Livi's Big Girl Shoes

Livi has a habit of taking ALL my shoes and wearing them around the house

All little girls try on the mom's shoes.  I know this, but this happens on a daily basis, sometimes 2 to 3 times a day.  I didn't worry too much until she started striking the "attitude" pose

Don't grow up to fast, princess.

Prepare Yourself - He May Not Grow Up To Be A Performer

Ethan was VERY excited about his music program this year, which was great since last year I had to bribe him with dinner and ice cream to get him to quit complaining about it.  It was called the Principle and The Pea and the premise was a school who lost their principle and was looking for a new one using the princess and the pea method.

Ethan is on the right side of the tall girl, Leilani, in a blue shirt

This was Ethan's favorite song because he got to be in "the fruit Conga line." He did a great job, but if you can see the kid in front of him, well he has...style.  I would suggest playing the videos full screen to get the full "effect."
The kid in front of Ethan was awesome in this one. I know I should be paying more attention to Ethan, but I couldn't take my eyes off the performance in front of him. I found his mom after to tell her I was impressed with her son's enjoyment of the show and she rolled her eyes and said "yeah, I call him my girl." Ouch. No wonder he likes pretending so much, it's a harsh home when your mom makes fun of you.

Hmmmm...Maybe It's Just Me

Does anyone else see "crecking"???

Coolest Field Trip Ever!!!

Livi's preschool is pretty cool.  They aren't sticklers for letters and numbers but they sure have cool field trips.  This month we got to go to the Co-Op or as I call it "the other store that has the yummy doughnuts."  They took us all over, including the meat locker and the florist prep area.

We kept going in cold freezers.  Maybe they hoped it would help keep the kids under control if they were frozen...

We spent literally 5 minutes seeing how the compactor compacted boxes.  5...minutes.

My 2nd favorite area: The fruit refrigerator!!!

My absolute most favoritest part:  Being Big Brother!!!  Looking down on the store was awesome because I felt like a giant who could squish any naughty ants below me...

I was hoping they would ply us with yummy bakery doughnuts, but alas they gave us healthy bananas.  My first act as Giant Big Brother would be to give me a free bakery doughnut.  Just saying.

mis-ADVENTURES IN SCOUTING

Being the Webelos leader is truly the best calling on the planet.  My favorite part is how much I get to laugh when I am around them.  Here are a few things we've done lately:

Working on Artist.  I brought air-dry clay and told them the only rule I had was they had to sculpt something that was real (no abstract in MY scout group).

Josh's assorted fruit was clearly the most realistic.  Ethan's mammoth behind it...was not.  But he did love making it.

The only problem was that some boys finished before others.  I should have seen it coming, but I naively thought there wasn't much mischief they could get into with clay.  One boy made a ball of clay, threw it at the back of the basketball hoop and it got stuck.  Not like stuck lightly and will eventually fall off.  Stuck, as in will be there forever stuck.

 I tried to get it down, but as much as people think I am humongous, I am not 10 feet tall.  Shocker, I know.  I had to get the men doing bishopric interviews to come help me get it down.  They thought it was hilarious, which I did not at the time.

 We also made collages, and since Eric had to come help with some woodworking we were doing that night the girls had to come too.  Once Eric's job was done he tried to get the girls to go home, but they (Livi) were too interested in completing their "masterpieces."

Livi's.  She had help tying the bow.

Another part of artist is drawing silhouettes.  They boys each took a turn making one while they other boys drew.

This was Ethan's "normal" pose.

After we were done with the normal poses the boys started doing what all boys do with a large light shinning on a wall.  Finger Shadow Puppet Things (ok, I forgot what they are really called).  After a few minutes they started doing silly poses and asked to to take photos so they could see what they looked like, which now that I think about it they could have just turned around.

Like Uncle, Like Livi

It is no secret that Eric's older brother, Ryan, is an avid rock climber.  He is amazing at it, and he seems to really enjoy dangling from high places only held up by a tiny metal circle.  I don't mind it, but I'm not gifted into pulling myself up by my flabby arms.

Livi however:
Since Livi goes to preschool at the YMCA she gets to do things like swim and climb the climbing wall.  She made it higher than any of the other girls, and really Carter was the only one to get higher.  What I loved was when she came down and I asked if she liked it and she answered "Can I go play with basketball?"

"Stroller-er."

Last month we actually had a day that was not so cold that your nose hairs would freeze, so we decided to take advantage of the "warmth" and take a family walk by the river.  Walks are made a little more complicated when a "strollee" wants to the the "stroller-er" (or something.  Basically Livi wanted to be in the stroller but also push a stroller at the same time.)

Eric and Ethan thought it would be so much fun to throw large clumps of muddy snow onto the frozen river to see if they could break it.  They couldn't, and I got lots of laundry.  Awesome.

Tonks was mistakenly given the shadow of a Scottie Dog.

A Mother's 5th Worst Nightmare

Eric and I finally got to go out tonight.  Our babysitter was able to come earlier than we thought so we were able to go out to dinner before going to see "Oz."

There was about 20 minutes left of the movie when our babysitter called in a panic.  She went outside to see what the dog was barking at and overheard what sounded like a big party and the following YELLED statements:

"Mercy."
"If you aren't going to shoot, put down the gun."
"GO BACK INSIDE."
"Shut her up" followed by a muffled sob and scream.

So she called 911 and we raced home.  The whole time I pictured ricochets and what I would do if I was there to protect my kids.  I worried about retaliation, and the fact we paid twice as much as our last house just to get away from situations like this.

When we got home the cops were there talking to the neighbors, who are a retired couple and the in-laws of one of our judges.  They had taken our babysitters statement already so I drove her home, completely freaked out and gave her a nice tip for her quick thinking.

When I got home Eric said the cops had come by and.....drum roll please... it was an air-soft game.  Yep, teenagers playing with mushy air pellets.  I just had to laugh and laugh (which was kind of nice for once).  I am so glad our babysitter did what she did, and I am even more glad it was just some stupid teenagers.

Also on the bright side it was the neighbor who called the police on Ethan for throwing a rock.  Now I don't have to feel stupid and embarrassed because at least my kids didn't sound like they were going to kill anyone!

For your viewing pleasure: The Magical Tonks

Is This Better or Worse?

A few weeks ago I filled in for our organist on Sunday.  He asked me several weeks ahead of time so of course I promptly forgot.  I remembered the Thursday before which means I was 2 days late to let the program lady know what the songs were (she expects them no later than 7pm on Tuesday night).  I don't know if I ever mentioned the feud we had going when I was an organist but I will recap.

It started when I kept forgetting to get her the songs in time.  Honestly I am a good enough pianist I don't need a whole week to practice and Tuesday IS early to provide information.  She put "N/A" for a while.  Then she moved on to writing "Not Provided" in the song area.  She then put "Not Provided In Time" which made me purposefully forget to give her the numbers and earned her a talking to by the Bishop.  Things got a little better going back down to "Not Provided."

I eventually got released and promptly forgot about it. We got a new bishop so I guess she feels a little more free in what she can write.  A few weeks ago, when I filled in, I didn't provide it in time and she wrote "Look At Stage For Numbers On Board."  Wow.

What happened to leaving it blank or just writing TBA ????

A random cute picture of a puppy I wanted but Eric wouldn't let me get.  Because every post needs something to look at!

On The Bright Side I Think She Would Miss Me...Maybe???

Me: "Wow.  Livi, wow...can you tell me about it?"

Livi: "It is a worm.  She is in a corn field, and her hat makes love potions and it goes blink blink blink and it makes a love potion."

Me: "Why does she look so sad?"

Livi: "She just lost her mommy, but her mommy will be alive again, just like you will after you die and Jesus comes back and then you come back."

Me: "Will she be okay?"

Livi (looking at me like I am crazy and in a duh type voice): "Yes, she has her Daddy."