March 08, 2015

What a busy and trying week.  Jeremy has been dong some serious overtime finishing up year end reports, preparing for the annual audit, and then finishing the audit.  He would leave between 6:00-7:00 every day and come home around 7:00-8:30.  On Saturday he did the dishes and realized it had been almost two weeks since he had helped with the dishes.  The 12-13 hour days were hard on all of us.  The kids really missed Daddy.  Annie decided he needs to work from home.  I wish!  That would be so nice when the baby is born.

Monday was Dr. Seuss's birthday. Lily's school had a book fair and birthday party for Dr. Seuss. They had green eggs and ham - really a plain doughnut filled with green frosting and two pieces of bacon on the side.  The books were buy one get one free.  We let Lily and Annie each choose a book to buy.  Annie and Daddy made Ooblek goo from the Seuss book "Bartholomew and the Ooblek".  Both girls made Truffula trees from the Seuss book "The Lorax" out of pipe cleaners and pom poms.  There were games to play and story times in the school library.  It was a fun night.  The kids had a hard time settling down to sleep that night.  Daddy came straight from work without dinner so he could play with us.  It meant a lot to the girls to have him there.

The kids have been in a fort/tent building mood.  They make them in their bedrooms and in the living room.
Their skills are limited and the forts usually collapse - causing some tears and frustration - but when they get it right, they love to play for hours in them.

 Lily used my camera to snap these pictures of Annie and Nathan in one fort, with cheeks full of Nilla wafer cookies.  I think they like the forts because they can sneak snacks in there without Mommy noticing.

Annie has been my "after-dinner-under-the-table-sweeper" this week.  She loves to crawl under there with her little broom and help me clean up.  She even washed the wall behind the table this week too.  When I can get her to follow through with a task, she is a really good helper, but she usually gets distracted easily.

 Annie figured out how to take "selfies" on my camera.  She even found how to change the picture setting effects.  I found thirty pictures like the ones above on my phone one morning.

 After working to grow out her bangs for nearly a year, Lily decided she wanted bangs again.  I love her with bangs, but I don't like trimming them.  She also has wavy hair so no matter how straight I cut them, they always look a little uneven unless she lets me blow dry them straight - which isn't very often.  But she is really happy with the change.  I keep catching her looking in the mirror and smiling at herself.  She was feeling self conscious about her forehead.  I'm not sure if someone teased her about her forehead or if she just honestly prefers the bangs.  But I'm glad she feels more confident and really likes her hair cut.

 Lily is loving her after school jump rope club.  She can double dutch jump, speed jump, and slalom style jump.  Her max number of jumps in a row is 24.  She loves to practice and especially loves an audience.

I had a difficult time with Tommy this week.  As Lily was leaving for school, he thought we were all leaving.  He put on Annie's galoshes and ran outside, banana in hand.  It was freezing outside.  He wouldn't let me put a real coat on him.  He was still in his pajamas.  When I told him we needed to go back in the house, he ran around the house as fast as he could and hid in the stable Jeremy built for our outdoor nativity.  I finally got him to go to the front door, where he stomped in the snow in his jammie feet.  Once he was frozen through, he was willing to go back in.

He has started the two year old tantrum phase.  At least his are usually quiet.  He just lays on the floor and refuses to cooperate.  Or he'll run away and hide and not come when we call him.  He's still light enough that I can pick him up, but it's getting harder as my pregnancy progresses.  I prefer the silent resistance to the girls' screaming though. 

We had a night that was warmer and the kids begged me to take them to the park.  The sunshine felt so good, but didn't last long.  We got cold and had to head home.  Tommy cried the whole way back home and kept pointing over his shoulder in the direction of the park.

We got a good laugh after the park when we saw Annie's hair.  It was so full of static that it was sticking to the roof of the minivan.  Awesome!

Saturday was dance festival day.  Annie was so excited for her first dance performance - especially after watching Lily do this for two years now.  Little sister was totally ready for her turn.

 

She wasn't nervous at all.  Some of the other little girls in her class were close to tears, but their sweet teacher Miss Valerie was very comforting and encouraging.  Their dance is to the song "Little Miss Muffett".  It is a sweet routine and the adorable dance costume with the tiny top hat it just too cute for words.  Their class was a hit.  The shimmie, hip shakes, and big blowing kiss at the end were super cute!

Lily was a little more nervous this year for the dance festival.  She is doing her first year of clogging and she's the youngest in her class.  Most of the kids are 7-10 years old.  Lily struggles with the more difficult footwork and remembering the routines, but other kids in her class have been in this same class for one our two years already, so if she sticks with it, she'll catch up next year.  I'm still amazed at her progress this year.  She tries very hard and loves to dance.

Their first dance was to "Love is an Open Door" from the movie Frozen.  It was way cute and the class knows this routine better than their second one.

Between their first and second dances, we had about 40 minutes to practice the next routine.  The kids needed that extra time.  Lily got hungry and thirsty so I bought her a fruit smoothie from the concession stand.  That perked her up a lot.

Here's the class with their teacher Audra.  All ready for the next number.

This dance was to "I've Got a Dream!" from the Disney movie Tangled.  It is a fun routine, but the kids have only been dancing it for four weeks.  I'm sure by their recital in May, they will feel more comfortable with it.  They still did a pretty good job and Lily was all smiles.  I was so proud of her.

After their routines, Lily's teacher gave the kids huge M&M cookies.  Lily was happy to be finished dancing.  Both girls were tired and cranky the rest of the day.  All the adrenaline and excitement really took a lot out of them.

 It was an exciting week for hair in our house.  Saturday night while I was making dinner, the kids were coloring and doing art projects at the table.  Annie was frustrated with her bangs in her face so she took matters into her own hands and chopped half of them off.  When I saw what she had done I stood staring at her speechless.  Jeremy said it felt like almost 20 seconds.  I had so many thoughts running through my head that I couldn't figure out what to say first and I knew I didn't want to yell or laugh or cry.  It took me a long time to collect myself.  Once she explained why she did it, we talked about how you need to ask an adult to help you cut your hair.  Or that a headband or a clip would have done the job of getting hair out of her eyes.  Luckily, she only cut half of the bangs and I was able to save it a little.  At church the next day a friend asked Annie if she had cut her hair - she said "my Mom did it!"  Arg!  As if I would make her bangs look like that on purpose.  She is grounded from scissors until her bangs grow back - which we're thinking will take at least four months.

It was a week of parenting highs and lows for me.  Lily made me this beautiful arrangement of paper flowers last week and keeps adding to it.  I love looking at it in my kitchen window.  Tommy pulled the trim off the back and part of the front of one of the sitting chairs in the living room Saturday morning.  I got to spend Sunday morning trying to reattach it.

Good thing I'm not sick anymore because it was tough keeping up with all of the kids mostly on my own for the past two weeks.  We're all ready for a quieter week with Daddy around more often.  When I figure out how to get my computer to read the video files from my camera, I will post the videos of the girls dances.