Night with Papa

Before heading back to Florida today, Papa spent the night with us last night after teaching a short-course here in the metro area for the first part of the week. What was the first thing the kids wanted to show him? Angry Birds on the iPad. What was the second? Hayes showing Papa his winning family basketball bracket with Kentucky winning the national championship. His bracket got Hayes a high five from Papa!

Though his visit was short, we remembered that we would see him tomorrow as we drive down to Florida for Spring Break. Until then . . .

Sweet Note from Hayes

Hayes has always been very good at expressing his emotions verbally to us. I can't tell you how many times in a day he tells us that he loves us. Thomas and I appreciate this aspect of his personality, especially since we are sure his positive feelings towards us will wane over the coming years as he starts to head into teenage-dom.

Now, in addition to telling us how he feels about us, he's really gotten good at writing how he feels. I got this sweet note from him last week, on Cars stationary that he must have found in my desk. Hayes originally wrote the note to me. When Dad came home from work and read it, he joked with Hayes by asking him where his note was. Hayes quickly made a few "edits" to the card, and then presented the updated version to both of us. This card is definitely a "keeper!"

Eleanor's Poetry

For the past two weeks, Eleanor's class has been reading and writing poetry. Eleanor has commandeered the three books of poetry we have in our house, three books that were mine as a child. She earns points for each poem that she reads to someone. Then, for each point, she will receive a "dollar" at school to the spend in a pretend store in her classroom.

She has also spent some time writing poetry. Here are three of her poems . . .

Eleanor
Caring, friendly, happy, cool
Sister of Hayes and Ben
Lover of sports, art, singing, jump roping
Who feels happy, creative, curious
Who fears spiders, wasps, guns
Who would like to see LA, Hollywood, Paris
Resident of Atlanta, GA
Carroll


Baxter
Sleepy, eating, playing, soft, 11
Pet of Eleanor, Hayes, Ben
Lover of balls, people, pillows
Who feels sleepy, happy, excited
Who fears thunder, lightning
Who needs to take a bath
Resident of Atlanta, GA
Carroll


A Witches Lullaby (as sung to the tune of Hush Little Baby)
Hush little witches
Close your eyes
Hold your broomstick
Way up high
Your cat is black
And soon to die
Pretend that you are
Flying high
A spider is on your hat
A bat is on your mat
Don't wake up until I do
Hush little witches
Go to bed.

Quickly Moving on to Easter

Now that St. Patrick's Day is over, each day Ben has asked for me to bring up "all the Easter stuff." So yesterday, down came St. Patrick's Day and up went Easter. I was a little hesitant since we still have over a month before Easter arrives, but I gave in and hauled our four crates of Easter "stuff" up from the basement. The kids eagerly work their way through the decorations. Ben carried his bucketful of Easter eggs around the house for the rest of the day, dumping them all out every few minutes and leaving of trail of eggs and green "grass" wherever he went. Plastic eggs started to take over the house so I ended up having to pack up most of them to take them back downstairs. Still, there is a feeling (a bit premature but that's okay) that Easter is on it's way when you come to our house.

Hummus & Pretzel Chips

Eleanor changes her lunch requests daily. Hayes eats a peanut butter & jelly sandwich nearly every day for lunch. What does Ben ask for? Pretzel chips and hummus. Maybe he likes the fact that no one tries to eat his lunch off his plate. (The other two stick their noses up when it comes to hummus). I'm not sure what appeals to him about this meal, but it is his go-to lunch so we always have hummus and pretzel chips in the house.

NCAA Tourney Brackets

Well, the first weekend of the NCAA college basketball tournament has come and gone. This year, we decided that every family member would participate in our bracket competition. Unfortunately, Dad's and Ben's brackets did not survive the weekend as we cannot locate them anywhere. So, with two members of the family already out of the competition, three challengers remain.

The first and youngest challenger is Hayes. His bracket should make his Papa proud as he has picked Kentucky to win the national championship. Eleanor's bracket is next. She knows how to get in Mom's good favor as she picked my team to end up #1. Go Heels! Finally, the oldest and last participant in our family competition is me. I am embarrassed to admit that I did not pick anyone's favorite teams to win. I just picked teams that I thought would win. Going into the second weekend of the tournament, our competition is a close one. Both Eleanor and Hayes have picked 33 correct games while I have snuck by them with 34 correct games picked. It will be interesting to see the final standings in two weeks. Best of luck to all of the competitors!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had a tiny little visitor from Ireland invade our kitchen overnight. Our leprechaun went through every drawer and cabinet, looking for our Oreos that we forgot to leave out this year. He found them and then turned them green. In addition to turning the cookies green, he poured green water for each of the kids to enjoy for breakfast. He also caused some mischief when he moved all of our kitchen chairs and bar stools into the middle of the kitchen floor and turned them upside down! Needless to say, I had a bit of a mess to clean-up St. Patrick's Day morning, but that's what you do after a leprechaun comes to visit. The older two drank every last sip of their green water, but Ben could not be convinced that it was "just water with green food coloring." He did demand an Oreo for breakfast, though he was barely awake. The kids were in a very festive mood all day long, and they were even willing to sit together, though briefly, for a quick shot of them dressed in their green. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ireland

Each month during the school year, the kindergarten classes at Hayes's school learn about a different country. This morning, we joined two other kindergarten families in presenting the country of Ireland to the children. We had each of our three kids dress up for presentation in their Irish gear. Dad led off the presentation focusing on the basics about the country. Then we played Irish music, showed them videos of Irish line dancing, and I, because I had my photography class and had to miss the actual presentation, made the kids hot cross buns and traditional Irish porridge (oatmeal) to eat.

In the end, the children might remember bits and pieces from our presentation, but what most interested them were the pots of gold that we gave them in their goody bags to take home. So typical of this age . . .

Favorite Girl Scout Cookies

Since their delivery, we have been slowly making our way through consuming our multiple boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Eleanor has been taking them to school in her lunch box, and the boys have had some each day after lunch. It has been fun to see which ones they like and which ones they don't like even more.

Today, I asked the question, "What is your absolute FAVORITE Girl Scout cookie?"

Here are the results: So glad to know that at least one of my three kids loves the chocolate/peanut butter combination of the Tagalongs as much as I do!Definitely a crowd favorite. When I asked the kids to tell me their favorite Girl Scout cookie last week, they all responded with "Samoas." My, what a week will do to change their opinions!
I had to include these two last pictures because they do a great job of capturing the mindset of an 8-year-old girl. In the photo above, Eleanor notices that the three boys next door (ages ranging from 6 - 11) are watching her and asking her what she is doing.
She tries to play it cool by then adjusting her stance to make it seem like being outside with her mom and her mom's camera is the absolute last place on earth she wants to be. :-)

What is your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

Our Flowering Tree

Each year, this blooming Yoshino cherry tree always serves as a ginormous signal that spring is here. This beauty has been blooming since last Saturday, March 12. I checked back to 2009 when I wrote about this tree's spring blooms, and that entry was dated March 23 so we are a few weeks ahead this year.

Tonight, as I tucked him into bed, Hayes asked me, "Mom, is it spring yet?" when he noticed that it was still light outside. I replied, "Yes, I think so since the tree out front is in full bloom."

Happy spring!

Fun Run Entries & Boys' Art

Eleanor's school's annual Fun Run will be held in the middle of April. Each year, they ask that any interested student enter a contest to design the race t-shirts. One day after school last week, Eleanor pulled out the markers and started coloring. She came up with two entries that she took to school the next day. Hayes and Ben caught the coloring fever when they saw their sister working at the kitchen table. They soon joined her and came up with their own creations that actually summarize their distinct personalities rather well. Here is Hayes's detailed and technical drawing . . .and then Ben's, with his intentionally torn sides (all a part of the overall effect he was trying to share) and his chaotic structure. I love seeing how each of their minds work so individualistically, especially when conveyed through their art.

Potty Training

This week, the boys have had Winter Break. Knowing that we had very little planned, I decided to spend the week potty-training Ben. He's shown signs of being ready for a while (will use the potty to go pee if he does not have any clothes/diapers on), so I felt like this week was the perfect time to try to make it happen.

The first few days were spent with Ben running around the house without any pants or diapers on. Starting today, we advanced to the underwear stage. Most of the day was successful with just two accidents, and both of them occurred during TV-watching time (while Mom was cooking dinner and dealing with a locksmith). Tomorrow, I will try to be even more vigilant, though we plan on meeting Eleanor at school for lunch which throws a wrench into the potty-training mantra of staying at home until you succeed.

I'm sure this is an ongoing process, and will be for the next few weeks. At this point, though, Ben is super-proud of the progress he's made, and is ready to return to school next week with "big-boy" underwear on. Wish us luck!

Photography Classes

Today, I started what will be a six-week long photography class entitled Digital 101. (It was my Christmas present from Thomas and the kids.) The class of 12 meets for an hour and forty-five minutes once a week to learn how to make the best use of our cameras. I'll have assignments each week and even some field trips. (The first field trip is to Oakland Cemetery later this month.)

Already after the first class, my teacher has changed the way I will take pictures in the future. Now, there is still tons to learn, and my "art" is definitely a work in progress . . .but this afternoon, under a cloudy sky (forcing me to change my "white balance" which I had never done before!) I tried to capture the kids playing in our neighbors' yard.


Hopefully, after this six-week class is done, you will be able to notice an improvement in my picture quality, but these pictures are a step in the right direction.

Ben's Changing Sleep Habits

Now that Ben will be three (!) this summer, his sleep habits have changed over the last few months. Here is our routine for putting him to bed . . .

- We always read him a book. Even if it is too late to read to the older two, Ben gets a book, though most likely a very short one on those late nights.
- Doggy and juice cup are still constant companions in the crib. (Doggy is still very much a constant companion almost anywhere.)- The sound machine is still required for sleeping, and it has never wavered from the "ocean" setting throughout his young life.
- Ben now asks that his door remain open when we put him to bed. He prefers it wide open. Some nights we oblige, and other nights we just crack it. We have found that this sleeping change has caused him to wake up each morning early, when he hears Eleanor run down the stairs to catch the bus. Now, at night, we try to remember to secretly close his door before we go to bed.
- Why does he want his door open? Because he wants to read books in bed. We leave the light at the top of the stairs on, and it shines light into his room.
- What does he do when he's done reading the books in his crib? As he finishes one, out he throws it from his crib. In the morning (or after a nap in the below case due to the small amounts of books on the floor), this is the sight I find. - As you can tell from this picture below, Ben's crib has turned into a pig pen. He has over five baby blankets, a couple of stuffed animals, his Valentine's gift bag (including the candy and the Cracker Jacks), two baby pillows, his pillow pet, and anything-else-he-can-get-away-with-throwing-in-there-before-we-finally-say-no in his crib. He hardly has room enough for himself!

With the big boy bed milestone looming, I'm grateful for the blissful sleep he gets in his crib now!

Dad's Day

Thomas joined Hayes at school this week for a Dad's breakfast. Over doughnuts, coffee and orange juice, the kids showed their dads what a typical day at school was like for them. The kids also taught the dads the meaning of all of the words in the Pledge of Allegiance. Hayes was thrilled to have his dad with him at breakfast, even displaying some affection by holding his hand during some of the activities. To cap off a fabulous morning, Hayes gave Thomas this portrait to bring home. This one is definitely a keeper!

Family Portraits

Today, Hayes was inspired to draw individual portraits of his family members. Here is what he produced this afternoon.

Eleanor's portrait was the first one completed. The next work of art was my portrait. Though they were continuously fighting over markers and paper throughout the afternoon, Hayes was still sweet enough to draw a picture of his little brother Ben. Finally, last but not least, Hayes finished his portrait of Dad. Eleanor's school celebrated Dr. Seuss's March 2 birthday today so Hayes has had Dr. Seuss on his mind. I like to think that he took an almost Seuss-ical approach to his art this afternoon with all of the vivid colors and fun hairstyles he drew. :-)

Just in case you missed it, Hayes currently ends each name he ever writes with an exclamation mark. I'm not sure if he just likes to make that specific mark or if he's trying to show, through his writing, his enthusiasm.