"Follow me!"

I caught Henry with a permanent Sharpie marker tonight and made him take me to where he was coloring... it was all over his arms and legs and the only place he told me he drew was on his "tree-liter" bike (three-wheeler). He seemed to have marked his territory with the sharpie- on his bike seat. When I asked (rather excitedly- he had to think I was proud of his drawing prowess) where else he made marks, he exclaimed, "Follow me!" and proceded to take me on a tour of his Sharpie-marking expedition. We saw the van license plate, tail light, gas door, left side, right side, then onto Clara's bike seat and handlebars, the stroller hood, Evan's motorcycle seat, rearview mirror, tail light, gas tank and foot pedal... At this point my lips were twitching because I could see Evan's reaction to this wasn't going to be good, but I couldn't keep myself from thinking it was funny- he had just carefully marked each thing with one or two little marks. When I asked if that was all, he said, "Follow me to the backyard!" So I did... he marked the swingset, an old glass bug jar, "Even a leaf, mom!" and then, his crowning accomplishment...

Nay, not just a wee mark this time, he proudly pointed to the window and said, "Look mom, it's my NAME!!!" Yep, it's his name in permanent Sharpie on the window. At this point, I burst out laughing, which he took as me being pleased as punch at his accomplishment. After I got myself under control, I made him go to the shower to start washing off his marker tatoos, and also to keep him out of sight while I took Evan on the "Follow me!" tour...
He did do a great job on his name, don't you think?

You gimme food, I happy boy

I really thought I might try to nurse this baby for 6 months before I started feeding him solids...but he had other ideas. The kid watches us as we eat dinner and tracks the fork and spoon movements. If he is anywhere near the table, he grabs for whatever looks like it might fit in his mouth. So I caved and started him in on everything. Cereal- awesome! Sqauash, no problem! Bananas- hurrah! You spoon it, he eats it. He didn't even have to get the hang of a spoon. It was like a built-in reflex. The kid just eats. And he eats great!

And when he eats...he's happy! Unless you walk away from the table with the spoon in your hand. Then he is not happy!

We held our pinkies up and called each other "Darling!"

My cute little Clara just turned 6... how do they grow so fast and who gives them permission? We had all sorts of festivities...pancakes in bed, out to lunch with mom and dad (to Applebees of course, because they sing to you there- "Good news is we sing for free...Bad news is we sing OFf KeY!!!) then loads of presents- including the much hoped for and received with a very large "Yipee!!!" Easy Bake Oven from Grandma Brenda! (We thoroughly enjoyed the miniscule slice of chocolate cake that was produced :)

The next week we had a Princess Tea Party with all the girlfriends. They all came dressed up and had a lovely time eating green and pink flower sandwiches, pretzel stick stabbed cheese buttons, brownie bites, and of course, Tea (pink lemonade... some of the girls had that -- I remember that story in Primary how the little girl was offered tea and she said no...do I say no? --look in their eyes when I first said "Tea") We even had real China tea cups and saucers and a tea pot from my neighbor who had been to China! We played pin the smooch on the Frog Prince and unwrapped a crepe paper ball of little gifts and finished the party off with one more round of all-you-can-drink-tea, making sure to hold our pinkies up and call each other "darling!" (Thank you, Fancy Nancy!) It was a smashing success and I must say, quite a few decibles quieter than any of the parties I've had for the boys. What is it with boys? Anyway, Clara had a wonderful birthday and is now looking forward to being 7...I want to rewind a little and rock her to sleep myself...

Five faboulous things I love about Clara:

Her smile

Her beautiful blonde hair

Her giggle

Her snuggles

Her bright bubbly personality in a house full of brothers

I love you sweetie!

Broke his crown...

Jack and Clara went down the hill

Clara pushed Jack in the stroller

Jack fell down

And smacked his crown

And Clara screamed and hollered.

Yes, that is a true story. Clara took Jack for a stroller ride and thought she'd give him a carnival-type ride so she started running and pushed the stroller hard and let go of it which make the stroller hit the curb and dump over with Jack in it, his head hit the street and all *$#@ broke loose. Clara started screaming and crying because she couldn't get Jack out of the stroller so she just held his head off the street until Bennett (who was mowing the lawn and heard everyone start to scream) got there and unbuckled him to get him out. By the time I got there, Jack and Clara were crying, but Clara was crying so hard that her nose started gushing blood everywhere (like all over her new white school shirt) so I had to find something to hold to her face but all I could find was a diaper, which made Clara scream louder, which made her nose bleed harder, which made me more flustered because I couldn't get to Jack to make sure he wasn't going to have a seizure until Clara stopped screaming and spraying blood all over the place. I finally found a baby wipe and shoved it up her nose and told her to stop crying or I'd give her something to cry about (I love that line!) and then grabbed Jack and got back up to the house where I looked him over and found that aside from a very goose-egg sized purple goose-egg, he was just really mad and hungry. Luckily, everyone was fine after about a day. Clara still blames herself (which I do too, but not in a mean way...we just used it as a great example of how NOT to give stroller rides to the baby) and the goose egg went down to a lovely yellow green color within a few days. Jack is still cute and brilliant...no harm done! I do wonder what the whole scenario looked like to the neighbors whose house we were in front of though...

Kindergarten, here I come!

Clara loved her first day of Kindergarten. She loves Mrs. Martin, her teacher, playing kitchen, going to recess and all the fun things new little kindergarteners get to do. She even wakes up great and lets me do her hair every morning with minimal screaming.

See me sit!

Jack is brilliant. He can sit up! It is either his brilliance or his wide undercarriage (he gets this from his mother) that supports his so well! Either way, he does a great job sitting up! He's even so brilliant that he can sit and wave at the same time! What a good boy! BTW, he is five months old. I know, I know, BRILLIANT!!!

New Bike, New Face

This is Clara. This is Clara on her new bike that she learned how to ride ALL BY HERSELF!!!

This is Clara's new face after she crashed on her new bike. That's right, it was a full on face verses the asphalt crash. A lot of screaming and bleeding. She was very concerned about having to go to school the next day in this condition. Luckily, only one person asked her what happened.
And she still loves to ride the bike. Phew.

Back to school time!

Clara in her totally cute new twirly skirt that I made her when I was on the twirly skirt kick a few weeks back...4 skirts in two days...nice! Still have material waiting for 2 more.

Ethan was way pumped to go to Centerville Elementary with Bennett this year.

Bennett gets to be in the portable this year for 4th grade. No bathroom or drinking fountain, hot in the summer and cold in the winter, but all the kids love it! He still likes his Superman lunch tote. Think it will last until Jr. High? That's coming way too soon. *sniff*