Watch your step!

PCPops is on a roll. Another couple doozies came out of her mouth today.

"Everyone loves Mommy...even God!"

Wow. Thanks for the vote of confidence. The all-loving Creator who keeps everyone under His care even loves me!
~~~

PCPops asked me who I would choose to die in our family. After I replied, "No one." She shook her head, "Mommy, you have to pick someone."

Me: Okay, I pick myself.

PCPops: (incredulously) You would pick you? (without a pause or a breath) I would pick Daddy. (Poor Daddy is sitting across from her at the table, mouth agape at the brutality just issued from his beautiful, smiling, cheerful red-headed daughter.)

Me: Daddy?! Why would you pick Daddy?

PCPops: When he died I would take his money. Probably $25! With $25 I could buy you a new mouse pad (she bit a hole in my gel-filled ergonomic mouse pad) and still have maybe $5!

Before the thoughts of "How in the world has she learned to off someone to get their money?" and "What have I done to fail this child so completely?" finished scrolling through my brain she had already changed the subject to some completely nonsensical and silly topic.

She's five. And when you've got a question that needs to be answered, you answer it with all the logic that your half-a-decade old brain can summon.

Let's just hope for her sake that Daddy doesn't "accidently" drink rat poison and we find ourselves $25 short in our bank account...

Don't argue unless you're right.

This happened last night during our little advent ceremony. The kids get coins each night and put them in Jesus' Birthday Present, after Christmas we give the money to Jesus (usually our church).

PCPops: (as she drops the money in, she puts her lips up to the coin slot) Happy Birthday Jesus!

Me: Sweetie, Jesus isn't in the box, you don't have to say "Happy Birthday" into the box.

PCPops: Mommy, Jesus is everywhere in the world. That means he's in the box! (into the box again as if to make her point) Happy Birthday Jesus!


I had no reply. What could I possible say to such irrefutable logic?

Turning 4!

Tank turned four in the middle of October. It was a full month for birthdays. Dug had to travel so much that he missed my, Dodge's and Tank's birthday. Luckily Nana and Poppa live only 3.5 hours away now and we got to spend my and Tank's with them.


Here's the birthday boy. He asked for a rainbow cake. I was so thankful. Not much to look at, but the little guy was happy and that is all that counts.


To make his birthday exciting (and to try to hide the fact that we didn't wrap anything) we hid all his presents around the house. Brother Dodge began the hunt with hiding his Phlat Ball present in the couch. Very quickly we realized that Tank didn't understand how to play "Hot, Cold." Dodge patiently taught him as best he could.


PCPops hid her gumball machine in the pantry. She was so excited for him to find it so Tank could "see how it worked and maybe share." When this pic was snapped, he still hadn't quite figured out what it was. Once big sis explained it, though, it was "super cool."

Scoochy and Tank are astride her present, a rather large T-Rex. When she asked if she could get it for him, I looked at what I thought was the price and said, "Sure, $9.99 is under your $10 limit." I don't know what I was looking at. When we finally had everyone's present picked out and we were running late to meet up with Poppa, I was hurrying through the check-out hoping Tank wouldn't escape Nana's "distraction techniques." The checker rang up said dinosaur and up popped $19.99!! In normal circumstances there is no way I would fork out $20 bucks for a big dino, but I was hurried, a little tired and feeling a bit pushover-y. Tank was so thankful for my fragile state. He loved his new "Bigfoot."


(Sorry mom and dad for having to post this goofy picture of you.) Tank's favorite present by far was his new bike from Nana and Poppa. How could he not love that thing? This present, above all others, pushed him from babydom to Big Boy-hood.


When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, Tank's first answer was "a horse," in which we had to explain the difficulties and expense of such a large animal. When we realized he meant a stick horse, it all became possible. As soon as he saw his horse, he was galloping away. (Helps that a button on his ear makes a galloping noise.)

And here are the crazy four, happy. Which makes mommy happy. :-) In case you're wondering, we had cake and presents on two separate days, which would account for their wardrobe changes. Presents, of course, were on the actual birthday. Cake was suspended a day.

Bolhas, Gelado e Divertimento

(hopefully the title is portuguese for bubbles, ice cream and fun)

I know I'm so delinquent on this blog. You'll forgive me, I know.

This post should have been written the last week in July. Now that I should be showing pictures of leaves falling and pumpkin patches, you're getting an eyeful of ice cream and sunshine. Also, we're in Houston and these are in Oregon. Oh well.

At the end of July my beloved college roommate Heidi and her beautiful family came up from Brazil to visit the States. She went to Brazil for a college thing, met a handsome pastor, married the chap and now lives in the Amazon changing lives. While they were here, the kids got to play with their two children for the afternoon. We had fun goofing around and even learning a little Portuguese.

Here is Sarah. The kids were so excited when they figured out that if they were wet they could actually hold the bubbles.

Tim tries to stretch the bubble to its limits. Major difference between boys and girls. The boys were all putting the bubbles to the test. The girls were decorating themselves with them.

Scoochy and Sarah with their bubble buddies. Unfortunately, right before I snapped the picture, Sarah's buddy popped.

Concurrently with the bubble machine we had the sprinklers on. It wasn't quite warm enough for the Brazilians, but to the Oregonians, if the sun is out, it's warm enough.

Ice cream time! Tim enjoyed a cone while patiently answering the kids'questions. For instance:

Scoochy: How do you say green?
Tim: In Portuguese? (he always asked that, it made me laugh)
Scoochy: Yeah.
Tim: Verch. (yeah, I know that's not how it's spelled, I'm doing it phonetically, k?)
Scoochy: Verch?
Tim: Yeah.

Princess Cutie Pops enjoying her cone. Man, just look at that hair. It is such a pretty color.

The whole group drying out from the sprinklers, enjoying some ice cream and some warming rays in the only bit of grass that isn't wet.

Okay, I included this one because I am amazed at how handsome and old this boy is getting. Sorry, total mom-bragging but I couldn't help it. It is one of those "Wow!" pictures that you take every once in a while and they actually turn out.

Jamison Square + Friends= Fun!

On the way home from Texas we spent the afternoon at Jamison Square with our buddies.

Here's three of the girls, in height order: Mercedes, Princess Cutie Pops and Scoochy.

Uh oh! Here comes trouble.
Samab, Princess Cutie Pops and Tank, all in formation.

Can you say "Hot Mama!"?

Deadpool and Dodge trying to break the law...of gravity, that is!
Guffaw! Guffaw! (I know, pretty bad.)

And last, but certainly not least, Lil Red.
Can you get cuter than that?

How to become a ninja - Part 1 - Look like a ninja!

Our family loves ninjas. Dodge had a ninja party for his last birthday and we all love the ninja movie Iron Monkey. (Think Hong Kong Robin Hood.) My favorite webcomic is Dr. McNinja and we love watching Ask a Ninja. One of their favorite games as siblings is to dress like ninjas and fight "The Bad Guys." They run around the house and ask me for Ninja Missions, during which I have to come up with highly ambiguous yet poetical objectives for them. For instance, "Go to the land of the sky clouds and save He Who Has The Long Snout from the evil Scorpion Tongue. If you do this you shall be honored with the name Flying Arrow." Basically, I just told them to run upstairs and bring me Dodge's stuffed elephant, Ay-Ay, after pretend fighting whatever they encounter. Sometimes they interpret my missions completely different than what I hint at and it's really interesting to see what they come up with. Today, Tank would like to show how you, too, can be a ninja!

First, find a t-shirt with long sleeves.

Second, put the t-shirt on your head so that your face is looking through the neck hole and the rest of your head is covered.

Third, tie the arms around the back side of your head.

Last, adjust the neck hole so that only your eyes are showing.

Tank is posing as "Fire Ninja" here. The great thing is that anyone can use this method. Just use the size of t-shirt that you wear. The only problem is that a kid size 3T or smaller will have a bigger head than his shirt arms can reach around. Just use a bigger tee.

And that, my friends, is how you can be a ninja!

When life gives you lemons, draw pictures of them and rake in the dough!

Lemonade stands are such a thing of the past. Last year the crew tried a "Filtered Water" stand. Not too much luck. This year they struck gold with...Art! Yep, that's right. They drew a ton of pictures and sold them for $.25 a piece. In the end they raked in about $10! I was pretty impressed with their entrepreneur spirit. Of course, I'm sure they wouldn't have been half as successful if we didn't live two blocks from a university, but hey! What's that they say? Location, location, location!

The gallery!

One guy who came by didn't have any money. He told them to draw his old-school bicycle and he would buy it the next day. The kids, thinking it would be a popular subject, thought they should draw a number of the bikes. Scoochy drew the first one and then Dodge and Princess Cutie Pops held her drawing up to the window and copied it. Those bikes were the first ones to go the next day. So chalk that up as a little homeschool economics lesson in supply and demand.

The proud owner of a Scoochy original!

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!

We bought a bubble machine from K-mart and I have to say, they are fun! How can you go wrong with the power of 4000 bubbles a minute? You can't! I know I enjoy it at least, if not more, than the kids. And everyone that walked by had a smile on their face, either from watching the kids with the bubbles or just watching the bubbles themselves, I'm not sure which.

Always the sweetie, Princess Cutie Pops tries to give the little bubbles a kiss.


You can't tell but the bubbles were really moving. The fact that I took this picture at just the right moment for it to be perfectly centered in Tank's mouth is amazing. And not due to any skill, but purely to luck.


Scoochy is trying to balance a bubble on her little nail/styrofoam pedestal. As you can imagine, she had very little luck with this endeavor.


Chasing bubbles is exhausting. Dodge told me how cool it was to watch the bubbles float all around you so I joined him on the grass and he was right. Bubbles are pretty cool.

Freezer of Mystery!

In order to put a large pan of cheesecake pops in my freezer, I had to rearrange the little space. In the process I decided to clean out the thing. I came across this frozen ziplock bag with colorful specks. I had no idea what is was. The kids love freezing things in water. I've found bowls of ice with rubber bands frozen inside. I've also found ice cubes with paint, rocks, toys, and plants. I couldn't tell through the ice what it was so I left it out over night.

In the morning I found gems and sequins! It was treasure ice! What will be in there next time? I'll let you know...

Tank to the rescue!

I have a secret weapon in the fight against debris behind the washing machine: Tank and his robot arm!

For his 3rd birthday, Tank's best buddy, Cole, gave him a robot arm. By squeezing the handle, the claw at the other end opens and closes. We found that it becomes a powerful tool to reach down into the narrow space between the wall and washing machine.

Previously we had lowered his older brother, Dodge, down by his ankles (he was the only one brave enough), but this is far more easier muscle-wise and funner (yes, I know it's technically more fun). It also makes Tank feel important since it is his robot arm and he can do this task on his own. Another benefit of this scenario is that his little butt sticking up in the air is super cute as opposed to the frightful picture of my overgrown haunches in the same position.

Scoochy - The Craft Fiend

We love to go to the library. Dodge normally picks out two or three books. One novel-type and two non-fictions about whatever is interesting him, usually outer space, carnivorous animals or everything-there-is-to-know-about-pick-a-super-hero. Princess Cutie Pops goes for story books about mermaids and princesses and Tank wants non-fiction big cat books (lions, tigers, panthers, etc).

Scoochy is different. Her books are always about making things. There are usually a few cookbooks thrown in with whatever craft is on her mind at the moment. Right now it's embroidery. She checked out the book Kids' Embroidery: Projects for Kids of All Ages by Kriston Nicholas and has been going to town. She's made four different pictures (is that the right word?) and even a little felt needle book.

I love her try-anything spirit. She just jumps in. I help her when she gets stuck but beyond that, she's been doing this all on her own, guided by the book. Her own designs and everything. She's amazing.

When desire and aptitude don't quite meet

Tank wanted to get his own mac & cheese. Unfortunately he didn't realize that bowls aren't the best grips for climbing onto the counter. (I'm so glad we had eaten almost all of it by this point.) I think he knows now. He wasn't happy about the situation. (Like that's not completely obvious from the picture.)

Snapshots

Haircut time. Tank wanted to be "balved like Uncle Chwis" again.

I know it doesn't show her face. But I thought this shot of Scoochy's hair was beautiful.

You got to love a boy with confidence, right? Dodge showing his guns a little lovin'.

A miniature puppy, a lazer gun and a sword...What more do you need?

The Creative Soul

Scoochy is writing poetry/songs as of late. The underlying themes of these two are incredibly relevant. It's like God whispered His truths to her and she decided to write it down. Here are two of her latest, typed exactly as written:

The World is Spining

the world is spining
rond and rond but tell me
what heppens when it stops....rond and rond
the world is spining
to the beet of god
is so holy!


Free to Be

just out of bed the moon and
stars wer shining on me and
in my dream I was free to be
a singer an know I am free
to be! What I am!

Illuminating conversation

Dodge was helping me make my bed before we left to go somewhere and I asked him to get me a certain black shirt from the dryer. Upon returning, he said, "It's not in there. I looked, but I didn't see it."
I responded, "That doesn't mean it's not in there. You're not the best at finding things."
He grabbed the corner of my comforter and said, "I wish I was a detective. Then I could find everything."
As I pulled my corner I said, "A person who is good at finding things becomes a detective. Not the other way around."
Laughing, he noted, "Well, I'm never going to be a detective. I suck at finding things." Then he ran off to tell his sister, "Hey Scoochy, I'm definitely not going to be a detective..."

You almost got it.

Dodge and his dad were wrestling around a while back. Dug was about to go in for an attack when Dodge suddenly stood up with his hands in the air.

"Stop!" he yelled. "I'm innocent! I'm by-standard!"

It took us a second before we understood what he meant. Then we explained it to him. No, Dodge, it's "innocent bystander." He he he.

A Lesson in Class Distinction

We were at the wedding of our beloved cousin, Nick, this weekend. At the reception, we had a sit-down lunch in a ballroom. The wedding party was seated on the stage. Scoochy looked up with a questioning face at the wall of tables above our heads. (We were seated right next to the stage. So close in fact, we couldn't see the faces of the wedding party, only the tablecloths draping down.)

Scoochy: Mom, why are they sitting up there?

Me: Well, sweetie, those are the important people. We're just the peons.

Scoochy was thoughtful for a moment. Suddenly you could see a horrible thought had dawned on her. Her face went from pensive to horror-stricken.

Scoochy: You mean they're going to "pee on" us?!

It took me a second to realize why she would even say that. Of course, we all erupted in laughter and Scoochy, being a sensitive soul, had to have it explained that we weren't laughing at her. Once we told her what "peon" meant, she thought it was hilarious as well and insisted that we tell everyone what happened.

Lesson learned: be careful what words you choose when the very imaginative listener doesn't know the definition.

Everybody loves Trento!

Our buddy, Trenton, comes to visit and everytime the kids are soooo excited. We took some pics last time he came, but of course, getting five people (when four are kids) to all look at the camera and smile is a bit impossible. Especially at bedtime. Oh well.

Started out good. Wait! Dodge has decided to be underhanded and cross his eyes. And where's Tank?

Here he is! Tank in his usual, "Don't take my picture!" mood.

Finally, everyone at least in the picture. Never can make promises that they'll all be smiling, or even looking at the camera, but at least they're there.

It Snowed! It Snowed! It Snowed!

Where we live, we get snow one day every winter. If we're lucky. We've been super-lucky this year. So far it has snowed at least three days on our little postage-stamp yard. Of course, all three times it was gone before noon and it didn't stick on any of the cement or asphalt once the sun was shining, but it snowed nonetheless.

And what do you do when it snows? Well, by golly, you make a snowman. Even if you have to roll that darn ball of snow over every patch of available snow to get enough.

The kiddos originally set out to make a snowman, but then when it came time for the eyes and arms and everything, they decided it was a snow-elk. An snow-elk?! Well, I can't complain, I'm the one who is always urging them to use their imaginations. For a larger image, click on the picture below. You'll see the antlers and if you look closely, the snout.

The elusive snow-elk

Who can resist tasting the snow?

Teamwork!

Scoochy was the most dedicated snowball roller. She chased every patch of snow to grow the base from that little ball in her hands.

Dodge finished the base when it grew too cumbersome for Scoochy.

A moment of Tank's snow dance.

We're awfully prepared for snow, aren't we?

Snowmen aren't pretty when you're scraping every bit of snow you can. But I promise, we did not complain.