Piano recital

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The kids had their end of the year piano recital.  (Kitty started out the school year taking lessons but we dropped them a couple of months ago because she was having a hard time at lessons and not cooperating with the teacher on several occasions.  We might start her up again in the fall if we feel she is ready.)

For Luke's birthday I gave him some piano music to Star Wars and he ended up playing one of those for the recital.  Blondie played a song from the Tangled piano book I bought a couple of months ago and M&M played one of the theme songs from the Peanuts.  It's fun to hear the kids get better at the piano and to see them enjoying it when they learn a song that they know.

Unfortunately I spent most of the evening in the hallway trying to keep MJ entertained and trying not to distract the other people watching the recital.  Thankfully I could hear just fine from there though.

MJ update

MJ is a very smart and challenging girl at times.  She has such a temper, but when she is in a good mood and happy she can be very sweet and loving.  A couple of Sundays ago MJ had a yucky nose and I didn't feel like she should be in nursery so I kept her with me part of the time in the primary room.  At one point MJ walked up to the front of the room along one side of the room where there are cupboards covering the wall.  Each of the cupboards is labeled with a letter of the alphabet, starting with A and I think going all the way to P in the back of the room.  MJ noticed the letters on the cupboards and starts pointing at each one and naming the letter.  She walked all the way to the back of the room pointing and naming the letters as she went.  She didn't get them all correct, but she was probably around 75% right.  One of the teachers heard her and looked back at me and said, "She's a smart girl!"

Whenever we come home in the van, MJ likes to sit out in the car afterwards and fasten the buckles in her car seat and then play in the van.  Sometimes I will let her just play in there so that I can get some work done in the front yard or to take the groceries in the house.  She is definitely a button pusher and I always have a fun time resetting everything in the car when I get back in to drive it again.

A couple of days ago I had opened up the dishwasher to get something out of it and MJ came over, saw that it was open and proceeded to unload it (and luckily the dishes were clean).  It was cute watching her work and try and figure out where to put things.  She even asked me to open up the silverware drawer so that she could put the silverware in it and she was telling me what everything was as she unloaded it.  She also stacked several of the plastic cups.

Monday evening we were getting ready for family home evening and MJ was not in the best mood because I had just taken my ipad away from her so I suggested that we sing some songs to try and distract her.  So we sang Popcorn Popping and Book of Mormon Stories.  We did actions with both of the songs and then we got ready to say a prayer.  Just as we were about to say the prayer, MJ sits down and starts babbling/singing and moving her hands around.  We sat and watched her for a few seconds before we realized that she was trying to sing the popcorn song and was trying to do some of the actions with it.  So we sang the song once more a little slower for her and she was able to come in with some of the words and was trying to do the actions with us.  After we finished again she sat there and was singing and babbling to herself for a few more minutes.  It was really cute to watch.  (She can also sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and can do a pretty good job with it.)

MJ also loves music and loves to dance to it.  Whenever she hears some music that has a good beat to it she will stop whatever she is doing and start dancing to it and she will usually try and get our attention and say, "Dance, dance."

I know that she gets frustrated sometimes because she just wants to help or participate and we either don't recognize that or don't have the time to let her help...

Kay talk

On Monday morning I was talking to DH a little about his trip to Washington.  A few minutes later I was in my room with Kay and she said, "I can't wait to go to Grandma N's house!"  (She associates visiting her with the big bouncy house that they blow up in their backyard for us while we are in town.  She is so excited to visit again so she can bounce in it!)

We were kneeling down for family prayer on Monday night and it was Kay's turn to say it so DH asked if she would be willing to say the prayer for us.  Her response was, "Sure.  I'd be happy to."  We all started laughing because it was such a cute comment, especially the way that she said it.

Later that night I was putting MJ and Kay to bed and as Kay crawled into her bed she said, "Mom, how come everybody laughs at me."  My thoughts immediately went to her comment after her dad asked her to say the family prayer.  I told her that she makes us laugh and smile because she is so cute and says such cute things.  (She wasn't sure if that was a good enough response.  We will have to be a little more sensitive to her feelings in the future.  She can be a very sensitive little girl at times.)

Kitty missed the bus to school yesterday morning so I had to quickly get the little girls ready so we could drive her to school.  Kay wanted to get dressed before we left so I looked in her drawer for some clothes and pulled out a pair of pants and a shirt and said, "Here, these will work."  After looking at the clothes that I had picked out she responded, "Ummm, are you sure about that?"

Hummingbirds

Blondie is doing a report for school on hummingbirds. Tonight I was outside pulling some weeds and the younger 4 girls were outside with me. Blondie was watching MJ and all of a sudden she was yelling at me that she saw a hummingbird. At first I thought that she was just mistaking another bird for a hummingbird because she really wanted to see one. When she called out again that she saw it I looked over where she was and saw something that looked like a dragonfly from where I was standing. Whatever it was flew up into the tree next to our driveway and stopped flying. I walked over to the tree for a closer look and there sitting on a branch in the middle of the tree was a small, black hummingbird!! It was just sitting there turning its head back and forth with a beak that looked about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long! I told Blondie to run in the house and get the camera for me. When she came back a minute later I got the camera ready to take a picture and the hummingbird started flying around again, zooming back and forth next to the tree. Then it landed up high in the tree somewhere and after walking all the way around the tree and looking closely we still couldn't see it. When we got back over to the driveway the hummingbird started flying again and this time it was almost dive bombing right at our heads, back and forth. It was acting like it was protecting something so I told the kids to back up from the tree and it continued to fly back and forth several times and then flew somewhere across the street and we didn't see it again. I looked all around the tree branches for a possible nest somewhere, but didn't see anything. It was pretty cool how fast it was flying and the noise that the wings made as it was zooming back and forth around the tree. Blondie was so excited and can't wait to tell her class about it when she gives her report next week. I'm just bummed that I wasn't able to get a picture of it. We are all going to watch that tree closely over the next few days to see if the bird reappears.

Kid talk

While I was getting Kay dressed for church yesterday, this was our conversation:

Kay:  "Why is it called a jumper? Is it for jumping in?"
Me:  "Maybe it's called a jumper because you can jump right into it."
Kay:  "No, because then it would get all muddy!"


This morning when Kay saw her dad for the first time since returning from his trip, I looked at him and asked Kay what she thought of his whiskers - he hadn't shaved in a couple of days.  Kay felt his face and then said, "Dad, I just love your whiskers!"


I was sorting some dirty clothes this morning and sorting them into different laundry baskets and MJ decided to use one of the baskets for her bed so she dumped all of the clothes out of it.  I kept throwing dirty clothes into and on top of her and each time she would say "ow" and then throw it out.  When I threw a couple of larger clothes items on her she thought they looked like blankets and snuggled down in the laundry basket and pulled the clothes up on herself and said, "Ni-night mommy."  She then proceeded to close her eyes and make some pretend snoring noises.  Then she would say, "Ni-night bunny."  (There is a picture of a bunny on her shirt today.)


After I had showered and gotten dressed this morning, MJ walked into my bedroom and said, "Hello pretty mommy."


I was getting Kay ready this morning before we left to the store and she put her hand on my face and said, "You have such soft skin.  I love your soft skin."

The Avengers!

Saturday, May 6, 2012

After DH and Luke got back from the Father & Son campout on Saturday, my parents came over to watch the younger kids and M&M, Luke, DH and I all went to the movie theater to see The Avengers. Luke has been talking about this movie for MONTHS and he was really excited to be going the day after it opened. We kept it a secret from him until that day. We all thought that the movie was really well done and it had quite a bit of humor in it. There was a little bit of violence and a couple of scenes where they didn't show what was happening exactly, but you could imagine it and it made you cringe.  I don't remember much gore at all though. There was also a little bit of language, but not too bad. I would definitely recommend seeing Captain America, Iron Man 1 & 2 and Thor before seeing this one. It will make more sense. Also, make sure to stick around until the END of the credits. We saw the scene partway through the credits and then left. Well, apparently there was another added scene all the way at the end of the credits that we missed.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Yummy chocolate!

I made some Peanut Blossom cookies a couple of days ago and then tonight M&M and Blondie and I made some Peanut Butter Cup cookies.  The kids all enjoyed them, can you tell?

Love the chocolate mustaches!!

Kay talk

Kay was playing with a little toy giraffe that we have and she asked me, "Are giraffes from the zoo?"
Me:  "No they live in Africa."
Kay:  "Oh, what's Africa?"
Me:  "It's a continent."
Kay:  "Oh, how do you know that?"

M&M and I were laughing at that conversation and Kay was confused as to why we were laughing so she asked, "Is my joke funny?"  We answered that she was funny.  She then said, "Oh, sorry (laughs)."

MJ's self portrait

I came home from Blondie's soccer game on Saturday and DH told me that he had caught MJ playing with the camera.  When I checked it today to see if she had done anything to the pictures that were on it, I found this picture:

(Look at those cute, chubby ankles/legs.)  I also found a short video clip of her feet.

Peaceful moment

MJ, Kay and I went on a couple of errands this morning.  After we got home MJ was throwing a fit because she didn't want to come inside and she didn't want me to take her shoes off.  She followed me up to my bedroom where I was putting some things away and she kept throwing a fit so I just left her up there and walked away.  When I came back a minute later she had left my room and was quiet.  I presumed that she had made her way into her bedroom.  I didn't want to look in on her because usually if I do that and she sees me then she will want me to hold her or she will start throwing a fit again.  I waited a few more minutes and then I went and looked and found this:

She had crawled into Kay's bed and pulled the blankets on herself and fell asleep!  I hope she has a good (albeit early) nap!

Lightning

DH has been trying out some nighttime shots with his DSLR camera.  The other night we had a small thunderstorm come through the area so DH took his camera out to try and capture some lightning shots.  Here are a few that turned out pretty well:

MJ talk

One day last week I was changing MJ's diaper and she was trying to bite her sock and was stretching it out since it was still on her foot so I took it off and gave it to her. She chewed on it for a few seconds and then she looked at her foot and saw some sock fuzz in-between her toes. She reached up with her hand and pulled some of the fuzz off and said, "Ew, nasty!"

First overnight scout campout

Friday, April 27, 2012

Luke attended his first overnight scout campout!  It was organized by our scout district so there were a lot of boys involved.  Unfortunately his specific group got there a little too late in the evening on Friday so they missed out on some of the organized activities.  It also turned out to be a very chilly weekend and the temperature that night got down in the 30s.  Before he left I was trying to get Luke to take one of the bigger sleeping bags but he wanted to take a smaller one so luckily I was able to talk him into taking two of the smaller ones so he could double them up if he needed to.  He said he woke up at about 3:00 in the morning and was freezing so he got out the second sleeping bag.  And he and his friend noticed when they woke up in the morning that one of the tent flaps had been left open which didn't help either.  When they got up they saw that there was some frozen ice on the side of the tent where his friend had been sleeping.  I sent him with a tin foil dinner to cook over the fire when they got there (which he wasn't too excited about but turned out pretty good).  Luke was pretty excited that he got to help build and start the fire for breakfast in the morning.  I'm glad that he has some good friends in his patrol (?) to help make these experiences a little more enjoyable for him.  I love camping, but it is hard to do with little kids so I haven't pushed our family to camp very often.  It is just a lot of work for me with the ages that the kids are at.

All I can say is that I didn't sleep too well that night, partly because I was worried about whether he was warm enough or not!  After he left I kept thinking of things that we had forgotten to pack for him.  Thankfully they camp in groups so hopefully between all of them they have everything they might need!  I don't feel like I'm quite ready for all of this scouting stuff!  Hopefully I will have it all down and figured out before Luke graduates from High School!!

Unexpected praise

M&M has been playing the bassoon now for a little over a year and she loves it!  She has been self taught with some tips found on the internet and a few pointers from one of her orchestra teachers.  Other than that she has learned everything on her own.  When she first brought the bassoon home her band teacher had shown her how to put it together before she left school and I had bought a few reeds to try from a local music store.  We printed off a couple of fingering charts from the internet and then she has practiced and figured things out on her own.

The other day the band director from one of the local high schools stopped by her band class to drop off some marching band registration forms.  He came in while the band was in the middle of practicing a song and when M&M turned around to see who it was, he was standing right behind her.  In front of the whole class he told her that she sounded really good and had good tone and her tonguing was really crisp and clear too.  M&M's band teacher then said to M&M, "Tell him how long you've been playing."  M&M said that she had been playing just a little over a year and the high school director was amazed.  He then asked her where she would be going to high school (her school feeds into at least 3 different schools).  She said that she would be going to the high school where he teaches and he pumped his fist in the air and said, "YES!"    M&M was quite embarrassed by the whole scene because it took place with the whole band class watching her!

M&M's last band concert she had a solo part and we could actually hear her playing from the audience.  It was quite exciting and she did really good on it.  We had several neighbors in the audience who afterwards came up to us and complimented her on her performance.  (I will try and get a video clip of the solo up on YouTube for those that are interested.)  The bassoon is not a common instrument and it is typically not a solo instrument.  It is one that blends in well with the rest of the band/orchestra, supporting the melody parts and is hard to hear most of the time.  This last concert though I could hear her on several parts other than her solo as well.  We're pretty pleased with how well she is doing and hope that she will continue to enjoy music.

Since she will be going into 9th grade next year she is allowed to participate in the high school marching band, even though she will still be at the middle school.  She has attended a 2 day clinic on marching band and just last week we went to an info meeting to find out more about the costs and the time involvement.  I think she has decided that she wants to do it and it should be a good experience for her and a chance to meet and interact with a lot more people her age and with similar interests.  And no, she will not be marching with the bassoon!  She has kept up her playing on the flute a little bit and will either be marching with the flute or the piccolo.  Right now there are no piccolos in the marching band so she is a little hesitant to be the only one!  The downside to the marching band is that she would not be able to play soccer in the fall and she also will not be able to play in the after school area orchestra that she is in this year.  (Although she's not too bummed about the orchestra because she was trying to talk us out of having her do it next year anyways.  She thinks the music is too boring and she unfortunately hasn't enjoyed it a ton.  Maybe the group at the high school level will be more exciting for her to play with.)

Caught red-handed

This is the reason I have such a hard time cleaning up anything in this house:

We have a storage box that we keep baby toys in and switch the toys out from time to time or just put away the ones that our "baby" is too old to play with now.  The other day I was trying to put away some of the baby toys and then I turned around and found MJ in the box dumping all of the toys out!

Crazy day!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Thursdays are always busy right now with soccer season in full swing (all three of the kids playing soccer usually have practice or a game this day), but this day was even more busy than usual.  My Visiting Teachers came over this morning so I spent some time this morning cleaning.  They came and left and then I took MJ and Kay to a neighbor's house so I could go to the dentist (oh what fun!).  It was just a routine cleaning, but I needed the dentist to take a closer look at my mouth so we can keep an eye on any problems and watch out for osteoneucrosis of the jaw (which is a potential side effect of the Avastin treatment that I am on).   So I had to explain the cancer that I have and the treatments that I am under for that.  After I was through there (and thankfully no problems were seen) I went back and picked up the girls and then we came home for some lunch.

 Just after M&M got home from school the power went out in the house.  I had just been trying to make some reservations online to get the older kids in some swimming lessons when everything went dead. At first M&M thought it might be someone pulling a prank on us (the power switch to the house is pretty easily accessible) so I went outside to check the power and it was still in the on position. I then went downstairs to the storage room and checked the circuit breakers and they were all in the on position as well. We looked around a little outside, but how can you tell if your neighbors have power or not during the middle of a sunny day?  I ended up calling DH at work and had him do some looking online for me.  He found through our power company's website that there were some power outages in our area and the cause was unknown.  The estimated time for the power to return was around 7:30 p.m. - it went off around 3:30.  When the elementary school kids got home they said that the power had been out at school as well.  Around 5:00 I went out to the garage to see if I could figure out how to open the garage door so I could get the car out when the light in there turned on and I realized that the power had finally come back on!  Yea! 

Luke got himself ready for soccer practice and got a ride with a friend.  Then I prepared dinner and just when I was finishing the preparations, DH came home from work just in time to take M&M to practice and then stop on the way home to pick up Luke and a friend from practice and bring them home (Blondie had her practice on Wednesday this week).  While he was gone I fed dinner to the younger kids and then DH and Luke ate when they got home.  I then piled MJ and Kay into the car to go with me to pick up M&M from her practice.  We got there a few minutes before the practice ended so I let them play on the playground while we waited.

 We arrived home just as Luke was finishing up his shower.  M&M sat down to have some dinner and I heard Luke downstairs calling for me.  I made my way down there and was about to walk over to the bathroom when I realized that the laundry room floor was completely covered in water.  Luke was calling to me from the bathroom trying to tell me that his pajamas and clothes that had been on the floor in the bathroom while he showered were now completely wet.  I was just standing there trying to figure out what to do and where the water was coming from. There is a second door from the bathroom that leads into Luke's bedroom so I told him to go through that door to his room to get some dry clothes and I ran upstairs looking for DH.  Well, DH was in the bathroom upstairs so I told him that there was some water flooding downstairs and I needed his help when he was through.  I didn't wait for a response and quickly ran back downstairs to try and figure out what was going on.  I grabbed the mop and started mopping up the water in the laundry room and wringing it out into a bucket. I called Blondie over to come and help me while I grabbed a second mop.  I had M&M run upstairs for some towels to dry off some things that had been sitting on the laundry room floor.  Finally I had mopped up enough water that I could make it to the bathroom and opened the door to see the damage in there. The floor and rugs were completely soaked in there. I then opened up the shower door (it is a shower with no bathtub) and there was several inches of standing water just sitting there in the shower - the water was not draining out of the drain at all... I grabbed the toilet plunger and started plunging where the drain was until I was able to get the water to start slowly draining. I then called to Luke and asked him why he continued showering with the water not draining. His response was that he just figured the shower door would hold the water in... (...and then what happens when you open the door with half a foot of standing water being held in by the door????)   Not one of his more brilliant moments...  So all of the flooding was caused by our son showering and the drain being completely stopped up.  After I got the water drained out of the shower I had Luke bring me a screwdriver and I removed the drain cover so I could clean out the drain.  I also noticed that the sink drain wasn't working too well so I cleaned that out while I was at it. In the meantime Blondie and Kitty were mopping for me and I kept wondering why my husband wasn't coming down to help and see what the problem was.  So I went upstairs and found him laying down on our bed with some pretty severe stomach cramps.  Apparently he told me that after I came and found him in the bathroom, but I must have left the room already because I didn't hear him say that. Luckily the floor there in the bathroom and laundry room is tile and none of the water made it to the bedroom or family room carpet so there wasn't any damage done.  And apparently the low point in those two rooms is the laundry room by the washer and dryer.  While we were trying to clean up the water MJ kept trying to play with the water in the bucket and then once I found her sitting in the middle of the laundry room floor trying to play in the water!  Oh what fun she can be at times!