The Performer

Jolie performed with a group of kids in a little talent show at the church last night. They did a medley that included "Zippity Do Dah" and "I'm a Mormon". It was very cute. Our neighbor, Lonna, invited Jolie to perform because she's such a good singer in Primary.

Earlier this week I took Tristan and Jolie to see "The Sound of Music" at a local theater. It was a rare thing for us since we knew we'd be out late on a school night. I'm glad we did it because they both enjoyed it. It was a great play for them to see because they both know the story and we all love the music (notice the title to my blog).

This week I've decided that Jolie's talents lie in the area of singing, dancing and performing rather than competitive sports. Last weekend she sat out half of her soccer game (by choice) and when she's on the field she doesn't like to take the ball away from other players because she feels that it's a mean thing to do. On the other hand, she LOVED the musical, LOVES dancing, LOVED performing at the talent show, and she even asked if she could take acting lessons. Maybe that's where we should concentrate our energies...

Spring Break II

One of the highlights of our trip to So Cal was Legoland. It was amazing! We hadn't really planned to go but the concierge at our resort gave us the idea by offering us free tickets if we went on a sales tour. Dan and I were able to get 2-day tickets through AAA which made it worth our time to go to Legoland and NOT go on the tour. Although it's tempting to get free stuff, Dan and I have decided that vacations are too short to spend 2 or 3 hours having our arms twisted while our children are stuck in a hole somewhere watching TV. Yes, we've learned this from experience.

It was hard to decide which photos to post since we took so many. I had to include the one of Jolie holding onto dear life while on the Safari ride. This is basically a little train that wound very slowly through some trees and brush. The safari animals, all built out of legos, were amazing! It was not scary at all but, you see, Jolie is afraid of amusement park rides. She won't go on anything that leaves the ground or has any speed at all. This started two summers ago when we were at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. Grandpa D. and Daddy decided it would be fun to take Tristan and Jolie on a little ride called "The Big Bad Wolf." It turned out to be a terrifying roller coaster that Jolie, at 3 years old, shouldn't have been allowed on in the first place. The result was that Tristan wet his pants (I'm not kidding) and Jolie developed a pathological fear of amusement park rides. Dan and I have tried various treatments for her disorder, including force (picking her up and carrying her onto a ride), logic and reasoning, guilt, threats, etc. but so far none of our treatments have been effective. The two times we've tried the "force" approach, she started kicking and SCREAMING hysterically, convulsing and acting as if her life were about to end. These were kiddie rides, by the way! The other patrons of the park looked at us as if were were child abusers. In the end, she got out of line or off the ride and we determined that this particular approach was not effective. IF THERE IS A PSYCHOTHERAPIST IN THE HOUSE, PLEASE ADVISE!

Spring Break I

Now that we're finally completely unpacked and all the laundry is washed and put away (and washed and almost put away again), I thought I'd post some photos from our trip to San Diego over spring break. For those who haven't heard the story, we left in a bit of a hurry because our timeshare became available at the last minute. We stayed at an awesome resort near Escondido where there was a lot to do. We spent one day at Carlsbad beach. It was a bit cool for swimming but that didn't stop Tristan and Jolie from going in the water. Gavin also put his feet in but he was rather preoccupied with the sand and his trucks.

The Hunt

Just a few more photos from Easter. We had our annual egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa D's house on Sunday. Gavin has been gearing up for this for weeks and weeks. I've been telling him an "Emily and Peter" story about an egg hunt at nap time. At the end of the story we eat a few jelly beans and then he goes to sleep beautifully for me.

Lisa labelled the eggs with the kids' initials so that they'd all have a good result. The photo of Tristan says a lot since he was moving so quickly! Trying to get a photo of him was like photographing a sporting event.

Happy Easter!

Dan and I took the kids across the street after church this morning to take some photos. It's taken a few years but we've learned that the Easter "look" doesn't last long around here. By the time we've gotten around to taking photos in the past, the little buggars have either destroyed their clothes or they're angry and impatient because we're getting ready to have our egg hunt. Hey, I'm a girl who learns from her past mistakes! None of that this year.

Jolie had quite a dilemna this morning. She had three Easter dresses to choose from. Grandma I. as well as Grandma D. ended up giving her dresses. She didn't want either Grandma to feel sad about her not wearing their dress, so it was quite a decision. She even mentioned this in our family prayer last night. Like the fashion diva that she is, she decided to go with the one that went best with her gloves.

We're trying to finish unpacking from spring break while Gavin is napping and the other two are having "quiet time". In an hour we'll head to my mom's for Easter dinner and Aunt Lisa's egg hunt.

An Ever-Powerful Word

Gavin has picked up a new favorite word, the ever-powerful word "hate". Dan was out of town last week when he added it to his vocabulary. I spent much of the week explaining acceptable vs. unacceptable uses of the word. For example, it's okay to hate mushrooms or dirt. It's not okay to hate Jolie. Gavin had to sit on the stairs a few times for testing various applications of the word. (To which he replied that he "hates sitting on the stairs").

Well, Dan was home with us Saturday and after doing our chores, I got out the nail polish to paint Jolie's nails. Gavin wanted a piece of the action. Since we were using crimson red nail polish I determined that doing Gavin's nails was probably not a good option. Dan agreed, and when Gavin asked why, he said something about gender roles. Gavin very dramatically replied, "I HATE GENDER ROLES!" Ofcourse he had no idea what the term meant, but he knew that whatever it was, it was preventing him from having brilliant red fingernails.

The best part was seeing Dan's reaction since he hadn't been around to hear Gavin's incessant use of the word "hate". He had to stifle a big burst of laughter.

Ughhhh, Yard Work!

The season is upon us. Yard work season, that is...

When we bought our house three years ago, we knew the yard needed some work. It was obvious that the former owners put the yard in years ago and then let it grow like a tropical rainforest. They did a nice job of watering and keeping the grass mowed, but I'm not sure they did much more than that. It all made for a huge amount of work for us. This time last year (or was it the year before?) we pulled all of the overgrown shrubs out of the front yard and we continued doing demolition throughout the summer.

Well, we've only just begun. We're in the process of securing a landscape architect who will draft a master plan for us. In the meantime, we'll continue with the demolition. We're going to keep all of our big trees and pull out most everything else. We may also change the approach to the front door, but that would involve re-doing a large share of the sprinklers in the front yard. We're not sure how much of that we want to get into.

Here are a few photos of Dan and his trusty jack, pulling stuff out yesterday. He was out there most of the day and cleared maybe 8' of space. The sad thing is that you can hardly tell the difference when looking at the yard, but the trailer is completely full.

It's going to be a long season...

Another Visit From the Toothfairy

The toothfairy paid us a visit last night but this time it was for Jolie! She lost her first tooth at school yesterday. She said a boy talked her into twisting it during class and out it came!

I picked Jolie and her friend, Kayla, up from the bus stop to take them to ballet yesterday afternoon and I heard all the sordid details. The most exciting part of the whole affair was that Jolie got to put her picture on the "toothboard" which is apparently quite an honor in kindergarten. Kayla hasn't lost any teeth but she said she once had a dream that she had. She can't wait until it happens to her!

Jolie put her little tooth in our very special tooth pillow which we only pull out at these special occasions. It was passed down from Grandma Daughtrey and is the same one my sisters and I used back in "the day".

This morning Jolie was up at 6:00 a.m. because Tristan just HAD to know what the toothfairy brought her. He woke her up while groping under her pillow. Ofcourse once she found the $2 there she couldn't go back to sleep.

Spring Fever

This morning Gavin came downstairs and dumped a plastic bin of Noah's Arc toys onto the carpet in the family room. Instead of it being a random dumping it was an act that seemed to have purpose. That should have been my first clue that something was up. I was busy making Tristan's lunch and getting him off to school, so I ignored Gavin when he carried the bin out of the room and started up the stairs with it (did I mention that the bin is larger than he is?)

Before long, Tristan came in to tell me that Gavin was upstairs getting into mischief. Again, I didn't think much of it because that's par for the course. A few minutes later Jolie reported that there was water involved. I hurried up to see what was going on (water = large clean up for me). Gavin had gotten into the bathroom cupboard where we store the bath toys and he was repeatedly filling a small boat with water from the faucet and dumping it into the huge toy bin which was on the floor. I asked him what he was doing and he said "the sharks need water!" I could tell this was a serious matter for him, so I carried the bin downstairs and filled it with 3 or 4 inches of water. I told him he could play with the sharks and the water as long as he left the bin on the kitchen tile.

Well, after he grew tired of the animals, Gavin removed his pajamas and climbed inside the bin. Jolie disrobed and joined him! I take this as a sign that they're ready for summer. The poor children saw four inches of water as an opportunity to take off their winter fleece and go for a swim!

I caught spring fever myself today. I've been enjoying our loads and loads of new snow from last week but for some reason, I was done with it today. I looked outside and decided I was sick of this nasty weather and I was ready for spring! Let's hope it's not too long before my wish arrives...

Gavin's New Hobby

It's a good thing Dan doesn't look at the blog very often, he's not terribly happy with Gavin's new hobby.

The kids were upstairs playing this morning while I was doing my workout. Gavin came up with this outfit on his own. Isn't he stunning?

Happy Birthday, Joleen!

I took some words
from my heart today
letting the ink fill out
the letters on my card.
Six simple words appeared,

I love you.
I miss you.

I wondered whether to speak
of laughter or of tears,
to speak of hopes or of dreams,
and came to this.

I love you.
I miss you.

And now I send them skyward
attached to a balloon,
lifting effortlessly
to meet the clouds,
and I think of you.

I love you.
I miss you.

Happy Birthday, Joleen!

Happy Valentine's Day

First I have to apologize for neglecting the blog for a few weeks. Dan has been out of town and I haven't had a moment to have a quiet thought, let alone update the blog.

I sequestered the kids yesterday morning to take a few photos. I ended up making Tristan miss the bus, but it was worth it. My little valentines were bright-eyed and excited for the day.

I saw Tristan sneak into my bathroom early in the morning and later found this cute note on my mirror. It melted my heart! Tristan is such a sweet little boy. I hosted book club last week and one of the (off) topics of discussion (there have been more and more of those lately, but that's another story) was the difference between boys and girls. One of my friends insisted that every mother should have a boy because there's nothing more special than a mother-son relationship. Looking at the little note taped to my mirror yesterday morning, with its plain white paper and scribbled, misspelled words, I had to agree.

I found the red and blue hearts in the hall bathroom later yesterday morning, after Jolie had seen Tristan's note. I was in the office and she came in asking to spell all sorts of words such as "love" and "from". She and Gavin then came in asking for scissors and glue dots. After a while Jolie asked where I was going to brush my teeth. Their subtlety was overwhelming!!!

We took my Grandma out for dinner last night. The restaurants were very crowded and busy, but I didn't care. The last thing I wanted to do last night was stay home alone with the kids and cook. After putting our name in, we left Applebee's for a while to do some shopping at Target and when we came back they had our table ready. Grandma bought each of the kids a little toy so they were thrilled. We had a really nice time and I think Grandma did too. She seemed happy to get out. We didn't get home until late but the kids were really good about getting ready for bed.

We had a fun Valentine's Day and we hope you did too!

Buttercup

We had a little Super Bowl party here tonight. Tristan has been getting more interested in sports and a few days ago he asked if we could have a party. Like a good mommy I obliged. In truth, I'm always looking for a reason to have a party, even if I have no interest in football.

I picked up a deli tray of meats and cheeses last night and made rolls and brownies this morning. After looking at all the food and realizing our party would be much more fun with them, I called mom and Dad and invited them to come over. We watched the game for a while and then mom and I took Jolie and Gavin into the living room so the males could be more attentive to the game.

As you can see, tonight Jolie finally got the sister she's always wanted. She took Gavin upstairs and put him in one of her old dresses and put barettes in his hair. We ended up having a dance competition with the two of them ("Kathleen" and "Buttercup") in the living room.

Oh... anyone who knows us well is probably wondering about Dan's reaction to the dress. Do I really need to say?