Evenings

Mondays are ballet class.  Leah is thrilled to be back with Miss Sarah, thrilled to be dancing, and happy to have some time to socialize with her friend Lilly.

Then it's back home for FHE.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are piano lessons days.  I have 8 wonderful students now.  I love teaching each of them and I love watching them progress and improve, each at their own rate.  Leah has decided the she would like to be my 9th student, and she and I sit down together at the piano at least once a week.  She is off to a good start, although I can very much see why some moms outsource teaching piano to their children.  I find it very difficult to dedicate the time to Leah's lessons that I would like to, and she has a hard time taking me as seriously as I know she would a "real" piano teacher.

Adam will make a great 10th student one day. 

On Tuesdays we go directly to the library after we pick up Leah from school so we are stocked up on new books for the week.  The kids usually take care of each other upstairs while I teach, reading their new books or watching a show on the laptop.  On Thursdays Jason takes them to gymnastics class.  Since I've never been there, I'll let him post about that.  I just know that the monkeying around has upped quite a bit in the weeks since they've started the class. 

Wednesdays are playdate at Mamaw and Papaw's house- our "Indiana grandparents" that spoil the kids' appetites weekly with Chips Ahoy, candy corn, and Hi-C Fruit Punch.  Leah and Adam walked home last week, each clutching their bag of Halloween Oreos and mused, "I wonder why we don't ever have food like this in our house."  Leah decided it's just because I'm not a grandma yet.

Fridays are date night.  We aren't quite as enchanted with the weekly date night swap as we once were, but we still enjoy a kid-free night about twice a month.

I love having a nice, predictable routine that we can rely on every week.  Life is surely not getting any less crazy, and I'm grateful that our days are filled with so much fun.  And what is even more fun than a predictable routine is the days when we get to throw it all to the wind and do something extraordinary!  More posts about that coming up!

Afternoons....

We pick Leah up from kindergarten at 11:30.  She brings home a snack from the classroom each day, and has to choose whether to share the snack with the other mouths in the car or wait until she can eat it where no one is looking.  She usually shares.  "These tastes so good!  What are these cookies called?!"

"Ummm.... Fig Newtons.  Sorry I've been holding out on you."  (blech!)

When we get home, it's time for lunch.  The kids run around like crazies and enjoy being as loud as they want to while no one is napping and no one is doing homework or playing the piano.

Leah updates me on the status of her first loose tooth and tells me all about the sand dollars earned and lost in class that day.  

After lunch, we head outside for some fresh air and sunshine.  We stay out there until naptime, or until someone needs new clothes.

When Emma goes down for her afternoon nap, it's snuggle up and read time, followed by homework time.  We start with emptying Leah's backpack.  She reads us her weekly poem and her latest sight words book and then we do math.  It came as a surprise to me that Leah would not be getting any math instruction while in morning kindergarten, but the standards for kindergarten math seem pretty low, so I'm trying not to stress about it and just have fun with numbers instead.

Some days math is just a simple entry in her math journal (write the number 8 five times).  Most days I have a very small and simple activity planned.  We made cookies with 3 ingredients!  Follow the 7 steps I wrote down.

 

Occasionally we have a big activity.  My favorites always include books to drive home the theme.  Leah and Adam both loved writing and illustrating our own book, "Five Apples Up On Top".

 One day we read a book about constellations, drew our favorite ones and went to school for the Star Lab.

If Emma wakes up in time, she is sure to help us out by frequently emptying the pencil sharpener.

Mornings

Once Leah is off to school and Emma is down for a nap, I occasionally ask Adam to help with with some household chores. 

More often than not, we settle in to our respective computers and get some work done- me on the laptop and Adam on starfall.com.

Once Emma is up, it's all about the giant birds nests

and mid-morning snacks.

On Wendesdays Adam has a rotating boys playdate of the drop-off variety!  He loves it, and So. Do. I!

Thursday mornings I swap baby-sitting with my friend Doreen so I can go help out in Leah's classroom, generally assembling some art project that she won't get to make because she's not there in the afternoon. 

Friday mornings I have a secret cleaning swap with some of my best graduate-student-wife friends.  We all dream of hiring cleaning ladies someday, but in the meantime we have a blast chatting while we sweep each other's cobwebs, scour each other's refrigerators, and scrub each other's floor.

Some days Adam and I get a head start on dinner. 

Some days I go visiting teaching, some days we have visitors over to play.  If Emma takes a late nap I usually make a frantic phone call to a nearby friend to please come sit with the kids while I run to the school.  The mornings always seem to fly by, and before we know it, it's time to pick up Leah from kindergarten.

Pretty Pretty Princess

 First time in a sparkly, fancy dress-up was a complete hit.  

She is so pretty, and she knows it!

Potty Training- The End

I had a dear friend ask me about potty training success with Adam, and I realized that I have never wrapped up the saga here on the blog.  It seems small now, but I know when I am getting ready to potty train Emma I will be scouring my blog for clues on how long the joy of potty training lasted the last time around.  So, here are the details.

For a long time, Adam would NOT pee on a toilet without the potty chair.  We carried the potty chair around with us everywhere we went.  We eventually had a day when I forgot to take it along, and he had to go, so a choice had to be made.  Either he sit on the toilet seat or stand in front of it (another step of potty training that took quite a while to warm up to).  He chose to sit and has been fine with using the actual toilet seat sans potty chair ever since.  He can stand just as well, but he seems to prefer sitting.  I'm fine with that as it tends to leave less mess behind. 

We took the potty chair with us on our Disney trip.  We got to know the locations of the bathrooms at the Magic Kingdom very well.  He had several accidents on the trip, but it was just a hard time to be potty training.

I learned that I could expect to take Adam to the bathroom about every 2 hours during the summer.  He still says no when I ask him if he needs to go, but I have learned not to ask.  I just remind him that it's time to go.  The 2 hour time frame has since dwindled down to morning, noon, afternoon, and night. At least one of those trips to the potty each day is taken by his own initiative, and he never needs help finding the potty when it's number 2.  On his own, he is finally starting to admit yes, I need to go to the potty.  He is just starting to voluntarily remove himself from whatever toy, show, game, or book he is engrossed in to get to the potty on time.  Usually I have to herd him in the right direction before he will go, but I rarely see him doing the potty dance.  Last week he was just too busy running and jumping and being silly before bedtime to sit on the potty, and as a result, 5 minutes later when he was standing on the toilet to brush his teeth, he couldn't hold it any longer.  I realized I couldn't remember the last time before that that he had wet his pants.

That is pretty darn impressive.  The boy has come a looooong way.

Even more impressive is the fact that, somewhere along the way, he night potty trained, too.  He has never (knock VERY LOUDLY on wood) wet the bed, and we have long since packed away the pull-ups.  He seems to have a bladder of steel, and even after a long night, he doesn't need to rush to the potty right away in the morning.  That is very, very nice.  I fully expect set backs to come in the months ahead, particularly after we move to Iowa.

So, in closing this chapter of potty training, it was just about the same as Leah's experience.  It was dreadful for me.  It was hard work and lots of effort for him.  It was totally worth it, and I'm so proud of my little buddy for reaching such a huge milestone.

FHE Check-In

It's been far too long since I've posted an update about our deliberate Family Home Evening attempts.  The summer was hard- we seemed to have a lot of family fun and good times together all the time, so carving out a special lesson or activity for Family Home Evening didn't seem as essential as it was during the school year.  We still had FHE regularly, just not with a monthly theme like we were doing at the beginning of the year.  Not surprisingly, FHE fell back into it's regular old habit of becoming a Monday afternoon scramble instead of something that we were planning and preparing for well ahead of time. 

Now that we are back in school and nearing the end of the year, I am recommitting myself to more deliberate Monday nights.  This will be tricky because Leah has dance class on Mondays from 5:00 to 6:00.  After we get home around 6:30 we have dinner, FHE, and bedtime to squeeze in before bedtime at 8:00.  We had a fun FHE tonight, but the kids weren't in bed until after 8:30.  Keeping the night smooth and enjoyable will require more effort than I have been putting into it recently.

We haven't had a monthly theme lately, but in recent lessons we have talked about service to each other and how we are really serving Jesus Christ in all that we do.  We put together silly clues that said things like "I can help Aunt Mabel... set the table" and told the scripture story from Matthew 25- "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  Last week we talked about the Creation and made a great visual of the 7 days of the Creation.  This lesson helped build up our Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy theme in October. 

Tonight we asked Leah to share a favorite scripture story for our lesson.  She chose a story from the Book of Mormon- Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah are struck down by an angel for preaching against the church of God.  (the exact same scripture story she shared the last time she was in charge of the lesson). 

We had a great time picking out costumes and playing the parts.  At the end of the acting out portion of the lesson we talked about how we all make mistakes and how we can always repent and try again to be better and do better than we have done in the past.

Emma Grace is getting the hang of conducting "announcements, announcements, annoooooouuncements!"

Adam loved being in charge of "de refweshments"- and of, course, his costume of choice was Buzz Lightyear.  "It's the only costume I have!"

I love Family Home Evening.  I love that we have a chance to come together as a family and talk about things that are important to us- the gospel of Jesus Christ, the opportunity to live with Him and with each other together in heaven some day.  I love that our kids are excited to have Family Home Evening, and I'm grateful for the tradition that it is in our home.  It invites the Spirit into our home and makes us a stronger little family.

And, in an effort to keep myself accountable, our themes for the rest of the year are- 

October-  General Conference and Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy
November- Service and Gratitude
December- The Life of Jesus Christ- Christmas and I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus

This continues to be one of my favorite websites for FHE lesson ideas.  I can take one of the lessons and break it down to two or three lessons that will match my kids attention spans.  I'm always looking for good new resources, so if you have any, send them my way!

Hosting

We spent this past weekend with a full house.  We are doing an overnight baby-sitting swap with our good friends, and this weekend was our turn to host.  Jason and I will be taking our kid-free turn in November.  We still aren't entirely sure where we want to go, but we are giddy with excitement just thinking about the prospect of a full 27 hours of uninterrupted adult time (yes, 4 PM on Friday to 7 PM on Saturday- oh, the possibilities!).

But, while we are waiting for November to get here already(!), we had a different kind of fun wrangling a house full of seven kids.  Leah and Adam had so much fun with their friends, playing dress-ups! Barbies! coloring! hide-and-seek! telling silly spooky stories! going shopping! making cupcakes! having a painting contest! selling produce to each other out of the wagon! playing soft ball!  We weren't able to go anywhere all together, so we had a fantastic time at home. 

Jason and I tag-teamed in the crazy moments (well, as soon as we finished mopping up the exploding water heater mess that we dealt with on Friday night, but that is another story) and the kids had a great time entertaining themselves for the rest of it.  During the peaceful moments I thought, "We are doing so great!  We could totally handle 7 kids!" and during the crazy moments (mealtime, of course) I wrote a note to myself:  No.  You.  Can't.

But we survived.  And loved it.  And can't wait to do it again.  Just at their house instead of ours! 

Mommy and Me

 Means building lots of forts

and constructing baby cheetah nests.

Making silly faces

 and trying to capture the well-practiced scowl that Adam shoots at me when he doesn't get his way.

 He tells me to he wants to take funny pictures of me

And I take pictures of him being funny- it's a flour mask!

But most of all, Mommy and me time just means lots and lots of love.

Resourceful

Leah commented the other day that, "Emma just walks around making messes."  That is a perfect observation.  She is into every shelf, drawer, pile, or basket she can get her chubby little hands on.  Emma loves it.  The rest of us, not so much.  The kids are starting to realize that nothing is safe with a toddling little sister around.  But Leah has found a way around getting her markers swiped mid-masterpiece-creation-session.

Now that's being resourceful.

Fall Fun

We kicked off our newest season fun list with a long-anticipated and overdue trip to campus for a football game.  Jason has been wanting to go since we moved here, and he must have caught me in the right mood because I agreed to go. 

We were able to get tickets at a great price, and lasted almost two whole quarters before the wiggliness of the children combined with the nose-bleed level at which we were situated on the bleachers made us call it quits. 

There was so much to take in- when the action on the field was slow we had plenty of "I Spy" clues to keep us entertained.  And, much to the delight of Retired Drum Major Jason, there was a special half-time performance by 31 bands from all over the state in celebration of National Band Day (or something like that). 

 After we called it quits on the game we headed over to the fountains to cool off.  And,as is usually the case lately, it's all fun and games until Adam gets hurt.  So we headed home, tired and crying babies in tow. 

I always love going to campus.  The university itself is beautiful, but it's the oddles and oddles of awkward undergrads geeking around that warm my heart.  I watch them all- some trying way too had to be cool, some so cool that they don't know what to do with themselves- and I laugh and remember where I fit in to that spectrum in college.  And where Jason fit in.  And I see the way they (especially the girls) look at me and my little family  and I can see that I have something that they want... eventually, anyway.  For all the carefree fun and stupidity that college brings with it, I love the reminders that it's the love and commitment and security that we find with family that makes us feel most confident about who we are.

Or maybe I just felt that way because my heart grew with love as I heard Jason yelling at a truck full of speeding band geeks to "slow it down!" as they went zooming past our kids down a tiny street.  (Very uncharacteristic of Jason, but very appropriate, especially when it was immediately after some careless college kids knocked Adam into the stone wall of the fountain, bruising his back and abruptly ending his fun).

Either way, the trips was one delightful "check" on our list of Fall Fun!

Cooking With The Chef

I gave Jason a certificate to a cooking class at our favorite local restaurant for Christmas last year.  Yep, 9 months ago.  We have been waiting for the perfect time to attend all year, and, coincidentally, we ended up going just a few days after the anniversary of our first day 9 years ago.  And it was such a treat!

We went to the Mediterranean Islands-themed class.  The menu included things like Garides Sagunaki Shrimp, Swordfish Spiedini, Littleneck Clams in Garlic, Whitefish Stew and Saffron Mussels.  

 Each person prepared one dish in the kitchen,

 cooked it up,

then we all sat down to eat in the restaurant.

I prepared the Littleneck Clams in Garlic (all the while imagining them crying out, "Don't eat me!" and Jason made the Saffron Mussels- a dish that seemed rather underwhelming until the chef told us the box of saffron he was using cost $145! 

After savoring the meal, we each shared our favorite dish and one thing we would change about a dish.  The only negative thing I could think of to say was that I will never, ever let a mussel muscle it's slimy way into my mouth ever again.  Sorry, honey!  The scallops were amazing and Jason swore by the swordfish and feta.  My favorite classmate was Steve, my potato peeling pal who writes show-stopping musical tunes, and Jason's was The Yatch Man- boat shoes, pink polo, gold chain and a real taste for the many, many wines that were served with dinner. 

 
The food was amazing, and we have all of the recipes now, as well as a new taste for adventurous Mediterranean Islands food.  Anyone for a dinner party?