Hayes' Teeth

When it comes to losing a tooth, Hayes takes a unique approach when compared to the approaches of his siblings.  If he has any inkling that a tooth might be loose, his goal is to get it out as quickly as he possibly can.  (Eleanor and Ben wince at the thought of anyone trying to pull a tooth out.) He has lost two teeth this week adhering to this philosophy.  The molar he's working on in this picture he discovered was loose about ten minutes prior.

 

He worked on forcing that tooth out while he watched one of his favorite TV shows - NFL Blitz. It bled on the paper towel and showed signs of being weak, but it still wouldn't come out. (It came out at his first touch the next morning.)  The tooth he lost earlier in the week he spent a good five minutes wiggling and out it came!

Dinosaur Bone

Ben bought lunch from school on Monday this week because they were serving chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese.

Later that night at dinner, he reported that the macaroni was a square block (macaroni and cheese casserole, maybe?) and then he said, "And guess what I found in my chicken nuggets?"

Given the history of horrible school lunch stories, we had no idea what he would then say. We all replied with a "What?"

His completely serious response? "A dinosaur bone!"

Yikes!

Carroll Family Signing Day

With National Signing Day earlier this month, Hayes got the idea to be the star of his own signing day.  One night before bed, he got dressed in his blazer and shared with us that he had played basketball at Georgia Tech and was now going to play for the Atlanta Hawks.

 

(We love the fact that a Hawks player, DeMarre Carroll, shares our last name!)

Message to the Cleaning Ladies

When I came upstairs yesterday morning to do some last-minute tidying before our cleaning ladies came, I found this note that Ben left them.  The "this" he is referring to is his Hank book. 

We Are Moving!

It is hard to believe that I'm even writing this but after spending 12 years on Beaverbrook, we will be moving about a mile away in May.  We are all excited about the new house

 

and look forward to exploring a different neighborhood.  We will never be able to replicate the friends and neighbors we've had on Beaverbrook and are so grateful for the wonderful memories they have created with us here. 

We have spent much of the last few weeks getting the house ready to be put on the market.  The biggest change we've orchestrated is the switching of our dining room and our living room.  Our agent recommended that we make this change because buyers are looking for a decent-sized formal dining room.  (Who knew? I guess the pendulum is swinging back to more formal living spaces.)  After Thomas balked about it for a bit, our agent came over and helped us see the changes through.  Our formal dining room is now to the left of the front hall

and our living room furniture was moved to our new "keeping room" just off of the kitchen at the back of the house. 

Here's hoping the changes entice an early looker as I can't imagine how we are going to keep this house clean while it is on the market!

H's Valentine

For Valentine's Day, as we did when Eleanor was in third grade, we helped Hayes' teacher surprise him and his classmates the Friday before Valentine's Day.  As you can see the two hearts outside the middle one with his picture,

 

Hayes wrote poems about us that were already hanging on the hallway bulletin board.  Then when Hayes walked to his classroom that Friday, he noticed that we had made our own heart, one that detailed some of the reasons why we love Hayes.  He later reported that he was less-than-thrilled with my "he's sensitive" comment, but I reminded him that it is one of the many reasons why I love him. 

E's Lacrosse Clinic

Lacrosse season started back this past weekend with an afternoon long clinic at a lacrosse powerhouse out in the suburbs.  One mother took this picture of the Westminster girls in attendance

 

(Eleanor is the second from right) and sent with the picture that this group represents "the future of Westminster lacrosse".   Here's hoping E likes the sport enough to stick with it!

Skylander Wars

With the Xbox sent back to Nintendo for repairs, the boys have rekindled their interest in Skylanders.  I came upstairs the other morning and observed them having Skylander battles.  One boy goes at at time.  He selects a character, and then has that character battle one-on-one with each of our other Skylander figurines.  A A winner is determined after each battle until there is one final Skylander standing.  Then, it is the other boy's turn to work through the Skylanders.  They can sit upstairs in the playroom for hours talking through this game. 

On a side note, Ben made paper bag puppets of our family.  See them sitting on the couch to his right? :-)

Ben's Morning Announcements

Ben's kindergarten class had the opportunity to read the morning announcements to the school this week.  They were very excited as they were the first kindergarten class to have this opportunity.  Ben was assigned to read on Monday and you can see his script highlighted below.  

 

Parents were encouraged to come support their "readers" so I showed up to document the ten minutes.  Here they are lined up in order of their reading assignments. 

Once Bridget opened up the morning, I think the nervousness started to appear.  

 

They all read their part perfectly and even the one with admitted stage fright (Carlan) performed without a hitch.  Here is Ben finishing up his fine line before they are off to class!