Sneaky little someone...but who?

I have been noticing lately that I can't find my wooden spoons.  I had at least half a dozen or more and it seemed like they disappeared over night, but I thought nothing of it.  Well, being that we are moving, I was in the girl's room packing up when I decided to pull back their dresser.  This is what I found.

Much to my surprise and laughter I saw 6 spoons lying all together, nice and sweetly on the floor.  Why would anyone want to hide my wooden spoons?  Perhaps because they double as spanking spoons. There was a sneaky little someone, but who?  My guess is Titus as he rendezvous with the spoons most often.  I don't suspect I will ever find out for sure.

Micah...sweet little Micah Joy.

Somewhere along the way (like in the womb) each of my girls developed a DNA strand that draws them to shoes.  Ever since they could reach a shoe, it was on their foot.  It doesn't have to fit.  It doesn't have to be theirs.  It doesn't even have to be a girl's shoe.  It just needs to belong on the foot and they'd put it on.

With that, we were at a friend's house the other day and Micah found these plastic dress up shoes and wore them all throughout the house, even though they were too big and she almost broke her ankles at least twice.  They ended up giving her the shoes and she wore them the rest of the day and then again today.

We were getting ready to go to the store and she put on the dress up shoes, but I didn't let her keep them on because of her tendency to fall with them on, so I told her to go upstairs and get some different shoes.

She came downstairs and walked into the kitchen (wielding a can of Pringles) and said "Is this okay?"

Not one to miss a good blogging opportunity, I laughed and got my camera to snap this shot before I told her no, it was not OK to wear slippers to the store.

Knowing full well what I wanted her to do, Micah decides to come downstairs wearing Eden's pink "Dorothy" shoes, a good 5 sizes too big and asks again, "Is this okay?" then flashes me a cheesy grin.

I snapped another picture and then sent her off to get her crocs.  Once she got them on, Imelda was finally ready to go to the store.  Oh my Micah.  My sweet little Micah Joy.

The Little Red Hen graduates!

Last year at Levi's graduation, the kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Wolfe was preparing for her NEXT graduation program, The Little Red Hen and told Eden that she was going to be the Little Red Hen.  I thought that Mrs. Wolfe was just being kind, but here we are at the K5 graduation and wouldn't you know it, Eden is the Little Red Hen.  I know I'm her mom and all, but oh how cute she was!!!

OK, well THIS picture isn't the cutest, but I promise, she delivered as an adorable chicken!  For some reason, as only a mom can do, I had a fear that she would get stage fright or something.  After all, she is a lot like me.  However, that little girl didn't miss a beat and was fantastic.  

After the program, the preschool class got up to do their program while the kindergarten kids got their caps and gowns on.  I took that opportunity to snap this picture of Titus.

 I think I kept the picture because to me, I see a preteen in his face...not the indefatigable 4 year old he really is.  It was a flash-forward of sorts.  sigh.  sniff, sniff.

Here she is walking down the aisle just before she receives her diploma.  This was the best shot I could get because I was at the other end of the pew and our [wiggly] kids were in the mix of heads between Eden and me so I had limited time.  I felt like a paparazzi.  "Eden!  Over here!"

The tassel has been flipped and Eden is no longer a "future 2nd grader" but a for really real official 2nd grader, in the flesh.  Holy cow.  Where did it go?  Bigger sigh.  Bigger sniff, sniff.

Afterwards, as usual, we went to the church gym for graduate cake.  Eden was kinda out of it for most of these pictures, but we did manage a smile here.

Next are a few of the pictures we tried to take of our family.

Can you tell...

which is our compliant child...

and which one maybe...

not so much???

Mema and poppy were there...

and Grandpa G...

and grandma and grandpa...

and auntie and uncle Dave...

and of course, Eden's teacher, Mrs. Wolfe.  By this picture, Eden was done and was starting to get a little testy.

All she wanted to do was play and with that she found Levi's buddy, Ty (Elijah's friend, Bryce's younger brother) so I snapped a shot like any responsible, camera wielding mother would do.

We were sad not to see uncle John Paul and aunt Sarah, but otherwise had a great time.  We went to Steak and Shake afterwards, graduate's choice, and stayed up way too late for way too much sugar, but at least we didn't get spilled on this time!

Congratulations Eden!  We love you and are so proud of you and all your work your first year of school!  XOXO

If you can't beat it, join it!

It is so hot here. We are pushing 90° and while I am thrilled that we aren't drowning in the typical Midwestern drab and dreary, I guess I don't want to walk around the house sticky either.  We do have the air on, but we aren't at icebox temps yet and I don't suspect Tim plans to get me there either.  At any rate, since I can't beat the weather, I thought I'd take the kids to the park for a picnic and play time to wear them down for naps.

This is most of the park that we went to today.  The little kid's area is off to the right but my kids tend to stick to the big stuff.  There is a school that uses this park as their playground I guess, so there were lots of big kids running around but that didn't stop Titus or Micah. 

The rule that the school gives to its kids is for no more than 5 kids on the merry-go-round but Titus stayed on practically the full hour we were there, not including when we actually ate.  The kids got tired of him being on there and finally declared that "the little kid doesn't count."

Micah is a fairly brave kid.  She likes to climb and do what the big kids do and doesn't typically let the fact that she really is too small for things stop her from doing them.  Like this ladder thing.  She climbed it great, though she did get scared a little bit on the last 2 rungs (her confident stride started to wane), but the sweet, tender and compassionate mommy-of-the-year that I am, I made her finish the job-all by herself-and when she did, she was a happy little girl!

Now Micah doesn't typically do this, which is why there is a picture, but as she was running around the play set, she saw that I had my camera and she courteously stopped to strike a pose and send a cheesy little grin my way.  What a beautiful little girl we have!

Titus said that he wanted to "sleep down the slide" so this is what that looks like.  Of course.  Imagine the sound effects and you are right there with us.

This is a retarded picture but in the last few minutes of my camera's battery life and only enough memory space for one more shot (double whammy), I wanted to get the two of them on this teeter totter wanna be.  Titus will only ham it up and by about the 5th photo of him with his eyes shut tight and some goofy face I finally got him to look at the camera (perhaps with a little persuasion) but then Micah's eyes were shut.  Doggone it.  Camera batteries can only handle taking a shot and then erasing it because it is terrible so many times before they die altogether.  This is the shot we were left with.  Humphf.

Oh, and to give a tid bit of personality for my little 2 1⁄2 year old, a bigger kid around 7 or so was sitting on this teeter totter impostor and asked if she wanted to get on with him.  She said to me, "I don't want that boy.  He's not your fwend. He's not my fwend."  OK then, I guess that's a "no" kid.  Sorry.  I understand she meant he's basically a stranger, but she certainly has a way of putting things and clearly she was NOT having any of that boy and that teeter totter sham.  Yes, I like REAL teeter totters.  What is childhood without at least once getting your feet or ankles slammed under one of those, or biting your tongue because the other kid teetered too hard, or hurting your rear end because you tottered too hard?  They sure know how to take the fun out of playground equipment!  LOL!

Christmas in May. Why Not?

So a couple months ago my SIL Shelley told me that we had a package of Christmas gifts coming from them via "slow boat" and it finally got here.  I had actually forgotten about it until I saw it sitting on the front porch.  Now, I am not one to enjoy delaying gratification when a package is staring me straight in the face, but for the sake of my husband (who has once before been disappointed by my inability to wait to open a gift) I held off until he got home.  I'm not even sure if we ate dinner first, but Tim got everyone lined up on the couch and they took turns blindly reaching into the box to pull out the surprises.

Now, I did mention that these were initially intended to be Christmas gifts, but ultimately Tim decided that with all the ambiguity of where we will be living and that we would in essence be carrying this box with us wherever we went like a time bomb waiting to explode, we would open it now.  I did not protest.

What Micah pulled out, I was so excited to see!  Shelley had made a cloth doll for each of the girls.  They are super cute.  Micah's has short hair and Eden's has little pig tails.  The girls just "oohed" and "ahed" over these "cute" dolls.

Elijah was next (see Micah carrying her baby...she didn't put her down for a long time) and he pulled out a couple packages of candy.  

One package was of gummy hot dogs and the kids ate those up rather quickly.  The other package was of individually wrapped chewy candies.  The front of the package pictures something that reminds me of sea urchin, though it appears to be more like spiny coconut.  Eden loves the candy, or so she says.  The rest of us aren't too fond of it too much, to put it lightly.  It turns out it is durian candy.

Wikipedia says that durian is known as the "king of fruits" in Southeast Asia and is distinctive for its unique odor.  The edible flesh emits a distinctive odor, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odor has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.  Most of us are in the "overpowering and offensive" boat.  Ick, blech and spitooey!

She's still not letting "Micah" go.  I think she's actually suffocating her, but we won't tell Micah that.

Micah's doll, Micah, and Eden's doll, Eden, are kissing sisters already.  They pondered for seconds on the fabulous names they gave their new babies.

Our 2 Edens and 2 Micahs.  Who would have thought?

Now, I didn't intend for the whole post to be about the girls and their dolls, but they did sorta steal the show.   My favorite part of the package was the batik Christmas stockings that I will assume for now that Shelley made for all of us.  The boys each got a large Indonesian flag.  Each of the kids got a motorcycle license plate with their name on it, and we got one with SVOBODA on it.

Let's see...oh there were some goofy t-shirts that they sent...one of them says "Ridicule" at the top and then "C'mon girl, I just want to play hide-and-seek" at the bottom.  There was a "Mr. Tickle" a "Mr. Confuse" a smile face that said "I agree" on top and another one with something about neighborhoods on it.  They made us laugh for sure.  The kids loved them and wore them to school the next day.

I think that was all the goodies that were sent and it indeed felt like Christmas in May.  Thanks so much to uncle Phil, aunt Shelley and Nadia for doing all of that for us!  I wish we were as creative and thoughtful for them...then again, they know what's here in the states and none of it is near as interesting or meaningful as what they send to us, so again, thanks!