BEST DAY EVER!

At the end of today, Ethan told me very enthusiastically..."This was the best day ever!"

I made homemade muffins this morning. Whenever I tackle a baking project Hunter and Elle, especially, want to be right in the middle of it. Elle started "helping" by putting the mixing bowl on her head. Hunter got very upset about that because he immediately realized that her hair was where his food was going to be.

They would take turns putting in ingredients and then take turns mixing everything up...being careful not to mix too hard. Once the muffins were in baking I let them lick the bowl, which has got to be one of the staples of childhood.

Grandma Diane made a brief stop by to drop something off. The kids were all very excited to see her. I was pleased that Elle looked so cute in her piggy-tails for Grandma. As usual, they were not long lived and she pulled them out in classic bozo fashion just in time for the park day with all the other kids.

Jenny in our ward organized a weekly park day for all the kids to get together and play. It was GREAT! The boys all ran around in their "pack". The moms all sat down in the shade and visited together and the littler kids stayed in the play area on the equipment or playing in the sand or using the chalk.
In all there were children from at least ten different families who came to participate.

The boys found some other boys at the park and decided to have a war. It was all very exciting for my boys, but apparently the other boys (not a part of our group) took it a little too seriously after a while and two moms went up to break things up after getting some bad reports. As our huge group of children came marching back over the hill, one of the moms commented, "Looks like the Mormon Battalion."

When we got home we had lunch and then started right in making Daddy's birthday cake. I called the kids in and told them that Daddy had asked specifically for a present to be that the house was cleaned up when he got home. They really did make a valiant effort to do a good job.

Once the cake was done we sat in the living room and decorated with our stock of balloons. I would blow them up and then the kids would tape them where ever they thought would look nice. Afterwards we sat down and drew a picture for Daddy. Elle's consisted of circles and lines. When I asked her what her picture was of she said, "Balloons!"

I'm so glad the kids could have a good day! I'm so glad Daddy could have a good birthday!

The belly doctor

We have a doctor set that Elle got into today. I've had requests to post pictures of the belly on my blog. I hope this works for everybody. I'm not too keen on doing full shots as I am feeling rather large at the moment...and by large, I mean I feel big everywhere.

Lots of Play Dates!

I've found that the children are lots easier when they have other kids to interact with. I invited some friends over that are Hunter's age on Monday. As an added bonus their siblings came along, so Ethan and Elle had playmates too.

So, in all we had four friends over making a total of 7 children. It sounds worse than it was. I would get out a game or two and have them participate in something structured between their normal random play. They would keep each other entertained and I really had very little to do other than supervise.

We played a round of color/shape bingo and then I got the tangrams out for them to play with. It was a hit, but with short attention spans, I knew they were done when the pieces started being used as projectiles.

I put on the Standin' Tall tape for Honesty and printed out coloring pages, but only Hunter and the girls participated.

Then I took them all to the park with the sand toys. Unfortunately there weren't enough shovels to go around, so those without found other ways to keep themselves busy. I had no idea Hunter was so agile.

Snack time turned into lunch accompanied by a full fit by Hunter because I wasn't putting food in front of him fast enough. He went into the living room sprawled out on the floor and screamed , "I CAN'T EAT!!" It was a self fulfilling prophecy, since he was too busy with his temper tantrum, I just gave the next ready tortilla to whoever was waiting. He finally wised up and came in...I think the fit was more an expression of over tired than actually being upset about the food. As it turned out, everybody crashed for the afternoon. That was great for me 'cause nowadays I really do need a nap come afternoon.

Today we had friends over for Elle. Two of her little girl friends, Emma and Jaime. The boys weren't as excited to have them over because I kept emphasizing how they needed to play gently. We got all the Barbie stuff out and the kitchen play food and pans. It was all very girly!

All three of the girls are the youngest in their families, though Elle not for long. Jaime's oldest sister just graduated high school and Emma's oldest brother is already in Middle school. So, they're used to much older kids.

Actually, when Elle went over to Emma's house when I had a prenatal visit she was SOOO excited....right up to the point when Emma's oldest brother answered the door. Elle burst into tears and didn't want to stay after all. Fortunately, Mindi (Emma's mom) was very understanding and made sure Elle had a good time.

Productive in the off season

As a point of sanity for myself (trust me, it's completely selfish...) I've been trying to keep the children busy with plenty of activities. At this age they love stories, songs, coloring, art projects, park time...etc.

We've been listening to the Standin' Tall tapes that I had a child. I've been downloading them into digital form onto my computer so when the tapes finally all give out we'll still be able to enjoy them. The coloring books I had, which surprisingly enough never got colored in, are used as masters for making photocopies for the kids to color. We've listened most recently to Cleanliness, Dependability and Self Esteem. The songs really get through to the kids in a way no amount of my naggy repetition could.

We were listening to the one about keeping your fingernails clean. I was making up little hand signs as we went along. Elle was SO intent on watching me and following along. They were singing about not biting your fingernails, which I wanted to emphasize with her since she's started doing it.

I really need to take advantage of this stage while I still have it figured out. Music works!

Another project we started was to make paper-mache puppets. Ethan and Elle did really well on making their layers. Hunter had a harder time. He tried doing both a small and a big balloon. I don't think he liked having his hands all goopy. After we put on a couple of layers we'll white wash the outside and then paint either faces or some other design for a piñata.

Ethan's blog

Ethan started his very own blog late last night. He originally named it Super Woodgie Underpants Toenail, but Daddy thought that was inappropriate, so we changed it to Ethan's Art. He picked the music, pictures and was trying to explain how he wanted me to put it together based on what he liked about my blog. I thought it would be an excellent place for him to learn composition through narration and have a little creative self expression.

Ethan talks and I type. I'm not going to edit what he wants to say, although I must admit...I'd like to... (apparently I'm quite the villain in his eyes).

We went to the library that day, but he didn't want to go into details about what happened because he was embarrassed. The children's area has several computers on which you can access games. You need to have a library card to get on, so we got him one. Unfortunately they were occupied most of the time. When one opened up, he ran over to me to get his card but when he got back to the computer a bigger boy had gotten on. Ethan tried to explain that it was his turn, but the boy just looked at him and basically ignored him. It was very frustrating for him.

We've made the blog private; by invitation only. If you're interested in reading it e-mail me and I'll pass the request on to Ethan.

Political sentiments

Michael and I went with our very good friends, Jeremy and Denee to the temple last night. On the way there Denee started laughing hysterically. We pulled a little closer and read the sticker in their window.

Oh, boy. Yup...that pretty much says it.

(note: if you can't read it, click on the picture to see it bigger)