Living in a Fantasy Land

Sure we live in Houston. And yes, I know that it is coming up on April and the temps are already hitting near the 90's. But Philip will not be deterred. These are the two books that we will be rechecking out once again for a new 6 weeks.

Seriously, we should probably just buy copies already. This item is on our next Amazon order for sure! It is incredibly frustrating for Brennan when we only get to keep his favorite listening CD for two weeks, and then have to return it to the library and wait for our turn on the request list to come up again!

The best medicine

Laughter. It really can put situations into perspective.

Like when you go outside to retrieve your 5 year old, who needs a dousing in the shower (We won't get into the why - just that we have been dealing with the remnants of a nasty stomach bug). Of course I leave the others in our nice safe fenced backyard. Because they couldn't really get hurt.

But they can find trouble. And find it, they did. I got Nicholas out of the shower and found Brennan reading in the living room, leaving Philip and Jonathan outside unattended.

I found them safe, sound, and into mischief. They were both sitting in the garden, digging up every new cucumber plant that had sprung from the ground. Every single one of them.

Philip smiled proudly and proclaimed "Look Mom! We are helping you weed!". With all of this gardening help, it will probably require a miracle for my little plants to make it.

What can I do? After the momentary shock, followed by a timeout, we hugged. And laughed. It really is the best medicine.

And a post all its own...Coloring Eggs!

Happy Easter!

Of course I cut Philip off partially on the one decent picture! THe other dozen weren't anywhere near as good.


And chocolate sensation!

Gangsta Wannabe

Brennan: "Hands up! Do as I say, or I'll play you a tune on my violet."

And Philip uses his Kids Knex to build a handy dandy machine gun!




Yes, yes. This gangster (attempt at) talk comes from TV. Specifically from the old Underdog cartoons.

So nice to have TV back, huh!

Digging out the Old Stuff

Every once and a while I actually benefit from my clutter bug gene.

Like all of those "Little Saints" preschool program manipulatives that I copied and cut and laminated in my sheer joy of beginning my oldest (then 3 years old) on school. They have come in quite handy lately. With that same child, now 7.

Odds and Evens? So much easier when you have the cute brown and orange monkeys which you can hang on and off a clothesline according to the story (odd or even monkey?)

Months of the year/Days of week - Those little train cars are wonderful.

And best of all are the "Sense of smell" cups. 4 Years later, and the cinnamon, cloves, lemon juice, perfume, and vanilla still smell great. The old coffee beans? Not so good.

I knew fresh coffee was a really great thing! :)

My Little Helper

Jonathan is such a great helper. A regular "Monkey see, monkey do" kind of guy. He unloads the silverware from the dishwasher. He picks up toys. He even puts books back on the shelves.

I know, I know, I'm one lucky gal. Lucky to the point that as I was in the shower this morning, Jonathan decided to "help" some more. Apparently the phone rang. None of the older boys bothered to answer it, so Jonathan was up for the job. He got the phone, ran into my bathroom, and threw it at me. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that he had THE PHONE and now our brand new phone doesn't work. After all, how many pieces of electronic equipment enjoy a good soak?

Hopefully it will work when it dries out. Until then, I need to find a way for Jonathan to NOT be quite so helpful next time.