Superhero Clothes

Hayes is a very particular dresser. First, he does not like to wear collared shirts. We have agreed that he will wear them to school on Fridays when he attends chapel and on Sundays when we go to church. If you go back and scroll through pictures of Hayes, you will see very few, if any collared shirts. Second, he really prefers to wear Superhero shirts or Georgia Tech shirts. (I have written about his affection for wearing sports team clothing here). Now, he is especially focused on the Superheroes right now, as you can see from some of these recent wardrobe decisions. Obviously, he as special affection for all things Spiderman, but it might just be because these shirts are more readily available. I told him last night that he is harder to dress than his sister, who lets me pick out her outfit to wear to school each and every day.

This Superhero phase too shall pass though, and I know when it is gone that I will look back at it fondly.

Summer Camp

This summer, Eleanor will experience overnight camp for the first time. She will spend a week at Camp Greystone in North Carolina. As a mother who spent many summers at camps, I am very eager for my daughter to have a similar, positive experience. Luckily, she is excited about what is in store as well.

As we start to prepare for camp, E was asked to fill out a Camper Questionnaire. Here are her responses:I particularly appreciate her honesty in her response to the statement, "I'm most nervous about . . . Sleeping away from home." I'm sure that first night seems like it will be tough, but I think she'll be so tired that she will be dreaming sweet dreams rather quickly!

Camp has also assigned Eleanor a pen pal, a girl named Parker who lives in New York. E wrote her new friend a note a few weeks ago. Here is the cover:and then the inside . . .Yesterday, she actually received a response back from her new pen pal, and E looks forward to writing her again.

We can't wait to hear all about E's first overnight camp experience. Check back in June to see how it goes!

To the Victor Goes the Spoils

Well, it looks like Dad will be selecting his favorite ice cream flavor from the frozen dessert aisle at our local Publix! He has pulled away with a victory in our family pool as he still has two of his four Final Four teams in the tournament. I, on the other hand, have zero remaining teams. It looks like Eleanor will finish in second. Hayes's bracket #1 and I will tie for third. The kids have already begun campaigning for their favorite ice cream flavors. E's hoping Dad will choose Birthday Cake-flavored ice cream (yes, there really is such a thing!), and H wants Cookies n' Cream. Knowing Dad, the flavor might just end up being plain ol' Vanilla. Congrats, Dad on your March Madness victory!

E's Barrettes

These barrettes were all the rage back in my elementary school days. I think I had nearly every combination because I had a second grade friend whose mom made them for me. Well, one of our favorite babysitters has learned how to make these barrettes too, and she has made two different ones for Eleanor. E loves them and would like to wear them to school every day. I must admit that it is hard for me to say "no" since I wore them daily when I was her age.

The Buzz Around G.S. Cookies

Girls Scout cookies have been a huge hit in our household. Since I can't eat them until after Easter, I have hidden three boxes of my favorites - Samoas, Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos. The kids and Dad have gone through the other eight boxes like wildfire.

Eleanor has been taking, on average, three cookies a day to school for her snack. When Hayes learned one morning that E had been eating cookies daily at school, he decided that he needed to do the same. He has been preparing days (literally 5 days!) in advance for what three cookies he was going to take to school today, when he stayed late for Lunch Bunch. He changed his choices daily leading up to today, but he finally decided on the shortbread cookie, a Samoa, and a Thin Mint. After school, he claimed that that was the first Samoa he's ever had (not sure if this is true since I have stayed away from them) and reported that the Samoa was "really good."

Girl Scout cookies even seem to be the talk of the lunch room at E's school as she shared at dinner the other night that one of her friends gets to eat 4 cookies for dinner. She was shocked by this quantity until we reminded her that she eats 3 at her snack time.

Because the rest of the gang's supply has almost whittled down to the last cookie, I'm just hoping that no one raids my personal stash. I can't wait to take my first bite and hopefully recall what all of the buzz is about!

I was in your tummy

While sitting in the preschool carpool line one morning last week, Ben, Hayes and I listened to what we call "kids music." One of the songs was an instrumental, with a large role given to the clarinet. Trying to make the song relevant, I asked Hayes, "Do you remember if your dad played the clarinet or flute when he was a little boy?" Hayes started laughing and replied, "I don't know, Mom, because I was in your tummy!" as if I had asked him the silliest of questions. I responded by chuckling to myself. Unfortunately, Hayes heard me, and he does not like the thought of someone laughing at anything he's said. He then followed up with, "For real, Mom," in a stern tone, assuring me that he was in my tummy when Dad was a little boy. He thought for another second and then asked, "Did Eleanor see him play?"

Angel Kisses

Tonight, while brushing her teeth as she got ready for bed, I heard Eleanor exclaim for the first time in her life, "Mom, I can see freckles on my face!"I have been telling her over the last few weeks that her cheeks have been getting kissed by angels, but she has not seen them herself. Tonight was the night, for those of you keeping track, when her angel kisses came to light.

On a side note, E came home from school today with what was later diagnosed as strep throat. This is our household's first experience with this ailment and I hope it will be the last, at least for a while!

Pictures Speak Volumes

Our cleaning ladies came today and guess what they found? They found Doggy behind one of the family room curtains where the kids often hide. I know that I've looked there over the past week but obviously not well enough. Welcome back, Doggy! Now, we can all sleep better!

March Madness

It's time for some March Madness! We have a family competition (amongst the four oldest members of the family) to see who picks the most winners in the tournament. The winner gets their choice of ice cream or popsicles from the frozen dessert aisle at the grocery store. Here are our individual brackets, from oldest to youngest:One cute note about Eleanor's bracket . . . when she got home from school yesterday and learned the scores of games going on, she "updated" her picks, as you can see in the purple marker. I quickly informed her that she was not allowed to "edit" her brackets.

Hayes actually filled out two because we thought we had lost the first one. Once we found his original, you can see that there are subtle differences between bracket one and two so I'll show both here. Everyone but Dad is showing Papa some love by picking his team to win it all. "Go Big Blue!" as Hayes has written on his bracket. I fell for all of the Big East Conference hype and have paid dearly for it. I might already be out of the family competition! Check back in to see who wins in April and what frozen dessert selection they make . . .

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Last night, we put out a plate of plain Oreos with the hope that a visiting leprechaun might enjoy the night-time snack. Guess what we found this morning? A sneaky leprechaun visited our house in the night, and he changed the insides of the Oreos from white to green! He also found a roll of toilet paper and used it to decorate our kitchen, even our Easter tree on the kitchen table. What a trickster!Eleanor, forgetting that this was not Christmas hoping that the leprechaun would come bearing gifts, decided to write a him a note that she left overnight with the white Oreos. As you can see, she went all out in asking for a new wii game and a Webkinz. In her P.S., she included a request for an Elmo game for her baby brother. I'm just glad that the leprechaun stuck to his reputation of being mischievous and ignored her "St. Patrick's Day" wish list.

O Doggy, Where Art Thou?

This past Friday afternoon, as we were packing our car for a quick one-night trip to Charlotte for a baby shower, we realized that Ben's beloved Doggy was missing. Doggy was lost somewhere between walking out of the front door of our local YMCA and the time when we started packing up, just an hour later. We keep hoping that Ben has hidden him in some drawer or kids' toy and that the blanket will miraculously reappear, but sadly, our hopes are dimming.

Yes, we have no real back-up, but it is not for the lack of trying. I learned six-months into Eleanor's young life that it was extremely important to have a lovey back-up. (She left her Lola at home when we flew down to visit Mimi and Papa in Florida. Luckily, a quick trip to Dillards solved that problems since her blanket was made by the pervasive Gund brand. To this day, we still have Lola 1 and Lola 2.) Unfortunately for Ben, the blanket came out of the gift closet of the giver and she has no memory of where she got it. (Believe me, I asked!) Also, Doggy has no brand so any internet search is all-encompassing. As recently as December, I scoured the internet for another Doggy, but could not find one that would pass the "nose" test, as Ben likes to suck on the sewn nose of his Doggy (and you can tell what I mean by looking at Doggy's nose in the picture above where the threads are starting to fray).

Over the last three days, we have tried to force Ben to choose a replacement quickly , probably too quickly. After his nap today, I took the picture below. You can see how I threw anything Ben has hugged in the last two days into the crib with him with the hope that he would form a new attachment.
(This morning, Ben was hugging and kissing an Incredible Hulk action figure, and I thought I had found a new lovey. But by lunch, the Hulk was already forgotten and hence, it did not make it into the crib for nap time.)

So, here we are, three days into this crisis without a sign of it ending anytime soon. I actually think Doggy might be gone for good.

O Doggy, where art thou? Please come home!

Eleanor's Ordinary Day

After a dear friend sent me the following link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olSyCLJU3O0) to an amazing video entitled "The Gift of an Ordinary Day", I decided that I needed to document what an ordinary day is like with each of my children. I'll start off with Eleanor . . .An ordinary day for Eleanor goes like this . . .
-wakes up and immediately turns on her light to start reading in bed
-has her clothes for school laid out for her but she prefers staying in her pjs for as long as possible
-chooses a very basic breakfast of a bread with peanut butter or jelly and water to drink and might eat a few bites of it if we are lucky as she'd rather do anything than eat breakfast at 7am
-prefers to wear her hair down though her mom likes it up and out of her face
-loves to accessorize (bracelets, sticker earrings and nail decor) and tries to get away with it at school unless her teacher says no
-prefers to buy school lunch
-always seems to have a great day at school
-walks in the door, throws her backpack and jacket onto the front hall floor and
immediately wants food and a lot of it
-loves going outside and being social; if kids are outside, she wants to be outside too
-colors or writes upstairs in the playroom if the weather outside is not cooperative; she also likes to dance and listen to Taylor Swift in her room too
-never really wants to do any homework (and luckily, our teacher this year is not a big believer in homework)
-starts to get tired around 6pm and is always ready to eat dinner
-actually prefers dinner over breakfast and will eat a ton if it is something she likes
-has been known to nearly fall asleep at the dinner table, especially if we are eating a late dinner (7pm)
-would prefer to take a bath all to herself and have it last for as long as she liked; unfortunately, she usually gets a shower with her brothers instead
-always wants someone to read to her; she usually falls asleep a few pages in and if not, definitely by 8pm

That is Eleanor's "Ordinary Day" at this point in her life.

Lenten Sacrifices

In celebration of the Lenten season, each of us decided to sacrifice something. Dad has given up Gatorade which sounds strange unless you consider that he drinks it like water. He goes through 4 large bottles of it a week. I gave up sugar in the form of all sweets and soda. Eleanor decided that she would give up fighting with her brothers. I think this effort lasted less than a day, but she wakes up each morning with a clean slate and the desire for more peace. Hayes made a huge sacrifice when he declared that he would give up "getting any new superhero figures." So far, three weeks into Lent, he has held true to this statement. Finally, I'll speak for Ben when I say that he would love to give up riding in the car each and every day. He fights me each morning when it is time to load up so I know that he would prefer a 40-day break from the car!

Going on a Treasure Hunt . . .

Recently, while giving one of the kids a back rub, I remembered a fun back tickle I learned in my childhood. It involves reciting the lines below while simultaneously following the verse with your finger on the recipient's back:

Going on a treasure hunt (draw a big treasure box)
X marks the spot (draw a big x on the back)
three long lines (draw three vertical lines)
and a question mark (draw a question mark)
spiders crawling up your back (have your fingers crawl like spiders up)
spiders crawling down your back (have your fingers crawl like spiders down)
cool breeze (blow sweetly on the recipient's neck)
tight squeeze (give them a gentle squeeze on the sides of the neck)
now you've got the shivereez (run your fingers quickly all over their back to give goose bumps)

The kids LOVE it (especially Ben), and we often do it at night, right before they go to bed. Sometimes, we even line up like a train with Ben at the front, Hayes and E in the middle and me at the back, and all do it to each other at the same time. It is good for quite a few laughs after a long day.

Favorite Thing All Day Long

One night last week, Hayes said to me, "Mom, do you know what my most favorite thing all day long is?" I had no clue and was thinking that he was going to say something about playing with the older boys outside. I would never have expected the response I got, when he said to me, "It is when you read books to me and when Dad reads books to me."

Art Sale

I know I have talked about Eleanor and her entrepreneurial skills in the past. This weekend, these same skills came to light again as Eleanor and some neighborhood girlfriends spent the weekend running an art sale from our front yard. As you can see from the sign that was displayed in our front yard for any passerby to see, the proceeds from the sale would go to Eleanor's school. Each masterpiece had a 25 cent price tag. I underestimated the popularity of the art and never once thought to document what was sold. Our loss since I have nothing to show here!The girls (E and Leslie are above) took turns holding another sale sign during most of the afternoon on Saturday. This was the most desirable job, in their eyes. They would try to flag down any passing car to offer up their art. Then, if they were not holding the sign, they were put to work creating more art as Josie was busy doing here. Later this afternoon, I found this sign sitting on our kitchen counter. I'm not sure where Eleanor used it, but I love the effort she put into explaining her strategy.

After spending multiple hours over the weekend on these fundraising efforts, I am proud to say that Eleanor and gang raised $11.16 to donate to their school's playground fund. Well done, girls!

When Dad's Away

Dad has traveled for work much of the past two weeks. When he's gone, I look to Eleanor to help me, especially at bedtime. One way I put her to work is to have her read to Ben. They both enjoy the time they spend together, and I just love watching them reading in the big, red chair. Ben absolutely ADORES his two older siblings, and is more than willing to have his sister read to him instead of his mom every now and then!

Anticipation . . .

This year, my goal is to have a play date for Hayes once a week. This week, Hayes's friend Parker was coming over to play today. To get ready, Hayes decided to showcase, just outside his bedroom door, all of his things that Parker might like. I'm not quite sure what the thinking was behind this effort since he's not done it before. Maybe it is because Parker is nearly 9 months older, which makes him 5 years old and "big" in Hayes's mind, or possibly it is because Parker LOVES Star Wars, and Hayes was worried about not having enough Star Wars toys to play with so he had to inventory all of his "cool" things. Whatever H's reasons were, here is what he came up with:On display, he has a Star Wars library book, a Spiderman coloring book, a book on Space and a poster that his grandparents found in their attic of Dad playing high school football. What I find so endearing about this picture is that H thought this collection was impressive, even though the average five-year-old might not be so thrilled by a couple of books and a poster.

When I am 100 years old . . .

Last week, Eleanor came home with a writing assignment that I found in her backpack. I thought I needed to document it for later years. She wrote the following:

"When I am one hundred years old, I will Live in a Apament. I would wrok at Suntrust. My favorite thing to do would be Whaching a movie. "

Inspired by the play of Team USA

Immediately after the kids were dropped off of the bus from school yesterday, they saw enough gear in our yard and our neighbor's yard to make up a game. I think they must have been inspired by Team USA's hockey play in the gold medal Olympic match on Sunday night as they immediately started playing their own version of field hockey. Hayes was right there in the mix. With all of the sticks flying about, I was grateful that he chose to wear his GT football helmet during most of the play. After about an hour in our yard, the boys got tired of playing hockey with hockey sticks and baseball bats, so they all headed back down the street to sled. Box sledding sure has taken a place in the children's daily sports repertoire as of late!

Influential Person Report - Mia Hamm

This morning, E's first grade class presented their Influential People reports. At E's school, this report is the "fun" report of the year (when compared to their monthly book reports) as the kids are required to dress as their subjects and speak for 3 - 5 minutes on their topic. Parents are invited to come watch the final presentations on the stage in the auditorium so it is a big deal for all involved.

Eleanor was lucky enough to be assigned her first choice, Mia Hamm. She wanted to be Mia because E loves both soccer and UNC, where Mia played soccer. She read through her report without a hitch. I think she has her father's pubic speaking skills, as she showed no signs of being nervous in front of an adult audience! Other Influential People presented included JFK, Barack Obama, Teddy Roosevelt, Elizabeth I, Harriet Tubman, Pocahontas, Georgia O'Keefe, Paul Revere, Amelia Earhart, Lance Armstrong, Leonardo da Vinci, Teddy Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Gandhi, Beatrix Potter, Mother Teresa, George Washington, Bobby Jones, Bono, Mary Kingsley, and Oprah.
Hayes and I enjoyed watching the presentations, and thought that each and every one of them did an excellent job!