do stuff. Teachers, the government, bosses, police.
Me: Police?
Alek: Ya know, police. Cops, coppers, the FUZZ (uses the voice again)
Me: Fuzz? Where did you learn all this anyway.
Alek: Oh just Dad!

Wordless Wednesday: Here's to the New Year!

Called to Repentance

Ok, so I have recently been called to repentance by my sister-in-law on my less than exceptional blogging habits. I don't do resolutions. I hate them. I think they're dumb. They just sound so....well, resolute. However, for you my adoring family still reading this I will resolve to try to post more often. So here goes nothing....

I Now Pronounce You...

19 years ago my Mom and Dad sat us all down to tell us that we would be getting a new sister. A what! I yelled. I couldn't believe they had just told me they where having a baby. There was already four of us and I could think of no worse torture than to add another kid to the mix. Leah was love at first sight for most of us. We don't know why she came as such a late addition to our family but we all knew that it was meant to be.

Over the years we did a lot together. It wasn't unusual to find her car seat in the back of mine or Charlene's cars. We shopped, we played, we mini golfed, we stripped at the skating rink. (ok just Leah did that) In the summers we would ride the bus down town and shop for hours at the old Cross Roads mall and ZCMI Center. I helped my mom with parties in her classrooms at school and helped guide her when she thought the ultimate career choice was to bag groceries at Harmons.
It was so wonderful to come and witness Cory and Leah's sealing. It reminds me so much of my own and how exciting it was to step into that new life of being married. They looked so happy and nervous and excited to be getting married and the Sealer did a beautiful job.

I only met Cory a couple of days before the wedding and I am looking forward to getting to know him better. He is a great guy who loves Leah very much. We couldn't have asked for a better match. Cory...we are a loud, noisy, crazy family... welcome to it! Take care of our Beastie for us!

Plane Ride

Eleanore and I flew to Salt Lake for Leah's wedding. An 18 month old makes for an interesting traveling companion. My mom graciously agreed to fly down to Phoenix and then back up to Salt Lake with us then do it again for the return trip home. Eleanore loved watching the planes at the airport while we waited and thank goodness SOMEONE had the presence of mind to put play areas in the terminals. She never wanted to ride in her seat and preferred to camp out under the tray table. In the end we had a blast and can't wait to do it again!

Thank you complimentary peanuts and Coke!

I Heart Utah

It has been over two years since I last made a visit to Salt Lake. Never did I think that it would impact me the way that it did. We have lived in so many places and moved so many times that after a while they all just start to blur together and you just seem to love something about them all. You have to or you risk total insanity.

As our plane began to land in Salt Lake the same words I always hear when I enter the valley kept echoing in my head. Welcome home, welcome home! Utah, especially Salt Lake, will always be home to me. I am so glad that we had the chance to spend the week there. Thank you to all of our family and friends that made our week so much fun. I couldn't keep going without you all! I couldn't help but almost feel teary eyed as the mountains receded in the distance and we left Salt lake behind. We will be back though. Hopefully sooner than two years this time. Next time we will come in the winter so we can "enjoy" Utah and it's crazy cold weather. Maybe I will change my mind then and decide to stay in Phoenix. Doubt it because deep down no matter what...I heart Utah!

First Day of School 2010

Aug 9th was our first day back to school. The Saturday before was busy. Last minute shopping, picking out clothes and just general craziness filled our house. I thought I would get at least a small break having Sunday sandwiched in there but there was no such luck. Emily and Andrew couldn't wait to get to bed and get up the next morning to start school. Alek and Ethan grumbled there way to bed and could still be heard long after grumbling in their sleep.

The bus driver let me get on and take this quick picture. Emily is less than pleased with me for it but Andrew was ecstatic!

Emily age 7. Second grade San Tan Heights Elem
Mrs. Abungden's class

Ethan age 10. Fifth grade at San Tan Heights Elem
Mr. Jackson's class

Andrew age 5. Kindergarten at San Tan Heights Elem.
Mrs. Hegg's class

I'm not sure what happened to Alek's picture. I know it is here so I will include it as soon as I figure out where it disappeared to. You know those Jr High schoolers....

Science Fair

Alek, Ethan and Andrew entered the science fair this year at school. Alek and Ethan entered alone. Andrew's preschool class did a collective project and entered. Kids in grades 4 and above are required to enter as part of their grade. Kids in the lower grades can enter as well but many of them enter as a class. Emily did not want to do science fair this year but after watching the boys I think she will be entering next year.

Alek did his project on mineral content in water. He used a multimeter to put and electrical current through different kids of bottled water, tap water and water from his school. He found out the mineral content of the different waters and what minerals conducted electricity. Then made a connection between the minerals in the waters and the electrical current. The thing that was the most surprising was how much salt was actually in a lot of water. He took home second place at the school level.

Andrew's class did a collective project on volcanoes. He talked about nothing but volcanoes for the longest time because of it. The had a special Jr category that they entered in. As a class they took the first place prize. There was only two entries but it has made him very excited for the time when he gets to do his own projects.


Ethan did his project on the process of Osmosis. He dissolved the shells of eight eggs so that the membranes could be exposed. He placed to eggs in distilled water and then the rest of the eggs in different solutions of distilled water and corn syrup. He weighed the eggs every fifteen minutes for two hours to show how the corn syrup alters the flow of water across the membrane of the egg. He had a lot of fun with his project and I have to agree that holding those eggs without shells was a lot of fun. He took home third place at the school level of the science fair.

Easter Eggs 2010

Andrew's eggs

Emily showing off an egg.

Ethan showing off his eggs....

Alek

Eleanore's first egg dying, and hand dying, and floor dying and....

Happy Birthday Eleanore

Its my party and I'll cry if I want to!




Happy Birthday Eleanore! It has been a wild first year but you are fitting into the role of the youngest well! There isn't a member of this family that you don't have wrapped around your little finger!

So far behind

I didn't realize until today how far behind I am with this. My sweet sister-in-law mentioned some time ago that she always checks to see if there is anything new with our crew, but that I haven't been posting anything. Well, I am repenting! (again) I am going to try to do this more. I am not going to back log much because it has been awhile but I will include a few older posts and start up again from here on out.....Hopefully I will remember and not need to repent again. At least not for a while...

Dinner Conversation...

I love when everything comes together at dinnertime and you get just those few minutes to glance into your kids thinking. I had called everyone to wash up and come to the table for dinner. Emily and Ethan got there and sat in their places waiting for everyone else. This is the conversation...

Emily: Mom are we having mashed pataties for dinner? (Yes that's what she loves to call them)
Me: Yes
Emily: I LOVE mashed pataties.
Me: I love mashed potatoes too.
Ethan: Well if you love them so much why don't you marry them?
Me: I can't I'm already married.
Ethan: No mom not you. (at this point I walk away from the table and the conversation continues) I mean Emily.
Emily: HEY!
Ethan: I now pronounce you mister and missus mashed potaties. You may kiss the bride.
Emily: If I kissed them I would want to eat them and I would even if he doesn't have gravy.
Ethan:(giggles) If you eat them then you could get married again because your husband would be gone. (giggles all around)

So ladies, husband doesn't take out the trash? Doesn't put his socks in the hamper? If he's made out of mashed potaties you could always just eat him!

Ethan says...

Mom, I would like nighttime a lot more if it wasn't so dark!

Do you know how mad your Dad would be...

Anytime the kids are home for extended amounts of time (Christmas, Spring Break, Presidents day, weekends...) they always seem to find highly creative ways to keep themselves busy. Sometimes it's root beer races off the loft balcony, sometimes it's forming a path with all the books on the shelf and skipping over them in an impromptu game of homemade Candy land, sometimes its makeovers on the baby. Sometimes, like today, its filling in the touch pad on the laptop with peppermint chocolate candy. I walked in to the delightful smell of peppermint and declared in my most serious voice "Who did this?" Followed with "Do you know how mad your Dad would be if he saw this?" Four pairs of eyes stared back at me and one squeaky voice dared "No, how mad Mom?"

Silence...hmmm what to say...they had finally got me...

Moms since the beginning of time have been using that phrase. I swear they have. Its in cave drawings and Egyptian tombs. Small pictographs of moms warning their kids of the great wrath that will ensue when their father gets home. Its the ultimate scare tactic right? Not only did you get "Mom" punishments but you also had to spend the remainder of the day stewing in the void of exactly what was going to happen when Dad got home.

Ok so I may have overused that phrase but it was working well for so long. I just never really realized how much until one kid decided to go rouge on me and question the logic that is, well, me. I guess they are on to me since anyone who knows Erik is probably asking the same question. I'm not sure if mad is even usable for him. Guess I need a new threat.

12 Days of Christmas

We love Christmas music! We play it in the house, we play it in the car, we play it on the computer. When we are in the van we can plug in the ipod and listen to music but when we are in the car we can't so we have to listen to music on CD. I discovered this year that our selection of Christmas CDs is really lacking. When I took Emily to Karate class the other day she kept asking to listen to The 12 Days of Christmas. We listened to it over and over again all the way up and all the way home again. We are almost home when suddenly she exclaims oh I get it turtle doves! They are birds like doves but they are shaped like turtles but why are they singing about a fridge? Doves that looked like turtles...fridges...where we listening to the same song? I had to ask. Emily says yeah mom is says two turtle doves and a part fridge in a pear tree. How did they get the fridge in the pear tree and why is it only part. It was really hard not to laugh. When we got home I showed her the words to the song and we looked up turtle doves on the Internet. She seemed a little disappointed but I hope she never forgets her version of the song

Halloween

Okay so way past Halloween but way to worn out for more than this...sorry folks I'll get back on the ball promise! Alek was a cyborg (he designed it himself this year), Ethan the skeleton, Emily the cheerleader, Andrew was supposed to be a pirate but wouldn't put on the costume so he was a golfer instead, Eleanore was also a cheerleader (Emily felt that if she had to be a cheerleader then Eleanore did too, loooong story). Enjoy...

Preschool Bound...

Yeah for preschool! We finally got everything squared away and found a preschool for Andrew. Andrew HATES primary and hates being left alone without either me or Erik so we weren't sure how this preschool thing was going to play out. He was pretty apprehensive but you could tell that he was really excited too. He wouldn't go unless we let him wear his Wall-E shirt.When we got there he was met by his teacher Mrs Jones. She is originally from England and taught preschool, kindergarten and first grade there. She has lots of fun new ideas that I had not seen before. I was very happy that he warmed up to her so quickly, not something he usually does.

Now there are four of the five of them at school at least four days a week. The house gets really quiet for at least a few hours of the day.

Emily's Birthday

Happy 7th Birthday Emily! I can't believe that our Pim is 7! She was very excited for her birthday this year and started reminding me about it a month and a half in advance. (As if we would forget)
She wanted a Tini Puppi dog, new markers, some High School Musical stuff, lip gloss (i.e. lip smackers) and a pink and purple flower cake. It took some looking but we actually found the Tini Puppini dog. Andrew gave her the new markers and Alek and Ethan went in together and got her a High School Musical purse and High School Musical lip gloss.

It doesn't seem that long ago that she was little and watching never ending episodes of Dora the Explorer. Now we have turned a whole new page and are into High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and Wizards of Waverly Place. Crazy how time flies like that!

The Karate Kid

Emily decided that she wanted to start taking Karate lessons. We weren't sure about it at first since her interest in lessons has ranged everywhere from dance, to horseback riding, to snowboarding. We found a good local class and went ahead and signed her up.

She just started at the beginning of August but she is really enjoying it. I got to sit in on one of her lessons and see how it went and she did really well. I like that they emphasize respect a lot in her classes. They talk a lot about how to do karate right you must respect yourself, respect you class, respect your teacher and respect your parents. I also like that they teach them how to handle "stranger danger" with what they learn should they ever need to.

Emily on her first day of class.

Striking a pose.

I wish these pictures where better but they came from my Palm.

When I picked her up from one of her first classes she was telling me all about her friends in class and the things they are working on and she says "I have a couple of teachers in my class. I have Sensei Frank and Sensei Dinner." I asked her Dinner? She said "Yeah I don't know why he has such a weird name" I tried to gently correct her that his name was Sensei Daren. She looked out the window for a few minutes then said "So that explains it. I thought it was Sensei Dinner so I just kept yelling that every time we had to say his name. I will have to remember next time." I love how kids say the funniest things.

First Day of School

The first day of school was actually August 3rd. I am running way behind. The first day of school is always bittersweet. On one hand it is nice to have them returning to those "hollowed halls" of learning where they can do so many other things than play games, jump on the tramp and just generally annoy each other. On the other it means homework, early bedtimes, early wakings, lunch boxes and catching the bus. Here are their first day of school pictures for 2009.
Emily on her first day of 1st grade. She had to have this cool lunchbox that looked like a purse.

Ethan looks like he is headed to military school with that pose. He was excited to start 4th grade. You can't see it but he was especially proud of his new black and yellow striped backpack.

I can't believe Alek is in the 5th grade. I remember when he started preschool! When we went back to school shopping we found out that he wears a mens size 7 shoe! (I had the lady at Famous Footwear measure him twice to be sure ) He wasn't at all happy about having to be to the bus stop by 7 AM.

Here's to another fun year!