Lucy knows how to do "Ring Around the Rosies"!
It's so cute! At first I had no idea why she was toddling around and around in a circle on the kitchen floor and then plopping down only to get back up and do it again.
Then I realized she was trying to sing and I thought I could make out something like "ashes ashes we all fall down" just before she plopped her little diapered butt down on the floor with a big grin at me.
So once I caught on, I started singing too and we played Ring Around the Rosies for probably fifteen minutes without stopping. After we had "all fall down"ed, Lucy would bend her head toward me, catch my eye, and say "Gin?" And we'd get up and do it all over again, laughing wildly.
I love how kids can run with no apparent motive or direction, back and forth across the house, laughing and squealing like it's the funniest thing ever. I love how they can eat a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast every morning for a year and not get tired of it.
If I could just put the rest of life on pause and get reality off my back, I think I could literally spend the entire day doing nothing but playing with my kids and be the happiest person on the planet.

Skylar's glasses

My little Skylar - not only has she had the "my changing body" class at school, but she also just got glasses.

She's so grown up I could just cry.

George sent me this picture of her trying on glasses when they went to the eye doctor.

I used to tell Sky every other day or so, "All right, this is it and I mean it. No more growing up. You are not allowed to get any bigger."

Of course, she didn't listen to me.

Easter Egg Hunt

Pictures from the church Easter Egg Hunt last Saturday.

I took about a zillion pics of Lucy. This year she's old enough to realize that there is candy (or "na-na" as she calls it) inside the eggs.

Here are my handsome boys. They were a little disappointed that they only found a few eggs each. I was very happy about it, though.

I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of Sky at the Egg Hunt. I guess she was just too fast.

The Young Women's broadcast tonight was excellent. They're always good, but this one was especially moving for me. I definitely wish I had taken Skylar with me. She'd have loved the talks, too. It's hard to believe it's her last year in primary.

I'm going bananas

Have you ever watched an episode of the Fresh Beat Band on Nickelodeon? It's a kid show about four "teenagers" (I think they're really like 32 or something) who have a band and play a lot of music and dance. It's kind of catchy, and Drake loves to watch it. The only problem is that the songs get stuck in my head FOREVER!!!!!

So all day I'm going around singing, "We just have to go bananas. La la la la la let's go bananas!"

Lucy loves that song. She heard it playing on the TV from another room and immediately stopped what she was doing and pointed toward the living room and said, "Nanas".

And speaking of bananas, here is Princess Lucy in her favorite crown, desperately trying to get a banana from the baker's rack. Her Royal Highness is NOT happy.

Her Highness is quite content now that she's had her banana.

Our furry little houseguest

We're watching the Nicolaysen's little dog Percy for them while they're out of town. We haven't had a dog in a few years, and for some reason Drake and Lucy are PETRIFIED of dogs. They're definitely curious about dogs and they laugh and laugh with delight to see them run and play. But the second a dog comes within two feet of Drake and Lucy, they freak out and start screaming.

Anyway, Vanessa, if you read this, Percy is doing just great. He is eating and drinking and getting plenty of walking. Sky and Bart fight over who gets to take him outside. And George was actually the person who got him to start eating. Despite all the smack he talks, he has been very kind and gentle with him.

Oh, and he only peed himself once. Luckily it was in the entryway on the stone tiles. He's really being a good dog for us.

Soooo....I guess at some point (not for a while yet), we need to adopt another dog. I think Bart and Skylar are at the age now where they will really enjoy playing with him/her and can be trusted to help us feed and walk the dog. Plus Bart's doctor said that it would be a good idea to have a dog around for Bart. It would be really good for him to build a bond with a pet.

Alas- I have to go get ready for errands and work soon.

Conversations with a toddler

I had a conversation with Drake yesterday while he was busy playing Legos. It went something like this:

Me: Lucy is the prettiest girl in the world and Drake is the handsomest boy in the world.

Drake: No. Lucy is a poophead.

Me: If Lucy is a poophead, so are you. I must have two poophead kids.

Drake: Mom.... are you annoying me?



I can already tell it's going to be a continual battle of wits between the two of us.

Winners and Losers

Saturday Skylar had a dance competition in Jacksonville. She and two of her best friends are dancing a jazz trio this year. I really like the number. It's about three girls who wear the same dress to a party, which they all had thought was a "Paris original". It's right up the girls' alley because they are all good dancers and love to ham it up onstage.


The girls ended up winning a distinction in dance award for their trio, as well as awards for their tap number. For their tap production, the girls are doing a tribute to "I Love Lucy" and wearing hilarious red wigs. Skylar was nervous about her wig falling off, so all through her tap number, which she usually performs the heck out of, she looked like she was in pain.



Today when Drake was being naughty outside with the other children and the neighbor kids, George made him come inside. Apparently Drake called George a "loser" while George was reprimanding him.

When I asked Drake about it later, his explanation was that "Spongebob says it".

Skylar said that Drake called her a jerk one morning, something else he got from Spongebob. Drake also says "Shut your half-wit pie holes" which is what Squidward says in one episode.
On the one hand I'm embarrassed that he's learning bad manners from a cartoon, but on the other hand I'm kind of impressed that at age three he knows how to use the phrase "half-wit pie hole" correctly.

Our Valentine's Dinner

On Valentine's Day since it was snowy out and we couldn't really go anywhere on a date, George thought we should do a chocolate fondue. So we dipped strawberries, bananas, pretzels, and marshmallows in a chocolate fondue - the first time we've used our fondue pot since we moved to New Bern 3 1/2 years ago! The kids loved the fondue, but Lucy threw a fit and refused to eat anything except the marshmallows.
I had made some white-chocolate covered bon-bons the day before, so we had plenty of sweet treats. And I finally got to use my dainty pink and white plates I bought for Lucy's birthday party.

Our Fabulous Snow Day

I think hell froze over in February. It actually snowed in Eastern NC.

The children played with their neighborhood friends pretty much all day. We took the little two for a ride around the block in the wagon.

I guess you could call this George's enthusiastic face????

Skylar, Bart, Drake and their friends from the neighborhood built snowmen.
The boys' snowman didn't get very far (you can see it in the top righthand pic),
but Skylar and the girls were pretty successful with theirs. Amazingly, it survived the warm-up and Bart sticking a wooden sword through its head. Finally, George and Bart got out the machete and decapitated it. Why is everything about violence with guys?

Lucy loved her first real snow - as long as she could watch it from the safety of the wagon. She tried to eat a snowball but did not really like how cold it was.


Drake was everywhere. His gloves and pants and socks were so wet, but he didn't care at all. This was his first real snow, too. He's seen a couple of flurries but not enough to make snowballs and snowmen.

After a long morning in the snow, I took Sky and Bart and we went to see a matinee of the Percy Jackson movie with our neighbors the Kitchens. I thought the movie was really good, even if there were some differences from the book. I still think it was exciting and well-done.

It really has been a cold winter. Our heating bill, which is usually pretty decent, sky-rocketed for January and February. I'm just thankful we have Progress Energy and not City of New Bern.

Bart's Baptism

Bart was so excited to finally get baptized. He's been waiting forever, according to him.
Bart asked Skylar to give the talk on baptism and Josh to give the talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. The talks were excellent. The water in the baptismal font was COLD!

But our little boy was so happy on his special day. I'm very proud of him. He's such a loving and wonderful child.

Renee and Leslie-Grace and Sky helped me get the food prepared and set out. We kept it really simple: peanut butter & jelly, egg salad, and turkey & cheese sandwiches. George made cookies and brownies and I made the Hershey's cake that Mindy brought to our house for Christmas dinner. It is absolutely divine! It contains ten chopped Hershey bars in the icing.

When we had asked Bart what kind of refreshments he wanted after the baptism, he automatically said, "Macaroni & cheese, cookies, and brownies". Not surprising.

Dad & Diane came over to visit with us for awhile at our place. Later in the evening, George took the two boys out and bought Bart a special baptism gift - a big Lego Star Wars set. Honestly, my husband is such a big kid when it comes to toys.

Grossness

OK, I was just looking back at some earlier posts & realizing that way too many of my posts center around the theme of poo or puke.

Unfortunately I can't really talk about the funny stuff that happens at work because of HIPAA. That pretty much just leaves kids and husband to write about, hence the focus on bodily functions.