Splashing

I remember now why I don't do water days very often- MAN they are a lot of work. :) Getting everyone changed, into swim diapers if they need it, finding towels and sunscreen, getting the equipment set up, supervising during the water play, dealing with some who hate it and want to go inside immediately while others love it and scream when it's time to come in no matter how long you've been out, tracking in mud and grass, getting everyone dried off and changed, being behind schedule on making lunch.... I was very glad my sister showed up to be an extra pair of eyes and hands. :)

We are very feast or famine with the water play- either they LOVE it or they very much do NOT. This year it's pretty much big kids vs. little kids- 3 and up love it, anybody younger would rather stand on their head in an ant pile than be wet.

Highlights from the HAVE NOTS:
(not much interesting going on when you're sitting on the sidelines... )
Sebastian stayed like this for a really long time, then gave up and tried to go sit in one of the cars. By then the yard was really wet and he got mud on his toes. He lost it. He hates to be dirty, and he was freaking out about the mud, but also about the water, and he wouldn't let me put him in the spray to clean him off. Poor kid- can't win for losing. :)

Supervising from the porch...

O'Malley gave up on us completely and left the area- he digs the sandbox.

Highlights from the HAVES:
(water! lots of water! stay in it till we're pruny and muddy!)


I had to pry them out of this pool with a crowbar when the water looked like lentil soup. They were in there FOREVER.
Showing off her cute new swimsuit.
Snow White and Ariel- I had to take four shots to finally get one with their eyes open, but didn't it turn out cute?

As far as a review of the spray park, I think it's a pretty good time for forty bucks. It took me almost two and a half HOURS to blow up all the stupid huge animals by myself- I really recommend using a pump of some sort. The only one we have is for our tires and plugs into the car lighter- so I couldn't really go out there and use it. Blowing up three ginormous toys with your own breath power is a lot of work and I had a headache the rest of the day. Also, it says you need to use the hose and put water weight in the bottom of the elephant and giraffe, which I didn't do because they were impatient to get started. The elephant did okay without it, but the giraffe really does need it. It kept falling over and we couldn't get it to work right. But that also might be because I ran out of breath and maybe didn't put enough air in it. Other than that the whole thing was awesome and worked well to keep 12 kids occupied for over an hour- that's a good time. :)

Belated Japan Day

Here are some cute pictures of the kiddos trying out their chopsticks. Snow kept calling them tweezers. Hey, whatever works. :) They were much better at using them than I expected. I can only do them myself if I hold them still and use them like a shovel. I never got the hang of the whole tweezing thing.

Suitcase Surprise

I love the curriculum we order. Over the last few months they've revamped it and integrated a bunch of new things to make it better. My favorite is the Writer's Workshop, as a former English teacher and lover of creative writing for kids. Today we made our first class book. Our theme for April is Around the World, which I think is my favorite by far in the last 2 years I've been ordering. I love maps and geography and landmarks and I do a lot of that with the kids anyway, so it is awesome to have all this stuff to back me up.

We talked about the seven continents today. Most of the big kids already can list them, since we sing a song about them every morning. We're working on identifying them by shape and being able to list them out of order instead of only singing the song. I gave them a few facts about each one, and then their book page was to tell me a story about which continent they'd like to visit, what they would do there, and what they ought to pack in their suitcase to go. Then they illustrated their page and wrote their name on it and I'm going to bind it and keep it here for them to read.

Duchess: "I want to visit Asia so I can play in the sand and water and see all the panda bears. I want to visit J and G in China. {her friends who moved there.} Next I would go to that very chilly place to visit the penguins, oh, that is called Antarctica. In my suitcase I have a bunch of clothes and hairbrushes- two at least!"

Ariel: "I'd like to visit the penguins in Antarctica. It's cold there. The penguins like me because they like to laugh at me when I make funny faces at them. In my suitcase I have my Ariels {what she calls her barbie dolls} and then some Dora panties and then... my mommy will pack the rest for me."

Buzz: "I want to visit Grandma- she lives in Texas. I don't fly on the airplane! I ride in my car. I have a fast racecar. Then I look at toys with {my cousin}. In my suitcase I have my backpack and a little dog. I not take clothes! just toys. I will wear underwear."

Snow White: "I want to go to the Eiffel Tower SuperFast! It is in France. I going to play at the top. My mommy comes too. In my suitcase I have toys- a new bouncy bouncy ball. Red shirts and blue pants and kittycat shoes."

Sebastian was at the doctor this morning and Marie and O'Malley just colored and grinned at me. We have a marvelous book.

Cautiously Optimistic

So all of a sudden yesterday morning I asked Ariel if she wanted to wear big girl p*nties. She said yes. And proceeded to wear them all day long with no accidents. After about an hour Snow said she wanted them too, and also stayed dry the whole day. I'm excited. Attempts at training before had been largely unsuccessful, and I figured we'd have to wait until they decided they wanted to, but I didn't expect it to be so quickly or happen on the same day. I think the peer pressure is working really well in this case.

Buzz brought some big boy pants today too, so we'll see how it goes with all three of them. I can't imagine how fun it will be with only three kids in diapers around here! Maybe we'll see if Sebastian wants to train too, just for the fun of it. :)

Some Snow and Some Songs

I think it's going to be at least until tomorrow before it's 75 again and we get to play in the sandbox again like we did YESTERDAY. Because today it's snowing. WOO HOO crazy weather in this place.

I called all the kids to the window to come see the snow. Most everyone came running and started jockeying for position. Ariel started singing a little song:

"Oh, it's snowing!
The winterland is happy!
There's ice and snow and winter now
And oh we are so happy!"

Such a creative girl.

They all went back in the playroom and I kept making grilled cheese. I remember now why I never make it- they love it and want tons of it and it takes SO long on my griddle. Anyway, about ten minutes later Buzz comes in and freaks out.

HEY! Whoa! It's snowing!

I think he was excited about having the playroom to himself when everybody ran out so he didn't think to ask them what they were going to look at. :)

And now I finally have enough grilled cheese to appease the masses, so it's lunchtime. Stay warm.

Monday Snippets

***Sebastian, running in from the playroom to tattle: "Hey! He ow me!" Oh, he hurt you? "Yes! I ow!"

***More on Sebastian- he loves Snow White. Lurves her. Carries her Valentine with her picture on it around the house on the weekends, I hear. When I put him down for a nap, he cries for her instead of his mom or me. Wants to be near her and make sure she is having a good time whenever possible. It's adorable. Flounder went through this about six months ago. And Snow's totally oblivious to the whole thing. The boys are just enough younger that they don't really register on her radar.

***We were talking about things that fly and Buzz was doing a great job telling me about woodpeckers and helicopters and things. I asked about butterflies (yes) and caterpillars (no) and then elephants. NO! Silly! Ephant don't fly! And being silly and contrary, I said, are you sure elephants don't fly? I think I might have seen one flying the other day. And he said, "OH! Bumbo! Yeah! Bumbo ephant fly ev'y time! I see him on the movie!"

***Ariel calls the PBS character "Clifford the red big dog" and it's amazing how different it sounds with just two words out of order. Throws me off but I love the way she says it.

***Last week we were playing barefoot in the sandbox. Today it's raining and yuck and 31 degrees. I much prefer last week.

Tuesday Dancing

They're practicing the beginning fundamentals of cartwheels in tumbling class this week. M said that Buzz looks like he's been working on them at home- he's much better at it than the girls are. Of course, that means he forgot how to do a handstand because he wants to flip and do a cartwheel instead. But hey. Progress is progress, right?


See, Ariel, it's hand, hand, foot, foot!

Snow White practices too- hand, hand, foot, foot!



Don't y'all have the hang of this yet? I'm ready to move on to something else!
And what about me? When will I be old enough? I want to tumble too!

Disney Kids

It's official. I asked them what they wanted for their super secret names, and they chose to be Disney characters. Some of them surprised me and Ariel definitely didn't. :) Her brother is now Sebastian. It's a good thing he doesn't much care, because I'm not sure he would have picked that on his own, but sister insisted.

I ran through a bunch of different ideas for Buzz before he hit on it. Do you want to be Lightning McQueen? Or Prince Charming? What about Woody or Buzz?

YES! I be Buzz Ightear! In infitty anddeyond!

Excellent then. Well done and off you go. Then we have an assortment of princesses and several Aristocats. And they named the baby Eeyore, which does not really suit his personality but oh well. Life is good.