Christmas Slideshow

Every year for Christmas I do slideshows for the parents. Usually it's got one show with all the pictures of their child, and then a sort of "best-of" with a couple pictures of each child so they can see playmates and more of what goes on during the day. There was just a new update to iLife, so I can finally turn them into movies and put them on the blog!

Here's the favorites collection- maybe not all necessarily the BEST pictures, but lots of the ones that make me smile.

Dog Days Of Summer...

I got a new transportation playset a couple weeks ago and everyone is loving it. They played with it for over an hour the first time we got it out. It has boats, cars, ramps, helipads... all kinds of things. It's set up where the blue part can be filled with water to actually float the boats, but we haven't done that yet.


Other than that, there's not too much going on, really. Pretty much every summer I think I do at least one post where I talk about how hot it is and I feel like we're not getting any curriculum done and I feel guilty about art and blah blah blah...

Oh look, there's one here. And I know there was one on the old blog where I talked about them being addicted to watching the Aristocats and lying on the floor panting from heat, too tired to move while I said "Look kids, the Eiffel Tower..." like it was National Lampoon's European Vacation. Big Ben... Parliament... I cracked myself up and they just looked at me like I was nuts.

So I won't subject you to that again. But just know I feel like that again. I'm ready for cooler weather and back-to-school and ordering fall curriculum that I can stick to with some regularity.

We've been having lots of fun though, and learning is always happening whether I plan it or not. :) That's the joy of this business. The roster has been changing pretty frequently too- we've got a couple who are gone for most of the summer and then some who drop in from time to time. Sebastian and Ariel have switched to part time and we have a new set of siblings who are also part-time. Lots of little changes here and there.


Here are a few of the cutie drop-in girls we've had over the past month or so...


And our new sibling group. Disney names to follow, as usual. :)

This picture cracks me up immensely. Chip was not at all sure if he liked squash. He kept eating it though, so Kanga kept feeding him while I took pictures of him making variations of this face.

Simba sometimes wakes up with FABULOUS bed head. Reminds me of why I call him Simba in the first place!

And then of course, there's always getting a bucket stuck on your head for maximum entertainment purposes.

I love catching pictures of Roo in a big smile. Even if it does make her drool everywhere. It's awesome. :)

Pajama Camping

It is hot. Really darn hot. And I don't know what kind of fierce insect has taken up residence around here, but even when I coat the kids with bug spray, they all get bitten to pieces and break into sweat the *instant* we set foot into the backyard. I heard it was supposed to be 108 today. We are staying IN.

So we decided it would be pajama day!

As the planning last night and this morning went on, it sort of morphed into a camping day which just happened to take place in our pajamas. That totally works for me. We put blankets and pillows all over the floor and they built a pretend campfire and we sat around and told stories for awhile. They wanted me to tell a scary one. Do I look crazy? Why would I frighten them? So I told them this one. They thought it was really dumb. Good. :) You act it out all dramatic and use scary voices and then when it's a pink jellybean... Duchess was all, really? Really Mom? that's IT?!

Then they decided we should make s'mores. I had none of the key ingredients, but I have been wanting to try a recipe I got for gluten free graham crackers, so we spent another big chunk of the morning baking a pan of homemade graham crackers. I am in equal parts amazed at my Betty Crocker-ness and disgusted at its necessity. They turned out pretty decently for a first attempt, although next time I think I need to roll them out thinner.


Cute New Boy (who I'm thinking of calling either Flik or Remy~ any thoughts on that?) was running a little late this morning because he got to spend the night with Grandma, and so he showed up in the midst of all this and she offered to go buy us marshmallows and hershey bars. WOO HOO! Thanks! :) Kanga and I have sampled the finished product and it is mighty tasty. We're waiting on everybody to wake up from their naps so we can serve the kiddos.

I was trying to think of what a good camping lunch would be, and I remembered those foil packet dinners we used to put in the fire when I was a girl scout. We always called them "girl scout specials" although I think they were actually boy scout specials first. I googled and hit the jackpot on a list of tons of them. I think we'll definitely have to try some of the others, especially the chocolate marshmallow banana one. We made the hobo pouches for lunch today and they were a pretty good success. I like that they can be tailored to each person- we made them one by one and they got to tell me which veggies they wanted in it. I had hamburger in each one, and then choices of peas, corn, carrots, mix veggies, mushroom, and onion. Ariel loved the meat and would have eaten double what I made her, and O'Malley picked out all his veggies and left the meat. Silly children.

Here's Sebastian's, ready to go into the oven:

And just for future reference, they took 45 minutes to bake, which I was not really expecting for some reason. By the time Simba's was done, he was totally gone. I don't think he got even one bite before he fell asleep in his chair!


After all that, it was after 2:00 before the last kid went to sleep, so I don't know if we'll have time for any camping art. I'm guessing we'll get through s'mores right before pickup, so you can take your kids home all full of sugar.

You're welcome. :)

But seriously, this has been a REALLY fun day so far. I just wish it was Friday, because a lot of times we do special things on Friday, and so it feels like it is. I think tomorrow we're going to call it Silly Hat Day and make sticker crowns and foam visors and dance around in our hats. We can't have Friday be a letdown!

Eating a camping lunch in our jammies is fun!!

Mud Puddles *with video!*

It's been raining for so long here. On the days that it's not actually raining, it's still been really soggy and muddy in the yard. We haven't been outside in weeks. I decided today we were going out no matter what. So we got swimsuits on and I took the big kids out to turn themselves into mud balls. We had a great time! I took video also- it's at the bottom of the post.


I was so proud of Sebastian- he came out with us and actually stomped in the mud a bit and put his hands in it. He was still the cleanest one, but he did much better than I expected. Usually he really hates to be dirty and won't even try when we do messy stuff.

Duchess, on the other hand, has no such problem. She decided a mud beard would be good.

Simba and Scamp stayed inside with Kanga and Roo, and they were not happy about that. They had their faces mashed up to the glass most of the time. I just didn't feel like they were old enough to not get upset or else eat the mud.

Jumping in puddles brings great joy to everyone involved.

I got brave enough to squish my feet around a bit. It was really quite muddy. I felt like I was wearing thick mud socks afterwards and I had to get out the hose to spray us all off.

Ariel proudly showing off her muddy face.

O'Malley inspecting a puddle for worms.

I love stuff like this. Yes, it's messy and kind of a pain, but that's the beauty of having two adults here. I hosed them off one by one and sent them in to Kanga, who was ready with towels. We had a wonderful time.

Messy Boys

I know I just talked about Scamp and Simba yesterday- I try to make things even when I can, but this is funny.

They like spaghetti just a little bit:

Mr. Scamp

Scamp's been here going on two weeks now and is settling in nicely. He's about a month older than Simba and their real names rhyme. It's kind of funny- they're always playing together and they both turn around when I call one of their names because they're similar.

The disney Scamp is the cute puppy of Lady and the Tramp, in case you wondered where I got the name. It's this guy:



I love his eyes and his cute bouncy energy. Reminds me of our boy. :)

Scamp and Simba stuffing coins in the piggy bank and both looking up when I call one of them.


Riding the scooter out in the backyard.


He's got the longest eyelashes I've ever seen on a kid. Totally adorable.

Breakfast

Yum. We agreed we were in the mood for something substantial for breakfast today. Of course, that meant lots of cooking and oven time and we didn't finish eating until a little after 10. Oh well. I made a breakfast casserole with tater tots, bacon, eggs, cheese, and onions. It was very tasty. Ariel and Sebastian picked the bacon out and wouldn't try the rest, but everybody else loved it and there's none left.

The littler "big kids" really got into it-

Scamp had three helpings and ate with great zest. It was quite the job to clean him up after he was done. :)

Aurora doesn't look particularly excited here, but I caught the picture right after she finished smiling. I picked a few plain tater tots out and broke them up for her, along with some chunks of apple. I don't think she actually got much in her mouth, but she sure loves sitting in a chair and getting to eat the same food as all the bigger kids.


Simba, eating well as usual.

And in other news, I'm working on updating the sidebar links- I'm going to write an updated post on each kiddo with pictures and link them. So I took that part down and I'll be putting it back up gradually as I get a chance.

Outdoors!

Simba went outside on his own today for the first time. He hasn't been walking very long and is rather prone to scavenging- he's one of those kids where you're constantly saying "did you put something in your mouth? what is that?" On the days that it's been nice enough to go out this season, I've put him in a chair or the exersaucer so he can watch everybody and enjoy the fresh air, but not get into trouble.

Today I figured we'd try it for real. He did really well! (until he discovered the sand table... but I guess green moon sand is too big a temptation to resist tasting.)

He'll be one next week, officially a big boy! Of course, in his own mind he's been one of the big kids for months now. He's got places to go and things to do.

Always Fun...

It never gets old for me to watch a baby falling asleep in his lunch. I love it every single time. Simba gets tired about 20 minutes before lunch is ready, but he's eating so much big boy food now that I hate to put him down without letting him eat what the other kids are going to have. He ends up dozing in his food on a semi-regular basis. It makes me happy. He's so cute.


Every kid I put in the jumperoo falls asleep in it at least once. O'Malley and ... (what did I used to call the baby I had last year... I can't remember his Disney name...) anyway, both of them used to keep jumping in their sleep. Girl Friday doesn't do that- once she falls asleep, she is OUT.


Oh! I remember now- Eeyore. That's what I called him. This one:

He'll be 2 next month- I bet he looks SO different. He probably has some more hair now. :) It always cracks me up when I haven't seen a kid in awhile and they've gotten tons of hair. It looks like they're wearing wigs.

25 Random Things About Us

This list is going around on Facebook, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to show off snippets and pictures and stuff that's happened so that I'll be caught up once and for all...

1. Snow White graduated and went to her new school at the beginning of January. We all miss her and the kids ask when she's coming back to visit. I hear she's doing fabulously well in her new place, which was never a doubt in my mind. She'd outgrown me. :)
2. Simba thinks he is one of the big kids now and I keep finding him in weird places quicker than I think he ought to be able to get there. He was trying to scale the shelves but got down when I went for the camera.
   
3. 
4. I've also found him on top of the table this week, but I was too busy running to get him before he leaped off the edge to get a picture of it.
5. I have a new part-time baby girl who comes on Fridays sometimes. I can't think of a good Disney name for her.
6. It is taking Aurora quite awhile to get used to the fact that she has been dethroned from the title of The Only Infant In The House Who Should Be Held All The Time And Not Have To Watch Anyone Else Be Held Or Heaven Sakes Fed!
7. The big kids divide on gender lines most days now. Duchess and Ariel want to have tea parties or play Sorry! in another room, and O'Malley and Sebastian like to hang out and smash trucks into each other.
8. Most of them have a Webkinz account and so when they go outside they want to dig for gems or else make "gak" or "gunk" and stir a bunch of mud and rocks around and paint it on stuff.
9. Ariel has become even more dramatic lately and will throw herself into sad-looking positions and whimper and peek out through her fingers to see if I've stopped the universe for her. Usually I laugh at her and take her picture. It bugs her, but most of the time snaps her out of the funk because she wants to see what she looks like.
10. 
11. Muffin Tin Monday has become a pretty regular occurrence around here and they like trying to figure out the theme. Today we had olives, cucumber slices, hot dog slices, carrot slices, cheerios, and string cheese slices. Circles. They were pleased.
12. 
13. Our curriculum theme for February is Blast Off! and we're all really excited about it. I've been finishing up random bits of leftover months that we never got around to, and haven't ordered a new theme box in a few months.
14. I don't think I have found one thing that Simba will not eat. The kid can put away some groceries.
15. On the flip side, most meals he eats more than both Ariel and Sebastian do all day long.
16. O'Malley and Sebastian are trying to potty train. It's in that stage where I despair of it ever happening, but I know that all of a sudden one day it just WILL and I should stop worrying about it.
    
17. Ariel is beginning to drop her nap and I let her stay up two days a week and work on school while I do kindergarten with Duchess. They are learning to skip count by tens, fives, and twos. Duchess is annoyed that Ariel is picking it up as fast as she is- she wants to be the smartest one. :)
18. Duchess loves to hold Aurora and pretend that she's her baby sister. I think she wants to keep her.
19. 
20. I wish I had a wardrobe as cool as Aurora's.
21. I'm really excited about the supply fee this month- it's been awhile since I bought a lot of new things for the playroom.
22. I'm looking at getting this for the babies. It looks like something they will enjoy. You put them on their belly and they can spin around and play with all the different parts of it.
23. I'm not sure what direction I want to go for the big kids- Lakeshore is such an awesome place! There are a million cool things there that would make our days more fun. I think this may be at the top of my list though.
24. I'd also really like a sand and water table that I can use for moon sand, but I'm not sure how practical it would be and if we could keep the area clean enough to not drive me batty.
25. I finally feel like I might be caught up on all our goings-on!
    

Supervised Visits As We Grow Older...

Back in November, Aurora got really good at sitting in the Bumbo chair just about the same time that Simba got the hang of crawling. That boy has been on the prowl nonstop ever since! He really wanted to come over and visit Aurora in an upclose and personal way, so I kept having to scoot her over. They had a lot of fun watching each other though- I think that this was one of the first days that Simba even really noticed there was another baby in the house.



In other "wow aren't we getting big" news, O'Malley is tumbling with the big kids on Tuesdays now. It's really fun to watch as they go from being so tiny to being able to bear walk and scoot-scoot and do all the cool physical activities Mimmie does with them.

Earning His Keep

All I have to say is this:

If Simba had an outfit like this, my floor would be spotless ALL THE TIME. This is hilarious!

Nature Walk

It's pretty windy out today, but warm in the sunshine, so we all went for a walk this morning. They all have their favorite things to look for. Simba loves the wind and makes faces at it and opens his mouth to feel it on his tongue. O'Malley is obsessed with rabbits and squirrels and most especially dogs barking. Sebastian likes to look for airplanes. Duchess wants to walk up a certain street and see if Rex the cat is outside. Snow White picks every dandelion she sees along the way. Ariel does all those things, and then usually throws in a little something every time that adds depth to the conversation.

She had gotten tired of running in front of the stroller and was walking with me and "helping" me push it, chattering nonstop. She noticed that the moon is visible today and so we talked about that for a little while. I'm really going to need to brush up on all my scientific facts to talk to these kids. They're asking some good questions these days! She wanted to know why it was there during the day. Then she noticed that it's a half moon right now and that freaked her right out.

"The moon! What happened? The moon! It break'd!"

Um, I was an English and history major. Skimmed through science. I told her the whole moon is always really there, but sometimes we can't see parts of it because it's in the shadow of the earth. I hope that's right, or at least close enough for a four year old. So then we talked about how the moon spins around the earth and the earth spins around the sun, but we can't feel it, and when you see the clouds moving, they're not- we are. But there aren't any clouds today and she wanted to know where they went. Beats me.

I need to rent a Magic School Bus video or something. Not for them- for ME. Duchess is always telling me things I didn't remember from science class that Ms. Frizzle teaches her.

The duct tape leaf belt is way more my speed. I think we'll do that on our next walk and avoid all this heavy discussion. :)

Picture Day

Earlier this week a photographer came to the house to take pictures of the kids. It was quite the interesting experience. He set up a huge backdrop in the living room and we took some group shots and then individual and sibling shots of most of the kids. The girls did much better than the boys- Sebastian refused to smile but they did manage to get a few cute "tough serious guy" poses. O'Malley pretty much got nothing good. He screamed a lot and then demanded that I take his sweater off, so he was running around with no shirt on and the best looking picture they got of his face has a nekkid chest attached. :) Oh well. Authenticity.

Personally I was hoping for more candid shots and interesting poses and making silly faces. I think they did a good job and we got some nice pictures- I just had something more informal in mind.

Here's a teaser:

The girls wanted to dress up- Snow White brought her new pink dress, and we raided the dressup box for Ariel and Duchess. There were plenty other princess dresses- I have no idea what made Duchess decide to wear the flight suit. I think that's the first time she's ever put it on.

We got lots of really cute shots of Ariel.

I love this one of Simba- the look on his face is so cute.


I think a group shot with seven children looking pleasant is a miraculous thing. I was pretty impressed. And this was the best we got of O'Malley all day.


Snow White- she's the one I wish most had gotten to jump around and be candid- her personality is so vivid that I feel like you don't get a good vision of her when you make her sit still. :) That's not to say it isn't a good picture- she pretty much doesn't take bad ones. It just doesn't capture her spirit the way I would have personally liked to see.


Sebastian. He smiled for about thirty seconds, so they got a couple good shots off.

He didn't want to take any pictures with his sister either.


Then he was done. Very done. I tend to like the serious ones better than the cheesy smiles though, and they got a series of these that I think are adorable. He looks kind of beat down and annoyed, but also like a tough guy who's just too cool for these dumb pictures.


O'Malley, after fleeing the scene and shedding his good clothes. He's watching Dora the Explorer and that's my old blue couch he's sitting on. The photographer used the zoom lens from across the room because the poor boy would scream every time the camera got close.


His sister, who posed much more nicely.


The one lone shot of both of them. At least he isn't crying, although I don't think you could say he looks happy.


Hail to the Princess Aurora!