Turkey Day with Our Turkeys

We spent Thanksgiving this year at the Driggs' home in Cerritos. Those sharing in our fun and revelry were Grandpa and Grandma Driggs, Mike (Stephanie was in Arizona), the Marcrofts (Thad, Allie, Sam and Nate) and the Fong Five. Thanks to Marie Callendar's donation to the party, everyone had relatively little to prepare - only the family specific goodies like soda cracker pie and Waldorf salad.

We started the day by walking to the park to watch Daddy play in the Turkey Bowl and to play on the playground. Jared opted to ride his bike instead of walking. We then returned to Grandma's house to take naps (Liz, Nathan, Sam and Lucas), play games (Dan, Cath, Allie, Mom and Jared) and just hang out. Jared soundly beat us in a rousing game of Yahtzee. Without cheating a bit he rolled 2 Yahtzees in the course of the game and won by a landslide.

Finally we did some last minute food prep and voila! Thanksgiving dinner was served. Here are some things I'm thankful for:


Crafty and creative Jared - our fun loving, super sensitive, great helper and listener, intelligent, nature loving son.


Super spicy Liz - our fashion diva, often stubborn & sassy, super generous, baby brother loving, amazingly happy daughter.


Mellow and patient Lucas - our calm, incredibly happy, overly loved and often attacked, super kissable baby.


Fun-loving, marvelously patient Danny - our always playful, incredibly mellow, super intelligent, and happy Daddy.

And a few other pictures from our day of thanks:


A fabulous day spent with family; for that I am thankful!

Four Down, One to Go

Jared just passed off another set of sight words! He's on the last set for kindergarten now.


Perhaps the teacher can work on how to match pajamas next.

Attack of the Clones

Everyone tells me that Jared looks exactly like Danny and Lucas looks exactly like Jared - which must mean that Lucas looks like Danny because if A = B and B = C then A = C. (And you thought I only taught English!).


So, what do you think?

Da Da Da Da.....Imperial!

Tonight Liz requested "eggs with butter on them" for dinner. I think butter is disgusting, but she seems to enjoy it, so I figured why not. I started cooking the eggs and put the butter on the counter. I then left the kitchen to briefly attend to Lucas. When I returned moments later this is what I found:


Liz had taken 2 or 3 bites out of the butter. Her mouth was absolutely full to the brim with butter. I guess what she really wanted for dinner was "butter with butter on it."

Responsible - with a Capital J-A-R-E-D!

A week ago Jared came home from school with a letter from his principal informing us that he was receiving an award this week! It also advised us to keep it a secret from Jared if possible. Danny got a period sub and I was able to sneak away from the office for the award presentation. I think Jared was VERY surprised and actually acted somewhat shy and reserved. The principal called him up front and read what his teacher had written about him. She started with, "Jared is one of the most responsible kindergartners I have ever taught!" and then listed all of the various things he does in the classroom to demonstrate this attribute.


Needless to say, Dan and I were very proud of him! He really does try very hard to be a good kid. He has even started saying, "Please help me to make good decisions" in his prayers at night. Granted it is usually followed up by "...so I can bring home a green card" but still, he's trying to be a good kid.


Since we're on the subject of Jared and kindergarten, please indulge a mother for a moment. Jared is in his second month of kindergarten and is already on his 4th set of flashcards. (The teacher gives them flashcards that they have to learn at home - when he knows them then she quizzes him and he receives a new set). He can read over 200 words (the number of words he's had on the flashcards!) and is getting pretty good at reading to me at night. Have I said enough lame Mom stuff yet? I guess I'm just proud of my boy.


Jared's favorite part? His Grandma Fong made the trip down from Granada Hills for it and stayed to work in his classroom for the rest of the day!!! Jared got to share his lunch with her (she forgot her lunch pail!) and was very happy to have Grandma in his classroom!

A New Twist

I have been looking everywhere for sponge curlers like my mom used to put into my hair when I was a child. I finally found them yesterday at a hair supply place. I showed them to Liz and she was very excited to try them out. (In case you aren't familiar with Liz's personality, she is about as girlie as they come. She loves shoes, clothes, make-up, shoes, jewelry, dresses, and shoes. She seriously did not come from me...). I had her take a bath and then she sat patiently while I tried to figure out how my mom used to do my hair. I was worried she would complain about sleeping in them. When I broke the news to her that we wouldn't take them out until the morning she was very distraught - she didn't want me to ever take them out! Here's how she looked before:


Here's how she looked today at church...



Oh, wait, I forgot to take pictures. It was cute although extremely curly! I should have practiced on a night other than Saturday - considering the only day Liz really has plans is Sunday! Perhaps I'll do her hair again next week...

Bottle-rific!

Lucas has recently tried his hand at holding his own bottle. He's getting pretty good at it although I think he sometimes forgets he's holding it and lets it fall.


Jared is the happiest with the development of this new talent since his arm gets tired holding the bottle for Lucas while we are driving. Sometimes being the oldest sibling has its drawbacks.

A Word from Jared

Jared came home from school on Thursday and decided to build a huge dinosaur town in his bedroom. Here are a few pictures (that he took himself) and his description of the town.

"Hi, this is Jared. This is how I builded it. I didn't let Lizzie help me because she kept trying to break it and step on it. I took all of my play time away by building it. Lizzie made all of the food and let me think, oh yea, now I remember, I think that she was having a fun time making the food. And this is how I builded my dinos. I put them all in certain pods with same dinos. First, I used some blocks but there weren't enough. So then I used some other things until there were enough. Then some people kept knocking it down so then I had to make it a little bigger. I also felt happy that I made it. And I also made it as big as I could until all of the dinos could fit and it took over my whole room! There were some big dinos and some little dinos. The big dinos got to be by themselves together - the big dinos got to be next to each other in the big one. And I also did let Lizzie help a little but not a lot. First it was just a little town and only the Velociraptors and the Brachiosauruses had a spot. Then I made it a little bigger until I could fit the Ankylosauruses, then I builded it a little bigger so I could fit the Stegosauruses then I built it big enough the T-Rexes and Allosaurus could fit. I also builded it big enough that it could fit - wait, I skipped something between T-rexes - then after I made it big enough the Stegosauruses wouldn't fit in their spot because there was a big one so I made a bigger one using my train tracks. I had to make it tall enough that the little guys couldn't break through. Then Mom came home and I showed her my town."

Hmm, I wonder from whom Jared gets his long-winded, run-on, compound sentences?

Hostages

Ever since Jared started kindergarten he has almost completely stopped taking naps. On Saturdays when we're home we usually have him still go into his room for "quiet time." He can read or sleep or QUIETLY play. He just has to stay quiet for an hour...

Elizabeth, on the other hand, is still a nap taker. When she woke up yesterday Jared and Daddy had just left for Jared's soccer game so it was just the two of us playing while we waited for Lucas to wake up. She went into Jared's room to get something and came running out screaming, "Mommy! You have to save my dolls!! Mommy, help! Hurry!" I went in to investigate and found this:


Jared had hung five of Liz's stuffed animals to the bottom of the bunk bed. Liz was distressed and then angry!


Having an older brother traumatize you is only just beginning, kid!

Thumbs Up!

Seriously?

Ok, ok, ok. I know I said come back in 4 months and I'll update you on the Fong Five then but there is just so much going on right now. It's not that I'm addicted. Seriously. I guess I'll just add this one post and then not post for 8 months. Then it's all even, right?

I'll start with Halloween and then let randomness abound.

We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening the Monday before Halloween - who knew you couldn't carve them 5 days in advance of Halloween? They were moldy and full of colorful fluffy stuff by Halloween day. Here are some shots of Dan, Jared and Liz making their masterpieces. Unfortunately Luke had already gone to bed. Liz refused to let us cut into hers. She just drew a "face" onto it - it was definitely abstract art!


Jared loves to write his name on EVERYTHING - even pumpkins. Could he be any happier?


And the finished product, all lit up, before the fluffy mold grew inside. Well, obviously before the mold grew. That stuff has to be highly flammable.


So Jared was going to be a zoo keeper for Halloween until the night before when he decided to wear last year's costume and be Black Ranger. I told him if his costume still fit he could do it. I think it fit better this year than last! Here he is at his school parade (remember the school parade of costumes???).


After the parade I stayed and helped out in his classroom for a bit. They were mostly making Halloween crafts (go figure). He was especially proud of his bat. Yes, he's that cool. He loves to pose for the camera with a "deep" expression then smile and say, "Let me see it!"


Lizzie couldn't really decide on a costume either. She desperately wanted to be a witch - it's all she talked about for months. And except when she told my mom she wanted to be either a "piece of candy" or a "stick of gum" she's told everyone else she wanted to be a witch. She just couldn't decide which dress a witch would wear. She wore the pink dress on Halloween night and still told everyone she was a witch. A princess witch? Unheard of.


Yes, I know we have another child. I'd better mention him here or he might cut his hair to get my attention! Lucas is just so darn mellow he sometimes doesn't get as much air time. Dan was Magic Johnson (totally didn't get a picture with his afro wig on) and Lucas was a duck - a very sleepy duck. His normal bedtime is 6:30...just when the party was getting started!


Now for the randomness.

This week Lucas has been trying a new trick - army crawling. Seriously. We keep trying to tell him he is FAR too young to be crawling around. Oh my gosh, the stuff that Jay and Liz will have to get up off the floor is not even funny. However, against our protests, Luke persists. He definitely is a work in progress but he pulls his legs under him and pushes them out and moves forward. He is not fast by any means and not super effective but he is very deliberate in his action. I fear that he will be crawling before we're ready for it. He's 4 months old in these pictures (which will make Dan laugh because whenever the kids get close to the next age he starts calling them that age - which annoys me because they aren't that age yet!). To be specific, he was 4 months and like 29 days. So if you're voting for team Dan then he is 5 months, if you're voting for team Cathy he's 4 months. I digress. Again. Here are Luke's efforts documented:


He's doing these tricks long before our other 2 superstars did. Is he just trying to catch up to them? Doesn't he know he's my baby and should act accordingly???


Okay, my last bit of randomness. On Saturday Liz took a 3 hour nap. I'd blame it on the time change but that hadn't happened yet. Actually, she was up late the night before out begging people for candy. While she was sleeping our imagination boy, Jared, built a train in the backyard and wanted Luke to try it out. Here is Jay's creation and the boys enjoying their ride. (Oh, yes, and Jared has no clothes on. I was doing laundry and he was wearing his soccer uniform so I told him to run and throw his clothes into the washing machine - Stat! He did and then just stayed in his chonies. What is it with kids and running around in their chonies?! They get that from Danny's side of the family, for sure!).


Wow, that post probably felt like another 4 months of life - and it was really only 1 week. Is this why people blog so often? Life just seems to keep running by whether you're ready or not. And there's so much more I could tell you. Like Liz waking me up yesterday at 5 AM (that's from the time change!) begging for a bath because, "I smell like you Mommy!" Completely not sure what that was supposed to mean but she got me out of bed. I apologize for my writing style - I call it a "stream of consciousness" which is a true writing style but Dan would probably just say you can now sympathize with him as he tries to follow my thought process each day. I make no long term predictions this time. I think maybe I am addicted to blogging.

Seriously.